The Young Turks - Quiet Part Loud

Starting point is 00:00:00 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. Welcome to TYT. I'm your host, Anna Kasparian, and we've got an okay show for you today. I'm not going to lie to you. The news cycle today was, in my opinion, a lot of recycling of the same old stuff. There is a big story that I'll get to in the second hour with Rashad Ritchie, and it has to do with a fatal police shooting that took place in Grand Rapids, Michigan. And yes, that was a little bit of a tease, not only for the story, but for the co-host I'll be having on the show for the second hour, Rashad Ritchie from Indisputable show that I'm sure you're all watching already. But if you're not, you should be checking it out over at the TYT network. In the first hour, we'll talk about the NFT bubble potentially bursting.

Starting point is 00:01:26 There is one prominent example that should make anyone who bought the NFT hype, be a little bit worried. You should be a little concerned, okay? But can't say we didn't warn you guys, so we'll get to the details on that story. We'll also talk about how Kentucky has decided to effectively ban abortion, going along with all these other red states like Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, we'll get into that. But as I always say, if you want to help support the show, easiest way to do it is to like and share the stream if you're watching us online. If you're not watching us online, you can become a member by going to tyt.com slash join,

Starting point is 00:02:04 where you'll get all sorts of exclusive members only content and you'll get to help keep us alive, sustainable here at TYT and more importantly, independent. Well, why don't we get to our first story because unfortunately we received yet another reminder that one of the most powerful women in this country is experiencing sharp mental decline, and Democrats are pretending like nothing's wrong. Concerns about Senator Dianne Feinstein's mental fitness are unfortunately making headlines yet again. And I say it's unfortunate because this has been an ongoing issue that the Democratic party just refuses to address. At least they refuse to address it by revealing their identities

Starting point is 00:02:46 because the San Francisco Chronicle spoke to several of them, and they were willing to talk about just how concerned they are about Senator Feinstein, as long as the paper agreed to avoid printing their names. They're worried that that could lead to falling out with the senator and some of her allies. But the story here just gets into more details, more evidence of what Feinstein's been dealing with. It's really a tragic story, not only for people in California who are supposed to be represented by her, but also for her. It's terrible to hear that she's going through this, and she should resign. That's my take. Let me give you the details. So one lawmaker who spoke to the San Francisco Chronicle said that they had to reintroduce themselves to Feinstein multiple times

Starting point is 00:03:36 during an interaction that they had. The interaction was a debate, just a one-on-one debate they were having on proposed legislation. It lasted several hours. And rather than delve into policy, Feinstein 88, repeated the same small talk questions, like asking the lawmaker what mattered to voters in their district, they said. With no apparent recognition, the two had already had a similar conversation. So this is a new account, but we've heard similar stories from others as well. The conversation took place a few weeks before the death of Feinstein's husband, his, he had passed away in February. But I bring that up because some of her defenders are using her husband's death to provide cover for the obvious fact that she is experiencing mental

Starting point is 00:04:27 decline. Now, her term doesn't end until 2024, which is why this is an important story to cover. And it's really critical that the Democratic Party be real about this. And it seems like they're unwilling to be real about it. One other anonymous congressperson said this. I have worked with her for a long time and long enough to know what she was like just a few years ago, always in command, always in charge, on top of the details, basically couldn't resist a conversation where she was driving some bill or some idea. All of that is gone. She was an intellectual. and political force not that long ago. And that's why my encounter with her was so jarring because there was just no trace of that.

Starting point is 00:05:14 Now look, I obviously have my political disagreements with Diane Feinstein. And so there are certain elements of that quote, that statement that I don't agree with. I never really saw her as a political powerhouse. But whatever, putting that aside, there clearly is a difference in the way that she's able to interact with her colleagues. And this piece really goes into great detail about the extra work, extra help that she needs from her staffers in order to be part of Senate hearings in order to make decisions about legislation. Obviously, staffers help to brief lawmakers on legislation. But what the paper went to great lengths to explain is that, no, these staffers go and have to go much further. So four U.S. senators including three Democrats as well as three former Feinstein staffers and the California Democratic member of Congress told the Chronicle in recent interviews that her memory

Starting point is 00:06:12 is rapidly deteriorating. She's 88, let me just remind you all of that. They said it appears that she can no longer fulfill her job duties without her staff doing much of the work required to represent the nearly 40 million people of California. So there's only 100,000. senators and Diane Feinstein happens to be one of them and she represents a densely populated state. This is not a small job. This is not a joke. The people of California deserve appropriate representation. And if someone is not mentally fit to carry out these duties, then it doesn't really make sense for her to stay in this role. I think that it's cruel to the voters, but I also think it's incredibly cruel to her, which is why I argue that it's important for Democrats to be real

Starting point is 00:06:59 about this to obviously sit down and be incredibly kind when sending this message, but she needs to understand that she can't just remain in the Senate till 2024. There's more. Two senators who have served with Feinstein for years said that they believe she does not always fully recognize them. They said they get the sense that Feinstein recognizes or realizes she knows them, but isn't able to quickly recall their names or even home state, one Senate staffer said they've seen their boss on a few occasions greet Feinstein in hallways with a preemptive self-introduction. So they know that she's going to be a little confused about who they are. So they just preemptively introduced themselves knowing full well that they've interacted

Starting point is 00:07:48 with her, they've worked with her. She should know them. But because of the condition she's dealing with because of the mental decline, she can't remember them. One is quoted as saying it's bad and it's getting worse. This is from a Democratic senator. This person said that within the Senate, she has difficulty keeping up with conversations and discussions. And there was one recent case outlined where she engaged in like this fierce debate about this antitrust legislation that was proposed by Senator Amy Klobuchar. And so they have this debate, okay, there's, footage of it, they're going back and forth. Klobuchar wants to ensure that some of these online platforms,

Starting point is 00:08:30 whether it's Google, Amazon, you know, some of the platforms that also provide a space for vendors aren't going out of their way to basically provide favoritism for the products that they themselves are selling. And I think that's good legislation. Feinstein for some reason seemed to be a little against it and was going back and forth with Klobuchar. Later reporters caught up with Feinstein to ask her, her to elaborate on her views, her beliefs in regard to that legislation, and she had no idea what they were talking about. So it kind of gives you a sense of how much this has had an impact on her ability to do her job. And it's starting to have an impact on how she's performing

Starting point is 00:09:08 in the polls as well. A March survey from the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found the 36% of likely voters approved of the way she was doing her job. That's down from 44% a year ago. So she has responded to the reporting, the accusations that she's experiencing, memory loss, mental decline. And she does seem to be a little in denial about it. She told the San Francisco Chronicle the following. The last year has been extremely painful and distracting for me, flying back and forth to visit my dying husband, who passed just a few weeks ago. But there's no question I'm still serving and delivering for the people of California. And I'll put my record up against anyone.

Starting point is 00:09:53 But there are other examples of her really struggling, including her inability to do what Democrats love to do most, fundraise. I'll get to the details on that in just a second. But something that I've had a huge problem with is how certain things get weaponized in order to provide cover, whether it's to provide cover for bad behavior, provide cover for someone who's ineffective in their jobs. And Pelosi chimed in on this and said that it's unconscionable, unconscionable, that just weeks after losing her beloved husband of more than four decades, and after decades of outstanding leadership to our city and state, she's being subjected to these ridiculous attacks that are beneath the dignity in which she has led and the esteem in which she is held. I actually think that it's incredibly cruel to provide cover and to have her end her career the way that it's likely to end. I mean, if I actually cared about her, as Nancy Pelosi claims to, as these Democratic colleagues claim to, I would do her a solid and have a frank conversation

Starting point is 00:11:04 with her because it's not fair to her to end her political career like this. And to, Cite the death of her husband, listen, I don't, I don't want to come off as callous at all. I can't even imagine how difficult it is for her to go through that, to lose your, you know, your nearly lifetime partner. They were together for like four decades. I can't imagine how hard that is. But we also have to be honest about the fact that these stories were breaking well before her husband passed away.

Starting point is 00:11:31 And it seems like her condition has deteriorated further. And again, it's not fair to the people she's supposed to be representing. It's not fair to her. And when we're talking about something as incredibly important as the U.S. Senate, where right now Democrats have the slimmest imaginable margin, right? You have a 50-50 split with Vice President Kamala Harris serving as a tie-breaking vote if they try to pass something through reconciliation. nation. Why would Democrats just settle for someone who clearly is not fit to serve? And honestly, this article on its own is a huge problem because it shows you that they don't

Starting point is 00:12:13 even have the courage to speak out publicly without hiding their own identities. They're so terrified of retaliation. They're so terrified that they'll be like blacklisted by their Democratic colleagues if they tell the truth. And to me, what that represents is more of the same, more democratic lawmakers putting all sorts of other unnecessary nonsensical things in having those things take priority over the best interests of the people they're supposed to be serving. So other examples of her really struggling to do her job include the fact that staff turnover has been incredibly high since 2017. That's when you started seeing signs of her condition. And the staffers have to do a lot to prep her. She's always with a staffer. She's

Starting point is 00:13:02 not ever willing to do interviews with the media. The only time you'll get a statement from Feinstein is if she's walking the halls of Congress and a reporter manages to, you know, run into her and ask her some questions about legislation. But she's never alone. She's always with a staffer. She won't do interviews. She hasn't done a town hall since 2017. That's a problem. And listen, I don't care too much about fundraising, but I know the Democratic Party does. And I find it fascinating that when it comes to the issue they seem to care about the most, they're willing to give Diane Feinstein a pass. So Patrick Leahy, who is around the same age as her, raised about a million dollars last year. Feinstein said that she raised 5,566 bucks.

Starting point is 00:13:51 She's not able to do it. She's not able to do the town hall. She's not able to sit down with the press for an interview. She's not able to represent the people who put her in a position of power. And when you consider the seriousness of that role, when you consider how important it is for us to have real, you know, representation, eventually real leadership in Congress, it doesn't make sense to continue providing cover for someone who's clearly experienced. tragic mental decline. And again, not to be callous about it.

Starting point is 00:14:25 But what are our priorities here? What is the government for? Like are lawmakers just meant to be there to fundraise, trade individual stocks, you know, essentially do insider trading, enrich themselves, like what's the point of Congress? And how is the Democratic Party going to explain their incessant excuses for poor leadership, bad representation, and an unwillingness to change?

Starting point is 00:14:50 willingness to change any of it. It's just, it's incredibly shameful. It really is. But that's where we are. That's what's happening with Diane Feinstein. And I, I hate to hear it. I hate to talk about it, but that's where we're at. All right. Well, why don't we move on to our next story because this war against women continues. Now we've got some details about what Kentucky's been up to, one of the poorest states in the country. Republican lawmakers have now effectively banned abortion in the state of Kentucky. Now they did this by overriding the Democratic governor's veto of the legislation. So they initially passed the legislation.

Starting point is 00:15:50 And at that point, Governor Andy Bashir is like, nope, I am not in favor of this. So he vetoes it. And at that point, they get back together, the state legislature, and they vote in favor of passing the legislation to such an extent that it overrides his veto, right? You need a certain number of votes to make that happen. Now let me give you the details on what the legislation entails. The new law, which by the way, is now effective. It was effective immediately as soon as they overrode the veto. One of the most restrictive in the nation imposes limits on medication of abortion,

Starting point is 00:16:23 requires the cremation or burial of fetal remains, and bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. An exception is allowed if the woman's life is in danger. Wow, they're so kind. But there is no exception for rape or incest. So, if you are a woman who has been raped in a state like Kentucky, you will not be able to access an abortion in that state. You will be forced to have, to give birth, to bring that fetus to turn. Among the most difficult restrictions to comply with this law is the new rule on fetal remains. The law requires abortion clinics to work with funeral homes to bury or cremate the remains of each aborted pregnancy. To comply with that law, the clinic will probably be forced

Starting point is 00:17:15 to hire more people who can help facilitate an elaborate and medically unnecessary burial process for each abortion performed. And the abortion providers in the state do not have the ability to do it. They don't have the resources. But even if they do have the resources, even if they manage to, I don't know, fundraise, find a way to get some sort of, you know, grant from a wealthy lib benefactor, it doesn't matter. None of that matters because turns out funeral homes in the state of Kentucky have no interest in working with abortion clinics. So this is the roundabout way the state of Kentucky has banned abortion. And why did Andy Bashir veto it initially? Well, he says that rape and incest or violent crimes, they are.

Starting point is 00:18:06 Victims of these crimes should have options, not be further scarred through a process that exposes them to more harm from their rapists or treats them like the offenders themselves. And again, I just want to give you the exact numbers to show you how many of these state lawmakers have decided to be part of this manufactured nonsense about abortion in order to distract the people of Kentucky, in order to distract the people of Kentucky, in order to, to distract the American people from their inability to do anything of substance to improve the lives of their own constituents. And I'll make that case in a little bit. But here's what we're talking about. Late Wednesday, the Kentucky House voted 76 to 21, and the Senate voted 31 to 6 to override the veto. And this 15 week ban is modeled after the 15 week ban in the state of Mississippi, which is something that's been challenged in the courts. The Supreme court is likely to hear about that case in the summer, but don't get too excited if you're under

Starting point is 00:19:10 the assumption that they're actually going to uphold Roe v. Wade, they have signaled because of the conservative makeup of the Supreme Court, that they are willing to potentially restrict abortions in this country. So I give you all of that to say, obviously I'm against this. I've been very clear, I've been on the record about that. But I think it's worth taking a look at what ails the people of Kentucky and how those are the very issues there are that are consistently ignored. These are the very people who are consistently neglected by Republican lawmakers in the state, okay? So if anyone from Kentucky happens to stumble across this video, I just want you to get to know your lawmakers. In fact, I want you to get to know your state because while these

Starting point is 00:20:01 Goons are specifically focusing all of their attention on this culture war, on this effort to control women's bodies, on this effort to punish women for engaging in sexual activity. There's a lot going on in that state that deserves some attention. So let's get to some of those details. According to data released Wednesday by Kentucky youth advocates, 205,000 children, let me read that again. 20,000 children, more than 20% of the state's youth population live in a household that earns less than $26,000 a year

Starting point is 00:20:44 for a family of four. And nearly half of Kentucky's children are living in households with annual annual income below 200% of the federal poverty line. And if you, of course, break it down by demographics, the numbers are much higher when it comes to black children. Forty-two percent of black children in the state's urban centers of Jefferson and Fayette counties live in poverty. The same is true for Latinx children in Fayette County as well. And they've got a problem with teen pregnancies in the state already. The teen birth rate is insanely high in the state of Kentucky. Let's take a look at that. Wow, 27.3 births per 1,000 teenagers between the ages of 15 to

Starting point is 00:21:33 19. But they want to make that number worse because I would venture to say they're not in favor of sex ed. They're not in favor of educating teenagers to ensure that they prevent pregnancies. I'm sure they hear all the abstinence only nonsense, which clearly, clearly not working in the state of Kentucky. So now they're gonna do away with reproductive rights in the state, make that problem worse. The foster care system in the state of Kentucky is a disaster. Kentucky state lawmakers refused to expand their Medicaid program as part of Obamacare, just to make a point, even though they knew full well that their constituents, that people living in Kentucky who did not have health insurance,

Starting point is 00:22:23 were now going to be denied that expanded Medicare, Medicaid. They don't care. Do you think they care? You know what they tried to do recently just this year? They tried to cut unemployment benefits in a state that is grappling with an insane rate of poverty, not just for adults, but for children. That's what these lawmakers are up to. So for all the voters in Kentucky right now who are probably congratulating themselves on the fact that they took rights away from women, how you've enjoyed that poverty you're living with? How are you enjoying all the homeless kids you have in

Starting point is 00:22:59 your state? This is your priority? This is what you're proud of? This is what you want? Let's take a little look at this video compilation of what Kentucky looks like. Poverty has had a persistent grip on eastern Kentucky for generations. Its residents are poorer and less educated than any other region of Appalachia. The impact on health is unmistakable. Life expectancy there is five years shorter than the rest of the nation. Some of the most severe devastation has been right here in Kentucky. And paramedics who used to go days without a single overdose are now lucky if they go just a few hours.

Starting point is 00:23:40 Paramedic Mary Taylor rushes to as many as 25 drug overdoses in a single day. Thousands of people in Kentucky couch surfing, living in cars, and moving from place to place without a permanent home. And many of them are children. Yeah, they love children so much. The wonderful lawmakers of Kentucky love children so much that they will crawl up women's uteruses and protect them in their eyes. in their minds. They don't give a damn about children. They salivate at the idea of cutting social spending programs in their state that help who? That help children. They do it over and over again. They propose it over and over again. That's what Kentucky lawmakers are. That is who they are.

Starting point is 00:24:30 They don't care about a damn person, but they do want to point to something they've accomplished, right? And this is typical right wing nonsense. They're not going to do anything to improve anyone's life, but they love optics, they love theater, they love presenting themselves as these culture warriors that do nothing to expand liberty in America or their state. All they do is try to control people's lives. You're transgender, they want to control your life. You're gay, they want to control your life. You're a woman, they want to control your life. These are the people who have somehow successfully marketed themselves as lovers of freedom when their actions show that they are the antithesis of what they say they are.

Starting point is 00:25:14 And by the way, that video got into drug overdoses, right? Let's talk about that a little bit. Drug overdose deaths, for example, increased nearly 30% across the United States in 2020. But in Kentucky, they were even higher, increasing nearly 54% over the year prior. But hey, the lawmakers in Kentucky, they really do care about people's lives. They really do, they really do. That's why they seem to enjoy watching their constituents suffer in poverty. That's why they do nothing about the children who are struggling with homelessness in their state.

Starting point is 00:25:48 That's why they don't seem to care much about the children dealing with hunger in their state. Who cares about any of that stuff? Kentucky also has higher than typical rates of death from diabetes, heart disease and cancer, according to the CDC. See, more than 15% of all Kentuckians have multiple chronic chronic conditions second only to West Virginia as the highest rates in the country, according to United Health Foundation's report from 2020. But remember, they didn't want to expand Medicaid because they wanted to make a point about how they don't like Obama. They don't like the Affordable Care Act. They love protecting embryos, allegedly, but it's not even about that.

Starting point is 00:26:38 This is all about winning political points with evangelicals, giving people the illusion that they're working hard and governing. They're not addressing the most important issues in their own state. Instead, all they're focusing on is taken. away your freedoms if it'll make their evangelical or right wing voters happy. And for all those right wing voters living in poverty in states like Kentucky, again, who are celebrating, taking liberty and freedom away from women over their own bodies, by the way. I hope you enjoy living five years shorter than most Americans. I hope you enjoy your poverty. I hope you enjoy continuing

Starting point is 00:27:24 to elect losers who keep abandoning you, neglecting you, and leaving you in the dust. Congratulations, I hope you like it. We gotta take a break, we'll be right back. Welcome back to the show, everyone, Anna Casparian with you. And I just want to thank our new YouTube members, including Brian, Jamie, Jamie Kofelt and Simon Raya, you guys are amazing. Thank you for supporting the show. I'm looking forward to the bonus episode today and you should too.

Starting point is 00:28:07 Rashad Ritchie will be joining me and it's going to be fantastic. All right. So let's move on to the NFT situation that we're seeing in the news today because turns out I was right. Turns out a lot of people, by the way, who were skeptical of NFTs were right. All right, so an NFT featuring the very first tweet on Twitter was sold last year for a whopping $2.9 million. Well, the owner is now having a hard time selling it to recoup his money, and that means that it's time for another installment of. All right, so turns out that the crypto investor we're talking about here. His name is Sina Astavi bought an NFT of Twitter of Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. His first tweet ever for 2.9 million. That was in March of 2021. Now he put that NFT up for

Starting point is 00:29:18 auction just last week and bidding ended on Wednesday. So let's take a look at the stupidity that this individual spent 2.9 million dollars on. So that's it. It's just the very first tweet on Twitter from Jack Dorsey. And it just says, just setting up my Twitter. Great. So Astavi put the NFT up for sale on April 9th, hoping that it would get around $50 million and then donate at least 25 million of that sum to charity. Of the handful of bidders taking part, the highest offer was for $277, a subsequent offer has since come in for $3,600, which is certainly better than the 277, but obviously nowhere near the $50 million and also nowhere near the $2.9 million that this guy paid for the NFT last year. Now, Astavi's auction came at a time when

Starting point is 00:30:16 NFT sales tracked on OpenC were down around 50% in 2022. So it's not just about this particular NFT, it's about this NFT scam overall, right? So all of a sudden their value is down because it didn't have any value to begin with, okay? So from almost $5 billion in January down to $2.5 billion in March, this decline has sparked moves from blue chip, NFT owners to search for alternative uses for their tokens, which is a fascinating development in that it implies there was ever a use in the first place. I want to put up Jack Dorsey's tweet again. The tweet, the, the I guess copy of the tweet that this guy paid for, $2.9 million to pay for that. Guess what? We have the exact same thing. I copy and pasted it. I sent

Starting point is 00:31:15 to our producers for the very high price of $0. NFTs and to some extent cryptocurrency only has the value that people are willing to pay for it or invest in it, right? But like these NFTs didn't have any real utility, like they don't really do anything for you. you, especially since we're talking about something that could easily be copy and pasted by anyone. And then when it comes to cryptocurrency, part of the reason why crypto bros are so unbearable is because for the value of the cryptocurrency they're promoting to remain high or to go up higher, there has to be hype. Like, I mean, you have to hype it up. If you're not hyping it up, if you don't have Elon Musk manipulating it on Twitter, it'll probably be worth close to nothing.

Starting point is 00:32:12 So look, I know, some people are like, oh, no, no, no, cryptocurrency is great. It's democratizing everything except it's being used to money launder. It's being used by global criminal networks and stuff like that. But okay, sure, I'm sure it's democratizing everything. But for anyone who thought for a second that like messing around with this NFT scam would be a good idea. For some, you know, it was a good idea for a short period of time if they were able to make some money off of it, but it seems like that ship is sailed. It seems like that bubble has burst.

Starting point is 00:32:47 Because again, it's not just about this NFT that this dude spent 2.9 million dollars on. You look at the overall state of NFTs and they've lost a considerable amount of value. And what I worry about is what happens to people who engaged in buying or trading NFTs, people who didn't really know what they were doing, who might have bought into the scam and are hurting a little today? And what is going to happen when it comes to potential regulation to ensure that cryptocurrency isn't being used by criminals to do all sorts of criminal things like laundering money? But don't worry. I mean, we have Joe Biden, I'm sure that he's going to help us out with that. I'm sure, look, he's got his people working around the clock, okay? He developed a commission.

Starting point is 00:33:38 The commission is allegedly studying this. They're going to figure out what to do to keep ordinary people who get scammed by this stuff safe. Any day now, just like he developed a commission to study gun control. Just like he developed a commission to study whether or not the federal government can unilaterally cancel student loan debt. Spoiler alert, they can. He didn't need a commission for that. So he lied to us. He played stupid because he's not going to cancel any student loan debt.

Starting point is 00:34:06 But look, we got to take the silver linings where we can find them. And in this case, a guy was dumb enough to spend $2.9 million on something that just has no inherent value. And he's learning that the hard way today. Anyway, we got to take another break. When we come back, we've got more news for you, including failing Joe Biden and the pretty little lies Democrats tell themselves about what is coming up with the midterms. Come right back.

Starting point is 00:34:36 Special thanks to French fry in our super chat community. The super chat says, I cursed for you, Anna. And that was in reference to the story that I had just done about Kentucky and how incredibly frustrating it is to see people confuse taking women's rights away as good governing. It's just, anyway, but let's move on because while I had a lot of criticism for right-wingers in that segment, I do want to talk a little bit about what's transpiring with Democrats. The Democrats are in complete denial about why Joe Biden is incredibly unpopular, why his approval ratings have been plummeting and why they're likely to have their asses handed to them in the midterms. Now, I don't say this to celebrate because I certainly don't want Republicans

Starting point is 00:35:46 in charge, but Democrats need to take ownership of their failures. And it seems like they're unwilling to do that. Now, according to an article that was published in the Hill, Democratic proponents argue that, look, actually our parties, we've been doing a great job. The problem is we haven't been communicating that we've been doing a great job. Okay. Now, before I get to their excuses, let me give you the latest poll numbers, approval ratings for the Democrats and for Biden. CNN's poll of polls, an average of the last four national polls of Americans, pegs Biden's approval rating at just 39% with 55% disapproving. As of 2018, the average seat loss for the president's party in a midterm election when the

Starting point is 00:36:34 approval rating was under 50%. Oh my God, was 37 House seats. And Republicans now need only a net gain of five seats to win back the House majority. That is not good. And so if you're a Democratic strategist who doesn't want to come across as an idiot, you'd want to really investigate why this is the case. And a good way to do that is to maybe touch base with the voters, see where the voters are at? Like, what are their concerns? Why are they unhappy with Biden? They just chalk it up to Homeboy is just not good at messaging, not buying it. Earlier this year, approval for President Joe Biden, among people aged 18 to 30, hit depths. No Democratic president had plummed in decades. So the mid to low 30s in Gallup and other polls, an alienated youth vote is an

Starting point is 00:37:28 existential threat for Democrats in 2022. They backed Biden by a 25 point margin in 2020 voting at all-time highs. So let's just let's just address that real quick, okay? So young people overwhelmingly supported Biden over Trump. That's understandable. Now, I don't think young people were excited about Biden. I think young people were excited about the idea of getting Trump out of the White House. But we do remember that Biden had some promises, He didn't promise to fully cancel student loan debt, but he promised to at least cancel 10,000. Did he? Did he do it? No, he didn't do it. He had an ambitious social spending plan that wouldn't just benefit young people.

Starting point is 00:38:14 It would benefit everyone in the country other than extremely wealthy individuals who have not been paying their fair share. Did he fight for that legislation? Or did he use mansion and cinema as an excuse? Or did he use the Senate parliamentarian as an excuse? Certainly when it came to increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. Like Democrats think we're stupid and we're not paying attention. But believe it or not, voters do pay attention and young people are definitely informed because young people are bearing the brunt of this economic system. And to see a Democrat claim that he is all for workers' rights, he really wants to change

Starting point is 00:39:00 that. He wants things to be great. I mean, he'll tell us that he wants to change things. He'll tell his donors that nothing will fundamentally change. But these policy failures add up. They add up. So on NBC's Meet the Press, Hillary Clinton said that the party has a good case to make if we we get our focus in the right place to do it, arguing Democrats have a lot of good accomplishments to be putting up on the board. And the Democrats in office and out need to be doing a better job of making the case. You should do a better job in making the case. What are you referring to? Let's get a little bit of specificity here, Hillary. They're doing a great job. They should put it on the board, you know? At a White House event last week, former President Obama offered

Starting point is 00:39:49 offered similar advice when asked by a reporter for his message to Democrats worried about the midterms. He said this, we got a story to tell, just got to tell it, Obama said as he left the East Room. We've heard the stories. All the stories have been about, ah, what can we do? Cinema's really smart, but she's not playing ball. And the mansion, he's a great guy. That, those are the stories we've heard. The stories we heard before the election were the necessity of electing Democrats to meet Americans where they are and help them out as they're struggling. The stories that we heard after Biden got elected was that what could he do?

Starting point is 00:40:41 He tried, but what could he do? Those are the stories we heard. There are some elected Democrats who believe this nonsense line as well. Some Democrats are baffled at Biden's low numbers given what they think is a list of robust accomplishments. They list the coronavirus relief bill in March, a bipartisan infrastructure bill, and the recent confirmation of Katanji Brown Jackson, who will be the first black woman to serve on the Supreme Court. Okay, so the coronavirus bill passed in the beginning of Biden's term, and I think people are going to remember other elements of that whole debate that don't look good for Biden. in, like how he said he was going to provide $2,000 checks, and then he didn't in the coronavirus relief bill, like the fact that he said that he was going to make the child tax credit

Starting point is 00:41:55 permanent, but then didn't fight for that. And so when the child tax credit expired, children were forced back into poverty and their parents ain't so happy about that. So coronavirus Relief Bill, it's a little shaky. Then you're going to mention the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Listen, there might be some good provisions in that bill. We all know that it's a bipartisan bill because it includes all sorts of corporate handouts. But let's just take what they're saying at face value. Oh, it's a great bill. All these infrastructure projects are great. These infrastructure projects have not begun. So how is the infrastructure bill going to help you out with the midterms? When there's nothing physical, tangible to point to, when people haven't experienced any of the

Starting point is 00:42:50 alleged benefits of that plan, of that bill. And then Katanji Brown Jackson list, she's great. I'm glad that she got confirmed. But even though you want to celebrate it, even though you want to celebrate that historic moment, you also know that it doesn't change the ideological makeup of the court, which is why people are preparing for when the Supreme Court very likely reverses Roe v. Wade very soon. Because it's dominated by conservative justices, including three of these justices who were successfully confirmed during the Trump administration. It's just really hard to point to these things as a major success because they're not really thinking it through. Yes, these are, some of them are mixed, but their accomplishments, great.

Starting point is 00:43:41 But how does it translate to having an impact on the everyday lives of Americans? And if they're not feeling that positive impact, if they're not feeling that change, if these accomplishments don't overpower what people are currently experiencing, with things like inflation, whether Biden likes it or not, whether it's fair or not, they're gonna blame him for that. And honestly, what Americans are experiencing economically overpowers any of these, what I would argue, small accomplishments by the Democratic Party and under Biden's leadership. One Democratic strategist, by the way, blame the party's failures on progressives, because of course, of course, how could they not? Democratic strategist Rodel Malinue said,

Starting point is 00:44:29 Democrats need to stop complaining that they haven't been able to check off everything on their to do list and start talking about what has been done. He said they also need to start rallying around the president because if his numbers are soft, then that's going to affect the midterms as well. And for once, row in the same direction he added. And another Democratic strategist showed how little he understands what matters to working class voters. He says this. President Biden has taken many significant actions to curb the pandemic, boost the economy, put Americans back to work at a historic pace, while keeping more campaign commitments, like confirming the first black woman to the Supreme Court.

Starting point is 00:45:18 So I think a good way of summing this up is the tweet by Walker Bragman. Because he lists things that I wish the Democratic Party was more real about. Can't run on beating COVID. One million are dead. Millions more disabled and counting. Can't run on build back better. That's dead. Can't run on the child care tax credit. It's expired. Can't run on the economy. So many people are struggling. Can't run on voting rights. That didn't happen. And other broken promises, the $15 an hour minimum wage, no $2,000 stimulus checks in the COVID relief package. He can't even legalize marijuana.

Starting point is 00:46:01 I mean, it's like, I think in sports, they call that a layup, right? It's a layup. He missed the layup. Do the layup. Use the layup. Legalize marijuana. What is wrong with you guys? Not abolishing the death penalty.

Starting point is 00:46:15 The situation is so dire that after two years of nothing, but uncritical support for Joe Biden, Saturday Night Live, they were finally pushed to their limit and they decided to clown on him. So they jabbed at the president's accomplishment of confirming Katanji Brown Jackson over the weekend and it's cold open. So that's one campaign promised down and only 74 to go, said SNL's James Austin Johnson as Biden in the Oval Office. It's not just the Democratic Party, I feel like there's this culture overall of people like not wanting to take ownership of their flaws, not wanting to take ownership of what they can improve on. Now, it's one thing for that to be prevalent in American culture. I think that is a

Starting point is 00:47:06 problem. But it's something entirely different when you have people who have been elected into office to represent the best interests of the people who put them there and they don't do it and they refuse to take the criticism. No, this isn't a messaging problem. This is a legislating problem. This is a corruption problem. This is a democratic weakness problem. And they got to be real about that because they have completely lost the plot because of money in politics, because of the fact that we have lawmakers who are able to trade individual stocks, they end up looking more and more like Republicans. Whenever it comes to a relief bill, the first thing they want to do is discuss how they're

Starting point is 00:47:52 going to means test it. And they do that at a time when the gap between the rich and poor is widening even more. Listen, Republicans are terrible. That's why you want a party that's better. So you have an alternative. You have an option. But man, they just keep failing. It's incredibly frustrating. And anyone who's making excuses for them, like these Democratic strategists, you guys suck at your jobs. A Democratic strategist strategizes and finds ways to help the person they're trying to help succeed, get reelected. You're not going to help people get reelected by giving

Starting point is 00:48:36 them like a weird list of excuses they can message to the American people. It's not going to work. People are not dumb. They're experiencing what's happening in this economy every single day. And they're furious. And they should be. Democrats need to respond to that, not look for excuses. We got to take a break. It looks like we ran out of time and we're not going to be able to do that Elon Musk story. Sorry. But when we come back from the break, Rashad Ritchie will be joining me. to be a great hour don't miss it we'll see you then thanks for listening to the full episode of the young turks support our work listen ad free access members only bonus content and more by subscribing to apple podcast at apple dot co slash t yt i'm your host jank huger and i'll see you soon

Your Ad Here

The Young Turks - Quiet Part Loud

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.