The Young Turks - Refugee Camp Massacre

Episode Date: June 11, 2024

Inside Israel’s hostage rescue: Secret plans and a deadly "wall of fire." Gantz quits Netanyahu’s emergency government and calls for elections. Trump proposes ending taxes on tips. Naomi Campbell is worried about young people who don't want kids. HOST: Ana Kasparian (@anakasparian), Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE: ☞ https://www.youtube.com/user/theyoungturks FACEBOOK: ☞ https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER: ☞ https://www.twitter.com/theyoungturks INSTAGRAM: ☞ https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK: ☞ https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕 Merch: https://shoptyt.com ❤ Donate: http://www.tyt.com/go 🔗 Website: https://www.tyt.com 📱App: http://www.tyt.com/app 📬 Newsletters: https://www.tyt.com/newsletters/ If you want to watch more videos from TYT, consider subscribing to other channels in our network: The Watchlist https://www.youtube.com/watchlisttyt Indisputable with Dr. Rashad Richey https://www.youtube.com/indisputabletyt The Damage Report ▶ https://www.youtube.com/thedamagereport TYT Sports ▶ https://www.youtube.com/tytsports The Conversation ▶ https://www.youtube.com/tytconversation Rebel HQ ▶ https://www.youtube.com/rebelhq TYT Investigates ▶ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwNJt9PYyN1uyw2XhNIQMMA Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. I'm so upset. Oh my God. The guy! Live from the Polymarket Studio in L.A. It's the Young Turks. Welcome to TYT. I'm your host Anna Kasparian.

Jank is out for the majority of the week, but he will be back later on Friday. However, the show's going to be a banger, okay, one day after another, one banger after another, One banger after another, today I'm gonna be hosting the first hour solo. Wozni Lambre will be joining me for the second hour and the bonus episode. We're gonna have a lot of fun. In the first hour, we're gonna talk about some divisions within the Israeli government and what that could mean for the ongoing war in Gaza. We're also going to talk about Trump's proposed tax cuts for service workers, something

that he floated during a recent rally speech. What's the realistic, you know, how realistic is it that he's even gonna be able to to accomplish that. And what do service workers have to say about it? We're going to talk about that later in the show. And one of the other things that I wanted to obviously talk to you all about is the IDF operation over the weekend to free some hostages. A lot of civilians died as a result of that. So, you know, there's a lot of pushback toward anyone who is criticizing the way that that operation played out. But that's not going to stop us. So we're going to talk about what we found to be an issue there. But as always, just want to encourage you all to

to like and share the stream if you're watching us live. It's a free and easy way to help support the show. You can also support TYT by becoming a member. TYT.com slash join to become a member that way. Or you can just hit that join button. If you're- Smash it. Smash it.

If you're watching us on YouTube. All right, without further ado, let's get to our first story. On Saturday, Israeli forces conducted a daytime raid on the New Sadat refugee camp that freed four Israelis held hostage in Gaza since Aqqqqqqqqq. since October 7th. The hostages were being held in two apartments in the camp. Israel called in heavy strikes from the land, air, and sea to cover their evacuation to the coast. At least 274 Palestinians were killed in the attack, including at least 64 children,

nearly 700 were wounded. Israeli forces simultaneously striking two buildings housing the captors, using the daytime to catch Hamas by surprise. The operation resulting in the rescue of Noah Argomani, Amok Mayer Jan, Andre Koslov, and Shlomi Zeev. Feelings of relief following word that four Israeli hostages were freed over the weekend was quickly tempered by news of the hundreds of Palestinians who were killed as a result. At least that was the emotional roller coaster experienced by those who value Palestinian lives

just as much as they value Israeli lives. With the help of U.S. intelligence, a special operations unit with the Israeli defense forces called Yam, were able to locate the four hostages at the Nusirat refugee camp in central Gaza. Officials from the Israeli defense forces said they knew Noah Argomani had been moved around Gaza more than once during her time in captivity. Analyst confirmed she was now being held alone in a first floor apartment. Three other hostages, Almag Mirzhan, 22, Audrey Koslav, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41, were on the third floor of a building nearby, about 200 meters away. But the rescues came at a steep price for Palestinian civilians who had been displaced from their homes and were sheltering at that refugee camp. This is a refugee camp, Amra, that was full of people because many. of them had come from the area of Rafa, where the Israelis are currently conducting

an offensive town that's basically now a ghost town, everybody has left. And so many of the people who were killed yesterday in Nasirat were in fact coming from that area. Now we just received the latest numbers from the Gaza Ministry of Health who say that yesterday's death toll from that Israeli operation was 200. 174 with 698 wounded. That brings the death toll since the 7th of October in October in the Gaza, according to the Ministry of Health there, to 37,084. Now yesterday the scenes in the hospital were absolute pandemonium.

Lots of wounded women and children. The morgues were full. They ended up having to put the dead simply on the pavement outside. So at least 274 killed. As we know, the Palestinian Health Ministry does not note what number of those individuals are Hamas militants, but we do know that at least 64 of those dead Palestinians were children. And we should all take in what the CNN reporter just said there. After Israel attacked the southern town of Rafa, where around a million displaced

Palestinians were sheltering, civilians then evacuated to the Nusirat refugee camp for safety. But as we've learned over and over again, no area of Gaza is safe for Palestinians. In fact, the IDF was fully aware of how their planned rescue operation was going to get a lot of civilians killed. That's because they made the conscious decision to carry this mission out during the daytime to surprise the Hamas militants. But it would mean more Palestinian civilians on the streets. But oh well, as long as America's political elite have their backs, they're free to slaughter as many innocent civilians as they'd like. And they do, in fact, have the Biden administration support.

The United States, which assisted Israel with this operation, also knew that there would be a high civilian death toll. An American official confirming to ABC News that the U.S. provided intelligence and expertise to support the hostage recovery efforts. while stressing that no U.S. boots were on the ground as part of the operation. A U.S. official tells CNN that an American saddle in Israel supported the rescue efforts working with Israeli forces. That in reference to a team that has been assisting Israel since October 7th to information gather on hostages. It's worth sharing more details about what happened on one of the single deadliest days

in Gaza during the beginning of this war. The post spoke to more than a dozen. witnesses on the scene for more clarity on how the operation played out. Palestinian witnesses described some troops arriving in two undercover vehicles, one of which resembled the trucks used by Israel to bring commercial goods into Gaza. The other was a white Mercedes truck piled high with furniture and other belongings, a common site in a camp that's home to thousands of displaced families. By the way, the idea, the ID using what appeared to be a humanitarian aid truck or a truck that's used to bring in commercial

goods into the Gaza Strip is a violation of international law and also puts humanitarian aid workers at risk because now Hamas militants are going to wonder whether or not humanitarian aid trucks actually have Israeli soldiers within them. The IDF denies this, but the Washington Post was able to verify two videos that showed a box truck marked with a brand of brand of dishwashing soap traveling in the company of Israeli armored vehicles on a road about a mile west of the raid, or at least what they're referring to as a raid, it was more of a massacre. Husam al-Aruki 33 was returning from the bakery with his brother, Assam, when he recounted that two men in plain clothes and about 10 heavily armed soldiers poured out of the

back of the Mercedes. The soldiers opened fire, hitting his brother three times, he said. It would take at least an hour for Husam to reach his brother and rush him to a hospital where he remains in critical condition. We were in Nusayat camp. Special forces arrived from an Apache helicopter, and there was a white car with special forces. The Apache started to bomb and fire directly at people. There was a large number of martyrs and injured people. People fled. There's a big number of displaced people. Schools and hospitals are filled with displaced people. There is a large number of martyrs and firing was direct.

We brought 10 injured people in one ambulance. One of them was shot directly. We barely made it out through the alleyways. Now, as the operation was underway, the IDF knew that one of the hostages, Noah Argumani, was being held separately from the other three male hostages on the first floor of an apartment building. According to IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari, the men guarding her were caught off guard and completely surprised, were completely surprised when Israeli soldiers arrived. But that allegedly was not the case with the other hostages, which defeated the purpose of

doing a daytime operation while the streets were full of civilians. The guards with the three male hostages had not been taken by surprise. An IDF commander was shot as they entered the building. A firefight erupted exposing the covert mission. The IDF soldier who was shot would later die from his wounds. But the IDF soldiers did manage to get the three hostages and the injured soldier into a vehicle. They claim that as they tried to escape, the car they were. were in came under fire by Hamas, who they claim attacked with rocket propelled grenades and

rifle fire. Israeli officials claimed that at one point, they were forced to run into a nearby building as commanders called for air support. And that's when the operation turned into a complete and utter bloodbath. Explosions rock the narrow streets, which have only grown more crowded in recent weeks with families displaced by Israel's offensive in southern Gaza. The air force started shooting to give them a corridor, a wall of fire, said retired major general, David Soar, a former Yomam commander. There was carnage everywhere, Abu Asi said, including dead women and children. The roads were filled with tanks, artillery, body parts, and injured people, nothing but a haul of blood. Paramedic Abdel Hamid Ghraab told the Washington Post,

quote, they were shooting and targeting everything. None of us could even tell what was outside. So was this the best possible way for Israel to rescue hostages? And would the United States military be okay with them carrying out such a high military operation that led to such a high civilian death toll? Look, we already know that the highest number of hostages were saved or released during a week long pause in fighting. During the pause, 81 Israeli citizens, including those who also hold citizenship from other countries were released. And by the way, I just want to note, this has not been confirmed, but Hamas is also alleging that three other hostages, including an American citizen, were killed as a result of this

operation. You should take that with the grain of salt right now until we have further confirmation. But if that is true, that means the IDF managed to save four hostages while killing 274 Palestinians and potentially three additional hostages. Now, Biden's national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, seems to agree that a ceasefire is the best way to save hostages, which is what he told Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation over the weekend. By far, the most effective, certain, and right way to get all of the hostages out is to get a comprehensive ceasefire and hostage deal that President Biden described in public.

But in the meantime, the U.S. will assist Israel with the weapons and intel they need to carry out whatever mission they'd like, regardless of the collateral damage. But hey, I'm just a host on this show. I'm no military expert. So why don't we actually hear from a few? CNN spoke to retired colonel Cedric Layton and national security analyst Peter Bergen about the hostage rescue operation. And what they had to say is definitely worth listening to. I think about the Osama bin Laden raid. The Obama administration debated what to do for literally months. And one of their big considerations was dropping a bomb on the compound would kill quite a lot of people in a city in Abadabad. Think about also the Trump administration also debated for many, many weeks about killing the leader of ISIS in 2019 in Syria, also with the issue of civilian casualties.

And I, look, Colonel Leighton can correct me. I don't think there's a universe where the U.S. Special Operations would have approved this raid with this level of casualties. Whether it's 100, as the Israelis say, or 270s, we've just learned from Ben Wiederman. Clearly, it's an unacceptably large number of casualties. You know, it's great that the hostages were returned, but I don't see a world in which the U.S. Special Operations community would have gone forward with this raid, knowing or having this level of potential number of casualties. Do you agree, Colonel Leighton? I do.

I agree totally with what Peter just said. Finally, it's not just Palestinian civilians who live in terror due to Israel's aerial bombardments and violent military operations in Gaza. Rescued hostages have actually given the world some insight into what they themselves experienced while they were held captive in Gaza. Lewis Har is one of those hostages. He spent 129 days in the Palestinian territory and agreed. to speak to Heretz about what he feared the most as he was held in captivity. He said, quote, our greatest fear was the IDF's planes and the concern that they would bomb the building we were in. I was a soldier myself once, but the feeling that it could be our

own bombs, our own planes, that this is what would kill us. That's very scary and very anxiety inducing. Yeah, I bet, I can't imagine how anxiety inducing that is. But what about the possibility of getting killed by Hamas? What did Lewis have to say about that? And how did the other hostages feel about it? Well, he tells Heretz that we decided for ourselves, the whole gang of us together, that we wouldn't resist the hostage takers and wouldn't cause conflicts. We respected each other and we were calm. We weren't worried that they'd do something to us all of a sudden. We didn't object to anything, so I wasn't afraid they'd kill me. But I knew that if they got the order to kill us, they do it instantly. Wouldn't think twice.

Still, I knew it wasn't like in other cases where they just killed for no reason. The people who kept watch over us were really just keeping watch and wanted to make the exchange with their own people. And they made sure we were okay. And so did we. It's a punch in the gut to see the United States under the leadership of the very decent Joe Biden, assist Israel in the worst way possible to save hostages. But this is who Biden really is. It's time to accept that. And he's proven to be anything but decent.

And look, I want to be clear, I'm happy for the Israeli families who get to embrace their loved ones once again. Like I said, when the news first broke, you feel this sense of relief. And then as the story develops and you learn more details about how many people died, it definitely takes away from the relief and happiness you feel. It's impossible not to feel crippling despair on behalf of all the parents in Gaza left childless or the children who are now orphaned over the brutality that our government proudly supports. It's just disgusting and it's shameful and I'm tired of seeing it.

All right, let's talk about one other story out of Israel before we move on to some domestic news because the divisions within the Israeli government are becoming more and more pronounced and it's important to know about it. Unfortunately, Netanya was preventing us from approaching true victory, which is the justification for the painful, ongoing price. And this is why we quit the national unity government today with a heavy heart. Yet we feel that it is the right decision. We are now in the midst of a campaign that will impact the fate of Israel generations ahead. That was Betty Gantz. He is a less radical member of Israel's three-man war cabinet, and he has decided to resign from Benjamin Netanyahu's emergency government over criticisms of how Netanyahu continues to handle the ongoing war in Gaza.

Now, I say that he's moderate, but honestly, when you really look at his politics, he's still incredibly right-wing. It's just that he's not as right-wing as the extreme. in the current Israeli government, and I'll explain what I mean by that in just a moment. But he is Netanyahu's main political opposition leader, and he did decide to be part of this emergency coalition government after Hamas' attack on October 7th. Now, public opinion polls have repeatedly shown that Gantz would totally beat Netanyahu in an election. So let's be clear, Gantz is also asking for a new election to be held, and I think that is the right thing to do, considering all the protests of Israeli civilians in Israel toward Netanyahu and his handling of this war,

but also his failure in keeping Israelis safe on October 7th. Now, Benny Gantz has been referred to as the centrist or the moderate member of this coalition. And look, compared to Netanyahu and the other far right radicals, I guess that's somewhat fair to say. But I don't want anyone to think that he's like some radical lib, okay, he's not. So in his first major political speech in 2019, just as an example, he pledged to strengthen Israeli settlement blocks in the West Bank, which are, by the way, they go against international laws. I know it doesn't matter.

It's like a joke every time I say it at this point, but it is true. But he would want to, again, strengthen Israeli settlement blocks in the West Bank. And he also said that Israel would never leave the Golan Heights. He also said this, quote, the Jordan Valley will be our border, but we won't let millions of Palestinians living beyond the fence endanger our identity as a Jewish state. So he's also commanded the IDF when it fought against Palestinian factions in Gaza between 2011 and 2015. If you can remember, 2014 was a particularly bloody year for Palestinians at the hands of the IDF. And so, So he's no dove, we have to be very clear about that, but he is less insane than other

members of the current far-right government. And I'm talking about people who were literally accused of terrorism. So his decision to leave wasn't totally unexpected. He had been hinting that this was what he planned to do. He's been threatening to do this for some time now. And his decision to leave could, it could like further divide the current government in Israel. And it could lead to even worse. results in Gaza. And that is actually something that I'm concerned about. So he finally decided to go through with it after Netanyahu failed to meet his conditions for staying. And so there is a big difference between Netanyahu and Benny Gantz when it comes to the aftermath of the war in Gaza. That is the biggest difference I see between them. And you're about to get some more information about that in this next video.

Now, those conditions were a definitive and decisive plan to get the hostages back. We know that Gantz has been very vocal about his support for the proposal that's on the table at the moment, the proposal that U.S. and Israeli officials are waiting for an official response from Hamasbo. He also said he wants to have a day after strategy. So the day after the war ends, what exactly is the plan for Gaza? Now, Netanyahu has been very vague over recent months when it comes to that. And then he also wanted a plan to calm down the situation on the northern border with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, saying that there are tens of thousands of Israeli residents who want to be able to move back to their homes.

They've been evacuated for many months now because of tensions there. So he has said that those were the reasons he needed to step down. So this is where the more moderate characteristics come out. out with Benny Gantz, right? He wants a plan for what happens to Gaza after the war is over. In various instances, he's made clear that he does not think it is a good idea for the IDF to occupy Gaza, which was actually shocking to me, and I hope he's actually being honest about that.

As you heard in that video, he feels that it's really important to calm things down with Hezbollah in northern Israel, so Israelis can go back to their homes in northern Israel. At the same time, you have Netanyahu continuing to provoke more, you know, more conflict with Hezbollah, more conflict, you know, at the near Gaza. And he's also calling for the IDF to occupy Gaza after the war is over, something that Gans is not in favor of. So he's taking a stand and he's like, I'm not in favor of this. He's also not in favor of the fact that he feels that Netanyahu is dragging the war in Gaza out for his own political purposes. He feels that Netanyahu wants to remain in power, and the second the war is over,

well, that's going to be a day of reckoning for Netanyahu. So he's dragging this out as long as he can. Joe Biden recently made similar comments saying that Biden told time, there is every reason to believe that Netanyahu is prolonging the conflict to serve his own interests. It's great that Biden recognizes that. Maybe he should reconsider sending all these weapons and all this money, billions and billions of dollars to a guy that he knows is dragging a war out for his own political purposes. Now, in his resignation speech, Gans also encouraged the third member of the

war cabinet, Defense Minister Joav Golan, to do the right thing and resign from the government as well. Galan has previously said he would resign if Israel chose to reoccupy Gaza and encouraged the government to make plans for a Palestinian administration. Like, we hear from all of the insane lunatics within Israel's current government, right? I'm talking about. the Basel-Smotritches of the current government. And these are people who just openly like salivate over the notion of ethnic cleansing and basically stealing whatever land is left for the Palestinian people. So it always shocks me now when I hear anyone from Israel's government say, no, we probably shouldn't occupy Gaza. Now he also called for new elections and made a direct

plea to Netanyahu. Let's watch. In order to guarantee true victory, This coming fall, when it will be the one year anniversary of this disaster, we should go for elections and reach a new government. I call on to Netanyahu, set a date for elections. I think that it would be good for the Israeli civilians to be able to have a say over their leadership. I mean, there have been protests going on almost from the beginning of this war. And those protests have to do with how Netanyahu himself is been handling this war. Now, on Saturday, Netanyahu had urged him to stay. And on Sunday,

before Gans had even finished speaking, he wrote on X, Israel is in an existential war on several fronts. Betty, this is not the time to abandon the war. This is the time to join forces. But his pleas were ignored. And an hour after Gans's announcement, two other Israeli officials followed suit. That includes Gadi Eisencott, who is the former chief of staff of the Israeli army who had joined the war cabinet. And then Israeli minister Chile Tropper, who is basically someone who sent their resignation letter in as well. Eisencott wrote to Netanyahu saying, we have witnessed that the decisions made by the government and by you are not necessarily motivated by national considerations and the good of the country. Foreign and political

considerations have infiltrated the discussion rooms and influence the decision making. So what do these resignations mean? You would think, well, you have some of the more moderate members of the government taking a stand. They're making their voices heard. And maybe this will, you know, lead to some positive changes. But it could also lead to some devastating changes. It could lead to the consolidation and reinforcement of power for the far, far right members of the government. So Netanyahu will now be more dependent on those far right partners who are already like just pouncing on Gantz's exit. And that's not good. On Sunday, on Sunday evening, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gavir demanded a spot in the war cabinet, which by the way,

would be a disaster, saying that Gantz and the smaller cabinet had bungled the war effort due to dangerous ideological decisions. Yeah, I would say that the dangerous ideological decisions come from lunatics like Itimar Ben Gavir. And all he would do is make Israel more of a pariah internationally. I mean, he thinks that the bloodshed of the Palestinian people isn't enough. He wants more of it. And he's been very open about that. So speaking to reporters, Ben Gavir said that he believes the solution is really that we will enter this war cabinet and be able to have even more influence. The people of Israel want

victory in the south. The people of Israel want victory in the north. The people of Israel want to stop the fuel and humanitarian policy, most of which ultimately goes to Hamas. This is not how a country wants to win, that wants to win behaves. So in other words, he wants Palestinians to starve to He wants to stop the flow of whatever humanitarian aid is getting into the Gaza Strip. He wants to stop all of it. And as we know, you already have Palestinians in the north suffering from famine. You have people already dying from starvation, from dehydration. But it's not enough for Ben Gavir.

He wants more. Now additionally, after Gans's resignation, Israeli finance minister Basilel Smodrich, that's another one of the lunatics, said he, He would oppose any hostage deal between Israel and Hamas. Okay, Smotrid said during a Knesset committee meeting that Hamas was demanding the release of hundreds of murderers held by Israel so that hostages will be freed and called the deal that was being negotiated collective suicide, saying it would lead to the murder of Jews. Now keep in mind that many of the Palestinian prisoners have never even been charged. with anything. But okay, Smotrich ended up walking out of the meeting after being confronted

by relatives of Israeli hostages in Gaza. Some of the families told Smotrich that they have waited eight months to meet with him and said their relatives have been abandoned. Smotrich said that they are engaged in cynicism and demagoguery. They're allegedly engaged in demagoguery. Asked what price a hostage's life is worth, Smotrich accused the hostages' families of yelling, prompting loud arguments. These are the people within the current Israeli government that are destroying Israel. Not only is it influencing the policies and the military operations that are slaughtering innocent people in Gaza, it's also making Israel at international pariah.

I'm shocked that you're finally seeing some individuals take a stand and say, no, we don't agree with this and we're going to quit this emergency government as a result of the terrible decisions that are being made. I'm glad they're taking a stand. But unfortunately, it appears that if things keep going the direction that they're going in, this is creating a bit of a power vacuum within the government that would allow for the far right members of the government to consolidate more power. And that would not bode well for Israelis. It would not bode well for Palestinians and those family members of the hostages. I mean, they're protesting now, they're unhappy now, but they're going to be in for a world of pain if more power is consolidated behind the far right

wing of the current Israeli government. We got to take a break when we come back. We've got more news for you, including, well, an interesting proposal that Donald Trump floated during his rally speech in Las Vegas. What does it mean for service workers and how realistic is it? Well, we'll give you the details on that and more when we come back. I don't care about you. I just want you vote. I'm so upset. Oh my God. Volakas writes in and says, I'm no foreign policy expert, but this Gaza situation continues to smell like a big, sweaty, stinky mess. Who's going to clean this up? Not Biden, not Trump. Yeah, I mean, I wish that there was some sort of silver lining or light at the end of the tunnel that I can share with you all.

But that story is just, it feels incredibly hopeless at the moment. And I want to be honest with you all, I'm not going to give you false hope. Things are not looking good. And part of the reason why things aren't looking good is because our government continues to justify everything that's being carried out by the Israeli government and the Israeli defense forces. But for now, why don't we move off that topic and discuss the elections, some domestic policy, starting with this. This is the first time I've said this. And for those hotel workers and people that get tips, you're going to be very happy. Because when I get to office, we are going to not charge taxes on tips, people making tips.

During his rally in Las Vegas, Nevada over the weekend, former President Donald Trump announced that he would do away with taxes on tips for service workers. It was a brief part of his speech, but here's more of what he had to say. And we're going to do that right away. First thing in office, because it's been a point of contention for years and years and years and you do a great job of service. You take care of people. And I think it's going to be something that really is deserved. More importantly, popular or unpopular. I do some unpopular things, too, if it's right for the country, I do what's right. But so those people that have jobs in

restaurants, whatever the job may be, a tipping job, we're not going after for taxes anymore. This will be ended. And I announced that for the first time. First time I've brought it up. anyone's brought it up. I think it's never been brought up before. And I also think it's very appropriate. Okay, so let's break this down into two different categories. And it's important to know the distinction. There's politics and then there's policy. Politics is about the optics. It's about personal marketing. And then the policy has to do with whether or not this is something that's even doable, whether or not Trump is actually serious about this. So we'll get to that in just a moment. But first, let me just say, this is good politics. I know, I know. I'm not

supposed to give him any credit for anything. Come at me if you'd like, but this is good politics. This is exactly the kind of rhetoric that appealed to voters back in 2016. And it seems like Trump is really going back to his greatest populist hits, right? Making it appear as though he's an individual who cares deeply about working class Americans. And when it comes to marketing, I hate to admit it, He's far better than Biden is. He's far better at marketing himself and saying things that appeal to ordinary Americans. And I think that is what is carrying him in all of these polls that we've been discussing on the show. So look, he's signaling an economic populist message that seeks to make economic conditions a little better for ordinary Americans,

especially at a time when inflation is still crushing Americans. Okay, it just is. It's not getting any better. the Federal Reserve has made clear that while they planned on lowering interest rates, it looks like they're going to have to postpone that. And remember, Biden tends to have, Trump, I should say, tends to have some pretty great instincts when it comes to marketing himself to working class Americans. And when that awful train derailment happened, that Norfolk Southern train derailment that occurred in East Palestine, Ohio,

Trump was smart enough to realize, hey, maybe I should go visit the local community there, whereas Biden refused to do so. Let's watch. What's your specialty today? How are you today? Nice to meet you. Hello, everybody. That's a nice, beautiful looking room for favor. So I know this menu better than you do. I probably know it better than anybody in here. We're going to take care of the fire department.

Okay. We're going to take care of the police department. So Trump shows up. He buys fast food for the first responders in the community. Biden, who's obviously president at the time of this derailment, did not visit East Palestine until a year later. Now, let's talk about the actual policy. You know, Trump is known to just say things when he doesn't even really necessarily mean it. So it's hard to tell how serious he is about this. Was he just saying it to appeal to people? Or is it something that he actually plans to work on if he gets elected? I have no idea. And you can only speculate on

that. However, policy wise, he can't just do this unilaterally. This is tax policy. It's something that would need to be carried out through Congress. Now, Congress might actually consider it, though, because remember, they're going to revisit Donald Trump's tax cuts because there are certain provisions within the 2017 tax cuts that are going to expire soon. So Congress is going to convene and try to figure out ways to make certain provisions permanent or at least to extend those provisions. Now lawmakers will look at the nation's tax policy next year upon the expiration of Trump's 2017 tax cuts and jobs cut act. The 2017 Tax Cuts Act did not include provisions on tips, but if Republicans retake the White House and Senate and hold the house, they would have

the opportunity to add to and extend Trump's previous policies. And look, I, I'm going to just be honest, I would be okay with cutting taxes for tips, especially in states where they do have that tipped wage. In states like California, there is no tipped wage. Everyone in California makes at least the minimum wage in California. So it's a little different in California, but there are other states where you make a couple dollars an hour, but most of your income comes from tips. I don't know if I would eliminate, you know, taxes on tips entirely, but a little bit of a tax break for service

workers, especially since service workers make up the bulk of workers in this country, would be a nice change from the massive tax cuts that the rich keep getting, okay? So I would not be offended by a policy that focuses on giving ordinary American workers a little more relief. But I do want to give you some ideas of the provisions that members of Congress are going to be hyper-focused on. They're not going to be hyper-focused on giving service workers relief. They're going to be hyper-focused on extending or making permanent certain provisions that overwhelmingly benefit high earners. So the biggest tax cut that's expiring is the lower tax rates and the wider brackets.

So just to give you an idea, the top tax rate fell from 39.6% to 37% for the high. highest earners. And so that is what the lawmakers want to extend, or at least make permanent. The tax breaks for the estate tax, well, that's going to expire too. So they're going to be hyper-focused on making that permanent or extending it. And then there's the standard deduction, which actually does benefit ordinary people. Well, that is also going to expire without congressional action. But interestingly enough, the culinary workers union local 226, which is based in Las Vegas, criticized Donald Trump's pledge, which surprised me. The union secretary treasurer, a guy named Ted Papa George, which is a fun last name, let's keep it real, released a statement

saying relief is definitely needed for tip earners. But Nevada workers are smart enough to know the difference between real solutions and wild campaign promises from a convicted felon. So I suppose the man with the real solutions is supposed to be Joe Biden, and we're going to get back to him in just a moment. But interestingly enough, there was a CBS news reporter Olivia Rinaldi who talked to some of the workers in Las Vegas to get a little bit of a read on how they felt about what Trump had to say during his rally speech. And here's what she had to say. I did talk with some hotel workers yesterday, some service workers here in Las Vegas about how that is playing with them. And Amory, about six people told me that would change their vote.

That is enough to make them switch from voting Democrat to Republican if Donald Trump is promising something like that to them. So I don't know what's going on with the culinary unions leadership. I don't know if that individual actually speaks for the workers within that union or if this is an individual who despises Donald Trump and refuses to give him any credit for a proposal that might actually be beneficial for the service workers in Nevada. But, you know, just based on the anecdotal evidence from that CBS reporter, there are obviously some workers in Las Vegas who found that proposal appealing and would literally change their votes over it. Now, to go back to Biden and how he differs from Trump, you know, as we heard from Papa George, Biden has the real solutions. And so let's talk about what those real

solutions are. So Biden did do something that was good. And I don't think he got much credit for this. In fact, as I was researching for this story, I came across this information and realized I was not informed on it. I wish it got more attention. But he did manage to reverse a Trump era rule dating back in 2021. He reversed this Trump era rule that basically screwed over tipped workers, okay? What it did was it limited employers, what Biden did, limited employers and what they could pay workers when it came to certain jobs, right? Like, it's hard to explain, but Biden reversed a Trump era rule in 2021 that limited when employers can pay workers the lower tipped minimum wage for performing non-tip tasks. So this sounds super complicated, but let me give

you more context. So the Trump administration finalized a rule that scrapped the 80-20 regulation that said employers can pay the tipped minimum wage of $2.13 an hour for non-tip tasks performed contemporaneously or immediately before or after workers' primary tip duties, regardless of how much time they take. So this ended up saving employers a ton of money. And Biden came in and he reversed it because he realized it was actually screwing over service workers. So Biden came in, he reversed it. The Department of Labor's wage and hour division under Biden says workers can only be paid the tipped minimum wage. Again, that's the $2.13 amount for tasks that directly support tipped work and do not take up more than 20% of a worker's time or 30 consecutive minutes.

major business groups back the Trump era rule saying that keeping track of the precise amount of time workers spent on different tasks was unworkable. But worker advocates claimed the changes would cost tip workers hundreds of millions of dollars in wages. So there you have it. Biden did something good. He deserves credit for that. But here's where Biden does not deserve credit. And it drives me crazy when people try to give him credit for this. Because we just experienced what his presidency is like. And he did not fight for any of these things. Biden has also pushed, allegedly, according to the Hill, for increases to the federal the federal minimum wage and phasing out the tipped minimum wage for restaurant service workers. Really? When? When did he do that? When did Biden push to increase the federal minimum wage? He caved on that immediately early on in his term.

And honestly, when did when did Biden ever fight to do away with the minimum wage for service workers, for tipped service workers? When did that ever happen? Maybe I missed it. I looked for it. I'm like, oh, maybe Biden did fight for that. Let me look into it. Maybe he gave a rousing speech about how, oh, tipped workers are getting paid too little

in their hourly wages. No, nothing. He didn't fight for it. He didn't push for it. He doesn't deserve credit on it. But look, again, there's optics, there's the politics, and then there's the policy. And when it comes to the politics, you're lying to yourself if you are of the mind that Biden is doing a better job in marketing himself to ordinary working class Americans compared to Trump. Trump might be lying.

Trump might be full of crap. And he has lied a lot in the past. But he does know about the economic anxieties that Americans are facing, and he knows how to hit them on the issues that matter most. In the meantime, I don't know where Biden is. He's wasting his time, assisting aiding and abetting, the brutality that's being, you know, waged against the Palestinian people in Gaza. He's demanding tens of billions of dollars for wars abroad, hundreds of billions of dollars, in fact.

And it's just really not good, optically speaking, for the American people as they look at their current conditions. They see how inflation is impacting their households. And they're wondering, okay, who's the real leader here? Is it the guy who's more concerned with wars abroad? Or is it the guy who's giving a speech about cutting taxes for service workers? These are hard truths, I get it. We're supposed to say Trump bad, Trump convicted felon, but Trump knows how to campaign, and he certainly does it better than Biden does.

We'll be right back. Welcome back to the show, everyone. I'm Anna Casparian. And in today's edition of wealthy people who are totally detached from reality, I bring you Naomi Campbell. So, supermodel Naomi Campbell revealed in a recent interview that one of her fears, something that seems to be keeping her up at night, has to do with family planning decisions made by strangers. So during an interview with the UK's, The Times. Campbell opened up about her children and the anxiety that they've brought her, which is a weird thing to bring up when you're trying to convince other people to have kids. But nonetheless, she said, quote, my babies are everything to me. It's made me

fear for the future. I have, okay, let's just pause right there. So far, you're not making a great case for having kids. So we all see the state of the world. It gives me anxiety already. I can't imagine having children that I need to worry about whose futures rely on things getting better. But let's keep going. I have heard a lot of young girls saying that it is too expensive to have children and they may not want them. And I have said, you will change your mind. You will want to be a mum. Okay. So look, maybe, maybe some women out there who, have sworn off having children will someday wake up and realize, oh my gosh, I've made a huge mistake and now it's too late. Or maybe it is a difficult decision to come to something that

people think deeply about. Think about how hard it is to go against the grain. Not having children is going against the grain. Typically, as women, you're just supposed to go along, you know, go with the flow. You're supposed to do what you're supposed to do. You get married. You have kids, you're not supposed to question it. People who actually question it have actually taken some time to think about it. But look, some people might regret it. But my personal experience is once couples have decided, I don't want to have kids. We don't want to have children. They're usually pretty happy with that decision. And it is their decision to make. But let's talk a little bit about Naomi Campbell's personal decisions here. Okay, because

she didn't have children when she was a spring chicken. She was a highly successful supermodel, in fact continues to be, made millions of dollars with her incredibly successful modeling career. And then once she had established herself, once everything was all fine and dandy, that's when she decided to have kids via surrogacy, because it was much later in life when she decided to have children. So she had a girl in 2021 at the age of 51, again, through surrogacy. She then had a boy in 2023 at the age of 53. And it's great that she's now a mother. She loves being a mother. It's a great experience for her. She also made the decision to have these children via surrogacy as a single mom. So she doesn't have a partner who's supporting

her while she does this. But you can understand how it's a little different for a successful supermodel who has tens of millions of dollars in the bank. Now, she's, She says, I understand economically it's tough, but my mom had nothing and she made it work. It's worth it. It is so amazing. Okay. I just, I don't, I don't know anything about her mom, but has she sat down to talk about what that was like for her mother? And is it crazy to maybe consider the fact that there are women out there who don't want to go through that?

Is it crazy to maybe consider what economic conditions were back then, what kind of social programs existed back then that made it easier to be a single mom or a mother that was living in poverty versus what we have today? And obviously it depends on which country you're in. In the UK, they have certain things like a much better health care system that we don't have here in the United States. And so it's just very easy to just be flippant about this and say, like, no, but being a mom is Great, and you shouldn't be worried about the finances, you shouldn't be worried about the stress,

you shouldn't be worried about the anxiety, you shouldn't be worried about whether or not you have a good partner to raise a child with. It's just wonderful and you should just do it. Yeah, when you have tens of millions of dollars, it is easy to say that. But when you're struggling, not so easy to say that, and look, not everyone is meant to be a parent. But let me continue. So some people do have a genuine fear over the fact that birth rates are falling.

It's not just happening here in the United States, it's not just happening in the UK. It's actually happening all around the world. It kind of started with Japan, and it's really been spreading to other countries. And so for a country in the developed world to increase or maintain its population, it needs a birth rate of 2.1 children per woman on average. This is known as the replacement rate. In the U.S., the fertility rate fell last year to 1.62, a record low. Back in 1960, it was 3.65.

Americans can't even afford a home to live in, okay? So, I just don't understand why it's so difficult for people to absorb how much people do not want to bring children into an economic situation where they can't even buy a decent home for their kids to be raised in. The UK is experiencing similar trends. The latest figure or figures for England and Wales show that the average birth rate also called the total fertility rate declined to 1.49 children per woman in 2022 from 1.55 in 2021. The rate has been falling since 2010. I wonder what the trend is. I wonder what led to that. Could it be like an economic collapse that basically threw everyone for loop back in 2008.

I mean, the housing collapse, the economic disaster that was, you know, prompted by, you know, predatory loans that were then, you know, traded in the stock market as these like bundled securities in the stock market. Like all this stuff happened thanks to Wall Street that totally screwed up. All sorts of Americans who had worked their entire lives to save for retirement. They lost their homes. All of this happened and we're supposed to pretend like, oh, look, there's a, there's a falling birth rate. Hmm, where did that falling birth rate come from?

It's just, it's just a new trend. It's because people are lazy and they don't want to raise children. Could it be that there's no support? There's no support. So like, let me just be clear and give you a real world example, me. I'm up at 5 in the morning. I don't get home till 6.30 if I'm lucky. Who the hell is going to raise my kids if I have kids?

First of all, I have to work. I have to earn money to at least take care of myself, but I'd also have to take care of my kids. And what would I do? I would hire a stranger to raise my child. And if I'm lucky, if I get home early enough, okay, maybe I could spend 30 minutes with my kid before they have to go to sleep. That's not a way to live.

People don't want to do that. First of all, people don't want to pay for that because child care is insanely expensive. Okay, child care is also difficult to get these days because they're far less workers in that field because of how much they're mistreated in that field. And it's just like insane that like you have these rich people like, why aren't you having kids? What's wrong? What's wrong is how society is set up and how unfriendly society is to families who want to have children. I don't want to have children, but if I did, I would be furious right now because of how incredibly difficult it is. Society is set up in a way that discourages bringing kids into a family,

okay? There's disincentives, not very many incentives to have kids. Well, I don't understand. Why aren't you doing it? I'm just a multi-millionaire supermodel and I love it. I'm having a great time. After I had established my career and I did great for myself, I decided to have children at 50. Why don't you do that? Why don't you pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to have children via surrogacy? I just want these people to shut up. That's what I want. I want these people to shut up.

If you're unable to accept how different your privileged life is from the vast majority of people who have decided against having children, just shut up. I'm not interested in hearing about you becoming a mother at 50 because you had the funds, okay, to have children via surrogacy. And wow, I'm very proud of you for raising a child or two children as a single mother. Again, you're a multimillionaire who already had her fun, who already had her career established. And if you're a policymaker, if you're a conservative who's very concerned about the falling birth rates, maybe focus on policies that incentivize having children, that actually makes society friendly to those who are interested in having children.

Instead of judging, instead of assuming that people are lazy or that they have these unfounded fears about the future, maybe actually listen to ordinary people and understand why it is that they're so stressed out already and why they think having children is just not realistic given what things are like as an ordinary worker, whether it's in the United States or the UK. Just consider that. You guys are probably understanding how irritating this conversation is, because we've already got politicians and conservative members of the media, like in our ears endlessly about how we need to reproduce. And if we don't want to reproduce, how they're going to force us to have children that we don't want to have by taking

away reproductive rights. But how about, you know, instead of using the stick beating us over the head with sticks all the time, maybe just once consider some carrots. Because I would venture to say there are plenty of people in my age group who are interested in having kids. But if you can't afford a home, you can't afford child care, you can't afford the simple basics, like education for your kids, you're not going to want to have them. So that's why Naomi, people are deciding not to have kids. It's not freaking rocket science. Not everyone's living on cloud nine with a ton of money in the bank and all the support in the world. Most people are struggling, time to wake up and realize it. Wasney-Lombay joins us for the second hour. Don't miss it.

A fun new special for you guys. Hostmates is back. So this is a fan favorite. That's when TYT hosts compete against each other, but also people from behind the scenes come out in front of the camera. We do fun challenges, trivia questions. It's fantastic. Monday, June 24th, 8 o'clock Eastern, I promise you guys are going to love it. You can see it on YouTube, Facebook, Twitch, t-y-t.com slash live, and you can be a part of it by donating through t-y-t.com slash hostmates. So when you do that, you're literally part of the show. Some of you can get producer credits, some of you can ask questions to us that we have to answer in the game, and others can actually do recordings that they play out for us, and then we answer those questions.

I love when you guys participate. Hostmates allows us to do that, and it helps the network and the show to keep going. So come play with us. I think you'll love it. The way you can participate is through t.com slash hostmates.