The Young Turks - Republicans Abandoning Trump Over Pull Out

Episode Date: October 8, 2019

Republicans are in full revolt against Trump, over his decision to pull troops out of Syria. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to the Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. Hey, guys, you've heard of the Young Turks podcast because you're listening to it right now. But make sure that you subscribe and give it a five star rating if you like it. Thank you for listening. All right, well, the Young Turks, thank you, Your Honor, it's a big Monday. Lots of giant stories, okay?

So it feels like a normal Monday, to be honest. No, I hear you, I don't think so, though. I hear you, but I don't think so. So first off, we got Trump with more madness with Turkey and the Kurds. We're going to get into that right away, so I don't have to tell you much about it because we're going to tell you in a minute. And then we've got Bernie Sanders with a very important announcement today, so I don't I don't want you to miss that, it's, in my opinion, probably the most important policy proposal

of the entire presidential campaign site. He gave you what you wanted. You got what you wanted. No, I got what America wanted it needs. I know, but like you personally, this is the issue that you've been so focused on. That's right, that's right. You know why? Because I'm logical and it is the only thing that matters.

Anyway, that's later with the program. But if you'd like, you could keep tilting at windmills, like, ah, we're gonna get gun control if we get 98% of Americans on our side. Anyways, okay, so that's a little bit later. Biden, did he do a counter, effective counterattack? Anna Kasparian, and CNN says no. We will discuss that a little bit later in the program. Speaking of knows, one of the worst Democrats in Congress, of course, he's one of the most

powerful. Richard Neal is, will not go after Trump on a boat. He will not go after him on a goat. He, apparent, there's a whistleblower. There's a whistleblower from the IRS. And he's like, I don't want to talk to him. It's ridiculous, yeah. What?

We're gonna get to that later. What? It's unreal. So, all right, tons of stuff. Casper, go hit him. All right. America's Kurdish allies in Syria are accusing the United States of turning its back on them following Donald Trump's abrupt decision to pull U.S. troops out of northern Syria. Now, I say that it's abrupt because it certainly was.

There was no real explanation given as to why Donald Trump's. given as to why Donald Trump made this decision. But what we do know is that he made this abrupt decision immediately following a phone conversation he had with the Turkish president Erdogan. Now the US has more than 1,000 troops deployed in the region. And they're currently, or they were working closely with our Kurdish allies there in the fight against ISIS. However, now it turns out that the US troops will be pulled out because of Trump's decision.

Now American forces will not support or be involved in the operation and United States forces having defeated the ISIS territorial caliphate will no longer be in the immediate area. This was a statement released by the White House just recently. And also the Associated Press is reporting that Trump's abrupt decision to stand aside infuriated Kurds who stand to lose the autonomy they gained in the course of Syria's civil war. The Turkish president Erdogan said American troops have started pulling back following his conversation with Trump the night before. All right, lots to say about this, and this is not an easy issue.

A lot of people are painting it as easy, it isn't. There are certain things that are easy. The manner in which Donald Trump made the decision is, as usual, mental. Without consulting our own Pentagon, without going through any kind of deliberative process. And actually apparently upending one that upset a delicate balance that they had struck in the first place, as usual. So Trump's action is crazy, right, in the way that he did it. Now, why is it complicated overall?

Well, progressives, including myself, we want troops out of Syria in general. On the other hand, those thousand troops that we had in northern Syria, in essence protecting the Kurds, well, those are probably the last ones I would have pulled out. And so why? Well, that's also complicated. So on the one hand, the Kurds helped us tremendously in fighting against ISIS. On the other hand, the Turkish government is very against some of the Kurdish forces that they think are part of the separatist movement in Turkey, and they call them Kurdish terrorists.

And Turkey is not an enemy of ours, although that would make Donald Trump more likely to support them probably, but they are the second largest army in NATO. And they're critical to anything we do in the Middle East. So now that means that you have to be very concerned about Turkey's concern about Kurdish terrorists, right? But at the same time, you don't want to betray the Kurds who just helped you fight ISIS in Syria. So what you need is a really smart president that could thread that needle. That is not what we have.

Unfortunately, that is not the direction the United States of America has got. But look, one big clear takeaway is we told the Kurds we'd have their backs. And now for the hundredth time in a row, a large Western power has lied to the Kurds and betrayed them again. And if you don't know the history of it, the Kurds are constantly betrayed by the Western powers. They help them in whoever they're fighting with at the time, with big promises about, oh, once we're done with this, we're going to help you and we're going to have your back. And as usual here, Donald Trump and hence, unfortunately, the United States of America, has said to the Kurds one more time, no, we were lying. We're now going to let the Turks

roll into your territory and do whatever they want. Yeah, so let me give you more details on that, because the conflict between the Kurds and the Turks is a serious conflict, and there are already some provoking statements made by the Turkish government. They want to create something known as a safe zone. It's, well, it's, don't let the title mislead you, or the label mislead you. This is not a safe zone. Essentially, what Turkey wants is to encroach on safe zone.

Syrian territory and do away with the Kurds that live near the Syrian-Turkish border, right? And so let me give you the details on that. Turkey has pushed for this safe zone that would remove Turkish forces from the pocket of Syrian territory nearest to Turkey. The U.S. has instead been working on establishing a security mechanism with the Kurdish allies, right? So now Trump has completely reneged on that promise of creating this security mechanism, and he's allowing for the Kurds to fend for themselves.

Understandably, following the Kurds helping us in Syria, they're very upset. So here are some statements from the Syrian Democratic forces. The American forces did not abide by their commitments and withdrew their forces along the border with Turkey. We will not hesitate for a moment in defending our people against Turkish troops. So, Jay, can you elaborate a little more on why Turkey sees the Kurds as terrorists? Because they're being linked to the PKK in Turkey? Yes.

So the PKK is recognized internationally as a terrorist group. It's Kurdish separatists in Turkey. So now, both illegitimate Kurdish actors in Turkey, i.e. people who've committed terrorism, and legitimate Kurdish citizens of Turkey, are concerned that they are concerned that they are don't have the full rights of Turkish citizenship. Now, the government of Turkey swears up and down that that isn't true, and there are a lot of Kurdish politicians that ascend all the way to the top leadership in Turkey from time to time. But that is a very real and important issue, and yes, there is a lot of violence around that.

So the Kurds, the PKK does terrorist acts within Turkey, and then the Turkish government does tremendous state violence against some pockets of Kurdish areas. in Turkey, as the government of Israel, for example, does state violence, so that state violence should not be ignored. It's not just, hey, the terrorists are bad guys, and then when the state comes in and rolls in tanks and fires citizens and civilians, it's no big deal. No, there are no clean hands here either way. Now, PKK, if you believe the Turkish government, the U.S. government, et cetera, they're

bad guys, okay, that's easy, but what's not easy is, well, they're intermeshed with the Syrian defense forces, which are also Kurdish, which are near the Turkish border, right on the Turkish border, that have helped the United States of America fight against ISIS. So are the Syrian defense forces purely good guys? Syria is a mess. What does it mean to be a good guy? What does it mean to be a bad guy? I do know they helped us fight ISIS, that's pretty good, and we made a promise to them,

and breaking that promise is terrible. It is terrible, especially considering future conflicts where we might need allies. This isn't just about the Kurds, it's about what it messages to the rest of the world. If the United States is gonna use any group of people and then renege on its promises, why would any group wanna help us with what our objectives are abroad? 100%. Look, next time we go to our conflict and we tell a local group, hey, don't worry, we got your back afterwards. They'll never believe us. And they'll be right not to believe us. And you know what that does? That endangers our troops more than almost anything you could.

could do. And so look, now there's more implications on this. I just want to be clear about what it means to let Turkey do this incursion. There's a lot of euphemistic talk. They would be invading Syria, and they would march their troops, those 20 to 30 miles, depending on which report you believe, and the safe zone means, no, we now have this territory. And maybe technically the United Nations is not going to call it Turkey, but we're gonna control that area, or we're going to occupy that area, and the Turkish government would say so that

the terrorists don't strike us and they're not on our border. The Kurds would say, no, so that you could have our territory, which is most of the territory Kurds have within Syria. So I think an occupation is probably a fair way to describe what will happen next. But in order to occupy, first you got to roll in the tanks. So that's what's coming in first. When you roll in tanks, when this Kurds say we're going to defend ourselves, well, of course Of course they are.

Of course they are. So Trump is saying, no, no, there won't, you know, I'm telling you, we'll get to that later. Oh, I'm telling Turkey, they better not do anything wrong. What does that mean? Do anything wrong with what? Tanks? Yeah, they're gonna do something wrong with tanks and fire them. When the Kurds say, yeah, we do not agree to you taking our territory.

So this is potentially a giant mess that Trump has created. God knows why, by the way. I mean, let's talk about that for a second. Yes, that's what I wanted to talk about. Yeah, so he says, oh, it's because the Turks are going to take the ISIS fighters off our hands, because we have all these ISIS fighters, again, reports range anywhere from 10,000 to 60,000 ISIS fighters that we've captured, and some of the countries like the European countries that some of them originated from don't have not, have said

they're not going to take them back, they're not going to detain them. Trump's very upset about that. So Erdogan comes in and goes, oh, I'll take them, and Trump's like, oh, okay, great, We have a deal. Now, I'm not convinced that's the real deal, okay? But if that was the real deal, then Donald Trump is a total idiot. You know why? Because America doesn't have those ISIS fighters.

You know who has them and who's detaining them? The Kurds, the Syrian defense forces, they actually have them in their jails. Now do you think that the Kurds after being invaded by the Turks are going to be like, oh right, Donald Trump, who just betrayed us, told us to hand over the ISIS fighters to you guys. Well, of course, we'd be happy to do that. I mean, the fact that he doesn't know that is unreal. If you put aside every other part of this, that's nuanced. The fact that he doesn't know we don't have the ISIS fighters, a Kurds to, and of course the Kurds are not going to give the ISIS fighters to the people invading them. How could you not, if that's the essence

of the deal and you think, no, Trump's on the level and he made this deal, then you actually think Trump is dumber than I think he is. I don't trust any deal that Trump makes. this point, especially when he makes abrupt decisions immediately following a phone call with a foreign leader. So he's in the middle of this impeachment investigation because of the fact that he's hitting up foreign leaders asking for favors that help him personally and politically, right? And so what happened in that phone call with Erdogan? Why did he make this decision?

What type of favors were exchanged, if any favors were exchanged? I just think that this is incredibly suspicious. And yeah, I mean, is Trump an idiot? Does he know the nuances of this situation? Does he care to be briefed on these foreign policy issues? No, of course he doesn't want to be briefed. He doesn't care. The only time Donald Trump cares about anything is when it benefits him personally, right?

And so that's why I think it's important to have a real clear understanding of what happened in that phone conversation. I don't know if they've already put it in the secret server. I wouldn't be surprised. It's hard to know what in the world Erdogan could have promised Donald Trump. There is a Trump tower in Turkey. I don't know. Okay, now let me tell you what we do know for sure.

Let me go to Graphics 11 and 12 here. This is Trump's special envoy in charge of fighting ISIS. He resigned recently because Donald Trump is mentally unstable and he couldn't believe the irrational decisions he was making and how he was betraying our allies left and right. So now he weighs in on this, his name is Brent McGurk. Remember, this was Trump's special envoy to fight ISIS, okay? He says the White House statement tonight on Syria, after Trump spoke with Erdogan, demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of anything happening on the ground. The United States is not holding any ISIS detainees.

They're all being held by the SDF, that's the Syrian defense forces, which Trump just served up to Turkey. So it's not me saying it. It's Trump's own special envoy whose job was to fight ISIS. saying it. Okay, one more tweet from him. You should read all of his tweets. They're all devastating in how they show the details of how Trump does not understand one thing happening on the ground. Okay, he says Turkey is neither the intent, desire, nor capacity to manage 60,000 detainees in Al Hulk camp, which State Department and Department of Defense, Inspector General's warn, is a nucleus for a resurgent ISIS, believing otherwise is a reckless gamble

with our national security, which leads us to one more aspect of this. It's possible that the Kurds are like, oh, you're really concerned about those 60,000 ISIS fighters that we helped you capture, we did most of the work, and we lost lives capturing those people. When we talk about work, it's not like they were digging trenches, they lost their brothers and sisters capturing those ISIS fighters, right? But now it turns out it was all for nothing from their point of view, so they're going have two incentives. One is, oh, Turkey, again, the country about to invade us would like

these ISIS fighters. Maybe we release them and see what happens. Then you'll have the ISIS fighters and you'll have to fight them. Okay, so that's one possibility. I'm not saying the Kurds are going to do that, but that's certainly on the board. And number two is, well, I'm out of, Kurds are out of allies. So the Turks are coming for them. Trump just betrayed them. There's no Western powers left. So who's the only one that could help them with Turkey? Syria, Bashar al-Assad. The dictator they were fighting in the first place.

They remember how the civil war started. Before ISIS got involved and made an even bigger mess of it, a lot of the different factions inside Syria were fighting against the dictator, Bashar al-Assad. But now the Kurds are gonna go, well, I got nothing left. I gotta go to Assad. Otherwise, the Turks are gonna run right over me, right? Right? So, and by the way, who's Assad working with Iran?

So if you, and this is by the way, this is also really, really important. Part of the reason why the national security apparatus and the Republicans are freaking out right now is because this strengthens Iran and Israel hates that. So our defense contractors hate that, Israel hates that, Saudi Arabia hates that, so these are all of our allies for what they're worth, right? And so they're like, what have you done? What have you done? Now the Kurds are all going to flip and work with Iran.

That hurt Saudi Arabia and Israel. That's why their hair is on fire. This is the one thing that the Republicans are not backing Trump on. They're all over Fox News, including Kilming and everyone else screaming bloody murder. Why? Because he's hurt Saudi and Israeli interests. So let's talk about that. Let's move on to that angle of the story.

Okay. Okay, so following Donald Trump's abrupt decision to pull U.S. troops out of northern Syria, every right winger who has a platform or was invited on a platform criticized him and did so aggressively. And so our very own J.R. Jackson put together this mashup featuring some of those voices. Take a good look. Now we're saying, okay, Turks, go wipe them out or force them out. What kind of message is that to the next ally that wants to side with us? Do you support this move or not, sir?

No, there's one word that describes this for me, betrayal. This impulsive decision by the president has undone all the gains we've made, thrown the region into further chaos. It's just incredibly jaw-dropping from my perspective. And right now, we're just saying we're just going to leave them and abandon them. And abandon our allies? That's a campaign promise? Abandon the people that got the caliphate destroyed. And I think it's a strategic blunder that will have significant implications. I'm making myself clear how short-sighted and irresponsible this decision is.

Russia is stepping in when we step out. So we are made to look like the fools. Our allies think we're idiots. What do you think about this? The fact that it looks like we're going to pull out and Turkey's going to take over. Email us, friends, foxnews.com. And abandon. To everyone in the White House and every Republican who was mad that President Obama pulled out of Iraq,

you feckless, unpatriotic cowards. Bush handed a victory to President Obama. Obama walked away because he was fed up with it. Much as you see sentiments here being registered. This to me is just unnerving to its core. This is devastatingly bad. What a disaster. I cannot believe this is where we're at.

Diplomatic line. It's just, it's interesting to hear, you know, this long list of right-wingers go after Trump because they're critical of Trump's decision from a completely different angle, right? I mean, they're listing things that make sense. But a lot of those people just want more more. And so we'll get to that in just a second. But in response to the critics, Trump put out two tweets that I want to share with you. He said first, as I've stated strongly before, and just to reiterate, if Turkey does anything

that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the economy of Turkey I've done before. They must, with Europe and others, watch over the captured ISIS fighters and families. The US has done far more than anyone could have ever expected, including the capture of 100% of the ISIS caliphate. It is time now for others in the region, some of great wealth to protect their own territory. The USA is great, Jesus Christ. Okay, so now we gotta break that down.

First on the tweet, guys, look, apparently this is a tweet that broke the camel's back because all over social media and television today, people are like, great and unmatched wisdom? Who says that about themselves? As you know, if you watch the Young Turks, I've been screaming this from day one. Like, when the guy says, I'm a very stable genius and he yells that into the ether, and he's now said that on three different occasions. On one occasion, This is now many, a long time ago where he said, I'm known for two things. One is being a very stable genius and the other is my mental stability. No, I'm sorry, the first part was for being like a smart person.

And the second part was mental stability. If anyone brags that they're known for mental stability, what do you know? You know that they're not mentally stable. Every real person knows that. Every real person knows that if in your personal life you have somebody who screams at the family dinner table or anywhere, I have unmatched wisdom. That's the crazy uncle, that's the lunatic, and you try to help him, you try to get him therapy, you get him drugs, et cetera.

But the last thing on earth you do is make him president. So even if you agree with withdrawal from Syria, obviously Donald Trump doesn't know what he's doing. I mean, he's an absolute madman. And so now, let's talk about this, speaking of which, so the first thing you do is abruptly Without consulting the military, that actually in this rare case was working on a delicate balance and actually had something, an interesting solution to a very complicated nuanced problem between the Kurds and the Turks.

You don't consult with them and you go, you blundering, you go, Turkey's moving into Syria. They're gonna take the Kurdish territory and I let them. So that was the original statement by Trump. People are like, what? You're letting them do an incursion into Syria, what? Right? Okay, then you turn around when Lindsey Graham and Fox News yells at you and you go, oh yeah, I could destroy Turkey's economy like they did before.

When did you destroy Turkey's economy before? And why would you say that to a country you just made a deal with? Totally. And by the way, again, that's the second largest army in NATO and one of our top allies. I know these days allies like, you know, are questionable, I mean, Saudi Arabia is an ally. And Turkey has done some wonderful things for America and some not so wonderful things. It's nuanced. But for him to go and go, I will destroy your economy.

What, did we? Didn't we just make a deal with this guy? In fact, you know, look, I'm ethnically Turkish. So I have friends and family in Turkey. And I remember a while back, a family member was asking like, you know, in Turkey all the news is trying to analyze a sentence that Donald Trump said about Turkey. I'm like, already a mistake, right? And they're like, they're all trying to figure out what is the secret meaning behind

And what is the strategy? I was like, oh, yeah, yeah, there is no strategy. So right now I can tell you, all over Turkish television and all over, all the Turkish politicians are like, what does he mean destroy our economy? What is the strategy behind that, there's no strategy, he's an idiot, he's a total moron, okay? Who goes around? I am no good. I mean, it's like literally the guy in the Wizard of Oz, you know, with my unmatched

wisdom, right? So, all right, so that's Trump being the lunatic that he is. Now, to the conservatives on television, they're half right, half wrong. The half that they're right about is don't just blunder out overnight, consult with the Pentagon, figure out a strategy, how do you execute this, et cetera, instead of being a temperamental child that you are. The half that they're wrong about is they're like, don't ever leave Syria. Oh, our Trump must be on the ground.

Yep. They've got to, we got to have boots on the ground permanently occupying the Middle East. No, no we don't. So how would a progressive president handle this? I would hope that they would come in and go, we are going to withdraw from those countries. But we're going to do it in a way that is smart. So when the Pentagon says we can't, that's like your opinion, man. No, I got elected to withdraw us from those countries.

But what you're gonna have to do is put together, it's not optional, you're gonna have to put together a plan that takes six months, or it takes a year, or it takes three months, whatever it is that threads the needle, protects the Kurds, but withdraws our troops. I know it is difficult, but it is doable. What you don't do is, I talked to everyone last night, and he promised me things, so we're getting out tomorrow. And by the way, reports from the ground are American forces are withdrawing today. They are already packing up and leaving.

Because we have a commander in chief who's a lunatic. And remember, the US was already working on some sort of defense mechanism for the Kurds. So once the U.S. troops do pull out eventually, there would be something in place to protect the Kurds. But Trump has decided, I'm just going to go ahead and pull the troops out and renege on the promises that we made to the Kurds who helped us battle ISIS in Syria. So that's what's going on. All right, we got to take a quick break. When we come back, we have more news for you, including an update on this insane whistleblower

situation, impeachment investigation. There are updates to the story nonstop and you don't want to miss it. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-F-The-Republic, or UNFTR. As a Young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations are constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the rich and powerful. But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the conventional wisdom. In each episode of Un-F-The-Republic, or UNFTR, the host delves into a different historical episode or topic that's generally misunderstood or purposely obfuscated by the so-called powers that be.

Featuring in-depth research, razor-sharp commentary, and just the right amount of vulgarity, the UNFTR podcast takes a sledgehammer to what you thought you knew about some of the nation's most sacred historical cows. But don't just take my word for it. The New York Times described UNFTR as consistently compelling and educational, aiming to challenge conventional wisdom and upend the history. historical narratives that were taught in school. For as the great philosopher Yoda once put it, you must have learned what you have learned.

And that's true whether you're in Jedi training or you're uprooting and exposing all the propaganda and disinformation you've been fed over the course of your lifetime. So search for UNFDR in your podcast app today and get ready to get informed, angered, and entertained all at the same time. We'll be right back. All right on a young Turks, Blackheart writes in in the member section.

Jank, we can't go after the windmills. Their noise causes cancer. Wind, windmills. Yeah, he's absolute lunatic. Anyway, I mean, he says the noise from windmills causes cancer, and we move on with our lives, as if the president is not insane. Because we have no choice, because he says, Other insane things.

And so you're chasing this insane clown president nonstop. And his insane clown pousy online. Anyway, Mr. Lomburg says, we didn't have to betray the Kurds badly enough. The first two times we left them out to drive. Got to make it a trifecta, apparently. It's not as if there are de facto strongest Middle East allies or anything. Marie says, I've met 14-year-old screaming into fortnight with more military tactics than cadet bone spurs. We all know it's for Trump Tower Istanbul.

I don't know, but I would certainly want to know. Let's put it that way. Ruth M says Trump's erratic behavior is alarming. He's clearly becoming unhinged. I fear the next crazy thing he'll do. And why are we interfering in the affairs of other countries when we can hardly run our own? Well, certainly true. Last one.

U.P.M.G. on Twitter says, apparently I'm not supposed to have political news on in the bar. I don't know if you tried to put on T.Y.T. in the bar. If you did, I love you. P.S. guaranteed if Fox or CNN was on, it wouldn't be a. issue, that's why I do it. Hashtag progressive power. That's right. Look, we're not only on YouTube, we're on YouTube TV, Pluto, Roku, Zoom. Well, there's so many outlets that we're on. You can just have somebody turn

those on in any bar office, et cetera, where they have a TV, especially if they're on Fox, have them turn into TYT. There's no reason why they shouldn't do that. Okay, yes. What else, Anna? All right, a few announcements before we move on. Kevin Smith will be on Old School this week, Tuesday, October 8th, he'll be talking about his upcoming Jay and Silent Bob reboot. And members will get the full episode starting at 9.30 p.m. Eastern Time, 6.30 p.m. Pacific for full access. That's only available to our members. Go to t.t.com slash join. Also, we are improving the user experience on our website, tyt.com. If you're interested in personalizing your experience here at TYT, all you have to do is create a

an account, that's totally free, you don't have to be a member to do it. And then you get to follow your favorite shows like no filter and you know, get updates on things that you like the most about the network. Again, go to tyt.com, create an account and then you can personalize it. And then finally, the Westerville Ohio meetup, I think Jenks should talk about this since you're gonna be there. Yeah, so t.t.com slash rally as usual, we're gonna do a meetup. Not only that, we're gonna have some wonderful speakers there, hopefully some just

Democrats as well. So that's the day of the debate. That's October 15th. That's in Ohio. So t.yt.com slash rally. We've done it before. Now, this is more of a meetup than a rally, but we are going to have speakers. The only difference is that this is indoors rather than outdoors. But we would love to see you there. So please make it out if you can. I'm going to add quickly to the other two things that Anna mentioned. The personalization, it allows also our hosts to get to know you better. So the more you put up about yourself, The more when I read a comment, I could find out, oh, that's what they look like, or that's what their interests are, et cetera.

And you could check off not only host shows to follow, but topics to follow. So if you care more as I do about money in politics, you can check that off, make sure you get all of our stories on that, but also host to follow. You could be like, oh, Cenk, take it or leave it. Casper, I want to follow her. So if there's a video about her, you'll get that served up to you, et cetera. Yeah, look, here at TYT, we hear. for you.

Nice succession reference. Okay, all right. I know cultural stuff. And so obviously Kevin Smith's tomorrow on old school. Tonight, Peter Melman, one of the top writers and producers of Seinfeld, is going to come on. Really interesting guy, don't miss that either. That's in the third hour. All right, what's next, Hannah?

All right, we have more updates on Syria, so we're going to get to that. Donald Trump held a press conference to answer questions about his abrupt decision to pull U.S. forces out of northern Syria. Now that, of course, effectively left our Kurdish allies abandoned to fend for themselves against Turkish provocations. And Trump has decided he's going to double down and he's going to defend his decision. Let's take a look. We only have 50 people in that area. That's a small sector. And I don't want those 50 people hurt or killed or anything. I don't want anything bad to happen to our people. And I told that to President Erdogan. I said, don't hurt any of our people get hurt. Big trouble.

But I have told Turkey that if they do anything outside of what we would think is humane, to use the word, a second time. We talk about Hong Kong. We talk about this. They could suffer the wrath of an extremely decimated economy. And I've done it once. I did it with Pastor Brunson. You remember the Pastor Brunson, and they wouldn't give Pastor Brunson back. And they ended up giving Pastor Brunson back pretty quickly. Their currency fell at record levels and lots of other things happened. So I don't know what he's specifically talking about when he references 50 troops. But just to be clear, we have more than 50 troops in that area.

We have as many as 1,000 U.S. troops in that area who are now coming back to the U.S. So look, if you try to dissect every part of his madness, it'll take up the whole three hour live show. So if Pastor Brunson was something that happened earlier, he did apply pressure. Did it single-handedly sink to Turkish economy, decimated, suffered a wrath? No. But did it affect the Turkish economy? Yes.

So that would be a point of concern for them. But the main thing I took from that was, we told them now, we got to no limits. You have to be humane. Humane, Donald Trump. Trump has said that we should kill the family members of so-called terrorists. Well, how do you even know if they're terrorists? I mean, a lot of the drone strikes are not, you don't even, a lot of them are based on signals. They're not even based on human intelligence.

So you'd not only kill people you don't know, but you'd kill the family members of the people you don't know. And we're supposed to rely on Donald Trump's definition of what is humane to provide a check on the Turkish incursion into Kurdish territory, and the Kurds are supposed to know, hey, don't mess with Donald Trump. I mean, if you are too inhumane to the Kurds, by Trump's definition, then he'll do economic damage to us. Yeah.

That means absolutely nothing. You can't trust Trump to be humane himself, as we know, and he's, you know, decided to defend Saudi Arabia, which literally ordered the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. But anyway, there's that. By the way, they did that in Turkey, in a Saudi embassy in Turkey. So Turkey has firsthand knowledge that Donald Trump thinks dismembering someone is not too inhumane. And aside from Donald Trump's own defense of inhumane behavior, there's also the fact

that he doesn't know anything, that he is ignorant when it comes to these issues. And if you don't believe me, I think this next video will summarize it pretty perfectly. Take a look. The Kurds themselves have lost thousands of fighters in battling ISIS. And we've lost a lot of fighters. Can you guarantee their safety? Well, we're going to try. If you look at some of the Kurds, as you know, that's a natural enemy of Turkey.

Specifically, as I said, I mean, they have natural enemies. They've been fighting each other for somebody said today hundreds of years. I mean, one historian said they've been fighting for hundreds of years. We interject ourselves into wars and we interject ourselves into tribal wars and revolutions and all these things that are very, they're not the kind of thing that you settle the way we'd like to see it settled. It just doesn't work that way. But hopefully that'll all be very strong and strongly done.

Well, you know, I'm glad that he's being specific in that answer. You know, makes me feel a lot better about the abrupt decisions that he made right after a phone call with the Turkish president. So lots of madness to interpret there. First of all, it's okay, hopefully to be strongly done. What will be strongly done? And what is it? Why just survive back to school when you can thrive by creating a space that does it all for you, no matter the size. Whether you're taking over your parents' basement or moving to campus, IKEA has hundreds of design ideas and affordable options to complement any budget. After all, you're in your small space era. It's time to own it. Shop now at IKEA.ca.

I mean to do it strongly in this context. I would presume doing it strongly actually would mean that there would be more inhumane actions taken rolling through Kurdish territory. I don't, okay. And now, but my favorite part was he said, somebody said today, in other words, they briefed him for the first time Kurds and Turks are enemies. And he's like, oh, they're natural enemies. I found out today. Somebody said, today, you might have wanted to find that out yesterday before you made the decision about letting Turks roll into Kurdish territory. That would be a relevant fact to know before you made that impulsive decision based on God knows what incentives you had.

Donald Trump talks about international relations the way I talk about sports, where once I learn something new, I'm like so proud of myself. Totally, you're right. And I really emphasize it, right? Like, oh, Kershaw is a five tool player. I don't even know if that's true, but that's like the way that I would say it because I don't know anything about sports. Trump knows nothing about foreign policy, about domestic policy, about anything.

I mean, he's infamous for refusing Intel, for refusing briefings on foreign relations. Like it's out of control. What Anna is referring to, there's a lot of things that Anna's referring to, but the one that sticks out the most is when he was going to meet with North Korea. And they said, well, do you know North Korea? There's a very important background context to the story. He's like, no, I don't need to know that. He said that he would know whether they have a deal.

By the way, well, what would be in the deal? Anyway, whether they were gonna have a deal within one second of meeting Kim Jong-un. By the way, North Korea has essentially given up. There is no deal. They have continued testing their missiles. They will continue, as they have been, developing their nuclear weapons. Donald Trump doesn't know anything, he's unprepared, ill-prepared, has no knowledge on these issues, has no curiosity about these issues.

He has simply used his position of political power to enrich himself and his family. That's all he cares about. And so look, the relationship between Turks and Kurds are far more complicated than their natural enemies, because they live in the same country, and a lot of Turks have partly Turkish blood in them. And so some Kurdish folks have gotten risen up all the way to prime minister in Turkey. And so it's not just that they're enemies, they're also friends and allies and neighbors. But yes, they have a conflict in southeastern Turkey.

Okay, so now, but guys, if you're MAGA, I mean, I don't know, there's no, there's no talking with them, right? Are you proud that your president is an idiot who didn't know any of the relationship between Turkey and the Kurds before he blunder into a call with the leader of Turkey and promise to let them roll into Kurdish territory? Do you think that that's good foreign policy when the president of the United States doesn't know what he's talking about and finds out afterwards? Oh, oh, I let you take Kurdish territory.

It turns that I found out today there are natural enemies, but I let them do it anyway. Yeah. That's irrelevant fact. You not think that's irrelevant fact unless, again, if you're a Trump follower, you're, you revel in how stupid you are. So there's no language where we could communicate to you in a way that it would break through to you. So one final video from this press conference, and this is an important one to show you because

Trump is confronted by the GOP critics in response to his decision to pull the troops out. Take a look. Mr. President, a number of Republicans including Nikki Haley and Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell, We're very critical of this decision today. Mr. McConnell put out a statement saying, wish you would exercise leadership and reconsider and suggested not doing so

would be reminiscent of what the Obama administration would do. I have great respect for all of the people that you named. They have their opinion, and a lot of people do. And I could also name many more than you just named of people that totally are supportive. You see the names coming out. People are extremely thrilled because they say it's time to bring our people back home.

We're not a police force. They're policing the area. We're not a police force. Okay. But this isn't about policing that area. It's about following through on the promises that were made to Kurdish allies that helped us fight ISIS in Syria. So you can't just use groups of people, get what you want, and then turn your back on them.

Because that sets a terrible precedent. I mean, think about what could happen in the future if you need to work with allies abroad to succeed in whatever objective, right? Hopefully it's not a shady objective where we meddle in other people's, you know, situations. But you can't just renege on your allies like that. It sets a terrible precedent and he's just gonna continue doubling down on it. So last two things here, look, we can't be, progressives agree, we can't be the policemen of the world or the Middle East.

But if there was a progressive president and they asked me, which would be funny, although it makes sense, he asked me, hey, Jay, Should we just pull out right away and leave the Kurds to fend for themselves? I'd say, no, don't do that. Hold on, we made promises. Let's figure out what our promises were, let's figure out what the Pentagon thinks is the right balance. That doesn't mean they're right, but let's have a conversation with them. Then let's talk to groups that care about Kurdish interests, Turkish interests.

Let's be smart, let's figure this thing out and come up with a holistic strategy. Instead of, I caught everyone, and it turns out their natural enemies, but I let them invade. I mean, like, come out, what is this, right? I mean, somebody today on Twitter, I mean, it's funny, but said Trump is starting to sound like Jenks' imitation of Trump. Oh, totally. Right? And so, and one last thing, I know it's now minor, but-

Look at that smug picture. I know. But that right there is, that's the definition of unearned confidence. That's what that looks like, right? Like a guy who doesn't know anything, but it's so stupid he doesn't know anything, looks like this. Okay, anyway, so if you notice he said there's a lot of tribal conflicts, right? And he said that on a couple of occasions this press conference.

Why is it that when there's conflicts in Northern Europe, which historically happened endlessly, there was endless wars in Northern Europe, right? Those are not tribal conflicts. When you're in the Middle East, it's a bunch of tribes, tribal conflicts. You know, you have, I think Hitler was a warlord. He could have easily called him the worst warlord that ever existed, but he's not a warlord. But anybody that picks up a weapon in Afghanistan, warlord, warlord, okay? So there's, look, I know it probably doesn't crack the top 100 things that he's done that

are racist, okay, but nonetheless, and he's not the only one that does it, but any time that it's like, ooh, oh, the Middle East, a bunch of tribes there. Yeah, Turkey's a tribe, right? Anyway, all right, we got to take a break. And when we come back, we're switching gears. We're going to focus a little more on the impeachment investigation, lots of updates there. And then later in the show, my appearance on CNN, but more importantly, Bernie Sanders' awesome proposal, just rolled out today. Jank loves it.

I love it. We'll give you the details. At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control of our online lives, constantly monitoring us, and storing and selling our data, but that doesn't mean we have to let them. It's possible to stay anonymous online and hide your data from the prying eyes of big tech. And one of the best ways is with ExpressVPN. ExpressVPN hides your IP address, making your active ID more difficult to trace and sell the advertisers. ExpressVPN also encrypts 100% of your network data to protect you from eavesdroppers and cybercriminals.

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from the Young Turks. If you want to get the whole show and more exclusive content, while supporting independent media become a member at t yt.com slash join today. In the meantime, enjoy this free second. All right, back on a young Turks. I'm going to read this one. Both because this is a good comment and because I like their handle on our website on tyt.com.

Emma Vig is a rock star, writes in. Damn right, she is. Anna equals sports ball, Trump equals stable genius. That's funny. I'm not sure what this is that a reference to, but I like it. The progressive twin says, QIT fam, let's get it. Yeah, I agree. I like getting it.

Yeah, let's get it. Not that Michael Scott writes in. That could be my handle. But anyway, so natural enemies like lions and gazelles? I don't understand. I was going to comment on that, but we were going too long, so I let it go. Yeah, like what does it mean to be natural enemies? Yeah.

Stupid. Okay, there's more comments on that and things we missed. Trigger Incarnate writes in, you guys all missed the best part of that video. Trump actually pronounced Erdogan's name correctly. That's actually true, relatively true, is it correctly as an American can? So yeah, that was weird, thank you for pointing that out. So we'll, hey, let no one say that we didn't give Trump credit for anything or our fair and balanced audience.

Anyway, those are all members, t.yt.com slash join to become a member. I got two from Twitter that I liked. Sean McEnlay says, okay, I think we're all missing the fact that Trump licked his lips when he said turkey in that clip. You see thinking about eating turkey? Turkey. Yeah, thank you, Bart, for immediately clipping it out. Turkey?

Yeah, he did say it in a super weird way. I didn't mean to point that out. He's like, Turkey? Like, there's Norway. And then there's Turkey. Turkey. Stop it. Turkey.

Okay. Norway. Turkey. Norway. He's such a weirdo. It's the weirdest man in America. We got it. I know, I know.

But last one, the Madlip says Trump supporters and facts are natural enemies. Definitely. Okay, nice work. All right, what's next day? Let's do it. The legal team representing the first whistleblower is now representing a second whistleblower. Attorney Mark Zaid told me that this second whistleblower is a member of the intelligence community with first-hand information on some of the allegations at issue.

The second whistleblower has been interviewed by the Inspector General, and his attorneys say they have the full protection of the whistleblower law because they provided information directly to the Inspector General. Boom, that's ABC's George Stephanopoulos. Breaking news over the weekend that a second whistleblower is being represented by the same lawyer who's representing the first whistleblower. Now this is relevant because of course it provides corroborating evidence, and the second whistleblower also has more firsthand knowledge than the previous whistleblower, who also had

firsthand knowledge, but not to the same extent as the second whistleblower. Now obviously, to protect this individual's identity, we don't know many details about this person. But here's what we have learned through reporting at ABC. Again, Mark Zaid, the attorney representing the whistleblower who sounded the alarm on President Donald Trump's dealings with Ukraine, tells ABC News he's now representing the second whistleblower. But before news of the second whistleblower became public, Trump put out some foreshadowing tweets, which is fascinating. He wrote via Twitter, the first so-called secondhand information whistleblower got my phone

conversation almost completely wrong. So now where it is they're going to bench. They're going to the bench. They're going to the bench. And another whistleblower is coming in from the deep state, also with secondhand info, meet with Shifty, Jesus, keep them coming. Okay, so let me just, let me just mention that Donald Trump, his administration, released the summary of the phone conversation with the Ukrainian president, and it matched

what the whistleblower put in the official formal whistleblower complaint. So it's just nonsense. Yeah, look, if you want to disprove the whistleblowers with a work. for word transcript, easy to do, you have it, you're the one who put it in a secret server, release the full transcript. Oh, you don't want to do that because you're lying as usual. Now in this case, I actually think that this is not that big of a story. The reason is it's about the same call about Ukraine.

There's another whistleblower from the IRS, that's a completely different story, and that's very interesting, because that opens up a second giant issue, or 28th giant issue. for Donald Trump. In this case, this is basically a corroborating witness. Now, it matters if you believe any of Donald Trump's defenses, including, it was just hearsay. It's just hearsay. Well, this guy was on the call, so it's not hearsay anymore. But for most rational people, we all know exactly what he said.

Actually, we don't know exactly what he said. That's why we'd like to full transcript, because he might have said worse things, some of the stuff that they took out, right? But the things we already know about what he said is already illegal. And so it's nice to have a corroborating witness, but the transcript, or this not transcript, but the semi-transcript that the Trump people put out is already damning. It already admits a crime. So you don't need the witness to say, yeah, I was on the phone when he said that, because

we already have the White House saying he did say it. Exactly. So you have the summary of the phone conversation, which again is damning and was put out by Trump. And then in addition to that, you have the text messages between. the diplomats, the U.S. diplomats indicating that in order for the Ukrainian president to get a meeting with Donald Trump in the White House, he would have to very publicly announce that Ukraine is conducting an investigation into Biden, which is you don't even have to provide

evidence of a quid pro quo in order to impeach the president, but there's evidence of a quid pro quo. Yeah, one of the top federal prosecutors went on television after the text from the State Department officials and said, you could go 20 years as a prosecutor and not get a smoking gun evidence as clear as those texts, where the diplomats say, now let's be clear, is it the right thing to do to withhold aid like we're doing in order to do a political favor for Donald Trump? It doesn't get any more smoking gun than that. By the way, again, that's for a second crime.

That's extortion crime. The first crime is simply asking for assistance from a foreign country. So they got him dead to rights on both crimes, no questions asked. They could vote tomorrow, and he'd be impeached easily. Now, the only reason he wouldn't be convicted in the Senate is because the Republicans are all over television saying, we don't care about the facts, we don't care what the law is, we care more about our cult leader than we do over obvious law breaking. You're exactly right.

So let's talk about those Republicans and how much they support their cult leader. So, Republicans are doing everything they can to defend Donald Trump. They are relying on nonsense, on lies, they're making things up. And in some cases, they're arguing, no, Donald Trump is just joking. Now, they're specifically arguing that when Donald Trump very publicly urged China, to investigate the Bidens, he wasn't being serious. In fact, here's Senator Marco Rubio making that point. Do you think it's okay for President Trump to ask China to launch an investigation of Joe Biden and Hunter Biden?

I don't know if that's a real request or him just needling the press knowing that you guys were going to get outraged by it. He's pretty good at getting everybody fired up and he's been doing that for a while and the media responded right on task. task. You're one of the loudest critics of China and its human rights abuses. I mean, is it okay for him to ask and say that? I don't think it's a real request. I think again, I think he did it to gig you guys. I think he did it to provoke you to ask me and others and get outraged by it.

Like I said, I mean, he plays it like a violin and everybody falls right into it. That's not a real request. Okay, so let's break that down. Two very important parts of it. First of all, Rubio implicitly acknowledges there. If it was a real request, it would be deeply. problematic. Because he never answered the question. They're like, should you ask China to help you against your political opponents? Gruvio's like, it's crazy to even think that anyone would

say that in real life. Except Trump did say it, and he was not remotely kidding. We showed you the video. It's clear as day. So thank you very much, Marco Rubio, for admitting that it would be outrageous and obviously illegal. Okay, so now let's go to the second part. This is the defense that Republican senators are making. It's no longer just like the deplorables online. United States senators are going, oh, Donald Trump, he's a prankster. He's a court jester. So he admits crimes on national television just to troll the press.

Even if that were true, and obviously it's not true, even if that were true, do you think that's the best use of a president's time? Oh, he likes to admit things that aren't true just as a joke. so we control the media so that you guys can be outraged over lawbreaking. Well, first of all, shouldn't the media be outraged by lawbreaking? Or are they supposed to? Does Marco Rubio want them to have the reaction of, oh, Donald Trump just admitted a crime on TV? Oh, he's so funny.

Bravo Donald Trump. We're not going to fall for it. Even though you admitted a crime, we're not going to do anything for it, anything about it. And Democrats, you also shouldn't do anything about his lawbreaking because, oh, my. God, that he would, that he'd be owning the lips. So stupid. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. It is the dumbest thing.

And look, when you don't have the facts on your side and you find yourself defending the criminal actions of the president, well, then you really don't have anything in your corner to resort to as a way of defending him. So this whole thing about, no, Trump is just joking around. He's just, he's a literal troll. That's the thing. That's he's just, it's crazy. And hearing Marco Rubio say it makes you think like, man, that is pathetic, but it's catching on.

This is a talking point that we're now seeing among other members of the GOP. Take a look. It's appropriate for President Trump to ask China and Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden. George, you really think he was serious about thinking that China's going to investigate the Biden family? Well, I doubt if the China comment was serious to tell you the truth. When you look at, you watch what the president said. He's not saying Chinese investigate. I don't think anyone in America really believes, except people maybe in the press and some Democrats in Congress really believe.

But I knew he loves to bait the press, and he does that almost every day to see what you'll talk about. Like Marco Rubio, he was just trolling China. He was just having fun. As I think Senator Rubio said a couple days ago, I think he's getting the press all spun up about this. Again, I think Senator Rubio said it best. I think Senator Rubio had it exactly right.

I'm joking or in any way not serious when he's suggesting. that the Chinese should investigate the Biden? I don't honestly know. I don't honestly know. All right, well, at least Cudlow is smart enough to say I don't know. But let's go to what Trump very publicly

asked China to do just last week. It's a very simple answer. They should investigate the Bidens because how does a company that's newly formed and all these companies that you look at, and by the way, Likewise, China should start an investigation into the Biden.

Because what happened in China is just about as bad as what happened with Ukraine. Oh, is that Trump joking around? Is that him trolling? If you say that's joking, you're a goddamn liar and you know it. You know it, right? So look, we know when he's joking, like when he came up and he said at a similar kind of press conference, I'm the chosen one and looked up at the the sky, he was joking about some crazy stuff that he'd said earlier. He wasn't joking about the original, but he was joking about being the chosen one.

You can tell when he's joking. That was not a joke, that was not remotely a joke, you know it wasn't a joke. And the fact that none of them will answer the question shows you definitively, they all know it's illegal. They're only defenses that it's a joke. So now let's go to point number two. So imagine if this kind of insanity existed back when Nixon was in charge and the Republican in defense of Nixon was, he was just trolling you guys when he broke into Watergate.

Oh, man, the media fell for it, hook line, and sinker. Man, he's living red-free inside the Washington Post head. Man, he trolled the hell out of Washington Post. All they do is write about him, owning the libs. By the way, they literally would have said that, okay? And now you would say, hey, well, that's two criminal Republicans. How about if Obama did it or Hillary did it? Did you imagine that Democrats' defense of Benghazi is, yeah, we're just owning the cons.

Banzai, Benghazi, owning you guys, all you do is talk about it. How about Hillary's emails? Man, we own the living F out of you guys, because all you'll do is talk about her emails. Got you! Yeah. Right? Oh, Hillary was just joking when she had a private server in her house. She was just joking, oh, you guys didn't get it, idiots, you're not in on the jokes.

We owned you. This is how stupid they are. Yeah. This is how stupid they are. And I do have to remind you guys of a story that broke last week as well. We covered it on the show, but Trump urged China to investigate the Biden's, not only during that chopper talk segment, but also in a report that we shared, this is what happened. So during a phone call with President Xi on June 18th, Trump raised Biden's political prospects,

as well as those of Senator Elizabeth Warren, who by then. had started rising in the polls, according to two people familiar with the discussion. In that call, Trump told President Xi he would remain quiet on Hong Kong protests as trade talks progressed. What a funny joke. I'm on the phone with the leader of China, and we're having incredibly serious talks about trade negotiations and whether I'm going to support the people they're trying to crush in Hong Kong that are leading Democratic protests.

I just get around, man. Biden, investigating my political opponents. I'm just kidding, right? Now, by the way, look, the people who actually believe that online that are MAGA guys are painfully stupid. They were part of a cult. They've completely lost control of their own minds. And whatever the cult leader says, they say, of course that is true. He was joking.

He is owning the lips by being a moron and admitting crimes on TV. Okay, those guys are useless. I got it. Those Republican senators, they're not that stupid. And the congressman, they're the most dishonest people in America. They know he wasn't joking. 100% certainty. You see, this is why people hate politicians.

They see slimy people like Jim Jordan get up there and go, I think he was joking, he can't be serious. When they, he knows 100% certainty that he wasn't joking. Because Jim Jordan is a slime ball. He's a greasy, greasy politician that lies for a living. That's who he is. And it goes beyond the lies because what they're doing is enabling Donald Trump to break the law And also jeopardize our democratic process by allowing him to encourage foreign leaders to dig

up dirt on his political rivals. So they're undemocratic. They don't believe in democracy. They don't believe in the rule of law. They are enabling a criminal president. And there's a legal term for that. It's called conspiracy after the fact. So Jim Jordan and Marco Rubio, Blonde, et cetera, were not on the call with him, didn't

tell Trump, hey, you know, make sure that you try to bribe that you. Ukrainians and get dirt on Biden. They didn't tell him to bring that up in China. But they know it afterwards, they know it with absolute certainty. And they turn around and go, well, let me aid and abet the criminal afterwards so he can get away with his crimes. That is also a crime. It's conspiracy after the fact.

And that's what they are, the Republican Party is doing in mass. A bunch of thug criminals who want to let their cult leader skate on obvious law breaking. When we come back from the break, we're going to discuss a judge's ruling on Donald Trump's taxes. And then later in the show, we will discuss Bernie Sanders' latest proposal. Come right back. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen to ad-free, access members-only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Jen Kheuger, and I'll see you soon.