The Young Turks - Rudy Giuliani Just Keeps Getting Worse And Trump Announces Surprise Exit From Syria

Episode Date: December 20, 2018

It's a miracle is Rudy G. can keep his lies straight defending Trump. Trump made a shocking announcement regarding the state of U.S. troops in Syria. Get exclusive access to our best content. http://tyt.com/GETACCESS 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. Welcome to the Young Turks. Thank you for Adam.

Let's have fun. Okay, now that's how some shows start. Sometimes they don't end that way like yesterday. I started out of in a terrific mood. By the time we got done with all the disaster stories, there was plenty of salt for everyone. Oh my god, same zies. Okay, yeah. Definitely.

Almost asked for a high five on air there, but drew it back. Okay, all right. So lots of disastrous stories for Trump. Apparently some victories for Trump. And are there things that we agree with Trump on? In fact, there might be a couple in the show. How is that for a giant twist near the end of the year? You know why?

Because we're actually fair and balanced. Exactly, exactly right. Okay. You know how fair and balanced we are? We'll even give you a week of TYT membership. TYT membership right now. So you just try it out, a little trial. A little trially trial.

A little tastey taste. That's right. Is it as addictive as crack? Maybe. I don't know. People are talking. Do you know anything about how addictive crack is? I hear it's really addictive, okay?

Anyway, so t.t.com slash join, yes, to become a member. T.y.com slash holiday is the free trial for a week. And t.t.com slash gift. If you want to give the gift of TYT during the holidays, you know, $4.99 a month. Come on. It's basically a cup of coffee. you go to this certain coffee places. I see you, Anna.

I see you completely. You haven't escaped my attention. TYt.com slash Anna. T.O.T.com slash Anna. Okay. So I have not yet given up on that. Okay. So join is how you can do it generically, how you become a member.

By the way, if you can be an activist level with 10 bucks, you get a couple extra perks, help build home progressives. There, Anna's lead on me is precarious, actually. So if you sign up through the $10 one, make sure you do it through t.t.com slash jank, because that way I could have at least a moral victory coming out of this. But right now has her lead increased or diminished in the last day. She had bought it all the way up to what, 81 yesterday. Today, sorry, Jenk, 86.

Oh, wow. The lead has increased. Every day that I have tried to close the lead, it has gotten further apart and she's gotten a bigger and bigger lead. Okay, real quick, and I'm gonna regret doing this because we gotta get to the stories, but a little bit of inside baseball, look, every company has, they evaluate employees at the end of the year, right? TYT is no different, we have goals at the beginning of the year, and then our department head,

in this case, Jank is my boss, so he's my department head. They evaluate whether or not you've accomplished your goals. One of the goals is to, you know, create additional content and better serve members and helped to increase membership. And nailed it. Thanks, guys. You guys are awesome. Thank you.

Keep going. See how that- Oh, he don't like that. See how that review turns out? Bart, I'm going to need that sound effect for the review, okay? Okay, okay, we gotta go, we gotta go. All right, last thing, guys, remember next week, a bunch of extravagances for review. If you liked the progressive special we did last week, you're going to love some of these, including the year end special where we will announce the Turks and Jerks of the year.

Polling on that is going to be open soon. We asked for nominations and behind the scenes clip that I did for members. And members nominated a number of folks for Turk and Jerk that's on December 27th. That's the New Year special. But also if you liked hostmates, I think you'll love a three-hour old school special on December 26, and flashback Friday games on the 28th. So back to back to back, where that starts at 8 p.m. Eastern for those. But remember, of course, we have the regular show too.

So we're going 6 to 11 p.m. 5 hours, three days in a row. And we're trying to deliver for you guys as the year comes so close. Hence, oh, and we're trying to get to 40,000 members. I think we might be able to get there today, actually. And then we have to have a conversation about what our new goal should be for the end of the year. Can I, is a thermometer ready? TYt.com slash join, that's the main way to do it obviously.

We'll get to it in the next segment. All right, let's do some of those stories and I'll show you the thermometer soon. There has been a lot of attention regarding negotiations between Donald Trump and Moscow over the issue of a possible Trump tower. Now these negotiations were one of the things that Michael Cohen had lied to. in the middle of investigations. And now a new report indicates that Trump actually signed a letter of intent back in 2015 that preceded negotiations for a Trump tower in Moscow.

Now in terms of the legal ramifications of these lies, who knows what the future holds, who knows how this kind of plays a role in the investigations. But what we do know is that Trump's own lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, had lied on air during an interview on ABC about whether or not anyone had signed the letter of intent. Let's take a look. Did Donald Trump know that Michael Cohen was pursuing the Trump Tower in Moscow into the summer of 2016? According to the answer that he gave, it would have covered all the way up to November of,

covered all the end of 2016. He said he had conversations with him about President Hydeus. Well, earlier they had said those conversations stopped in January 2016. I don't, I mean, the date, I mean, until you actually sit down and answer the questions and you go back and you look at the papers and you look at the train, you're not going to know what happened. That's why, that's why lawyers, you know, prepare for those answers. Okay, so Rudy Giuliani, almost on a regular basis, accidentally makes the situation

worse for Trump because before that interview, I mean, everyone was under the assumption that the negotiations or talks about this Trump Tower lasted until June of 2016. Then you have Giuliani who talks about, oh, November of 2016. Okay. Also, he said the following, let's go to graphic three, in terms of the letter of intent, Giuliani said that was the end of it. It means nothing but an expression of interest that means very little unless it goes to contract and it never did.

And he says, so that's what he had to say. But remember, he claimed that no one even. signed the letter of intent, and then Chris Cuomo on CNN basically covered the letter and said this. Take a look at this. This is the letter of intent for the proposed Trump Tower, Moscow, all right? It is signed by Donald J. Trump. How do I know? Well, because we've been told it was by his lawyer, and it is. Then this weekend, the president's esteemed lawyer, said, quote, it was a real estate project. There was a letter of intent to go forward, but no one signed it. Why are they doing this? This is Donald Trump's signature. It's here. We know this.

So why are they lying about it? I mean, I think that's a pretty big question. And Donald Trump himself has lied about his own business interests in Russia. Now, there's a huge issue here because the President of the United States should not have business interests that also serve as conflicts of interest. Because if he's making deals behind the scenes with other countries, he's more likely to look out for his own financial interests as opposed to the best interests of the American people. So he was asked about this back in January of 2017, not specifically about the Trump Tower, but about business interests in Russia.

And here's what he had to say. No dealings with Russia. I have no deals in Russia. I have no deals that could happen in Russia because we've stayed away. And I have no loans with Russia. As a real estate developer, I have very, very little debt. I have assets that are, and now people have found out how big the company is. I have very little debt. I have very low debt. But I have no loans with Russia at all. And I thought that was important to put out. I certify that. So I have no deals. I have no loans and I have no dealings. We could make deals in Russia very easily if we wanted to.

I just don't want to because I think that would be a conflict. So no deals, no loans, and no dealings. That's what he said in January of 2017. And I'm glad he admitted there on the record though that it would be a conflict. But he was perfectly aware of that conflict when he signed this letter of intent. At the time he's running for president has a chance of winning, in fact a pretty good chance of winning. I'll show you a video about that in a second that I think will prove my point.

But let's break down Giuliani first, because I'm greatly amused by this. First, as Anna and Cuomo pointed out, he said, letter of intent, no one signed it. Then he came out and said, oh, a letter of intent, that's BS. Okay, is the line number one is, no one signed it, line number two is BS, entirely BS. None of it is true. Now the letter of intent comes out and it is signed. He says, yeah, yeah, but it means nothing but an expression of interest. Oh, he's a mess.

He is a mess. He is a terrible attorney, which I'm actually happy about because I want to know what type of activity the president is involved in. But Trump has, unfortunately for him, hired an incompetent person to represent him. Yeah, now remember Michael Cohen's going to prison for three years on a couple of charges, but including this one, lying about this Trump Tower deal in Moscow. And that's a serious crime, and he made false statements about it. Now, Giuliani and Trump, I guess, are lucky that they made the false statements not in front

of Congress or to the FBI. They just lie on TV nonstop. So that right now, for the moment being, is not a crime. But Anna's right. Why do they keep lying? It's to cover up a deal. But why do you want to cover up the deal? If everything was on the up and up, why do you need to cover it up?

You don't need to cover it up at all. So yeah, I have a letter of intent with Russia about a tower that I might get paid on by people connected to the Russian government in the middle of a presidential campaign. Oh, right, that sounds terrible. That's why he kept his secret, but he kept on doing it. So the letter of intent was signed on October 28th of 2015. So you might be thinking, well, look, he's campaigning at that point, if you remember. But did he really even have a chance of winning?

I mean, none of the primaries or caucuses had happened yet. That happened in 2016, and you might understandably not remember exactly what his chances were on that day. So if he had no chance at all, as a lot of people believed earlier on, certainly, while then he could say, hey, look, the guy's doing this on a lark, he's not going to really win and he doesn't think he's going to win. So he's just going on about his life, right, while this running for president is a minor thing. That's why I want to show you this clip from, as it turns out, the same exact day, October

28th, 2015, here on The Young Turks. Let's watch. These have talked me into increasing the Trump's chest. 10 to 1 on Trump right now. I will take it. Finally. He's going to save this all show long for three hours. It could be $100. $100 I win $1,000 to you.

Really? You're going to give me $1,000? Yes. Nomination or general election? He wins. General election. What are we talking about? Okay.

Okay, I'm going to be a man of my word, and I'm going to make that bet. Oops. So, by the way, Jimmy did give $1,000 to Wolfpack and Just Democrats. He's awesome for doing that. And so I bring that up to, not just to brag, but yes, partly to brag. It's almost 100% to brag. All right, I'll be fair, 99.9% to brag, and then the rest for whatever reason you're about to make up right now.

No, no. The whole point is, apparently he had such a good chance of winning that I'm not. I was willing to lay down a $100 bet on that same exact day that Trump signed the letter of intent. So did he have a real chance of winning? Obviously he did. Obviously, why did I make that bet in the first place? Because he was leading in all the polls.

He was leading significantly in all the polls. People just couldn't believe the polls, whereas I believe in math and data and facts, et cetera. And I don't blame folks, it seemed unbelievable that a reality show host would win. But it wasn't unbelievable. It was incredibly possible and real at that point. knows that, knows he might win, the Russians know that. You think Russian oligarchs are signing a deal with Trump on a lark? No, here's a guy who has a, they can read polls too, has a pretty good chance of becoming

the next president of the United States, and they sign a letter of intent with him. Now remember, we will funnel a lot of money to you through this project. And so that's why they lied about it over and over again, because it was of course meant to influence him in case he won the presidency, which is exactly what happened. So right now, I mean, we're kind of guessing as to what was going through Trump's head at this time when he signed the letter of intent. Again, this was pretty early on in the election cycle, October of 2015. But with that said, I think what's more important is to try to figure out why he's lying.

And more importantly, what type of financial dealings Trump currently has with Russia, If any, and so my hope is that the special counsel is looking into that. Now the whole issue of collusion is one thing, but collusion by itself, even though it's an issue, I don't think is as much of an issue as Trump looking out for his own financial interests because he has business dealings in another country, right? But that's in essence the heart of collusion anyway. What do the two sides want to get out of colluding? Well, Trump wants to win the election.

But more importantly, do them make a lot of money. The Russians want to influence the American president. They also wanted to solve chaos and that Trump was a good way of doing that. But today, by the way, Trump withdrawing forces from Syria. I agree with that overall, but the Russians are super happy about that, lifting some sanctions on Russian oligarchs today. The Russians are very happy about that. So Trump has talked down NATO, all of our allies, and you know the list, I can go on and on.

They didn't want to do the sanctions in the first place. So it looks like the Russians certainly got something and Trump was set to get, he got the presidency and was set to get money either way. So until he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Will there be consequences? Here we go, right? So other people are going to prison for the same crimes. Will Donald Trump ever be held accountable?

And by the way, Democrats, you know, you had this thing about, oh, my politics says for the The 2018 elections, we shouldn't talk about impeachment or more important issues. By the way, I agree with that. I'm glad that a lot of you ran on Medicare for all and won on that issue. But now the election is over. So what's your excuse for not going after a president that has broken several different laws? I think it's time.

Yeah. You know, interestingly enough, the attorney general in the state of New York is way more aggressive in investigating and going after Trump on possible criminal. charges than any Democrat in Congress right now. Yeah, the Democrats, I mean, their ability to surrender is limitless. Okay, I know, we're gonna get to the budget in a second, okay? So, but the whole idea of that they're not pressing anything on all of us crimes. I mean, look, we did this story yesterday about the charity, robbing people that gave

you money for a charity, unbelievable, and everybody can relate to that. They might not be able to understand complicated real estate deals, although it's not that complicated, but it's super easy to understand somebody gave money to a charity and the guy use it for his own legal bills to build a fountain in front of his hotel, et cetera, et cetera, for his kid's boycott entrance fee. So Democrats, let's go, step up, step up, make these points. So in today's post game show, I would like to talk about the impeachment efforts for Bill Clinton And whether or not that actually backfired on Republicans and whether or not that's informing

the decisions that congressional Democrats are making today. And I want to add whether that's relevant to today's politics. So that's a super interesting conversation. Let's do it for the members in the post game. TYT.com slash join. And I add to get membership, just 499 a month for the lowest level. And that allows you to get the post game and all of our coverage. And this week, if you want, TYT.com slash holiday, you get a free week trial.

All right, let's take a quick break, guys. When we come back, Trump's falling out of Syria. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Well, that's super complicated. I gave you a little teaser for what I think about it, but it's a much bigger matrix than that. So let's tackle that when we come back. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-Fing 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-B-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 historical narratives that were taught in school. For as the great philosopher Yoda once put it, You must unlearn what you have learned. And that's true whether you're in Jedi training or you're up. brooding 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. All right, back on TYT. So we got a new poll up. It is related to

to the specials that we're doing next week. In the year end special, we're going to do our Turk of the Year and Jerk of the Year. And the nomination process is over, and now you guys get the vote. And so that it's right there, t.wit.com slash turk jerk. And unsurprisingly, Alexander Ocasio-Cortez is among the candidates. among the candidates, Trump, of course, is among the jerk candidates. You get to see all of it once, surprise Xi Jinping made it. I voted for him, but anyway, check out the top candidates and put in your votes for

Turk and Jerk of the Year at t.t.com slash Turkjerk, which admittedly sounds funny. Okay, and I want to thank Jack Sherman from South Dakota, gave $150 to the Amplify program, TYT.com slash Amplify to get our message out to journalism students and media figures and people in the news and now progressive allies as well. P, triple C is on that list. Wouldn't it be cool if folks who work at P, C, and volunteer for progressive causes and were to get Youngtersm membership, I'm sure they would appreciate it. So let's check that out at TYT.com slash Amplify. And I want to look at the thermometer real quick. We're trying to get to 40,000.

I think we might even be able to do it today, right now, 39,927. So let's go make that happen at t.com slash join. And as I've been telling you, of course, you can give tyt.com slash gift during the holidays as well. That's a one membership to a friend or family. And you could also do t yt.com slash holiday, which is the week long free trial. Now, let me give you a couple of comments, including ones on a show. that we just launched for members called Hostmates, it's like the newlywed game, but our version of it, well, to say that it has been well received is a massive understatement.

I'm actually blown away by how much people liked it. I'm not. It was so much fun to shoot it. You guys, we had to stay, not, well, yeah, we did. We had to stay till like about 10 o'clock at night to shoot it. And normally in any other situation, I would get insanely irritable because we're up super early working on the show, so to stay even later is difficult. We had a blast.

It was so much fun shooting it, so I knew you guys would love it. Yeah, I knew you'd like, I didn't know you're gonna like this much. Ecclectic Michelinia said, hostmates was awesome and hilarious. Definitely my favorite thing I've seen anywhere this year. Anyone who watches the Young Turks regularly, but isn't a member yet needs to sign up. Hostmates itself is worth the price of membership. And then a Tomic Elbow, and there's like dozens of these, but atomic elbow said it was fantastic.

I mean, I had high expectations, but it surpassed those, so much fun. There was Anna's competitiveness, Jenks not so humble brags. Really? And John Iderall is overthinking it all. Yes! Can't wait for next year. Michael Schurz said you helped organize it all, referring to Judith who did help organize it. She was wonderful in that.

So all the people who worked on it. If you're a member already, please check it out. I think you're going to love it. And if you're not a member, there's a perfect time to do that. Let's go do it now. Okay, Anna, what's next? All right. Donald Trump has announced the withdrawal of 2,000 ground troops in Syria, and in typical

Trump fashion, he didn't give most people a warning that he was planning on doing this. And it has led to some congressional Republicans lashing out at Trump. And this is one of the rare situations where I agree with Donald Trump. So I'm amused by congressional Republicans who are usually funded by war, you know, private contractors that are involved in these wars, you know, to push for additional war or perpetual war. Now with that said, let me give the details of what Trump plans on doing. He has ordered a speedy, a speedy exit for about 2,000 American forces in Syria that one U.S.

official said could unfold over the next 30 days. So the decision would actually be a reversal from previous stated U.S. policy. And that previous stated U.S. policy is perpetual war, right? Let's remain in Syria to defeat ISIS. That was the official reason for being in Syria. But of course, Syria did serve as a proxy war with the United States involved in order to combat Iran. Now the U.S. has long stated that it would remain in Syria until the Islamic State was defeated,

and local forces could prevent a new rise of extremist forces. and to press Iran to withdraw all of its military forces from the country. Now, all of those goals have not been accomplished, although ISIS has lost quite a bit of ground in Syria. There are about 2,000 ISIS fighters remaining in Syria, but there are some conflicting reports on that. Now, Trump had tweeted about this and said the following, we have defeated ISIS in Syria. my only reason for being there during the Trump presidency.

Now, let me give you a few more details, and then Jenk will jump in. U.S. withdrawal of ground forces could fulfill a major goal of Syria, Iran, and Russia, and risks diminishing U.S. influence in the region. That's framed by CNN. We don't agree to that. That's CNN doing op-ed work in the middle of a so-called factual article. Yes. And that's fine, as long as you're willing to call out other things the same, but you're not.

So let's just note that that was heavy with opinion. So I wanted to give you guys that portion of CNN's reporting for two reasons. I think that that is a half, half of that statement is actually accurate, right? So Russia very much wants the United States to pull out. And I think it's important for you guys to know that, but that was a 100% at the end commentary by CNN, because, again, I mean, the mainstream media care, for some reason, cares a lot about our influence in other regions of the world, right? Yeah, but our meddling in the Middle East and our nonstop wars in the Middle East have

done nothing but diminish our influence in the world. They have not increased their influence in the world, but CNN assumes the Raytheon position, which is the only way you gain influences by staying in these conflicts forever and ever. I continue to make a ton of money. Thank you, CNN. We appreciate it. So look, it's not just to pick on CNN. Unfortunately, most of the mainstream media has those same built-in assumptions.

It's group think, it's not like the writer of this particular article called Raytheon ahead of time. No, just in Washington, they assume war is awesome, can be permanently financed. You never ask how much it costs. If you actually want to do anything for the American people, oh, yeah, how much does that cost, right? that if you ever withdraw from war, that it's going to reduce America and aid its enemies. That is preposterous. In fact, all those wars in the Middle East have done the exact opposite.

They have reduced our influence and aided our enemies because we went to war, not because we withdrew. Okay, so now let's talk about why Donald Trump is doing this and whether we're in favor of it, okay? So why now is the question that really pops up in my mind. So he says, well, we've defeated ISIS, so let's wrap it up. Now, hold on. Number one, that's of course overstating it.

But overall, ISIS is greatly diminished. So I'm surprised he hasn't bragged about that more, to be honest with you, okay? But there is no moment now where there was an event that led you to believe ISIS is done. Earlier we had taken into some critical towns. There's one town left that is still held by ISIS, by about 2,000 fighters, we think. That's, of course, an estimate because reporting in Syria is really hard. Other reports say that it could be spread out across Syria and Iraq, still 30,000 ISIS fighters, but they have been dealt a serious blow.

Can I jump in because I wanna make sure you know where that 30,000 number comes from. It comes from the State Department. It comes from the Defense Department. It comes from the very people who have been very much either complicit or in favor of perpetual war. So the 30,000 number, I'm not putting too much weight behind it. Because I think that there are certain biases behind the scenes that have led to that inflated number.

Yeah, so, and that's great context, Anna, I really appreciate that, that's exactly right. Now if we had taken the last ISIS held town and then Trump said, okay, we're done, well, that would be connected to Syria and somewhat logical. doing it right now raises a red flag, and let me tell you two other things that are happening at the same time, that might or might not influence what's happening here. We have a $3.5 billion arm zeal with Turkey. Now, Turkey does not want us to stay in Syria either. They're very mad that we've basically armed and trained the Kurdish forces there that, yes,

fight against ISIS, but Turkey believes also fights against Turkey. So, hey, I give you $3.5 billion, you give me some weapons and then get the hell out of Syria. It is entirely possible. It's not like Donald Trump doesn't have a track record of letting people do control our foreign policy based on arms deals. He brags about it. So Saudi Arabia gave me an arms deal. I let him chop up a journalist that was living in America.

So that is certainly a possibility. The possibility is also just announced. The Treasury Department is taking away sanctions from United Co. Rosal, that is the second largest aluminum company in the world. It is based out of Russia, and it is run and owned by Oleg Deripaska, one of the top Russian oligarchs. In fact, the same oligarch that paid Paul Manafort $10 million a year for three years. Derpashka says, oh, I'm now reducing my interest in the company.

It's okay, I'll only own 49% of it or so, right? And so I don't know if that's just purely a shell game or there's some truth to that. Hard to tell with Russian oligarchs, with the reporting out of Russia. But Trump says, good enough, yes, that Russian company that gave funneled the whose founder or at least owner funneled all that money to my buddy Manafort. Well, I've been dying to lift sanctions from Russia, so I'm going to lift that sanction. Those sanctions were devastating to the oligarchs. That company lost half its value since the sanctions were put into place seven months ago.

And it was a $9.2 billion company. So could it be that Trump is giving Russia a couple of things here? Hey, I'll withdraw from Syria. I'll end the sanctions on this credibly important and valuable aluminum company owned by a Russian oligarch. Could it be that it's part of a deal with Turkey? Could it be both. Could be all of the above.

What it's not is Trump waking up one day and going, are we done with Syria? I don't know, I'm really itching to get out of Syria, I think I'm going to do it now, right? No, there's definitely something else related to it. But that's important, I don't want to say who cares. We need to track that because if it involves corruption, we don't want him making decisions for the wrong reasons because he's influenced by other countries and his own financial interest. Having said that, I'm thrilled with the decision.

So I don't care if you call it a loss or a win for Trump, I don't care about those silly political games. So I think we should withdraw from Syria, and if he's withdrawn from Syria, bottom line on the policy? Fantastic. Let's get the hell out of there. Yeah, it's really interesting how Trump will carry out policies that conflict based on his previous policies solely based on financial interests, right? So look, again, we can't say with 100% certainty that he was persuaded by his financial interest in this case, but the arms deal with Turkey, I think, raises a red flag. And also, you know, he, Trump has been very favorable to Israel, the Israeli government.

But in this move, he's actually going against what the Israeli government wants, because the Israeli government is very much concerned about Iran. Trump is also allegedly concerned about Iran, which is why we're involved in Yemen, right? We're helping with the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, and we're going after Iranian influences there. But in this case, I want to just quickly go to Graphic 12. Because according to reporting from the Wall Street Journal, Israeli officials see America's presence in Syria as a key Iran deterrent and say they fear the consequences if they leave.

So I'm curious to see how that's going to play out. And who knows, maybe Trump will stand his ground when it comes to this decision, but he's also the type of person who goes back and forth. And even though he's made a very strong decision here, he's known to make strong decisions and again, backtrack later based on whatever influences are behind the scenes. Now, one other thing I want to mention is that there are members of, you know, of the federal government who remain defiant on this issue. And that could be interesting to see.

Let's go to Graphic 11. According to a senior White House official, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, US forces will continue to fight against ISIS, we will continue to use tools of national power, including economic sanctions and diplomatic pressure as leverage to press for the withdrawal of Iranian-back forces, Iran knows the U.S. stands ready to re-engage at all levels to defend American interests. So there's that, and then there's also people like Senator Lindsey Graham, who is outraged by this, who has already gone on the record and made multiple statements about how this is something that he should have, Trump should have advised with, you know, Senate Republic.

on and he thinks that this is a complete and utter chaos and they should have been notified of this decision, not buying him, buying his arguments at all. So look, here's a situation where to some degree it is Trump versus the deep state. And it's systemic corruption in the deep state versus personal corruption in Donald Trump. And I'm not on either side, I can't stand either side of those. But you can tell that Trump defied the powers that be, because, and of course, as usual, made a surprising decision that he didn't clue anybody else in on, because just earlier this month, the U.S. military had put out a statement saying, any reports indicating a change in

the U.S. position with respect to U.S. military presence in Syria is, quote, false and designed to sow confusion and chaos. Well, apparently that's what Donald Trump just did, because that's a change in you. U.S. position. And so I don't agree with the U.S. military that it's going to cause confusion and chaos. One more piece of context. We have 2,000 troops in Syria. We have 5,000 in Iraq.

The 5,000 in Iraq are staying, and they could help with whatever attacks we are doing in Syria, and we continue to do. We've done, helped in hundreds of bombing raids just this month still in Syria, and we can still bomb from Iraq. So it's not like we're withdrawn from the world. The Lindsay Graham's and the neo-concertives that are obviously still in the administration with their histrionics. I'm like, oh my God, if we ever withdraw a single person, we will all crumble into the sea.

What have you done? No, no, no. You're all corrupt, either, probably both because of the Israeli lobby and more importantly the defense industry lobby and that they feed Lindsey Graham. So he's become gluttonous with money from those groups. So Trump definitely did this out of nowhere, definitely did it for his own reasons. It would be shocking if it was connected to policy. I can't remember the last time Trump did that.

But the reaction of the establishment is arguably even worse. So bottom line is if you're progressive, you should be thrilled that we're getting out of Syria, but keep your eye on the ball too on people's motivations, because it could be relevant on whether they're working in our interests, the U.S. interests, or someone else's. Let's move on to one more story before we go to break. A Muslim girl has been hospitalized following a rather brutal attack by one of her schoolmates. This girl is actually a Syrian refugee who had spent two years in refugee camps. And unfortunately, she made her way to the United States and has been joined.

treated in a terrible way. We're about to show you the video. I had a difficult time watching the video, so I want to give you guys that warning. There is a violent attack in the video, but with that said, let's take a look. You can't do that. Yeah, you can't do that. Yeah, you can't do that. Yeah, it's not.

Is it your bathroom, too? No, like you in there. You're lucky if I'm another one with my job. Oh, yeah, trial. No, because I'm scared. Yeah, because I'm scared. Oh, I'm scared. I'm scared.

Leave me alone. Leave me. Oh, stop. Oh, okay. Oh, say? Oh, I'm there. I'm not touching you. You passed me right.

Leave me alone. Oh. Oh. Oh. Leave me alone. Oh. Leave me alone. Let me alone.

Is that touch you okay? Okay. Okay. So the, unfortunately, the physical altercation continued after the video stopped filming or the person stopped filming the video. And she was hit in the head several times and was basically rushed the hospital because she was suffering from a concussion. And the girl who was filming the video said that it started when the attacker tried to go into

the stall first because she wanted to vape, allegedly. And the Syrian student said, no, you can't do that. And that's when things turned violent. Yeah, so the biggest probably Muslim American civil rights group in the country's council on American Islamic relations, and their president is concerned, and he's calling for a state and federal investigation. I'm going to say something slightly controversial. I don't agree.

So that's a terrible attack, and we don't know how bad it was after the video. She got a concussion, had to be taken to hospital, and I had to told you that. And so, you know, that's bad. But the question is not whether the attack was bad, but whether it was related to discrimination. I mean, if it's not a related discrimination, they're fighting over vaping in a bathroom, that is not a state and federal issue. And so that's a jurisdiction of the school, obviously. They can suspend, they can expel.

And apparently the school is looking into expelling that girl that you saw in the video. So it seems like they're taking appropriate action. And it's possible that the girl might have used racial language. I don't know, there's conflicting evidence on that. So I have no, I'm not telling you one way or another whether that happened. Rachel is an anti-Muslim so that would be out, of course, on religious grounds, but bigotry either way. But to me, I mean, that seemed, if the, I'm mainly saying this based on what the witness says

and what we saw in the video. If that was a motivation, it appears to be an ancillary one, it seems like the main motivation was this stupid fight over if she could fade in the bathroom, in which case I'd just say let the school handle it. Right. have already decided that they are not going to treat this as a hate crime. And I largely agree with you, Jank. It doesn't appear that this was motivated by the fact that this was a Syrian refugee.

It was motivated by the fact that you have one student who has had a history of violent interactions on that campus. And so she's a problematic student that has to deal with some real consequences here. I don't think it has to do with this student being a Muslim. But the thing that I found interesting about this was, like, how vicious it was, right? How vicious it was and how, I don't know how I feel about the person filming. There's been a lot of harsh words toward that student. I don't know what her identity is.

And even if I did, I wouldn't want to share it with you. But I don't know what I would do in that situation. Do you intervene? Do you get in the middle of a physical, you know? I'm biased here. When I was a kid, we used to get into fights all the time, and oftentimes, honestly, worse than that. And so, and you know, growing up, I was Muslim, was that a state and federal church?

No, it was just two stupid kids getting in a fight. So I don't know, I don't even think, look, it's totally different contexts, and we don't know all the facts here, but that was, in the old days, that was not criminal. It was something that the school dealt with, and we were done with it. But look, on the other hand, the new days are in some ways worse because there is highly charged rhetoric aimed at certain minorities, including Muslims. So if there is more context on that, I'm super open to that discussion. But for now, based on what we know, I literally wouldn't make a federal case out of it.

Yeah. And then one other point I want to make. I know that this is one story, it's anecdotal, but, you know, the blanket statements about Muslims in general and how they're violent, they're just by nature violent. I mean, does that 14 year old student look violent to you? Not the one throwing the punches, the one that had to go to the hospital with a concussion. I mean, she went through absolute torture as a refugee from Syria, spent two years living in refugee camps.

I mean, I just want everyone to take a moment to think about the blanket statements that we hear over and over again, you know, in comment sections, in the media, and just realize like there's viciousness regardless of what a person's background is or what a group's background is. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So, look, every stereotype is the exact opposite. They said that Native Americans were Indian givers.

We're the ones who would give them things and take it away. the United States government. We violated nearly every treaty. They said blacks were violent. They're the ones who had slavery and lynchings and rape and murder inflicted upon them. They're not the ones who did it. They say Mexicans are lazy. Every stereotype is the exact opposite.

And now look at Muslims are being pulverized throughout the world in Yemen. Yes, that's also by fellow Muslims, but by Buddhists in Myanmar, by atheists in China. The Uyghur concentration camps are horrific. The Rohingya Muslims being slaughtered. We constantly invade the Middle East, we occupy the Palestinians, and then we turn around and say, can you believe how violent the Muslims are? So it's disheartening that those kind of stereotypes that lead to racism and bigotry still exist today and in fact are in some ways even more emboldened.

So let's take a break, but when we come back, we're actually gonna do a story about the the treatment of Muslim minorities in China. It turns out that the United States is now investigating this because some of the garments that are being imported from China are made through forced slave labor in these interment camps. So we'll give you the details on that and more. 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 our data. But that doesn't mean we have to let them.

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So take back control of your life online and secure your data with a top VPN solution available, ExpressVPN. And if you go to ExpressVPN.com slash TYT, you can get three extra months for free with this exclusive link just for TYT fans. That's EX, P-R-E-S-S-V-N dot com slash TYT. Check it out today. We hope you're enjoying this free clip from the Young Turks. If you want to get the whole show and more exclusive content while supporting any of the media become a member at t yt dot com slash join today in the meantime enjoy this free segment all right back on a young turks uh so many fun comments first let's look at the thermometer though let's see if we can really and we got look we got post came today we got rebel headquarters we got

america's lawyer is going to be on rebel headquarters we got old school tonight with me and ben let's see if we can get that 40 000 right now let's do it so t yt com slash join I'm so excited. I'm so close, so close. Let's make that happen, all right. Eduardo wrote in the member's comments. He said, we want more of that. Love hostmates so much.

So man, the comments keep rolling in. Here's one from Twitter. Manda for now says, I'm in Korea and I'm watching TYT's hostmates. Who needs to wake up for work in the morning? Oh, who needs to wake up for work in the morning? She or he is watching it instead. and ended by saying, this special is killing me. Okay, so if you're already a member, obviously, I don't need to tell you, check out hostmates,

people apparently loved it. If you're not already member, t.com slash jank, which Chris Jacobs 420 apparently took me up on. What? Finally, one tweet here, I signed up with Jank Yugar, yes. Oh, does I see you? I mean, you got the 420 in your name. Maybe you were on something when you signed up under his name. Oh, sure, sure, sure.

Chris also says, I also signed up my Republican friend for three months with Jank, just saying. Thank you, Chris. All right, much love, much love, okay? And you can do that through t.t.com slash gift as well. Last thing, here's a comment from the member section, English teacher, 1982 said, as a former high school teacher that looks like, that looks like an everyday fight in the bathroom. Jesus. That's interesting.

Others disagreed, but I wanted to give you this perspective. The blonde should be suspended at the very least, and Anna, I always told students not to intervene, but to go to a teacher and tell them what's happening, I would never want my students to be injured because they're trying to do the right thing. So I love that perspective, thank you for sharing it. That's why I love doing the show with you guys. Members are part of the Young Turks. Okay, by the way, those crazy folks at shop TYT, they just will not stop.

20% off, I don't know when the madness ends, but you have to use a promo code holidays and you get 20% off of everything, including the legendary Jank Yuga Christmas sweater, which you should go check out. Legendary. Legendary. Well, you know, we're selling a lot of them. Did I tell you that? No, you're not.

Yeah, it's in the top three of sales. Really? Yes. I love it. I can't believe. I can't. If I see you in a jank Christmas sweater, you're going to get a hug. What?

Beware. What's the top selling article of clothing on the site? The hats. The hats were like hotcakes. Makes sense, yeah. Those hats are great. And the tip of the hat to Mark Thompson, we're always wearing it on air. Okay, anyways, what's next, Anna?

All right. More and more reporting indicates that the government in China is in fact forcing the Muslim minority in the country to go to essentially internment camps. And now there is some evidence indicating that they are forced into labor. And some of that labor actually leads to garments that are being imported here in the United States. As a result, the State Department is investigating this. And before I give you the details on that, I do want to give you an NBC news report.

They went to China in an attempt to get more information about these camps. And of course, it's very difficult to do so because the authorities in China were following them the entire time. But they did talk to one individual who spent some time in one of these camps. And I want you to hear his story. Take a look. Karat Samakan says he was confined for nearly four months. They brainwash, as he says, no one is there by choice. He says they were punished for speaking and forced into restraint devices and stress positions for hours. And the scale of the dragnet worries Uyghurs abroad, who say relatives can disappear. just for having a beard or WhatsApp messaging on a phone.

They want to erase Muslims, says this Uyghur woman in hiding. Rights groups say the mass interment evokes the cultural revolution. But Beijing maintains that it's humane, justified, and legal. So state-run television in China, of course, is going to make this seem like it's a lovely, you know, attempt to assimilate Muslims in the country. But again, I want to really reiterate that these are forced camps. They are held against their will and they are forced into labor. So the U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement that reporting by the Associated Press and other media for the first time appears to link the internment camps identified

in Western China to the importation of goods produced by forced labor by a U.S. company. So there was one specific U.S. company that was identified in all of this known as Badger Sportswear. Since the report came out, Badger Sportswear said that they would no longer do business with, you know, whatever factory or entity that they thought they were communicating with and doing business with. They provided jerseys and clothing for schools throughout the United States. And again, they said that they were going to terminate their contract and no longer do business with them. Okay, so what's happening in China here is actually one of the worst outrages in the world.

And it's being basically brushed aside for a number of reasons. But you can call it detention camps, you can call it internment camps, you can call it concentration camps. It's got about a million people in those camps. And none of them agreed to go in. And they're being told to do forced labor on top as Anna was explaining to you, the Chinese These call it vocational training centers. They also say that they help minorities steer clear of religious extremism.

Now I can't stand religious extremism. If you had a great program to do that voluntarily, that would be wonderful. That's not what's happening in these camps. Every witness says it is brainwashing and totally by force in an effort to do basically ethnic cleansing of their identities. So they're religious identity, their Turkic identity, and they're wiping out whole towns at a time, going to a town, taking everybody in the town and putting them in these concentration camps.

And so Xi Jinping, who's the leader of China, is actually one of the worst dictators on the planet. But since a lot of people do business with China, they just look the other way. That's reason number one, because there's a lot of financial interests that find these concentration camps inconvenient to talk about. And China has a lot of economic power and they can punish you with that power. So that's another reason why people are reticent. And the third is because the victims are Muslim and almost no one in the world cares about Muslims. So the West pretty much despises Muslims.

And to be fair, a lot of wonderful European countries do not. And they've taken in a lot of refugees and they're far more progressive than America. But there is stereotypes even within those countries about how Muslims are the ones who are violent and radical, when in fact that violence is inflicted upon them all across the world, including in China. But America, of course, is led by Donald Trump, who's an open bigot towards Muslims and wanted to do a ban of the entire religion from this country. That's what he campaigned on, and that's what he essentially did with his travel ban.

So, and one of the things that they do in their brainwashing and reorientation, et cetera, deprogramming, whatever they want to call it. Is they tell these Turkic Muslims that they should really, they should not worship a religion and Islam is terrible and they should instead revere Xi Jinping. I mean, classic cult 101, dictator 101, and I'm glad that the US government caught that there were some goods coming in from those forced labor camps and under no circumstances Should anyone ever do business with any company related to those camps? But honestly, if the world cared, and I know they don't, they should do a boycott movement

of China until they end the concentration camps where they have a million people. I mean, that would be a difficult boycott to do, but I agree with you. So look, it is banned by the federal government to import anything that has been produced through slave labor or forced labor. And so, look, I want to believe that that's the motivating factor behind the U.S. government acting on this. And it probably is, right? But the pessimistic part of me, and this is my speculation, it honestly points to the trade

issues that are happening between the United States and China to begin with. Because does the U.S. government, especially under the Trump administration, care about the treatment of Muslims in other countries? I mean, we're again assisting the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, and it's led to famine. It's led to tens of thousands of children, nearly 80,000 children dying as a result of starvation. We don't care about that, and when I say we, I don't mean us here at TYT, but as a country, our actions indicate that we don't care about that. So all of a sudden, Trump and the US government cares about the treatment of these Muslims

in China. Anyway, again, this is just my speculation. Who knows, I could be wrong, but I just found it interesting. So two quick things about that. One, there are different parts of the government. So it is possible that while Trump's a bad guy, that there are good folks within the different agencies in the government that noticed this problem and surfaced it. So that's entirely possible.

The other possibility is, yes, Anna's could easily be right where the administration said, go look for things that China is doing wrong because we're going to use it as leverage. Okay, but either way, like we did with earlier in the show on the issue of Syria, we should We should care about why the administration is doing it and we should track it, but at the end of the day, it is still a positive thing that they are trying to put an end to this, and so we should give them credit for that, and we are. And so lastly, on the issue overall, so what the West calls Uyghur Turks, that's the Americanized version of saying it, it's Uyghur Turks is the way that they pronounce it, I know that, because that's my last name. I am not actually in their ethnic group. I'm a Turk, they're Turks. But ironically, even though my last name is Uyghur, I'm not a Uyghur Turk, we were just named

after them, my family was. And so if you're wondering, why is China doing this in the first place? Well, they say, well, they might want to separate out. They want East Turkmenistan. And so anything that is a separatist movement is totally unacceptable. And so the best way to get them to assimilate and stop that separatist talk is to crush their identity, crush the fact that they are Muslims and turn them into atheists. And so it turns out, I'm atheist, but yes, atheists can also do terrible things.

I wish they were far more rational as they should be, but oftentimes we have seen that they are not. And they want to crush their Turkish identity. Oh yeah, you're all Chinese. One of the things they're doing in the concentration camps is making them learn Chinese. So they'll stop speaking Turkish and start speaking Chinese instead, so they could basically wipe out the identity altogether. That is textbook ethnic cleansing, and the Chinese government is doing that.

That is a very uncomfortable fact for the rest of the world that does a ton of business with China. But I think BDS movements are interesting and legitimate, and I think that unfortunately there are a number of countries that it could be applied to. and a country that runs concentration camps should be high on that list. We're going to take a break, and when we come back, we're going to travel back to the United States with some of the domestic policy here. What is going on with that spending bill?

Has Trump conceded when it comes to the funding for the border wall? We're going to give you the details of that and more, and I'm really looking forward to it. One more thing, guys. During the post game, I'll tell you guys the story of how my family got the name Uger. if you haven't heard it yet what was my original last name oh the right wingers are going to love that so we'll do that in a postgame t yt dot com slash join we'll be right back thanks for listening to the full episode of the young turks support our work listen ad free access

members only bonus content and more by subscribing to apple podcast at apple dot co slash t yt i'm your host jank huger and i'll see you soon