The Young Turks - Sacha Baron Cohen Goes HAM On GOP, Alleged Russian NRA Mole Arrested

Episode Date: July 17, 2018

A portion of our Young Turks Main Show from July 17, 2018. For more go to http://www.tytnetwork.com/join. Cenk Uygur. Sacha Baron Cohen exposes conservatives in new show. Russian national Mariia Butina indicted on foreign agent charges. Butina tried to get Putin into the 2016/17 Prayer Breakfasts. The Trump administration shuts down a national healthcare database. 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. Thank you for watching or listening to this free podcast of the Young Turks. We want to make sure that you get some portion of the show every day. But if you want the full show, which is actually five segments, come become a member and support independent media as well. TYT network.com slash join. Meanwhile, enjoy the free podcast.

All right, welcome to the Young Turks, great show ahead, yada, yada, yada. So in all seriousness, Trump, with his crazy yo-yoing is going to be both hilarious and disconcerting in today's program. Anna is going to have more of the stories of the day for you guys in the second hour, including Trump going on Hannity and saying that Putin, was very, very strong. Oh, I bet he was, big guy. Okay, and then him coming out later and saying, well, I mean, look, I hold Russia accountable, kind of. Anyway, that's a little bit later in the program.

In the first hour, I have a lot of serious stuff about corruption for you guys that I really want you to know. Some of it is about Trump, but some of it is just about the system, and that's not getting enough attention, and I want to make sure that you guys are aware of it. That's what we do here, homo progressives. We don't just follow the news of the day, but we tell you about systemic problems so that we can fix those and get the real change. So, but before we do all of that, we're going to have a little bit of fun. Can we have some fun?

Can we have some? I think we can have some fun, right? So if you want to have fun, you're going to go to Sasha Baron Cohen. Let's go over here. Okay. Sasha Baron Cohen, at times, just flat out genius. comedic genius. So you've seen a lot of people on the right wing attack him for the latest series that he's

doing. And you're going to see why in a second? Because, man, ladies and gentlemen, he got him. Man, he got him real bad. So I'm going to show you a lot of the videos here. And I want to give them all the credit in the world. He's got a new comedy series come out called Who Is America? And later I'll also tell you about what a fundamentally decent person, Sasha Baron Cohen is.

And part of the reason probably the right wing hates him. All right. So in this case, he was trying to get Republicans to go along with a program called gun animals. So those are guns disguised, this cute, cuddly little animals so that three-year-olds can use them. Yes, well, he is joking, right? But they don't know he's joking. So can he get Republicans to say, yes, three to 12 or three to 14-year-olds should be using little pet toys? that are actually guns.

Wait till you see the video. So let's get started. First, here's a fun little thing. He's calling himself the anti-terror expert, Aran Morad, as you'll see. And of course, he's known for Borat. He's known for allergy. And there's a new character. So watch.

Shalom, children. My name, Iran Morad. I hear to show you that guns, when used responsibly, with training from grownups can help keep you safe in your school. Here to help teach you is Philip Van Cleave. Not every strange man you meet going to be friendly and non-threatening like me. Today we're going to teach you how you can stop these naughty men and have them take a long nap. Take a long nap.

Okay, so that guy, Philip von Cleave, is a real human being. He's a real conservative in America. He's in fact the president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League. You will see a lot of him because he's a total moron. And so when he walked in, Saja must have been like, oh, thanks God. Look at this guy. All right, so more on kindergarten. And that's why you're going to meet a friend of mine.

His name is puppy pistol. Now, Philip, will you show us how to feed puppy pistol? Defeat him, take his lunchbox and push it into his tummy like this. Just remember to point puppy pistol's mouth right at the middle of the bad man. If he has a big fat tummy, point at that. Good. I'm telling you, that is not an actor. That's a real right winger in America, who is a big gun advocate.

And he's saying these things, it's unreal, but by the way, Republican politician is coming up later, okay, and it goes on and on, and you're going to see him admit things that, like, because he thinks, oh, this guy's on my side. Okay, now I can tell you my real opinions. Let's watch more. We start a program in Israel for kindergarten. Okay. We train them from the age 16 down to the age three.

Yeah, well, I think it would be a good idea. We've been pushing something along this line for years, but really haven't gotten any traction with it. We were thinking seventh or eighth grade. You're talking much younger than that. My son was in the very first program. May he rest in peace? He died doing what I love.

Yeah, they haven't quite developed what we call conscious, where you feel guilty about doing something wrong. That's developing. That you're learning right and wrong. If they haven't developed that yet, they could be very effective soldiers. Did you understand what he said at there at the end? I mean, every part of that was amazing. But at the end, he's like, oh, good.

The kids, they haven't developed a conscience yet. So that's a great way to make them soldiers because they don't know what's right or wrong. He's not an actor. He's the president of a gun rights organization here at America. Politicians take him seriously. He's like, we were. And I mean, look at, he talked about legislative. that they stopped and that they were actually pushing for.

He's like, oh man, we want to arm seventh and eighth graders. I love this idea. Oh, you want to go to three? Great. They don't even have a conscience at three. And he just told him that his son died in the program. And he said, oh, yeah, well, I mean, they, good. They have no conscience at that time.

They don't know right or wrong, so let's give them a gun. Wow. And that's the genius of Sasha Baron Cohen. He gets people to admit things they want to say. He gives them permission to say it, and they say it. And it is both amusing and horrifying at the same time. More. In our state government, they had a bill put in that would have made it illegal for someone

four years old to 12 years old to have access to a gun. We killed the bill. What? What? More legislation. Like, it's the real guys, it's as real as a hard thing. If you don't live in America, I know it's going to seem amazing to you, part of, again, the genius of this, of what he's doing here in exposing these guys.

But yeah, they're like, no, no, no, no. This is what we actually do. We go tell politicians what to do. And, you know, they want to protect kids? We're not going to let him. We kill the bill. And we push for bills that would arm seventh graders. They actually push for that legislation.

Okay. Now, this guy, Philip Van Cleve and all the other people, to be fair, Philip Van Cleave definitely saw it. Some of the other Republican politicians later, I don't know what they saw. and didn't see, but you'll see their own testimony in a second. But Van Cleave actually saw this. This was the Kindergartenians Program and thought, this is great and wanted to participate in this.

Watch. Puppy Pistol is part of a whole group of new friends that your parents can get you called Ganymel. Wouldn't you love to meet this little ganny rabbit? He's ready to put the naughty man on a very long time out. How about the magical oosicorn? Well, this is one for the girls. It's a lovely little unicorn that you can play with.

can stop an entire crowd of bad men. And Tots, you've got to learn that Dino Gun eats and spits his candy really, really fast. Rocket chip RPG will take you to the moon. Or rather the bad guys are going to the moon if they attack your school with a truck full of big, scary fireworks. And introducing BFF has started a gun for infants 24 months and under. BFF is so easy to fire. Even a baby can use it. BFF wants to help you. Pull the string on a... a bad guy. Make bang bang. Wow. I mean, look, it's both funny, but it crosses over to

like macabre. I mean, it's, who for that, the last teddy bear, he explained it's for 24 months and under, and you pull it really easy and people go to sleep. If somebody's near, and earlier, if someone is near your school with fireworks, this is what you should use. And this thing spits out candy. Nobody's making him say it. He thinks it's a good idea and he's participating in it. Wow. Okay, now, you think it's just one guy?

No way. It's a whole host of Republican current and former politicians. And to be fair to some of the Republicans, Matt Gates, a guy I do not like at all. He's a huge Trump defender. But he's in the initial teaser video for the show. And he did not participate. He's like, you want me to read this? I'm not going to read it, right?

So you could have, every one of these guys could have easily said no. Instead, here's what they do. 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-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 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. I support the Kindergartenes program.

We in America would be wise to implement it too. It's something that we should think about in America, about putting guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens, good guys, whether they be teachers or whether they actually be talented children or highly trained preschoolers. Maybe having young people trained and understand how to defend themselves in their school might actually make us safer here. A three-year-old cannot defend itself from an assault rifle by throwing a Hello Kitty pencil

case at it. Our founding fathers do not put an age limit on the Second Amendment. The intensive three-week kindergarten course introduces specially selected children from 12 to 4 years old to pistols, rifles, semi-automatics, and a rudimentary knowledge of mortars. In less than a month, less than a month, a first grader can become a first grenader. Wow, he said that with a straight face.

A first grader could become a first grenator. Trent Lott said we could have highly trained preschoolers with weapons. That was one of the top Republican leaders in the Senate for a long time. And then Joe Wilson, who's a sitting congressman, said, hey, three-year-olds can do it. There is no age limit in the Second Amendment. These lunatics are our representatives. Unreal. All right, one last one on the Guardians program. Uncorrupted by fake news or homosexuality, they don't worry if it's politically correct to shoot a mentally deranged gunmen, they'll just do it.

And that's Larry Pratt, talking about how young kids will just shoot people without asking questions. Great, that sounds lovely. He's another head of a gun rights organization. I debated him back when we had our current TV show about Trayvon Martin, and he said, Zimmerman, since he had a weapon, was allowed to stand his ground. But since Trayvon Martin did not have a gun, he was not allowed to defend himself. A twist and logic that is inexplicable. So that's who Larry Pratt is, so it's not surprising that he would go along with the program to arm toddlers. These are the sick, sick people that our politicians take seriously.

And Sasha Baron Cohen is in his personal life. He's also a great person. I've said this on a couple of occasions. He gave a million dollars, and so did his wife, to help refugees. refugees who desperately need the help that probably drives the right wing even more crazy. He actually wants to help people instead of shoot them and kill them. So bless his heart for that. And I'm gonna leave you with one last funny part.

This one doesn't involve violence. It involves Ron Paul. This was when Sasha Baron Cohen was playing the character of Bruno. Before this part you're about to see, he's interviewing Ron Paul. They pretend that there's something wrong with the lighting. They asked them to go to a different smaller room in the hotel while they fixed the lighting in the bigger part of the hotel room where they were doing the interview. And then Bruno does this.

I'm sorry, I just find it funny. Let's watch. My own haven't this to pardon. All right, get out of here. What? All right, what's going on? This is ended. That guy's queer than the blazes.

He took his clothes off. This gate going. He's queer as crazy. He put a hit on me. He took his clothes off. I couldn't even stup RuPaul. But I played you that, not just because it's funny, but because again, he gets them to reveal themselves.

Now, I'm not a comedian. I'm certainly not what I don't do anything with Sanger Baron Cohen does. So I wouldn't take my pants off in front of Ron Paul. And so I get it if you're mad about it, et cetera. But look at what Ron Paul said. He walked out, but he said he's queer as crazy. And then my favorite line of all time, he put a hit on me. I think you meant he hit on you, but at least we get to find out what you think of that situation.

And you can say, hey, look, man, it's not cool. He gets to walk out. I hear you on that. But it does give you a sense of who Ron Paul is as well. Can't wait. This show is going to be called Who Is America? I guarantee you, I'm going to be checking it out. Okay.

So I have to take a quick break here, guys. I told you we just starts with some fun, and that was amazing. You know, sometimes you say amaze balls? Well, I guess that would fit in that case. All right, anyways, when we come back, we'll get back to serious stuff. We've got a spy. We actually got one. She was here in America.

She has been arrested. Of the over two dozen Russians that have been indicted, she's the only one that we actually caught, and wait until you see all the people she's been associating with, including a story that we broke at TYT earlier today. TYRT Investigates did about one particular congressman. But the NRA stuff is amazing. The National Prayer Breakfast, amazing. We'll tell you all about that when we come back.

All right, back on a young church. Some great comments on YouTube super chat. Jim Lawrence writes in, responsible gun owners. That's what they always say. Do they look like responsible gun owners to you? Great point. Jet 53 writes in on Twitter using hashtag TYT live. Find it funny that Republicans are outraged that ISIS.

and other terrorists have child soldiers, but yet they want to do the same exact thing here in America. Bingo, perfect, exactly right. And that's exactly what Sasha Baron Cohen exposes. And one last one, Tinin Kassol writes in on Twitter. They haven't developed a conscience yet, quoting Philip Van Cleave. He said, we're talking about kids here or NRA apologists? So, excellent question.

Now, speaking of that, there is some really interesting news about the NRA. Let's go over here. Okay. So we finally got a Russian agent inside the United States, and she has been arrested. So, in fact, ladies and gentlemen, we got him. Got her. So let me tell you all about it. It's from a New York Times story.

She has been brought up on charges for interfering in our elections and in trying to woo Republicans, both politicians and groups, to work with the Russians. Fascinating. It's interesting how they chose to target the right wing and how they thought they would be far more sympathetic to Russia and the authoritarian leader. Turns out to be a correct assumption. So, New York Times explained it. A Russian woman who tried to broker a secret meeting between Donald J. Trump and the Russian president of Vladimir Putin during the 2016 presidential campaign was charged Monday and accused of working with Americans to carry out a secret Russian effort to influence American politics. Now, the most important and interesting part of that is working with Americans. Fascinating. Who are those Americans that has not yet been revealed, but it will be. And we have some excellent clues here. So, let's continue.

At the behest of senior Russian government official, the woman Maria Bhutina made the connections through the National Rifle Association, religious organizations, and the national prayer breakfast to try to steer the Republican Party toward more pro-Russia policies court records show. Look at that. And the traders at the NRA and the National Prayer Breakfast were like, oh, the Russians would like to work with us. Great! To undermine our democracy, yay.

Look, we'll find out the contours of it when all is revealed. They already have the information, they already charged her. It's only a matter of time before it all comes out in the court records, and we'll find out to what degree the NRA were traders to this country, and maybe they aren't. Maybe they'll say, oh, well, when they found out they were Russians, they refused to take their money or collaborate with them at all. I mean, we have pictures, but hey, you never know, you never know, we'll find out soon enough. So we know what she's been charged with, and we know who is she tried to work with.

Go to more details. While Mr. Putin denied any involvement Monday in such activities, court documents showed that Ms. Boutina told Associates that her covert efforts were approved by Mr. Putin's administration. In fact, she worked with Mr. Torshan, Alexander Torsian, who is the deputy governor of the Russian Central Bank. He's linked to both Russian security services and to shockingly organized crime in Russia. Really organized crime working with the Russian government. who would have guessed.

And she's, now the Putin says, my guy's working with her? Of course not. This is one of her emails where she asked torsion, quote, I am ready for further orders. Gee, I wonder if she's working for torsion who's working for Putin. Seems complicated. I can't quite solve it. Yes, of course. That's why she's been charged.

The emails are super obvious. I am waiting for further orders is not complicated. All right, Ms. Butina is the 26th Russian and the first one arrested to face charges related to interference in the presidential election. There are two relevant parts of that. One is sometimes Republicans will say, this is witch hunt, nobody's been charged. 26 Russians have been charged, let alone Manafort, Flynn, Papadopoulos, and the list goes on and on, and several of those people have already pled guilty.

another guy that pled guilty and those are all Americans all worked with Donald Trump. I'm sure it's all the coincidence. And then secondly, well, this is the one we got. So the others are in Russia, including the 12 Russian intelligence officers that were recently charged. But Maria Buchina is in our custody. I don't know. At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control

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But listen, guys, this is important. ExpressVPN is rated number one by CNET and Wired Magazine. 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 T-YT. Check it out today. If she's going to flip, if she's going to cooperate, or if that endangers her life, I don't know. I do know that she's in prison now, so interesting, and we have all of her information. Her home was raided back in April, and they collected that information back then.

We're finding out about it now. In one email, the American said, and this is the American collaborator working with the Russian agent, said he had given Ms. Butina a map for how to proceed. Quote, I and your friends in America can't make it any easier for you than that, the political operative wrote. I can't wait to find out who that operative is. That's an American saying, we have made it as simple as possible for the Russians and giving you a roadmap for how to influence politics. Is it a democratic operative?

It doesn't look like it. But if it is, we'll report it to you guys. It appears to be a Republican operative. We'll find out soon enough. Fascinating, the Russians thought, the Republicans, they'll be easy. Okay, we're not done yet. Ms. Boutina viewed the NRA as a powerful force for shifting Republican policies. Court records show.

She described the group as, quote, the largest sponsor of the elections to the U.S. Congress and as a sponsor of the conservative political action conference. The NRA is not named in court records, but its ties to Ms. Boutina and Mr. Torsian have been previously reported. Let's give you a little bit more details about that. Though the American operative is not identified, the New York Times has previously reported on Ms. Butina developed a close relationship with Paul Erickson, an NRA member and long-time conservative activist who was part of the effort to arrange a meeting between Mr. Putin

and Mr. Trump. Ms. Butina has publicly described hosting Mr. Erickson at an event in Moscow. Mr. Erickson and his lawyer did not respond to messages seeking comment. He's not identified in court records and has not been charged. So I'm telling you what the New York Times is reporting there. And like I now said three or four times, don't worry. We'll get to find out soon who they are because the government has them. The special counsel has their names, has all the documents.

So, and you don't see the NRA out there profusely denying this stuff too much because they did it. All right, but we'll find out soon enough. And, you know, sometimes, as always with the NRA and Republicans and conservatives, they do projection. They'll say, oh, the Democrats, they're not patriotic. They're un-American. Meanwhile, it looks like they might have been working with the Russians to betray our country. That would literally make you certainly unpatriotic and might even literally make you a traitor. Can't wait to find out who it is. Oh, well, I do know already that there is a picture that

Butina, the Russian agent has with a lot of Republicans. including this conservative activist. Oh, right, that's Wayne LaPierre, the head of the NRA. Now look, one picture doesn't prove anything. Maybe she just asked for a picture, and he doesn't know who she is. Although there are many pictures of her at NRA events, and we have the emails. Can't wait to see you in court NRA. Can't wait.

Okay. Now, let's go to a second part of this story, which is a little bit of, broader and actually gets their group not being discussed enough. Okay. So we have a Russian spy that we've caught. It's Maria Butina. She's been charged. She's one of 26 Russians that have been charged, but she's the sole one that is in custody in the United States of America. Now, the New York Times reported the court documents showing that she was trying to woo Republican politicians. They thought that was an easier mark and that they would be more prone to work with the Russians, and it turns out they were, it appears very correct.

And so there are many pictures of her and with a lot of the Republicans, but I think the National Prayer Breakfast is the one that is not being talked about that actually in the documents is the most heavily featured. So, but first, let me show you her with other Republicans. Here she is at the launch party of Governor Scott Walker when he was running for president. And she reports back to headquarters from time to time, and we have those documents now. And she thought Walker might have some chance of winning. She was wrong about that.

And she thought that he might be happy to work with the Russians. Now, that's her conjecture on Walker, but she was pleased to have Walker greet her in Russian. Okay, look, the fact that he knows the second language is a good thing. But she thought, this guy's good for us. Now, as it turns out, he turned out to be irrelevant because he was a loser and lost right away in the primaries and bowed down as soon as the Republican donors like the Koch brothers asked him to. But she continued her pursuits. Here she is with some folks from the NRA. And, oh, look at that.

So she's in the lower left corner right next to the sign. That's Sheriff David Clark in the vest in the right. That guy is the one claiming to be a real patriot. You know what it says in the sign? It says, welcome to Russia, comrades. Those are gun rights advocates going to Russia, hanging out with Russian agents, and being welcomed as comrades. As Sheriff David Clark says that liberals are what, communists?

Okay, right, comrade. So they explain in law and crime. This sign, which was partially obscured in the photo above, indicated that the group was being welcome to Russia as comrades, and that group was the NRA. Okay, and here is Maria Butina, this Russian spy, that we caught inside the country with Wayne LaPierre, the head of the NRA. So that seems fairly clear, and there is a lot of talk of the NRA in the documents charging

her. There's another group, the National Prayer Breakfast, that I think is even more important and in some ways, well, at least equally insidious. But before we get to that, there is one other person that Maria Butina actually made contact with, and that was Donald Trump. Now this was in a public setting. She asked him a question during the campaign. You'll have the usual rambling insane answer for Donald Trump, but the end is very important.

So, and he, to be fair to him, he doesn't necessarily know that this is a Russian agent. So let's look at the question and the answer, especially the end of the answer. Yes, ma'am. I'm visiting from Russia. So my question- Good friend of Obama, Putin. He likes Obama a lot, go ahead. My question will be about foreign politics. If you would be elected as a president, what will be a foreign politics, especially in

the relationships with my country? And do you want to continue the politics of sanctions that are damaging of both economies, or you have any other ideas? Okay. Obama gets along with nobody. The whole world hates us. You know, it's an amazing thing. You look at Mexico, they hate us, they hate our leadership, and yet they're making a fortune.

hates us. China is building ports in the South China Sea. We could never do a thing like that because we'd have to get environmental impact statements. Okay, so we don't. I jokingly said to a friend, do you think they got an environmental impact statement when they did it? So China hates us, and yet they're making it. Everybody hates us, and yet they make money with us. With me, we're going to make money on them, and they're going to like us. I know Putin, and I'll tell you what, we'd get along with Putin. Putin has no respect for me. President Obama. Big problem. I believe I would get along very nicely with Putin, okay? And I mean, where we have the strength. I don't think you'd need the sanctions. I think that

we would get along very, very well. I really believe that. So that's Donald Trump telling a Russian agent that he would get along great with Putin. And it turns out that was the one thing he was right about. It was right about anything else. He says, oh, Mexico hates us under Obama. Do they like us now under you? They hate us a thousand times more. And they didn't hate us under Obama. That was a total lie. And of course, usual incoherent answer, Putin, he's a good friend of Obama. But Obama doesn't get along with him.

I'll get along with him. Okay, but the most important part of that answer was the sanctions, we probably won't do those. That's what the Russians want to hear. Or you're going to lift the sanctions or you don't like the sanctions? The sanctions are killing us. And that punished us for taking Crimea, et cetera. You're going to take those away? That's our guy.

Go, go, go. That's why Putin rubbed it in during the press conference and said, yes, we did want Trump to win. Man, he unmanned Trump right in front of the whole world. He didn't even hide it. He did it on purpose. He's a sophisticated guy. Did you want Trump to win? It's easy to say, oh, no, I'm neutral.

It has nothing to do with our country at all. That's their elections. That's the simple professional answer. And Putin knows that. Unlike Trump, he's incredibly smart. And he goes, no, I did want Trump to. in. That's basically him going, I control this guy. What are you going to do about it? Nothing. Oh, that's so sad. All right. But that's not the only people that they control in America.

So, TYT investigates broke a story today, Ken Cleppinstein reporting here, about the National Prayer Breakfast, because we actually bought the read affidavit against Maria Butina. So let me tell you all about that. The 17-page affidavit includes several references to Butina's dealings with organizers of the National Prayer Breakfast, an annual ritual for both parties in Washington. In one incident, Butina recounts thanking an unnamed organizer of the breakfast for meeting with her and another Russian official in Moscow. This, look, if you're not knee-deep in politics, you might not know about the National Prayer of Breakfast. But these are the people who get together and pretend to represent all religious people when they do not. They're a secret of cult.

But Democrats go and validate them all the time. It's maddening. It's the way of them saying, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm super religious too. crazy cult, would you like me to legitimize? Hillary Clinton and others have gone there as well, and it is deeply, deeply frustrating. But it turns out the National Prayer Breakfast people, while saying, hey, if you want to be a real American, come pray with us, are over in Moscow. Well, let's find out more.

The affidavit refers to multiple Russian contacts with unnamed individuals associated with a National Prayer Breakfast. It says Russia was cultivating political contacts in the U.S. to, quote, weaken U.S. partnerships with European allies, undermine Western sanctions, encourage anti-U.S. political views, and counter efforts to bring UK and other former Soviet states into European institutions. By the way, if they don't have any compromat or compromising information on Donald Trump, man, he's doing what they want to a T. So they couldn't have gotten any luck here.

They're like, wow, we don't even have the tape. And he's doing exactly what we wanted him to do. We have the documents that say this is what they wanted to accomplish. Attack our Western allies and undermine the sanctions. Trump didn't want to sign the sanctions. It passed 98 to 2 in the Senate, so he eventually had to sign it. And then he didn't enforce them for an incredibly long time. Every part of this is exactly what Trump has done.

Okay, now again, it's not just Trump, it's these other Republican and conservative groups. as well. So Maria Butina explains to, in an email, the gift of your precious time during the National Prayer Breakfast Week and for the very private meeting that followed. Interesting. A new relationship between the two countries always begins better when it begins in faith. So apparently, people at the National Prayer Breakfast had a secret meeting with a Russian agent. What happened in that secret meeting? We'd all like to find out. The National Prayer Breakfast is organized by the Fellowship Foundation, Cleopistina explains, a Christian group based in Washington that is famously secretive.

Its members take a vow of silence about fellowship activities. You know what's hilarious? Is that all the conspiracy theorists on the right, they're like, oh, the Illuminati and the Rothschilds, they got secret organizations. No, the secret organizations are right in front of you. It's not a hidden conspiracy. It's out in the open. They go, yeah, we invite politicians.

to come kiss our ass at the national prayer breakfast, even though we're a secretive group that makes everybody take a vow of silence as to what crazy thing we're up to. Okay, and I don't know because it's secret, you know, so, but yeah, Democrats and Republicans come by, especially Republicans, and they're like, yes, yes, we will have breakfast with you and we'll pray with you and you're a wonderful, legitimate organization. What are you up to? I don't know, maybe they told the Republicans. They certainly didn't tell the public, but we do know they exist.

We do know it's a big deal for politicians to go to. And it turns out it's a way of getting backroom deals done. You want to know who's actually in power and how they're actually making deals? This is it. So, but we bothered to actually investigate it and point it out. In a lot of the mainstream media, they're very afraid. Oh, it involves religion. Oh, that's super touching.

Don't touch it. Don't touch it. Okay. Sorry, Christian. Sorry, I didn't even mean to mention it. Of course. Oh, prayer, prayer, prayer. No, no, no.

You want to be a good Christian, bless your heart. That's what's great about this country. It's a free country. Be any religion you like, be as fervent as you like. But if you're getting politicians to do secret deals for your secret organization, yeah, we get to question you. You're not supposed to establish a religion or whatever your other priorities are. And by the way, one of the reports explained that something that they might have in common and why they might find the Russian, this particular Russian government, attractive is that

both right-wing zealots, the National Prayer Breakfast here in America, and the Russian government are anti-LGB rights and anti-Islam. They're like, oh, you hate Muslims, you hate gays, deal, we hate Muslims, we hate gays. Undermine democracy, yeah. These guys are in favor of theocracy anyway, so what do they care? So let's continue. Back to the reporting of Klippenstein, but federal records show that the fellowship has reported sponsoring 37 trips abroad by individual members of Congress in the last 18 years. 14 of those trips have been by Representative Robert Adderholt of Alabama, co-chair of the 2016 National Prayer Breakfast.

Since 2008, Adderholt took 11 out of the 17 trips sponsored by the fellowship. Why does a representative from Alabama care so much about Eastern Europe? That's really weird. Okay, let's find out more. A number of countries through which the fellowship sent Adderholt to earn politically volatile or contested regions between Russia and NATO nations. In 2016, the fellowship paid for Adderholt to travel to Belgrade, Serbia, Sarajevo, Bosnia, Zagreb, Croatia, Kiev, Ukraine, and Banja Luka.

That trip took place just days after President Trump secured the Republican nomination from May 26th to June 2nd of 2016. Why is the National Prayer Breakfast going and meeting with a Russian agent like Maria Butina, then sending Republican congressmen all over Eastern Europe, especially after Trump wins the nomination for the Republican Party? Who are they talking to? and what is the point of these trips? Do the people of Alabama really need their representative in Eastern Europe that much? What is he bringing back to them? What in the world are they up to? Like I told you before, this is 17-page affidavit,

and a lot more will be found out in court proceedings as Butina is now charged and will soon be an open court. And then her American collaborators will presumably be identified, very, very specific. specifically. So now for now, we know what's going on with these particular gentlemen. Klibenstein continues. The Alabama congressman has been sharply critical of allegations that Russia interfered in the U.S. election, having called them the birther issue of the Democratic Party. Look at that. National Prayer Breakfast meets with Russian agents, sends Republican congressmen all over Eastern Europe. They come back and say, oh, the Russians, even though every single

intelligence agency says that they did interfere, did not interfere, because what? So if you're a reporter in Alabama or Washington, you might want to ask Representative Robert Adderholt, what in God's Green Earth is he doing in Eastern Europe? And why is he so convinced that the Russians are right and the U.S. government is wrong? It's not just Trump. There's a lot of people involved in this. And Jeff Charlotte, who has spent a long time studying the fellowship, and the National Prayer Breakfast Group says, one interesting thing is they said they had a bunch of property in Moscow. Why does the National Prayer Breakfast in America have property in Moscow? It's a good question. And he continued, the National Prayer Group was designed, created, and functions for backchanneling.

It's a full week-long lobbying festival. Our politicians get lobbied, sometimes apparently by foreign agents, and then they call it prayer. If you're an actual Christian, you should be deeply offended how they're using your religion as a guise for their lobbying. This is the swamp, and they just put a cross on it. Young Turks, you're right in the middle of this podcast. We've got another great segment coming up for you. like the full show, which is actually five segments, go to t-y-tnetwork.com slash join. You become a member, you support the show, you support independent media, and you get the whole

two-hour show ad-free every day. Let's go do it now. All right, back on a young turks. Too many comments here. I'll do some YouTube superjats. Blue just writes in, remember, remember to vote in November. Bless your heart on that, brother. Dove Calder wrote with an excellent point. Robert Mueller just asked her immunity for five as of yet unnamed individuals. Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. That's exactly right. By the way, Anna's coming in the next segment and next hour, and she's going to have all the

news of the day, including Donald Trump's disastrous interview with Sean Hannity, so make sure you see that and his back pedal afterwards. And here, I'll read one more. Jack Maska says, Jake, I think it would be fruitful to have another conversation with Kyle about Russia. He keeps moving the goalposts even after the recent indictments. That's funny because I was going to call him over the weekend and I will. I'm curious what he thinks now. I think a lot of everybody in the network is, in my opinion, thoughtful.

I think Kyle is a really, really smart guy. We had an interesting hour-long discussion about Russia and Trump, et cetera. You can check that out on TYT interviews. and members get all of our content, so tyt.com slash join to become a member. We are home of progressives, and we have all the different kinds of progressives here. And if I think it's an interesting conversation, we will have Kyle back on and talk to him again, because I don't see how you could look at that and say that Trump and Rushdor are not involved, but he's a smart guy, so we'll talk it through.

Okay, let's go over here and give you more stories. Speaking of our network, we got more for you guys. Investigates does it again. Really interesting story about what I view to be systemic corruption, not picked up by the rest of the mainstream media. As always, thank you to you guys for financing TYT Investigates and these great investigative reporters. So let me show you what they got now. They explain, as Jonathan Larson does, America's federal database of medical treatment guidelines, a resource for doctors, hospitals, and patients for more than two decades will be dead on Tuesday. And that's weird.

It's healthcare guidelines. Why would anybody want to kill that off? Well, let's find out. The National Guideline Clearinghouse website at Guidelines. gov was shut down by the agency for healthcare research and quality. That's AHRQ. You're gonna hear more about them in a second. So they're the ones who shut it down.

There are three players who are relevant here in this decision making. One is Hal Rogers. So we're gonna tell you more about him. He's a Republican representative from Kentucky. There's Rodney Freelinghausen. He's a Republican representative from New Jersey. And now there's the Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. And we've given you some reports about him in the past.

But let's see if they've got connections to people who might want to kill off those guidelines. Okay, first of all, why would anybody want to kill off health care guidelines? I can't imagine anything more benign, right? Seems like that would help the American people. You already have your answer. Are politicians helping the American people in this corrupt system? Yeah, good luck with that. My guess is they're going to want to help themselves.

Stay tuned. You're going to find out. Okay, so why could this be the case? So, Larsson explains the national guidelines have been a target for Republicans since the 1990s. When back surgeons teed off on guidelines favoring non-surgical alternatives for treating back pain. And big healthcare companies have billions of dollars at stake in which guidelines consumers use. An estimated 200,000 visitors turn to Guidelines.gov each month. That's 200,000 people being educated about the facts.

Companies don't want you to be educated about the facts. In the case of the back doctors, they're like, I get paid for back surgeries. So shut up with your guidelines about how they shouldn't have back surgeries. And then it should be balanced and they should know when to have it and when not to have it. That would help the American people and hurt my pocketbook. So I will send my lobbyist to go do my bidding. The other healthcare companies like Eli Lilly, which is talked about throughout the piece. And by the way, you could always get these stories at t-y-t.com slash investigates.

And if you're watching this later on YouTube or Facebook, we'll have the links down below. And so these healthcare companies like Eli Lilly, like, well, sometimes those guidelines don't help make my case and they cost me a lot of money because they say you should do some other treatment. I don't like that. So I want to kill it off. So what am I going to do? I'm going to get my congressman that I've donated to or that have financial interest in me

to do my bidding instead of representing the American people. So let's find out if that's what happened in this case. Representative Hal Rogers, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, until the beginning of last year, had targeted HRQ for elimination even after doctors warned him not to killguidelines. So that was the last head of this committee, Hal Rogers. He wants to kill off the guidelines, even though the doctors say don't. Don't. Doctors.

What do they know? Professors don't know anything. Journalists don't know anything. Scientists don't know anything. Now doctors don't know anything because they don't match the financial interests of Hal Rogers. Well, hold on that because we're going to give you whether they have financial interests in a second. Now let's go to the new head of that committee. Under new appropriations chairman, Representative Rodney Freelingheisen, HRQ was spared last year,

but the Guidelines.gov budget was slashed from 2.1 million to 1.2 million. Now, of course, as we just reported to you, it's going to be killed, the guidelines will be killed entirely. Okay, so now I mentioned Eli Lilly, what do they have to do with any of this? Well, they had a drug called Ziggurus, I believe is how it's pronounced, and let's tell you more about that. The company spent $1.8 million to fund a task force on values, ethics, and rationing in critical care.

The task force guidelines implied it was immoral for doctors to balk a lot. at the high price of their drug about $8,000 for four-day treatment and favored their drug over older treatments which had not been subjected to clinical trials. So they look at their drug not doing well, they look at the guidelines, they don't like any of those results, they go, I got an idea, we'll spend $1.8 million coming up with our own fake task force. Now I say fake, it's because it's not unbiased scientists, it's scientists that they paid or researchers they paid.

And you're going to be shocked to find out that those researchers they paid a lot of money to came back saying, oh, your drug's great. I can't believe doctors are complaining about the price. Let's get rid of other things that say otherwise and just take our propaganda that we paid for and make that seem official. So can they get away with it? Well, HRQ is an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, which also includes the federal drug administration.

HHS secretary, Alex Sassar, was at the department during the Ziggris incident, first as HHS General Counsel and then as deputy secretary. From 2012 to 2017, he served as president of the U.S. division of Eli Lilly. So that's how the revolving door works. So when he's at HHS at a lower position, he says, this Eli Lilly thing is, it's fine, it's fine, the drug's great, what I don't know what you're talking about. He goes and gets paid a ton of money working at Eli Lilly when he gets out of government. And then Eli Lilly says, you're not done yet, son.

Go back into government. And Trump and all the Republicans go, oh, where's our donors? Oh, giant pharmaceutical companies? Yes, Alex Azar, welcome back into government. And look at that. Let's kill off the guidelines that was bothering our donors. This is the swamp. This is how corruption works.

But wait, I told you about those two congressmen. So let's find out about them. Freeling houses, federal's filings, showed that at the end of last year, he owned between $500,000 and $1 million in Eli Lilly stock, with at least another $100,000 worth held by a trust fund. That's not a campaign donation. When their stock goes up, that goes straight into his pocket. They make decisions that help these companies and hurt American consumers, and they get rich

off of it. One last guy, Hal Rogers. Well, it's Hal Rogers involved him. He was the guy who wanted to kill off this group to begin with. Let's find out. As TYT reported on Sunday, it was a different report that we did. You should check that on out as well.

Rogers doubled the number of health industry companies in which he invested last year. Wasn't that interesting? They go to kill off guidelines. They go to kill off Affordable Care Act. Meanwhile, the Republicans who were doing that, are going to invest in the health insurance companies that would benefit from it.

They get rich, and we get no health care. This system is, in this case, literally sick. Now, that's the reporting. My opinion is you've got to get the money out of politics immediately. This is crony capitalism. This is what corruption looks like. And in the case of the United States government, with their sick reliance on the healthcare companies, the pharmaceutical companies, who are the top donors in the country,

they're killing us with this system. Wolf-pacac.com, get the money out of politics. That's a group that's actually looking to get and working towards getting an amendment, going above the Supreme Court, going above the corrupt politicians, get an amendment to get the money out of politics. Otherwise, these guys are going to rip us off till there's no tomorrow. again literally okay so now I got one last story of corruption for you guys no we're not gonna make it I will give you guys this later in my over here later in the week okay

and that's a great important story about Tim Geithner and his corruption but we got a ton of Trump stories for you guys. It's super relevant to what's happening right now. Anna's going to come back with those stories in a minute. We'll be right back. Thanks for watching. We're listening to this free version of the Young Turks podcast. You know that the full show is at t-y-tnetwork.com slash join. If you become a member, you get the full show ad-free. We love you for watching or listening either way. There's going to be a new free podcast tomorrow. You can keep on doing that. But if you want to get the full show ad-free, t-y-tnetwork.com slash join.

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 dot co slash t yt i'm your host jank yugar and i'll see you soon