The Young Turks - Sacha Baron Cohen Tries Bernie Sanders, And Lieberman’s Pathetic Power Move

Episode Date: July 18, 2018

A portion of our Young Turks Main Show from July 18, 2018. For more go to http://www.tytnetwork.com/join. Sacha Baron Cohen tries to punk Bernie Sanders. Joe Lieberman pens op-ed endorsing defeated Joe Crowley over Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Tim Geithner’s equity company rips off poor. Trump says Russia isn’t targeting U.S. 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. You're about to watch what we call an extended clip of the Young Turks, and the realities is somewhere in the middle. It's a little longer than our YouTube clips, but it's actually shorter than the whole two-hour show, which you can get if you're a member. You can get an ad-free, and make sure you catch every new story we do that day. You're going to love it as a full show. That's at t-y-tnetwork.com slash join.

Well, I'm the Young Turks, fun and exciting show for you guys today. A little bit later in the program, Trader Trump, some Republicans are now calling for his impeachment. And when you find out what the director of national intelligence is saying about what the Russians are doing today, you might not be surprised. I'm telling you, man, he might literally be a traitor. He's, it's bad. And more news today about, not about Russia, but about other issues that sends Trump reeling. So he's hurt, dog. Don't ask him if he's all right.

And then a little bit later in the program as well, both a devastating story. I hate to do it to you, but it is the news. But also a wonderful story full of hope. So lots of good stuff. But in this segment, but I'm telling you ahead of time now, you can tell go tell family and friends, share the stream, tell everybody on Twitter, I'm going to eviscerate Joe Lieberman in just a couple of minutes. We're gonna have a fun story first, and then down goes Lieberman.

Why is he back in the news, well, to help his corporate buddies, but it ain't gonna work out. So we'll do that in a minute, let's go over here and do Bernie. Now, Sasha Baron Cohen went after the right wing in his series. It's going to be on Showtime, and I enjoyed that, and he got him where it hurts. He knew that they're nuts on guns, so he came up with an idea of training three-year-olds to 12-year-olds, and he knew that he can get a lot of Republicans to agree with that, and they did because that's their weak spot, and they're crazy on that. Now, there's also part of the series where he's going after Bernie Sanders.

Uh-oh. Okay, am I going to enjoy this one as much? we'll find out. So now what do people perceive to be Bernie's weak spot, whether it actually is or not. They think, oh, he's not pragmatic, his programs cost too much, he doesn't know, he's unrealistic, et cetera. So he's going to, in this new character that Sachs Baron Cohen has, he's going to try to press on that a little bit and see if he can get Bernie to say something that doesn't make

any sense mathematically, et cetera, and not understand what he's talking about. So, pins and needles, right, you think? And what I want you to do is you watch this, watch Bernie's eyes, because they're really, really funny, no matter what you think. And then number two, does he fall for it? And does he agree with Sasha Baron Cohen's character? Because the Republicans did. Oh, like, yeah, having a three-year-old shoot people out of a teddy bear.

That's a great idea. Here, let's do an ad together, right? Will Bernie agree to the preposterous things that Cohen proposes? Let's find out. May I be personal with you? Please. Are you, you have a disability? No, I don't.

This here is scooters to conserve my body's finite energy. What America is supposed to be about is the land of opportunity. Sure, I agree with that. Okay. But what we have now, we have a situation where the top 1 tenth of 1% now owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90%, so there's a lot that has to be done. And the goal is to create a nation that works for all of us, not just the 1%. Sir, I don't mean to interrupt, but rather than complain about the 1% or the point 1%,

why not make the rest of America and put them into the 1%. Well, if you put everybody into the 1%, they wouldn't be the 1%. Well, no, it still would be. No, it wouldn't be. If I can, if you- The rest of the population, that by definition, they're not in the 1% that the rest of the population. But all of the population is 100%. All right, so this is simple math.

If you have 1% here, 1% and you have 99. And if you move the 9 in there, you have 19. And then you move the other 9 there. Well, if you believe in equality, why not have 100% of people in the 1%. These are my figures, this is the International Institute of Scientific Truth and Knowledge. So, this has been proven that this can work. This might lead to some increase in the deficit. But essentially, it is possible.

What is your proposal, believe? That you keep the 1%, but you move the 99% into the 1%. And so you have 199, you just move over the 9s. You have the 99% or in the 1%. Billy, I don't know what you're talking about. I really don't. Awesome. Passed with flying colors.

See, Sasha Barron Cohen is nonpartisan in that sense. He's went after the Republicans. He went after Bernie. And Bernie was like, yep, nope, I don't agree. That doesn't make any sense. I don't know what you're talking about. Right? Nope, you cannot move the 99% into the 1% because then they would be the 100%.

So I don't know if the intent was, look, the intent's comedy, right? But I guess that some people would have thought like, oh, Bernie will be like, oh, yeah, let's make everybody into the top one. No, he's actually incredibly smart. Of course, by the way, to be fair, it doesn't take someone incredibly smart. It just has somebody with that knows what they're talking about, knows what their principles are, and he's like, you just can't do that. That makes no sense.

And I'm not going to tell you that it makes sense, even though it's awkward. Okay. So, wonderful. And look, and no matter what, even he didn't get Bernie in that sense. and so I'm proud of Bernie. Again, it's a low bar, to be fair, a bar that the conservators couldn't clear, but Bernie cleared with ease.

But it was also really funny anyway. Partly because of Bernie's eyes. Like, he didn't intend it. He thinks it's a real interview. But he looks at him like, I love that sideways glance that Bernie gives. Like, what you're talking about? Willis?

All right. So there you have it. Bernie Sanders does not fall victim to Sasha Baron Cohen and seems to do an excellent job in that fake interview. See, it turns out you don't have to cry about it afterwards. A lot of the conservatives are crying today. Like, oh, he tricked me. It wasn't fair.

He didn't make you say anything. He tried to get Bernie Sanders to say something, and he wouldn't. By the way, credit to Matt Gates, again, a guy really disagree with, really, really disagree with, huge Trump supporter congressman. He also wouldn't say what Sasha Barron Cohen wanted him to say because, you know, they have their own principles. And so at least we get to find out who makes sense and who doesn't. Okay, now, that's the fun story. Let's move on to the foremash of evisceration.

These are always fun, right? Do you remember Joe Lieberman? If you don't, bless your heart. He was a corporatist Democrat. I mean, the prototypical one. There was an award that he didn't love, and he would often, quote, unquote, cross the aisle to vote with the Republicans. And shockingly, it turns out every time to help his corporate friends and donors.

So he was challenged in a primary, in a Democratic primary in Connecticut, where he was a senator, and he lost the Ned Lamont. But he decided, nah, I'm going to run as an independent. Now, back then, when it helped corporate interests, the Democratic Party didn't scream, Unity! Unity! How dare you, Joe? And Joe Lieberman wound up winning the general election, and they welcomed them back with open arms. Now, he beat a Democratic opponent. He was literally against the Democratic Party, but they were ecstatic to have him. Bernie Sanders caucuses with the Democrats. He's an independent who's to the left of the Democrats. They're like,

oh, Bernie! Some people say, oh, I don't know, he's a real Democrat. You accept Joe Lieberman and not him? Okay, why is he in the news today, though? Well, you remember Alexandria Acacio-Cortez, dynamic progressive in New York, beat Joe Crowley, the fourth most powerful Democrat in the House. Now, Crowley was also on the Working Family's Party ticket, and that's normal. Working Families Party has the strongest base in New York, and a lot of times they endorse people that are already Democrats, and they did in this case. Now, later they wound up regretting that because Ocasio-Cortez is far more progressive

than Crowley, and of course, she won. But Working Families Party is a good party. They're very progressive. Nothing wrong with them. It's just that he happened to be on that ticket. So he moves on as a member of the Working Families Party, even though Crowley lost the Democratic primary. So now, he had an opportunity to get off the ballot, and there was a lot of different ways you could say, hey, I'm filing for a different election, which would then eliminate you from that election. He chose not to get off of it.

He says, well, no, no, no, I'm not running. I'm not running. I just couldn't get off the ballot. I believe he could. those deadlines might have passed, but he could have, he chose not to. Now, Ocasio-Cortez called him out on that, and he's like, no, no, no, I'm, no, I'm not running. Ocali, there's nothing I can do to get off the ballot, right?

And she says that he didn't call on three different occasions to concede. He says, oh, yeah, we just, you know, it's a miscommunication. Okay, look, you can say, hey, fair, Crowley did a wonderful thing on the night of the election. He sang the song, Born to Run, about Ocasio-Cortez. He seemed like a very gracious in defeat, and we gave him credit for that, et cetera. And maybe this is just the snafu, et cetera. But 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. First of all, none of the Democratic leaders are talking about unity. Where is Nancy Pelosi saying, Joe Crowley, what are you doing? No, no, no, no, no, do not run.

He's not running. That's ridiculous. Now, if Pelosi said that, I bet that Crowley would find a way to get off that ballot, but all of a sudden, Democratic leadership, I'm not talking about unity. So now, why Joe Lieberman? Well, nobody's ever been a better corporate Democrat than Joe Lieberman. So he now does an editorial in the Wall Street Journal where he says, Crowley should run. Wait, I thought it wasn't possible at all.

I thought everybody was saying, oh, no, no, no, don't be ridiculous, progressives. Don't be ridiculous, Arcasio Cortez. Of course, Crowley's not running. But now all of a sudden there's an editorial saying, maybe he should run. So let's take a look at what the case that Lieberman made and shred it. So he begins by saying Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's surprise primary victory of a representative of Joe Crowley seems likely to hurt Congress, America, and the Democratic Party. Whoa!

Based on what? If you're waiting for supporting evidence, it does not arrive. He has no supporting evidence. He's just Ocasio-Cortez is a real problem. progressive. And Joe Lieberman, like a lot of the corporate Democrats, hates real progressives. So he says, oh, she's going to hurt America. Hurt America? Based on what? This is how much they despise progressives. All right, he continues. Because the policies, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez advocates are so far from the mainstream, her election in November

would make it harder for Congress to stop fighting and start fixing problems. Okay. Let's Let's break that one down. First of all, outside the mainstream, she's for Medicare for all. That's 60% of the country's for Medicare for all. She's for getting money out of politics. 93% of the countries for getting money out of politics. The legalization of marijuana, I'm sure Lieberman thinks it's ridiculous until, of course, corporations start selling it, in which case you'd be like, oh, I was always in favor of it, which

is basically what John Boehner has now done. So what do you mean that she's outside the mainstream? Overall, her positions poll, excellent. She's for expanding Social Security that polls at over 70%. And the list goes on and on and on. Now, what you mean is she's outside the mainstream of what our corporate donors want us to do and what we've been doing for decades. She says, well, it would be her presence makes it hard to stop fighting the Republicans.

That's right. We don't want to stop fighting the Republicans. Have you seen the Republican Party lately? And you want to stop fighting them? You see Trump as the head of the Republican Party. And Joe Lieberman's great idea is, don't hurt America. stop fighting Republicans. Wow, that is genius political analysis.

Joe, I wonder why you're not in the Senate anymore. And he says, start fixing problems. How would you fix problems by agreeing with the Republicans or Donald Trump? What, agree to more gigantic tax cuts for the rich, agree to more wars, agree to helping Russia. Agree with that amount of what? Fix what problems? They're the ones who cause the problems.

We're the solution. So, but he doesn't want that solution because he works for corporate America, and he has been corrupt his whole career. So this nonsense continues. Lieberman says, thanks to, oh, I love this one. Thanks to a small percentage of primary votes, all the people of New York's 14th congressional district stand to lose a very effective representative in Washington. What? Thanks to the people voting, the guy I like better lost. And I guess the day, I thought it was a great candidate.

Now, the people didn't think he was a great candidate. That's why they voted him out. But now you're going to lose a good guy who helped corporations all the time in the big banks. And the defense contractors. I hope you're happy. Yeah, we are happy. It's called democracy, Joe. I know you hate it.

But it is democracy. It's what the people wanted. So, and then my favorite part of that is like, it's a primary. Not a lot of people vote. We've been saying for years, the New York State's prime. primaries are too closed. Progressives want to open them up more. We want people to be able to register all the way to the election time. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez fought for that. We wanted broader elections. Now, the party that wanted to keep the narrow primaries, because they thought it was

to their advantage. Afterwards, now that they lose, they cry, oh, but the primaries in New York, they're too constricted. That's what we've been saying. You guys are unbelievable liars. You don't believe anything you say. It's all about power. How do I keep power? Primaries need to be small. They need to be large, whatever. You don't believe in unity.

You don't believe in anything, but where's the money? That's who you are, Joe Lieberman. Okay, he goes on and say, her dreams of a new federal spending would bankrupt the country or require a very large tax increases, including on the working class. Oh, progressive ideas. By the way, let's just note that this guy,

his whole life was theoretically a Democrat. But in this establishment, corporatist Democratic Party, that is unfortunately what the Democrats became. He ran for vice president on the national ticket of the Democrats. He hates progressives. He's making the Republican points about,

oh, if you do the progressive ideas, it'll bankrupt the country. That's what Republicans say. By the way, let's now look at facts because Joe didn't have any in his call. You want to talk about bankrupt in the country? Hey, Joe, didn't you vote for the Iraq war? How'd that go?

Oh, right, that costs $2.4 trillion. No, Joe Lieberman, our ideas don't bankrupt the country. Your idea's bankrupted the country. And I'm being generous there. There's a lot of people who feel that the Iraq war, when you talk about the interest that accrues on the debt that we use to finance the war, the cost of the medical problems that the veterans have, et cetera. That number should be way higher than $2.4 trillion.

And I didn't even include Afghanistan or all of our other military misadventures, all of which Joe Lieberman voted for as he was bankrupting the country. Those are facts. And I know that the establishment hates facts, but a sad day for you. So that's a fact. You want to see what else banks are bankrupts the country? Bush, his tax cuts, $3.5 trillion. Now, again, I'm going to be super generous here.

The Donald Trump's tax cuts, in the beginning they said that it will only call it. cost 1.5 trillion dollars. There was a new analysis. Trump's tax cuts actually already are up to $1.9 trillion in costs, and the cost keep mounting and mounting a mountain. But all that went to the rich. It went to defense contractors. It went to the oil companies. It went to the millionaires, billionaires, and the top corporations. So Joe Lieberman was like, yes, yes, let's bankrupt the country as long as my friends get paid. Oh, you want to, Cassio-Cartez, you want to actually help You're the voters, the actual citizens of the Queens and Bronx? Oh, you're gonna, you're gonna cost money.

By the way, even that is not true. Medicare for All doesn't cost money. It saves trillions of dollars. It's one lie after another, after another. So, and by the way, the analysis that Medicare for All saves trillions of dollars is based on what other developed countries have done and how they have saved costs by making sure they cut out the middlemen like the insurance companies. But the insurance companies, a lot of them are based in Connecticut, and Joe Lieberman served

those insurance companies. They were his boss. Do you know who killed the public option? You're not going to be surprised to find out. It was Joe Lieberman. So Barack Obama during the Affordable Care Act, Progressives pushed for the public option, and it was such a simple idea. Hey, you guys have private options.

You have all these different medical insurance. Why don't we offer a public option? So you could buy one from the government. I mean, you guys say the government sucks, but I'm sure that nobody's going to buy it, right? It doesn't matter. It's no threat to anybody. No, they actually knew that it actually would be a better option. So Joe Lieberman said to Obama, under no circumstances, are you to the public option?

Because I get all my donor money from those insurance companies. And they do not want competition. They do not want capitalism. They would like to destroy capitalism by doing crony capitalism. That's who Joe Lieberman is. Now, you want to talk about bankrupting the country. I'm not done with you yet. Then he goes on to foreign policy.

Now, again, Lieberman is never not voted for a war. And he was an enthusiastic supporter of the Iraq war with the greatest foreign policy blunderer of our lifetimes, perhaps of entire American history, unchastened by that. He says among the different things that he attacks her on, he says, her opposition to American leadership in the world, that's read America attacking and bombing as many countries as possible. and even to alleviate humanitarian disasters like in Syria. Oh, is that what we're doing in Syria, alleviating humanitarian disasters? We do that by dropping bombs, right?

How do we alleviate humanitarian disasters by bomb after bomb after bomb? And how's the humanitarian situation working out in Iraq, Joe? You started that mess. You were one of the biggest cheerleaders, Joe. And it created ISIS, it created a humanitarian debacle, millions of people displaced, hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians dead, and you're still writing about, oh my God, this woman is she's dangerous, she doesn't even want to start more wars, which will be our humanitarian missions.

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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-P-N dot com slash T-YT. Check it out today. She said, he says about Crowley, I know him as a

bridge builder and problem solver, which is exactly what Congress needs more of in both parties. Back to Joe Crowley would have agreed with the Republicans. He would have built bridges to the Republicans, and he would have agreed that, you know what, your money should be in their pocket and in the corporate pockets, and no one should ever fight for you the voter. Oh, poor Joe Crowley, I guess we're going to miss him, right? Maybe not. Maybe he'll continue and he'll get egged on by corporate Democrats like Joe Lieberman.

But hey, that's his call, not my call. If he finds a way to get off that ballot, I'll give him all the credit in the world and say it was that loony Joe Lieberman guy, okay? But if Crowley continues to go, go go, go, go, gee, there's nothing I could do. How about the leadership? How about Nancy Pelosi? Well, actually, Lieberman talked about that. And he said, Nancy Pelosi has been quiet about this. It's true.

She has. What happened to Unity, Representative Pelosi? I thought that was your whole thing about, oh, yeah, hey, everybody, Unity. Whatever you do, do not primary, but my incumbents, do not primary the court. corporate Democrats. Okay, I don't want any of that stuff. Okay, it doesn't matter. We won. So Democratic Party, you're going to support her? Instead, Pelosi dismissed Ocasio-Cortez and said, ah, it's just one district. It's just demographics, which she was absolutely wrong about, by the way. White people voted for Ocasio-Cortez in her district at a greater

rate than minorities did. Oops. But look at the dismissive nature of Pelosi. Oh, it's just the minorities. It was just demographics. It's not even correct. So Lieberman says, she knows, referring to Pelosi, she knows that if Democrats are to regain a majority, it will be by winning swing districts with sensible mainstream candidates. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez is making that task harder across America. Now, right and wrong, the wrong part is, and I can't wait for us to be proven right on this as we were on Ocasio-Cortez's victory, that progressive ideas appeal to real voters far more than what he calls mainstream, which is another code word for corporate democratic

ideas. So the Nancy Pelosi, Joe Lieberman camp of geniuses, that includes Joe Crowley, thought, hey, let's raise billions of dollars from the banks, and let's go do whatever the banks and corporations want. And I bet people in the middle of Kansas will love that idea. They don't. They hate that idea. Our thesis is that if you run as a progressive populist, and you say, I'm actually going

to look out for the voters. I'm not taking any corporate pack money. They can't corrupt me because I'm not taking their money. I'm going to serve you guys. That that is going to work a thousand times better. And that's exactly what they're afraid of. Right now, as we speak, Alexandria Kazzer-Cortez and Bernie Sanders are on their way to Kansas. On Friday, they're going to do a rally for Brent Welder and James Thompson, two other Justice Democrats, two other strong progressives who will not take corporate pack money. They're both leading, they're both doing amazing in the middle of Kansas. And that is what's got Lieberman and Pelosi and the others in a panic. What if people find out, we've been lying? Or even if you want to say, no,

they didn't have bad intent. We've been wrong the whole time. The establishment I told you take the corporate money and that somehow the voters will appreciate you for that. You've been wrong the whole time. You know what they thought instead? That you're the party of the elite. The Democratic Party used to be the party of the average American, the worker, and you've ruined that. And now that we're exposing that, all of a sudden, Libram is out of the woodworked. Don't, don't find out. Don't find out if progressives can actually win in these districts. Yeah, that's what I thought, Joe.

That's what I thought. But the thing he is right about is Pelosi, not a word. Where are you, Nancy Pelosi? And where's unity? Why aren't you going out there and going, Ocasio-Cortez won the Democratic primary? She is a Democratic candidate, and we will unify behind her. Nothing. They never believed in unity.

All they wanted was conformity. They wanted you to bow your heads. Well, we didn't. So a sad day for you, Joe Lieberman, go back into retirement. You're pathetic, young Turks. Back on a young church, so let me read a couple of quick comments for you. R. Stone, presumably not Roger, on YouTube super chat says, Joe supports a guy who sent a proxy to debate, Cascio Cortez, and didn't take care of his home district.

Wow, that's a winning strategy. Thank you, TYT, for ripping the Democratic curtain, hashtag progressive Congress. Thank you. And I suck at math rights in, and this is funny. Establishment Republicans fear their base, establishment Democrats loathe theirs. Unfortunately, that is true. They really, the Democratic Party every day shows that they can't stand their own base. Well, then how about you don't represent us anymore, you move out, okay, and get real progressives to run.

All right, well, it doesn't matter if you want it or not, we're going to do that anyway. All right, let's go over here. You guys remember Tim Geithner? He was Treasury Secretary for Barack Obama. He did the bank bailouts, and he told us we had to do it. We had to do it. But we have your best interest in mind. But these bankers, but golly, gee, I'm so mad at them.

But, you know, we gave them all the money anyway, because, of course, we were forced to. Well, what's Geithner up to these days? Well, he's running a company. Let's tell you about that. As Treasury Secretary in the Obama administration, Timothy Geithner, condemned predatory lenders. Now he is president of Warburg-Pinkus and New York firm that controls a private equity fund. that owns mariner finance. Well, let's find out more about marina finance, because I know that Geithner will not stand

for predatory lenders. Well, Washington Post's a terrific story about this, and they have a couple of different examples of people who are personally affected. One is Stephen Huggings that they start the story with. He gets a check in the mail one day for $1,200. That's weird, right? And it says you have some period of time to cash this check, and it's yours. Now, you read the fine print, it says, and you'll be charged 33%.

He thinks, well, that's not good. I don't want that. That's too high an interest. He puts it away. But their effort is to try to tempt him. Well, as it turns out that a week later, his Chevy pickup breaks down. And now he needs the money. So it goes and uses a check.

Uh-oh. And that is when the trouble begins. So let me pick it up from the Washington Post there. Within a year, the company, Marina Finance, sued Huggins for 3,000. $221.27 that included the original $1,200, plus an additional $800, a company representative later persuaded him to take, plus hundreds of dollars in processing fees, insurance and other items, plus interest, it didn't matter that he'd made a few payments already. Oh, you want to make payments? I don't care about your payments. No, no, no. You give it to me

now, otherwise we're going to crush you. Okay, to give you a sense of how outrageous a 33% interest rate is. Donald Trump, and to be fair, it was Trump and he is a buffoon, but couldn't make money in casinos because he had taken out an interest rate that was way too high. And even though the House always wins, it still didn't cover the interest rate, because the interest rate was 14%. The ones being charged to the middle class Americans through this company is 33%. It's impossible to keep up with that, let alone all the stuff that they add on top of it

that's all in the fine print, that was not at all clear. So then you have an overwhelming debt that you can't possibly pay back. So an equipment operator in Nashville says, that's this hugging guy, says, it would have been cheaper for me to go out and borrow money from the mob. Well, in a lot of ways, that's true. And that's why loan sharking was prohibited. But what we've done is we've made it legal again, but we put them. in suits. So, no, it's okay, they're in a suit. It's the same guy charging you a similar

rate, but it's okay because we made it legal, just like we made bribery legal by keeping money in politics. Just like we made opium legal by calling it opioids and saying, yeah, it's for pain relief, sure, keep on taking it. No, you won't get addicted, because these drug dealers are in suits. So, John C. Morton is a general counsel for mariner finance, so he's going to defend them. But listen to the way that he does. He says, quote, the installment lending industry provides an important service to tens of millions of Americans who might otherwise not have safe, responsible access to credit. What does that mean?

Why would getting credit be unsafe? I go to the bank and I get credit or I go somewhere else. I get credit. No, he's saying, well, at least it's not the mob and we're not bringing your legs. I mean, we're maybe breaking your bank account or breaking your house, we're breaking your life. Hey, I didn't break your kneecap. I gave it to you in a safe way. I appreciate that.

Okay, so now, John Lafferty used to work at Mariner and he was a manager there. What does he think? And he says, quote, it's basically a way of monetizing poor people. Jim Baker is a private equity stakeholder project person who works there, and he said, you've got billionaires extracting wealth from working people. They found a way for billionaires and giant corporations to monetize even more effectively. Now, it involves pulverizing your life. That's a sad day for you.

Geithner and his friend's got to make an extra buck. Okay, the companies, let me break it down for you. Great report, by the way, by Peter Wuriske from Washington Post. The company's other tactics include borrowing money for as little as 4% or 5% thanks to the bond market and lending it at rates as high as 36%. Well, that's pretty convenient. If you had access to billions of dollars and you could borrow at 4% and then lend it at 36, you'd make a lot of money too.

Now, you'd have to put aside your shame and your principles, et cetera, as you ruin these people's lives. But I guess they think it's a clever business model. Okay, well, on the math it is. Among its rivals, Mariner stands out for the frequent use of mass mail checks, which allows customers to accept a high-interest loan on an impulse. Just sign the check. It has become a key marketing method. Every part of this sounds like the mob.

No, it's okay, Tony, take the money. You pay me back later. Take the money. Okay? And, hey, doesn't everybody at some point have a problem? and they can't get enough money and they're in a bind and that check's sitting there. And there's a reason why we outlawed loan sharking, but it's back as long as now it's legal. Mariner generally targets people who have imperfect credit scores according to the bond rating

agencies. After a mail check is cashed by a recipient, a marina rep follows up and solicits more information about the borrower. This helps in collections and sometimes proposes additional lending. Now, they know they're going after people who are credit risk and who are imperfect in their credit ratings. And so they know exactly the game they're playing. Then they call up the guy and go, oh, yeah, what's your information?

Because later they know he's not going to be able to pay. Not all of them, of course, but unfortunately far too many of them. And then they'll use that information against them while pretending to help him. And then they try to push more loans on him so that he'll get even further debt. This is sick. And you can say, well, hey, look, you borrowed for you, give it at 36, what a great business model. The mob's also a good business model. Doesn't mean we should do it.

They do make a lot of money. So do the cartels. Okay, more. Aggressive collection practices that include calling delinquent customers once a day and embarrassing them by calling their friends and relatives. God, they must be so proud of the work that they do. Now I'm gonna go back to Tim Geithner, back when he worked for Obama, and pretended to care about regular folks and the abuses of the financial industry.

Back then, he said the financial crisis exposed our system of consumer protection as a dysfunctional mess, leaving ordinary Americans way too vulnerable to fraud and other malfeasance. Now, back then he was pretending to warn you. He gets out of office, now starts running this private equity company that owns Marina finance, And he's like, oh, the regulatory system is a mess. At least ordinary America's vulnerable. Great. Let's jump in.

That is his actions. If he does not like their business model, he didn't have to invest in them. And he could at any point take away his investment. But he's choosing not to. So a former worker at Marina Finance said this. Most customers do not read what they get in the mail. It's just a little tiny type. They just see the $1,200 for you.

That's the main thing that they see. Now listen to what Tim Geithner said back in the day when he was working in the Obama administration. Remember, the guy who worked at Marineer Finance says, we know they're not going to read the fine print. Back then, Geithner said many borrowers, especially in subprime markets, bid off more than they could chew because they didn't understand the absurdly complex and opaque terms of their financial arrangements or were actively channeled into the riskiest deals. That is exactly what mariner finance does now. And he's like, oh, great, we're making money. I don't know, maybe he wasn't warning us before. Maybe what he was saying is, I can't wait to get back into the market to take advantage

of you, suckers. We're not going to regulate anything. And even if we do the Republicans are going to strip away what little thing regulations we did, and you guys are all vulnerable, and it's easy to target the most vulnerable and deceive them by putting it into fine print. Apparently this was his blueprint for how he would conduct himself after he was in office. Now I want to go to another anonymous former branch manager for this company. He said, were there a few loans that actually help people?

Yes. Were 80% of them predatory? Probably. Now, look, you disagree about the numbers, and that's just one guy in his opinion. But obviously they are praying on people who they think will be more susceptible to this. And when they go to collect, it is crushing. Finally, that same branch manager said, quote, I'm still embarrassed by some of the things I did there. Tim Geithner, on the other hand, not embarrassed.

Still president of the private equity company that invested into that company. has not withdrawn it, and that is where it stands today. So I guess he must be really proud of the work that he's doing. So yes, Donald Trump is a nightmare, and that is absolutely true, and we warned you about that as well. But don't think that if we got rid of Trump, that everything would be fixed. The system was already so broken through the bipartisan agreement to help corporations and the banks, and to screw over the American voters, that it made people so frustrated

that they put Donald Trump in charge. Going back to that status quo is not a good day. That gives us a system that was so broken, it produced a monster like Trump. And that is also, unfortunately, the handiwork of people like Tim Geithner. We must change the system entirely. We must get money out of politics so that our politicians represent us and not the their donors, because if they represent private interests, this is what private interests do to maximize their gains from you.

Thanks for listening to this podcast. You're only halfway through. So hold, hold, stay right here. Just want to remind you if you want to get all five segments of the Young Turks commercial free, these are just two of them. Every day we do it. So go to t-y-tnetwork.com slash join, and you'll get the whole five segments, two hours. Add free.

Do it now. All right, back on a young church, Jen and Anna with you guys. A couple of YouTube super chats here. KS.H.D. Jack says, I'm in Kansas and going to the James Thompson, Ocasier-Cortez, Bernie Rally on Friday. Bernie and progressive values are infinitely more popular in Wichita than more corporate corruption. I couldn't agree more with that, obviously. And Timothy Putnam says, thank you for that excellent analysis and pushback on the Lieberman article, Jenk. Thanks to TYT for all of your efforts to promote progressive candidates like

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and thank you for refusing to bow down to establishment pressure. Thank you guys. By doing YouTube super chat, by becoming members, you make that possible. And we definitely cannot do it without you. So t-y-t.com slash join to become a member, support the show, and get all of our programming. Oh, speaking of which, we now have a podcasting network, and Theray's podcast is now up on that network as well. I worked with Teray back at MSNBC, and he has amazing guests, so really interesting conversations. Tyt.com slash audio, t-y-t.com slash audio to get our podcasting network, including hashtag no filter from Anna.

Yes. All right. What's next to Anna? All right. It has been a tumultuous week for Donald Trump and for Republicans who are concerned about the way that he is handling the investigation. involving Russian meddling. So the week began with Trump doing a joint press conference with Vladimir Putin while he was

in Helsinki. And during that press conference, he made it seem as though he did not support intelligence organizations here in the United States and instead supported what Putin said to him, which was that Russians did not meddle in the elections. He got pushed back, and then a day later decided to backtrack. He claimed that he completely misspoke. And then today, something completely new happened. Reporters had asked him whether or not he believes that Russia is still targeting the United

States, and here was his answer. Is Russia still targeting the U.S. decision? Yes, let's go. Make your way out. Nobody don't believe that to be a case. So it appears he said no there. He says, thank you very much, no.

And then he moves on and looks to someone else. That has led to a lot of controversy, and how do you interpret that video? Because now his camp is saying, no, no, no, no, he was just trying to say no to the question. Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, usual BS. So first of all, Dan Coates, the director of national intelligence, deep right-winger, former senator from Indiana, picked by Donald Trump, says, okay. Okay, look, what they did was terrible in 2016. It's very clear about that.

They definitely did it. It was definitely damaging, okay? And we should do something about it, he talks about. He says, they're doing it now. Yes. They're still doing it today. So we can get into those quotes. So it's, you know, if you're in that camp of like, I don't care for whatever reason, okay, I don't forget that to be.

They're doing it now. And Dan Coates says, we're super worried they're going to affect the midterm elections. So they're still doing the social media stuff. And by the way, to anyone who is on social media, it's actually very clear that they are, right? And I know the mainstream media is like, they don't read any comments or anything like that. So they don't know. But that's super clear. But forget all that.

He's like, all of our intelligence guys are trying to break into the voting in the term elections, monumentally important. And this clown, even let's give him the best case scenario, he meant like, no, I'm not going to answer that question, right? Why wouldn't you answer the question? And that's what, if I'm the president, you're the president, and they told you, hey, there's any country. And by the way, coach talks about how the four biggest offenders are Russia, China, North Korea,

and Iran. If Iran is trying to break into our elections or any of those countries are. And I'm the president, I'd be like, whoa, this is an enormous priority. They're about to ruin our democracy and we'll have no idea who really won. And by the way, it could be that they're going to mess with us. And some of the races they make the Democrats win, some of the races they make the Republicans win. And we have mayhem, chaos, which is exactly what Putin wanted in the first place. And I don't know that they're going to be successful in that.

But boy, I would be deeply concerned. And I'd be all over it. I wouldn't be like, thank you very much. No. Because even in the best case scenario, it is a disastrous answer. But you know what the reality is. He's like, no, the Russians aren't doing it. Why?

He's obviously owned by the Russians, obviously, obviously. How many times does he have to say, oh, the Russians, it's no big deal. He denies it. He very, very strongly denies it. No, they're not doing it. How many times does he have to say it? Again, let's say that you're in the camp of, no, he's pure as a driven snow. and all of this stuff that seems super obvious right in front of everybody is not the reality.

Okay, in your best case scenario, he's so indifferent to protecting our democracy. He's so indifferent to doing his job as president and protecting the citizens of this country. That he's like, oh, I don't care, I just like Russia. Russia's great, Russia's great. No, they're not doing it, and I'm not doing anything about it. Dan Coates, massive Republican, his hair's on fire. He said, this is as bad as the warnings before 9-11. Yeah. Yeah, I want to actually give you exact quotes from Dan Coates because it is relevant.

And as Jank mentioned, this is not, you know, some progressive who somehow managed to infiltrate Trump's administration and become the director of national intelligence under Trump's watch. This is a lifelong Republican, and he's very much concerned about what's happening. And as you correctly mentioned, yes, he is concerned about Russian interference and Russian meddling. But he also mentions other countries and their attempts at, you know, getting through our cybersecurity and causing real harm to the country. So he said that the persistent danger of Russian cyber attacks today was akin to the warnings the United States had of stepped up terror threats ahead of September 11th.

An exact quote is, the warning lights are blinking red again. Today, the digital infrastructure that serves this country is literally under attack. So, again, he is the director of national intelligence, and he is trying to sound an alarm and make sure that the administration knows what's going on so we can do something, the country can do something, to stop it ahead of the midterm elections. He's saying we're under attack. No, look, I'm not a neocon. I don't want to counterstrike with nukes.

I don't want to do a military strike. Most important thing in the world is let us at least figure. out how to protect ourselves, how to protect the ballot, how to protect the midterm elections. We're under attack. And so you don't have to be a hawk and you don't want to, you don't have to want to start wars, at a bare minimum, protect the vote. And Trump's there, oh, no, no, no, no, everything's fine. If he's not a traitor, he's the world's largest buffoon.

There's no argument about that. There's no argument. No one can look at that and go, oh, that guy thinks we're under. attack and he's got it, he's got to figure it out, and he's responding forcefully. If you think that you're lying, nobody actually thinks that. So just going back to his answer to the reporter in the video, Cecilia Vega, he says, thank you, no. And so then his administration argues, no, he was just saying no to answering the question. But Jake Tapper says the following, he tweeted this, those in the room,

say it was clear the president was answering Cecilia Vega's question. We just saw it. We just heard it ourselves. It was crystal clear. And Sarah Huckabee-B-Sander is now using doing her job, which she's paid to do, which is to go out and lie. Michelle Wolfe should have been even harsher on her, saying, oh, no, he didn't mean no, he meant yes. I mean, and then remember in the press conference with Putin, he said that I will say this. I don't see any reason why it would be, referring to why the Russians would be interfering.

And he'd just been asked about Dan Coates, director of national intelligence saying they are interfering. The Russians say they're not interfering. What do you think? And he's like, I don't understand why they would be. Then he had to come out like a child yesterday and go, well, I meant why they wouldn't be. But somehow you didn't say that in front of your boss. When you were sitting there with your boss, all of a sudden you were like, I don't know why the Russians would be interfering. I think the Russians are right.

I think the Americans are wrong. If you don't mind, I actually do want to go to that video. We talked about it yesterday. Let's go to video four, please. This is Trump arguing that he just misspoke during that press conference with Vladimir Putin. I realize that there is a need for some clarification. It should have been obvious. I thought it would be obvious, but I would like to clarify just in case it wasn't.

In a key sentence in my remarks, I said the word would instead of wouldn't. The sentence should have been, I don't see any reason why I wouldn't or why it wouldn't be Russia. So just to repeat it, I said the word would instead of wouldn't. And the sentence should have been, and I thought it would be maybe a little bit unclear on the transcript or unclear on the actual video. The sentence should have been, I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be Russia. sort of a double negative. Then he immediately added, but it could be other people, could be anybody. There's a lot of people out there.

There's a lot of people out there, okay? Look, they wrote the script for him. We're under attack, say there isn't any reason why it wouldn't be Russia. And he's like, I'm forced to read this goddamn thing, but at the end, I'll add, well, it could be anybody. And when you were in front of Putin, you're like, I don't know why it would be. I don't know why it would be Russia. How many times do you have to change your story?

Perpetual liar, nonstop, clearly soft on the Russians. And again, this is not a normal situation, guys, where you have to prove how hard you are or being soft means just having normal relationship with them. Our democracy is under attack, and this guy is going around kissing Putin's ass. And every time he's called out on it, I didn't mean that. I meant something else. But kind of.

But I kind of meant that the Russians are great. Yeah. Look, I don't think Trump has ever really valued our democratic process. And I think that he's made that abundantly clear in the actions that he's taken aside from Russia. Put Russia aside for a second. And just take a look at how Trump conducts himself in the White House. He goes ahead and, you know, implements these tariffs without consulting with. with Congress, he says that it's a national security concern, which gives him the ability

to do these tariffs unilaterally. He doesn't care about the democratic process. He's the one who encouraged the Russians or encourage the hacking into Clinton's emails during the election. He doesn't care, he doesn't care. And right now he's being pressured to walk back his statements, but he can't help himself. You give him a minute to speak off the cuff, and this is what happens. I'm gonna add one last set of quotes here.

Also said that Russia was, quote, the most aggressive foreign factor, no question. He said, they continue their efforts to undermine our democracy, direct quote. Trump on Wednesday said, quote, we're doing very well, probably as well as anybody has ever done with Russia, and there's been no president ever as tough as I have been on Russia. That's not true in the least. It's not remotely true. It's laughably false as he continues to say that the Russians didn't do anything wrong. It's the American Republican representative in Texas came out and said he should be impeached.

He said it today. He's like, look, first of all, we have gigantic deficits, right? He said there wouldn't be deficits. Now it's going to be a trillion dollars, the worst we've ever seen. Okay, and then second of all, on this issue, he refuses to defend us. That's his number one job as president, and he will not defend the country. And there's a thousand ways to defend the country without launching any missiles. He won't do any of them.

All right, so let's move on to Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the press conference she had. White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, addressed the way that Donald Trump handled a question by a reporter today. The question asked whether or not Russia is still targeting the United States, and it appeared that Trump said no. And so while Sarah Huckabee Sanders was having this press conference, she's asked about the answer that Trump gave, and here was her response. We certainly believe that we are taking steps to make sure they can't do it again, unlike previous administrations.

This president is actually taking bold action and reform to make sure it doesn't happen again, but he does believe that they would target certainly U.S. elections again. So it's, I mean, this is a tired talking point that we keep hearing from the administration. Oh, well, Trump's actually taking a lot of action, action that previous administrations didn't take, actions that previous administrations fail to take. And it always goes back to, let's go ahead and attack previous administrations so we can deflect and not have. Trump ever take responsibility for his failures and for his actions. I mean, it's just, it's incredible.

It's the same talking point over and over again. So what actions is he taking? Well, it's so a secret, really? Because everybody in the intelligence community is saying that it's the red lights are on, that we're under attack. And Dan Coates said, we're not taking action. And so he's like, look, he thinks we should go out in the office. I don't know if I agree with that.

He doesn't mean militarily. He means through cyber warfare, right? And he's like, but we're certainly not doing enough defense. So which one is it? Of course, the director of national intelligence, in this case, a lifelong Republican deeply right wing is actually looking at the intelligence. He's not making it up. There's no secret deep state thing here.

He was picked by Donald Trump. There's no reason for him to do anything like that. And he's not alone. Every single person in the intelligence community is like, warning. Warning, they're coming after the midterm elections, Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Now, Trump said that he, you know, that the Russians are not doing it, but he meant they are doing it. I have to correct him again for the billionth time, because he's either an idiot or complicit or likely both.

And what actions are you taking? I can't tell you. Nonsense. You're not taking any actions. That's why your intelligence officials have their hair on fire. So one of the things that came up during this press conference was Trump's credibility and whether or not it's even possible to ever take anything he says seriously when there's double talk constantly.

He'll say one thing one day, and then the next day after he gets some backlash, he'll claim that he met something else or he really said something completely different from what was told to reporters. And so I love the following line of questioning that you're going to see from Hallie Jackson to Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Take a look. I have two questions for you. I want to just clarify some of me about the beginning of the briefing.

So despite the video that shows the president looking at Cecilia and answering no to this question about whether Russia is still targeting the U.S., and despite multiple people in the room, understanding that the president was responding to that question. And despite the president, having never before said the word no, no repeatedly to usher reporters out of the room, you're saying it's reverse. You're saying the president said this is the first thing that the president said after the question was asked was thank you very much. And then he said, no, I'm not answering any more questions.

And even further, I think even Cecilia didn't realize what the answer was because she asked for clarification and he didn't answer the follow-up. Again, I sure. Right, because she wasn't sure. I talked to the president. He wasn't answering that question. He was saying no, he's not taking questions. And I've stated what our position is. I have asked you.

Which is the president. Now, this is the second time in three days that the president of the White House has come out and reversed. what the president has said. Actually, I'm interpreting what the president said. I'm not reversing it. I was in the room as well, and I didn't take it the way you did. But why should this president have any credibility to Americans in what he says if, in fact, 24 hours later, or in this case, three hours later, the White House comes out and says, just kidding. First of all, that's not what I said.

I was interpreting what the president's intention was and stating the administration's policy. It's not exactly what you just explained. Okay, right-wingers, are you proud? Because I love that explanation. I'm not reversing what the president's say. I'm just interpreting the no as a yes. So this is, remember when people attack Bill Clinton for questioning, what does the word is mean? Right?

So now you have a president who says, well, I meant no. I said no, but I meant yes. That's why Sarah Huckabee Sanders read my mind and later reinterpreted my no as a yes. That's called lying, just in case you weren't clear on it. We gotta take a break. We'll be back. Thanks for watching what I hope was a lovely edition of the Young Turks. Now you know that that is two of the five segments that we do because that's free.

We wanna have you support independent media and come watch the whole show that we do every day. That's five segments overall. No ads at all. That's at t-y-tnetwork.com slash join. Come become a member. Thanks for watching either way. 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 Podcasts at apple.com at apple.com slash t-y-t.

I'm your host, Jank Huger, and I'll see you soon.