The Young Turks - Santos Seat Flipped

Episode Date: February 15, 2024

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You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. I just love you. Welcome to TYT, I'm your host, Anna Kasperi, and I have extremely messy hair. I'm going to fix it right now, live on camera, because that's what we do here. Anyway, we've got an awesome show ahead for you all.

Jank Uger will be joining us in the second segment of the show to premiere his one and only campaign ad. And I've gotten a little sneak peek. I think you guys are going to like it. So we'll be talking about that later in the first hour of the show. Don't miss that. Again, it'll be premiered here at TYT. Also, later, John Idaurala will join me for the second hour of the show where we will talk about an Airbnb super host taking some of the most petty retaliatory actions against one of the renters of a short-term rental that she's putting out there. It is an insane story involving infidelity, lots of twists and turns, a little bit of a break, if you will, from our typical doom and gloom political news. But don't worry if you're looking forward to doom and gloom political news, there will be plenty of that in the first hour of the show, including lots of updates on the ongoing war in the Middle East.

And as always, just want to encourage you all to like and share the stream if you're watching us live. And you can also support us by becoming a member. In fact, today we will be having an hour long special open to all to celebrate TYT's 22nd year anniversary. The birthday of TYT is actually on Valentine's Day. And so we're going to celebrate that today for everyone. It will be open for everyone after the main show during our typical bonus episode, which is typically open only for members. But today we'll have it available for everyone.

All right, without further ado, let's get to our first story. The hospital has been surrounded by tanks. The Palestinians there, the doctors there have for a while reported sniper fire that has killed a number of people in the compound. And the conditions have been deteriorating significantly. The supplies are running out. There are sewage on the floors. There's not enough food. That was the BBC, which tends to do a better job compared to U.S.

media and covering the ongoing war on Gaza. But BBC was explaining the situation on the ground at Nassar Hospital, the Nassar Hospital complex, which is just north of Rafa in Khan Yunus. Now thousands of displaced Palestinians and patients have been sheltering there, but not for long as Israel has in fact ordered them to evacuate this hospital, which is in fact the largest hospital in southern Gaza. Now, doctors without borders reported that displaced people had been ordered to leave, and that medical staff and patients had been told that, sure, they can stay at the hospital, considering how difficult it is to evacuate patients, some of whom have literally lost limbs as a result of Israel's aerial bombardment of the Gaza Strip. But Palestinians who try

to evacuate are allegedly shot at. As reported by BBC, Dr. Khaled Kali Ulcer, a trauma surgeon, also said that he had treated a 16 year old boy who was shot at as he tried to leave the hospital. When he reached the gate of the hospital, he was shot by four bullets by an Israeli sniper, he added. The Gaza Health Ministry also said Israeli sniper fire killed three people and injured two others at the hospital on Tuesday. Another seven people were reportedly shot dead in the courtyard on Monday. And look, it might be incredibly difficult to believe that any military, including the military that has been dubbed the most moral military in the world, which to me is a joke, would do something like this,

that they would shoot at patients who are trying to enter the hospital or evacuate the hospital, especially after they've been ordered by Israel to evacuate the hospital. But NBC News actually spoke to a 27 year old doctor by the name of Mohammed Harara. And in the video that you are about to watch, Palestinian patients are literally ducking Israeli sniper fire as they try to run into the hospital for treatment. Let's watch. Every name, come on me. Every night after a hard work, I came to sleep. I came to sleep due to what I saw

I came to sleep due to what I saw during the day. The vision of martyrs and injury. So imagine being a 27 year old doctor in a situation where you're getting a massive number of patients come in, an influx of patients coming in with their limbs blown off, with the need for medical attention and surgery with limited supplies. Remember, they are running out of medicine, they've been running out of medicine, and Tragically, they've been doing all sorts of medical operations on people without any anesthetics because they have run out of anesthetics. So children who have needed to have

amputations have undergone those amputations without any anesthetic. So you have that situation in place. And then at the same time, you have to find a way to get the patients in and out of the hospital as they're being fired at by the IDF. All right. So considering how limited the medical supplies in Gaza are, it is absolutely devastating that the IDF's aerial bombardment of Nassar Hospital also ended up destroying what limited stock they had of the medical supplies that they so desperately need. One doctor at Nassar told the BBC, part of the stock of medical supplies.

was burned as a result of the morning clashes. Since Monday, with the hospital's infrastructure being affected, sewage has unfortunately begun to flow into the departments located on the ground floors of the hospital. And there is a fear that it will reach the emergency and radiology departments. And Nassar, of course, isn't the only hospital in the Gaza Strip that has dealt with aerial bombardments by the IDF, that has dealt with a shelling by the IDF.

In fact, intense hostilities have also been reported, according to the BBC, around the nearby Al-Amal Hospital, which the Palestinian Red Crescent said was raided last week after some 8,000 displaced people and patients complied with an order to evacuate. So people keep getting moved around. Remember, there's now military operations taking place in southern Gaza in Rafa, the border town of Rafa. And Rafa is where you have just this insanely condensed population of Palestinian civilians who were ordered by Israel to leave their homes in the north, leave their homes in some portions of the south, and flee for safety in Rafa. Now they're carrying out military operations in Rafa. The Israeli government has announced that they plan on doing ground operations, a ground

invasion into Rafa as well, which they themselves have acknowledged is going to lead to civilian death. So you know what they're doing that? They're telling them to leave Rafa and go north. Okay, well, will the north be safe? The north has been raised, by the way. There's no infrastructure left in the north, no operating hospitals, you know, no shelters, no refugee camps, no mosques, nowhere that they can go for shelter. But will it at least be safe if they pitch tents and live in a massive tent city in northern Gaza? No, there's been no commitment to keeping the Palestinians safe in the north either. But they're being shuffled around regardless. And as they're being shuffled around, some of these Palestinians,

unfortunately, are also being targeted with sniper fire. And they're being killed that way, if they're not killed by more of Israel's aerial bombardment. Now, only 11 of Gaza's 33 hospitals, according to the BBC, are currently partially, partially functioning. And that's based on data that was provided by the UN, not a single hospital in the Gaza Strip is fully functional, which should come as no shock or surprise to you, considering that humanitarian aid, which includes medical supplies, has been blocked from entering Gaza, considering the fact that fuel has been blocked from entering Gaza, fuel that doctors and hospitals desperately need in order to operate the machinery in these hospitals.

28,500 people have been killed in Gaza, including at least 103 in the past 24 hours. That was what BBC had reported as of this morning. I'm sure the number is higher now since the military operations are continuing. But let's go back to Rafa real quick, because I do think it's worth spending a little more time on what Israel intends to do in Rafa, but more importantly, what the response by the United States has been. So I want to turn our attention to something very specific. The same source, two different headlines.

Let's look at Politico. So on February 12th, Politico puts out this piece with the headline, Biden warns Israel against Rafah attack without plan to protect civilians. Okay, we've heard a lot of alleged tough talk from Joe Biden. You know, I heard that he's real naughty behind the scenes and even even calls net Yahoo bad names, ooh, okay. All right, but Biden says, listen, if you're going to do a ground operation in Rafa without a plan in place to protect civilians, I'm not going to like it. I'm not going to be supportive of it. I'm warning you against it. Literally the next day,

the same source, Politico, publishes this. U.S. won't punish Israel for Rafa op that doesn't protect civilians. The Biden administration is a joke. They want to have their cake and eat it to. The way corporate media likes to frame it is, you know the Biden administration, Biden himself, he's got to walk a very tight line. Does he though? Is it super complicated to demand that civilian lives are protected? And by demand, I don't just mean through words, I mean through actions.

Hey, Israeli government, far right government of Israel. I will cut you off from the military aid that I've been providing you. If you continue to carry out your military operations, as you have been for the last several months. If you don't protect the civilians, and I have reason to believe that you're engaging in war crimes, I'm going to cut you off. It wouldn't be difficult for him to do that, in my opinion. I don't think it's that complicated. But apparently, it is complicated according to the corporate media that continues to provide cover for Biden as he continues to provide cover for what Israel is. is doing, what the IDF is doing in the Gaza Strip, which by the way, let's just remember

what the whole point of the IDF's military operations were supposed to be. It was supposed to root out Hamas, root out Hamas. The IDF is a Hamas manufacturing plant, okay, because as they reign terror on innocent civilians, as they murder their parents, their loved ones, their family members, that ends up breeding a form of extremism that any human being with a conscience could understand. Think about your loved ones. Think about your family. I'm thinking about my family right now.

I was thinking about my family when we covered the story of that sweet, innocent, six-year-old girl who was trapped in a car among her dead Palestinian relatives as a result of IDF shelling and then proceeded to die by herself as she was trapped in that car. Ambulance members who tried to save her were then bombed by the IDF. So they were unable to save her. Very likely she died in that car. She probably starved to death considering how long she was trapped there. I was thinking about my family because I have a six year old niece.

I spend a lot of time with her. I know how innocent and unjaded they are. So I want you to think about your family members and you tell me, you tell me, seriously, really consider it. If, I don't know, hypothetical, obviously a thought experiment, but let's say Mexico's thought that the U.S. was a threat. And the president of Mexico decided to spark a war against whatever militant group in the United States, Mexico's afraid of. And then they proceed to bomb your home.

And all your family members are gone. You lived. I mean, you might have lost a limb or two, but you lived. All your family's gone, though. Are you, are you then going to love the country of Mexico? Are you gonna love the leader of Mexico for doing what he did to your family? No, you're gonna want revenge, that is human nature, it's not that difficult to understand. People love to be super obtuse or pretend to be obtuse on this issue, it is not that complicated.

What's happening right now is so counterproductive for Israel and incredibly vicious and deadly for Palestinian civilians. And it's borne out by the numbers that we share, by the stories that we share, the anecdotes that we share, every single day. with Israel's far right government on this war, that the administration is even willing to throw our own military under the bus to provide cover for the IDF. If you don't believe me, here it is. Let's take a look.

You said Israel has been receptive to our concerns. And for months, we have heard people at that podium talk about the civilian death toll us two times. Two guys, five thousand, 10,000, 15,000. Around 20,000. 8,000 people have been killed. What does the White House base the assessment that Israel is receptive to its concern? As I said, we have seen them take actions.

Sometimes actions that even, I'm not sure our own military would take in terms of informing civilian populations ahead of operations, where to go, where not to go. They have taken steps. Now, obviously, those steps, while noteworthy, haven't been enough to reduce the civilian casualties. Wait, what? You know, like the IDF is, they're really looking out for the civilians more so than our own military would do. Okay, number one, if it is true that the US military is even more awful and brutal than the IDF is towards civilians, then we've got a problem. And we need to do deep, deep reforms of our military.

I'm gonna venture to say that's not the case, okay? I'm gonna venture to say that what you just heard was John Kirby, White House spokesperson, throwing our military under the bus in order to prop up the IDF as it is committing war crimes that are internationally recognized and acknowledged. It's not acknowledged by the United States or the UK, which is decided to follow our depravity and brutality on this issue for whatever reason. But other countries in the international community see exactly what's happening, and they're calling it what it is.

At best, ethnic cleansing, at worst, a genocide. But it would be a good time to also just let you all know about the fact that the United States State Department, according to the Wall Street Journal, has launched an investigation into Israel's conduct both in Gaza, specifically their bombing of the Jabalya refugee camp. And they're also looking into allegations that Israel has used, chemical weapons in their bombings in Lebanon, white phosphorus to be specific, are we are we dropping white phosphorus bombs? Is this the kind of civilian protection that we're talking about here?

But nothing irritated me more than the video that you're about to see, okay? Because John Kirby makes clear that we just need to shut up and provide the money to Israel. But if you want accountability, you need to turn the other cheek, move on with your life. You ain't gonna get it. That's just how it goes. Let's watch. I wanna make it clear here.

This is a sovereign nation. They plan their military operations and they conduct their military operations and they make the choices. There's not, it's not like we give them a homework assignment and they have to then turn in their plan to us for grading. Oh, that's fantastic. Okay, great. So that sovereign nation should fund itself. That $14 billion that the Biden administration has requested from Congress to send on over to Israel, let's scrap that. Since they have no accountability to the American citizens that are providing them the resources necessary to carry out their brutal acts in Gaza, and now, apparently in Lebanon as well, I vote that we don't send them that money. I mean, this is not a poor country, by the way.

Okay, Israel isn't some poor country. Israel is a country that had before this war, a stellar economy, universal health care, paid family leave, all sorts of social programs and a social safety net that Americans could only dream of. And we're sending them billions of dollars so they can buy 2,000 pound bombs to drop on residential buildings in Gaza. And we're not even allowed to want them to be held accountable for what they're doing. You know, we're not giving them a homework assignment. John Kirby, basically communicating to the American people, shut your mouth, write the check, work real hard. We all know what it's like to work in America.

We all know what it's like, we all know, okay? Some days it's freaking torturous, some days better than others. And I'm saying that as someone who works a pretty cushy job, not gonna lie. A lot of Americans working incredibly difficult jobs trying to make ends meet, the government turns their back on them, while John Kirby tells them, shut your mouth, sign the check, and don't expect any accountability from the far right government of Israel. That's what he's saying there. That is what he's communicating there.

And then the Biden administration can't understand why he has such low approval ratings, why young people aren't interested in supporting him, why the Arab American and Muslim voting block in Michigan is giving him the middle finger and refusing to meet up with his campaign officials. Because they don't like you and they don't like what you represent. When you look at Donald Trump and you wonder why a simple America first message resonates so much with people, it's because of stuff like this. It's because they look at our standard politicians, whether they be establishment, left wingers, establishment right wingers, it doesn't matter. Once they're elected, once they're in power, once they're in charge, all we get is excuse after excuse after excuse. We can't do this Senate parliamentarian legislative filibuster.

Sorry, we can't, we can't, we can't, how are we going to pay for it, how are we going to pay for it? The Senate just approved a massive funding bill for Ukraine to the tune of $60 billion and Israel to the tune of $14 billion. Now luckily it's not going to pass in the House. And I say luckily because I don't think we should be sending Israel any money. But there were no excuses. This is the United States Senate where the legislative filibuster exists. What happened? What happened?

There was no talk of a legislative filibuster because it easily passed. It was a bipartisan effort. When it comes to providing our money, our resources to other countries so they can fight their wars, there's no debate. When it comes to social safety programs, social safety net programs in America, when it comes to taking care of our own, lots of excuses. So yeah, Biden, people have turned their backs on you because you've turned their backs on them. You have this clown, John Kirby, doing these clownish press conferences, almost on a daily basis,

embarrassing the American people, embarrassing the American government, and showing America's complicity and support, to be honest with you, of the brutal acts that the IDF is carrying out in the Gaza Strip. That is what's happening right now, period. Finally, I'll leave you with this. Mossad director David Barnia and Shinbet head, Ronin Barr, tried to convince Netanyahu to send a delegation for a follow up talk or follow up talks. This was in Cairo specifically and said that they believe progress can be made on a ceasefire

deal that would allow for the hostages to be released and sent back to Israel. But Benjamin Netanyahu rejected their recommendation. Benjamin Netanyahu never did and never will care about those hostages. Benjamin Netanyahu knows that he's a deeply unpopular prime minister. The calls for him to resign have been growing in Israel, but he wants to cling onto power. He doesn't want to end the war, he doesn't want to ceasefire, because once that ceasefire is over, that's when the chickens are going to come home to roost for Benjamin Netanyahu. So he's willing to sacrifice the lives of those Israeli hostages of countless Palestinian civilians,

civilians, just so he can cling on to power, for what to try to keep Israelis safe? That didn't work out so well, did it on October 7th? He's a total clown. And the only thing, the only person who looks worse than Netanyahu is the one who keeps wiping his ass as he continues to commit war crimes in the Gaza Strip. And that's Joe Biden. That's what Joe Biden does. Absolutely pathetic. And I get it. Oh, Trump is a big threat. So don't, don't talk bad about Papa, Papa Biden. Now, I'm gonna keep doing it because he deserves it. This is pathetic, disgusting, and I won't stand for it. I'm not gonna lie to you about what's going on. We gotta take a break. We'll be right back.

I just love you. Welcome back to the show, everyone. I'm Anna Kasparian and you're watching TYT. During our social break, someone in our super chats had suggested that we look into the flotilla situation between Israel and Palestinians. It happened in like the late aught, so like 2008, 2009. I just wanna say, because we were running out of time, didn't mean to point it you guys and and say you should look it up because we did talk about it back in the day.

But it's an important story to kind of give you more context about this conflict. Anyway, let's move on because we do have a great interview coming up. Joining us now is Jank Yugar, who is still running in the Democratic primary for presidents. And Jank, how you doing? Okay, per good, per good. I hear you guys have an anniversary today. Do we? TYT.

Yes. Yes, today is the 22nd anniversary of the Young Turks. Yeah, I'm kidding around. Happy anniversary to the TYT audience, happy Valentine's Day. Yeah, things are great, we got a new ad. You have one ad. We have one ad. You're one and only ad.

Well, let's see, maybe we'll have a second one, depending on how this one goes. Maybe. Maybe. All right, so do you want to preface it with anything? Yeah, so this is our exclusively, you guys are getting in here first. So, ABC asks, I said, no way, I'm doing it on the Young Turks. So seriously, guys, it's about, well, you know what, I don't want to give it away. I really do want to, is so curious about your genuine reaction.

Then I will have a reaction for like what we can do with it afterwards, but you want to run it? Sure, let's do it. All right. We get all the sandwich stuff for the kids lunch. They don't like turkey anymore. Yeah, I know. What about the bananas? Yeah, I got them too, but honey.

What? You're gonna have to put those eggs back. They don't like eggs anymore? No, they like eggs, but we have to set that $7 aside for killing Palestinians. What? I mean, don't we give Israel $4 billion a year anyways? Yeah, and now we're giving them another $14 billion. Do you know how much that is per American taxpayer?

No. It's like $85 per person. Per person. Apparently, it's costing us a lot of money to drop bombs on Gaza. That's terrible. Yeah. Don't think of universal health care, too? Yeah, they do. We're paying for that too, probably.

Might as well put the bananas back. Why the fuck do we have to pay for all of this? Don't cuss at me. I'm Jake Hugar and I approve this message. Let's save lives together at jankforamerica.com. So what are you trying to do with this ad? So look, the most important thing is if I win any delegates, and I'm in the keeping a real business, okay?

So you have to get to 15% to win any, in any state to win delegates. But if I get delegates, I'm going to use that for two reasons, but the number one reason is peace. So, and as we're going to talk about it a little bit because of a story that broke this week, it turns out those delegates might be super relevant, right? And they might have a lot of power. behind them. So if you want these delegates, I could say to potential different Democratic nominees, you're going to have to agree to stop the bombing in Gaza. And by the way, we want

to end the occupation entirely. And so what I want to do here is draw attention to that. And obviously we're drawing attention to it by pointing out our taxpayer money, we have to put aside that those are real numbers. $7 per month for just the $4 billion, let alone the $14 billion, et cetera, and you have to put it aside from your taxes to kill Palestinians. And so, look, I don't know how the ad is going to be received. It's possible that people look at that and go, whoa, that is over the top. That's crazy. You can't do that in a political ad.

It's possible to look at it and go, hey, yeah, Jenk, I get it. He thinks that we're helping to fund killing Palestinians with our taxpayer money. I'm not surprised by it. Some might think it's not harsh enough. I don't know. I'm super curious. And so what I want to draw attention to that, win votes enough to get delegates and then use those delegates for actually getting you peace. So it's interesting that you are questioning how it'll be received.

I mean, look, I don't know how it's going to be received for sure. But what I thought was interesting was that just yesterday, Matt Walsh, of all people, had a viral post on X where he said that he considers sending money to Ukraine and Israel taxation without representation. Because of the fact that we have no say on how that money is used, there's no accountability for that money, and he feels that the money is better used for the American people. And so this is one of the rare instances where I actually see some agreement with the right and the left. I mean, there's literally nothing else that I agree with Matt Walshahn, but I do agree with his point on that. So I'm curious to see if maybe it would draw some attention from, I wouldn't say moderate Republicans. Modern Republicans tend to be more neocan, you know, type of Republicans. But there is a growing population of Americans who are looking at their situation on the ground here

and really questioning whether it makes sense to send these resources abroad. 100%. So we're going to put the ad up on jankforamerica.com, but we're also going to put it up on all of my personal social media, which we can share with you guys. We're also going to talk about it and how to share it on the town hall. And we have town halls every Wednesday. What that does is it gives people regular updates that nobody else gets about the campaign. campaign and then we strategize together and I take ideas from them and then we implement those ideas so we want you to share this video everywhere but the

reason I bring that up and is because yeah you're right and so that's how you get to the town hall and it's right after the Young Turks anniversary special today so I put the universal health care line in that ad you're gonna be shocked to find out I wrote that other people helped of course but and because I saw how much the audience react to it and I saw how much independence and the right wing also reacted to it. Because it was one thing when I said it cost you $85 to kill Palestinians, right, per year.

It's another thing when I say, hey, guys, they have universal health care and we don't and we're still sending them 14 billion, et cetera. That got people really mad. Like, wait, wait, why are you taking my money and I don't have healthcare? And by the way, also true of paid family leave, also true of many different things that Israel has a really good social safety net. and really good social programs for their own citizens, right? Obviously not for the Palestinians in the occupied territory.

But we are funding all of that when we can't afford, they say we can't afford it. So yeah, that unifies a lot of people. And by the way, then the establishment freaks out and goes, how dare you guys, this is horseshoe theory, and this is the right wing radicals and the left wing radicals getting together? I actually, of course you know me, I don't think so. I think there are right wing and left wing radicals,

but this is no, this is the base of the left wing and right wing, getting together and going, yeah, I don't get any donor money from APEC. I don't get any donor money from Lockheed Martin or Boeing. And so I don't want taxation without representation. I don't want to send money just for the express purpose of killing more innocent civilians. That makes no sense to me. And Anna, the other thing about that is that there's no candidates left that are for that position in the Democratic or Republican Party. Mary Ann Williamson dropped down.

So everyone else in the race in the two major parties are for nonstop killings. For a limited time at McDonald's, enjoy the tasty breakfast trio. Your choice of chicken or sausage McMuffin or McGrittles with a hash brown and a small iced coffee for five bucks plus tax. Available until 11 a.m. at participating McDonald's restaurants. Price excludes flavored iced coffee and delivery. So let's move on because I really want you to get into the conversation about the delegates. Why is the delegate fight so relevant to you, right?

Like you referenced it a little bit, but there's the court case involving Donald Trump getting booted off of ballots because of the 14th Amendment. He is challenging that, of course. You say that's relevant to your race. So let's talk a little bit more about that. I'm very curious what you think is going to arise from this. So there's, so those two different topics. Let's take the delegates first because it's so interesting. So political ran a story that we ran on the Young Turks and explained a couple of days ago

where they explained that Biden might step down after the voting is over. So he secures all ducks. And the minute I read that, I was like, oh, that makes sense. I get it. That's our plan. Because that takes the voters out of their equation. The voters are messy. So they, you know, Democratic voters, who knows if Biden steps down before the voting begins?

Maybe they vote for a progressive. Maybe they vote for someone that the establishment doesn't want. If Biden steps down before the convention, and after the voting is over on June 4th, he can then say, I am now releasing these delegates. Now, he can give them to someone, but then he's going to have a lot of pressure to give them to Kamala Harris, and we all know he doesn't want to give him to Kamala Harris. He's a billion years old. Who cares about pressure? Like, how is this man not in the F-U-all phase of his life yet?

No, I know. I mean, he kind of is. No, no, no, no, he isn't. He's up in us. No, like all politicians are absolutely positively obsessed with his ego. So he's like, my legacy, how's my legacy going to look? Oh, my legacy. That's why he ran for a second term because people at home, they don't know that in Washington

two-term president means you're a historic. One-term president means you're a loser. So Biden was like, ah, me, me, me, me, me. We've talked about that. But now here comes the interesting part. If he does that, he can't hand him over to Kamala, so he's probably not going to hand him over to one person, then that means. you got a delegate fight.

So then all the cast of characters, including the guy you loathe, Newsom, and then Pritzker and Whitmer and all those other folks will come in and go, give me the delegates. Now, they're very establishment delegates the Biden delegates are, handpaked by the Biden team. So they're, of course, going to go for an establishment person. But what if Pritzker and Newsom or Whitmer and Newsom or whoever it is are in a situation where they need an extra 20 delegates to go over the top? an extra 200 delegates, whatever the number is. And I have those delegates because guys,

how are you polling in the states where they're allowing you on the primary value? There's no polls. That's why we have no idea. Okay. So don't get me wrong. Of course it's hard. That's part of the reason why the ad has to go viral. That's why we ask you to share, hashtag ceasefire ad, right? And so, and I want people to understand this. So if you can, hashtag peace delegates, hashtag progressive delegates when we're talking about the delegates. Because Anna, it's not just about peace. So let's say that you've that situation, Governor of Illinois, J.B. Pritzker, Governor of Michigan Whitmer, both are

deadlocked around 2,000 delegates, right, based on the politicking that they did. They come to the us for the extra 100 delegates that's going to put them over the top. Then I go, well, I'm not doing it unless you, A, say you're withdrawing the money from Israel unless they end the bombing. I'm not interested in BS. I'm not interested in later. I'm not interested in anything but actual results, okay? You end the bomb, whoever ends the bomb and gets the hundred delegates. So that's one way to go. Wait, wait, we're up to 100 delegates now?

No, if, if, if, right, I'm saying. But 20, two, whatever the number is that can affect things. Okay. So how we win those we'll get to in a sec. So the other thing you could do is go, hey, you know what? Give me a progressive economic policy position. I want paid family leave. See, an AOC did it again today.

Progressives in Congress, including Bernie, who we love, but they constantly give away their power. They constantly give away their leverage. If I have delegates, then there's nothing in the world stopping me from getting delegates, whether I'm eligible to serve, eligible to run, are all irrelevant for getting delegates because I'm on the ballot in seven states. You go vote for me. I'm in Michigan, write in. So now with a write in, it's super hard, but in Michigan, maybe it's possible, right?

In Vermont, what do you need to get to to get delegates? 15%. So is it easy getting 15%. Even in Vermont? No, it's not. You guys should know that, right? But if this ad comes viral, we break through, people begin to understand, hey, we vote in this direction, and this guy is going to fight like hell for peace. And he might actually be able to deliver it if he gets enough delegates.

We start collecting delegates, and then we have some degree of power. And I'm never going to give away that without getting something significant return for progressives. Okay, so finally, talk to me about why Trump's court battle in regard to his ballot situation is, relevant to you. Yeah. So one of the things that they debated, and there's an article in the Hill today about it is, how are we gonna resolve this? There's a couple of different ways.

One is say, oh, he's not an officer, so technically it doesn't count, et cetera, right? But one of the critical ones, the most important ones is, hey, are the states allowed to decide constitutional issues or not? And the article in the Hill today said they think, and that's just their opinion, the person who wrote that article, that the court is likely to decide based on that issue so that it doesn't go to whether it was or was not an insurrection, that they might want to avoid the topic of whether it's an insurrection. And the way to avoid that is to say, that's it, you can't make any constitutional determinations

if you're at the state level. That doesn't mean that I can serve, but that would mean fairly definitively that I can run. That you can run, and then when it's called into question, your eligibility to run, that'll be adjudicated in the courts. Exactly. Okay. So, and think about this scenario.

Now, I know these are all probabilities and a lot of more low probabilities, but let's say that we do great in Vermont and we get a bunch of delegates. Well, that made news, okay, and by the way, Minnesota is on Super Tuesday. Minnesota is another very progressive state and also Oklahoma and Texas, they're very conservative, but who knows how their Democratic voters are? The Democratic voters in Oklahoma might be mainly minorities who are very progressive, et cetera, right? So if we get those delegates on Super Tuesday and people begin to realize, oh, if I give this brother delegates, he's going to use them for something I really, really agree with, whether he wins or doesn't win.

And you add layer that on top of that, the Trump case goes our way. Wait a minute, then we go to all the other states and go, you got to put me on the ballot. And now we've got 30 more states where I'm on the ballot where I get even more delegates. So look, when I started this hand, as you know, I was under no delusion that this is like, Oh, it's going to be nip and tuck between me and Biden. It was a very long shot, very low problems. But what we're trying to do is create any way, get caught trying, any way to find power and leverage for progressives and for peace,

and to use it and to find opportunities. And that's exactly what we're in the middle of doing, finding these opportunities and taking advantage. So anyone who's involved, we love it. One of the things that we ask for now, info at jankforamerica.com and share in all the ways that you can through my social medias, send us memes. I suck at memes, to be honest with you, okay? Like graphics, video, pictures, whatever you've got. Anything that'll help us go viral with these ideas, with the ad,

et cetera, you're seeing all that there. And by the way, anybody gives over $100 to the campaign, I call them. They're usually shocked what I call them, but I call them in person. And if you, and we now are calling people a certain number of random people who give under 100 to also at jankforamerica.com. I bought a whole bunch of Trump URLs to, Donor Don't.com, Trumpzar.com. I got a lot more where that came from. We'll save that for another day. But here I am getting caught in the middle of trying. All right, cool. All right, everyone. So check out Jenk's social media and also the town hall tonight after the show, after our special at 9 p.m. Eastern time, 6 p.m. Pacific. America.com? Yeah, so the ad will be there, that's the best place.

By the way, when you're wondering, hey, where are the town halls? You go to events and you'll see, if you want to see my interviews, including this one, you go to press, you'll see that. You'll see what our pledge to the, what the progressive delegate pledge will be, what they're going to fight for on our behalf if we get those delegates. And honestly, it's now is more exciting that it's ever been Anna, because the idea of winning is always a super long shot, but the idea of winning delegates is a lot more doable. And now before the delegates, what's the point if you're going to lose?

But now there might be a delegate fight and those delegates might be super valuable. And to be able to use them for the purposes that our audience cares about, the progressives care about, decent people in America care about, it would be an amazing opportunity. All right. Thank you so much, Jenk. All right, thank you. All right, we're going to take a break. When we come back, we'll give you some updates on the special election that took place in New York.

We're right back. Let's get to our next story because, well, something big happened in New York. Some people are complaining about it, but I think it actually makes a lot of sense. Democrat Tom Swazi has officially defeated Mazzi Philip, a Republican, in a special election for George Santos's vacant congressional seat. Now, this is a congressional seat in Long Island. Long Island is not as blue, if you will, or as liberal. as Manhattan is. And that's something to keep in mind as we get to more details about what Swazi did in order to win this congressional seat. Now, first, some context into Swazi, who he is, what he's done in his political past. He is, in fact, a career politician who served as mayor of

Glen Cove, I'm sorry, Glen Cove, New York from 1994 to 2001. After that, he was the Nassau County executive from 2002 to 2009. And then he served as the U.S. congressman out of New York's third district from 2017 to 2022. Then he launched his failed gubernatorial campaign and decided after that failed campaign that he would run for this congressional seat that was left vacant by a liar, George Santos. Now, what's interesting about Swazi's victory is how he campaigned. And he He did so by leaning into the types of issues that progressives and Democrats generally want to run away from or refuse to acknowledge. So mainly he knew to expect some of the attacks and jabs from his political opponents

in regard to immigration and crime. And so he decided to use that to his advantage. Sozi made the migrant crisis a daily focus, along with cutting taxes, fighting crime, and protecting abortion rights. He called for Biden to temporarily close the southern border and sought to show voters that he too saw the problem and wanted it fixed. So in other words, he understood what the demographics were in the area that he was campaigning in. In the district, he was attempting to win over. And so he really did present himself as more of a moderate Democrat as opposed to a firebrand progressive. And to be clear, I don't think someone campaigning as a firebrand

progressive would do well in this district. I think that they would maybe have a chance if they stayed away from some of the cultural issues and instead leaned into economic policy. But that hasn't really been much of a focus in recent races, which is unfortunate. Now, Biden, by the way, in this particular district gets just 29% approval for his handling of the migrant issue, and Republicans have a 12 point advantage on which party would do a better job with it according to the latest NPR pool. And I think it's really important to understand that while it is not in any way okay to be

vicious or basically, I don't agree with some of the hardline anti-migrant policies, including some of which were included in the legislation in the Senate that was destroyed in the House because Trump doesn't want Republicans to pass any, you know, immigration reform that could potentially help Biden in the 2024 election. But with that said, when you look at the influx of migrants in certain parts of the country, namely these blue states and blue cities, the voters there tend to be part of the Democratic voting base and they're frustrated, they're real frustrated. And so Swazi knew that he needed to kind of lean into that frustration,

acknowledge it, and respond to it in a way that would be. appealing for these voters. When the Senate border border compromise was released, by the way, Mazi Philip publicly opposed it and Swazi pounced saying Philip points out there's a problem, a problem, a problem. Swazi said during the race is only debate, but she has no solution. And according to CNN, that message did in fact resonate with voters.

From voters, that they were very, no, these are obviously very, very well informed voters, but they were they were at the polling station. They were voting early. And several of them said to me that they don't want to vote for the Republican because it's clearly impossible to get a solution on the issue of immigration. They said border, the border problem, the immigration issue, the migrant issue in their district was the top issue for them. And that the fact that Republicans killed that bipartisan deal put them over the edge, over the edge to vote for Tom Swazi. Now, Swazi has, I actually think he ran a smart campaign, because again, you have to meet

the voters where they're at. And if the migrant crisis is their top issue, then you do have to address that. But he also addressed other things that I would say progressives agree with, that typical liberal Democrats agree with. He said that he supported codifying Roe v. Wade into law. Do I think that's going to happen? No, I don't. I think Congress is broken. but he at least provided the messaging to the voters there that they found appealing. And some of his views have also led to protest. So look, you guys just heard me say, I think he ran a smart campaign. And I say that as someone who deeply, deeply, deeply disagrees with him on the topic of Israel's war on Gaza.

Okay, I cover it almost every day on the show. You guys know how I feel about it. But nonetheless, he took a look at the demographics in this district, noticed that there is a massive Jewish voting block, about 11%. And so he stated that he is unequivocal in his support for Israel, even going so far as to say that he would have voted for a standalone Israel aid bill that, you know, failed to pass in Congress. Now, that's why his victory speech was protested, and I have to admit, I enjoyed this, but take a look. No justice, no peace, am I right? Geez, look, I like protest. I don't like watching a protester get pushed to the ground like that one did.

And look, when you're protesting, obviously don't put yourself in a dangerous situation where you can get hurt. But I do think it's important for these politicians to hear what other voters are thinking when it comes to the unequivocal support that the US government has provided to Israel. Now, the Jewish Democratic Council of America estimates that this particular district, District 3 in New York, has one of the largest Jewish populations of anywhere in the country. That doesn't mean that every Jewish American is in favor of what's happening in Gaza. In fact, there have been many protesters of Jewish descent who are very much against and have been taken part in protests in regard to what Israel's doing in Gaza. So I want to say that it's not as cut and dry, but I'm guessing they did enough work in figuring

out where the hearts and minds of this massive voting block happened to be. And he decided to show his support for Israel, and it seemed to work out well for him for this election. Now, it's also worth noting that Philip, meaning Mazi Philip, the Republican, was massively outspent. So money played a role as well. Democrats spent nearly $14 million, almost double the GOPs, 8 million investment in the race, according to ad impact. The total ad spent for just this Long Island district totaled an eye-watering, guys, 21. $1.4 million for one congressional seat. That's more than quadruple the outlay of the 2022 race that yielded Santos. I mean, I guess you get what you pay for, right? Because Santos was a disaster. But look, I think that Democrats focused heavily on this race because

they want to increase their numbers in the House. Republicans still have a very slim majority in the House of Representatives. But now that this seat has flipped from Santos. a Republican to Swazi a Democrat, they are increasing their numbers and I guess that money in their minds was well spent. So that's what happened during this race. I totally understand how some people are not in favor of this particular candidate. He's not left wing enough for you. But remember, you're not necessarily in his district and his district's voters might want something different from what you would want to see from your elected lawmakers in your district. And so this is how it plays out. You got to meet the voters.

where they are and this is where they were. Anyway, we got to take a break. When we come back for the second hour of the show, we'll get into some more news, including some lighter stuff. Let's lighten it up. It's been a very heavy show this week, and we do have some lighter stories for you all, and it's going to be a lot of fun. Don't miss it.