The Young Turks - Scary Larry Elder

Episode Date: August 27, 2021

Republicans are advocating for the U.S. to get back into Afghanistan. Trump went on TV to claim he knocked all the ""ISISes"" out, but now they've got ""ISIS-X."" However, no one has ever heard of ISIS-X. James Carville calls the media coverage of Afghanistan ""hysterical and stupid."" Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan would prefer that lawmakers stop using the word “racism” while they are debating the state's voter suppression bill. Some MAGA fans are turning on Larry Elder because he said the 2020 election wasn't stolen. 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. Big my feet. Bigot me. Speed my team! Speed my team! Speed my team!

Speed my team! Dream party! Drapid! Drapid! Power, power, power panel. Hey, Jake Uger, Francesca Furentini. And Jordan, we're taking a deep dive, everybody. Everybody's going diving.

Okay. So you guys know that Jordan's on Twitch directly following the bonus episode on Tuesdays and Thursdays. You know that. You know that. You guys take a deep dive every day. night. Well, on Tuesdays or Thursday nights. I don't know what you're doing on other nights. And Fran, it's just all over. What's up? Abacuation room, 8 o'clock Eastern on Sundays. That's on Twitch and YouTube. You guys know that. And do we do Fantastic Mondays on damage report?

We do. We do. Okay. And so we're going to have a fun slash, of course, This is a disastrous-filled news hour right now, because what else is in the news? Good news? Come on, don't be ridiculous. So good to have you guys. Fran, take it away. Oh, yeah, I got the sad hour. Just fair warning to all the members out there.

The death toll from the bombings outside of the Kabul airport in Afghanistan, carried out by the group ISIS K, during the U.S. evacuation process. from that country has risen to 170 people with at least 200 wounded. That does not include the 13 U.S. service members who were killed and 15 U.S. service members who were also wounded. But a few more updates on that on Friday. The U.S. military revised its account of what happened at the airport a day earlier with Major General William Taylor of the Joint Staff saying, we do not believe that there was a second explosion or near the Barron Hotel that it was

one suicide bomber, but many witnesses reported hearing two blasts. The general also said that, you know, the evacuation process is continuing. So some 11,000 people, American citizens, Afghan allies and foreign nationals have been evacuated from the country since Kabul fell to the Taliban this month. And of course, we had words from President Biden, who is also undeterred in continuing to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan, but then had these. very nostalgic words to say for the purveyors of that attack. Take a look. We will not forgive.

We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay. I've also ordered my commanders to develop operational plans to strike ISIS K assets, leadership, and facilities. We will respond with force and precision at our time, at the place we choose and the place we choose. moment of our choosing. So there you have it, President Joe Biden saying, we will hunt you down and essentially making plans to effectively go back into Afghanistan, although maybe not as much as someone like.

But I just wanted to get Jank and Jordan, your reactions to those words and to what's been happening. All right, well, we've got serious commentary, of course. It's a very serious issue, but I'm gonna lighten it up for one second by saying every time they say ISIS K, I think special K. So I don't know, they got to do something about their name. It doesn't sound very menacing. This is the new ISIS flakes. Okay, anyways, so the problem here, of course, is that cable news is filled wall to wall with neo-conservatives. So the old guard and everybody in Washington only watches cable news. The rest of us are so freaking frustrated with cable news.

And the main thing we do is criticize it. But in Washington, there's still demigods. And so when they see all the government officials and all the generals and all the defense contractors all over cable news shaking their finger at Joe, this is the worst day of your presidency, we need more blood in war, that's why he comes out and says things like this. Is he really going to go back in? I hope not, will they do special forces, drone strikes? Of course they will.

Will they hit the right people sometimes? Will they hit the wrong people? Definitely, right? And so that disaster will continue usually through drone strikes. Jordan. Mm-hmm. I mean, and on that point, if you even dare mention that we kill innocent civilians with drone strikes, they'll lock you up. Like Daniel Hale needs freed just for speaking truth to that issue.

So I also want to thank Fran for even centering people who were killed that are that are Afghans. Like that's something you aren't seeing represented in media across the country. It's it's we had 13 Americans die and then a number of Afghans, even like purportedly more liberal outlets like BuzzFeed were just treating them as an afterthought. So it's important to center Afghan voices in this process. I mean, no other network that I could think of has done more to that to that effort than TYT, Arash Azizada of Afghans for a better tomorrow has been on three different shows on the network work in the past week and a half. Because they, T.Y.T. And I think the progressive independent media

at large understands we should not be listening to the people who got us into this mess in the first place. We need to listen to people who are adversely impacted by our foreign policy and then move forward with a robust reconciliation and aid package to Afghans. Absolutely. But as Jenk mentioned, of course, neocons are back at it. You know, we thought they were gone. But, you know, the zombie movie just continues. It's just like, hand through soil, here they come. And lawmakers from the far right and also from former Democratic administrations are speaking out and saying that apparently we will not forget or forgive and we're going to hunt you down. The words of Joe Biden are not strong enough.

So here is what Mark Green had to say, Representative Green, I believe, on CNN. Straw man for the Taliban, but what do you think the U.S. response to this immediately should be? I think the president of the United States should come out and say all bets are off. The Taliban have absolutely defied this agreement by not securing. They didn't keep their promise to secure the access routes to the airfield. We are going to expand this operation. I'd put more military in there. I'd get every single American out.

And I'd start killing bad guys. Yeah, we were killing. I mean, is he going to continue and say how many good guys we killed? How many wedding parties were drone-striked? No, no, that's obviously not what he means. Just bad guys, good guys. Awesome. Do they know there are two sets of supposed bad guys? We've got the Taliban and ISIS-K. But of course, that was, I just want to read a couple more things. This is down the line on from Republican lawmakers. GOP Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska released a statement urging Biden to reverse course, fight for our people, insisting, quote,

weakness will accelerate bloodshed while pushing the administration to rip up the August 31st deadline, expand the perimeter beyond Kabul. Marsha Blackburn from Tennessee also mentioned a forceful response from the president and saying that he must follow through on his word and make these terrorists pay. Does anyone care what Dan Crenshaw has to say? Fine, why not? He says, this war is clearly not ended. You can't unilaterally end a war. It takes two to tango. Awesome. And these people will never stop fighting us. He said on Fox News Thursday morning, we should retake more airfields through the country. It will take troops on the ground and a complete reassessment of our strategy. The military can do it. We need the political will to do it. also echoed by Senator Lindsey Graham, let's bring up his tweet saying, I urge the Biden administration to reestablish our presence in Bagram as an alternative to the Kabul airport so that we do not leave our fellow citizens and thousands of Afghan allies behind.

It is not a capacity problem, but a problem of will. I honestly, after 20 years, I don't know which is which at this point, Mr. Graham. But did we expect this rush of neoconservatives to come in? even though this is a plan that President Trump had put into play before he left? Well, so here's the deal. Do neoconservors exist in the world? Of course they do, right? And we know Lindsey Graham and Crenshaw are bloodthirsty, and they are always going to push for more and more endless wars.

That's not the question. The question is do you platform them and then do you platform them to the exclusion of everyone else? And then on top of that, you know the three quarters of the country is for withdrawal. 73% in a poll, right? So do you put three quarters of your experts saying we should get out of the war, but I have got issues with the exit? Or do you do what cable news has done and make 99% of your experts pro-war, neoconservative warhawks.

So the cable news has done something ironic here. It has united the left wing and the right wing in a nearly miraculous fashion. And here comes the extra miracle layered on top, even some neol liberals who are Biden fans going, well, this is absurd. This is just wall-to-wall propaganda for more war. Thank you for finally waking up and realizing that's all the cable news does. I mean, look at that horse crap, they peddled. By the way, every time these guys come on, these warhawks, they're never challenged.

Never. I'm going to get back into that in a second. But I just wanted to draw attention to two of the quotes that you heard. First guy said, we've got to go in and kill more bad guys. And what a purposely dumb thing to say. Like, okay, yeah, but who, who are the bad guys? How do we kill them? And if it was that easy, why didn't we do it over the last 20 years?

But why? Like Fran was referring to, were we accidentally killing good guys? Yes, so is that your confession, right? Or were you not sure, good guys or bad guys? Who do we kill? Just, you simpletons. And then there's no reporters on television. And then they sit there and go, oh, okay, good analysis by our expert.

should kill more bad guys instead of if you're like anyone who's 10% reporter would then turn around the guy and say, excuse me, but what do you mean by killing more bad guys? What a dumb thing to say. Anyway, and then Crenshaw, he says these people will never stop fighting us. I love that irony. He says we should never stop fighting them. And then he says, they will never stop fighting us. No, you schmuck, you're making the argument that we should never stop fighting them. And it's like the oldest, and by the way, bigoted, Islamophobic, you name it, a talking point there is. All these people understand as violence. It's the same reason Israel's been doing occupation for decade after decade. Palestinian is Muslims. All they understand

is violence. That's why we have to commit violence upon them endlessly. I'm so sick of it. By the way, I have a different idea. I'll just run by you guys real quick. How about we get out of the and let the Taliban and ISIS K fight one another. Oh, then that way the bad guys kill each other instead of us standing in the middle and taking all the bullets. But don't say it on TV, don't say it on TV. Logic, facts, and reason, not allowed on cable news. Yeah.

I also want to point out that Leon Panetta is never mentioned when he's introduced or providing analysis that he is a, he's a defense contractor. The Intercept has done a great job following the former defense intelligence officials who've been making the rounds on cable news to call for a further engagement in Afghanistan or in the Middle East at large without disclosing their ties to the military industrial complex. Beacon Global Strategies is where Leon Panetta is a senior advisor. That's a defense contractor. But that rhetoric you're seeing, that language you're seeing, kill the bad guys. And also there was a tweet that went around yesterday from a conservative commentator Todd Stearns that said, for every one America killed, we need to destroy. an entire Afghan village. That kind of mindset is genocidal and rooted in a jingoism that infects our foreign policy, where we see people around the world as inferior and subhuman, where their lives, if they die, even to an existential amount more than Americans, is just totally dismissed.

They're never given the same sort of dignity or respect that Americans are. And it also implies, like, we gotta kill the bad guys, that our cause is always noble and just. And now we're talking about an invasion. Think about that. Think about how little that makes sense. So to push back on that rhetoric is important, but you're never going to see that on CNN. And in many cases, not even on MSNBC. Yeah, I just wanted to jump in and say, you know, I think a lot of us have imagined that the neoconservative sort of war hawk mindset was kind of like, you know, on the back burner a little bit, considering that Trump was one of the only Republican candidates in 2016 to actually like speak against the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, right? And that seemed to be gaining traction.

And you got to realize that, like, America first and that jingoism is not about not intervening. It's about when you intervene, just bludgeoning. It's about more bombs, more strikes. We know that Trump up to the number of drone strikes in Afghanistan and Pakistan. And so it is, it is not this, what they don't have is the idea that we should nation build, right? Like that's sort of a neoliberal line. That's sort of a benevolent, you know, global cop. line of the Clintons. Like, let's go spread democracy. Republicans don't have any interest in

democracy. I think both are interventionist and both are wrong, but it is interesting to remember that like at their heart, they're like, oh, no, no, no, war good, more war, just more dead people. But you mentioned Leon Panetta, Jordan, and I want to go to him. Obviously, he's not disclosing his weapons manufacturers ties here and his lobbyist ties to the weapons industry. But he has been making the rounds. Here he is on Meet the Press. This is former CIA director, Leon Panetta. We can't just say the hell with Afghanistan at this point because the fact is the president yesterday said we have to go after ISIS. We have to go after those who are involved in this attack. That's going to require counterterrorism operations to go after them. The same thing's going to be

true with al-Qaeda. I think the likelihood is that al-Qaeda will re-establish itself with the Taliban. we're going to have to go after al-Qaeda. So the work in Afghanistan is not finished. We are going to have to find ways to go after terrorists wherever they are. You go, Leon. You go. Can we talk? Can we just say this? You and Dan and like Martha Blackburn. You just, you guys can all go. If you want to go in Afghanistan, you volunteer, you be in the front lines. But thoughts on this. You know, I mean, this is again, it's like we can. never get out of the of the wars, the so-called Forever Wars, Leon Panetta earlier is saying, you know, that's the thing with the war on terror. We can never end it. Essentially, we can never

end it. Really misunderstanding how and why the war on terror even began, right? That is because of interventionist strategies around the world that has destabilized countries that has led to more extremism. It's because of the murdering of the moderates of not negotiating with the Taliban when we had a chance to, that we have been in a situation that led to things like the creation of ISIS in the first place, and now spin-off letters of ISIS. Yeah, so Leon Panetta is an excellent example of what cable news does wrong, and he was all over television. So the guy was former CIA director, former defense secretary, by the way, under Obama, and

Obama continued this disastrous war for eight years, and apparently we didn't do any government building. We didn't build a military of Afghanistan at all. It was under Obama as well as under Bush and under Trump. Everything we did in Afghanistan was a complete another failure that felt apart in 11 days. So the correct question to Leon Panetta is, can you account for your failures? And I'm not saying this hyperbolicly or rhetorically or like a gotcha. No, it's a real question. For all that time, when you were the CIA director, the intelligence you gave to the American, to the president and to the American people was that we were doing great in Afghanistan. We just need to stay a little longer, just stay a little longer.

And we were doing terrific and everything was going to be fine. And then when you were defense secretary, you wanted to stay longer and longer and longer and longer. And what did we get for it? Nothing, nothing but wasted lives, wasted money, dead civilians. And so you're bringing him on and you're not mentioning that failure? That's unbelievable. If there were any journalists on television, they would say, but Secretary Panetta, we do have to ask, you are an enormous part of what happened in the occupation in Afghanistan.

And given that the government fell apart instantly, isn't it your fault that you couldn't help Afghanistan put together a decent government and military? after 20 long years, how do you account for your miserable failure? Instead, they're like, oh, tell us how we need more wars and more disastrous failures and incompetence like you did. It's just sickening. The only segment that apparently that cable news did was Brian Stelter did a segment with Matthew Dowd, who's a former, I don't know if he's still a Republican or former Republican

and Amanda Marcotte, and they both question, hey, maybe we should have somebody on cable news that is against the war, like three quarters of the country. But no one listened, and they continue to bring on hawk after hawk, and the anti-war position is never going to be representing cable news, because they're enormously biased. No. I did want, Jordan, yeah, go ahead. I just wanted to add, I mean, so last night we had Spencer Ackerman on Deep Dive, who just published Rain of Terror, and I would highly recommend that it's a great look at the the post 9-11 era and how it destabilized our society and created the conditions that Trump exploited to rise to power.

But within that, after finishing it, you see several characters pop up time and time and time again to justify the worst attributes and the worst endeavors of the American Imperial Project. And I think it underscores how nobody is ever going to face accountability for any of this. We have hundreds of thousands of people dead as a result of an invasion and another war based on lies. And the former was, you know, sold to us as the good war, right? You know, Iraq got a little bit more murky. But this was, you know, in the immediate aftermath of 9-11, and now all of those same people who sold us this war on lies, who killed a hundred or hundreds of thousands of people are still on TV saying we need to stay in there.

And you even have Lloyd Austin, the Secretary of Defense, bragging about our ability to strike anywhere around the world, diplomatic tours. So we're not going to, we're not going to end our war in Afghanistan. It's just going to transition to a more unseen area. unmanned effort because it's much easier to sell that way when you don't have people coming home in body bags. Now I gotta say one last thing, they live in such a bubble and in such enormous group thing.

That they genuinely, nobody even thinks, maybe we should ask Panetta or Ryan Crocker was on. And he was ambassador to Afghanistan, he was also ambassador to Iraq. He was under Bush and Obama was like, oh, I love Bush's war, let's continue it in the terms of Afghanistan. Oh, I'll take Crocker, the war, the hawk there and put him in Afghanistan and we'll win in Afghanistan. And it never occurs to any of the journalists on television to ask, hey, didn't Crocker screw this up? Didn't Panetta screw this up? What didn't, we're all criticizing the exit. Almost all of our guests are saying we should stay longer. But wait a minute,

we stayed for 20 years. And it's just none of the producers, none of the host, none of them thought, hey, maybe I should ask a question of these, of one of these guys. didn't you also do something wrong in those 20 years? And to me, the fact that they don't even realize that they're in that bubble and that they have that unbelievable bias that the rest of us cannot stand, the fact that they can't see it is almost more damning. No, and also talk to a veteran. Look, stop your intelligence what's wrong.

It's been wrong for years and years and years. That's why Kabul fell in 11 days. So talk to a vet who was on the ground. Talk to a combat vet. They'll tell you the reality, but it's so laundered through generals up the chain and through contractors and everyone looking to get a little piece and a little bite that you never actually are told the reality. And yeah, the status quo is let's just continue to stay in Afghanistan and slowly lose this war. I do want to turn, though, to ISISK itself because I don't want to undermine or undercut the fact that they are dangerous. ISIS K claimed responsibility for the attack in Kabul that claimed 170 lives plus 15 U.S. servicemen. And they have actually been doing these kinds of attacks in months past.

Sadly, we have not seen them on the front pages or on television screens in all of these months. So I wanted to show you a little bit about some of the things that they've done and some of the destruction. last November they targeted Kabul University and they are also believed to be responsible for a horrific attack on a maternity ward and a predominantly Shiite neighborhood in the capital home to the Hazara minority 16 women and two babies were killed in May a car bombing killed 80 school girls right 80 children were killed and yet I didn't hear peep from any of these generals about what to do in that case, of course. That was all fine and good. Let's just continue that. Let's just continue to let, you know, ISIS, you know, like run amok and use the U.S. occupation as grounds to continue their violence and recruitment. I do just want to put a little bit of context in here. This is according to Amira Judun and Andrew Minds, who've been studying ISIS K's rise in Afghanistan. Their goal is to create chaos and uncertainty in a bid to push disillusioned fighters from other groups to their ranks and to cast doubt on any ruling government's ability to provide security for the population.

Well done. They see the Afghan Taliban as its rivals. They brand the Afghan Taliban as, quote, filthy nationalists with ambitions only to form a government confined to the boundaries of Afghanistan. This contradicts the Islamic State's movement's goal of establishing a global caliphate. So that's a little bit of the why, right? some of the stuff we're not really hearing about on cable news now. And these strange bedfellows and all of the diplomatic ways that, that yes, the United States and the global community has a responsibility to not only get people

out of Afghanistan, to allow them to resettle in their countries, but also try and set up the new Afghan government, even if it is run by the Taliban, for some amount of success. And I know that's hard to say. And I know, you know, like, you don't have to be on board with the Taliban's politics at all. But these are the things that have been going on while the entire world's back was turned on that country. Yeah, so I have a novel idea. Why don't we get out of the middle of their shooting and let them shoot each other? And so the idiots on television are, and a lot of the politicians are saying, no, we should stand right in the middle of their bullets.

And we should go back in Afghanistan, Lindsey Graham, Dan Cronshaw, all the people we showed you earlier, saying, yeah, so that way we'll get hit by the Taliban because we're violating the deal that we have, and we're staying longer in Afghanistan, and then they'll continue to hit us. And ISISK loves hitting us, and they'll continue to hit us. Or, or, or, we get out and they hate each other, they kill each other instead of us. They really think that's a novel idea. And they think, oh, that idea makes no sense. We should definitely. be in someone else's country. So both terrible factions instead of killing each other should focus on killing us. No left winger believes that, no right winger believes that. And again, even neoliberals are now saying like, I don't know, man, that doesn't make any sense, right? The only ones left are neo-conservatives, which run almost all of the mainstream media. Yep. So it looks like we've got to take a break. So I got the break side.

So we're going to take a quick break here, guys. And we'll come back and give you more news. All right, back on TYT, Jank, Francesca, and Jordan with you guys. Let's take another deep dive into another topic. Go ahead, Fran. Oh, it's a little bit of the same. But okay. So not everyone on cable news is getting the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan wrong.

Some are being honest about it. Some and those who you least expect, like Mr. James Carville, long time Democratic strategists, who went off on President Joe Biden's critics following the suicide bombing near the Kabul airport that killed 170 Afghans and 15 U.S. servicemen. Take a look at this. Do midterm voters in 2022 carry foreign policy along with them when they go to vote? Well, first of all, there's no elegant way to lose a war. We lost this war 15 years ago.

All Joe Biden was doing is telling us what time it is. And the hysterical and stupid coverage in the main street press, it's just, it's been awful. Just read New York Magazine, a Josh Marshall on talking point. What's heard in Biden's approval now more than anything is this virus has come back when people thought that it was not. But it's kind of hard to know in Badman Bullen, who's one of the most courageous people in the uniform who said, look, I was just wrong about this in 2011.

Only one of the few people in this whole establishment that recognized the fact that this was a lost war and invited him to do anything but tell us the truth. So there you have it. Actually some introspection, especially coming from the Democratic side, about how this war had been lost 15 years ago is what Carville said. He's risking throwing his own party under the bus, the Democrats, Obama under the bus, and he's doing it.

He's being honest, and he's saying what generals have said for many, many, many years now, which is that there is no elegant way to lose this war. We are losing this war. And sad and awful that this attack happened, but this is kind of how it goes, right? And the last thing we need to do is lose more. lives in a bad and foregone war. Yeah, I love the comment there where he said, Joe Biden's just telling us what time it is. That's true, and it's a good way of framing it. Look, I often disagree with Carville because he's very establishment in his politics and not a big fan of progressives and primaries, that's for

sure. But the good part of Carville is he does his own version of truth telling. It's his truth, right? And sometimes it is true and sometimes it isn't, but at least he's not afraid to say it. And so in this case, he's right. He agrees with three quarters of the country. And, you know, how long were we going to go? Would the 21st year have made any difference? And I love that he was a rare guest on cable news that called out how terrible mainstream media was. And it's deeply ironic coming from an establishment figure like Carville, but we're doing a story on it because it almost never happens. The last time it happened was what he referenced, Admiral Mullen, and we did a story on that. So that's how rare an anti-war voice is on cable news. It's wall-to-wall, pro-war

forever and ever and ever. And again, they've ironically united the left wing and the right wing, and some neoliberal like James Carville, who are saying enough, man, how many, how much are you guys going to drive this agenda? It's so obvious that you don't care about any of the rest of us and what we think. I think this is more of a blind squirrel finding a nut. Carvel is a total team player. He works for Democrats. He works for super PACs. As Jench just referenced, he loses his mind during primaries.

If anyone tries to run on a progressive platform. I mean, remember, this is somebody who thought Michael Bennett would be a good candidate for the Democratic nomination. So this is where he's at. But he's not reaching this from a point of moral conviction. It's just he has to defend Biden because that's what he does professionally. That's it. He's not reaching it like Fran or Jank or I am. We're just, we find this to be bad. But polling reflects that the majority of Americans do not want us to be there and support the withdrawal. Even with this catastrophic fallout, people still support it. There was a widely panned morning consult poll that framed the question of leaving around.

Would you still support the withdrawal, even if you knew it meant al-Qaeda would gain a foothold? You could see another terrorist attack. And still, a majority of respondents supported the withdrawal. I would be surprised if James Carville supported de-escalating tensions with countries in the East, you know, avoiding a new Cold War and encouraging diplomacy with countries like China and Russia, which I don't suspect he'll do, because that seems to be the next step for the military industrial complex. If James Carville did that, I would be surprised. I totally agree that it's a little refreshing. It's always annoying when you've got knee-jerk

defense of the president because it's Gene Blue, blah, but like at least Carville's consistent, unlike so many others in the media right now and so many other like former generals or former CIA, Leon Panetta, you know, or Republicans who up until Biden was in office were all four. pulling out of Afghanistan because it was Trump's plan. It's like, no, no, Carville's just, yeah, he's got the line, and he's sticking with the line. And he happens to be right. And Jordan's right that it's like has nothing to do with his care or concern for the Afghan people whatsoever. It's just we lost.

Yeah, and Biden's telling us kind of, I can't say like it is because that's a Trumpism, but he's being honest. Thank you for being honest. Yeah. It's a couple of last things here. First, I mean, look at this. As I've said throughout the week, we're defending Biden on this decision. And we were dead set against Biden in the primaries.

And we're also dead set against them on all the things that he's wrong about. $15 to $100 million in wage, which he doesn't actually want, caving into Republicans on domestic issues, we can go on and on. But for God's sake, it's not that hard to be honest. It's not that hard to be fair and objective and actually care about the facts. And that's why us being the exception proves the rule. It's like, it's so stark. They clearly have an agenda on television, and the agenda is war.

It's so obvious. All right, so, and part of that is they say, oh, do you know the polling numbers have now turned on Biden? Yeah, it might have to do with the fact that everyone in the media has turned on Biden because he's withdrawing from a war. So you've got a chicken and egg situation where you're like, oh, golly gee, I wonder why his poll numbers are plummeting after we're all attacking him mercilessly for doing the right thing for once. And then finally, who's attacked us more at home? The Taliban in the last decade or right-wing domestic terrorists? Now, do you ever hear on cable news about what are we going to do about the scourge of right-wing terrorism in this country? I mean, we had the truck bomber the other day. We've had the guys who were trying

to bomb the apartment building in Kansas. We had January 6th. We have one attack after cops murdered throughout the country by right wingers. So the Taliban has never done that kind of damage to America. Remember, the idea of going into Afghanistan was not because people from Afghanistan and the Taliban did 9-11. The people who did 9-11 were the Saudis. 15 out of the 19 hijackers were Saudis, right? It's that they said, oh, they sheltered al-Qaeda. Now remember, then offered up al-Qaeda, and we refused. The Taliban then offered a surrender, and that's not a progressive site saying. That's in New York Times in a recent story.

They offered to surrender, and we refused. So the Taliban, how many times have they attacked us versus the right-wing terrorists in this country? But you never hear that framing on cable news, because, oh, my God, we might lose advertisers because they want to sell products to the right wing. We might lose ratings. And if we don't do more war, Boeing might pull up. It's advertising for meet the press, et cetera. So understand the right wing sometimes their media just makes up lies.

The mainstream media is more sophisticated. It's all in the framing. What do they show you and what do they not show you? And that's where the trick is. Absolutely. I think we have to break, Jank. Another break. Okay.

So we have more passion and truth. to the best of our abilities when we return. All right, back on TYT, Jake Francesca and Jordan with you guys. Just two quick notes here. One, apparently the crazy folks at ShopTYT are doing back to school. So 20% off. We're already back to school.

What are you guys doing, man? We're going to get bankrupted by this. Go nuts. Panic right now. Go to shopt.com. and get things while they're 20% off. And then I like Naudius Maximus in our member section saying the first night and weeks I can spend some serious time with TYT, I'll put on Barry White and pour the wine.

Wow, that is no, that is naughtiest Maximus, isn't it? Okay, I don't know how I feel about that. No, I do. It's awesome. Go for it. All right, Fran. All right, let's get through this story. Voting is underway in California over whether to recall Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom.

an election that's costing taxpayers, $215 million, even though, that's right. There's another gubernatorial election next year. But this is not just whether Californians want to recall the governor. It is whether they and who they want to replace him with, should they vote to recall him. So there are 46 candidates on the ballot. Newsom's name is not on that second portion of the ballot, meaning whichever candidate gets the most votes could replace Newsom, even if that candidate gets far fewer votes than the number of people who vote. voted to keep him. Does that sound undemocratic? It is. And let's look at the graph of how close

it is currently. Voting is beginning, but it ends on September 14th. Here we have Newsom pretty much neck in neck with a three point lead over defeating the recall. And this is according to 538. Who is leading the candidates among the 46 to replace Governor Newsom? That would be Mr. Larry Elder, a conservative radio host who doesn't believe in a minimum wage or climate change. And he's leading by 13 points, excuse me, with I think about 21% of the vote for the recall. But Larry Elder is in a little bit of hot water recently with the MAGA crowd over his views of the 2020 election. This was him just a couple weeks ago on August 9th about whether he thinks the election in 2020 was stolen from Donald Trump or not. Take a look.

Do you believe Joe Biden won the 2020 election freely and fairly? I do believe that Joe Biden won the election fairly and squarely. Okay. Cool. That makes sense in reality. But in unreality where MAGA folks live, that is a big faux pa. And a lot of folks who are energized about the CA recall are Republicans who are supportive of Donald Trump. So let's take a look at Jenna Ellis's tweet who writes, Larry Elder, oh wait,

sorry, wait, wait, wait, wait, do not do what I just said. Okay, so that was Larry Elder, we just saw him August 9th. Here he is on August 14th on a morning a.m. show called Morning Answer, and this is him asking for forgiveness for what he just said a week earlier. clarify here so people know from your own mouth what was said and what you think about the 2020 election sure sure and thank you for giving me the opportunity i also would recommend that you take a look at an article in newsweek they came out yesterday written by paul bond because he called and asked me the same thing do i believe that joe biden won the election fair and square give me a mulligan on that one jan and grant no i don't give me a mulligan on that one no i don't how quickly they

turn when they see that folks like Jenna Ellis, let's bring up this tweet, are getting pretty mad. Larry Elder attempts a mulligan on the Biden, fair and square comment, and still goes into the sand trap. Rules of the game shouldn't wear flip flops while playing. No idea what that means, Jenna. I feel like all you guys were doing in Trump's attempt to overturn an election was wearing flip flops. Just flip flops on a rainy day on top of like, you know, tiled sidewalk. The point is, She then has another tweet. Her recall answer is yes, and vote for Kevin Kylie, one of the many, many Republicans coming out and trying to vie for this spot. So Larry Elder attempts to bring Republicans in California into reality. He's leading in the polls, and then he gets struck down and quickly changes his tune. What do y'all think, does this matter when it comes to all the Republicans who are fired up about this recall?

So I have a couple of things here. First of all, this reminded me of something I haven't ever recently. Larry Elder playing the role of Kyle Kalinsky, Jenna Ellis playing the role of Jimmy Dorr. I do not accept your apology. You have not been pure enough. We need Jimmy Morrison. Okay. Maybe you've got to do that wide eyes.

So, yeah, you can't ever convince the so-called purists, and in this case, they're purely insane. And in this case, that's the majority of the Republican Party. So you think Larry Elder is switching because of a rando like Jenna Alice? Jenna Alice is like should be in an asylum. All the things she said during the election and after the election, none of it was true. It was all totally unhinged. And it was bizarre. And she's a legitimate player in the Republican Party.

And so I think what, so look, I remember debating Larry Elder all the way back in 2004 at one of the conventions. We were so loud in fighting back and forth that there was a giant crowd gathered around us, okay? But back then, the Republican Party was awful, hideous, but not fully insane. And so hence, Larry Elder was deeply conservative. and totally pro-war and all the things that we fought about, but gave no indication of being mentally unbalanced. And so, like, at that time, he wasn't even saying terrible things about black people, okay, because that's the Republican Party had not gone full racist, full crazy yet.

So now he slips every once in a while and says something sane. And then he's like, I need a mulligan, I need a mulligan, I just, I forgot, I'm so sorry, I forgot we were having a convention at the mental asylum. And so the inmates didn't like what I said. I meant, yes, smear the food all over yourself, especially in your face and your ears. And the crowd goes, I say, right? And so I love to see it. Yeah, vote for Kevin Kiley or something.

I don't know, split your vote. Be insane. Go for it. I mean, this is kind of what they wanted, but now it's out of control. Like, you know, they stoked these coals for years. They've, you know, winked and nodded and blue kisses at conspiracy theories because they thought it would help enrich their base and get people to the polls, if they're fired up over Q&N, if they're fired up over Pizza Gate, these types of dangerous and in some instances, violence, violent conspiracy

theories, and that just kept snowballing and it gained steam. And now you have a rabid, frothing base who wants more, who if you do not accept their alternate reality, you're not, you're not one of them. And I think you're going to have, you know, hopefully, a faction in the Republican Party that breaks away from it, but then it ultimately splits their vote because they just can't reconcile these two different camps. You have people who are just completely detached and untethered from the rest of the world who believe that there's a cabal under a pizza shop who believe that someone is on a message board telling them all of these government secrets and everyone's being killed and rounded up. And then you have people who just

flat out deny reality and accepting election results. You can't come back from that. You're not going to be able to deprogram this giant cluster within your base. So they got what they wanted in the in the short term. They got a robust, you know, turnout for Trump in 2016. But that is so, so gone now. They are, these people are lunatics. Yeah. And just to that point, Now there is word that, you know, because of all the misinformation and all the mistrust that was sowed about the 2020 election, that a lot of Republicans in California think that, let's be real, even though this is stacked in their favor. This is 100% stacked in Republicans' favor of this California recall. All they have to do is get a plurality of votes. They could get like 11% and still win against if Newsom loses by 49%, right? 49% vote to vote to. keep him and 51 vote to recall, they could still win with that. But because they've been fed so many lies about the electoral process, a lot of them are thinking and wondering whether or not their vote even counts.

So that's sort of what, you know, these Trumpers in this state are going through. They want to bring out their base. But I want to shift to just what it means for progressives and for folks on the left and bring up, you know, this CA recall why it matters and give some analysis from the legal of pissed off voters in San Francisco, which are great. And they basically explain that there is no serious candidate running to replace Governor Newsom and that the strategy right now is no. And if we want to prevent someone like Larry Elder from becoming the next governor of California and rolling back any amount of small progress that this state actually has made. So they write,

there aren't many serious candidates among the 46 on the ballot. None of the Democrats endorsed by the are endorsed by the CA Democratic Party. They plump for the strategy. all in on Newsom surviving because of fears that running a real candidate would hamper Newsom's efforts to hang on. When the same drama played out almost 20 years ago, this is important context. Serious Democrat Governor, Lieutenant Governor Cruz, Bustamante, was in the mix to replace Governor Gray Davis. Some people think that his campaign made Davis look bad. Ultimately, Davis was defenestrated and a telegenic Republican, Arnold Schwarzenegger, became the governor. So that is why there is no backup because the idea is it would confuse voters.

For those who, just to be just a hundred on this, you know, a lot of immigrants' right groups are pointing to the fact that when Arnold Schwarzenier came in, guess what he did? He revoked driver's licenses for undocumented people in this state. And that was a big coup for the right and it was something that immigrant rights groups had to work against for years to get back those rights. Meanwhile, you've got Gavin and Newsom who actually expanded health care and Medicaid coverage to undocumented immigrants, something that personally I agree with as a progressive. So I just want to put that out there that like the strategy from the from everyone from the grassroots left to even Gavin Newsom, who a lot of us do not support or do not like, is vote no on the recall and leave the second blank, vote whomever you want, write in your own name. It doesn't like that's not a part of the strategy. Whether or not's going to work, we will see. And there is an election next year. But it is all incredible.

to be honest with you, frustrating from a California perspective. Yeah, so I want to be clear about a couple things. I don't agree with Democratic strategy and I don't agree with their analysis. So I agree on vote no on the recall because what do you want? You want a Republican governor? That's not going to make things better, it's going to make things worse. That's not complicated. That's easy to understand.

And then for God's sake, let's put together an awesome primary against Gavin Newsom for the election coming up in 2022. And when the Democratic Party, by the way, in California, which they get, I guarantee you they will. We'll say, oh, how dare you? There should be no Democratic challenge to the awesome Gavin Newsom, who's on the verge of losing a recall against a rando number one, right? Who just absolutely sucks at his job and is totally a neoliberal that serves as corporate donors. And they'll say, how dare you do a primary challenge? I don't give a damn about it. We're going to do a primary challenge.

I guarantee it right now. And we're going to take down Gavin Newsom. but we're going to do it the right way. Putting Larry Elder in makes no sense, obviously, right? But now that being said, the Democratic strategy of let's not run anyone else and cross our fingers, I think that strategy sucks. And I'll tell you the other reason why they're doing that strategy. It's not just because of Cruz Bustamante, which I'll get into in a second.

It's because, well, they don't control the other Democrats in the race. And they don't control any of the Democrats that were willing to get in the race. And the California Democratic Party is as authoritarian as almost any party in the country. And they do not tolerate anyone that they cannot 100% control. The leaders of the party do not brook any dissent. So that's why they're not like, oh my God, oh, this is a brilliant strategy, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. No. And now finally, back to Cruz Bustamante and that election.

They said, oh, no, Shortsenegger won because Bustamante took votes away from Gray Davis accidentally. Do you guys remember any of that? Maybe you don't because it's a long time ago. I covered it. Cruz Bustamante was like a schleppy accountant. He didn't take votes away from anybody. He was like the biggest dork anybody's ever seen. The other guy was Arnold Schwarzenegger.

He won because he was a celebrity. Everybody knows that. I'm not going to Kuz Bustamante. He got like three votes. No, that's absurd. That's not what happened at all. It's revisionist history because California Democratic leadership will never tolerate a progressive or anyone else that they cannot control 100%. Yeah, I think listen to Fran and Jenk here. I acknowledge that I don't live in California, so it doesn't affect me that much.

But I do think it's important that someone like Larry Elder is not governor of California. He's somebody who wants a zero dollar minimum wage, whether that's feasible or not from his position remains to be seen. I doubt it. But he is, you know, he's a. opposed the Americans with Disabilities Act, but something he could do is repeal mask mandates and vaccine mandates. So that would have a direct impact, a material impact on voters' lives in California, on everyone in California's lives. And even if they travel around the region, around the country, your life. So that is a very short-term consequence of Larry Elder becoming governor of California. You see it play out in schools. Without mask mandates, kids are getting sick and spreading it. And while they, you know, they might not die from it at the same rates as older people or people who are immunocompromised, they can bring it home and spread it to their friends and family. We do not want that. Like this is a matter of public health. And whether you like Newsom or not, and I don't, I still don't think Larry Elder should be governor of California. It's really simple. Anyone treating it like a binary, like a no vote means you like Newsom and support everything he does is reckless. Do not pay attention to anybody who's trying to treat it like that. If you vote note, leave the second issue blank, it's fine.

Yeah, and it's funny that we're talking about a mulligan, because literally the recall is just a mulligan. Let's be real. Republicans started this recall before supposedly their reasoning is the lockdowns and, you know, saving lives, you know, and mask mandates. No, they started the recall because John Cox, who ran as a Republican against Gavin Newsom, was, you know, for lack of a better term, but heard about it. And that's why they started the recall.

And so the entire process is bogus. But I personally, last thing I'll say, if we save Newsom's ass, he owes us big. If he taxed right, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, goodbye. Like, goodbye anyway, but you're not tacking right. I know grassroots organizations who are calling, knocking doors, they're coming out for you. What are you doing for the unhoused, the undocumented, what are you doing for working people in California? What are you doing for climate change? We need to see you in action.

Look, guys, I just, I know that there's a lot of simpletons left in the world. But this is not at all complicated. What's your alternative? Gavin Newsom doesn't exist in a vacuum. So if your alternative is a wonderful progressive, then I vote for the wonderful progressive. If your alternative is a lunatic right winger who's going to immediately take away masks, et cetera, and endanger our lives, why is that a hard question? So yeah, as you can tell, none of us like Gavin Newsom, it's not even close.

I think he's a total corporatist, I can't stand him, and you'd be nuts not to primary him from the left when we have a real governor's election in California. But why would you vote to recall him when you have no alternative? It just makes no sense. And sadly, there is no strategy. I mean, and, you know, look, everyone vote your heart. I'm not, no one's chastising anyone, but if there was like a strong progressive I know what I'm saying like if there was a progressive running who there was a movement behind

and enough support behind okay but the polling is the polling this is a Republican recall they love this they're coming out of the woodworks for this stuff I didn't say a bad word but you know they're coming out of the woodwork so you know again vote how you want to vote on that second question it honestly is not going to make a difference sadly at this point All right, we're out of time. Everybody check out the bituation room. That's France show on YouTube and Twitch. Everybody check out Fantastic Mondays on the damage report.

Okay, that's obviously 1 p.m. Eastern every day. And then deep dive with Jordan. You'll dive in Tuesday and Thursdays at 8.30 p.m. Eastern. Jordan's also with move on. Now, when we come back, there's a freedom rally in Texas. No mask, no vaccines, okay? you want to know what happened to the leader of that freedom rally come right back

thanks for listening to the full episode of the young turks support our work listen ad-free access members only bonus content and more by subscribing to apple podcasts at apple dot co slash t yt i'm your host jank huger and i'll see you soon