The Young Turks - Scrooge McTrump

Episode Date: December 27, 2024

Trump Fires Off Christmas Day Message Raging At Biden’s Pardons, Slamming ‘Radical Left Lunatics,’ And Mocking Trudeau. What to know about the death of a woman who was set on fire in a New York City subway train. Outgoing Rep. Cori Bush gets candid about her time in Congress and how progressives should respond to 2024. The Biden administration just delivered a sweetheart deal to its friends at McKinsey. " HOST: Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur), Sharon Reed (@SharonReedLive) SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE ☞  https://www.youtube.com/@TheYoungTurks FOLLOW US ON: FACEBOOK  ☞   https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER  ☞       https://twitter.com/TheYoungTurks INSTAGRAM  ☞  https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK  ☞          https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕MERCH  ☞      https:/www.shoptyt.com 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. All right, welcome to the Young Turks, Jank Uger, Shan, with you guys. Sharon's, of course, one of the host of Rebel headquarters. She's all over the network. You see her on Inisputable, and tonight on the Young Turks. So, Sharon, how you doing?

I'm doing good. Did you just get a haircut? Looks like it. No, but I appreciate you saying that. Well, you look sharp, you know, put together. Thank you. Not that it matters. No, no, but it kind of does, and I appreciate it.

Clean, you look clean. Thank you. All right, so Merry Christmas. everyone involved. This is the, of course, the celebrated post-Christmas Young Turks special, in other words, known as a normal show. Okay, so we'll have a lot of updates on the Trump appointments, Trump tantrums, the Democratic Party, Joe Biden. Did he do anything wrong? He, he, as my daughter would say, he spoils the beans. So we'll get to that a little bit later. Oh, Ben Gleeves on in the second hour, you guys, all of you who missed me and Ben having fights over

Israel, which are almost none of you. That's going to happen in the second hour. And I'm going to, and be warned for some folks, not our, not our members, not our audience, but some activists online, I will agree with the right winger at some point in this show. For agreeing with us. So brace for impact. That's that I hear is also heresy. Anyways, okay, fun for everybody.

Oh, and live from the Polymarket Studio, so people can have fun with that as well. I'm in a good mood post Christmas. All right, let's do this. Jolly. Yeah, you just make that hearty laugh. In fact, my daughter, last thing, and then we'll get to the news, because we actually do the news on this show. Okay, my daughter was like, wait a minute, Baba. She heard the same laugh you just did, which sounds very hearty.

She's like, you've got a similar belly, and Santa is from Turkey, so. There it is, I read all about it. about it. Okay, I just need to get a little grayer and grow up the beard and I think we're good at that. Or maybe it was you, okay? My daughter still tracks Santa. It was like two billion in some presents and there were still six hours ago. We had been delivering all around.

Yeah, yeah. No, okay. I hope. Don't tell us, don't spoil it for the kids. What do you say we get after, Jenka? Speaking of spoiling Christmas, I mean, this is the time of year you would think people are, well, they're jolly, as we mentioned, they're peaceful, they're loving, they're giving. A lot of people give during this season. And then there's Donald Trump. Apparently the tantrums

did not stop for Christmas. Trump did spread them around though. He was generous to quite a few people, a good number of targets, such as Chinese soldiers. Yes, what did he want with them? We'll tell you Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. I'm probably jealous about his hair. I can see why. Sleepy Joe Biden and the left, as well as Biden's predecessor, Barack Obama, posts in, I believe it was an hour, 60 minutes, 34 posts. It was just incredible. It might be a record, might not be. And we're going to get to the verbatim on this, Jack, but were you, I guess, shocked to learn Trump was spending time on true social instead of, I mean, he held up the upside down Bible, praying at church, maybe Christmas caroling, you know, that kind of thing. He's always

talking about Christianity and the like, hanging out with his beloved children. Barron just graduated and even more time with the kiddos and the grandkids. Okay, first of all, people say I tweet a lot. 34 in an hour, Jesus and Lord mercy. It's correct. Secondly, so look, I live in a glass house. I also did some posts over Christmas, so I can't criticize too much on that. But to me, the most interesting part of this, Sharon, is that his combination of, like, you know, being kind of jovial in a sense, kidding around trolling, et cetera, and, like, saying things that previously would have been considered insane, super harsh, like, deeply concerning.

But I think one of the real things we've got to discuss after you tell us what he said is, like what are we to do with comments like this going forward now that we know Trump a little bit better. So tell us what he said and then we'll go over. Yeah, and hopefully that's rhetorical because when we get into this, it's bananas, but it's Trump, we should say. Okay, so first up, he started off great. Merry Christmas to all, including to the wonderful soldiers of China who are lovingly, but illegally operating the Panama Canal, where we lost 30,000 people in its building 110 years ago, always making certain that the United States puts in billions of dollars and repair money, but we'll have absolutely nothing to say about anything.

Okay, so that was on true social. Trump has vowed, of course, in recent days to take back the Panama Canal. now. He cites ridiculous shipping fees is part of his issue there. He calling them ridiculous, which probably means he has some kind of personal financial connection to something. Something got caught up cost him maybe a few coins or he didn't make quite enough. Next up, he attacked Canada's prime minister, the one with a good hair, and the people of Greenland too. So let's read you that. Also to governor, you see what he does here. Justin Trudeau of Canada, who's citizens' taxes are far too high, but if Canada was to become our 51st state, their taxes would be cut by more than 60%, their businesses would immediately double in size, and they would be militarily protected like no other country anywhere in the world. Likewise to the people of Greenland, which is needed by the United States for national security purposes and who want the U.S. to be there, and we will. Okay. So those two, and then,

There's this one. He went after, of course, Joe Biden, who's got like, I don't know, 20-some days left. He'll leave the guy alone. He's trying to go on vacation with his family. And to the left, here was Trump's Christmas message to them. Again, he starts off great, Merry Christmas, to the radical left lunatics that he gets right after him. We're constantly trying to obstruct our court system and our elections and are always going after the great citizens and paper. of the United States, but in particular, they're a political opponent, me.

They know that their only chance of survival is getting pardons from a man who has absolutely no idea what he is doing. And then just before Christmas, this was what really got him up, said Joe Biden pardoned 37 out of 40 federal death row prisoners commuted their sentences, rather. So they're now life without parole. Trump ended what seemed to be his most passionate Christmas message on that this way. Also to the 37 most violent criminals who killed, rape, blundered like virtually no one before them, but were given incredibly a pardon by Sleepy Joe Biden. I refuse to wish and Merry Christmas to those lucky souls, but instead we'll say, go to hell. We had the greatest election and the history of our country of bright light is now shining over the USA.

And in 26 days, we will make America great again. Merry Christmas. And then let's put up the last thing because even though he's not in office, hasn't been for a number of years, he posted this meme of Barack Obama, okay? Because mocking one U.S. president is never enough. This is from the 2017 inauguration of one Donald Trump, smirking and you see the caption when you see the guy who said you'll never be president at your

inauguration. Now again, we have to be honest here and saying that this is the greatest perhaps political, no, it just is the greatest political comeback in American history. This guy who was completely out of it is back in. He won. He did it. We could argue about the numbers, blah, blah, blah, and he just, he just can't stop and smell the rosen. I would think this would be his greatest Christmas ever. What's the you, Jay? Yeah, no, he's an interesting cat. Like, he can't stop himself from anything.

And so, but it's on us to discern what's real and what's not real. So some of the stuff we're used to, Merry Christmas to the radical left lunatics is a classic. He rolls it out every year. It's like me and the kids watched Elf again because it's a classic. Around this time of year, we get wished Merry Christmas by Donald Trump as the radical left lunatics, et cetera. And then his huffing and puffing over Greenland and Panama and Canada, I'm a little, I'm now a tiny bit worried about it before I wasn't worried about it at all as late as last week. But I began to realize like he might be thinking, hey, Russia. took some land, Israel's taking land. Maybe it'll, I will be a greater president if I could take

land because he thinks of it in terms of real estate. And then there's the hilarious parts like on Greenland and who want the U.S. to be there. Like the people of Greenland, he asserts, want us to take over Greenland. Who asked them? When did they say that? Is there a poll on it? He just loves to make stuff like that up. I do wonder, I really do, with the right wing. Like, what percentage go, well, of course I know he's making up that Greenland wants to be part of America. He's just trolling you guys. And what percentage think, oh, I bet they do, especially if Trump asked them. Yeah, they've gone positive Greenland wants to be part of America.

I mean, who wouldn't, right? So I don't know. But I still, it's not, I find it very unlikely that he is going to invade Panama, Greenland, or Canada. And if he did, though, it would break the land speed record on irony. Anti-war, we're definitely anti-war, anti-war. I mean, we're going to invade Panama Greenland in Canada, but we're anti-war. But still, enormously unlikely, right? I wonder, though, if you're Justin Trudeau, who I believe went down to Marilago, right,

and said, let me disavit, olive branch, let's see if we can get along. And then 10 minutes later, you're calling him governor and saying that his people are, over tax and he can cut him by 60%. I mean, how do you even handle someone like this? You can't exactly ignore him as he talks about tariffs and all this other nonsense. You have to deal with him. But I mean, what do you do when he says something like this? Just ignore it. The media and Canada reacting. How do you handle this guy? Well, there's two different things, right? So let's assume non-representative of a country for a second. So like if I went to Mar-a-Lago, and would I, yeah, I'd go talk to Trump. I know that would everybody's

heads would explode. But but I would expect that afterwards, he's going to call me names because this is not my first rodeo. So like if you catch feelings over that, you're not getting it, right? The only way he doesn't call your names is unless you gravel and say, oh, I would love to be your governor and I hand over Canada right away, right? So, so that's as usual. Or like, you've made a deal that he likes for whatever reason. But if you're the leader of a different country shining, obviously it's much, much harder because as a regular citizen or, you know, member of the media or whatever, you can just ignore it, right? Or laugh at it. But as, so you don't want to piss off the president of the United States, no matter who it is too much, if you're Canada.

So what I would do if I was him is I'd make, I'd have my sense of what I'm going to do. I'm going to do X or I'm going to do Y, right? And I'm not going to get moved off of it. So as the, you know, the leader of Canada. So then at that point, I know, I know. I know. how much to push Trump, how much not to push Trump, and I know where my red lines are. And so, and if he crosses the red line, I would then act appropriately. And we'd go tit for a tad on tariffs, probably, something economic, and I would buckle up and brace for impact, right? Because, you know, if you get into this significant conflict with Trump, you know, in terms of words or finance, et cetera, you definitely

got to buckle up. You know, he's going to want to win that. He's going to do weird things, etc. And so you can't just willy-nilly walk into it. On the other hand, if he asked you for things that you can't give as the leader of our country, then don't give it, right? And that's life in the big city. And you wind up having this new person and you're gonna have to find a way to deal with him. And I don't envy them. It's a tough job. But Sharon, I also thought it was interesting how he framed the Chinese. They're wonderful soldiers who are illegally operating the Panama Corral, but lovingly. So to me, that says, I don't really want to get into a fight with China too much right now.

I don't know if it's Elon's business interests or Trump's business interests or if he's got something else in mind, et cetera. But it was, that was noteworthy because the left is radical left lunatics, but the Chinese are wonderful soldiers who are doing things illegally, but lovingly. So that's a note of concern. And lastly, look, if all he did was husband. and puff to renegotiates some of the bills around the Panama Canal, sure, God bless, who cares, right? And in fact, that might be positive if he got us to pay a little bit less

if we're not getting enough. But Sharon, my sense of it is that he's largely not going to do 90% of this, that he's mainly showing to his own base, I'm standing up for America and I'll push around other countries, I'll push around the left, I'll push around Joe Biden, I'll push around anyone to show you that we're America first. So it's mainly just optics. Yeah. I mean, to me, it's just this, it's a case study. Really, we need the best profilers on him of just this enormous chaotic word salad.

It's just, these are just words, artful at times. They're really funny sometimes. But it's just thriving on chaos. It's why I laugh at some of my MAGA associates. He say, oh, well, he's going to do this. And the bankers on Wall Street love them. I said, no, they don't. They don't.

I mean, they might love both parties because they're empowered by both parties. But doesn't Wall Street like non-chaos? They like stability. They like to know where things are headed so they can make the most money and rip everybody off. But that's just me. Yeah. We'll move on to, no, you have something else. Dank, you want to say?

No, no, just real quick. Bankers on Wall Street loving Trump is not a great case for Trump. Like if I was maga, I wouldn't go around bragging about that. Right. I think that they generally, the bankers love the politicians who give them everything they want. Yes, definitely both Democrats and Republicans. And so I, look, we're all waiting on pins and needles to see what Trump is going to do. Because is he really going to do the things that some of the populace on the right want?

That would be very surprising. And are they going to catch feelings when he doesn't? Or are they just going to be like, yeah, no, we met war with Panama and Greenland. That's what we voted for. If they say that, wow. They probably will. I think they will. I don't know.

I don't know. Marjorie Taylor Green's not going to say that. Come on. Oh, some will. Oh, for sure. Okay. Yeah, for sure some will. Right?

Yeah. But I, but I, let's see. Let's see. I mean, I don't think he's going to do that, right? But whenever he does something insane like that, It's going to be super interesting to see how the populace right reacts. I mean, look what we're talking about here. This is incredible.

If the president invades Panama, that's the conversation. Panama and this stuff, just leave, leave Foudeh alone. He's had gone through his own stuff. This next one is just incredible. It's tragic. It's horrific to even think about. New York subway attack, it was. Early Sunday morning, woman set ablaze on a New York City subway car while people and even some police officers looked on as the man who set her on fire fanned the flame.

I mean, it's just incredible, Jenk. It's elicited some very strong reactions from people, as you might imagine. I didn't even know what to make of it. You know, some stuff seems so overblown. You talk about the subways and are they safe and this and that? This is horrific. Yeah, it reminds me of the case we all studied when we were younger of Kitty Genevies and being attacked in the middle of a courtyard and no one doing anything about it.

Guys, I get it. You're filming it. Wow, it's going to make an amazing video and it did. but I don't know go tackle the guy more importantly go try to help her but that replies more than anyone else to the cops but also to the to the bystanders and so look there's some implications here what should be done with this guy given that he's undocumented etc we'll get into that but sharing more details first on what actually happened yeah they're just horrific as we said here's what we know right now a man named Sebastian

Zepeta, Guatemalan National, who entered the U.S. illegally after being deported in 2018, was charged on Monday with first and second degree murder and arson. Incident began when the victim was approached as she was reportedly sleeping on an F train in Brooklyn early on Sunday morning. Traveillance footage from the train's cameras showed a man walking up to her before setting her clothes on fire. Newsweek with some of these details. We do want to note the victim has not been publicly identified. According to authorities, they don't believe the two knew each other, nor did they interact before or during the incident.

Police said the woman was completely covered in flames within moments while the man watched from a bench on the platform at the station. Officers patrolling nearby smelled smoke went in to investigate, finding the woman engulfed in flames. She died at the scene. Now, according to the assistant district attorney, Ari Rottenberg, Zepeda claimed he didn't know what was happening, saying he was under the influence of alcohol. A lot of discourse criticism surrounding the police presence and the fact that no one, no one attempted to intervene, help the woman as she burned to death. Gerald Posner, journalist and author known for his investigations into the JFK assassination told Newsweek in an interview this, I could imagine if you didn't want

to be the person who wanted to rush in and try to help them because you're afraid you're going to catch on fire you don't know what's going on i get that not everyone's going to be the hero but here well there has to be something better than just being the person recording it playing out in front of you um and i think it's the last thing i want to do but let's take a look at this footage again because frankly i think the victim deserves it and we all need to look at it it's a case study in what's going on with us right now there he is fanning the flames woman burn to death, sleeping one minute, up in flames the next, police on the scene. You see, you don't tell a police officer, walk right by.

And I don't know, Jenk, because perhaps I've not been in a situation where I've watched someone burn to death, but perhaps it was just so jarring, even by today's standards, that you want to believe that people couldn't act. But the police officer walking by seemed quite cognizant of what was going on and kind of had a pep in his step, not shocked to me. What say you? Yeah, if I was the captain of that officer, the first thing I'd ask him is, did you realize what was on fire? I mean, you should have had a pep in your step, no matter what was on fire, but a human being. Jesus Christ, man, the number one job of the police is to serve and to protect. And so that was incredible the way

that he just walked by. By the way, you know, they didn't catch the guy there, even though he was right there fanning the flames of the woman he set on fire. caught them later, a couple of high school kids saw his picture and called it into 9-1-1. So, I mean, that is a stunning lack of policing right there, right there, right in front of you. And so this is what we complain about in terms of the police throughout the show, throughout decades, unfortunately, yes, it's been that long. Like, when they go to do stop and frisk, it goes to 96% blacks and Latinos and et cetera.

And they say, well, we got to because it's, you know, we're that we're going to, we're going to find some sort of danger there, et cetera, et cetera. And when it comes to their own safety, they pulled a gun and fire within two seconds flat. And we've shown you a number of cases they've done that. But once a citizen is in trouble, not theoretically on stop and first, but actually on fire, about to die, walk by, it feels like self-preservation to the point of callousness. And that's, so if the police are like, oh, yeah, you really got to back us, et cetera. Yeah, but brothers and sisters, you also got to back us.

So I know that one video doesn't capture all the police work in the country, but that was shameful. And so, and then in terms of the rest of us as to what we can do, there's not much we could do. The guy, you know, crime overall in New York, in the subway is actually specifically, is down by about 6% year over year. Unfortunately, over the last four or five years, it went up after COVID. During COVID and after COVID, it's not beginning to come back down a little bit. A number of murders, unfortunately, has gone up from five to nine this year. But that's a small subset, really. So the crime is getting a tiny bit better.

But we do have to be vigilant about it. I know something that we shouldn't do anything about crime in the subways because it would be boogey to complain. I would hope that they would not think that this was bougie to complain about. And then, you know, in terms of this gentleman specifically, McGerman was a funny word to use in this context. But so he's undocumented, but Sharon, I don't think that matters because he's very likely going to get a life sentence and he should. That means we're not going to deport him because he's going to spend the rest of his life in a New York prison.

And then in terms of like his mental state, I mean, obviously he's not mentally well. And folks like that need, in my opinion, treatment or if it's not that category, then obviously prison. And they shouldn't be walking around. And we've had too many of these type of folks walking around in my opinion. Yeah, mine too, but you know, here's what gets me. It's like wild ends of the spectrum. You either have Daniel Penny over here choking someone to death who was unbalanced and screaming things or no one helping. And maybe they couldn't, you know, random people.

But the other part is their response. Let's talk about more about what authority said. Police said one officer, the one we saw visible in the footage near the woman was trying to control the crime scene. Now, I didn't really see that. Okay, I saw a crime in progress. I would think you want to stop it first, but whatever. As other officers tried to get fire extinguishers and summon metropolitan transit authority employees. Police extinguish the flames with the woman was pronounced dead at the scene. USA Today with that context. Now, the NYPD chief of transit, Joseph Galada, told reporters this on Sunday, and this is the part that, who are we? I think you got to question this. I think he did his job.

perfectly. Really? No. As his fellow officers went and got MTA workers, got fire extinguishers and eventually we're able to extinguish the individual. This is the chief of Trent. And he had to use that word too perfectly. There's nothing you could have done better here. It's this is crazy. I went and spoke to these officers and I'll say this. They responded. There were numerous officers responding, not just the one officer, to this heinous crime. What the officers saw and they had to deal with and they were trying to get fire extinguishers. I commend that one officer who stayed there, made sure he kept the crime scene the way it's supposed to be, made sure he kept an eye on what was going on.

This is sick and pathetic and that's not, we all saw what was going on there. And it may just be a glimpse. We all saw what was going on there. He's now he's a hero. You're not just explaining, but now he's a hero. Also took police hours, as Jenk mentioned, after this woman's death to apprehend to Peta. Thank you to the high school students. Taken into custody on Sunday hours after police disseminated images of a suspect in the woman's death.

Police had three high schoolers called 911 after recognizing the person in the image. Officers found him on another subway train in the same grade. hoodie, wool hat, paint splattered pants, and tan boots. I get it. I've never taken the oath, badge, gun. When I go to work, I don't have that fear if I may not come home to my family. But can you correct me if I'm wrong? This is the response. Everything was perfect. The officers had to see this. Never mind that's sadly what you signed up for. I'm not saying they don't have trauma and mental health that goes along with a job that can be disrupted. But this is incredible and to be indicative of the way the tables have turned.

They're not there to serve and protect. They're there to, I guess, protect their own interests first. Yeah, you know what that reminded me of? And it's a different topic, but I'll tell you what the connection is. When after Kamala Harris lost, several anchors on TV said she ran a perfect campaign. And well, I mean, and her campaign was kind of on fire too. And so, and the connection is not that Kamala Harris had anything to do with this story, obviously. It's that the people in power, even when they do spectacular failures in Orwellian fashion, will tell you, no, we handled it perfectly.

Well, how could you have handled the election perfectly when you lost the election and all the swing states and the popular vote? And in this case, how could you have handled the situation perfectly when the woman died? Like you didn't get to her in time, you didn't extinguish the fire, you didn't even try in the beginning, and then she died. Which part of that is perfect? And but that's why it's so telling and even more damning. Because in the analogy with the Democrats, they think, what do you mean? Are the consultant class got like hundreds of millions of dollars in fees and commissions? It's perfect for us, right?

Because they don't really care that they lost. And then in this, in this particular case, so the cops were like, what do you mean? None of the cops are harmed. Perfect. It was handled perfectly. We didn't have a scratch on us. I mean, what is this thing about going to get MTA workers and all that nonsense? No, you go, you take your jacket off, which I saw the cop had a jacket, and you put it over her.

This is not, hey, I'll come back in 20 minutes after I get that guy and the other guy and get some extra tools. It's not what you do when someone is on fire, literally, literally. So it's the terrible excuse, horrible job by the cops here. And yes, my friends, there is crime, violent crime. And look, this is another thing that involves politics, unfortunately, because some folks believe that everything is driven, every piece of crime is driven by poverty. This guy didn't do this because of poverty. He did it because there's something wrong with him.

Dylan Roof didn't kill all those black folks in a church because he was poor. There was something wrong with him. Sometimes there's something wrong with folks. And we can't just go, well, let's take our chances with the civilians and see if they, how many people they kill, right? No, no, we have to have some orderly way of saying, hey, does this person need help in this way, that way or the other way? But just leaving him to go out in the streets and do whatever the hell he wants is not

a left-wing position, that's an anarchist, libertarian, insane position, in my opinion, okay? So let's protect the citizens. It's not too much to ask for. No, it's not. But that's why, too, as a journalist, I've always believed that the storytelling, the messaging is everything. Because the messaging that these authorities came out with afterwards is training us to believe that everything's okay. Not only were they just stupidly, ridiculously ignorant in their commentary, the authorities after this, they allowed the same guy dressed in this. same outfit after this heinous crime, this murder that people had to witness a woman burning

alive to death. And it's some high school kids. It's not like this guy went and changed clothes. He came back to basically the scene of the crime, the subway system. And they just were supposed to accept this. The messaging to me is everything because it allows people to drink it in, not really let it marinate, just kind of accept it. And then this is how we proceed. Like, yeah, I guess they did a good job. No, they didn't do a good job. This is nothing to do with immigration.

And we're all a word I'm not going to use right now. I'll give you the last word. Yeah. Let's get back to sanity. So cops need to do their job, which is to protect us, not them. There is crime in the world, and it hurts average Americans. more than anyone else, let's fight for justice for everyone. There.

I hope it's not too much to ask for. All right. Well, we'll see. So we're gonna take a quick break here, guys. When we come back, really interesting story. Cory Bush, what lessons does she learn from being inside Congress and what would she do differently? And we're gonna talk about that in relationship to Joe Biden a little bit later in the show too. But also the worst, you know, pardon in the sense that Joe Biden,

Biden has given at all. One of the worst pardons of all time, if you ask me. We're going to share that with you a little bit later in the show as well. Come right back. with you guys, but also John 25 and Kingfish, who just became members through t-y-t.com. That's smart because you got 20% off today if you sign up through t-y-t.com for monthly membership. And 20% off if you gift someone, the gift of membership, which is also awesome. And you can do that through t-y-t.com slash gift. All right, Sharon, what's next? Well, let's start with this. Take a look.

If you're not willing to do the hard work to shirk the corporate donors in service of everyday people, then how can you call yourself a representative? I will fight for peace and against endless war for our collective humanity and against our collective demise, even when my persistence balked, and yes, I said bought my successor, the seat with a whole lot of Republican money. Not going away quietly. Representative Cory Bush will soon be leaving Congress after losing in a heavily, really record, funded Democratic primary to Wesley Bell. Now she's reflecting on her time in office. And in an interview with political, she had some choice words for the Democratic Party. And I want to get into the details of that, Jenk. But what do you make your initial reaction to her candor? I mean, that doesn't surprise me, but what she's saying in? particular now yeah so I think that as we go through what she said you'll see that it's a little conflicted and so hence I agree with some of it really strongly and I'm really glad she said some of the things that she said on the

other stuff that leads in the in my opinion in the wrong direction I go did we really learn the right lessons and so and I talked to Corey after she lost and I'll give you that perspective too so let's tell folks all what she said and then I'll come back and analyze what I thought was right and wrong. Okay, so she was asked about the massive amount of money that was spent against her during the primary, particularly by APEC, pro-Israel group that targeted progressives across the country, political asked, APEC spent at least $8 million to defeat you. Do you wish Democratic leaders had done more to keep the group out of primaries this year,

or lend you more support? Representative Bush, absolutely. She went on to say this, though. At this point, yes, and looking forward, Democratic leadership has to do something. Democratic leadership must make the decision that this corporate money should not be able to be used in Democratic primaries

because that was the deciding factor in this race. Democrats have to ban corporate PAC donations, specifically, have to speak up and push to ban the Super PAC spending in our Democratic primaries, that is the only way that this does not happen again because I wasn't unseated because I didn't take care of my community. She was also critical of the Democratic party's obsession with hierarchy and waiting your turn. Politico says, what's something you wish you had known going into the job? Bush says, I think, that understanding how seniority plays

so much of a role and who gets what committee assignments, what bills are brought to the floor, just in so many different areas. How seniority plays such a major role. We love, or we have rather great people in the Congress who just sometimes in my conversations I hear this disillusionment and some of it is because people are waiting their turn. They have great ideas and they're really remarkable in the work that they're doing. And we need those voices to be representative. We see in the Republican conference, they don't seem to go by seniority as much. I think that the Democrats, we need to pay attention to that. And finally asked if she has any regrets about her time in Congress, Bush said this, I don't really operate in regret, but I will say I wish

that I could have pushed harder as it relates to our ceasefire now resolution. and done more to save lives. I probably could have flipped over a few more tables. So real housewife style, I guess, that last part, he says she should have done more to be disruptive. What are your takeaways from this? The one that jumps out to me the most is about seniority and the waiting your turn thing, which always, I think, is crazy when you're working on behalf of the people. you're duly elected to get some things done and represent us.

I don't understand it or, but that's just me. What do you see initially? Yeah, so here's the parts that I love. So she should have turned over more tables, couldn't agree more. And when she did turn over the table on the eviction moratorium, it worked. That was when she went out and did this protest on the street, on the steps of the Capitol. And that was incredibly effective. They should have done that again and again and again, strategically, of course.

and know when to pick your response, but just doing it once was better than, you know, 99% of Congress. So give her tremendous credit for that. But I wish they had done it far more. And so her saying, look, these seats are bought. Totally agree with it. I think that there should be a lot more voices saying that. And then her pointing out not only the role of corporate packs and super PACs in the primaries, but saying that we should insist that they not be allowed in Democratic primary.

because they skew the field so you don't get to see what the voters actually think. And the APEC example is a perfect one because they didn't run ads saying Corey Bush is in favor of saving Palestinian lives or even like framing in the most positive light for Israel. They didn't say, oh, she's betraying Israel and is an anti-Semite. No, they didn't run any of those ads. They ran ads that were about completely different topics because they know that the pro-Israel position is unpopular. in our district. So they hammered her on other things to try to distract people. But their real goal was eliminate an opponent of Israel inside the U.S. Congress. So she's just saying that.

In old days, you couldn't say that, even though it was patently obvious, you would get smeared. But here, she already lost the race. So what's the difference? But she was saying it before she lost the race. So those are all the great things that I'm glad she's pointing out and are totally correct. So on the thing that you mentioned there, Sharon, on seniority. And then, you know, as you read the quote about the colleagues, that's why I have a little bit of concern. Why, am I in favor of protecting seniority inside the Democratic caucus? No, of course not. I, I hate the system that they have. And I'm glad that she's challenging it in some way. But I think that it's likely or maybe significantly misunderstands the core of the problem. Like, I don't

mind addressing seniority. And I like that AOC ran for the oversight committee. I like that at Raskin won on running for the judiciary committee. And those are younger folks, way better at making our case than some of the 70, 80 year old Democrats. But the reason why the more senior people are in charge is not because of like house rules or Senate rules or politeness or this or that or how they just love process. No, it's because the older members are more corrupt. And they've taken, you know, combined billions and billions of dollars from corporate packs and they serve those corporate packs as the heads of those committees. You can't put someone who is a just Democrat who doesn't take corporate PAC money as a head of a committee

because they won't serve the corporation that that committee is regulating. So that's the real problem. But even at this late date, even after she lost, she's saying positive things about her colleagues because she's saying, oh, we were misunderstood and we actually worked well with our colleagues. I know, but that's the problem. You shouldn't have worked well with your colleagues. You should have turned over way more tables. Your colleagues are corrupt. And if you guys had done an organized, you know, campaign around that, that brought the right amount of spotlight to it, you would have been folk heroes. And so I know, I know it's hard for them to see that. I know it's super hard to execute. I know I'm asking a lot, but that was the original idea behind just

Democrats. And if they had done that, none of them would have lost. It would have been much more painful, though. It would have been a harder process. I totally acknowledge that. You would have had all of mainstream attack you. You would have had every kind of media attack you, right? But that's what leaders do. So I wish you'd done a little bit more of that. But overall, though, this message is really well received by me. There's a lot of good lessons that she learned in there. And so I hope she makes a comeback in that sense. Yeah, I do too. One other thing that kind of jumped doubt at me was that I felt like she could have been harder on. It's not that they didn't push for her democratic leadership. There's been enough written and I buy into it that they too

wanted her out of there. Okay. I didn't see, you know, Hakeem Jeffries and people campaigning for her. It was as if they did more than just look the other way. Am I wrong to think that maybe she could have blasted him one more time, called him out one more time on her way out? Yeah, no 100%. And I'm afraid that she's thinking of running again at some point. And so she doesn't want to blast her colleagues too much. Because to be fair to her, they will use that against her in the next campaign. Oh, it doesn't work well with the Democratic Party. I wonder if she's a Republican.

That's the kind of stuff of mainstream media and the Democratic Party does 24-7. And I loathe it. But that's why they need strategy. They need to be able to get together and be a coalition. And yes, a badass one that is willing to challenge their colleagues very, very significantly. So to be fair to Corey, it's not just on Corey, right? Did all the just Democrats coalesce and have a real strategy inside the progressive caucus? No, did Raskin, Porter, and other good people inside Congress rally around them and back what they were doing and create leverage so they could have the same kind of leverage that Mansion and cinema did in the negotiations?

No, they left Corey, Jamal Bowman, and the others out on their own to vote no on a bad bill they were right about. If they had all joined together, especially in the beginning, they would have enough. leverage to make a difference and maybe get us paid family leave or higher minimum wage. But for that to happen, they've got to realize that their beloved colleagues are not their friends. Those are the guys who are constantly attacking them behind the scenes and trying to make sure that they lose. They're your political opponents. You have to realize that. And you have to coalesce. If you don't work together as the progressives in Congress and you don't have a unified strategy because everybody's worried about one person being a leader and if not being them,

then you're never going to win. You're going to disperse into the wind. So I hope to God that they take some of the stuff that she said to heart for the folks that are still left in Congress and that they find a way forward that actually can use their power better than they use at the first time around. Yeah, it'd be a good blueprint, a new improved blueprint for them moving forward. I hope she comes back in some form. I do. Let's get to this next one. Sharon, sorry. Let's take a quick break. Yeah. And then when we come back, this is the one I'm most animated by actually. This is the pardon slash deal that Biden did at the end that I think is the most egregious. All right, let me say, we'll save the story for when we return. Come right back.

All right on TYiD Jenkins, Sharon with you guys, make sure you're checking out Sharon's videos on Rebel Headquarters, and of course her guest hosting on Indisputable with Dr. Rashad Ritchie as well. Just real quick, during the social break, I was reading one of our member comments from Simply Populist, and he was talking about how his right wing brother, brother-in-law is not happy with Trump. And so, and that's because guys, again, remember, there's 77 million people that voted for Trump. They're not all right-wing, fascist, racist, sexist, et cetera, et cetera. There's a lot of people who were like, yeah, I am not happy with Trump, but I hate the establishment. And so those are people that you could win over. And that was a point that simply populace was making.

And his last line was, we need to be there with our message. Yes, if you get your message to folks who are disaffected with the establishment, you might get them on your side. I know, radical thinking. Okay, Sharon, what's next? Well, speaking of the establishment, this is the one that, well, both of us, really sweetheart deal. The consulting firm, McKinsley, McKinsey helped to get countless Americans addicted to opioids, a lot of death, a lot of sorrow, and what do you know, they got away with it. How you might ask, well, here's how. They got a little help, thanks to their friends in the Biden administration. And we're going to talk about how that happened.

But first, Jen, what are your initial thoughts on the story? I know this one, you know, you've been very passionate about. A lot of people are. But I don't know. I kind of just, I'm passionate too, but here we go. Again, this is expected. It's not a surprise. So in a sense, this is similar to a pardon or commutation, right?

And of all the different pardons and commutations, this is by far the worst. And so this is Joe Biden, as unfortunately, Bill Clinton did as well, and certainly Trump did on his way out, just handing out, you know, get out of jail free cards to donors, Wall Street bankers, the worst of the worst, right? And I think this is more egregious than any of the other pardons or commutations, including the pardon of his own son, because this is what leads to corporate America robbing us blind because they know they've got allies like Joe Biden and Trump. people inside his administration who are just going to let them go. And you'll see how connected they were to the Biden administration to get this result. It certainly is disgusting. But so you'll have to bear with us as we're going to tell you about this report from the lever because the details they will infuriate you. Absolutely infuriating. If you're unfamiliar, McKenzie is a massive consulting firm that advises both corporations and government. So they spread it around.

made $16 billion in revenue last year alone. 2004 to 2019, McKinsey worked with a company called Purdue Pharma. That sounds familiar. Their goal was to prescribe as much oxycontin to patients as possible. Profit over people. 2009, McKinsey consultants advised Purdue executives that driving a more impactful oxycontin franchise should be your top priority and that the pharmaceutical company should ensure everything is done to optimize and

protect Oxycontin's positioning, according to legal documents reviewed by the lever. That was after the dangers of opioids were well known. So like the cigarette companies, only worse, more potent, they knew that this was killing people. According to the Justice Department, McKinsey proceeded to help Purdue Pharma turbocharged their sales of OxyContin in 2013 by advising Purdue to establish sales strategies that targeted high value prescribers who are issuing prescriptions for users that were unsafe, ineffective, and medically unnecessary. Kinsey's marketing strategy, which stated that Purdue must drive the Oxycontin franchise, help Purdue steer Oxy, sales to doctors and pharmacists who were at times prescribing 25 times more Oxycontin prescriptions than their standard industry peers, prosecutors found. Both Purdue and McKinsey made an absurd amount of money thanks to this scheme.

Purdue started selling Oxy in 1996. generating more than 35 billion in revenue for the company by 2023. Purdue paid McKinsey 93 million for its work from 2004 to 2019. Eventually, McKinsey faced criminal and civil investigations into their role in the opioid epidemic. But on December 13th, they settled those charges with the Justice Department. That was thanks to a new policy from the Biden administration that let's corporations get off easy with white collar crimes. Friday, November 22nd, the Justice Department announced that those that make good

faith efforts to self-report, even if they do not qualify for a full prosecution shield, could still receive substantial benefits. In other words, the new policy expands what qualifies as voluntary self-disclosure of misconduct. Now such disclosures which can help companies avoid prosecution, include good faith efforts to report wrongdoing, rather than only rewarding proactive efforts to come clean before federal charges appear unavoidable. So companies would be eligible for this. Even if they have committed multiple crimes or insignificant profit from their wrongdoing, failed to self-disclose the misconduct. As long as the companies demonstrate, they, quote, acted in good faith to try to come clean. So McKinsey is now benefiting

from this very policy, even though Justice Department prosecutors stated that McKinsey actively tried to obstruct their investigation, the company will pay a fine of $650 million and be subject to a five-year deferred prosecution agreement. As part of that agreement, McKinsey will no longer be able to do any work involving controlled substances during that time. So it's not like a lifetime ban or anything. Meanwhile, countless Americans suffered with thanks in part to McKinsey's actions between 1999 and 2022. Nearly 727,000 Americans died from overdoses related to opioids, including both prescription drugs, illegal versions such as heroin,

according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 5 million people nationwide struggle with addiction related to the drug, according to federal data. And one final detail that is worth noting here, there are a lot of ties between McKinsey and the Biden administration. West Execut Advisors, a consulting firm founded by Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, and which employed Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, worked on behalf of McKinsey. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, previously employed by McKinsey,

as was Ryan Harper, Biden's Deputy Chief of Staff and Deputy Executive Secretary of the National Security Council. Additionally, Commerce Secretary Gina, Romando's husband was a longtime partner at McKinsey. So the fix is in, and one side's no better than the other, and this is the kind of case that is especially damning because the 727,000 Americans who died of these overdoses, by and large, so many, they're not bad people. You can't help but get hooked on this stuff that doctors are pushing on you, praying upon you. And that was their strategy. And what does the Biden administration do? Well, they're in bed with this consulting firm. So the fix is in.

Yeah. So let's break you down a little bit more. So we covered this policy that the Biden administration came out with when they did. And we told you that it was a huge problem because they said, oh, no, no, no, this gives people a chance to come clean before we leave office and then we'll be able to prosecute them. I'm like, there's nobody who's going to come clean if they're not already under investigation. And so far, how many have come forward that are not already under investigation? Zero, of course, none, right?

Nobody's going to turn themselves in. That's just propaganda that the Biden administration is putting out. So you won't notice that what the real purpose of this is for people who are already under investigation and massively guilty, this lets them off the hook by saying, oh, we are in good faith now working with the government and turning ourselves in. Really? Because this same company, McKinsey, on this same issue, this same case, one of the charges against them is obstruction of justice because they have obstructed the justice department every step of the way. Why are they not obstructing this time? Because they're like, oh my God, how do we get so lucky? Nobody's going to, no actual human being is getting prosecuted. All the executives who made millions upon millions of dollars saying to Oxy to Purdue

to Purdue. Oh yes, I'm the Oxy. Yeah, they're going to die. Who cares? You're going to make more money? I'm going to make more money. How much accountability for those executives? Zero.

None. The companies, sometimes they prosecute the company, which is always hilarious. because the company's not a person, so it doesn't matter if they're guilty, nothing happens to the company. If they were a person, maybe we should give them the death sentence and shut down McKinsey, maybe send a goddamn message, right? But no, instead, Joe Biden goes, oh, almost everybody that works for me wants to work for you guys. So here's a giant gift as I'm leaving.

This is what corruption looks like. It's disgusting. Every time these guys rob us over and over again, and somebody like Joe Biden comes in and goes, oh, it is because they came clean, did they? Because they were under investigation for years about this. Did it have an impact on the American people? 727,000 people are dead. Dead.

And the right wing is talking about how stuff's coming in from Mexico or China. No, wake up. It was American executives that pushed Oxy on American citizens because they had. They made it killing, literally. And it was, people like McKinsey were like, oh, well, we've decrunched the numbers on it, and if you kill more people, we'll both make more money, yay! And don't worry, we'll just hire one of these corrupt sons of bitches to be our little lapdogs, and we'll put them inside the government, and then let us off anyway.

And that's exactly what happened. That West Deck Exec Advisors is a cancer in this country. So that's where Blinkin's from, that's where, you know, all the people that, you know, all the people that Sharon just read you are from, and they keep making deals. So McKinsey's one of their clients. And look at that, McKinsey gets a sweetheart deal. Guess who's another potential client, according to some of the reporting? It looks like it might be Israel, but they get to hide that from us.

And look at what Israel gets. $26 billion extra dollars. On top of the $4 billion, we send them. Guess who our secretary of state is? Oh, right, Anthony Blinken, the guy who founded West Exxexecis advisors. Now, why don't the right wing talk more about this? I mean, this is the heart of corruption. This is exactly what you should be super mad about.

Oh, because those are the beloved corporations. So their leaders don't talk about beloved, beloved corporate America. So now some have started, and now I'm seeing again, you know, in right wing media, people are starting to get mad at some corporations like Black Rock buying up all our houses. That's that anger is real. And I do see it in the right wing. But for so long, the right-wing answer to this has been more unfettered capitalism. And Sharon, that leads my to my last point.

Look, guys, this is the problem here is that this is what unregulated capitalism looks like. Remember, Adam Smith explained every economist in the world agrees. In order for capitalism to work, it must be regulated. Because if it's not regulated, you will have out-of-control monopolies and out-of-control corporate power, where they could literally make money by causing our deaths and totally get away with it because they just bribed government officials. We now call it campaign contributions and pretend that it's legal. So no, capitalism has to be reigned in.

Otherwise, you won't have free markets. Corporatism will arise. And that's exactly what's happened here. And we live under corporate rule. And this is just the corporations laughing at us. We can do anything we want to you. And you know, you think Trump would have done anything different? No, one of the excuses that the Biden administration uses, oh, we had to do this right away

because you never know, Trump might have been even easier on them. Right? So what difference does it make? You're both going to do whatever the hell the donors want. The reason they did it before Trump came in is because they wanted credit from McKinsey and all their other clients. Look, we delivered for you. Don't worry, you can continue to steal, rob and cheat. And when we get back into office, we'll just let you off with a minor fine.

the numbers sounds like a lot. It's not. They made it, we told you, they made like 16 billion in revenue last year alone. You've got to send a message that it's not acceptable to do this to the American people. But they think, what, what? I was going to make an extra buck. And you guys told me to maximize profit. And so I maximize profit and you guys died. Pretty much. Think about how that would have resonated with people. So many affected by the opioid crisis. So many dying all across the Midwest, every corner of America, and there we are. You said it, $650 million in fine sounds like a lot until you remember, $16 billion in profits. In revenue, yeah.

So, you know, actually, Sharon, you just touched on something. Last point here. If Kamala Harris had run on, I'm going to get these sons of bitches at McKinsey, right? It's not going to be 600 million. It's going to be $6 billion. And they're going to learn a lesson not to do actually, you know, some spreadsheets about how the deaths of Americans are going to make them richer. And the next time they do a spreadsheet like that, they're going to think twice. And I'm going to put some of their executives in jail in prison.

If she ran on that, she would have won all the swing states. But God forbid that a Democratic leader should touch the beloved corporations that rule us all and give them their corrupt bribes, let alone the Republicans who have been serving these guys for their mind. entire life. All right, you got to go. Sharon, you're amazing. Thank you. Everybody check out Sharon's videos on Rebel Headquarters. Merry Christmas, happy holidays. We appreciate you. And when we come back, Ben Glebe, we're going to discuss and perhaps debate a little bit, Theo Vaughn's theory that maybe they're shutting down TikTok, not because of China, but because of Israel. Droms. We'll be back. I'm going to be.

I'm going to be. I'm going to be.