The Young Turks - Scum & Traitors

Episode Date: March 17, 2022

President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday referred to pro-Western Russians as “scum and traitors” who needed to be removed from society, describing the war in Ukraine as part of an existential clash with the United States and setting the stage for an ever fiercer crackdown at home and even more aggression abroad. A Ukrainian man described the moment he found out that his wife and two children had been killed after recognizing them in a graphic photo on Twitter. Trump said he was taken completely by surprise when Russia invaded Ukraine. The largest online progressive news show in the world. Hosted by Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian. LIVE weekdays 6-8 pm ET. Help support our mission and get perks. Membership protects TYT's independence from corporate ownership and allows us to provide free live shows that speak truth to power for people around the world. See Perks: ▶ https://www.youtube.com/TheYoungTurks/join SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE: ☞ http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=theyoungturks FACEBOOK: ☞ http://www.facebook.com/TheYoungTurks TWITTER: ☞ http://www.twitter.com/TheYoungTurks INSTAGRAM: ☞ http://www.instagram.com/TheYoungTurks TWITCH: ☞ http://www.twitch.com/tyt 👕 Merch: http://shoptyt.com ❤ Donate: http://www.tyt.com/go 🔗 Website: https://www.tyt.com 📱App: http://www.tyt.com/app 📬 Newsletters: https://www.tyt.com/newsletters/ If you want to watch more videos from TYT, consider subscribing to other channels in our network: The Damage Report ▶ https://www.youtube.com/thedamagereport TYT Sports ▶ https://www.youtube.com/tytsports The Conversation ▶ https://www.youtube.com/tytconversation Rebel HQ ▶ https://www.youtube.com/rebelhq TYT Investigates ▶ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwNJt9PYyN1uyw2XhNIQMMA #TYT #TheYoungTurks #BreakingNews 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. One of the hardest parts of getting older is feeling like something's off in your body, but not knowing exactly what. It's not just aging. It's often your hormones, too.

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I don't know where to put it. I'm trying to stuff it already in different places and stuff. Okay. Okay, we've got, we've got laptops. We've got war. We've got poems. Poems by Bono. You're gonna love these stories.

And it turns out people, unlike me, are stressed out. Yeah, what's going on with you? It's super annoying. I think America agrees. Like, that guy seems happy. That's unacceptable. All right, we'll get back to that, okay? In fact, it's supposed to be the single most stressed out guy.

You'll see why later in the program. But first, important news about Hunter Biden. Sort of. It's trending because people are interested in dumb news. But anyway, let me give you the details. Okay, no, no, there's an important part. Sure, there is. Okay. There is. Yeah. Okay. So, turns out that Hunter Biden is still experiencing a Justice Department investigation on two separate issues. One of those issues is the idea that he failed to pay taxes on earnings from jobs he did in foreign countries. Turns out he later paid a million dollars in back taxes. Super, super scintillating story. The other issue has to do with him possibly failing to file as a foreign agent while he was working for companies in other countries.

So let's start off with his laptop, of course. Turns out that there are emails that were retrieved from a laptop that he left behind at a repair store. And in it, in those email exchanges, we learn a little more about his back and forth with a business partner in regard to whether they should file as foreign agents. So prosecutors have also asked about potential FARA violations by the by Washington consulting firm, Blue Star Strategies, that worked for the Ukrainian energy company in an arrangement that Biden helped broker, according to documents, and the people familiar with the investigation. Now, let's talk about the emails, according to reporting from the New York Times, in the April 2014 email, Hunter Biden indicated that Burisma's officials,

quote, need to know in no uncertain terms that we will not and cannot intervene directly with domestic policymakers and that we need to abide by the Foreign Agents Registration Act or FARA and any other U.S. laws in the strictest sense across the board. Whoa, that seems bad. Yeah, Anna, that's my point. That's my point. So let me weigh in on this story. We now have firm conclusions, Hunter Biden and his laptop. Okay, first, let me just declare our bias in this case is approximately 0%.

We don't give a damn about Hunter Biden. We don't care if he's innocent. We don't care if he's guilty. He ain't my hero. Yeah, so Democrats defend Hunter Biden. The Republicans attack him. They're both incredibly biased. For us, he's a rando son of a powerful person.

so what. Okay, so if he was completely, and by the way, when the headlines hit, I was like, oh, let's see what they got. And if I was like, if it turns out he did it, okay, fine, great, put him away. I don't care at all, okay? So now, there is a reason why it matters, and it's about Joe Biden, and there's a, the jury's come in completely. So we'll explain. So let me go one by one. On the case, I'm glad they brought it. Why am I glad they brought it against Hunter Biden? Because it turns out some bitch hadn't paid his taxes. All of a sudden they bring a case. He's like, yeah, well, you know, I always meant to pay the tax.

Did you? Did you? Because it didn't seem like you meant to pay the taxes. So on that alone, I'm glad that the federal authorities and brought this case against Hunter Biden. Can I just say something real quick? Look, I'm with you. I think it's very likely that he was dodging his taxes. However, just devil's advocate, he went through a pretty lengthy stretch of being addicted to some serious drugs.

Oh, totally. So he left his laptop behind at a repair shop that had all sorts of sensitive stuff in it. Yes, on the other hand, it turns out the laptop in an incredible, spectacular twist of irony, proves that Joe Biden didn't do it, which I'll get to in a second. Okay, keep going on. Okay, so, but you're right, he was a hot mess and no one would dispute that, including Hunter Biden and Joe Biden, right? So, but guys, on the actual charges, he's guilty but not guilty, right? Right? So on taxes. So because did he not pay them? No, he didn't pay them, right? And the fact that you pay them later doesn't actually make you innocent, but it makes it incredibly hard to convict you. Now, there isn't a prosecutor in the country that's going to bring that charge minus the politics.

Because it's difficult to convince a jury to want to convict you. After you already paid them. Right? Right. So, and then he'll go in and say, I was, hey, I was on a lot of things. And now that I'm sober, I paid the taxes. There's no way they couldn't convict on that. On Farah, the foreign agent issue, I have no idea, let him keep going. Let the grand jury decide, let the jury decide, I don't know enough evidence about it. It seems like he could have done it, or he might not have done it. I'm not at all sure, okay? So, and if they convict him on that, good, I don't care, that means that they had enough evidence. Okay, so now, most important, who cares about Hunter Biden?

The question is, is Joe Biden corrupt, right? Well, Anna just read you a quote that said, remember, we need to abide by the laws, which was going to be pretty good evidence in this trial that he's not guilty of the FAR violations either. And they, and our partners need to know in no uncertain terms, are we going to interfere? But wait, that's not all. There's a money quote coming up here. He does refer to Joe Biden as quote unquote, my guy, right? So I love how the right wing is so shallow.

They're like a millimeter deep, right? They're like, no, the laptop is real. By the way, the laptop Israel, that's interesting. That's interesting. Okay, so we'll grant that. And then they're like, and then he said in the emails, my God, my God. Yeah, we know, dude, that's Joe Biden. We know that.

Okay, so, but what did he say about my guy? He said, my guy, but not, he wouldn't refer to him by name, but he said that he should be, quote, characterized. Now remember, he's on the Ukrainian gas companies board, so he's trying to make himself look important to them. So they keep paying him ungodly sums of money for no reason at all. $40,000 a month. $40,000 a month, okay? So he says about his relationship with his dad, he should be, quote, characterized as part of our advice and thinking.

In other words, what Biden's going to say is should be characterized as our advice in our thinking. So that the board members think, oh man, this guy's got to. the vice president saying. But he continues, this is a direct quote from a document he did not think would ever be revealed. But what he will say and do is out of our hands. Joe Biden definitively not guilty. It's right there in the laptop. He says, there's nothing I could do about my dad. Whatever he does is totally out of my hands. In fact, he goes on to explain it quote, it could be a really good thing or it could end up creating too great an expectation. to temper expectations regarding his visit.

Meaning, tell them we're actually doing it, although we're definitely not doing it, right? And then if dad doesn't give them what they want, because I have no idea what dad's going to do, don't promise too much because then we'll look like idiots. He was definitely not working with his dad. Joe Biden, a billion percent not guilty. Thank you, right wing, for exposing that. Yeah, and look, this investigation actually started during the Obama administration, certainly the earnings that seem to be going untaxed from foreign companies.

And so it's not just right wingers going after him. The DOJ has apparently been looking into this, even during the Obama administration, which I thought was honestly a sign of our government working in a way. Because remember, Biden was vice president at the time. Yeah. And you would assume that if your father's vice president, the DOJ is going to back off. But no, the DOJ started this investigation in 2014, 2015.

I've got to say, that's such a spectacular point. Well, thank you. No, but I'm serious, because I read in the story that it started on the Obama administration, criminal investigation of Hunter Biden, the vice president's son. And I was like, wait, how come nobody ever said that? They made it seem like, oh, Trump got him, or they, oh, now we need the Ukrainians to tell us more. Remember, that's what the impeachment of Trump was about, because he's like, I find me more evidence about Hunter Biden.

Otherwise, I won't give you military aid as Russia is about to invade. Yeah. So, but on top of that, listen to what Anna is saying. Apparently our government works a little bit. A little bit. They started the investigation. When they had no idea Trump was running, that's back in two years before Trump even emerged. Yeah, let me give you the exact excerpt from the New York Times report, so you know what I'm talking about.

So this is in regard to the potential unpaid taxes. The investigation, which began as a tax inquiry under the Obama administration, widened in 2018 to include possible criminal violations of tax law. So they started looking into it under the Obama administration. As they were doing it, they're like, well, by the time we hit 2018, maybe we need to widen this. There are other potential issues, including working as foreign lobbying or possible money laundering. rules being broken, but from the reporting that we have now, from the facts that we have now,

there isn't anything indicating that there is money laundering. If there is, I'm sure it'll come out in the future. But as it stands right now, it's about him possibly failing to file as a foreign agent. That investigation is ongoing. And it's unclear as to whether or not the prosecutors are going to press charges against him in regard to the previously unpaid taxes, which he later paid to the tune of $1 million. In fact, prosecutors are already talking about charging him or going after him in a civil case rather than a federal criminal case. All right, last two points goes to our members.

Guerrilla Radio wrote it, I thought Tucker Carlson had Hunter Biden's laptop. What happened, Tucker? That's hilarious. It's such a good point. I love how smart our audience is. Hey, Tucker, where's the laptop? It looks like the New York Times says the evidence. Prosecutors have the laptop.

You don't seem to have it. Oh, right, you are lying, as always, liar. Number two, Tuffy. Wow, investigating Hunter for back taxes, and not Trump has got to be the biggest hypocrisy in history. Right. Right wingers, you really want political leaders investigated for tax fraud? Great. I don't get a damn about Hunter Biden.

I say investigate them all. And now all of a sudden, Republicans slowly walking backwards out of the room. I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, when when Republicans cheat on their taxes, that's just smart business. That's just smart. But a hundred writing is laptop. Okay. Oh, yeah. That's what we thought. All right. Well, that story is very different from everything else that's in the rundown today. So I actually want to take a quick break. And when we come back, we'll jump into some international news, including some updates from Ukraine. All right. Back on T.Y. Chancanana with you guys. I'm going to read one comment from YouTube super chat.

I Ammore wrote in and said, the queen, ladies first, and king of progressive media, love this show. Well, I am more, we love you back. We do. We love it. Okay, you ready? Yeah, let's do the news. Collectively Zappot puts us to recolute our society, specular on their in the way of their, on social, economic

consequences, sanctions, to provocation in Russia, and use of your 5th column, and to try to get to its own. I've already, I've already about it, the resolution of Russia. A day after there were some promising signs of a peace deal, a ceasefire between the Russians

and Ukrainians, unfortunately, Vladimir Putin decided to put out a pretty chilling speech, where he referred to Russians fleeing the country or siding with the West as scum, and even accused the West of trying to destroy Russia. Now, here's more of what he had to say. After we come back, I'll give you some more excerpts from his speech, and it's not a good sign. And I have a conclusion about how the war is going. No one of the people,

and the more Russian people, always can't outlixied from the stonkers and predators, and just will get them,

like suddenly in the rot moshk, will beckoned on the panell. Ubbedo, that's the natural and

the necessary and the self-o-o-ocied our country. Our solidarity, split-ness, and gotonness to answer

to any were we've been with them. So-novement, and his 5th column, we've been to make all and of them. They are they're saying, that all productes and all it's, and because

we're not longings, and we're, we're not longed our history, our people. So there he is going after the West. There was one tiny

kernel of truth in that statement, which is, in America, everything can be bought. It's an unfortunate part of our political system, but to point fingers at us while completely avoiding the fact that they're oligarchs and authoritarian regime in charge in Russia is a little ridiculous. But nonetheless, what he had to say there about Russians and essentially calling them scum, talking about spitting them out like insects, gives you a sense of where his head is at, especially in

regard to some of those Russian protesters who courageously take to the streets and protest the invasion that Vladimir Putin ordered into Ukraine. He later says this, quote, I do not in the least condemn those who have villas in Miami or the French Riviera, who cannot make do without foie gras, oysters, or gender freedom, as they call it. That is not the problem, not at all. The problem again is that many of these people are essentially over there in their minds and not here with our people and with Russia, in their opinion, in their opinion, it is a sign of belonging to the superior caste, the superior race. People like this would sell their own mothers just to be allowed to sit on the entry bench of the superior caste. And then finally

one more quote from the speech, he says, they want to be just like them. and imitate them in everything, but they forget or just completely fail to see that even if this so-called superior cast needs them, it needs them as expendable raw material to inflict maximum damage on our people. Damn, okay. He's hurt. Yeah, so there's so many conclusions coming out of that. That was clarifying.

Because look, first let me step back to explain context and then get you to the conclusion here about how the war is going. So the context is that when he first starts the war, it's unclear to everybody how it's going to go, including us. And so some people say that it was a genius invasion. That was Donald Trump. He said it before and after. And a lot of people that are not Donald Trump, that are rational human beings thought, boy,

and he might just roll over Ukraine, he might take Ukraine in a couple of days, just nobody had any idea. Probably because we didn't know how ready the Russian military was, we didn't know how much the Ukrainians would fight. And here's a devastating fact. Apparently Putin thought that 30 to 50% of Ukrainian troops would flip over to the Russian side. Yes, can I actually give you that quote? Because this quote is telling, and this isn't a quote from an anti-Putin individual. This is Sergei Markov, who is oftentimes featured on Russian state media. He is a pro-Kremlin commentator. Graphic Six, this is what he says. The military officer,

operation is, no question, tougher going than had been expected. It was expected that 30 to 50% of the Ukrainian armed forces would switch over to Russia's side. No one is switching over. No one is switching over. No one in Ukraine is switching over. Russian warship, you know what to do with yourself. So they did not expect that. So now one part of the jury has come in. This idea that Vladimir Putin is some sort of unassailable genius? Not the case at all, caught by surprise, arrogant, didn't see it coming, and now he's hurt, dog. Don't ask him if he's all right. Now, how is he hurt? You can tell it in this speech. So when he's talking about the people that are in Miami and in all these fancy places eating foie gras or whatever they're eating, he's talking

about the oligarchs. Now, if the oligarchs have turned on them, which it looks like they have, he's in a lot of trouble because they got a lot of money. And they're also Russian. And they don't mind using their money and they don't mind using force. So look, the huge sign was early on, all of a sudden Putin went to one of his palaces and got removed from everyone else and was not even going into government structures. That meant he realizes, oh, oh, I'm in trouble. Like, I'm in trouble like physically, personally. So he then got himself a security perimeter. But how much can a security perimeter hold when the guys on the other side have hundreds of billions of dollars? He has cost too many people too much money.

In fact, I mean, this speech, which was very lengthy, even goes into acknowledging the impact of the economic sanctions on Russia. So to me, look, ordinary people of Russia shouldn't suffer the consequences of these sanctions. At the same time, though, his acknowledgment of these economic sanctions and the impact on the economy in Russia shows you how he is backed into a corner, right? So I do think that even though the rhetoric of this speech really does go against the positive news that we got yesterday about a potential peace deal, and remember, both sides, both Vladimir Zelensky and Russian officials came out with some positive comments after the third

consecutive day of peace talks. And it seemed like Russia was getting close to conceding, and they were trying to make it seem as though, well, look, this is what we're gonna get out of the deal, Ukraine has agreed to not join NATO, even though they announced that before Russia had invaded. But nonetheless, if they want to frame it as this is how we won, good, as long as that gets the Russian troops to pull out and just end the bloodshed and the madness. But let me bring you the parts about the sanctions real quick, Jank, and then I want to get your thoughts on it, because you could tell he's hurt.

So he says, importantly, the obsession of the United States and his proponents with the the sanctions is not shared by the countries that are home to more than half of the global population. These states represent the fastest growing and most promising portion of the global economy. I'm sure he's referring to China there along with other countries maybe. That includes Russia indeed. It is, indeed it is difficult for us at the moment. Russian financial companies, major enterprises, small and medium sized businesses are facing unprecedented pressure. Clearly in the new realities, we will have to make deep structural changes in our economy. And I will not pretend that they will be easy or that they will not lead to a temporary

increase in inflation and unemployment. Oh, man, he's on borrowed time. So now let me explain. So he had a plan A. We go in, we show him a 40 mile long quarter of tanks. We've got 190,000 troops. We have nukes. We have air superiority, plus half these guys are actually Russian and they're going to come to our side.

We take it over. We do whatever we need to do. The West always looks the other way. When we crush Chechnya and we bombed Syrians, no one cared. We'll do the same playbook. But normally smart guys have plan B and plan C. He obviously did not. So he is human and he is now vulnerable.

Okay, so plan now what the oligars, first of all, our hearts go out to the Russian people. In this speech, he's threatening to crush the Russian people. Yes, not the Ukrainian people. He's saying, you criticize me at all, and I'm gonna put you away into a Russian gulag. Spit you out like an insect. Yes, and but he's now talking about self purification. He's going full Nazi, hold on, I'll explain. So plan B is what the powerful need from him.

He doesn't care about the Russian people. The Russian people can ask for plan B, he's not gonna answer them. But those oligarchs are calling in and going, hey, Vlad, what's your backup plan? Because plan A clearly didn't work. Because even if we take Ukraine, even if we kill everybody inside, they're not going to lift the sanctions. In fact, if we take Ukraine and kill everyone inside,

they're never going to lift the sanctions. So then we're all screwed, we're going to lose our soccer clubs, we already lost our yachts, we can't, we're persona on grotto throughout the world, we can't go anywhere, we don't have any more freedom. You want it just to come back to a Russian cave and do what? What's your goddamn plan, Vlad? And he doesn't have an answer because you can't get rid of those sanctions unless you get

out of Ukraine. So his plan B now is self-purification. He's saying like textbook fascist 101. Okay, we do purification. There's a fifth column inside the country. We must attack and destroy the fifth. column, they are bugs to be spit out. So he is now turning the war inward. Now he's attacking the Russian civilians and other Russian allies. Well, maybe he's stronger than the rest of the

country combined, but that's where we're at. So probably the oligarchs will unite against them. And he's got security, I'm sure, covered in 18 different ways. But you're sure that security can't be bought by all that money? And look, I just think, you know, the Ukrainian resistance has been unexpectedly powerful. You can tell that Putin is flailing, which is why the calls for a no-fly zone from U.S. officials, from U.S. politicians, is absolutely insane. Why would we engage in a direct war? send members of our air force to Ukraine to personally to shoot down Russian planes,

which means we are engaging in war with a nuclear power. Why would we do that when it appears that Putin's already backed up into a corner? That would escalate the situation. Okay, and the final thing about that, Anna, is I agree 100%. Talk of no-fly zones when our economic sanctions are not only devastating them, Putin is admitting that they are devastating them. I mean, throughout that speech, not just the quotes that Anna read, you guys. He kept talking about, and I was shocked at how much he was admitting it.

Like, oh, the sanctions have crippled us and broken our back and they're about to drink our spinal fluid. But hey, you know, why would you go and start a military incursion against them, which would give him an excuse to rally more Russians to his side and risk World War III for no reason? So the adjunct to that, that you got to acknowledge here, and the degree to which I'm furious, with Biden on domestic policy is immeasurable. I think they've done a terrible, disastrous job on domestic policy. But on this issue, Biden has been brilliant, perfect balance. What I'd like to see from Biden, to be honest, his response to all of this could be a lot more

robust by, because we don't want Russian citizens to suffer. Innocent people who did not choose to invade Ukraine, right? We need to have a goal, a plan to accept Russian and Ukrainian refugees into the country. Yeah, I hear you. And that's very important. And our hearts go out to the Ukrainians, obviously. And they should definitely move on to that next. But for now, the most important part is, and guys, don't celebrate at all because now we, there's a couple of ways this ends.

The most important thing is to resolve the war itself in Ukraine. Yes. So number one, Putin backs down because he realized the oligarchs, et cetera, have him circled. And he maintains his power and says, I didn't want it anyway. He keeps probably the couple of breakaway republics, and maybe that's a compromise. And great, well, I mean, I don't want him to keep that area, but I'm saying some sort of compromise, face-saving maneuver, etc. That's the best case scenario. Unfortunately, is the least likely. The other possibility is somebody in Russia finds a way to deal with Putin, keeping it real.

I got an undoing it, but is that how Russia sometimes handles things? Yes, that's the second possibly. Third possibilities, they just dig in. And when they dig in and they say, okay, we're digging in in Ukraine and in Russia, we're going to bear the pain and it's going to be miserable in Russia. And this is going to last for a long, long time. Oh, that is disastrous. Like, again, not just for Ukraine, but for the Russian people, that is going to be brutal.

Okay, and then the fourth scenario, of course, is the worst of all, which is he's a man, man, not at all a genius, gets mad, and they have nukes. Yeah, I know, that's terrifying. It's absolutely terrifying. But, and the fact that that's even on the table at this point is insanity. But that's where we're at. So we'll see how this all plays out. But for now, I do want to move on to a story about the civilian casualties in Ukraine. And unfortunately, that continues to develop. And we keep seeing more and more footage of residential areas, theaters, all sorts of places where civilians are finding shelter getting bombed. Let's discuss. And an airstrike hit a bomb shelter, hiding hundreds beneath a theater, said local officials. The damage so complete, the entrance was reduced to rubble.

Russian troops targeted a theater in Maripole, which of course was being used as a bomb shelter by hundreds of women and children. While the death toll is still uncertain, what we do know is that it was clearly targeted, even though there was signage near the building indicating that there were children inside. So I want to show you this satellite imagery. CNN put the boxes on the sign that says children. And it didn't matter to the Russian troops. They decided to shell the theater anyway. And so far, there is a little bit of good news, although the rescue effort is still underway.

We know that there were a few people who were able, hundreds of people who were able to get out alive. In fact, one person says this, after an awful night of not knowing, we finally have good news for Maripole on the morning of the 22nd day of the war. The bomb shelter of the theater was able to hold. The rubble is beginning to be cleared. People are coming out alive. And that's according to the former Donetsk region head who wrote this post on Facebook. It was not clear yet whether all of those who were sheltered in the theater had survived.

Taruda, that is again the region head, said on Thursday that 1,300 people were in the building when it was bombed and 130 people have so far been rescued. We have more details about this in the form of a video. So I wanted to go to that and we'll discuss further. Satellite image from two days earlier showing the building standing with children written large outside. In case you're still thinking, nobody knew who was here. Videos had been circulating for days of the hell inside. How over a week of siege and shelling had forced those still living into a space so tight and dark, it must have felt like a tomb.

Here, he says, it's where we give out food to children, women and elderly first. This is the converted cloakroom. of the theater. If this looks like how you imagined the end of the world, for these children packed in, that may have been the case when the bomb struck. So the Russian troops are arguing, and this is right out of the Syria playbook, that it was a false flag, that the Ukrainians bombed themselves, that the Azov Battalion carried out this attack. Let me just give you the history of the Azov Battalion.

The Azov Battalion did not exist until Vladimir Putin decided to annex Crimea. The Azov Battalion came up during that time. So the idea that the Azov Battalion would like carry out this kind of attack against, you know, Ukrainians is so incredibly ridiculous. I mean, no, no, no, no. I'm not entertaining nonsense. It's the same garbage that we heard from. Putin when they would do chemical attacks in Syria, the same exact thing.

Always, this is what they do. So in Syria, it was arguably even more absurd because they hadn't, their opponents in Syria had no air force. And the chemical weapons were dropped from the air. And you see how the missile crashed through the roof and is in the building. And they would say, don't care, the villagers did it. With what plane? Okay. And so here they're like, oh, the Ukrainians who have almost nothing in the air other than Turkish drones, okay, somehow hit their own building packed with children to show the rest. Look, it's the oldest trick in the book, rice dog fire, right? So I go murder you and then pretend you did it and then blame it all on you. It's fascism 101. So who loves it? Of course, Grayzone does.

So I went and checked on their Twitter on Aaron Mate because I thought, this is the same clown who did Putin propaganda in Syria and said that the Syrian civilians had bombed themselves. So I wonder if he's saying the same thing about the Ukrainians. And here's the tweet from today, the Ukrainian government is sharing pictures of civilians that its own missiles killed. It's disgusting. Total, utter lie to blame the Ukrainian civilians and the Ukrainian government for the mass murder that his Russian benefactors are doing right now in Ukraine.

You disgust me, you propagandist prick. Yeah, absolutely. And there was another attack. 21 people died after Russian artillery destroyed a school and community center. This was near Kharkiv. This was one of the latest reports in regard to a civilian area that was attacked by Russian troops. But I'm sure the story from the gray zone types will be that the members of this school bond themselves.

They did an airstrike on themselves. Who knows? We'll see. But they're not to be believed. It's like the most insane propaganda that makes no sense. And look, I don't know who their benefactors are. I find it incredibly strange that they just regurgitate everything that Putin says. They like sit there, wait for what Putin's talking point is going to be, and regurgitate it.

You can see the videos for yourselves. You can look into it, dig into it for yourselves. Like, I think it's actually a good thing that with, unlike the Syria story, which was honestly a tragedy, people are actually paying attention to what's happening in Ukraine. They're following it closely. And so when you have these charlatans and these smear merchants go out there with their propaganda, their pro-prudent propaganda, it's easy to see them for who they really are. Yeah, and we have a bizarre connection of Tucker Carlson and the most fake progressives you've ever seen in your life.

Who is in favor of this madness by the Russian government that says, oh yeah, the Ukrainies had it coming? Is that the idea? The Ukrainies are bombing themselves? I mean, if you put it into a skit, they'd say, you're over the top, brother. Nobody's going to believe that they invaded their own country, dropped missiles. on their own kids and level all their own buildings. There's over 2,500 civilians dead in Maripole. 80% of the buildings in Maripal have been hit.

They drop 50 to 200 bombs on Maripole every single day. What do people of Ukraine are doing that to themselves? Is that what you think, Tucker Carlson? Is that what you think Glenn Greenwald? Is that what you think Max Blumenthal, Aaron, Monte, Jimmy, Dor? All of you sickos? That love Putin for whatever reason you love, I don't care if it's money. I don't care if it's just ideological.

I just love fascists. I don't, maybe that makes you hard. I don't know. I don't know, but I know you're lying and you're disgusting in every way. So I wanted to also give an update on the story about the family that was trying to flee to safety. They were walking along a bridge that had been destroyed when Russians started shelling it. There was an image that went viral that showed a mother and her two children just lying there on the pavement. Well, we now have learned that the father of that family found out, well, how he found out about his family members dying is pretty heartbreaking.

So let's take a look at the next video and we'll fill in the details. It is difficult, but it is important to show this image because this image is how my next guest, Sergei Parabina. found out that his children were killed by Russian fire. And he wants the world to know what happened. I saw a photo on Twitter and I recognized my children. I recognized their things and their clothes. And I called my friends to say that children are dead. Their bodies are lying on pavement.

And I asked them, please, could you help me to find my wife? My daughter and my daughter was nine years old and what she liked dancing, painting. She studied English. They were normal cheerful children. That was Sergei Parabinus who lost his wife, his 18 year old son and 9 year old daughter. We have been steadfast against war, whether it was in Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza Strip, you name it, we're against it. Wars of aggression are war crimes.

They are a crime against humanity. And to not be against this obvious war of aggression started by Vladimir Putin is unreal. And it is inhuman. So if you're cheerleading for Putin out there, whoever you are and for whatever reason you're doing it, I don't know if I hope you can live with yourself or I just hope that you have a shred of humanity and you can't sleep at night. So I hope whatever the reason was that it was worth it, because all those people are dead. They were people's kids and grandmothers and aunts and uncles and dads and moms.

And a lot more are going to die on behalf of Vladimir Putin. We're going to take a break. When we come back, it looks like Trump realized that he might have gotten played by Putin. We've got that story and more when we come back. All right, back on TYT, Jenk and Anna with you guys, news. Well, we've got an update on how Trump feels about Putin. Did Donald Trump confess to being played by Vladimir Putin? Well, sort of.

Now, this happened in the context of an interview with the Washington Examiner, where he finally took a step back, looked at what Putin was doing through this invasion in Ukraine and thought, huh, seems like he's not such a great guy after all. So let me give you the statements. He says, quote, I'm surprised. I'm surprised. I thought he was negotiating when he sent his troops to the border. I thought he was negotiating. I thought it was a tough way to negotiate, but a smart way to negotiate. So look, that one quote, I'm not going to be too harsh on, because I think a lot of people, myself included, like genuinely did not think that Putin would do something incredibly dumb and irrational like invading Ukraine. And yes, he's done it before to annex

Crimea. But there were so many things that would work against him, including losing an energy deal with Germany, more sanctions implemented by the United States. It just didn't really seem to be something that would serve his interests. But he went for it anyway, okay? With that said, that's the only quote I'm not going to be harsh on. Let's go to the other quotes. I figured he was going to make a good deal like everybody else does with the United States and the other people they tend to deal with.

You know, like every trade deal. We've never made a good trade deal until I came along. Never, not once in American history. No, but like, his inability to not make it about himself is incredible. It really is. It really, you know, like everybody does with the United States, except no, wait, no. They always made bad deals. People are saying I made the best deals.

I made the best trade deals. Except soybean farmers in the middle of the country went bankrupt because of your, like, not so well thought out trade war with China. Look, I don't know what's wrong with right wingers. And I say that very literally, like, so for example, you guys are watching the show. Presumably, you kind of like the show, although some of you I know or hate watching, and that's fun. We love you anyway. Okay, we're soft-hearted lips.

We like you anyway. Anyways, you like this show, right? Presumably you think I'm, I make some decent points. Now, how would you like it if I came out and said, there was no other good talk show before us? There was never any good hosts on air before me. Well, you wouldn't like me as much, right? Because then you sound like a jackass. Right wingers, why don't you see that in Trump?

Who says that the U.S. never made a good trade deal before me? I mean, what an absurd thing to say. Why would you like a weirdo, unsubstantiated braggart like that? You wouldn't like him in your personal life, would you? If some car salesman that you knew was like, there was no good car salesman until me. Chank, jank, jank. What you fail to understand is the alpha males are back. To choose to be a beta to this guy.

All right, everybody make your own choices. There's more. This is probably my favorite quote. And then he went in meeting Putin. And then he went in and I think he's changed. I think he's changed. It's a very sad thing for the world. He's very much changed.

Is he talking about Putin's plastic surgery? No, no. He thinks that Putin was a very smart, a genius in fact. And all of a sudden he turned dumb. That's kind of funny how that happened. He just changed. He's just changed. He's just changed.

Yeah, because his behavior today is so different from his behavior in previous years. Yeah, when he was bombing the living crap out of Syria, and when he was murdering people in Chechnya and in Syria, he was a good. That was easy to ignore. Yeah. It was easy to ignore. I looked the other way. I looked the other way. Yeah.

Apparently he was a soft, harder, wonderful guy, Putin was. And then all of a sudden, popularity ratings come out for Republicans and what they think of Putin, Turns out the Republican voters don't like Putin. And all of a sudden, he's changed. He's changed. Not me, not me, not my opinion. He changed overnight from really good guy to all of a sudden weirdo dictator, evil dude. Now he claims.

By the way, he didn't even say that, of course. Sorry. He didn't call him a dictator. Because he's still kissing his ass. So, look, he loves to use any interview opportunity to do one of two things or two things simultaneously. whine about what happened in the 2020 general election where he lost, or, you know, talk about how he's so much better than any other U.S. president ever.

So he said this. He said that he was not soft on Putin, okay? He was very, very hard on Putin. Quote, I've been very, very tough on Putin. I get a bad rap on that, Trump said, reiterating his claim that Russia never would have invaded Ukraine had he been president for fear of how he would respond. At the same time, I got along with him very well. But I got along with him, I got along with most world leaders very well.

No, no, no, let's keep it real. You got along well with the worst world leaders. You talked about falling in love with Kim Jong-un of North Korea. You talked about believing Putin over our intelligence community in regard to meddling in our elections. I mean, any authoritarian leader he was buddy, buddy with, Zaire Bolsonaro, of Brazil, Rodrigo Duterte, of the Philippines. I mean, King Salman in Saudi Arabia, the butcher of Riyadh. He, like, interfered, like he got involved once it became clear that MBS is the one who ordered

the assassination and decapitation of, of dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi. He tried to provide cover for MBS. That's the point I'm trying to make here. So to say, like, no, I'm the real tough guy. No, you're only tough to people who aren't. positions of power. And I just want to remind you guys of the kind of rhetoric that we heard from Trump when he was president in regard to Vladimir Putin. Watch. Putin's a killer. A lot of killers. We've got a lot of killers while you think our country's so

innocent. Just before Trump's inauguration, the president said he was open to lifting Russian sanctions. He goes a step further proposing a cyber unit with Russia, the country that had just attacked the U.S. And I quote, an impenetrable cyber security unit so that election hacking and many other negative things will be guarded. I was in Russia. I was in Moscow recently. And I spoke indirectly and directly with President Putin who could not have been nicer. After Putin kicked out U.S. diplomats to retaliate against sanctions, the president thanked him. I want to thank him because we're trying to cut down on payroll. I'm very thankful that he let go of a large number of people. We'll save a lot of money.

Putin of Russia, 100%. Joe has lost it. In his best day, he wasn't a smart man. Everybody knows that. Would you now, with the whole world watching, tell President Putin, would you denounce what happened in 2016, and would you warn him to never do it again? My people came to me, Dan Coates came to me, and some others, they said they think it's Russia. I have President Putin. He just said it's not Russia. I will say this, I don't see any reason why it would be. Look at how tough he was on Vladimir Putin. Impressive, it really is, very impressive.

You know, it's interesting. As you watch that last clip, that was Putin at his height of power. He's getting the American president to kneel before him. Now Trump's out of office, and Putin is in massive trouble. He overstepped, Biden kicked his ass with economic sanctions. The oligarchs have turned against him, and he's in a world a hurt. And it turns out he wasn't that powerful after all. He was a paper tiger.

But we never knew under Trump because Trump was too busy kissing his ass. You just saw the tape. I mean, he says he's tough on Putin. Maybe he means tough on pudding. I could see that in his waistline. But Putin, you just saw the tape. I mean, oh, he got rid of the Americans there. I mean, because saves us on salaries.

Oh, you're the weakest man in America. Guys, look at the one thing that's in there that is just unbelievable. I don't want you to just go right past it. He, after the Russians broke into our systems in the 2016 election, and Trump didn't coordinate with them, okay, but they did break in, no one disputes that, right? And so, and they did get the emails and then the emails were leaked. There's no, we had the emails, everybody knows, that's an absolute fact, right? So after the Russians infiltrate our systems in America, he says we should do a cybersecurity team

with them and let them be in charge of our cybersecurity. No, no, that's handing the country over to them. Now of course we never did that because everybody else in the government was like, are you mental? No, we are not gonna let the Russians be in charge of our cyber security. Can you imagine, I mean, you guys, how can anyone argue that Trump wasn't like, I don't the extent to which they have deals going on, I don't know, but there's no question that Trump made it a priority to constantly defend Vladimir Putin. And if he doesn't have business

deals with Russia, I don't understand why he would do that. Trump, listen, Trump doesn't bat for anyone but Trump, okay? So if he's out there defending someone, it's because he's getting something out of it. That's just who he is. That's who he has proven himself to be again and again and again. And in fact, on the Saudis, now this was before he was president, but they were doing horrible things back then. And somebody asked him about it. He said, well, they gave me $30, $40 million in apartment.

What am I supposed to do, not like them? In other words, you can go and kill anybody you like, but as long as you give me money, you're good to go. How obvious is it that he's corrupt? What is wrong with you, right wingers? How could you not see it? It's plain as day. Last thing, guys, now out to politics, American politics for a second, this has given an

opening to another Republican, because both Trump and Tucker Carlson are on the Putin side. And that's an unpopular side. Now we're gonna see if any other Republican politician in the country has a spine. Because if you were smart and savvy and tough, this is when you would step in and say, I've had enough of Donald Trump kissing Vladimir Putin's ass. Let me just say, Governor Ron DeSantis has been very quiet. Exactly what I was thinking, Anna. And has focused on what kind of issues, Jank.

Culture war issues. Yes. Yes. And so he, because he knows cultural war issues are winning strategy. Bread and butter for the Republican votes. Right now, Republicans are much, are still much more open to Putin. And they say if you have a republic, if you have leaders that are praising Putin, is that a problem? Democrats, 86% say yes.

Among Republicans, it's only 40, I'm sorry, 81% of Democrats, it's only 45% of Democrats. It's only 45% of Republicans. So Republicans get it. They still have leaders kissing Putin's ass, and they don't mind it too much. But overall, three quarters of Republicans are against Putin. Three quarters. It just takes one Republican politician with actual strength to come in and go, that's right. You guys are right.

Putin's a monster. He's killing all those good white folks in Ukraine. Okay. Now, I can't believe Trump's doing this. But so far, Desantis is clever, but a little clever by half. He's hiding in a bush somewhere, but this would be the time to strike, and he hasn't shown the courage to do that yet. Well, we're going to take a break. When we come back, we have a pretty insane story where Tucker Carlson tries to equate asylum seekers at our border to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

I'm not exaggerating. That is literally what you try to do. You don't want to miss that story and more when we come back. See you then. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen ad-free, access members-only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Heuger, and I'll see you soon.