The Young Turks - Sex Parties & Scandals

Episode Date: September 21, 2024

Trump says if he loses the election, Jewish voters would have ""a lot"" to do with it. Olivia Nuzzi on leave from New York magazine after having a romantic relationship with RFK Jr. Former N.Y.C. Covid Czar partied while preaching social distancing. U.S. officials concede Gaza cease-fire out of reach for Biden."" HOST: Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur),Jordan Uhl (@JordanUhl), Maz Jobrani (@MazJobrani) SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE: ☞ https://www.youtube.com/user/theyoungturks FACEBOOK: ☞ https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER: ☞ https://www.twitter.com/theyoungturks INSTAGRAM: ☞ https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK: ☞ https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕 Merch: https://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 Watchlist https://www.youtube.com/watchlisttyt Indisputable with Dr. Rashad Richey https://www.youtube.com/indisputabletyt 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 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. Drop it. Drop it. Power Power panel, Jank Uger, Jordan Yule, Mazjabrani. Very powerful crew, love this. Jordan, of course, part of Rebel headquarters and has apparently not eaten his cat.

Okay, so we at least know that. Okay. So, hey, these things you got to confirm, you know, Republicans will say, oh, maybe he did. Nobody knows. They haven't seen the cat for two and a half seconds. So anyways, you guys look good. Jordan, of course, on Rebel headquarters and hosts of the insurgents podcast as well. Crazy show ahead for you guys today.

So tons of sex parties, apparently, for politicians, I'm missing all the sex parties. I don't know what's going on, but several disastrous ones, as you'll find out in a little bit. But first, Trump with, as usual, both over top anti-Semitism and requests for help from a foreign government. Jordan, you got the story. Take a look at this. The current polling has me with Jewish citizens, Jewish people, people that's supposed to love Israel.

After having done all of that, having been the best president, the greatest president, by far, by far, a poll just came out. I'm at 40%. That means you got 60% voting for somebody that hates Israel. You can't let this happen. 40% is not acceptable. In my opinion, the Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss if I'm at 40%. While speaking at an event about fighting anti-Semitism, Trump said it would be the fault of Jewish people if he loses in November. He whined about doing poorly among Jewish American voters. And as he's done multiple times before, he made this offensive claim about

Jewish Democrats. Take a look. Any Jewish person that votes for her, especially now, her or the Democrat Party, should have their head examined. But I gave them, as Mir said, Golan Heights, I gave them the Abraham Accords, which is amazing. I recognize

the capital of Israel and opened the embassy in Jerusalem. I'm the best friend they ever had. And still, in 2020, so remember, I got 24, 25%. Now I did all of these things, and I got 29%. Think of it. So I wasn't treated right. He also warned the crowd that if Kamala Harris wins, Israel would no longer exist.

Throughout his speech, he used Israel and American Jews interchangeably and said Israel must do everything it can to defeat Kamala Harris. Take a look. 47 days from now we're going to defeat Kamala Harris. You have to defeat Kamala Harris. More than any other people on earth, Israel, I believe, has to defeat her. We're going to take back our country, and we're going to make Israel great again, and we're going to make America great again.

We're going to make them both great again, greater than ever before. Now, he's not wrong that he's performing poorly among Jewish Americans. American Jews favor Harris over Trump, 65% to 34%. According to a Pew Research Center survey conducted August 26th to September 2nd, which is why people like megadoner Miriam Adelson, who hosted this anti-Semitism event, are spending massive sums of money to help get him elected. She has contributed at least 25 million to Trump and other Republican causes this cycle, and she's allegedly bankrolling a massive super PAC for Trump called Preserve America.

How much Adelson will donate to the super PAC is not clear, though the person familiar with her plans said the group was expecting to spend more than it did four years ago when Adelson and her late husband, Sheldon, donated 90 million to preserve America. Jank, what do you make of this story? I mean, he's making, I would argue, anti-Semitic comments at an event to fight anti-Semitism. What do you think? Yeah, I don't think that that's disputable. So, you know, unfortunately, the word anti-Semitism has been thrown around so wrongly, so often that people just now likely dismiss it.

And I understand why, like you criticize Israel one inch. Look at anti-Semite, right? And so it's absurd. It's the boy who cried wolf. But in this case, he's saying, you know, first of all, you Jews, if I lose, it's your fault. I can't imagine anything more dangerous than that to say. And then he says, I wasn't treated right by you. So it's the obligation of Jewish Americans to treat Donald Trump right.

Otherwise, it'll be their fault. That's beyond outrageous. And then the dual loyalty trope, okay, well, you know, I did this and this for Israel, so all the Jews have to vote for me. Jewish Americans are Americans. Do a lot of them care about Israel? Of course. Do a lot of Turkish Americans care about Turkey? Of course, right? But to say that, okay, I'm serving in other countries, so you must support me, that's the dual loyalty trope. Look, in times past, that would have been like a bomb, bomb, giant red alert of a massively anti-Semitic thing

that somebody said. Nowadays, Trump says so many of these things that it's, it's again, it's, It's like a tsunami of outrageous, horrible, anti-Semitic weirdo things are saying. I want to get to the weirdo stuff too in a second that people get lost in his madness. And then, but then, okay, so that's the anti-Semitic part. Then he turns to like he did with Russia in the middle of the 2016 campaign, Israel, defeat her. You're asking you a foreign government to defeat your political opponent in America? I mean, look, again, this would be, imagine if Barack Obama said in the middle of the 2008 campaign, Kenya, defeat John McCain, or, hey, China, defeat John McCain.

I mean, it would, it would be a career under. It would be a career ender for anyone else. He's a maniac. And by the way, if you're a right-wing mega guy, what happened to America first? apparently it's America last. Russia do this for me. Oh, I've got favors coming up for you. Saudi Arabia, Israel, do this, this, this. And then, of course,

he's got nothing but favors lined up for them. Maybe America will come in 28th, I don't know. And now the outrageous stuff. Again, we get used to him making up lie after lie after lie. If a Democrat did one of these lies, it would be the most outrageous thing a Democrat has ever said and the whole country would stop everything and talk about,

oh my God, I can't believe Kamala Harris said that. Trump says it blithely, so here we go. Kamala Harris hates Israel. Kamala Harris is giving every dollar we have to Israel. She's, no, her problem is that she refuses to use our leverage to get to a ceasefire deal because Nanjahu doesn't want one. So she's following U.S. policy of we will do whatever Israel tells us to do. to say that she hates Israel is so unhinged from reality.

It's beyond release. And then, of course, he adds in the Trumpisms that Israel will cease to exist if Kamala Harris is elected. Cuckoo, cuckoo, totally nuts. He's nuts in every single appearance that he has. And then when you say they're like, Trump derangement syndrome, just because he's a lunatic and you're pointing it out accurately, that means you're unhinged. Does it? Does it? Or does it mean I'm in the news business?

And I'm telling you direct quotes from him. And then he said, Chuck Schumer is Hamas. Chuck Schumer, the most prominent Jewish-American politician, the most, you know, senior leader, not only among Jewish-American politicians, but he's the Senate majority leader. And no, apparently he's called him Palestinian, which apparently is an insult. Again, look at that. I mean, there's that, you have the anti-semitism. But he uses saying that people are Palestinian, both Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer, as an insult.

Like, he's such a bad person. He's a Palestinian. If you don't understand that that's deeply, deeply racist, there's something wrong with you. You think that racism against Palestinians, Muslims, and Sarah, you think that's awesome. So, like, if you don't understand that that's racist, you're racist. So go ahead and cry over it, but you don't get to say that it's like, it's like, you're, Okay, I know for right wingers, it's impossible for them to empathize unless it's about themselves. So let's flip it. Imagine if Democrats were like, oh my God, that guy's so despicable.

He's like a white guy. White people are the worst. And from time to time, somebody will say, hey, white woman or white man shouldn't say something. The right wing explodes with rage, right? And I say that's terrible. What are you saying white when you don't even need that at you? But in this case, he's using the ethnicity as the insult, but not enough. So that he says Schumer is also Hamas, a terrorist organization. He is a bona fide lunatic. So, you know, I point out all the false with Kamala Harris 24-7, and I did with Joe Biden as well.

But then when people ask me, oh, so which one? Which one and normal establishment corporate politician versus a guy who just stepped out of a mental asylum is not a hard question, Maz. Yeah, I agree. First of all, the idea that you were talking about this insult, they say, oh, you're Hamas, which, by the way, as you were saying, if anybody supports, if you say ceasefire and they say you're Hamas. So he's saying, oh, Kamala Harris is going to basically get rid of Israel, which, as you just said, no matter who the administration is,

the alliance between America and Israel is what it is. And to your point, the hope is that America having the ability will do something to stop the bombings in Gaza and bring back the hostages and all that stuff. But neither administration, this one hasn't done it. And Trump sure is hell ain't going to do it. And what's interesting to me is that this guy is in bed with right-wing extremists.

He was the one who said in Charlottesville, where they were saying Jews will not replace us, that there were fine people on both sides. So I don't understand how someone who's Jewish looks past that, that this guy is willing to have, you know, Holocaust deniers over for dinner at Mar-a-Lago. He's willing to endorse the governor,

the guy running for governor in North Carolina, who said he's a black Nazi. I mean, he really, if anyone, is someone who is offensive to Jewish people. It should be this guy. And by the way, his move of bringing the embassy to Jerusalem, that famously heightened the conflict. He was famously, because we know his ego,

when he first got into the office, he wanted to be the one who was going to actually bring that peace between Mahmoud Abbas and Israel. And they started talking, and there's audio of him saying he loves Mahmoud Abbas, and he hates BB Netanyahu because Mahmoud Abbas felt like a fatherly figure to him. And then he goes behind Mahmoud Abbas's back and he moves the embassy to Jerusalem. And that makes it.

So Mahmoud Abbas goes, I can't do a deal with you now. Like there's no way I can do it. That's when he turned to the Abraham Accords, which he keeps bragging about, which by the way, when the October 7th attack happened, one of the architects of the October 7th attack, actually in an interview said one of the reasons that they did the attack was because they said, you guys were going around making allies with all these other Arab countries, but you need to be talking to us. And so one could actually take some of the actual thing that happened, the reasoning for, at least according to this Hamas leader, was some of the reasoning for the October 7th

attack was the Abraham Accords and the ignoring the Palestinians as part of the solution. So if anyone has actually made this a more volatile world when it comes to Israel and the Middle East, you can put a lot of that blame on Donald Trump. To your point, Maz, this Mark Robinson's story. So he, among other things, said he was a black Nazi. And that's an opportunity if Trump genuinely cared about anti-Semitism in this country and how it is allegedly proliferating. That's an opportunity for him to do. distance himself, revoke his endorsement. We've seen other politicians do that over even smaller things, but he didn't.

His team rejected the idea that they were even pushing Mark Robinson to drop out of the race yesterday. They had that window to save face, and they didn't. They're doubling down. They do not care. And if people or affiliated organizations, other super PACs or nonprofits who purportedly care about this and think this is purely about anti-Semitism, they would condemn Trump for his association with Mark Robinson, but they're not, because that's not what this is about. And there's surely some

people in attendance or some people who support Trump who do genuinely care about this, but this is ultimately about the support for an ethno state. That's it. It is a colonial project and an ethno state, and that is what their priority is. You can see that in how they defend all of Netanyahu's actions, no matter how heinous, the moving of the embassy, the list goes on, just the entire project of Israel. They will defend all of it. They don't care about anti-Semitism. This is about a nationalist ethno-state project. That's what their priority is. Yep. And so I don't know how many times, by the way, that he's going to ask for help from a foreign government. And MAGA at some point he's going to go, huh, I wonder if America really is first, right?

I know if you say anything about Trump, they get triggered and start crying. Oh, Russia's a hoax, dude, everything about Russia's a hoax. Okay, but last time you saw in 2016, do we have that video of him begging the Russians to go after Hillary Clinton? Yeah, let's watch that. Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Well, he asked and he received.

They turns out they did have them and they did release them and they were rewarded by the press. And now he's saying, hey, I need help again from a foreign government because I'm going to betray my own government anyway. Hey, you remember? And this is what he bragged about. He said, do you remember when I moved the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem just like Israel, wanted me to. And that's because Sheldon Adelson had given him $100 million. So he's just literally selling U.S. foreign policy. And if you remember, he got impeached the first time because he told the leader of Ukraine, hey, I'll help you with U.S. foreign policy if you give

me dirt on Joe Biden. This guy doesn't care about this country at all. The only thing Donald Trump cares about is Donald Trump. All right, we're going to, okay, we got to go to a break, guys. When we come back, we've got a lot more news for you guys. Unfortunately, also about Israel, they've gone to a new set of fights and wars, et cetera. But also sprinkled in with the heavy news is a heavy dose of apparently sex news today. Today is the day for it. Just three stories at least in the rundown. We'll do one of them when we return. On July 18th, get excited. This is big!

For the summer's biggest adventure. I think I just smurf my pants. That's a little too excited. Sorry! Smurfs. Only the dateers July 18th. All right, back on the York Turks. Jay Hugar, Jordan, Yule, Mazurbani, and Michelle Cosby.

Michelle, thanks for joining. We appreciate it. Jordan, what's next? New York Magazine placed reporter Olivia Nuzzi on leave yesterday after it was revealed she had engaged in a, quote, personal relationship with former independent candidate, RFK Jr. According to New York Magazine, a New York Magazine spokesperson, recently our Washington correspondent Olivia Nuzzi acknowledged to the magazine's editors that she had engaged in a personal relationship with a former subject relevant to the 2024 campaign while she was reporting on the campaign, a violation of the

magazine's standards around conflicts of interest and disclosures. Had the magazine been aware of this relationship, she would not have continued to cover the presidential campaign. An internal review of her published work has found no inaccuracies nor evidence of bias. She is currently on leave from the magazine and the magazine is conducting a more thorough third party review. We regret this violation of our readers trust. Now, independent

media reporter Oliver Darcy broke the news last night that the candidate was in fact RFK Jr. And Nuzi opened up about the relationship to editors a few days ago. The reason why was unclear. The relationship reportedly began in December 23

and ended in August, which means it started shortly after Nuzi's November 2023 profile of RFK Jr. The mind-bending politics of RFK Jr.'s spoiler campaign. He's a conservative, he's a liberal, and he could turn the presidential race upside down. Now, a person familiar with the matter stated that the relationship between the two was emotional and digital in nature, but not physical, which Nuzzi confirmed in her own statement, adding that she never used her, quote, subject as a a source. Earlier this year, the nature of some communication between myself and a former reporting

subject turned personal. During that time, I did not directly report on the subject, nor use them as a source. The relationship was never physical, but should have been disclosed to prevent the appearance of a conflict. I deeply regret not doing so immediately and apologize to those I've disappointed, especially my colleagues at New York. While she didn't report directly on Kennedy herself after that. She did speak to reporters about RFK Jr. during that time. According to Mediaite, back in March, Nuzi spoke to Frank Bruni of the New York Times regarding the state of possible third-party threats. It's not a two-man race. It's a three-man race. A majority of Americans say they are unhappy with another lesser of two evils contest, and they're in luck,

as they have a range of third-party candidates to choose from. One of those candidates, RFKK, Jr. is polling competitively, especially among young people, and he's steadily gaining ballot access across the country. The establishment press has been reluctant to cover Kennedy like a serious contender because they fear they will face criticism for, quote, platforming and anti-vaxxer. But the establishment press doesn't get to decide who voters take seriously. In 2016, Gary Johnson and Jill Stein earned enough of the vote in enough swing states to cost Hillary Clinton the election. is performing way better than either of them ever did. Kennedy, of course, is currently married to actress Cheryl Hines,

and Nuzzi was engaged to Politico chief Washington correspondent Ryan Liza. That engagement has since been called off, according to a statement from Liza. He also stated he won't be involved in any coverage of Kennedy in Playbook or elsewhere in Politico. Kennedy's team, for the matter, has adamantly denied this relationship between the two, saying in a statement, Mr. Kennedy only met Olivia Nuzzi once in his life for an interview she requested, which yielded a hit piece.

Jank, we've talked a lot about RFK Jr. on this show over the past couple months. What do you make of this story? Yeah, so first of all, I got to tell the audience, I'm biased. I'm biased in a couple of ways. Let me explain. So I know Olivia Nuzzi, I know RFK Jr. her. We had both of them on the show recently. And I think Olivia Nuzzi is a great reporter otherwise. And so, and part of the reason that I think she's a great reporter is because she

has a courage to break stories that the establishment doesn't like. And let me just note here that we had her on about a week ago. Why? Because old Biden apparatchiks were still trying to target her to try to ruin her career because she wrote what was a very honest piece about Joe Biden that made a difference in him dropping out of the race. No one disputes the veracity of her Biden piece, but the old Biden people caught feelings and they've been trying to target her ever since. And I don't know who leaked this story, but someone got her. So congratulations. You found something. And yeah, it's wrong. She should have reported to her. magazine. We live in strange times, but I guess, yeah, if you know, not I guess.

If you're having some sort of relationship with someone you're covering, yes, you should definitely tell that to your editor. But was she covering him is my question, because you got that one quote and she shouldn't have given that quote about Kennedy, even though as I look at it, I think that quote was exactly accurate. But she shouldn't have given it if she has some sort of relationship with him. But when they go to target someone, they'll find anything, anything at all. Remember the things that they made up about her in the beginning. She was joking about Obama like a decade ago and they pretended that those jokes were real.

That didn't work. But it did work in intimidating Bloomberg into not publicizing our new show. This was enough for New York magazine to take the action that they did. So I guess congratulations to the hatchet men in the establishment who got her, if that's what happened. But, you know, am I, do I think, oh, that's it, Olivia Nuzzi, I don't trust her anymore. No, no, I think she's still a great reporter. But I'm telling you all my bias at a time, you make your own decision on how you view it. And honestly, I don't know what a digital affair is.

I don't even know, like, what is that? So the best you had is she had a digital affair with RFK Jr. or a thing I don't even understand. No, I mean, first of all, when you hear the way it's presented, she said I had an affair with someone who was in the presidential campaign. I guess the good news is it wasn't Donald Trump. Oh, Jesus. And then and then, but then RFK just has so much crazy stuff that keeps coming out. Like I kind of, you know, my heart goes out to Cheryl Hines because first, you know, he's the anti-vaxxer, then he's, you know, got the bears in the, in the park.

and then he's got the worms in the head. And then he endorses Trump, which has got to be really hard to support someone who's endorsing Trump. And you're going, wow, you were critical of the guy, but now you endorsing him. And now this comes out. And again, just like you, I don't know what it means to have a digital affair. But it's got to be hard for her to be caught up in all of this stuff. And I'm just excited to see what RFK news we're going to get next week. because he he dropped out of the race and yet there's still news coming out about him.

So that just shows you what a volatile person in life this guy has. Yeah, look, it's one more thing. So there's some things that I agree with RFK Jr. on. There's plenty that I disagree with him on, including endorsing the madman Donald Trump. So, but the establishment hates both of them. This is a great tofer for them. Oh my God, whoever did this is high-fiving. And I don't know who did it.

But they got to be ecstatic. We got both of them. We smeared them because they're human beings. But yes, she should not have given that quote. All right, I don't know if I'm underplaying it too much. But I'm giving you my honest opinion. What do you think, Jordan? Well, I think let's look at the statement that she gave, right?

So we have the benefit of hindsight now, seeing that he's dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump. But when she gave that, Arch 24, that was perfectly in line, in lockstep with RFKs. They're the campaign's talking points. So he's polling competitively. No, he wasn't. No, he wasn't. He never was. He was fighting for ballot access.

He was struggling. He maybe in a couple polls had double digits, but he was never competitive. And it was ridiculous that people were taking him seriously. That was just his talking point. So that, to me, is a big red flag on who did it? For all we know, it was the now ex-fiancee. He's probably upset and just gave it to a media reporter to take her down. I mean, that doesn't seem outlandish.

I don't think this is some sophisticated inside job to go after both of them. I think it's she got caught by her fiancee. He is pissed, understandably, called off the engagement. And he just gave the scoop to. Oliver Darcy. That's the simplest explanation for me. And that's, you could see in the statement, him saying, my ex-fiance. I mean, as far as we know, they were engaged as of two weeks ago. But also, I think there is an issue that we should talk about beyond just her and RFK. And that is the proximity a lot of reporters like to cultivate with people in power. And it reflects this problem

that we talk about often on this network, that they just want access. They want to be cozy. They want to go to the same parties. They want status. And that's not the role. of a reporter. This isn't the first time she's done that. Years ago, messages from her and tweets from her kissing up to Anne Coulter resurfaced, her trying to befriend Anne Coulter. That's not for a story. It's not to cultivate a source. It's because she is somebody who likes to cozy up to people in power. That's been the knock on her for years. So I guess it wasn't surprising of all reporters that she was the one to have this digital relationship. But it speaks to a common problem in Washington,

and that is reporters getting way too cozy in developing a symbiotic relationship with people in power. Okay, I'm glad that the audience is getting to hear both sides of it, so you guys can make up your own mind. But let me push back on a couple of things. I think RFK Jr. was around 12 points at a minimum at that time, And that is so much higher than the two to three percent, the Gary Johnson's and the Marianne Williamson's. I'm sorry, not Marianne.

Jill Steins have gotten in the past. And so I thought, and I said on the show at the time, that he was a significant player. It's a fine disagreement as to whether you think 12 points is a significant player as an independent. I think it is. I want to point out we don't know that it was her fiance. I definitely also don't know that it was someone in the establishment. So we don't know who leaked it. I want to be clear about that. Those are two possibilities. There are others that are possibilities. And Jordan, to your main point about closing up to power,

I hear you on that. And I understand the points that you're making, et cetera. But the reason why I thought Nuzzi was a great reporter was because most reporters cozy up to power and then serve power. But Nuzi would write honest pieces that the people in power hated. They hated it so much. after her, not necessarily in this case, but we know for sure when her Bloomberg show was being released, right? And they tried to smear her with the old jokes, et cetera, et cetera. So if you cozy up to power and then you tell the truth about them, that's kind of what a good reporter does. You see what I'm saying? I think in some circumstances, I think for the people who are part of the Washington elite in the social circle, Mark Levovich did a great book on this called Our Town back in

2012. Just that's how many people in the media operate. It's who can who can get me into these parties? How am I going to get invited here? Biden didn't have that social capital beyond just the White House Christmas party. You know, he's not a major player in the Washington social scene. You know, RFK is somewhat younger, but much more active, much more together. Biden is just like, I think a different type of person. She also got criticism for being too deferential to Trump, also at points being critical of Trump. So I think if you remove it, if you remove just these presidential candidates, I guess the Biden thing, I think critical, she got unwarranted criticism, totally in agreement

with you there. Other stories throughout the years, people have criticized her for being too cozy and too deferential. Okay. Maz. Last thoughts. Yeah, again, I, you know, just like you were saying earlier on, I don't even understand what this digital relationship is. And the truth is, again, it's, you know, my heart goes out to RFK's wife in this situation,

because now he's got to deal with, you know, explaining that. And the fact that they're denying it, I mean, if there's digital proof, then it's there. And so it's going to come out. And by the way, he hasn't denied a lot of other crazy stuff. So why deny this? Just keep going with it. Well, probably because his marriage is probably on the line. That's when this one's different.

And you know, Cheryl Heinz put up with the dead bear and the decapitated whale and all that stuff. But but this is personal. And hearts also go out to Ryan Lizzo, who's a half to ask to deal with this. And in a public way, guys, this is the problem with being a public figure. You have a messy divorce or you break off your engagement. That's very tough for you on a personal level. But the whole country doesn't know about it. And in this case, they do.

So to all the people who didn't do anything wrong and got hurt by it, I feel terrible for them. And last thing I'll say, I guess, is that people are human beings, man. I know we expect them to be perfect, and it turns out we're not, none of us are. So when things cross a line that is way too far, okay, then we say, hey, that's definitely wrong, right? And when you cross that ethical line in your profession, there's got to be consequences, and that's what New York Magazine just did, right? But on a personal level, I don't know the details of this past is digital and personal relationship.

And if two human beings did that and it was wrong, I'm not ready to condemn them for the rest of their lives. So everybody make up their own minds over it and how much you think it was an egregious violation, but you just heard an clear variety of opinions on it. All right. We're going to take another break here and we'll come back and give you a couple more important stories. for you. Jordan. Take a look.

Like New York City found out that you're having sex partings during COVID? Yeah. Yeah, it would have been a real bad. We went to some like underground like dance party like underneath the bank and Wall Street. And we were all rolling. We're all taking Molly and everybody's high. And I was so happy because I hadn't done that like a year and a half, like a year or whatever. And I, but I was looking around being like, I wouldn't be seen.

That was Dr. J. Varma, New York City's senior public health advisor during COVID. The video, which was surreptitiously recorded by right-wing YouTuber Stephen Crowder's team, reports to show Varma admitting to attending drug-fueled sex parties during the pandemic, despite overseeing and recommending public health policies like social distance. At various points, he describes a sex party he and his wife held in a hotel and a dance party he attended in a space under a bank on Wall Street, joined by more than 200 people. In a statement, Varma said, I take responsibility for not using the best judgment at the time. But he also claimed the videos weren't entirely accurate. In a statement, Dr. Varma did not dispute the recording's authenticity, but said, they had been spliced, diced, and taken out of context. He said he attended three gatherings between August 2020 and June 2021.

Now, it should be noted that Crowder's operation focused largely on Varma's vaccine policies for New York City. Throughout Crowder's subsequent coverage of these secret recordings, he has repeatedly attacked Varma over his support for COVID vaccination. I was targeted by an operative for an extremist right-wing organization. determined to malign public health officials and take down the public health system in America, I stand by my efforts to get New Yorkers vaccinated against COVID-19, and I reject dangerous extremist efforts to undermine the public's confidence in the need for an effectiveness of

vaccines. I think that we should identify that part of the strategy, Jank, but what do you make of him being in this position, a public health position, and going to these parties when everyone else was instructed not to attend large gatherings. Yeah, so there's two different things here. One is the sex parties, others the dance parties. The sex parties actually are technically okay. This is hilarious. Why? Because at the time, the rules for COVID were no more than 10 people in a room. And in the tape where he does not know he's being recorded, obviously, he says that him and his wife would invite about 8 to 10 people in a hotel room and they'd have a sex party.

So technically, that was not a violation of the COVID rules. Get back to the sex parties in a second. The dance party, over 200 people underground in an enclosed space. No, that's, when you're telling everybody, go back home, cover up your mask, don't go outside, and then you go do that, that is massive hypocrisy. So guys, oftentimes we'll tell you about all right wing, they got lies, smears, don't believe it, etc. Why? Because we're partisans and we don't like the right wing and we automatically assume it? No, because that's what they do. And we look at the evidence and there is

no evidence. Look at that for it. There is no evidence. In this case, they got him. This one is true. And he says it was taken out of context. Okay, I believe it. I'm sure that they added it in a way that's a little bit misleading. That's usually what the right wing does, right? But is there a context where this would have sounded different? Like I stretched my imagination. the thing, what could he have said before and what could he have said after, that would make this okay. And I couldn't find a way. So this one is true.

And so even if it's from the right wing, you don't dismiss it automatically, you actually look to see if they have the evidence. And in this case, they do. So back to the sex parties. What in the world is going on? I've never been invited to a sex party in my life. And it turns out, there's like four stories in the show today about sex parties. Like, are people all going, you're a politician, are they all going to, like, drug-fueled sex

parties with their wives, et cetera? I'm stunned by that. And I guess I'm a nerd. I didn't know that this was happening all over the place. So I'm just, I'm bewildered by that part of this story. All right, Maz, what do you think? Jank, you asked, what could he have said before or after to make this all okay? Maybe they edited out the part where he said, oh, by the way, we were wearing masks.

I think that's a sex party and a dance party or okay, if you're wearing masks, it's all good. No, it's to your point, I mean, what's funny is this guy's a professor and he was also in charge of the COVID response. And I, as a lay person, as a comedian, I always defer to people in places of authority. And I always think that they must be so put together and so by the book. And, you know, I've done, I've hosted events at gala's where you run into, oh, this is professor, so-and-so, this is the CEO of this and that. And you're kind of looking at them, oh, these people really, you know, they really must play by the book. No, the professor's having sex parties. I think if I were in his class, the first question I'd ask, I'd be like, I got a question, you know.

At what point do you guys decide who's allowed to the sex party and who's not allowed to the sex party? Is there any time where you invite just one spouse of the couple? And you're like, you know, your husband talks a bit too much. We don't want them coming to the sex party. But you're invited. Like, I'm just curious how it all happens. And to your point, I really, I didn't know this stuff was happening. And in my mind, in our minds in the real world, we think that everybody, like,

there was a time when you thought that people that were in politics or in places of power, again, were really just buttoned up. You knew they had some deviant behavior, but now even professors. And he was so giddy about it. And not only were they having sex party, he's like, we were on Molly and MDN. It's like, this dude, this dude, parties harder than my barista down the street. So it's, it's interesting to see. Yeah, you know, you bring up good questions because when did I get eliminated from the sex party list? and what did I get eliminated for?

I want to know who's the gatekeeper, right? They're like, oh, Jake, no, no, no, no, he's a square. He won't even roll, right? And apparently, I'm not doing nearly enough drugs. And every one of these parties, they're like, oh, we got access to cocaine, this, the other thing. Jesus, man, I don't know people were having a while time. In fact, the other look at dance party, apparently they're doing these giant dance parties under Wall Street. Like, that's almost a scene out of succession.

And I didn't realize that stuff was real. God, apparently I'm an Uber nerd. I've never been to any of this stuff. So, and speaking of, like, other TV shows, incur your enthusiasm. When they talk about dinner parties, they say it's important to have the right middle, right? The middle seat, the one that talks to both sides.

At a sex party, I imagine the middle is even more important. Yeah. I do hope you get your invite soon. If anyone's watching, make sure we put Jenks email address in the description on this video. Please send him an invite. He just wants to be included. This isn't the first time we've seen somebody who was in a public position, who was

in a government position doing something like that, maybe not quite like this, but defying the rules that they set for everyone else. it was frustrating. I mean, I like many people watching this, took COVID very seriously. I mean, I stayed inside. I lived by myself at the time. And that was like a pretty rough several months, not talking to anybody, not doing anything, not going anywhere because I understood it was part of a greater collective effort. And then when you saw people like Gavin Newsom having dinners at French Laundrie and you saw Mayor London Breed going out and you saw people that was the governor of New Jersey going out to dinner. It's just,

It's like you saw these things again and again and again. These are people who purport to take COVID seriously. These weren't right wingers who from the start said, this is just the flu. These are people who said, well, we need to stop the spread. And then going out and doing things themselves. It's very frustrating, but it creates an opportunity for the right to exploit. And that's what they're doing here. Their point isn't so much that he went to a sex party or a dance party.

That is the sensational part that they want to grab your attention with. then they did. Their underlying message is, can you really trust this person on vaccines? And yes, of course, I can separate the two. That was a selfish action, while also he can recognize and see that a vaccine is a good thing to help prevent further dire consequences for people who get COVID. So it's unfortunate that their own selfish behavior creates an opportunity for the right to exploit. Okay, so great points, Jordan. So go ahead, Mazza, then I'll jump it. I was going to say, and by the way, for anybody who remembers, for those of us who got the Pfizer vaccine, we kind of felt cocky about it, you know, like Moderna, Johnson and Johnson, eh. But perhaps

he had the Pfizer vaccine, and that's why he felt like he could go to sex parties and the dance parties, because that thing made you feel really strong. I'm always so middle class. I got Johnson and Johnson. I'm low rent. Anyway. So, okay, look, first of all, important distinction that Jordan is making, vaccines amass. So he was not a hypocrite on vaccines. He got a vaccine. He believes in vaccines. Vaccines do work.

He was a giant hypocrite on mass and isolation, et cetera, which then goes to a super interesting point. I don't believe that we need to isolate and do the vaccines because some government official told me. I believe it because 99% of the doctors say it, 99% of the scientists. to say it. So I don't care what that government official says. But, like, I don't want people saying, oh, there's two things here. First of all, there's no question that they're right that he's a hypocrite. And Gavin Newsom's a hypocrite. And Boris Johnson's a hypocrite. All those guys, it's, I'm amazed by it. Apparently, they didn't believe the doctors either. I mean, that's the great irony of this. Like, they're in the Joe Rogan, Aaron Rogers, et cetera,

camp where they're like, oh, yeah, we're going to tell people what the doctors are saying. But Let's go to a party with 200 people in an underground place where we're all going to breathe the same air. I would have never gone to that party before I was vaccinated, right? So it's interesting that he apparently didn't believe the things that he was saying. He's wrong about it. He's just as wrong as Stephen Crowder is about saying, oh, yeah, this is no big deal and you shouldn't do it. Look, you want to argue about some of the things like should the schools have been open, you know, where did the vaccine, where did the virus originally come from? etc. Those are legitimate debates and arguments that to have. But to me, the fact that this guy

was a giant hypocrite doesn't disprove that vaccines work or that 99% of doctors are incorrect. So, but it does prove that he's a huge hypocrite. senior U.S. officials are now privately admitting that they don't expect a Gaza ceasefire deal to be secured by the time President Biden, his term comes to an end. According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, the administration won't stop its pursuit of an agreement, seeing it as the only way to end the war in Gaza and stop a rapidly, escalating conflict between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah. But a number of top-level officials in the White House, State Department, and Pentagon argue the warring parties won't agree to the current framework. One of the U.S. officials said, no deal is imminent. I'm not sure it ever gets done. These officials apparently cited two main reasons for why they're not optimistic a deal

will get done soon. The ratio of Palestinian prisoners that Israel must release to bring Hamas held hostages home was a major sticking point. And the two-day attack on Hezbollah with explosive pagers and walkie-talkies, followed by Israeli airstrikes, has made the possibility of all-out war much more likely complicating diplomacy with Hamas. An official from an Arab country said shortly after those attacks in Lebanon, there's no chance of it happening. Everyone is in a wait-and-see mode until after the election. The outcome will determine what can happen in the next administration. The Wall Street Journal also reports.

Another problem is that according to Biden administration officials, Hamas makes demands and then refuses to say yes after the U.S. and Israel accept them. Critics have also accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of sabotaging the process partly in an effort to appease the hard-right flank of his governing coalition. And we're going to get to more of that proof in a bit. But, Jank, what do you think of these talks stalling and potentially no progress being made until after Biden leaps office? Yeah. So a couple of things here. Number one, earlier in the week, we told you that the Pager attack was basically the thing that was Israel saying the peace talks are

over, we're going to war. And this Wall Street Journal report confirms that. So the ceasefire talks are dead, just like I told you earlier in the week. The Pager attack was the pivotal moment where basically Netanyahu said, we're not doing the deal at all. Instead, we're going to just keep attacking and attacking and attacking. And they attacked again today, killing another 12 in Lebanon. I mean, Israel is already obliterating Lebanon. They've attacked now countless times. So you say, Oh, well, Hezbollah is also fired rockets. That's definitely true. Almost not.

One rocket has landed in like 11 months as far as we can tell. They killed people. So Hezbollah's attacks in, look, let me put it to you this way. Both Wall Street Journal and New York Times say that before both Hezbollah and Israel's attacks to one another was a low, quote, a low level conflict, okay? Now they're saying this is going to all. out war. You see the different low level conflict, all out war. And who made that decision? It is exceedingly clear that Israel made that decision. Now there's a little bit of spin you saw

there in the beginning with the U.S. officials now acknowledging it's basically over. We're going there, everybody's going to war. Oh, it was Hamas's fault because of the prisoner's swap ratio. Could it have been Hamas's fault? Of course, they're a terrorist organization. Of course it could have been their fault. It's their fault that they took the hostages in the first place and then October 7th, et cetera. But this is the first I'm seeing. I might have missed it. To be fair, I haven't read every single article. But this is the first I'm seeing of a prisoner swamp ratio demand of Hamas being the stumbling block. Every other report on this said that the major stumbling block was that Israel moved the goalposts. Hamas said yes on July 2nd. And then

Israel said, oh, never mind. Then no, no, we don't want the deal that we were fine with before. As Jordan's going to tell you in a little bit, now Israeli press reporting, no, it was definitely not in Yahoo. He changed the parameters a number of times. He did not give his negotiators any leeway to make a deal. In fact, his negotiators previously had said publicly, yeah, he basically wouldn't let us make the deal. He gave us no room to make a deal, even when Hamas agreed. So it is not all Israelis at all. But it is not all. But it's It is Netanyahu and his government. They have declared war here on Lebanon, but also in effect on Iran, because yes, it's true.

Iran does fund and help Hezbollah. And so that's who Israel is trying to get us to get in a war with. Because Lebanon, Israel can handle on its own, yeah, it'll be a giant mess. Yes, they'll slaughter a whole bunch of people. My guess is the Hezbollah reaction will be ineffectual, but maybe not. I don't know, as I've said, you know, when you get this arrogant and think you can't be hit, Sometimes you're wrong, but Iran is a significant military. For that, they're going to need the U.S. to do their dirty work.

And that's what this is leading up to. So we're here pretty much in the worst case scenario. Maz. Yeah, this is very heartbreaking to watch as more people die in Gaza, as the hostages don't come home. And there was a moment early on when they did do that prisoner swap and they did the ceasefire where I thought, and I think a lot of people were optimistic that, oh, they'll just keep repeating this, and they will get to a point where there are no more innocent Palestinians are going to die in Gaza, and the hostages will return home. But we see, as you said, politics and power take precedence here, and you've got

Netanyahu who wants to stay in power, who wants to please and appease the far-right members of his government, and Hamas as well. I mean, I assume at some point, when this is over hopefully that the Palestinians will hold Hamas accountable to to some extent for all this damage that's come down all this I should say terror this come down on them so really in the middle of it all it's very heartbreaking and it's very scary because as you said it just seems to keep escalating and you know ultimately one would think you know as some people have criticized the Biden administration they say well what why can't they sending arms to Israel. Why can't they stop supporting Israel? You would think that the United States

would use some of its clout to actually, you know, pull them in a little bit. But obviously, this administration is not. And if Trump were to win, he would not. So really, I don't know. I'm kind of hopeless at this point in terms of a solution. And again, by the way, we also don't know what effect it's going to have on the U.S. elections. You know, that's the other thing. Imagine a world in which an actual ceasefire and return of hostages were to happen before the election. I mean, that would probably benefit Kamala Harris a lot because, you know, the Biden administration had pulled it off. And yet, we think that probably Bibi would like to have Trump in power. So maybe, I mean, Trump, there was a report a while back that Trump had contacted Bibi and said, don't come up with the deal.

And I don't know if that was corroborated or not, but there was a report. who was reporting that. So I believe that as well. So it's just a, it's very heartbreaking for the victims that we see in this war and what we're going to see more of. So, of course, U.S. media is spinning these negotiations and what is stalling them in favor of Netanyahu and Israel. The Wall Street Journal largely lays the blame at the feet of Hamas. But new reporting from Israeli outlet Channel 12 confirms what we already knew that Netanyahu has been doing everything in his power to delay reaching a hostage deal. Their investigation included never-before-seen documents and previously unheard conversations.

They found that behind the scenes, Israel procrastinated when it came to conducting the talks. And even when it was clear that Hamas was interested in a deal, The political echelon did not send a delegation to the talks as soon as possible. Netanyahu walked back several promises he made, including an agreement to end the war, and invented new non-starters that were previously never mentioned. He changed his mind, he denied, and he shifted blame to anyone he possibly could. Jank, this does not sound like somebody who is serious about negotiating. Yeah, that's the Israeli press there.

And so it's, it's pretty clear that Netanyahu didn't want to steal. And besides which, look, guys, this was never complicated. We told you from the get go, the minute Ben Gavir and Smoker said, we will leave the cabinet, if you do a ceasefire deal, it was over. Because if they leave the cabinet, they go to an election. That's the way that the system works in Israel. Netanyahu is now, I think, at 72, 28, if I remember the last poll right, meaning he has no chance of winning the election.

He would be out of power. He'd be out of power for good. He has a corruption trial that is potentially upcoming. He might literally go to jail if he did a ceasefire deal. So guys like Netanyahu are power hungry egomaniacs. And it's not because he's the leader of Israel. It's because there are leaders in almost all countries that are like this. The Dick Cheney's, the Trumps, the Dutertees, the Viktor Orban's, the Vladimir Putin's, etc.

And Netanyahu is one of them and he's one of the worst. and so he is starting any and all wars and preventing peace for his own personal gain. That is why even the people of Israel that actually don't really disagree with what's happened in Gaza too much, according to the polling, but even they are saying, no, this is outrageous and we hate this guy. And by the way, he had intelligence that October 7th was going to happen and he let it happen. So whether he made that active decision or was incredibly incompetent in letting it happen, That's another reason why the population in Israel hates them as well.

So congratulations then, you've united the whole world in hating you. But except for three of the most important people, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Donald Trump all still love Netanyahu, and they will all do whatever Netanyahu commands of them. And there is no other way to spin this, I don't care what any Democrats says or what anybody in the establishment says. Joe Biden is a historic failure on this issue. And all he had to do was use his leverage. He has $26 billion worth of leverage. If he threatened it, we could have gotten a ceasefire deal, and everyone knows that. No one says, oh, no, Jang, if Israel doesn't care about the $26 billion, that wouldn't

have made a difference. No one in their right mind believes that. Joe Biden could end it today. It's not even over. He can say, that's it. I'm pulling the funding because it was then Yahoo, who broke. to ceasefire deal or chose not to do it. But Biden is choosing to let this giant war in the Middle East happen

and potentially cause his own party the election just because he says, well, I serve Netanyahu. I don't serve America. I serve Netanyahu. If Netanyahu says war, then Joe Biden says war. He is a historic failure. So it's definitely on Netanyahu, but it is an enormous part of that. fault here lies with President Joe Biden. So last things here is unfortunately now stories

confirmed by the New York Times of the idea of throwing Palestinians off of rooftops. They have become what they most feared and loathed. So all the terrible terrorists are doing rape and throwing people off a rooftops and killing civilians. Now the IDF has done all of them. And when it comes to death and killing civilians, they've killed so much more civilians than Hamas and Hezbollah combined times 30. And if you're still saying, I don't care about Palestinian lives, they can kill 30, 50, 300 times more. But since they're Israel, they are not terrorists, when they do the same exact thing, 30 times worse than the people we do call terrorists. So make up your mind on who's a terrorist. But right now the terrorist named Netanyahu, I made up my mind.

He's definitely a terrorist by any definition. And he's now starting a giant war in the Middle East. And if we fight it for him and we finance that, we're out of our minds. America has to say not just for the sake of the U.S. and not just for the sake of the Palestinians, but also as a good friend for the sake of Israel, We have to draw a line and say, no, you will not get your own country, which is supposed to be a safe haven for Jews in the world, into a giant war in the Middle East where we don't know how many people are going to be hard, including Israelis. But Joe Biden is so pathetically weak and so corrupt that he will never do that. Instead, he'll say, where's the check? Where's the check?

Oh, Apex's giving me over $11 million. That's too many bribes. So I'm going to let Netanyahu do whatever he wants. And finally, guys, this is the most heartbreaking part. I mean, so much of this is heartbreaking, so many people are going to die. But if you're being realistic, and I'm afraid of saying it out loud, but that probably means that the hostages are going to be killed because they've given up on the ceasefire deal. So they're going to go to a giant war.

Right now, Israel is bombing Lebanon as we speak. They've got ground troops on the border. They say we're not going to go in yet. But they've chosen war. So if I'm one of the family members of those hostages, the rage I would have would be untold, untold, you're going to get mad at Hamas, that makes perfect sense. They took the hostages in the first place, and at some point, unfortunately, you know, they haven't killed them yet, they haven't killed all of them yet, and I hope they never do.

I hope they never do. Please God, don't let them do that. But Netanyahu looks like he's signed their death warrant. All right, we got to go. Huge war in the Middle East for no goddamn reason other than one guy, Netanyahu, and the fact that our system allows bribes, it's sickening. All right, we got a whole second hour for you guys. Maz and Jordan really appreciate guys, love you guys.

Thanks for joining us. Thank you. We'll be right back. I don't know. I don't know.