The Young Turks - Shootin' Blanket Pardons

Episode Date: April 8, 2021

Matt Gaetz once sought a preemptive pardon from the Trump White House, according to new reports. 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. Welcome to the Young Turks. I'm Anna Kasparian, joining us today since it's Wednesday is John Iderola, host of the damage report and the father of all dragons. John, it's always fun to do the show with you on Wednesday. How are you? Anna, it is always fun to be introduced by you because I never know where it's going to go. I'm excited to do the show with you as well. Well, if you guys tuned into my pre-show stream, I answered some super chat questions.

And I want to make more of a habit of that. So I'm gonna do a better job advertising it ahead of time moving forward. I was just a little terrified of the tech side of things since it was the first time I was gonna do it. And I did mess up, I had to like restart the stream at one point. But stay tuned for that because again, I do want to make it more of a regular thing where I can actually answer your questions in a more free-flowing, loose format. And just have a good time with you guys. I love hearing what you guys have to say and answer your questions. And as always, you can like and share the stream to get the message out for the Young Turks.

And you can also ask super chat questions as we do this show live and we'll answer them during our social breaks for our online audience. So we got a great show ahead for you, John. Okay, it's it's bananas, it's huge. Just for me. Some people are saying it's the biggest show, biggest show ever, yeah. The biggest. We're gonna talk about what the real popularity is in response to Biden's infrastructure proposal.

How do Republican voters feel about it? We have some numbers to share with you. I can't wait to talk about that. Later, we're also gonna talk about, I'm gonna keep it real, this is gonna be a member's only story. But a mafia member has been arrested and he got caught because of his love for cooking. It's a story with a twist. And so, you know, even criminals have hobbies that they love. So it's very spicy meatball, that's spicy meatball got him, got him locked up.

But we'll give you the details on that for our members. Just click that join button and you can become a member, help support the show, help keep us independent. For now though, let's give you some updates on more Matt Gates. nonsense, terrible, terrible stuff going on. So, Representative Matt Gates, who still maintains that he's done nothing wrong despite a Justice Department investigation into possible sex trafficking of a minor, asked the Trump administration, in the tail end of that term, of course, to offer him a preemptive pardon. Now, we learned about this through some reporting over at the New York Times,

And apparently Donald Trump has responded to these allegations. But before we get to his response, let's hear a little from Maggie Haberman over at the New York Times, who I think is incredibly questionable, just keeping it real. But nonetheless, she chimes in on that reporting. Let's hear what she has to say. President Trump should pardon Michael Flynn. He should pardon the Thanksgiving turkey. He should pardon everyone from himself to his administration officials to Joe Exotic if he has to,

because you see from the radical left a bloodlust. that will all his first impulse was that he wanted to defend gates you know he's one of our people several of his advisors have told him that's a very bad idea that the the nature of what gates is being investigated before is uh for is so serious that this is not something that former president trump should be out there in a limb remember he does not have twitter anymore so it's not as if he can just go out and do what he wants so far they have been successful in keeping him away Trump did like Gates. Gates was a very full-throated supporter of Trump. He was, you know, defending him during impeachment. He tried to defend him again during the second impeachment.

Trump personally likes him. Trump's staff has always had issues with him. I have an idea real quick, you know, not to go off on a tangent. Let's please retire the phrase full-throated, especially in this context. Putting that aside, you know, so Donald Trump says that he was never approached personally by Matt Gates. He says, Congressman Matt Gates has never asked me for a pardon. It must also be remembered that he has totally denied the accusations against him. So it's a little bit of a defense there, but mostly Trump saying that, nope, I wasn't asked about a pardon. But really the story doesn't say that Trump was specifically approached by Matt Gates. White House staffers and aides were approached by Matt Gates based on the New York Times reporting.

And apparently a source familiar with Gates's request told Fox News that Gates's request was met with, quote, lots of eye rolling and wasn't even considered by the White House. And I should also note that Gates is currently fundraising off of this scandal. We'll give you the details on that in just a minute, but John, I wanted you to jump in. Yeah, so I'm a little bit surprised that he maybe not himself personally asked for one, but people on his team were clearly involved in that. That's, I mean, we don't know for sure that he knew about the investigation, but of course, if he did anything, he knew that he did things.

And so I don't know, to opportunistically look for that in the last few months is just not something that generally you do when you're innocent, as many people. People have pointed out. In terms of the defense that was offered up by that official presidential statement, it is a defense. It is all that we've gotten from Trump so far. So if you're Matt Gates, you're probably happy with it that he's spoken out at all. But I mean, it's not strong, it's not great.

Like Anna, if you were caught up in some sort of massive scandal and I waited like a week and people are like sending super chats every day, why aren't you, John, why aren't you say anything about Anna's scandal? And then finally I put out a tweet that just said, it must be a. remembered that Anna has denied the accusations against her, and that was it? Would you be satisfied with that? Would you feel like, no, I mean, it's not my back. Yeah, it's not a full-throated defense to use Maggie Haberman's wording there. But look, I think you're right. I think anyone who has the same perspective on the story is correct. If you did nothing wrong, if you have

nothing to worry about why would you need a preemptive pardon? And I do want to show you what Matt Gates's argument was in favor of a preemptive pardoned, not just for himself. It seemed like he just kind of wanted to distract from the fact that he was looking for a preemptive pardoned by also including a broader group of people to be pardoned. And he made this case during a November 2020 interview with Fox. Let's hear what he had to say. President Trump should pardon Michael Flynn. He should pardon the Thanksgiving Turkey. He should pardon everyone from himself to his administration officials to Joe Exotic if he has to. Because you see from the radical left a bloodlust that will only be quenched if they come after the people who worked so hard to animate the Trump administration with the policies and the vigor and the effectiveness that delivered for the American people.

So I think that the president ought to wield that pardon power effectively and robustly. So he was obviously a big fan of these preemptive pardons, tried to make it seem like it wasn't just about him, it was about all of these Republican lawmakers, it was about the Thanksgiving Turkey because Democrats allegedly have bloodlust, okay, and of course he's fundraising off of this. He put out an email blast asking for some money because he's being unfairly targeted by Democrats, even though, and let me be clear, the Justice Department investigation began under the Trump administration with Attorney General William Barr serving as the head of the Justice Department as the Attorney General. So to say that this is an attack by Democrats, I think is pretty

pathetic. And I think most people who can think logically can see right through this, the body of the email says, the far left New York Times, that's hilarious, has been publishing salacious allegations against me in an attempt to end my career fighting for the forgotten men and women of this country. It's a shame that the left tries to drag my dating life into their political attacks, but it's no surprise when your ideas suck, you have to stoop this low. Well, I mean, we know that when Republicans and their ideas suck, they just rig elections to their favor as they're doing in Georgia and pretty soon also in Texas.

But I'll put that aside for now and just note that again, this DOJ investigation began under a Republican administration. And I would argue that for a party that has so much support from QAnon conspiracy theorists, you know, someone who's being investigated for trafficking a minor for sex, serious issue, serious issue that should be investigated. Except that, like, every ideology has core values, the core value, or at least the core driving motive of modern day conservatism is just, I don't want to have to think about anything inconvenient.

Like the QAnon stuff is, I like that because all Democrats are satanic. Literally they consume children, that's great. Wait, a Republican did it, no, I don't like that, I don't want to engage with that thought. They're targeting a Trump ally, you know, the deep state. Oh wait, it was a Republican, it was like this guy we love, William Barr, it's just inconvenient. Let's forget about it. Let's pretend that it's Biden, you know, that guy who's known for holding political grudges. But the thing about the, I'm glad that you mentioned the fact that it was begun under William Barr.

The part of it that I have a question for you, though, is the reporting has said that at the time that Gates is, whoever it was, Gates are his team that went to the White House and was like, we want a blanket pardon. We don't know that either Gates or Trump knew about the investigation, even though the investigation apparently at that point was ongoing. If William Barr was aware of it, which we found that out days ago, that he was well aware of it, how likely do you think it is that Trump did know about it at that point, that someone that's so close of an ally to Trump was being investigated for something particularly bad sounding, it just seems pretty likely that Trump would have known during this pardon period that that's what Matt Gates was potentially facing, whether Matt Gates knew about it at that point or not. Yeah, I believe it or not, I'm less interested about what Donald Trump do about the investigation, and I'm obviously much more interested in what Matt Gates knew about the investigation. And obviously I'm about to speculate. I don't know for sure. But remember, this investigation began not based on Matt Gates's behavior. The investigation was primarily in the beginning

focused on this guy named Greenberg, who's actually a close political ally of Matt Gates's. They're good friends. They're from the same state. This was the former Seminole County tax collector. And he was indicted for alleged sex trafficking. And while he was being investigated, that's when the investigation broadened to also include Matt Gates because there was some indication that he was trafficking a 17 year old or paying for the travel of a 17 year old so they can meet and have sex with each other. That's the allegation. I say all that because if that's your homie and you know, you know that he's facing this investment,

investigation, right? He's already been charged with sex trafficking. If you've been involved with this guy in any way, then I think you're pretty much well aware that you're gonna get caught up in that investigation. So I'm speculating that Matt Gates did know, which is why he asked for the pardon. Obviously, we have no way of knowing for sure. Donald Trump is always in La La Land. The only thing that he ever thinks about is himself. So did Trump know? Maybe, maybe not. but I think that it's less consequential than Matt Gates knowing that he was being investigated. I think from Matt Gates's point of view long term, sure, I think so. And the investigators would want to know if that was motivating him to ask for pardon.

That potentially could be a consideration going forward. I'm mostly interested just in that, like, I want Matt Gates to know that Trump didn't help him after all that he did for him. He eventually got the same treatment. Yeah, that's true that he didn't get it. But I wanted to know that he didn't get it and Trump knew how bad he needed it. He needs to learn. The only way they can learn that every one of them has learned that their loyalty will never be paid back is that they watch this person get betrayed by Trump. And then the next person that people have worked for years for Trump not getting anything for it. And they're just thinking, I'm sure I'll break this pattern. No, no, you won't. He doesn't care about you. You're not him. You're not even Ivanka. So he's definitely not going to do anything for you. And I want Matt Gates, whether he ends up in jail or ends up resigning or not, I want him to know that. He'll still be loyal. to Trump because that's a prerequisite for a political career on the right right now. But I want, I wanted the question a little bit. I just think that would be fun to know that he's

doing that. I love how you just want to twist the knife. Like you're, you know, it doesn't really matter at the end of the day, but you want, you want to twist that. I get it, I get it. I mean, that is a love that I can appreciate for sure. But you know, a conversation that Matt, Ryan Grimm and I had yesterday in regard to the story is, you know, what will the political consequences be because Florida's panhandle, that's the area that Matt Gates represents, is incredibly conservative and is, you know, Ryan Grimm's perspective is this scandal as it stands now is unlikely to persuade Matt Gates supporters in the panhandle to basically abandon him. And we want to know what you think. So will the Gates scandals cost him his job or will this all blow over

because nothing matters. So you got two options there. I like the usage of emojis. Will it cost him his job? Or will it all blow over? Of course, Matt Gates is refusing to step down. He thinks he's done nothing wrong. But we'll see how this investigation plays out and fill you guys in as we learn more. For now though, let's move on to one other angle of this story that I think is super relevant. Donald Trump's first impulse was to defend. Donald Trump. I'm sorry. Well, of course, that is his first impulse. What am I saying? To defend Matt Gates. That wasn't even really a Freudian slip. It was just correct. But anyway, so, you know, Matt Gates, of course, is being investigated for possibly

trafficking someone who's underage to have sex with her, a 17 year old. This was a DOJ investigation that began under Trump's administration with William Barr serving as the attorney general. He was briefed on it several times, meaning William Barr was. And so, you know, there have been calls among conservatives and also some questions in the media about whether or not Trump is going to stick up for this representative who has gone to great lengths to defend him. Matt Gates has, I don't know if anyone other than Lindsey Graham has licked Donald Trump's boots harder. But, you know, apparently AIDS to Donald Trump had to persuade him to avoid offering a defense for Matt Gates, which, you know, tells you

everything you need to know about this guy. He obviously does not care. If this is true, obviously does not care about the well-being of anyone will use accusations of bad behavior if it's his political rivals, but certainly not any of his loyalists. But, you know, honestly, I'm not I'm not gonna lie, this doesn't surprise me, and at the end of the day, I don't care that much. What I do care about though is that Matt Gates was the only lawmaker, the only lawmaker in 2017 to vote against a sex trafficking law or bill, which luckily did end up passing as law unanimously passed in the Senate. In the House, he was the only lawmaker who voted against it. Yeah, he should have voted for it, then it would have been entrapment and he might have gotten off on

that. The legal way, not the way that he normally does, it's going to lead to legal trouble for him. But also back when he was in the Florida House, he was one of only two lawmakers to vote against a revenge porn bill. I mean, this guy has been telling us who he is, whether he did the specific crimes that he's being accused of or investigated for. And clearly there's some weird choices. In terms of the behind the scenes info about Trump, I think I might care a little bit more than you and I have a slightly different read on it. Like I think this is being put out to sort of make Trump look a little bit less like he's betraying such a close ally, the idea that he had to be stopped from protect or from speaking out in support of Gates. Except if you if like if you're

Trump and you're Mr. Alpha, like some aides talked to you out of protecting an ally, then how strongly did you really want to protect him honestly? Like and if I was Gates, am I supposed to to feel better as a result of this, that he talked to Stephen Miller or Jason Miller or something, and that's why I didn't get help. And now he did put out that statement about Gates. So I guess now he's doing what he really wanted to do. And yet the message was super weak sauce. So I just don't think he cares. He just doesn't care. I mean, he can't even, he can't be expected to go out on the campaign trail and seriously boost other candidates when there's no political danger to him. Protecting Gates in this case, in theory, could reflect poorly on him in the

future, perhaps. He doesn't do the easy stuff. So I have a hard time believing that his heart is really behind the more difficult stuff. Matt Gates was useful to him. He enjoyed him on TV, but he's not his son. I don't even know they would care if he was his son. So I just, I, they can put out whatever statement they want to try to make it seem as if behind the scenes he's more supportive of the right and it's champions than he actually is, it's not showing. Yeah, I guess, I guess my take is just that it doesn't matter. Like at the end of the day, it doesn't really, it doesn't really matter. Yeah, like, like Trump is Trump. I don't think we need to have debates. And I know we're not having a debate, but like, I don't think that we need in the

media overall to continue on with these debates about like who Trump is and is he loyal to his loyal No, I mean like he he would have like slashed Brian Kemp if he could get away with it, simply because Brian Kemp didn't literally help him steal the election by flipping the votes in Georgia. I mean, and Brian Kemp was one of his like top loyalists. Donald Trump serves no one any good, okay? He only looks out for himself. I think that there's just an abundance of evidence on that. And he doesn't seem to really suffer any of the political consequences with his base regardless of what he does. So I mean, I think that his aides gave him good advice by not offering a defense for Gates.

But he can't help himself. You know, he weighs in by offering like you're right a weak sauce defense. But again, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. What does matter is that we do have an individual who has a position of power right now. And that's Matt Gates, who I can't believe this wasn't even a giant story at the time. I didn't know about this until today. He was the only lawmaker in Congress. You have hundreds and hundreds of members of Congress. All of them voted to pass an anti-sex trafficking bill. And he was the lone member of Congress who voted

against it. Just like let that sink in for a second, guys. That's it, that's the story. And then I'm sorry, we gotta go to this video, it's B2. And then when some people ask some questions about it, like, hey, yo, what's going on? I mean, sex trafficking. That seems like a pretty big deal. He offered the worst excuse for voting against it. Watch. If there's legislation that creates a new government entity, a new agency, a new board, a new commission, a new council, we immediately scrutinize that. And unless there is an overwhelming, compelling reason that our existing agencies in the federal government can't handle that problem, I vote no because voters in Northwest Florida did not send me to Washington to go and create more

federal government. If anything, we should be abolishing a lot of the agencies at the federal level like the Department of Education, like the EPA, and sending that power back to our state governments. If anything, we should get rid of all the resources in the federal government to prevent any type of investigation into sex trafficking because I certainly don't want to be held accountable when I'm caught spending money on the travel for minors to come meet up with me so I can have sex with them. There, I did it. I decoded it for you. Congratulations. Yeah, he Rand Paul voted for it. Like, don't give me your libertarian thing. Like, it just doesn't no. No, it's not you. It's just he's not great. Like, you know, he's not as dumb as some.

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 dinner's July 18th.

He's not as dumb as like Marjorie Green or Louis Gomer or something like that, but he's just, he's just exceptionally unexceptional. He's just like you've met a thousand of him in your day. And I know Brett, because he, Brett has met a lot more of that type of guy than me. It's just maybe this scandal will take him down. Maybe it won't. He's not destined for great things. He's just not particularly clever, particularly funny. He's got tall hair and he's willing to prostrate himself for the president. Those are his two defining characteristics. Oh, and his dad's rich.

Those are the three things he can do, basically. And, you know, his dad has to bail him out when he gets involved in any type of of criminal activity like operating a vehicle under the influence of substances that you shouldn't take before you operate a vehicle. Exactly, and more recently he's got a new daddy. So when he got in trouble before, his actual dad had to help him, and now his political daddy had to help him. It's like the second he started doing the same sort of reckless stuff that all along the way, both in the previous crimes and the new ones, everyone around and political allies are mocking him, they're sending funny videos of him embarrassing himself to people.

They're calling him a grenade with a pin pulled out. All along the way, people can see what a reckless A-Hole he is. And now he's got to look for somebody more powerful to save him with a blanket pardon just like his dad used to be able to provide. Absolutely. And look, here at TYT, there's only one daddy that matters. And that's the Dragon Daddy, John Ida Rola. We gotta take a break. Let's do that. And when we come back, Mitch McConnell clarifies about corporations partaking in politics. He doesn't want them to criticize Republicans, but he loves their money. We'll give you his clarification and more when we return.

We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-F-The-Republic or UNFTR. As a young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations are constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the revolution. rich and powerful. But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the conventional wisdom. In each episode of Un-B-The-Republic or UNFTR, the host delves into a different historical episode or topic that's generally misunderstood or purposely obfuscated by the so-called powers that be. Featuring in-depth research, razor-sharp commentary, and just the right amount of vulgarity, the UNFTR podcast takes a sledgehammer to what you thought you knew about some of the

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postgame show today. Uh, there's a lot of presents. There's going to be wonderful content on our Twitch channel. Happy Half Hour airs every Wednesday after the postgame show. So make sure you guys check that out at Twitch.tv slash TiT. Good news and good booze with Brett Ehrlich. So definitely check that out. It'll be a lot of fun. And if you want to subscribe and you should, you can do it for free by going to t.yt.com slash Prime. You can subscribe for free through Amazon. And if you go to that link, you'll know all the details you need to know to do just that. Also, lots of fun coming up on the conversation as well. Khalil Muhammad, who's a professor of history, race, and public policy at Harvard

Kennedy School. We'll join Benjamin Dixon on the conversation Thursday, April 8th at 5.30 p.m. Eastern Time, 2.30 p.m. Pacific. You can watch that over at t.y.t.com slash live. And I'm loving the comments. Let's start with a bucket full of dragons who just just wants to point out to everyone that I remain consistent, okay? I remember on TYT a year or two back, Anna said she wanted to ban the phrases full-throated and coming from behind. Oh, well, oh well, they're just not, they're not good, they're not good.

Or are they great. Are they great? They're bad. They're bad. Very bad. Very bad. Speaking of bad, Naudius Maximus says, does anyone at all find it surprising that the Republicans are guilty of the very child trafficking and criminal behavior that they have projected

onto everyone else and accused the Democrats of? Well, I mean, we've certainly seen quite a bit of projection coming from the GOP throughout the years. I mean, the first thing that honestly comes to mind is all of those right, right, right? wing lawmakers who fought tooth and nail to ban same sex marriage, and then you turn out, then they turn out to be gay, right? We find out that there's some scandal, they paid for male escorts, whatever it is. I don't say that to demonize them. I say it because oftentimes when you hear the sex scandals or the salacious accusations, there's some projecting behind

the scenes. And I don't know if that's the case right now with Matt Gates. I want to wait until we know the results of that investigation, but it's not looking good for him. Mark Bugs writes in and says, John, you need to take some lessons from Anna. Are you kidding me right now? You need to take lessons from Anna on how to take a pre-show picture. Okay, you're right about that. I'm sure my TDR membership is now revoked, much love to both of you. So I did a pre-show stream to answer some of your super chat questions.

And I thought you were going to say, I thought you were going to say that John can learn lessons from me. from streaming or on streaming. I was terrified. I had to like restart the stream. It was bad, but I did make sure that my thumbnail picture was good. So I'm looking at this thumbnail. Damn it. Yeah, it's pretty good, right? Pretty good. It's good. And Peter Hamby says, I'm still baffled about people who want presidential pardons while they claim that they've done nothing wrong. You either did something or didn't, you can't have it both ways. Totally agree. Let's get back to the show. Welcome back to TYT, Anna and John with you. Let's get right to our next story.

When Georgia and Georgia-based company specifically started releasing statements, criticizing Georgia's voter suppression law, Mitch McConnell told them to stay out of politics. It's not their place, no place for corporations and politics, which is a strange message to have when you love hoaring yourself to corporate interests by taking legalized bribes. But, you know, he did take some time to clarify and offer an important caveat. Let's watch. I'm not talking about political contributions. Most of them contribute to both sides. They have political action committees. That's fine.

It's legal. It's appropriate. I support that. I'm talking about taking a position on a highly incendiary issue like this and punishing a community or a state. because you don't like a particular law they passed, I just think it's stupid. I think it's stupid that, yeah, that none of it makes sense. And I'll explain why, we'll explain why in just a minute. But keep in mind that the only real action that's been taken so far has been by the Major League,

by Major League Baseball. They've decided to move their All-Star game out of Georgia because of this voter suppression law. And I think that that's their right. They don't agree with it. And they wanted to make a move. And they did. But when it comes to corporations, all they have done, all they have done is offer up hollow platitude statements, whatever, whatever, just to kind of calm people down because there were growing calls for these Georgia-based companies to say something. Now, I think talk is cheap, and to be quite honest with you, I don't care what corporations have to say. But getting back to Mitch McConnell, yeah, I mean, he thinks that corporations are people

when it comes to unlimited campaign donations and legalized bribery. But corporations don't tend to be people with First Amendment rights when it comes to any type of critique or criticism toward awful laws that literally do away with people's ability to vote, right? And what I mean by that is they make it with this law that just passed in Georgia incredibly difficult for certain communities to cast their ballot. And that was done intentionally after Georgia flipped from red to blue and Biden won that state. There was no evidence of voter fraud, not a single shred of evidence. And they decided to do this because Republicans are so unpopular, so awful with their platform that they would rather rig the election to their favor as opposed to maybe taking a good hard

look at how awful and unpopular they are with their platform. That's really what's happening at the end of the day. Didn't Matt Gates have something about what you do when your ideas suck? Maybe they should listen to him. Yeah, so McConnell's thing is pretty simple. Of course, companies should give them money when they do things, but they shouldn't not not give them money when they do things. Do you think that companies should be involved in our politics there, don't you? That's all it is. That's the entire thing. And also, and more generally, even if we weren't talking specifically about corporate finance, when I know you're gonna go into how much money he's gotten from corporations, oh my God, it's so much. Is it good

when companies are really openly political? Like, or sorry, is it good for companies be openly political only when they sell beans and pillows? Are those the ones that can do it, but none of the others, which is it? Because right now, as I always say, you are mad at them because they said something that's not correct politically. That's all it is. They said and did something that you didn't like. You've spent all year saying that companies shouldn't be stopped, like they shouldn't be pressured to be politically correct. What are they doing right now with these with these boycotts that they're not actually boycotting and all this pressure? It's trying to push back a corporation for what they did politically or what they said. It's the egg.

exact same thing. And yet I know that we're gonna get past this. And not only are we still gonna have the voter suppression law, but we're still gonna have way too many Americans and not just Republicans that buy into this idea of cancel culture and political correctness being a thing that has anything to do with the left side of the spectrum. Rather than just a careful narrative to very specifically identify certain types of behavior about some people we don't like while allowing other people to do the exact same thing. Say whatever they want, Try not to be criticized and then criticize other people when they do things you don't like. No, everybody doesn't like some things.

Corporations can do some things we'll like and some things we won't. And you know what you should do? When you don't like it, speak out. When you do like it speak out, hell, just speak a lot. That's the only like reasonable standard. This idea that we can set up some sort of like matrix to analyze, hear corporations that have specifically bowed down to wokeness or whatever, it doesn't actually mean anything. And that wouldn't be a big problem if it was just Republicans that were talking about political

correctness and cancel culture. But when you have tons of people, including some with big audiences like Bill Maher, that are getting across this idea that it really is a problem for the left and not something that everyone does, that is actually dangerous because that might stop some people from speaking out. Yeah, I think you make a really good point about that. And you know, Mitch McConnell, when you really look at his political career, he's the king of having his cake and eating it too. I mean, think about it in the context of Supreme Court nominations or confirmations. You know, when it came to Obama's Supreme Court pick with Merrick Garland, with a year out before the presidential election, Mitch McConnell put a halt to it, basically

prevented the confirmation hearings from taking place, arguing that, you know, well, you know, we're too close to the election, why don't we wait until after the election and then whoever wins gets to decide. And then of course, then he turns around and does exactly what you would expect Mitch McConnell to do once Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away and Amy Coney Barrett was nominated by Donald Trump very close to election day. So I bring that up because he gets away with that all the time. He gets to set the terms. He sets the rules. Corporations should stay out of politics unless they're patting my pockets and my campaign, other than that, don't want to hear about what they have to say. By the way, we need to protect their First Amendment rights because they're

people, which is garbage, obviously they're not. And Mitch McConnell's been spewing these talking points his entire political career. This is not new. For instance, when the Supreme Court made one of the worst rulings that has ever made in Citizens United, here's what Mitch McConnell said. This is on January 21st, 2010. He said, for too long, some in this country, have been deprived of full participation in the political process. With today's monumental decision, the Supreme Court took an important step in the direction of restoring the First Amendment rights of these groups by ruling that the Constitution protects their right to express themselves about political candidates and issues up until election day.

Oh, really? Oh, really? You want them to weigh in on issues? I mean, obviously he's full of it because it's just, it's all about legalized bribery and nothing more. In fact, when the Senate finally passed the bipartisan campaign reform act in 2002 with a bare minimum tally of 60 votes, McConnell sued the Federal Election Commission to block the legislation. That lawsuit, McConnell versus FEC, upheld most parts of the law, but eventually gave way to that 2010 Citizens United States. ruling that he of course fervently backed. And even when he was teaching in the 70s, he was, you know, propagandizing these students to think money in politics is great. As NPR reported, McConnell went to the front of the classroom and he wrote on the chalkboard, the three things you need to succeed in politics and to build a political party, money, money, money. And so,

Since he loves hoaring himself out, why don't we take a good hard look at what kind of companies paid for him? Blackstone Group is actually his top political contributor. And these are campaign contributions in the, in his entire political career starting in 1989. Total donations, nearly half a million dollars just from Blackstone Group alone. You have healthcare companies there, Kindred Healthcare, Humana Inc., UPS, which you know might help you understand why Republicans like him have no problem with tearing the United States Postal Service apart and defunding it. You look at the next set of donors. You have Blue Cross Shield, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase. I mean, the list goes on and on. He loves money in

politics, he's addicted to it. So when it comes to this type of corporate activity, he's all for it. But if you criticize the deterioration of our political process due to a suppression law in the state of Georgia, why don't you shut up and dribble, basically? That's what he's got to say about it. Yeah. Well, and yes, that was all great. And it's, I don't know, it feels even a little bit more like. At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control of our online lives, constantly monitoring us and storing our data. But that doesn't mean we have to let them. It's possible to stay anonymous online and hide your data from the prying eyes of big tech. And one of the best ways is

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That's EX, P-R-E-S-S-V-N dot com slash T-YT. Check it out today. Like corrosive, like these companies need to manage their image. That is what they are always doing, not just in politics, in literally everything. They don't want to do things that will reflect poorly on them. Doing the all star game in Georgia right now could conceivably hurt them. They seem to have had a little meeting and they've decided that. So Mitch McConnell is saying like they can't cancel it. They have to take the damage, which is a political stance. Knowing that doing something will reflect poorly on you and continuing

to do it is a choice. He's saying you have to make that choice. And that is a thread that runs through most of these sorts of stories. So if you ever published a book that had some racist images in it, even if nobody reads them, you have to keep publishing it if you're Dr. Seuss. You cannot stop publishing it. Because if you stop publishing it, that's politically incorrect to the Republicans, I guess. So you have to take the damage potentially to your reputation and maybe even monetary damage to not frustrate them, to not offend them. It's just, it's absolute nonsense. In this case, having it and not having it are both political decisions. Any huge event being held in Georgia right now, when that is basically ground zero for voter suppression could reflect

poorly in companies. It is not irrational of them to think to worry about that. Yeah, exactly. I mean, and I mean, what about their workers, right? How many of their workers lean Democrat, how many of their workers are African American? Not that corporations have a great track record of looking out for their workers. But, you know, and again, the other side of this, and I think it's really important to keep it in mind, like we need to move away from demanding feeder from corporations and from politicians. Like, we want you to release a statement about this. Okay, great, they released a statement. Now what? That does nothing. So again, talk is cheap, I'm glad that they're speaking out. I'm not trying to take away from, I guess,

the small upside to that. But it's one thing to cave to pressure from Americans by just releasing a statement, something entirely different to actually put action behind that. Like, for instance, a lot of these companies that are based in Georgia specifically donate money to these Republican lawmakers. Are they going to stop doing that in Georgia? Are you going to stop doing that? Are they going to stop with those campaign donations? I mean, some companies that initially said that they were no longer going to make donations to those who were trying to steal the election have already backtracked on that just a few months ago, doing exactly what was predicted.

When people are paying attention to it, they say they're not going to. And then a couple months later, we kind of want influence though. Exactly, exactly. All right, well, we got to take a break. When we come back, a pretty heartbreaking story about a 10-year-old unaccompanied migrant child who was found after he was abandoned by the group he was with. There's a point to that story outside of, you know, the emotional element to it. The statement coming from Joe Biden about how Trump ignored the root causes of migration set me off. So I'll talk about that and more when

we come back. Hey, everyone. Welcome to our social break. Wanted to send out a special thanks to our YouTube members, new YouTube members, Gabriel Arias, Mickey, TMB, and also Candice, Madame Erica. Oh, no, Candice is a separate person, and then Madame Erica is another person. Thank you so much for your support. We really, really appreciate it. And you guys can become a member by just clicking on that join button, and you'll have some options on which tier you'd like to join. We wanted to give you guys some options based on what you're comfortable paying. But members get all sorts of perks. including exclusive members only content. You get to, you know, play around with those fun emojis.

I'm hoping that in the future we'll add some more. But there are all sorts of perks that come along with it. So please check that out. Moving on to our super chat section, Forrest Dudley says, hey Anna, I'm thrilled you're joining John in the enlightened realm of doing pre-shows. What time are you planning on doing it? Is it right before the show? And if so, wouldn't that clash with the conversation's time slot, you know, yes, I think it does clash with the conversations time slot. We are going to work on that. But as soon as we figure out the timing for the conversation, there might be some changes. I would like to do the pre-show every day, an hour before we go live for the main show. So at 2 p.m. Pacific, 5 p.m. Eastern. And of course, you can check that out live on YouTube.com

slash t-y-t. And Mr. Charles says, Anna, Mitch McConnell doesn't eat cake. He eats lettuce very, very slowly. Every time he talks, all I hear, all I see. Moving on to member comments, Thomas says Mitch McConnell is a bad person. He isn't a real good turtle either, although he does a good turtle impression. Agreed. Witchy woman, stating the obvious, companies should be banned from

politics, their employees have differing views and don't all agree with the main office. I mean, you know how I feel about that. I totally agree. Sexy Speed Racer, turtle to CEOs of corporations, sit down and shut up, but keep giving us copious amounts of money. Exactly, exactly. Let's see, did I read everything? Okay, Spicy Flanders also writes in our member section. Fact check, Matt Gates received a pardon from Pepe Lepeot. Thank you, S. I haven't seen that. Have you John? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was, it's this one where Britney Spears is like talking to people who've been canceled or whatever. It was pretty good. Yeah. You still watch SNL like regularly? I do. It's funny. Why? I'm not judging. I'm just saying like. I don't know, it feels good. It's good. I like laughing. It's a pandemic. No, I love it. Do you boo? I like all sorts of content that you would not find interesting at all. It's how I feel about SNL, but it's okay, it's okay, don't hate me for it.

We do have to get back to the show, so let's do that and I'll see you there. Welcome back to TYT, Anna and John with you. John, what was up on the damage report today? The damage report was Big News Wednesdays with J.R. Jackson. We covered, let's see, a little bit that we've talked about today, the Matt Gates, but we also went into Joe Mansions, possible effect on the infrastructure bill coming up soon. Let's see, we did talk about the Tucker Carlson story. I was obviously incredibly frustrated by that because I hate the rewriting of history. Oh, we also talked about Atlanta trying to fight back against some of the

components of the voter suppression bill. So yeah, a few little things. Love it. So everyone go check that out. The damage report, one of our TYT network shows, it's the morning show, Not a big deal. 10 a.m. Pacific time, 1 p.m. Eastern. I always like pause because I don't want to mess up the time slot. But it's a popular show. I don't want you to beat us, but it's okay. I'm glad that you're doing it. Anyway, let's move on to our next story. I wasn't going to try until that break with the SNL thing, but now you're going down. All right. Well, our next story is pretty serious and heartbreaking. But this is what happens when you meddle in other countries. And don't do enough about climate change.

A 10-year-old migrant child from Nicaragua was lost and later found walking alone in a rural part of Texas near the border. Let's watch. I don't know what I'm going to be Where are you? No, you know, where are you? You're just? You're just, voted? No.

No, you know, you're with mommy or with papio or with anyone? Ah? You're with your mom or your papa? Nobody. I was in a group that I was in a trip with you and me or by having to

and I came to ask you to ask you. You're going to do you? No, I'm going because if you know And no, for where I'm going to be there, and maybe they can rob, or sequestra or something.

You can't rob? You know, okay? Okay, right, we'll talk, okay? Jeez. Um, so authority said that he had fallen asleep and the group left him behind. And so he woke up, obviously, he's a 10 year old, just absolutely terrified. And I'm happy that he was, you know, found. And the report says that he's now safe, but remember, he's going to be passed off to health

and human services where currently there are 19,000 unaccompanied migrant children in federal custody. And we've shown you what those detention centers look like. They are overcrowded, the children are sleeping on the floor, they have those foil blankets. It's just, it's an awful situation. And there has been a lot of pressure on the Biden administration to act and to act now. And of course that 10 year old boy is not an exception to what we're experiencing at the border right now. For instance, on Monday in California, Border Patrol said it rescued two children,

a six year old boy and a five year old girl who were dropped over a rocky area of the border and left. The children found near this area had a handwritten note that included their mother's name and phone number and also had the same information written on their forearms. I shared that with you because they are being sent to the border unaccompanied because their parents are desperate. Their families are desperate. They want to get their kids to safety. And so they do so knowing that there are sponsors or family members within the country. Oftentimes they come to the border with contact information and there just needs to be more resources at the border to to get these children in contact with their family members or their sponsors in the country

so they're not in these disgusting filthy facilities. With that said though, John, Biden has blamed the Trump administration for ignoring the root causes of the migrant crisis. And I think that as much as I despise Donald Trump, as much as I find him deplorable, the fact that he took children away from their parents at the border as they were seeking asylum, is a special brand of monster, there's no question. But with that said, to blame that on Trump alone, I think is ridiculous, especially as Biden's State Department continuously embarrasses itself with a continuation of the same policies and the same talking points that led to the

migrant crisis that we're experiencing at the border. And I'll give you the details on that, but I wanted you to jump in. Yeah, and then this is a message that you've been delivering consistently for a few weeks now this criticism of him on the border and you're 100% right. And then we see, well, some of these gaps in the wall, they might end up being completed under Biden because that's not like one of the things the American people were most singularly against during the Trump years. Though they might end up getting completed under Biden. I'm sure we'll end up talking more about that in the future. When I watch that video, I'm assuming you feel what I felt I'm seeing people in the chat. It's devastating. You want to help the

kid instantly. You worry about how is this experience going to impact the rest of the kid's life. And depending on how the kid is treated, once they're brought into one of these facilities, there's a lot of potential lives that could result depending on the choices that we make as a country. Will we make the right ones? Probably not. And we're having this debate nationally about this issue, but it is so disconnected from any consideration like what's going to happen to that kid. What life is that kid going to have? It's, you know, like it's betas like Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz riding around in speed boats with machine guns, wanting to pretend that they're tough guys. It's, you know, right wing talking heads thinking, oh God, that that's stimulus bill seemed

really popular. We need something to hit Biden on. So let's like talk about the border, but like not actually talk about the people at all. It's just frustrating that there's such an inherently human issue that has so much of its humanity drained out when talked about by most of the politicians and the commentators that actually engage in it. Yeah, you're exactly right. And the disingenuous nature of the Republicans, people like Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham going to the border and pretending to be concerned about the safety of these children, I'm not buying it when they were the very people who defended Donald Trump, as he was ripping children away from their parents at the border as they were seeking asylum.

They have no leg to stand on. And obviously, their calls for banning abortion in order to protect children's lives is also incredibly disingenuous. And I mean, look, Republican hypocrisy, political hypocrisy is as American as apple pie. It's not even an interesting talking point or point to bring up at this point. But with that said, I do want to get back to, you know, Biden's statement about what Trump did as if he bears no responsibility. Keep in mind, I mean, Biden didn't just arrive to the political scene a few years ago. I mean, he's been a lifelong politician first elected into the House, then he was a longtime senator, then vice president, and now he's the president of the United States. He has held positions of

power for decades. And he knows very well how U.S. foreign policy has impacted migration throughout the world. And so to say that like, oh, it's Trump, he's not addressing the root causes, I think is pretty pathetic. So let's take a look at what Secretary Anthony Blinken had to say about the outcome of Bolivia's democratic election. They did have a democratic election after the organization of American states, a U.S.-backed organization, essentially orchestrated a coup in Bolivia and overthrew Evo Morales. Okay, so that happened. And then there was an unelected right wing government led by this woman named Janine Anees in place. She led a bunch of massacres on communities there, indigenous communities and supporters of Eva Morales.

Dozens of people died as a result. And so luckily they, the people of Bolivia managed to fight back against that, have a democratic election. And now Luis Arsei from the Moss Party has been elected, he's in the same party that Evo Morales was in. And so luckily, democracy won in that country. It's important to understand that context because after the election, Janine Agnes got arrested because she committed crimes by being the leader of that coup and by massacring people. Dozens of people died because of her. And Secretary Anthony Blinken wanted to weigh in on it and said this, we're deeply concerned by growing signs of anti-democratic behavior and politica, I can never say this word, I'm sorry.

The politicizing of the legal system, I always say. Yes, the politicizing of the legal system in Bolivia. The Bolivian government should release detained former officials pending an independent and transparent inquiry into human rights and due process concerns. What? What? What? What? Okay, we want to look into human rights abuses when someone who committed massacres,

someone who was not elected, put herself in the position of the president of that country and then proceeded to do massacres. We want to look into how her human rights were abused because she was arrested. No, it's the same, it's a continuation, guys. It's a continuation of the same garbage U.S. foreign policy that leads to this migrant crisis. And it's not just Bolivia. It just goes on and on and on. Like, same with Venezuela. Biden will recognize Juan Guaido as Venezuela's leader, top diplomat says. But Juan Guaido wasn't elected. Juan Guido tried to orchestrate multiple coups in Venezuela and failed. And like, who the hell is Joe Biden to be like, yeah, who cares about what the Venezuelan people want?

They haven't had an election to elect this guy. But the United States believes that he is the rightful leader of the country. That headline comes from Reuters. And I want to go to the next graphic so you can see what section it was listed under. Emerging markets, emerging markets. That's what it was filed under over at Reuters. I wonder why. I mean, U.S. business interests have been massacring countries, especially Latin American countries for decades. And then, you know, They turn around and say like, oh, Trump needs to address the root causes of mass migration. No, I think you need to address it, Biden. Exactly. Yeah, no, and look, they're addressing the human rights.

They're just doing it one person at a time starting at the top, you know, I guess. In terms of the foreign policy, though, comparing the Biden administration to the Obama administration, it seems like so far, I don't, I don't know what would have been different. if you had just taken their team then and brought it here and presented them with the current geopolitical situation we have. I feel like these moves would be exactly the same. The difference is that we do have better people in Congress trying to do the right thing. Like there's that group of 80 Democrats who put out the letter in the last day trying to pressure Biden on the Saudi blockade of Yemen. And so they're good on some of these issues. The question is going to be,

does it actually count for anything? Is having them in Congress actually going to produce a foreign policy That's less internationally corrosive under Biden that we saw under the Obama administration. So far, Biden's foreign policy has been a continuation of what the U.S. government has done under several administrations. It's not a Democrat versus Republican thing. The State Department under Obama, awful. State Department under Trump, awful. You know, Biden's awful when it comes to Iran, we're the ones who assassinated their general. We're the ones who pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, which was one of the, I think, one of the best achievements of the Obama administration, right? The Iran nuclear deal. And Biden's like, I don't know, maybe we need

some more concessions from Iran before we reenter that deal. What concessions? What concessions? They even decided to abide by that deal after the U.S. pulled out of it. When it comes to China, the Cold War rhetoric coming from the Biden administration. Look, China is currently, and I don't care what anyone has to say on Twitter about it, what paid off mouthpieces have to say about it. There are human rights abuses in China, and we should acknowledge that. But that doesn't mean that we should use increasingly militaristic language against China. Doesn't mean that we should engage militarily.

It means that we need to, first of all, we need to work with China diplomatically if we want to do anything on climate change. But the other thing to keep in mind is we also engage in human rights abuses in this country. And the second thing to keep in mind is that our government has always used accusations of human rights abuses to engage in wars, whether it's a cold war, an actual war, you know, with weapons and boots on the ground. It's all about moneyed interests at the end of the day. And China is about to be the top hegemon and the United States is not comfortable with that.

That's at the heart of what we're hearing with the Cold War rhetoric toward China at the end of the day. And this is all stuff that ends up hurting us in the end. So again, when you see migrants at the border, it's not something that's happening to us. It's something that we played a role in. And when I say we, of course, I mean the US government. Great point, Santa. Anyway, thank you, John. I do want to get to this one final story with you though, because it's amazing.

So Senator Marsha Blackburn has some thoughts about Biden's infrastructure bill. She's very concerned that it doesn't really focus enough on infrastructure. It has other awful provisions, including help for the elderly. So she tweeted this today, guys. $400 billion toward elder care. How awful is that? President Biden's proposal is about anything but infrastructure. You know what, Senator Blackburn?

I think you're right. I think that you should tweet more stuff like that. Screw elder care. Let's screw over the elderly in this country. I am so proud of Senator Marsha Blackburn for being a true leader in this country. And by throwing elderly people under the bus, ignore that ratio, Senator Blackburn, okay, ignore that ratio. You are right. Please do more of this. Look, look, I think you're right to want to give her credit when a politician does something morally right,

we should applaud them. But this, I mean, you can't say that this is just her. She's just, like the crowd has been clear. More dead grannies, more dead grannies. It's mostly a young crowd, oddly. Yeah, no, it's you gotta workshop this stuff sometimes. Who made that graphic? is like, yeah, I nailed this one. This is really going to get it. I know, I know, it's amazing. Can I say something that's going to make me sound really stupid? If you can put 400 billion towards elder care, if that's even possible, that it sounds like, oh my God, we probably should. You mean they need 400 billion? Oh God, they probably really need it then. Like, I would have thought, I don't even know if the whole elder care thing is

$400 billion, but if it needs it, then yeah, especially. Especially when, like, haven't America's old people had a pretty rough year? Maybe we could cut them some slack after the whole pandemic that like mostly killed old people. Look at that ratio though, guys. Can we put in back up? It's amazing. That's not enough.

That's not enough. 419 likes, but 4,300 like comments on it. Like that is, that is a ratio. And those 2K likes? Hardcore. I know. 2K retweets, that does not mean it was positive. Exactly, exactly.

But you know, one thing that is, one thing that is positive is how Americans feel toward this type of infrastructure spending bill. It is wildly popular, actually more popular among Republicans than I would have even expected. So Senator Marsha Blackburn, I commend you for that tweet. Please put out more. In fact, I would seriously consider persuading your colleagues in the Senate to do the same. You guys just need to speak truth to power, really, down with the elderly. But of course, if you look at the studies that have been coming out, it is wildly popular.

One survey, for instance, that was conducted by Invest in America and Data for Progress found that voters support Biden's American job plan by a 52 point margin, margin, okay? So that means 73% of all voters are in favor of it and only 21% are opposed. So we gave Marsha Blackburn a little bit of grief. Let's put her aside for a second. Hey, Mansion, you want to play? You want to play? You want to be an obstacle to passing this legislation? Please do it. Go ahead. Let's see how that works out for you in West Virginia. Let me give you more. 67% of independence and 57% of Republican support the American. jobs plan, even as GOP lawmakers opposed to raising taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations

have vowed to fight against the modernization of the country. At the end of the day, the reason why they're willing to make fools out of themselves by putting out talking points against elderly care is because they don't want increases in their taxes and their donors don't want increases in their taxes. It's all about the money. That's it. It's amazing. No. Yeah, sure, it's really popular now. But like once they keep saying that stuff in it's not infrastructure, that'll turn people against it. It's just, it's a very weak strategy. It's a super weak strategy. Imagine like they're going to turn that into ads against them. Because if it does include $400 billion in elder care, then she's going to vote against $400 billion in elder care. Like, think about how many individual components of this bill could have entire ads created around them. And remember, Republicans offer up nothing as a substitute. Trump talked about fixing the country's infrastructure for four years straight. He ran on it in his campaign in 2016.

And what did he give you guys? Didly squat. One of my favorite teacher phrases, diddley squat, okay? He didn't offer up any fixes to our broken infrastructure. broken infrastructure, no fixes to healthcare, nothing. The only thing he managed to accomplish is tax cuts for the rich. And Republicans want to do anything necessary to maintain those tax cuts. That's what they're terrified about.

So all right, John, you're awesome. Thank you for doing the show with me as always. Everyone check out the damage report, go show Dragon Daddy some love. We all love you here, John. We always love having you on the show. And you know what, S&L is okay. I don't watch it, but it's okay. You have a great night when we come back for hour two.

My very good friend, Wazni Lombre, will be joining me, and we've got a lot more to share with you guys. So we'll see you then. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen to 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 Huger, and I'll see you soon.