The Young Turks - Shots Fired

Episode Date: September 24, 2022

Tucker Carlson accidentally slammed Donald Trump and it’s so awkward. Republican Rep. Trey Hollingsworth recently bragged that one of his staffers is off to work for Wall Street. Herschel Walker’s company says that it has donated its profits…but there is zero proof. Prosecutors are recommending that Matt Gaetz is charged in the sex-trafficking investigation. Republicans in the Senate are blocking a bill that would not allow candidates to accept “dark money” for their campaigns. Host: John Iadarola, Cenk Uygur, Nina Turner 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. Bexie! Three-by-Tee! Three-O-T! Three-R-G! Three-R-D!

Three-A-D! Three-a-D! B. Have you. panel. That was me dropping in a slow motion. All right, Jake, you or John, I don't know, Sir, you the Turner. Somebody in the house is unbossed. That's what I think. Okay. So, look, did the Steelers lose to the Browns? Yes, temporarily. Temporarily. Okay. Did Nina rubbed that in earlier today? Perhaps. Perhaps. Will there be revenge? Obviously. Okay. Thank God. Thank God.

Oh, John, you too? You want some of this too? Because we will, we don't beat them again. Okay, I'm just putting that out there for everybody to hear it. That was our Super Bowl, so we don't have anything else to prove. Y'all got to prove something. Okay, to give you a sense of how on Boston Nina is, this is obviously a stealer company, okay, that our intent. And by the way, Nina, just be careful, forget about me, okay? The entire publishing team is in Pittsburgh.

I heard. If any of my stuff is messed up, I know, I know why. Yeah, I mean, you're going to talk smack about the Browns beating the Steelers because you're from Cleveland. All of a sudden, those clips, they're having trouble getting published on Boston. I'm just saying. I heard. I'm going to have to find me some backup somewhere. That's all right.

Yeah. Being in Cleveland, they're real accustomed to it. And those guys are huge homers. I mean, they'll pick Steelers' rookies in the third round of a fantasy football draft. Anyway, they didn't this year, but they would. All right, anyways, that's just good rousing, plus the Steelers are definitely going to win next time. All right, so now we've got an amazing show for you guys, including, well, mixed news, mixed news that we're starting with. And the second hour of this show is ridiculously controversial, but we'll get to that as well.

And breaking news on some of those controversies. But first, John's got breaking news. Yeah, unfortunately, it's like political news and I really feel like our bailiwick now is sports stuff. We should probably call in Rick Strom. No, of course, we should probably transition to the news and we're going to do that. Let's do it now. It's beginning to look like good news for Matt Gates. Bad news for America.

Anyway, career prosecutors have apparently recommended against charging Representative Matt Gates in a long-running sex trafficking investigation. He's been facing for over two years at this point telling just. This department's superiors that a conviction is unlikely, in part because of credibility questions with the two central witnesses. Those two witnesses being his Gates, his former friend and ex-tax collector, Joel Greenberg, who you've probably heard a lot about, as well as the then underaged girl. And so we're going to give you all of the details that have thus far been released. But if you'd like to save yourself some time, this story, which at its top level is about them not being about how these witnesses would do in front of a jury or once there was like cross examination will just be interpreted by all of media as he's innocent. So if you want to save some time, we're going to just pretend that he's innocent rather than that they're worried about how this might play in court. In any event, the details of the case, in case you've missed that, the 17 year old at issue in the investigation was on a trip that Gates allegedly took to

the Bahamas back in 2018. Though by that time she was already 18. or older. She's been a central witness in the investigation, but people familiar with the case said, she is one of two people whose testimony has issues that veteran prosecutors feel would not pass muster with a jury, which is again, not the same thing as those people not thinking that they're telling the truth. There is often a presumption that people talking about their victimization are lying, particularly in America when those people are women. And so sure, they might be worried about how the girl would be savaged in the press or in the courtroom if they were paying attention. attention to the Amber Heard thing, I would be a little bit worried too. In any event,

last year Greenberg, the ally, pleaded guilty to child trafficking charges as well as other criminal charges. Legal experts said that establishing Greenberg's credibility would be an uphill battle for prosecutors, in part because Greenberg previously admitted to fabricating similar allegations against a political opponent. Of course, in this case, it's not his political opponent, his longtime friend and ally. But anyway, while I have other issues that I'm going to express, I want to give the panel a chance to weigh in. What do you think about the fact that at this point, it looks like there will not be charges. There still could be, but it looks like there will not be. Yeah, I don't think it's going to be. Okay, so look, I think that it cuts in both directions,

and we got to be fair and honest about all of this, right? So number one, John's absolutely right. Somebody not pressing charges doesn't mean that that person is quote unquote innocent. For example, Michael Cohen went to jail for paying hush money, his co-conspirator was Donald Trump. Well, they both definitely did it. There's no question about it. It's just that Trump didn't go to jail and wasn't charged and Michael Cohen was. And it's actually a very similar case. So and why? Because one of them is a politician and among the elites and prosecutors get scared. They're really, really scared of people in the elites. Oh, what if we lose? And what are they scared of?

Oh, are they going to get sent to a Gulag? No, no, no. They're just scared because they're obsessed with their reputations. But ironically here, they blew it because. So, and I saw this from CNN. So credit, where credit is due. It's Ellie or Eli Honing, their legal expert. He made a really good point.

And he said, well, they already gave Joel Greenberg, the main co-conspirator in this case. a deal to testify against Gates. And now they're saying they're not going to charge press on press charges on Gates because Greenberg is just not reliable enough as a witness. Then what the hell did you give him a deal for? I mean, he confessed to tons of crimes and got a much reduced sentence. That is an absolute fail on the prosecutor's part because you can't, you can't have it both ways. I mean, obviously you shouldn't have given the guy a deal if you're not going to use his testimony. It is horrible, horrible planning. But I will add, guys, he didn't get, whether we like it or not, he didn't get charged with it, and he didn't get prosecuted for it.

I'm honestly, from my point of view, and I always speak for myself, I'm not saying that I'm never going to mention that again, you know, but I'm going to talk about it a lot less because unfortunately, it didn't get proven in a court of law and that does matter. Yeah, definitely it is what you can prove. I mean, that's what a court of law is all about. I want to go even before we even got to an investigation. stage, which is why would this man take a 17 year old anywhere? Can we just start at the genesis? He should not be, you know, taking a 17 year old anywhere. That is the main, wouldn't even be caught up in this mess had he not taking the 17 year old somewhere without, you know, her parents or chaperone. Doesn't make sense. So that only add up to me for me. That is the main problem. and wouldn't even be here, but for that. Yeah, 100%.

And we won't get more details it's looking like on any of the early information that came out on this. And so we will never know for sure exactly why he sent messages to Greenberg saying hit up blank, the girl, and then sent money to Greenberg and then the next day Greenberg sent that same amount of money and three payments that said tuition, school and school, maybe it was for a totally reasonable innocent purpose. It just looks incredibly suspicious and damning and purvy, but maybe it's nothing. We'll never know because they're not going to charge him. Again, like there's, I understand what Jank is saying about, you know, it's going to be less of a topic of conversation. I'm sure that it will be, but it still looks terrible. It still looks. And honestly, like,

amongst all of the things that Matt Gates has done, I understand that some people might want to or might prefer to focus on other things, the fact that he will potentially in the next couple of years be a willing participant in the destruction of democracy in America, he would totally back another coup. There's a lot of other stuff that's more immediately threatening to America, perhaps. But this stuff also, I mean, there's stuff that looks suspicious. That's all I'm saying. And for some time we've been saying, it's been two years now. I don't know when any of you sort of mentally checked out from thinking that this might go somewhere. I mean, they're waiting so long. So I'm not shocked by this. I'm not generally shocked in America where someone with political

power is able to do effectively whatever they want. But it is also different than he was proven to be innocent. And that might be my final comment on the matter, but I want to make sure that it gets out there. Yeah, well, you know, let me go to Killer here who's watching on Twitch. They wrote in, the bottom line is proof came out that he was looking for a pardon. When you're looking for a pardon, that means you're guilty of a crime. And that is a really good point. I mean, I forgot about that he asked for a pardon from Trump. So at least he thinks he's guilty. Okay. And so look, the Q&N guys are constantly talking about. I mean, there's this guy in Ohio. We're going to talk about him later in the program. He's lied about his status as a combat veteran. But he's also a Q&N believer. And he

thinks that the country's led by satanic pedophiles. I mean, they're really worried about child sex trafficking. But the hill they're dying on for Matt Gates is, she wasn't 70. You don't know, maybe she wasn't 17, maybe she was 18. See, a Republican congressman sleeping with an 18 year old is awesome. I mean, he's 40 years old. Okay, 40 years old. 17, 18, 21. Check yourself. And for me as a mother, I think a lot of mothers agree, you know, those are arbitrary numbers. 18 is an arbitrary number that somebody just picked out. 17, 18, 16, not much difference between those ages. He's a grown man traveling with a 17 year old makes no sense. To me, it just don't add up. So, John, your point, I mean, all the points we're making here make a whole lot of sense. So couldn't prove it in

the court law, didn't go that far. It took too long, John, you're right. That was our clue right then and there, how long it's been taken to investigate that probably nothing was going to come of this. But the bottom line for me, she's 17 years old. He should not be traveling with a damn 17 year old. Grow up, man. Yeah. Look, last two things I'll say on this is, you know, if you constantly talking about, well, they didn't get convicted, didn't get convicted, okay? Well, OJ didn't get convicted either. You're positive. He's innocent, right? You're positive. Okay, good. I mean, that's an interesting agreement, right? I'm not saying I agree that it's But it's obvious that they have a double standard.

But the standard that's the one that is the most applicable to this story is elites versus non-elites, not Republicans, Democrats, right-wing, left, right-wing, left, okay? The elites are almost always above the law in America, and that's the most disgusting part. Yeah, I want to add just one more layer to this in this being a continuing example of one of the most ridiculous sort of hypocrisies or Irish. that's really at the core of the Republican Party of what it means to be a conservative over the past few years is that they have decided that the thing they're going to be about is save the children. They've they've taken a rag and they've wiped off QAnon very slightly to clean it up just a little bit. Now it's not Q&N anymore. It's just what they all believe that Satanists are raping and killing and eating children and they occupy every position of authority in the Democratic Party in Hollywood, all of that. So they really, really care about saving the children so long as the children are hypothetical, so long as it's not about a particular actual predator. They don't care about that. They were like a little bit interested in Epstein, but they don't want to think about who we actually hanged out with. Gilae Maxwell, you could wish her well, doesn't matter, that's not

suspicious with Matt Gates. I mean, come on, like if there was a Democratic congressman who was even alleged to have done this sort of thing, they'd be losing their minds. But the actual, like alleged predators don't care, not interested, not at all. But I'm lied to by, I almost swore, I'm not going to swear, I'm not going to swear, a pundit I'll say about crimes against kids happening at a hospital. I don't care if they literally bomb that hospital at that point. It's hypothetical, it's misinformation, it's not actually happening, that's safe to care about. The actual specific thing that involves an actual

elite, nope, not worth our time, we're moving on, but the hypothetical stuff, and we'll ignore along the way all of the Republican officials who've gone down over the past few years for spreading child porn online, all that stuff. Totally ignored. You never see that making the front page news in Breitbart or anything. It is just such a fake approach. And it's left them in a position. I'm gonna read just one more thing. Donald Trump, I don't know if you know, has been on a tear on truth social, bleeding out Q&on memes. There's no vague illusions anymore. He just spreads Q&N memes. And he spread one that has a picture of him holding a baby that says pain is coming. You should have stayed away from the children. Hashtag save our

children. So now explicitly saying all this stuff about pedophiles is true and now pain is coming. I'm going to hurt you as a result of this. Get the MacGate's not important without focusing on it. Vague stuff that justifies political violence. Yeah, and I don't know. I mean, that's such a dumb meme. It makes it look like Trump's about to cause pain to the baby. But that's never, being dumb has never stopped Donald Trump before. being hypocrites has never stopped the right wing. We just look, guys, the reason we keep repeating it on air and is not because you don't get it. It was super frustrated that the mainstream media and mainstream Democrats don't get it.

These guys don't care about the truth or facts or reason or logic at all. So a hypothetical lunatic conspiracy theory against Democrats, all in, all in, only thing I care about. actual people sleeping with underage girls on your side, couldn't care less. Couldn't care less. Roy Moore, not interested, doesn't matter. Don't care about it, not interested. Dennis Hastery. So much for the party of family values.

Yeah. 100%. I just want to mention one other thing, just because this is a day of news about Matt Gates. If we could go to Graphics 7, he hasn't, as far as I've seen, really commented on this, he's saving it for his upcoming Twitch broadcast because he's doing a show. I mean, he does a show. Now it's going to be coming to Twitch as a reminder that these Republican politicians who don't give a damn about what's happening in America don't care to solve problems. Every single one of them just wants to have a show. All they want, they want to have an audience. They want people

to applaud them. That's why Ted Cruz has literally a podcast. That's why Marjorie Green broadcasts every day. It's just like just leave like resign. Go do a show. You could start a podcast. It's free, honestly. And like on Fiverr, you can get some cover art made. It's not difficult. There's no reason for you to take it up a spot in our government. That's my view. Especially Marjorie Tela Green, well, both of them. But she's not even on any committees right now, right? Yeah. I mean, I guess she's got the time. Yeah, lots of time on her hand. Yeah. Anyway, we should probably take our first break. When we come back, it sure looks like Tucker Carlson is slamming Donald Trump in a number of different ways.

We'll break them down after this. Okay, I will indeed do that. Last night, Tucker Carlson was criticizing politicians who shouldn't be providing advice in areas where they've personally failed. And while he didn't name any names, it sure sounded like he was talking about one person in particular. Take a look at this video and see if you can figure out who. 500 pound warhead, 300 bombage to it. It really can put the Russians a threat, but we haven't done that. done that and I think we should put him a threat until he really believes that we're seriously

going after him he's going to continue to make these threats so again anybody who had a hand and say like the last five wars that diminished American power killed Americans made us poorer hurt the United States long term in very real ways anyone who participated in any of that should probably bow out of the conversation about the latest war for the same reason that you wouldn't say take financial advice from someone who had gone bankrupt or go to marriage counseling with someone who's been divorced three times because they've demonstrably failed in their area of so called expertise. And that would include virtually everyone you hear talking about this stuff. So look, he listed those potential characteristics as random things.

But when you put them all together, it kind of sounds like he's only talking about one person. Of course, Donald Trump has been divorced only twice, although Tucker stumbled over saying he was originally going to say has been married three times. And he changed. to three divorces, has been bankrupted many times. And of course, Donald Trump has been an enthusiastic advocate for wars like in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as leading us through years of war as president, which I think Tucker Carlson probably remembers. He might also remember, by the way, that he was a cheerleader for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan as well. He eventually backtracked on that after, let's say, 30, 50, 70,000 people had been killed. So I guess he got his

he got his thoughts together at some point. But he doesn't want to remember all of that. And I just, I wonder to both of you on the panel, was it just a coincidence? Could it possibly be a coincidence that he said all of those highly specific things and have him not be talking about Donald Trump? Yeah. So a lot of people in the media are saying that, oh, what a funny mistake by Tucker Carlson. Ha ha, ha, on the slip up. I don't think he's a slip up at all. Okay. So three strikes and you're out. First of all, you've got bankrupt. Why would we take business advice from a guy who's bankrupt? Trump's been bankrupt six times. Six. Okay. And I love how fair and honest we are that we bother to say that technically married three times, not divorced three times. If you've ever seen the Melania videos where she swats his hand away, he's working on the third one. And so, and then by the way, this is an important thing that nobody else is mentioning. Kellogg, the guy that he's ripping there, General Kellogg, that was on Fox News there, is a former Trump administration official.

So he's also throwing rocks at Trump officials, okay, and not a guy who had a falling out with Trump. So now, the other thing that he's doing is saying, now, anyone who participated in those last five wars had a hand in any way is in essence disqualified. But if you're a talk show host and you weren't officially in government, so you didn't have a hand in those wars, and Tucker has gone to great lengths to say, oh, I changed my mind in Iraq right away, right away, it was really quick. It's like a Trumpian response. And so he is going to claim, I don't have anything to do with those things. By the way, you remember, he said that he changed his mind on Iraq. He said it on a radio show because the Iraqis were monkeys and he

didn't care about them. Yeah. Okay, so that's who Tucker Carlson is. So why would he take all these shots of Trump, well, you know, I have been saying this a long time. I think Tucker Carlson's long term plan, which might not be that long term, is to replace Donald Trump in the Republican party and be the new cult leader as well as potentially political leader. But he can't do a direct assault on Trump. His audience loves Trump too much. So he's chipping away at him, chipping away. 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. Adam, in subtle ways like this. And it's in the prompter, guys. If it's in the prompter, it's not an accident. They voted ahead of time.

That's true. Yeah, that's it. I mean, you hit all the nails on the head when it comes to this. So it's going to be interesting to see how this continues to play out in this battle between Trump and Tucker Carlson, because Trump is a street fighter, that he is, and he's definitely not going to let Tucker, I suspect he will not let Tucker get away with this. Yeah, I wonder. I mean, I'm sure they talk at least semi-frequently, and I wonder how it's going to shake out. I mean, I would also like to just throw out there. I think it's probably

pragmatic on the part of Tucker Carlson to not name names here, but he also definitely thinks that he's smarter, better than Trump. And here he is not having the actual balls to just say what he thinks. If he actually thinks that Donald Trump is a disaster and isn't qualified to be president, which he sort of is implying there in areas that are important, like in questions of war, then why did you support him last time? Why would you definitely support him next time? And again, by the way, his whole point there, and I really do think that we should dive into his greater point is that he gets what other people don't get, Which is we should look at the results of what happens. If people say X is going to work and it doesn't,

we should learn from that. Well, you're saying that Trump shouldn't be trusted and yet you support him. So why should we trust your evaluation of presidents? And also like, why should we trust you on matters of war? You were wrong about Iraq and Afghanistan. You were wrong many times about Ukraine as well, which by the way is understandable. Not everybody can be an expert on everything, But have you ever heard Tucker Carlson apologize? Say that he got it wrong. Even just recently, when Ukraine swept through hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of miles pushing Russia out of whole regions, that followed weeks of Tucker Carlson saying the war was about to end, they were about to be totally conquered. Has he said? Man, I really flubbed that. No, he supported

multiple rounds of trillions of dollars of tax cuts under literally every Republican president that we've had for decades. It has never produced to the economic effect that they said it would. And yet, What will he support if Ron DeSantis becomes president, trillions of dollars of tax cuts? I love the principle that he's expressing there. I just wish that he had literally ever in his life followed it. Yeah, I mean, what you're bringing up, John, it would take some self-awareness for him and the courage, be person enough to apologize and say I made a mistake, but he will never do that. And then the point that Jink made about when you ask why would he name the name, Jink, you already alluded to that. It is his viewers. They will rain hellfire on that dude

if he ever, even once goes head to head with Trump in that way. And I don't think he can stand that kind of heat. Yeah, no, and again, look, I hate to do it, but I give target credit on this all the time. He's a smart guy, and he knows you got to chip away at Trump before doing a frontal assault. So he's planting like 20 knives in his back before he hits him in the front. And he's a right winger. So that's how they roll. Okay. Now, but I love what John said. On the content of this story, Tucker is both dramatically wrong and by the way, also correct. Wait, how? So he's doing unbelievable, over the top propaganda for the Russians. He has this retired Colonel Douglux McGregor on all the time, McGregor is a lunatic. He goes on there, he literally, he just

said last week, right now things are going very, very badly, which is why the Ukrainians are so desperate. What are you talking about? The Russians are running from Ukraine. Like this is, it's the exact opposite of reality, right? So Tucker Carlson brings him on and McGregor's like, oh, the Russians are awesome, the Russians are winning. Oh, the Ukrainian is terrible, right? It's just over the top total 100% Putin propaganda. Okay, so I mean, and I think there's some percentage chance that's Tucker saying, hey, if I do run Russians, you know who's your boy and you remember what you did last time. Give me a lot more of that.

Okay, I'll be even better than Trump in handing the country over to you. But in that segment where he said, you know, he called out Keith Kellogg, who by the way was acting now, national security advisor for Donald Trump. He was totally right. Kellogg's an idiot and a and a disaster. What do you mean? He said we have to refer to the Russians, we have to put them in threat. Why? Why? And he's like, so that they don't threaten us. It really, is that how wars work? If you threaten someone else, they then cower away? No, 100% of the time, When you threaten them, they threaten you. Okay, so the, and Tucker's right that anyone who had a hand in those last five wars should

never be in government again. Never, none of them, Republicans, Democrats, etc. But Tucker's just using it as a as a way to rile up false populism. And at the end of the day, what's he going to do? He's going to give tax cuts to the rich. That's the only thing they care about. But we are fair and honest. And that commentary about how Kellogg is an idiot is actually totally true. Yeah, 100%. It is true. And the general principle, you shouldn't listen to these people. Just bear in mind that Tucker Carlson will support these people in all levels of government. Maybe not Kellogg specifically, but whoever Trump chooses and initiates wars, Tucker Carlson will be running defense for him. That's what he'll be doing. If Ron DeSantis,

you know, sells tons of weapons to Saudi Arabia to bomb the Yemenis, Tucker Carlson's probably not going to have a big problem. He's certainly not going to turn on him. Anyway, with that said, why don't we move on to another topic? More lies, actually. to have been caught in a lie that in particular, one would think would bother conservative Republicans that believe both politically and as a result of their religious beliefs that charity is an important thing, you would think that this would really bother him. Apparently, he's made claims that his food distribution company donated 15% of their profits to various charities. Unfortunately, we can't bring receipts on that because they don't exist. There's no evidence that that's actually true.

For years, his company named four specific charities that were beneficiaries of these donations. So you've got the Boy Scouts of America, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. With the New York Times contacted all four of these charities. One declined to comment, so we can't speak to that one. The other three said they had no record or recollection of any gifts from the company in the last decade. So three different groups over 10 different years, the evidence is just not there. Now, we've got this one statement from, um, Jim Baugh, who is the founder of the now defunct charity. It's a PE4 Life Foundation who says Herschel has been supportive verbally. I don't think he's given us any money. As late as 2017,

what of Mr. Walker's company cited that foundation as a recipient of corporate donations. That's just five years ago. But Mr. Baugh said his foundation ceased operations in 2014. So not only were the donations not given, but they couldn't be given because the charity hadn't existed for a full year at that point. Now really importantly at the national multiple sclerosis society, officials said they had received gifts for Mr. Walker, but not in the last decade. The group's records showed that Mr. Walker had donated $860 in 2005, and Renaissance Man food services gave another $1,000 the next year. At the time, Mr. Walker was leading a bike team that raised money from a broader pool of donors, and all the society said, Walker helped

raise almost $40,000 across 2005 and 2006, which at least is some money. But the group could find only one donation since then that might have come from Mr. Walker's company. It was $25 in 2009. At least that charity did exist when it might have gotten $25 from Herschel Walker. So credit to him for the charity that he did once do back in 2005 and 2006 and maybe 25 bucks in 2009. But in terms of using it as like I've been charitable recently, no, what have you done for these charities in the last decade. Here it is. I'm feeling a Janet Jackson moment.

What have you done for me lately? Walker walked into this. I mean, he really did. There was no reason this controversy, along with all the other controversy that's surrounding this campaign, didn't have to happen if he had not decided he wanted to lie or are we using the word

exaggerate. Where I come from, he's just flat out lying and there was no need to do this. this, but he decided to do it anyway. And in my last point, I mean, he's following the footsteps of Mr. Trump, who has lied and exaggerated about a whole bunch of stuff he has given charity to or he has done. So this is par for the course for members of the GOP, unfortunately. Yeah. No, Nina's 100% right, because this is the exact Trump playbook. Lie about everything. And then pretend you're a really wonderful person who does all these things

like giving to charities and then use that. But by the way, Herschel, as far as we know, hasn't done the last step that Trump did. You're never gonna out bottom of the barrel Trump, right? Trump would then turn around and take people's money from the charity and then not give it to charity itself. Among the things that Trump bought with the money donated to his charity was giant pictures of himself. These are the worst people on earth, okay? So look, Hersch Walker is a pathological liar. He, I mean, he said so many insane lies,

but I give you another one that it's just, it's amazing. He said that he finished in the top 1% of his class at the University of Georgia. He didn't graduate. He wasn't anywhere near the top 1%, Well, the fact that he didn't graduate from college. And not only that guys, we all know that because he was a really, really famous football player. We know he left in his junior year. All you have to do is ask University of Georgia when he's running for Senate. And they're like, of court, no, he didn't graduate. No, he wasn't anywhere near the top 1%.

But they just, that's what I mean by pathological. It's clinical. They have a mental problem. They can not stop lying. But to be fair, because we're always fair, because we're always Fair, John, you didn't mention the $150,000 and Charity and Herschel Walker, I'll do that. Since just this March, charities have given Herschel Walker $115,000 for speaking engagements. So he's siphoning money from the charities as a, you know, on a regular basis. He charged one charity, $35,000 to go speak. I think at a nursing home. or something. Oh my God. Give me the elderly's money. I want it. And then the only thing they can find of him, do Chinese like three checks, which was 25 bucks from a decade ago. But Nina and

John, the bottom line on all this is why do these Republican candidates lie in such outrageous ways? Because the Republican voters want that. They want to be lied to. They don't want an honest politician who tells them, oh, yeah, we're working for the rich. You guys are the saps, the suckers, and we get you guys all riled up. And then we take your money and we give us to the billionaires, you idiots. I mean, that wouldn't play well, right? Oh, by the way, you're not superior to black people or Latinos or anyone else. You're not superior to women. You're not superior to anyone. At best, you're equal, right? And we're supposed to be equal in America. They hate that. They don't want to hear that. They don't want to hear that. They want to hear pretty

little lies about how special they are and how they're always victims. Oh, we're the victims. Oh my God. And and so that's why Trump and Herschel Walker, give them the lies that they want. Yeah, get the people what they want. It's very unfortunate because people like Walker and the majority of the GOP, the Trump GOP, I mean, the constituents that Walker wants to represent and who Trump did represent they're suffering in this country just like anybody else. They part of the working class. None of those policies help to boost the working class in this country. And that is including Trumpites. And so the fact that they would sacrifice their own self-interest for a damn illusion just really boggles my mind. 100%. Yeah. Yeah. And again, I guess we shouldn't be

surprised for a couple of reasons. One, that we are so used to this, but two, that the expectation that that people would not blatantly lie, I think is founded in the idea that there are consequences for. We don't personally go around in our lives constantly lying because we assume that if we did, bad things would happen. People wouldn't trust us. But what if you started to? What if you started to routinely lie to literally everyone around you? And not only did nothing bad happen, but it helped you. People started handing you money. People liked you more. You'd probably lie more. Again, like we always say, it all comes down to incentives. The base just doesn't care. They're not interested.

Like this might be new, the idea that he apparently has lied about all this charity or whatever. So maybe we can't be surprised that people there and that state don't know about it. But the lies about working in law enforcement, that's been out for a while. The idea that he finished number one, in the top 1% when he literally didn't even finish. That's not new. Like, and they just don't care. I'll throw out another one. There is now, I think, a plausible storyline that he has routinely over the past two years been telling an anecdote about an interaction he had with a former member of the KKK that is literally stolen from late Representative John Lewis. It was the thing that happened to John

Lewis, Herschel Walker seems to be saying it happened to him. Now maybe a very similar thing happened to both of them, that's possible. But who cares? What's the difference? Honestly, I should start telling that story. Former KKK members came up to me. I was at Ralph's. I was picking up some frozen pizzas that came up to me and they apologized to me for being racist. What's the difference? You can just lie and there's no consequences anymore. It's like a two and a half point race in the last polls that I've seen. He is not only one of the most uniquely unqualified people to hold literally any position you could come up with, but he is actively lying about some of the most preposterous things I've ever heard and it's within the margin of error.

Well, you know, I guess he figures if Marjorie Teller Green can do it, he can do it too. Yeah. And look, guys, as we've said many times, there are no refs. So that's why they lie with impunity. That's why there are no consequences, as John explained. Because the mainstream media, you know, there's a good story about the New York Times. It's a credit where credit is due. But then are they going to say every time Herschel Walker is a proven liar? because it's relevant. It's relevant, right? And I mean, the lies are so outrageous, so over the top, so absurd, right? Yeah. But no, they'll call they every, and guys, in this case, it's actually not the cable news guys and the major papers like New York Times that's the most guilty. It's local news, local radio. That's just this top of the hour. Oh, Hershey Walker, Republican candidate,

blah, blah, blah. They never, ever, ever say that he's a goddamn liar, right? So, So that makes it seem like it's 50-50. I bet you tons of people in Georgia have no idea that Hershiel Walker is a pathological liar. No idea because local news never, it says it. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, we're in Georgia. It would offend Republican feelings. Let us not do factual correctness. Yeah.

Let's do political correctness. And by the way, the icing on this cake is the other thing that Republican voters love is fake morality. their whole lives is fake morality. Oh, we are moral because we ain't gay people. Are you? Are you moral? Because that doesn't sound moral, right? But so when Herschel Walker says, and Donald Trump says, they both say the same thing,

I have given it charity. And then you find out they haven't. A lot of right wingers are probably like, well played. Who well played? I love that fake morality. Yeah. 100%. Such an unnecessary lie, too.

I mean, just bear with me. I just can't get them. Usually people lied to save their behind. There's some purpose behind the lie. But this lie was so unnecessary. I just don't understand. I mean, the man, yeah, just unnecessary. 100%.

He set this trap for himself. But maybe it's not a trap, Jank, and John, we're laying out that, you know, he's not going to be trapped because his voters don't care whether he's lying or not, most of them. Yeah. I can't help, but I know we've got to go. But Nina, I'm going to say one like squeaker. So if in your race, you had said that you'd given like millions of dollars to charity, and then they found out that you hadn't.

What would the press have done to you? Oh, they would have raked me over the coals, left me for dead. My carcass would still be sprawled out. Yeah. And to be fair to the establishment Democrats that we often fight as progressives, I don't think there's a single Democrat that could survive this story. Like, it's Democrat, this story comes out about how they lied about giving the charity and they're incredibly immoral, indecent people. They're gone. Their career is instantly over, okay?

Yeah, that's right. Republicans, it's Tuesday. We just come to expect. Well, of course Republicans are liars. Don't tell the viewers and the audience and the voters that. No, that's just we assume it in media. But we're not going to let you guys know. We're going to call it 50-50. Yeah. And the final thing I'll say is you said, you know, he's never going to out. crazy Trump, which in terms of his lies mostly I think is true. But Trump has said that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and get away with it. Herschel Walker has told us about going to

murder people and being stopped only because of Jesus. His exes have told us about him holding guns to their head. Once you as a voting base has accepted that and said, still going to vote for him, a little bit of lie about a charity or a law enforcement or how many kids you have or China stealing our good air or whatever, how is that stuff possibly going to sway you at that point? Honestly, and this is, people will think it's over the top, but are you sure? Like, so Herschel Walker has threatened to kill two different ex-partners, right? Like girlfriends, wives, etc. They've said that. And Republican voters don't care at all. So are you sure they would care if he had actually pulled the trigger?

Are you positive? I'm not. Well, why don't we take our second break? We got a couple stories of just casual fun corruption in government. We'll have that for you after this. All right, back on the power panel tonight on the Young Turks, Jake Hugar, Nina Turner, John Idarillo, but also Lee Verrett, Thomas White, and Kenneth Strayhorn, and Sarah C. Well, Sarah C was already a member, but the rest of them just became members by hitting the join button below on YouTube. We appreciate it, guys. Look, every time you see us and you agree with what we're saying, and you're happy to get that message out, first of all, share the videos. That makes a huge, huge difference, including sharing the live streams. Subscribe to at YouTube.com slash unbossed. did Nina's show. Go watch damage report. But if you're a member, you made that happen. And that makes all the difference. We can't do. There would be no Nina Turner here. There would

be no John Iderola here, et cetera, if it wasn't for the members. So t-y-t.com slash join. Thank you. All right. John. What's that? Gentlemen from Indiana, Mr. Hollingsworth is now recognized for five minutes. Well, good afternoon. I'm excited to be here with each of you. Before I get started on my questions, Mr. Moynihan. I wanted to let you know, Sir Ruthie, raise your hand, Saruthi. She has been my team member for a couple of years now, but on Monday she becomes a Bank of America team member about which she is very, very excited. So I hope you'll take good care of her and know and recognize the talent that she has shown already in our office.

I'm sure she'll do the same at Bank of America. We will do that and her father already works for us. So he'll take care of it. You should have called us. So that was a fun little scene. Representative Trey Hollingsworth, a Republican, boasting about the fact that one of his aides, an aide who works for him, who in his capacity as a member of the House Financial Services Committee, is supposed to be, as you can see in that B-roll, providing oversight of U.S. banks, instead lining up job opportunities, following in the footsteps of her father in that case. And they thought it was hilarious. The other banks joking about, well, I wanted to have one of your top aides work for me right now, and they just thought it was great. We got a perspective from someone else who is in the room, because you might think, well, maybe that's selectively edited. You can see that people were adding graphics. Representative Alexander Casas Cortez said, I was in the room where this happened, that it was just as gross and wild in person as it is here. People rightly discuss conflicts

of interest of members of Congress, but lobbying of senior staff who move on behalf of members, members and committees is a huge part of the problem too. And I mean, we can't be surprised by this. Many lawmakers and aides involved in crafting and watering down Wall Street regulations in the wake of the last major economic collapse went on to take jobs at large financial institutions. Like this is, this is how it works. And that's not surprising. It is a little bit jarring to see them so openly like laughing and basically slapping each other on the back about the process though.

Yeah, I think there's, I think there's a clash of cultures here. And so some speculated that since Trey Hongsworth is stepping down from office and is not running next time around that he's more openly brazen like this. I actually don't think that that's an explanation. I think that he probably is confounded by why people are upset about this. He probably thinks, what, just being friendly. We can't be friendly anymore? Oh my God, these libs, you know, and they're so unbearable, it's just being a banker, having a great time and high-fiving about our, you know, the staffer that we share in a sense,

right? And he doesn't, I guarantee you that he doesn't think there's anything wrong with it. And that's because, again, I got to, I'm sorry, but I got to say, it's mainstream media that says that bribery's okay. So the Hollingsworths of the world aren't like, oh my God, I take all this money from banks and I write bills that give them billions of dollars. And all my staffers go and get paid over there and get checks. You know, there's salaries that are way, way more than they made here. But the press never called me out on it. Nobody ever said it was a bad thing.

So he's probably like, oh, AOC, what a radical. Doesn't think we should take bribes from banks. It doesn't think that when we stop working here, we should take millions from them and stuff it into our pockets. I'm radical. So I think that's actually what's happening here. Yeah. And look at how the bankers responded. I mean, they kind of, nobody else mattered in that room, but those two.

It's very casual as if this is an everyday occurrence because it is a regular occurrence. And it is just a reminder of the systemic failures of the system that it is rig, that it is legal to bribe politicians in the United States of America. And let's just go ahead and keep it all in the family, shall we? We were going to do that anyway because her dad works for us. So the classism, also race is involved in this too and ethnicity because my God, that would not happen. I mean, not that I wanted to happen, but, you know, it would not happen for a black person or Hispanic person.

This is an elite club that we see going on here. And they had no qualms about having this particular conversation. So again, we fight back and push back. and we talk about the system, this is yet another example. This is a receipt for us when we talk about these kinds of issues so that people won't think that we're making this stuff up. We are not making this stuff up. The man didn't give a damn about what he was saying and the impact that this has, that the people

right in the room, it's like the fox guard in the hen house. That is exactly what happens in American politics. The fox guards the henhouse. Yeah, and it gets paid to do so from the hens, I guess, or his stomach. I don't know, in the metaphor, I'm not really sure, but it's corrupt, I know that. Very much. Sorry, Jank. Yeah, I was just going to give a quote from common dreams.

They explained the financial services industry deployed more than 1,400 former federal employees, including ex-committee staffers to lobby Congress on banking issues. And that's just recently. Public Citizen is the one that estimated that. Okay, 1,400 former staffers and federal employees. You think that all those employees just happen to be great at banking? Seriously, think about it. 1,400 former federal employees all employed by the banking industry.

And they don't have it. And then they complain about Hunter Biden. Oh, he doesn't have an experience in Ukrainian gas. That's true. But these folks didn't have any experience in banking either. That's just a pipeline for bribery. Yeah. Yeah, and I bet those 1,400 knowing that theoretically big dollars could be made once they leave government going to business. I bet they did their job focused on the needs of their constituents and the American people. And they did a really good job of providing oversight and all the banks. I bet it didn't affect them at all.

Anyway, sorry, Nina, I got you off there. No, no, not at all. I mean, it's just even making me think about something Mother Jones once said when she said, she asked somebody why they were in prison or jail. And they said, because they stole some shoes. And she said, well, had you stolen a railroad, you'd be a senator. You'd be a U.S. Senator. That is what is going on here. I understand. Yeah. And it reminds me of a great former regulator who wrote a book. Best way to rob a bank is to run a bank. true words have ever been spoken. And guys, last thing, you see how they are all yucking it up. Oh, well, her father's also here. Oh, I didn't know that. You should have told us earlier. We could have taken more right. Completely comfortable with that, Jane. It was like they were at a cafe somewhere, just having the conversation, and we got a chance to peer in. Yeah. Look, it's one big, happy, corrupt club in Washington, and none of us are in it. That's good. So glad we're not.

Move on one more story. Yep. Okay, let's do it. doors providing a masterclass on corruption. This is Norm Coleman. And after leaving office, he apparently went on to become one of Saudi Arabia's most influential lobbyists here in D.C. while representing wealthy individuals and groups that have provided millions of dollars in donations to Republican politicians. And we want to give you some of the details of what he's been doing behind closed doors from some great reporting by responsible statecraft. You say last year, he had a request for 30 Republican congressional staffers. So this is how you do the lobbying, you contact their offices to get through them to their representatives.

Coleman had helped many of their bosses' campaigns in his roll atop an organization that raised and spent over $165 million in just the 2020 election cycle. Maddening amounts of money. So he wrote to these 30 different offices. At this time, the kingdom would appreciate if you're a member of Congress would publicly welcome this step and call up the Houthis for their continuous obstruction of the political process. So this is in regards to, and at that point, Saudi ceasefire initiative in Yemen that the rebels ultimately rejected. They demanded that any such agreement would require the Saudis to fully lift the blockade that was currently in effect around Yemen, which has contributed to literally hundreds

of thousands of deaths. But while that was one request that he made on behalf of Saudi Arabia, It was hardly the only one. He wrote over 1,000 emails to House and Senate staffers in 2021 and 2022 as part of his paid work for Saudi Arabia. He and several of his colleagues at his law firm are registered as foreign agents of the kingdom. So credit to them for actually registering as foreign agents. That's almost novel in this day and age. The emails, as well as the details of $175,000 per month contract between the law firm and Saudi Arabia are all content. in filings that have been submitted to the DOJ, to put it in perspective, the total amount

of lobbying that was spent by Saudi Arabia, it was $21 million just last year. And we know that there's a lot of money in politics. Nobody's surprised by that. But the huge amount of money that he is responsible for, the huge amount of money coming from just one country that could hardly be counted as one of our major allies, that is a lot of money that can buy a lot of influence. And who is to say how it affected our political outcomes, how it affected what legislation was written or not, passed or didn't, vetoes that were done or not? What can you buy with $21 million? What do you guys think? So this is a great example of basically money laundering that happens in DC. So it's not technically money laundering, but what the foreign government's

do is they give money to lobbyists like Norm Coleman, and then Norm Coleman takes different money from other donors and funnels it to the to the politicians, right? So they get money from different sources here and then pushing them out through different vehicles to the politicians. So when Norm Coleman writes them a letter saying the kingdom would like this, the Republicans know, if I don't do what the kingdom wants, it's going to cause. me a ton of money. So look, let me give you guys scale here. Okay. So and let me explain these two groups, all right. He helped found the Congressional Leadership Fund, Norm Coleman did. So that's their super PAC, okay, where he serves as a chair of reporting to a current biography

on his law firm profile. And Coleman also serves as a chair of the American Action Network. American Action Network has given $94 million to Republicans since 2011. But somebody gives you $94 million when they write you a letter saying, I would like this or the kingdom would like that, you pay attention. But that's nothing compared to the Congressional Leadership Fund, which he's the chair. They gave $165 million in just 2020 alone. So they are massive, massive donors to the Republican politicians. So when Norm Coleman writes you a letter, you pay attention.

That's your boss. And Norm Coleman's boss is Saudi Arabia. And he is over the top fawning of Saudi Arabia. He says things as absurd as that the Saudi government is the model of moderate Islam. Model of Islam, their penal code is nearly identical to ISIS. I'm not exaggerating. They chopped up a political opponent and a journalist here in America. They chopped them to pieces and carried him out of luggage.

And after that, Norm Coleman says, model of moderate Islam. Because it's all about the bribes, the bribes, the bribes, the bribes. And yet mainstream media thinks Norm R. Coleman's totally fine. I remember when I look, we're ancient. We've been around 20 years. I remember covering Norm Coleman's race against South Franken. And in that case, Norm Coleman has been corrupt his whole life. He had a no show job for his wife. There was hilarious quotes about people where his wife was theoretically an employee. They're like, who's that? She, we never seen her here. And she was getting paid a ton of money through

someone who wanted political favors and said, well, technically it's not going to Norm Coleman. It's going to his wife. It's like that mob has those no show jobs. That's what this was. So, but that entire time all the way through to today, Norm Coleman is a very legitimate, upstanding member of Washington. He is very respectable, very credible, and just an wonderful, upstanding citizen. No, he's a crook.

He's a crook who facilitates money laundering and bribes to politicians. But the mainstream media would never tell you that, because it would be politically incorrect, Republicans would get mad at them for exposing corruption. By the way, so would corporate Democrats. And that's it because the corporatists at both parties, same coin, different sides. I mean, this is sickening, absolutely sickening. If you have more money, you get more voice, even if you are a foreign country. It's who's your daddy?

Who's your mama? That's what's going on here. And I am so glad that we continue to cover stories like this because we people got to wake up. We cannot be complicit in our own damn demise. And this is what is happening. It has happened in the past. Continues to happen right now. This is really some sick stuff.

Yeah. And by the way, of course, the Republicans just voted down a bill that wouldn't end money. All it would do was just disclose donors. $10,000. You want to give $9,500. They think you're middle class or fine. You don't have to be disclosed. Above $10,000. No way. No way. You think we're to let you find out who's bribing us? No. And- Wait, Jank, you mean all of the Republicans voted against it except for the anti- elite right-wing populist Republican politicians, right? Because surely they would want the disclosure. Surely they would, John. And that's why none of them voted for this. Because there are no populace in the Republican Party. They're all frauds. They're all liars. They're serving these giant corporations, these foreign governments and billionaires. Every one of them, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Mike Lee. They all said, no, I want the bribes to be undisclosed. That money has to be kept. hidden from the American people. They're such huge liars.

By the way, don't get me wrong. It's not like the Democrats have meant it. They put that bill up because they knew the Republicans were going to vote. I said, no, no it was going to fail. Yeah. And look, I got to say this last thing. So, Nina, we talked about this in the context of your race. So we had a group called Democratic majority for Israel.

Just flat out says it in their name. We're not for America. We're for Israel. Okay, and they put in millions into that race. And then when we said, hey, wait a minute, it looks like they're trying to help a foreign government because Israel, I looked at a map of Cleveland, couldn't find Israel. And the press yelled at us, yelled at us instead of the goddamn lobbyists. I mean, and we said it at the time, and we said it doesn't matter if it's Israel or Saudi Arabia, they're all buying our politicians. Right, insert said country.

And if you don't give a damn that 50% of the children in Cleveland are living in poverty, they don't care that big mama, big daddy can't take care of their families because inflation is so high, they don't care that the erosion of child tax credit, not just erosion, just flat out disappeared, has a profound impact on the people who live in not only Cleveland, but the greater Cleveland area. You think they give a damn about that? No, not at all. But when you stand up and advocate for your constituents, as you just said, Jenkins, you went through similar stuff, then we get shouted down. What about Cleveland?

You know, this is, again, we, the American people must stop being complicit in our own damn demise. We got to stand up and fight back against this. More money should not be speech. I know we got to deal with citizens united. But in the meantime, in between time, we should have some righteous indignation over this stuff. And they're doing it in the broad open daylight, you know why? Because they know it will not be any consequences or repercussions for their actions. I got to say one last thing.

John just read you the stat. Did you see that anywhere else in the mainstream press that 370,000 people died in Yemen because of the Saudi blockade? So you hear about all the deaths in Ukraine, and you should. And I'm glad they're covering them. But Russia is not an ally. So when they invade Ukraine, oh my God, the civilians. Good, good. Saudi Arabia is an ally. In other words, they bought all of our corrupt, crooked politicians, right? So they invade Yemen, kill 370,000 people on the blockade alone. Where's the press? Where's the dead kids on the TV? Where's all the dead bodies? Where's all the stories of outrage?

Where's all the stories of the Yemeni people heroically fighting back, which they have, just like the Ukrainians have. Nowhere to be found because the media doesn't do news. They're in the manufacturing consent business. Noam Chomsky wrote this decades ago, and he was 100% right. The point of news for corporate media is not at all news. It's marketing for corporations and foreign governments and corruption. Well, that's the truth. Okay, we got to go.

Okay, and you guys got to go and watch damage report and watch UnBoss. And OnBoss coming up, October 17th, subscribe now, YouTube.com slash UnBoss, TYT. Nina Turner's new show on the TYT network, you guys are going to love it. All right, thank you guys. And when we come back, we've got some more political stories, but we also have a cray-cra story about a teacher getting fired for being on OnlyFense. So lots of controversy And the second hour We'll be right back

Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks Support our work, listen ad-free, access members-only bonus content And more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple. At apple.com slash t-y-t.

I'm your host shank huger and i'll see you soon