The Young Turks - Slimy Santos

Episode Date: May 11, 2023

Episode summary: George Santos in federal custody as feds unseal 13-count indictment. DeSantis signs a bill restricting certain foreigners from property buys. Clarence Thomas reversed position after gifts and family payments. Drugmakers set strategy for legal fight against US pricing regulation. Corporate giants buy up primary care practices at a rapid pace. HOSTS: Ana Kasparian (@AnaKasparian) SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE: ☞ https://www.youtube.com/user/theyoungturks FACEBOOK: ☞ https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER: ☞ https://www.twitter.com/theyoungturks INSTAGRAM: ☞ https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK: ☞ https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕 Merch: https://shoptyt.com 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. Stop. Do you know how fast you were going? I'm going to have to write you a ticket to my new movie, The Naked Gun. Liam Nissan. Buy your tickets now.

I get a free Tilly Dog. Chilly Dog, not included. The Naked God. Tickets on sale now. August 1st. Woo! It's off. Thank you. Welcome to TYT. I'm your host Anna Kasparian, and this show is full of stories today that deal with lawmakers and government officials who use their position of power to enrich themselves, who are engaged in all sorts of corrupt acts.

Yes, we will be discussing freshman Republican lawmaker George Santos and the over a dozen charges that have been filed against him by the Department of Justice. Later in the show, we'll also discuss how, despite everything we keep hearing from Clarence Thomas's supporters, the Supreme Court justice appears to have changed his mind on a pretty key decision he had made back in 2005 after receiving a ton of gifts from his billionaire benefactor. So we'll get to that later in the first hour as well. Also, remember that super weak sauce rule that was the result of Biden's push to allow for Medicare to negotiate drug prices? It was watered down to just 10 drugs that might be negotiated by the time we hit 2026. Well, pharmaceutical companies are currently on the warpaths to scrap that.

So we'll give me the details on how they're planning on doing it later in this hour as well. And possibly my favorite story of the day is how a woman has decided to use AI technology to maximize her profits. And she's a real thinker. She's an American hero. We'll tell you exactly what she's up to. I'm real curious to see if it's really going to work out how she plans to. John Ida Rola, of course, will be joining me in the second hour as well. And as always, just want to encourage you guys to like and share the stream and become a member. If you haven't already, members help to keep us afloat, help to keep us independent of any corporate influence, and more importantly, give me the opportunity to run my mouth every day with impunity.

So I love you for helping me do that. I'll always be grateful for that. TYT.com slash join to become a member. With that said, let's get to one of the biggest stories of the day. Republican Congressman George Santos is now in custody after turning himself in on federal criminal charges. Unsealed court filings show he's facing 13 counts in total stemming from wire fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds, and making false statements. Wow, a Republican lawmaker found himself in federal custody briefly this morning. The Department

of Justice has unsealed 13 federal charges against freshman Republican representative, George Santos. And the charges include seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money, money laundering, one count of theft of public funds, two counts of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives. The prosecutors alleged that Santos solicited campaign funds under false pretenses, and then proceeded to use the money on himself. Gee, I wonder where I've heard that before. I know we've heard quite a bit of accusations in regard to Donald Trump doing that.

Now, the indictment accuses Santos of undertaking a fraudulent political controversy. solicitation scheme, where he set up a company and got supporters to contribute funds to it under the false pretense that the money would benefit his political campaign. Prosecutors claimed that the thousands of dollars instead went to Santos's personal expenses, including luxury designer clothing and credit card payments. Wow, this is really shocking, guys. I mean, would anyone really expect this to come from a guy who defrauded? an elderly man his mom was a caretaker for over in Brazil. Remember he stole that person's

identity and started making credit card charges using that person's identity? It should probably be extradited to face some charges in Brazil on that. Anyway, in addition to allegedly defrauding voters through the misuse of campaign funds, Santos is also accused of defrauding taxpayers through the pandemic era unemployment insurance program. Though he claimed in the application, he had been unemployed since March 2020. According to prosecutors, he was employed at an investment firm. And as part of a $120,000 annual salary, he was allegedly receiving regular deposits with the exception of one period in July and August of 2020.

He was employed at the firm between February 2020 and mid-April of 2021. But because of the repeated false assertions, he is alleged to have made to the unemployment program, Santos also received close to $25,000 in benefits, according to prosecutors. Now, Santos was asked about these charges, and his response, honestly, was exactly what you'd expect from George Santos. Let's watch. Why would you apply for unemployment benefits when you had a job making $120,000? a year. Rachel, this is part of my defense. This is an accurate information and I will get to clear my name on this during the pandemic. It wasn't very clear. I don't understand where the government's

getting their information, but I will present my facts. Prosecutors say that you got over 20,000 in unemployment benefits, sir. How is that acceptable? Ma'am, like I said, my employment was changed during the time. I don't understand where the government's coming from. I'll present my My favorite part of that video is just the scene around him, including the guy with the phone who's just like, as the reporter's asking the question, it's so good. Anyway, Santos has also been accused of making false statements to the House of Representatives about the source of his income. In addition to all of this, the Republican lawmaker has allegedly been stealing cash meant

for an Iraq war veterans dying dog and mastermining a credit card fraud scheme. But it's unclear if the DOJ's charges against him have anything to do with those specific accusations. As CBS News reports, Santos has been under several investigations for several reasons. FBI is probing his pet charity and the Securities and Exchange Commission inquired about his work for Harbor City Capital, a financial firm that, was running a Ponzi scheme. And in March, the House Ethics Committee opened an investigation into Santos' financial disclosure forms and whether he violated federal conflict of interest laws. How can you effectively do your job? In January, Santos removed himself from committee assignments

and was defiant. Are you confident that you will be clear? Yes, I have. Why are you confident you'll be clear? I'll be there for them. I have nothing to hide. If you have nothing to I got to say George Santos reminds me a lot of Anna Delvey where it's like everything around him is just melting down and he can't help himself. He's like, I told you already, okay? The wild transfer is on the way. Mr. Santos, are you really planning to run for re-election? Of course I am. I told you already. The reelection campaign is on the way. Now Santos's indictment comes just one day, just one day after former president Donald Trump. Trump was found guilty in a, you know, civil case. He was found guilty of sexually battering and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll in a civil trial. And this is clearly not a good look for the Republican Party as a whole.

And so far, the House GOP has even refused to expel Santos, despite his shady track record and possible financial crimes. But what are they saying now? Now that this freshman lawmaker and likely con man has been indicted and arrested, have they changed their tune? Well, New York state lawmakers have been pretty good in condemning him. But House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, not so much. Federal prosecutors filed charges against the congressman in the Eastern District of New York. Well, there's a clock ticking.

Renewing calls from many of his New York Republican colleagues to resign. George Santos should have resigned in December. He should have resigned in January. He should have resigned yesterday. And maybe he'll resign today. But sooner or later, honesty and justice will be delivered to him. Santos was notably absent from House floor voting Tuesday night. And Speaker Kevin McCarthy suggested support for the freshman congressman is limited if he's found guilty.

If a person is indicted, they're not on committees. They have the right to vote. but they have to go to trial. By the way, Santos is definitely planning to continue voting on legislation, even though he's been indicted. It's wild. Now, other Republicans were a little stronger in their willingness to denounce Santos. Representative Steve Womack argues he needs to resign immediately, telling CNN that Republicans, quote, don't need these distractions.

This has been going on now since we took the majority. Frankly, I would have hoped along the way that Mr. Santos would have done what I believe was the right thing. And of course, if leadership forces action, but for him to do it on his own, meaning resign. Republican congressman, Blake Moore, wants to wait for the conclusion of an ethics investigation, even though the DOJ's findings were enough to bring federal charges against Santos. He said, quote, let the ethics investigation play out, and if it produces anything, he should be removed. But my favorite statement came from Representative Ryan Zinke, another Republican,

who came out strong against Santos and said that he would be on board with expulsion if the ethics committee reached that conclusion. He also told CNN that, quote, the ethics committee better move on it. We owe American people answers. It seems like as they go down the journey, the charges get more serious. They're serious enough. I'm surprised he's still here. Now, that wasn't my favorite statement due to its substance, but rather how,

insane it is that Zinky of all people is saying it. What stands out about this story is just how deeply ingrained corruption and criminality is in our system of government. For example, you probably didn't know that Zinky faced a dozen and a half federal investigations himself while he was part of the Trump administration. Much of what he was accused of was basically using his position of power for self-dealing. You can read about those investigations. in a pretty detailed 2018 piece by Citizens for Ethics titled A Guide to the 18 Federal Investigations into Zinky. I highly recommend you guys do that. Now the behavior in question occurred while Zinkie served as Trump's Interior Secretary for a little under two years beginning

in March of 2017. Somehow the Montana lawmaker managed to face 18 federal investigations during that short period of time. But to be fair, he was cleared of wrongdoing in some of those investigations. But many were deemed inconclusive due to Zinkie's unwillingness to cooperate with investigators. The most recent IG report concerns allegations that Zincke tried to secure free travel for his wife in government vehicles. Any non-government employee is supposed to reimburse the government for those kinds of trips. but Zinke allegedly tried to get his wife a volunteer job at the department so she could travel with him for free. Zinke has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

The secretary is also being investigated separately for a few different matters, including his involvement in a land deal in Montana that could benefit Zinke and his wife, Zinke's reversal of a decision to grant a casino in Connecticut after meeting with lobbyists from a different casino operator, and his decision to redraw the boundaries of two national monuments. Wow, that land deal is a bit of an issue, no? We should probably learn more about it. This land deal in Whitefish, Montana, can you explain a little bit about what that question is about? Sure, there's a development in Whitefish called 95 Caro, which involves the chairman of Halliburton, a major oil services firm, which is, which is,

potentially affected by interior decisions, as well as the local developer and the Zinkies because the land that they have both donated to the town as well as adjacent property that they own could be affected by the development. Secretary Zinky, who stepped down as president from the foundation and handed the reins to his wife, has been involved in discussions and even a meeting with David Lazar, his son, and this developer while in office here in Washington. and that is now the subject of an inspector general probe. Usually lawmakers don't release statements or call for investigations of other corrupt

lawmakers because they're worried that in doing so, it'll draw attention to their own criminality and their own corruption, but Zinky isn't even smart enough to do that. It like blows my mind. Anyway, that land deal investigation was never concluded. The last we heard about it was in May of 2020 when Zinky won't about it in an interview with the Washington Examiner. Other ongoing investigations include claims that he blocked a casino deal involving native tribes after, of course, meeting with MGM lobbyists.

Zinky's corruption had apparently been so brazen that even members of his own corrupt party wanted to investigate him. Following reports that the Interior Department would spend nearly $139,000 to replace three sets of doors. House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy got involved. He requested a briefing from the Interior Department on plans to replace the doors, as well as documentation of the purchase. Now, all of these accusations and investigations led to Zinke stepping down as Interior Secretary on December 15th of 2018. But he ran for a congressional seat in Montana's first district. and narrowly beat Democrat Monica Trunel in the 2022 midterm election.

So it's difficult to celebrate George Santos possibly facing consequences for his actions when we all know lawmakers like Zinke can get away with using their power to enrich themselves and their corporate donors. And remember, we still have members of Congress engaging what definitely appears to be insider trading with impunity. This isn't to take away from the Santos news. I don't want to be a Debbie Downer. But viewers and listeners should ask themselves why some politicians with way less power, like freshman lawmakers, face the music while others don't. And despite the criminal indictments, even Santos is planning to somehow cash in on this with possible lucrative projects.

You look, you look pretty stressed. When I saw you sit down and the judge first started speaking, what was going through your mind? What are you feeling after being in tortuous? Well, when it's your first time in experiencing something of this nature, I think everybody would show some kind of stress, right? I quite frankly don't believe I was stressed. I did the best I could to just keep my composure. I was fine. But again, this has been an experience, you know, for a book or something like that.

This has been an experience for a book or something like that. I mean, always scheming, always scheming, got to respect the hustle, right? Jeez, it's incredible. But the only person's hustle I really respect in this story is that incredible reporter who just popped up out of nowhere to ask a question and confront Santos about how nervous he looked. That's the real winner in this entire scenario. Look at her, look at her.

I got to ask you a question. I got to ask you why you look so nervous. You're playing it cool, but I know what's really going on here. That was so good. We'll tell you how this all plays out as we learn more about the criminal indictments. This is a pretty big deal. And while I do have, you know, some downer elements to this story that I've shared with you, I will say it does feel good to see at least some people in positions of power facing consequences for their actions.

Let's take a break. When we come back, we have more for you including a pretty incredible story about, well, how Democrats are attacking DeSantis for the wrong reason. So believe it or not, I'm going to defend something that DeSantis did recently. That and more coming up. Welcome back to the show, everyone. I'm your host Anna Casparian, and I think it's important to be fair to everyone, including politicians that we dislike. And to be sure, I am not a fan of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis at all.

However, there is something that he's getting some criticism for that I disagree with, and I want to tell you what it's about. So let's talk about it. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed new legislation. This week that prevents foreign nationals in seven countries from purchasing what the state considers sensitive land. Now, in an effort to market this as some sort of heroic war against communism and U.S. adversaries, the Florida GOP is barring citizens of Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, and Syria from buying farmland or any property within 10 miles of a military

installation, seaport, or airport. Here's DeSantis, and now. the new rules with his trademark uncharismatic delivery. The legislation SB 264 will prohibit the purchase of farmland in Florida by the CCP and other foreign countries of concern because we believe protecting our food supply is a security issue and we want to make sure that our agriculture land is not compromised by CCP influence. Now the pro prohibition in that bill is not just limited to farmland. It also includes land within 10 miles of any military installation or any type of critical infrastructure. Okay, look, I know this is just posturing for DeSantis. He's trying to improve his chances

of winning the Republican primary for the 2024 election, and I think it's pretty obvious. But there's more to this new law in Florida that Democrats have misguidedly attacked him for. And for the purposes of this discussion, I want to focus on that. As Axios reports, people from China who are not U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents will be barred from owning Florida property altogether. Anyone knowingly selling land in violation of the new regulations is liable to civil and criminal penalties. The legislation also creates a mechanism for the property to be forfeited to the state. Now what's interesting is that very last line about the property possibly being forfeited to the state is something that makes some Republican voters uneasy. They're worried that that could

be a slippery slope that grants too much power to. Colgate Total is more than just your favorite toothpaste. It's dedicated to advancing oral health. The new Colgate Total Active Prevention System features a reformulated toothpaste, innovative toothbrush, and a refreshing anti-bacterial mouthwash, all designed to work together to fight the root cause of common

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We're totally on board with this. To be fair, I'm on board with it to some extent as well, and I'll explain why. What this means is that Chinese nationals who do not live in the United States, along with China-based corporations, will not have the ability to buy any property in the state of Florida, and that includes housing. Considering we're in the midst of a housing shortage and crisis, I have no problem with that. But our well-to-do friends over at Morning Joe think leaving our limited housing supply, vulnerable to private global investors, some of whom are looking to launder money, by the way,

is somehow more important. Republicans are supposed to support free markets. They're supposed to support free enterprise with Disney, with cruise lines, with small businesses. Like, this is, this is about as overarching big government, socialist government is, as I've seen. You just take an objective look at, okay, why has this economy in this country managed to stay on top for so long? And obviously, you know, openness is obviously the reason. It's the big factor. Our openness to immigration, our openness to, um, uh, kind of.

kinds of free trade. What? Okay, first off, this has nothing to do with immigration. And free trade, a little bit of a mixed bag. Actually, a lot of negative outcomes for American workers as a result of free trade. But really, we came out on top because we allowed foreign nationals to buy up our housing and price us out of the housing market? Okay.

Now, Democrats argue that the new rules in Florida are discriminatory against Chinese nationals. And you know what? I do agree with that take. So my only complaint toward Florida's new policy is that it would have been far better if DeSantis and Florida state legislature expanded the ban to include all foreign nationals. For me, this isn't about attacking China or any other specific foreign country. It's about protecting Americans who have to live here and can't afford housing due to housing shortages. The problem is DeSantis doesn't really care about the economic impact foreign investors have on the housing market.

They're just ratcheting up adversarial rhetoric and policy toward China, which Democrats, by the way, are also pretty guilty of. However, foreign nationals buying up our extremely limited inventory of housing is a problem. Politicians in Canada, for instance, noticed how much of an issue it was. was in their own country and have taken action by limiting foreign investment to address skyrocketing housing prices. In fact, some argue that they haven't done enough in Canada. But let's get back to the United States. In the U.S., Congress has allowed this practice to continue to the detriment of the American people. Back in April of 2021, we shared a Wall Street

Journal story with you that discovered foreign investors accounting for nearly a third of institutional investment in single family rental homes. I mean, you think having a landlord in another state is bad? Imagine if they lived in another country. At the time, German insurer Allianz was investing in a venture to buy more than like four billion dollars of U.S. rental homes. Then there's Singapore, like Singapore's sovereign wealth fund known as GIC, was also backing a plan to purchase single family rentals across southeastern U.S.

And the journal accurately concluded that, quote, the recent growth of foreign investment means that individual homebuyers must increasingly contend with this deep pocketed group of purchasers in a number of prime U.S. neighborhoods, boosting prices there and adding more fuel to a housing boom that is already the hottest in 14 years. Now, that was back in 2021. Things haven't gotten any better since then. From April of 2021 through March of 2022, foreign investors bought 59 billion dollars worth of existing homes in the United States, an 8.5% increase from the previous 12-month period, stopping a three-year skid in foreign investment in the United States residential real estate. And that slowdown in foreign investment occurred at the beginning of the pandemic.

but lately we're seeing an uptick in foreign investment yet again. Now, what makes it even more difficult for Americans to compete with foreign investors is that while most of us need to apply for a mortgage to, you know, finance the purchase of our home, foreign nationals actually like to make all cash offers. And you can't really compete with that. Between April of 2021 and March of 2022, all cash sales accounted for a whopping 60% percent. of non-resident foreign buyers. They've got the deep pockets.

That includes 58% of Chinese buyers. And despite the popular notion that these wealthy foreign nationals are focusing their investments in the luxury housing market, the reality is that they're buying up homes that were historically purchased by middle class families. According to the National Association of Realtors, the median price of the homes foreign investors are buying is around $366,000. Now that's still a lot of money, but remember, the price of housing has really skyrocketed in this country to the point where $366,000 is a reasonable price for a home. Florida, which has experienced a pretty sharp increase in

housing prices, has definitely been impacted by this. For the 14th straight year, Florida remained the top destination luring foreign buyers, accounting for 20. 44% of all international purchases. California ranked second at 11%, followed by Texas at 8%, Arizona at 7%, and New York and North Carolina tied at 4%. But what about Chinese investors specifically, the one group that DeSantis has decided to ban from buying residential real estate in Florida? Well, Chinese buyers accounted for 6% of all foreign U.S.

residential real estate purchases from April 2021 to March of 2022, according to the National Association of Realtors. Buyers from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan spent $6.1 billion on those deals. China and Canada, by the way, remained first and second in U.S. residential sales dollar volume at $6.1 billion and $5.5 billion, respectively, continuing a trend going back to $20. 2013. And they tend to buy the pricier homes in other states. So at just over one million, Chinese buyers had the highest average purchase price and nearly a third, 31% purchase property in California. Now couple this foreign investment trend with private equity firms and institutional investors buying up entire neighborhoods of residential properties. And we're

dealing with a pretty despicable and outrageously unaffordable housing market. Found that for housing vouchers, which are local subsidies helping renters find homes on the private market, the average weight in San Diego County is eight years. And for public housing, it has the longest wait time of any large metropolitan county in the entire U.S. In San Diego County, the wait list for public housing is over 18 years. We're just not building public housing like we used to. We're not providing enough housing vouchers for people to use on the private market. Today, what we're seeing is a housing crisis unlike one that we've seen since the mid-20th century.

That's right. So if there is limited supply, and there absolutely is, why are we letting people who, who don't even live here by housing as an investment. And look, don't get me wrong. Banning foreign investment would not solve America's housing crisis. It would just tackle one factor contributing to it. Institutional investors should also be banned, in the very least temporarily, until we build more housing.

But what kind of housing we build is also incredibly important. Look, it's not hard to find new luxury developments in a big city, near you, no one can afford those units. The Biden administration and the entirety of the Democratic Party should have gotten busy building public housing as soon as Biden got elected. Instead, much like DeSantis, they just engage in political tit for tat nonsense that really does nothing to alleviate the economic pain felt by their constituents. And so there's a lot to criticize Governor DeSantis on.

Banning foreign investment in real estate, particularly residential real estate, just isn't one of them. All right, let's move on to something entirely different. Let's talk about the ongoing reporting regarding the corruption within the Supreme Court. This story by the lever is incredible. It's a lengthy, it's very detailed. I highly recommend you guys read it for yourselves. But we're going to try to help you digest what we've learned through this reporting because it's really important to know what this corruption transactions.

translates to. The Clarence Thomas corruption scandal is the story that just never ends. It's the gift that keeps on giving. It turns out that Justice Thomas reversed one of his positions on one of the country's most significant regulatory decisions after his wife Ginny allegedly accepted secret payments from conservative donors and while he himself was receiving extravagant gifts and luxury vacations from billionaire Harlan Crow. Now to understand how corruption is at play here, we need context on this legal doctrine in question, which is known as the Chevron doctrine.

According to the lever, the so-called Chevron deference doctrine stipulates that the executive branch, not the federal courts, has the power to interpret laws passed by Congress in certain circumstances. Conservatives for years have fought to overturn the doctrine, a move that would empower legal challenges to federal agency regulations on everything from climate policy to workplace safety to overtime pay. So it was the result of the 1984 Supreme Court case, Chevron USA v. Natural Resources Defense Council, which was brought by environmental advocates, to challenge Reagan's weakening of air pollution regulations. The Supreme Court deferred to the EPA and its interpretation of the Clean Air Act,

which at the time was seen as a win for the polluters. But it was also a win for the administrative state or federal government agencies, which is why conservatives hated it. Now Thomas wrote a landmark Supreme Court opinion upholding the doctrine in 2005 but began questioning it a decade later before eventually renouncing his past opinion in 2020 and claiming that the doctrine itself might be unconstitutional. Now Thomas could help overturn the doctrine in a new case the high court just agreed to hear next term. And what do you know, groups within the conservative legal movement, which includes right-wing donors, Leonard Leo and Harlan Crow, have orchestrated an effort in recent years to overturn the decision.

What a shocker. They hate that the doctrine empowers federal agencies like the EPA, or even the education department, to interpret and implement statutes. Maybe Clarence just happened to change his mind out of nowhere, or maybe not. I'm going to go with the latter. So in 2010, Harlan Crow bankrolled a dark money group led by Thomas's wife, Ginny, that paid her $120,000. Leo was on the group's board of directors. In 2012, Leo's dark money network steered undisclosed consulting payments to Thomas's wife.

Oh, I'm sure that that had no impact. not at all. Now, the Leo network has also aggressively funded Republican politicians and several nonprofits, pressing the Supreme Court to overturn the Chevron doctrine next term. The Federalist Society, of course, the conservative lawyers organization where Leonard Leo is co-chair, was at the center of these efforts, publishing articles and touting theories, undermining the Chevron doctrine and the administrative state. One of the hardest part, of getting older is feeling like something's off in your body, but not knowing exactly what. It's not just aging. It's often your hormones, too. When they fall out of balance, everything

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For a limited time, get 15% off your entire first order at happy mammoth.com with code next chapter at checkout. Visit happy mammoth.com today and get your old self back naturally. The American Enterprise Institute, where Harlan Crow sits on the board of trustees, was also agitating against the Chevron doctrine. Harlan Crow co-founded the club for growth, which has a very funny name, but nonetheless, it's a pro-business group that also issued a memo calling for the end of the Chevron doctrine. Last year, Crow's wife joined the board of trustees at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank that pressed the Supreme Court to hear. the new case aimed at ending the Chevron doctrine. This is the family that brought Clarence Thomas on vacations worth half a million dollars and also paid for their relatives private school tuition.

But it's not just Clarence Thomas that was very likely corrupted by the gifts and cash of powerful conservatives, which he didn't disclose and he was supposed to. Like any good political donor, Harlan Crow also targeted members of Congress. And it's paying off. Now in the midst of this ethics scandal, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on Supreme Court ethics and sent a letter asking Harlan Crow to provide a full accounting of his financial ties to Thomas and any other judges on the high court. Now unsurprisingly, none of the committee's Republican members signed on to the letter. Oh, and we should maybe mention that those same Republicans have collectively accepted nearly half a million dollars in campaign cash from Crow since the year 2000.

Accountable.us calculated that the current Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee received $453,300 from Crow between 2001 and 2022. The group revised that figure up to $457,000 on Tuesday in light of, oh, look at that. Another $3,700 donation Crow made to Senator John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas earlier this year. So let's break that down a little further, okay? I love getting into the numbers. Here's a look at Crow's total contributions to nine GOP lawmakers on the panel. You've got John Corden at $294,800.

You've got Senator Chuck Grassley, $46,000, $46,600. I mean, it's just a murderer's row of insanely corrupt Republican lawmakers who are more than willing to do the bidding of Harlan Crow, the Federalist Society, and anything that they want, basically. Right? And in this case, they want to take power away from federal government agencies and essentially consolidate power within the Supreme Court. And look, they've been pretty vocal. All of those lawmakers who took those donations or bribes, let's keep it real, they've been vocal in opposing reforms to the Supreme Court and the ethics that they're supposed to be operating under. Now, Senator John Kennedy said, The proposed Supreme Court ethics rules were unnecessary. Senator John Cornyn claimed Congress did not have the authority to regulate the courts due to separation of powers. Senator Ted Cruz claimed the hearing was not about judicial ethics, but instead was an attempt to attack Justice Thomas for having rich friends. Now, he could have all the rich friends in the world. I don't care about that. I do care when the rich friends are bribing him.

so he rules in a particular way, and that is what appears to be happening here. And it's all coming full circle because that kind of political corruption was legalized in this country, in part, thanks to Crow's buddy Clarence Thomas. An Americans for Tax Fairness Analysis of Campaign Finance Data showed that after Thomas provided a deciding vote in the Citizens United Vee. federal election commission case, the Crow family's average annual campaign contributions soared by 862% from just 163,240 before 2010 to 1.57 million cents. Just let that sink in. And we're supposed to believe that our system of

government is sound, that corruption isn't a problem. We are supposed to sit here and accept whatever narrative comes from our elected lawmakers in regard to the corruption in other countries when we know full well that not only is corruption a problem in our country, but we've taken the extra step. The Supreme Court has taken the extra step of legalizing the bribery and baking it into our system. Now, just as Thomas failed to disclose the lavish gifts and all the luxury travel that was provided to him from billionaire donor Harlan Crow. And we should be asking ourselves, why is that?

Why did he have so much difficulty disclosing that information while simultaneously disclosing the gifts and money that he received from other individuals? A little questionable, no. Anyway, speaking of corruption, we're not done with that topic because pharmaceutical companies are already on the war path to do away with incredibly weak sauce regulation that would allow for Medicare to negotiate drug prices on a limited number of pharmaceutical drugs. That story and more coming right up. Welcome back to the show, everyone, lots more news to get to. Let's focus a little bit on our health care industry, starting with pharmaceutical companies. Pharmaceutical companies are already plotting ways to circumvent new regulations that would allow for Medicare to negotiate the prices of a very limited number of drugs.

Now, the policy was the outcome of Biden's Inflation Reduction Act or the end result of the severely watered down version of his build back better agenda. You know, that agenda that the president couldn't be bothered to fight for. But nonetheless, the original legislation would have allowed for Medicare to negotiate the prices of all pharmaceutical drugs. But the final version that passed both chambers of Congress when Democrats controlled the levers of power was far weaker. The first ever Medicare drug price reduction process actually begins in September when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, CMS, identifies its 10 most costly drugs. Following negotiations on that first wave of drugs, new prices will go into effect in 2026, when the agency could cut $4.8 billion in industry sales.

And the $4.8 billion is in regard to the lower prices that get negotiated as a result of this new deal, this new rule that was passed by Congress. Now, it's a limited number of drugs, and it won't go into effect until 2026. And this only impacts Medicare recipients, cool. Now, in all fairness, while the regulation is laughably weak, the drugs that are likely to be negotiated are very important ones. So the blood thinner eloquists from Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer, Pfizer's breast cancer drug, Ibrance, and Abbe's leukemia treatment are likely to be among 10 big-selling medicine subject to the negotiations. Okay, let's just pause for a second. Pharmaceutical companies don't even want the Medicare system to have the ability to negotiate

drug prices. How is that the free market? How is that not crony capitalism? It's so incredibly disgusting and make no mistake about it. The reason why the original regulation, the original proposal, the original proposal, was watered down to the extent that it was watered down is because both Democrats and Republicans are bought by these pharmaceutical companies. So they're going to do the bidding of the pharmaceutical companies. So they weakened the bill. They passed a watered down version of the original proposal.

And pharmaceutical companies are still not satisfied. Even that pathetically weak law upsets pharmaceutical companies. I mean, so much so that they're already on the war path to destroy it. Six sources with ties to Big Pharma spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, and here's what they said. Three industry lobbyists and lawyers said that unless Medicare changes its proposals before it finalizes them in July, drug makers will likely file lawsuits arguing that the agency is not complying with Biden's legislation, nor the U.S. Constitution.

What? Okay, so they're just going to do lawsuits to drag this out, drag out the implementation, and potentially work their way to the Supreme Court, which will very likely strike it down. Now, five of the world's top drug makers have already raised legal concerns with the law and the agency's proposed roadmap. Six sources said factors involving whether a drug is considered eligible for negotiation may also contradict and unlawfully extend the law's provisions. In particular, they said the definition of a single source drug sets too high a bar on whether a drug has competition. There are other regulations that are likely to be challenged by pharmaceutical

companies. For example, Reuters reports that Medicare's guidance includes rules banning drug makers for publicly discussing the negotiations and imposes fines of $1 million a day for violations. Now, I'm really curious why pharmaceutical companies have a problem with that. Is it because it would prevent them from lobbying and publicly speaking about it? Now, those could be challenged. under the U.S. Constitution's first and eighth amendments protecting freedom of speech and against excessive fines, respectively, said three sources representing drug makers. There are delay tactics involved, too. So drug companies could file for emergency injunctions to delay government negotiations, according to one lawyer who represents

multiple manufacturers. The lawsuits are more than just a tactic to delay the implementation of new drug negotiation rules. As Juliet Kubonski from Kaiser Family Foundation put it, litigation, if successful, would notch another win for an industry that has enjoyed many years of success in blocking legislative proposals it opposes. So what really stands out to me in regard to this story, other than the insane greed that we have come to expect from pharmaceutical companies, is that unless we do away with the virus in our political system, unless we do away with

the corruption, unless we do away with the legalized bribery that allows for these pharmaceutical companies to pad the pockets of our lawmakers, they're always going to get their way. They're going to take Supreme Court justices on lavish trips. They're going to bribe our judicial system in those ways. They're going to bribe our members of Congress in other ways through campaign donations. I mean, that's baked into our system at this point. And at the end of the day, they're going to get what they want because they have paid handsomely to get what they want. So how exactly is that a democracy?

And by the way, what the hell is the point of being a member of Congress when your work means nothing? when even the pathetic watered down garbage that comes out of Congress can be squashed immediately by the court system. I mean, imagine looking back at your life as a United States lawmaker and feeling proud of what you've accomplished. Because fact of the matter is, Congress can't really accomplish much these days, especially if they're trying to rein in corporate greed. So when lawmakers talk about their legacy, when they obsess about their legacy, what they should know is that as long as money in politics continues to be a problem, their legacy means nothing.

They're just puppets for corporate America, including pharmaceutical companies who love to take taxpayer money in the form of research and development, and then turn around and price gouge us the second we need those medications to stay alive. That's what this country really operates under. We're not being ruled or governed by the people we've elected. The people who actually call the shots in America are corporate executives, our shareholders, and are people who stand to profit off of deregulation and all sorts of corporate goodies. It is unbelievable that even that weak sauce legislation has gotten the pharmaceutical companies panties in a bunch. But that's where they're at because God forbid they lose even a tiny bit of profit.

While more Americans are able to access the drugs, they desperately need to stay alive. All right, we got to take a break. When we come back, John Adirola will join me for... Just nonsense. Lots of nonsense in the news today, including Elon Musk, you know, going in the Alex Jones direction of calling one of the latest mass shootings a sciop? And Marsha Blackburn, apparently not knowing a single detail of what happened in Yuvaldi, Texas. That and more coming up. 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.co slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.