The Young Turks - Stairway to Kevin

Episode Date: January 5, 2023

Former President Donald Trump encourages republicans not to embarrass themselves and vote Kevin McCarthy for Speaker Of The House. FDA will now allow pharmacies to dispense abortion pills. Donald Trump is blaming his loyal anti-abortionist for the red-wave failure. Bernie Sanders has not ruled out running for President in 2024. The Mississippi welfare scandal exposes the intentional neglect of its citizens. Host: Ana Kasparian Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Woo! It's up! Thank you. Welcome to TYT. I'm your host, Anna Casparian. I gotta be honest. Today's show, it's a banger. It really is. We're gonna start off with a deep dive into the whole McCarthy situation that you will not get anywhere else, okay? I'm gonna explain exactly how Kevin McCarthy ended up where he is today. Yes, he has. has lost six consecutive votes in seeking the speaker position in the House of Representatives. But there's a whole backstory that you need to know about. So I'll talk about that in just a minute. Also, in the second hour, probably my favorite story of the day has to do with George Santos, who honestly is in a competition over who had a worse day yesterday. Was it Kevin McCarthy or George Santos?

Incredible, incredible story. So we'll get to that. In the second hour, John Ida Rola, by the way, will also get to a story involving the dumbest burglars alive. They're, of course, from the state of Florida. So we'll give you the details on what happened and more. As always, just want to encourage you to like and share the stream. If you're watching us online, it's an easy way to get the message out. And if you're, excuse me, if you're not a member, you can become one by going to t.com slash join. We will be having an awesome bonus episode today, so don't miss it.

All right, without further ado, let's get to this McCarthy story. What a mess. Today wasn't any better for Kevin McCarthy, who could not win the 218 votes in the House necessary in order to become the next Speaker of the House. Again, he lost six consecutive times. And today, the House decided to adjourn without having any real solution to this issue. Now, Donald Trump finally weighed in on this and urged Republicans to stop, get this, embarrassing themselves and vote for Kevin McCarthy.

It's important to get back to why Trump has decided to endorse Kevin McCarthy for the speaker role. But before we do, I think it's also important, more important, to really understand how Kevin McCarthy found himself in this position in the first place. because I've been racking my mind trying to figure out what do the naysayers want? Kevin McCarthy has offered concessions that they claim to want in order to, you know, get the vote for Kevin McCarthy, but still they're blocking this. They don't want McCarthy to be the Speaker of the House, and I think it's important to understand

why. So let's go to it. We've got to start at the beginning of his tenure in Congress. So as a Republican lawmaker from Bakersfield, California, Kevin McCarthy really had to be a pretty moderate Republican. Think about it. He's a Republican state lawmaker at the time in a deeply blue state. So he's got to engage in the wheeling and dealing. And in order to do that, there need to be compromises with democratic state lawmakers. And that's what he did.

Then he comes into Congress. He gets elected as a United States representative at a time, by the way, when the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party begins to grow. He sees it, he notices it, and he decides it would be politically advantageous to align myself with them. And that is exactly what he did. He joined forces with Paul Ryan and Eric Cantor, and they created this group in Congress known as the young guns. Ooh, the young guns. The whole point was to appeal to the far right of the Republican Party, to commit to spending cuts when it comes to entitlement programs, to commit to any tax cuts that might come

up as legislation, to refuse to ever raise taxes, like that's what they were, that's what they wanted to do. And more importantly, what they wanted to do was cater to individuals on the far right who might consider a congressional run in the future. They wanted to court those individuals. They wanted to help grow the far right of the Republican Party. So here's a little more from the young guns at the time. PBS NewsHour had an interview with Eric Cantor and Kevin McCarthy.

And it's enlightening. Let's watch. You both take pains to distance yourself from the activities of previous Democratic and Republican-led Congresses. We were tired of losing as a party. We didn't want to be a part of what we had seen transpire over the last several years, which resulted in the voters firing us in 06 and then again in 08. So again, this wasn't just a challenge to Democrats.

This was a challenge to the Republican establishment within the Republican Party. This is really setting Kevin McCarthy up for failure. But before we get there, let's give you a little more. One of the promises, one of the commitments was that this new wing of the Republican Party would refuse to raise taxes, and they would also refuse to allow the Bush-era tax cuts to expire. So let's take a look at that. As far as the tax rates are concerned, you know, so many people are talking about tax cuts, when the reality is one or two things is going to happen in January 1st, 2011. Either your tax rates are going to go up, or they're going to stay the same. Nobody's talking about any tax cuts.

And small businesses out there right now are looking to see, oh, my goodness, are my taxes going to go up? Can I really afford to keep the lights on and employ people right now? So that's when Kevin says, first order business has got to be to settle the uncertainty so we can get folks back into a mindset that they can begin to grow again and create wealth. And as I mentioned earlier, one of the other objectives of the so-called young guns was to recruit candidates for the Republican Party, for Republican races, who shared an ideology that was further to the right in comparison to the establishment Republican Party. And in fact, Kevin McCarthy touches on that in the next clip.

What we saw was, you know, we really needed help. in terms of finding more people to come to Washington to join us, but join us for the right reasons. So to an extent, this is not just your, the three of you's argument against the Democrats, but also to the approach of other Republicans? The whole concept of young guns is about ideas. What we've done is we've taken the brand of young guns that Fred Barnes gave us to go out across the country and find candidates that were willing to challenge Democrats based upon principles that would solve problems because you're right.

We talk about the wrong policies of the Democrats, but we also talk about the wrong policies that the Republicans have and why they got fired. The wrong policies that the Republicans have had and why they got fired. So Kevin McCarthy plays this role in recruiting far-right candidates into the Republican Party. And soon enough, they get enough votes, enough candidates elected into the House of Representatives to take the majority.

At that point, Kevin McCarthy has a leadership position within the House of Representatives. He is the majority whip. The speaker at the time was John Boehner. Now, something happened that made McCarthy realize that this is going to be a lot more tricky than I realized. Because as the majority whip, his job is to whip enough votes in order to pass legislation. Now, things got real, honestly, questionable for McCarthy once this whole debate occurred regarding the funding bill that needed to pass that year. So it was referred to as the fiscal cliff.

They needed to pass the funding bill or there would be a huge government shutdown. The fiscal cliff showdown in late 2012 was a disaster because not only did they need to fund the government, there was disagreement as to whether or not the Bush, era tax cuts for the working class should expire. Now remember, the young guns refused to raise taxes. They claimed that they were going to fight to ensure that the Bush era tax cuts would not expire. And so the Senate had passed their version of the spending bill. And at this point, Boehner took McCarthy aside and was like, we need to get this passed. We need to deal with this fiscal cliff situation. And you are the majority whip. So get the votes.

we need to pass this bill. And guess what, Kevin McCarthy did his job. He was able to whip enough Republican votes to get that bill passed, knowing that the Bush era tax cuts would in fact expire. And once it was abundantly clear to him that he had enough Republican votes to pass that bill, you wanna know what he did? He voted no. He voted no on the bill.

Because Kevin McCarthy is not a man of principle, he's not a man of values. he's a man who's looking out for Kevin McCarthy. He's looking out for himself. He's looking for ways to accumulate political power for himself. And after that bill passed, the far right wing of the Republican Party was pretty furious. And they ousted John Boehner from his leadership role as a result. But guess what? The far right wing of the Republican Party wasn't stupid.

They knew what McCarthy did. They knew that McCarthy as majority whip, whipped enough. votes to get that bill passed and then did the weasily thing of voting against it so it wouldn't hurt him politically maybe with his own constituents. And so it didn't work out so well for him. Now let's get back to Donald Trump because that's a relevant part to this story. Remember, he's the one who decided to come out yesterday and encourage the Republican Party to confirm, to vote in favor of Kevin McCarthy as the House Speaker. And much like Kevin McCarthy, Donald Trump is self-interested.

He looks out for himself. And so let me give you his statement, which he posted on truth social. He said, vote for Kevin, close the deal, take the victory, and watch crazy Nancy Pelosi fly back home to a very broken California. I mean, Nancy Pelosi really has nothing to do with this, but that was a cute message. He continues, Republicans do not turn a great triumph into a giant and embarrassing defeat. It's time to celebrate, you deserve it. Kevin McCarthy will do a good job and maybe even a great job.

Just watch. Maybe, maybe even a great job, according to Donald Trump. Now, why is Trump putting his thumb on the scale? Why is he pressuring Republican lawmakers in the House to vote for Kevin McCarthy? Well, again, it might have something to do with why Marjorie Taylor Green decided to promote Kevin McCarthy for that leadership role. Again, it's self-interest. Marjorie Green received commitments from Kevin McCarty.

that her committee assignments will be reassigned to her. Donald Trump has other interests. But what are those interests? Well, take a step back, take a look at the 2016 election campaign, and who was willing to endorse Donald Trump when no one else was? Kevin McCarthy was the first, or one of the first, I should say,

Republicans in Congress who decided to endorse Donald Trump. He, you know, put his, he put his thumb on the scale to some extent and also was willing to defend Donald Trump pretty aggressively after the Access Hollywood tapes came out. In fact, he went so far as to scold other Republican lawmakers who spoke out against the Access Hollywood tapes, who spoke out against Donald Trump. So he started defending Donald Trump. He endorsed Donald Trump early on. And then prior to January 6th, the capital riots that took place, he was actually enabling Donald Trump's lies about the 2020 presidential election. Here's a little taste.

President Trump won this election. So everyone who's listening, do not be quiet. Do not be silent about this. We cannot allow this to happen before our very eyes. So notice the date. He gave that interview on November 5th, 2020. So it was before January 6th, 2021. Now, what happened after the Capitol riots?

Let's watch. The president bears responsibility for Wednesday's attack on Congress by mob rioters. He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding. These facts require immediate action by President Trump. Accept his share of responsibility. quell the brewing unrest and ensure President-elect Biden is able to successfully begin his term. Now at that point, Kevin McCarthy clearly calculated that it would be politically advantageous to speak out against Donald Trump. I mean, the Capitol had just been attacked. Members of Congress felt that they were under attack by Trump supporters.

But within, honestly, a day or two, McCarthy realized, oh, that speech did not play well with the Republican Party, including the Republican base. So pretty soon after he gave that speech, he met with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago. He met up with the homie. Now, the meeting itself was controversial, but he did a complete 180, apparently went right back to kissing Trump's ass, because after that meeting, Trump's office released this image. That's Donald Trump and Kevin McCarthy posing together at Mar-a-Lago, making it abundantly clear

that they were unified once again even after the Capitol riots. Because look, for Donald Trump, the only thing that really matters is whether or not an individual is loyal to him. And with Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House, might actually work out in Trump's favor if he really does intend to run in the 2024 presidential election. Now, he has announced that he's going to run. We haven't really heard much from him since then about his campaign. But nonetheless, having a loyalist serve as Speaker of the House would be advantageous to him

in his mind. So it's purely self-interest that pushed him to endorse Kevin McCarthy and urge Republican lawmakers in the house to vote in favor of McCarthy as the next speaker of the house. Now, they didn't buy it. They weren't interested. And even though there were six attempts that getting him elected as speaker, McCarthy failed every single time. It's unclear what's going to happen tomorrow, how they intend to move forward with this. But again, what I find so fascinating about this story is how you have a politician, Kevin McCarthy, thinking that he's weasily enough and smart enough to try to play both sides, not really looking out for

any political group or any contingent within a political group. He's not looking out for his own constituents or the American people. This is just a power struggle involving Kevin McCarthy. That's it. Kevin McCarthy and a wing of the Republican Party that clearly does not trust him. And that's why this all makes sense now. Even though Kevin McCarthy agreed to many of the concessions that the far right wing of the Republican Party wanted from him, it still wasn't enough to get them on board in electing him as the next Speaker of the House, because it ain't about the concessions, it's about trust. In fact, even CBS noted that. Warren Davidson of Ohio, when he was giving his speech nominating Kevin McCarthy a speaker,

I think before the fourth vote or the fifth vote, like you I've lost track, said, well, there's a certain number of us who don't trust Kevin McCarthy. Well, there's a certain number of the majority of the Republican conference who don't trust those who don't trust Kevin McCarthy, explaining in vivid terms rhetorically that there is a deep reservoir of mistrust within the House Republican ranks. Now, I'm not sure if there are any concessions that Kevin McArthur can agree to that would convince this wing of the Republican Party, the wing that Kevin McCarthy enabled and to some extent created to get them to vote for him. I don't think that there's anything possible at this point. We'll see, who knows? I mean, it's incredibly

embarrassing to keep seeing this happen over and over again. I mean, it's a, it's making a mockery of the Republican Party, it's just not good for them, it's complete disarray. But at the end of the day, it's really not about the concessions. It's about trust because when you try to straddle two sides and get away with it, and when it's very clear that you actually don't have any principles or values, sometimes the chickens come home to roost. And that's what Kevin McCarthy is dealing with today. The other issue to me that's pretty clear here is that whether you're talking about

the Democratic Party or the Republican Party, a two-party system is clearly failing the American people. Because within the Democratic Party, I feel like we have several parties. You have all these gradations of, you know, Democrats. And clearly you have the same situation with Republicans as well. But if all you care about is the tribal element of politics, the blood sport that it's turned into. If all you care about is rooting for Democrats, well, this is actually great for you. I don't know if it's great for the country.

Because if you have this increasing pressure within the Republican Party to go in the direction of Trumpism, the direction of MAGA Republicanism, we already know that that doesn't play so well with independent voters, the same voters that Republicans desperately need to cater to in order to win some of these congressional races. That's one of the reasons why. One of the main reasons why they did so poorly in the midterm elections. The Trump endorsed candidates, the far right wingers, the MAGA element of the Republican Party didn't do so well, didn't do so well. And so that does make it easier for Democrats to get elected or reelected. But for those who actually want Democrats to fight for better material gains for the American people, maybe not such great news. Because I'm worried that Democrats might think, well, Republicans are kind of destroying themselves. So maybe we coast. Maybe we coast. I hope they don't learn all the wrong lessons here. But it's politics, so they probably will. Either way, the Republicans are destroying themselves. Kevin McCarthy has created the bed that he's now being forced to sleep in. Who knows

what the future holds for the Speaker of the House. But one thing that's clear is that the House of representatives cannot conduct any business until they determine who the next speaker of the House is. And if you're concerned about that, you shouldn't be, because Republicans have been clear that the only thing they want to do in the House is investigate Hunter Biden's penis. And I don't think his penis is going anywhere. So we can get to that on another day. For now, though, we're going to take a break. And when we come back, we've got more news, including Donald Trump blaming pro-lifers for midterm election losses. It is an amazing story. Don't miss it. We've got that and more.

Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the show. I want to read one super chat because it asks an important question. I actually was tempted in talking about this a little bit in the previous segment, but I decided against it. Now I'm going to. The question is, can you explain how this force the vote is different than Dems force the vote? There are lots of force the vote. 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 oral health issues, such as gingivitis, plaque, and tartar. Use the full routine twice daily and be dentist ready. Shop the Colgate Total Active Prevention System now at walmart.ca. Proponents who say AOC should have done what the Republicans are doing now with Pelosi in 2020. Well, remember, force the vote was about withholding votes for Nancy Pelosi's speakership role until she made the concession that there would be a floor

vote on single payer health care in the house, which would have failed. Okay, so the ask was for a vote that would fail. I mean, at this point, I almost just wish that it would have happened because I would give anything to have Brianna Joy Gray move on with her life and maybe talk about something different. Like, it's ridiculous. But this, this McCarthy situation is different because the concessions that McCarthy has agreed to don't even matter for the group of Republicans who refuse to vote for him. Okay? They don't care about the concessions. They don't trust him. And they've said so. They don't trust him. They're not going to vote for him. It's not about concessions.

The whole force the vote thing was about an ask that would have ultimately failed and could have potentially hurt single payer health care or the pursuit of single. single payer health care because maybe some who might be open minded to it would be less open minded to it if it's already failed through a house vote. You get what I'm saying? Anyway, but at this point, I don't even care. I wish it would have happened so we could just move on. I'm so tired of like the personal branding exercises that are like forced upon us day and day out by people who can't move on from something that happened literally in like 2019 or 2020. But let's move on. There's other stuff to get to including a pretty big move by the FDA.

That might not matter in the end, but let's talk about it. The federal food and drug administration has just finalized new rules that allow for the abortion pill to be provided by retail pharmacies. Previously, there were pretty strict restrictions on that. The pill could only be dispensed by clinics, doctors, or a few mail order pharmacies. But this move is meant to loosen some of these regulations and make the availability of the abortion pill, a lot more available, if you will. So some of the women living in these red states would have more access to reproductive health services. Now, the regulatory change impacts the first of the two pills that a woman would need in order to

carry out a medical abortion, medicine abortion, right? It's Mitha Pristone, which again is the first pill of this two drug medication abortion process. Under the new FDA rules, patients will still need a prescription from a certified healthcare provider, but any pharmacy that agrees to accept those prescriptions would have to abide by certain criteria to dispense the pills, right? So they have to get certified in order to do it. That would lead to some additional costs, but that's not necessarily something that would dissuade a pharmacy or retail pharmacy from pursuing this.

And the change also comes as abortion pills are used in more than half of pregnancy terminations here in the United States. Mithopristone blocks the hormone that's necessary for pregnancy development. And it's, it was authorized by the FDA back in the year 2000. It needs to be taken within the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, although many clinics and telemedicine providers have begun offering it up to 12 or even 13 weeks into to pregnancy, a step that they can actually legally take because there is scientific evidence that the pills are safe and effective in that time frame.

Now, this is not the first time the Biden administration weighed in on the abortion pill matter. Okay, so this is really important. In December of 2021, for instance, the FDA said it would permanently lift the requirement that patients obtain mythopristone in person from a health provider, a step that paved the way for telemedicine abortion services, which conduct medical consultations with patients by video, phone, or online questionnaires, and then arrange for them to receive the prescribed pills by mail. So again, that expands accessibility to the medication in order to carry out an abortion. On Tuesday, the FDA officially removed the in-person requirement from its regulatory

rulebook for Mifapristone, leaving in place the remaining two requirements that health providers be certified to show they have the knowledge and ability to treat abortion patients and that patients complete a consent form. So far so good, right? Except there are some hurdles to keep in mind, okay? Before I get to those hurdles, though, what about the second drug? Well, it's actually easier to access the second drug. Miphypristone is really just used for either carrying out a pregnancy termination, like terminating a pregnancy, or if a woman has already miscarried, sometimes it's prescribed in order to expel the fetus from the woman's body.

Now, the second drug, again, is easier to access. It's known as misoprostol, which causes contraction. that do expel the pregnancy tissue. It's taken 24 to 48 hours after Mithopristone. But are these pharmacies willing to do it, right? You have to keep in mind, you have the federal government, which of course does supersede state laws. But nonetheless, there are pharmacies that are still worried about,

you know, the prosecutorial powers of, you know, the state prosecutors. And so the steps for pharmacies to become certified to dispense Mithopristone involves some administrative requirements that go beyond the process pharmacies use with most other medications, such as designating an employee to ensure compliance. Given the time and resources required by those steps, some pharmacies may not consider it worthwhile to offer a medication. And if the state laws ban the abortion pill or have severe restrictions on the abortion pill, that's going to play a role as well. In fact, Walgreens set as much through a spokesperson. A spokesperson for Walgreens said the company would review the FDA's decision and would, quote, continue to enable our pharmacist to dispense medications consistent with federal and state law.

And keep in mind that 18 states have passed laws that indicate a patient must take the pill in person, Not just, you know, get it from a clinic, but literally be at the clinic and take it in front of a doctor, which is obviously meant to restrict the access of the pill for women seeking to terminate pregnancies. Now, there are other potential roadblocks as well that are worth discussing, including an impending federal court ruling. So let's talk a little bit about that. So there's a conservative group known as the Alliance Defending Freedom. They filed a lawsuit in November on behalf of the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, which is comprised of several anti-abortion groups. They argue that the FDA did not properly approve Miffa-Pristone for terminating pregnancies.

And so that's their challenge, that the FDA didn't do its due diligence. By the way, I love that this conservative group that filed the lawsuit calls themselves the alliance defending freedom, meaning we want to have, control over your body ladies. Okay, that's the kind of freedom we're fighting for. That's really what's going on. Now the lawsuit, again, charges of the FDA didn't conduct safety studies and termed a pregnancy and illness in order to accelerate the approval of the drug. And so now a Trump appointed anti-choice judge gets to decide not only that case, but could even decide to put a hold, like put a stop to the prescription of that drug until a decision is made, which would outlaw the drug, or at least do away with its accessibility across the country,

okay? Not just, you know, in some of these red states. It would be a disaster. Now, if the judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas issues a temporary injunction while the case plays out, it would mean that the regimen that is used in more than half of abortions would no longer be available, said Carrie Flaxman, senior director of public policy litigation and law at Planned Parenthood Federation of America. And we should definitely be concerned. We should. Why? I mean, should we just assume that the judge is going to be reasonable here? I don't know. This judge and this particular lawsuit was filed in this district. for a reason.

As Axios reports, the lawsuit was filed in the Northern District of Texas and assigned to Judge Matthew Kaksmarik, a Trump appointee who had openly opposed Roe v. Wade. Alliance defending freedom, meaning they don't defend freedom at all, told Axios that the lawsuit was brought in Amarillo, Texas, where the judge is the only district judge because the lead plaintiff, the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, is based in the district. But the alliance was incorporated there in August, only about a month after Roe was overturned, even though none of its member organizations are based in the state, and while it has a Tennessee mailing address. So they chose to file the lawsuit in this district to ensure that this anti-choice judge would get to make a

decision about the abortion pill. So we should be concerned. We'll see how it plays out. But this could have repercussions for women across the country. And while we're focused on whatever circus our lawmakers distract us with, there are people on the ground fighting tooth and nail to strip us of whatever freedoms we have left, including freedoms over our own bodies. Well, let's move on to another abortion-related story, although this one is amusing, to say the least. So let's talk about Trump. the principle? The answer is that there has to be some form of punishment. For the woman? Yeah, it has to be some form. Ten sense? Ten years. I don't know.

That was Donald Trump, floating the idea that women who get abortions should be punished. Now, that was during the 2016 presidential election. I remember that moment and I remember Trump's statements quite clearly. And he is now singing a different tune, considering that, Roe v. Wade has been overturned, thanks to the conservative justices he nominated and succeeded in getting confirmed into the United States Supreme Court. Now, here's what he has to say. It's amazing. This was on truth social. Quote, it wasn't my fault the Republicans didn't live up to expectations in the midterms. I was 233 to 20. I don't even know what that means. Then he goes on to say, it was the abortion issue poorly handled by many Republicans,

especially those that firmly insisted on no exceptions, even in the case of rape, incest, or life of the mother, that lost large numbers of voters. Also, the people that pushed so hard for decades against abortion got their wish from the United States Supreme Court and just plain disappeared not to be seen again. Plus, Mitch is stupid. I appreciate the last part. The last part was fun. But bro,

you bragged about confirming the conservative justices who were going to overturn Roe v. Wade. He bragged about it repeatedly. I'm sorry, guys, not to throw you a curveball. Can we go back to the cold open video again? Again, this is what Trump said. This came out of his mouth during the 2016 presidential election. Let's watch. Do you believe in punishment for abortion?

Yes or no? It's a principle. The answer is that there has to be some form of punishment. For the woman? Yeah, it has to be some form. Ten years. I don't know. And now he's turned on the anti-choice movement, which I mean, I love to see it.

I love to see it, right? There's no honor among thieves, so I love to see it. And this guy can never take personal responsibility for a damn thing. But just to answer Trump's question, where are they now? They got what they wanted and they just disappeared. What he's saying is they're not fighting hard enough for me. Okay, I looked out for them. They're not looking out for me.

But when it comes to what motivates them, what they advocate for, which is stripping women of their bodily autonomy, they're still fighting for it. They're trying to get the abortion pill ban. That's where they're at, Trump. Congratulations. Thanks for enabling that garbage. But anyway, just to remind you of other things that Trump says, He said that the reversal of Roe would happen automatically if he's elected, again, this is back in

2016, because he will nominate anti-choice justices on the Supreme Court. After the Supreme Court eventually reversed Roe, Trump bragged that he delivered his promise. In fact, during a Fox News interview following the leaked draft decision, Trump said he did not think it was- One of the hardest parts of getting older is feeling like something's off in your body, but not knowing exactly what. It's not just aging. It's often your hormones, too. When they fall out of balance, everything feels off.

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poor sleep, low energy, bloating, and more. With over 40,000 reviews and a bottle sold every 24 seconds, the results speak for themselves. A survey found 86% of women lost weight, 77% saw an improved mood, and 100% felt like themselves again. Start your next chapter feeling balanced and in control. 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. would have a large effect on the 2022 midterm elections. Here's what his exact quote was, I don't think it's going to have a tremendous effect.

I will say, I have seen more passion on the right, at least up until this point. I can't say what's going to happen now. So he thought that stripping women of their bodily autonomy was going to fire Republican voters up even more. And it was actually possibly going to help the Republican Party during the midterms. Yeah, it didn't happen. Maybe you guys should read the polls. There were many of them indicating that, you know, two-thirds of the country not interested in doing away with reproductive rights. But they went for it anyway because they had this massive blind spot.

They were so hyper-focused on a small group of religious zealots in the country. that they thought, no, this is going to be a winner. And once it was abundantly clear that it was not a winning issue for the Republican Party, Trump did what Trump does best. He turned on those he was trying to court. He turned on the right wing activists that he claimed and bragged he delivered for over and over again. The guy's a joke, man, absolute joke. But I love to see it.

It's super entertaining. All right, we got to take a break. When we come back, we've got more for you, including how the health care lobbyists are terrified of a new leadership role that Bernie Sanders has. That and more coming right up. Welcome back. show, everyone. I just want to read a few more comments from our super chats and then get to this health care lobbyist story that I love. Joanna Morton says there will never be more than two parties. We tried 17 times to have three or more parties. It always merges to federal slash

state two party system. I know, Joanna, you're right about that. The way, but the way our government is set up really does, it's broken, it's clearly no longer working. I mean, the fact that the Senate is where legislation goes to die with that, you know, Senate parliamentarian, the legislative filibuster, that needs to change. I just think we're going to keep running into the same issues over and over again. We keep hitting a brick wall. And I don't know what we're going to do about it, what we can do about it. But we do need, at least for the Democratic Party, to fight harder to get more progressives elected,

yes, but aside from that, really fight to build an organized outside pressure campaign to hold those lawmakers accountable. Because otherwise, there's too much pressure within Congress to just play ball with the establishment. And I think that's what we've been noticing with some of these progressive lawmakers, unfortunately. Anthony McLendon says McCarthy spent years scheming, posturing, and kissing ass to get to this point, now he can't seal the deal.

And even if he does, his tenure will be a nightmare. instead of the dream he's chasing. Mm. Anthony, I love that comment. Makes me feel so good inside. All right. Well, let's go to a heartwarming story involving scared healthcare lobbyists.

Senator Bernie Sanders is taking over as head of the Senate's health, education, labor, and pensions committee next month. This is good news. We want him to be the chair of this incredible incredibly important committee, a committee that is usually bombarded with healthcare lobbyists who fight tooth and nail to prevent any cost controls or price controls on pharmaceutical drugs. Healthcare companies, though, are whining that they're going to lose a fraction of

the massive influence they've had over the United States government. Now, Bernie has stated in an interview that his priorities will be simple, very clear. He will be improving primary care access. Sounds great. Reducing the cost of pharmaceutical drugs and insulin, meaning reducing the cost of insulin for everyone, not just those who already have health insurance. He wants to expand early childhood education. He wants to beef up the health and education workforce, which is important considering some of the staff shortages we've been noticing both in education and health care. And he wants to try to tackle an increase, an increase in the minimum wage through this role as well. Now, he believes those policies will have bipartisan support.

I believe that is where Bernie Sanders tends to be incredibly naive, but I hope he proves me wrong. Okay, I have yet to see Republicans really sign on to these economic populist proposals. I've seen them pretend to be populous, but then immediately work against the American people when it comes to these policies. But nonetheless, Bernie has my support, and I know he will fight for these things. I just want him to be real about who he's working with. And kill him with kindness, great. I mean, but sometimes kindness doesn't work.

Just putting it that way. Now, Bernie says that he will also take action on issues that his Republican colleagues are less likely to support, such as advocating for Medicare for all, taking on the pharmaceutical industry aggressively, and promoting free public college tuition. Now, as head of this committee, Bernie will also be able to subpoena, this is, I love this, subpoena health industry executives, and this is where you have the healthcare industry and its lobbyists shivering in their boots. Now, lobbyists are terrified because they know they won't be able to boss Bernie around. They also won't be able to influence him through campaign donations.

He is definitely against them, they know it, and they can't influence him. Now, Megan Wilson of Politico writes this, Sanders' well chronicled antagonism toward lobbyists has some concerned they'll be unable to blunt criticism of their clients' profits or corporate executive salaries. Aw, oh, poor babies, lobbyists also worry they'll struggle to get traction on any push to make changes to a drug discount program involving pharmaceutical companies and hospitals or revisit Association Health Plans after a Trump-era rule around them was voided. So they're worried that, you know, they don't have enough cookies and Bernie's unwilling to give them more cookies, to which I say, go ahead and cry about it. I enjoy your tears. Of course, the lobbyists are already scheming ways to get around Bernie's authority as

chair of this committee. For instance, they're already lobbying other lawmakers on the same committee. They're shoving their priorities into large otherwise unrelated government bills. Like, that's what they want to do in order to kind of get their priorities passed without much negative attention. They're also focusing on the committee's house counterpart, which is the energy and commerce committee. Now, the health care lobby is one of, if not the biggest power player on K Street. Just to give you an idea, here's some stats for you. In 2021, the healthcare companies spent

a whopping $700 million on lobbying, which was the highest ever reported in a single year. And you guys are probably going to notice this more and more. Every election cycle, we break lobbying records, right? More and more money pours into the coffers of these politicians. Seven of the top 10 organizations registered to lobby on the Inflation Reduction Act out of more than 2000 in total were pharmaceutical or health insurance companies. And that's because the original version of the bill had some, you know, price controls for pharmaceutical drugs. and that got stripped down considerably. There were other elements of the bill that the health care lobby did not want,

and they succeeded in getting it stripped out. Now, there's another reason why these lobbyists are worried or concerned about Bernie. Unlike other progressives who have completely ruled out running for president, if Joe Biden decides he's going to retire and he won't run again. You know, like Rokana, for instance, is like, I'm not going to run for president unless Biden says he's, you know, done. and he's not going to run again. Bernie Sanders, though, apparently is keeping his options open.

Hmm. So Burgess Everett, who interviewed Bernie for political, wrote this. For now, Sanders is shrugging off his own re-election decision in 2024. He said his sole focus is on the chairmanship he's been building toward since he was first elected to the Senate in 2006. Shrugging off is not like unequivocal, no. usually when politicians are considering a run, they'll be like, you know, I'm really focused at the task at hand. And then it turns out they run. So we'll see, we'll see. I mean, look,

I'm not really impressed with anyone in the Democratic Party right now, save for a few people like Bernie Sanders. I would prefer, if we're going to have someone who's older run, I would prefer him over Biden, that's for sure. We'll see what happens. But he is being vague, and I think he's being vague on purpose. But moral of the story is, let us rejoice in health care lobbyists whining and shivering in their boots today over Bernie Sanders. If that's all we can get for now, I'll take it. It's better than nothing. Finally, we've got one more story for you before we go to our second hour. And it is an outrageous story involving welfare fraud by rich people. like Brett Favre. So let's talk about what is taking place in the great state of Mississippi.

connected and wealthy individuals to use up tens of millions of dollars in welfare welfare money from the years 2016 to 2019 and that's according to an audit that was done and an investigation that was also conducted by federal prosecutors. Now the Mississippi auditor said this quote temporary assistance for needy families money helped fund pet projects for the wealthy including five million dollars for a volleyball arena that Farve supported at his alma mater, the University of Southern Mississippi. It's worth noting that his daughter has been playing volleyball at that school or played volleyball at the school starting in 2017. That might have something to do with it.

But you guys, Brett Farv, he's rich, right? Like, temporary assistance for needy families is not the category I would consider Brett Fav in. But the volleyball court got built. He got what he wanted. And that money did not go to the insane number of people living in poverty in Mississippi. Let me continue. Another 2.1 million of the temporary assistance for needy family's money went toward an attempt to develop a concussion drug by a company in which Favre was an investor.

Farrve has asked a judge to dismiss him from the lawsuit with his attorney arguing that the Department of Human Services, not Fav, is responsible for grossly improper and unlawful handling of welfare funds. By the way, Fav is not facing criminal charges. Now, who else was involved in stealing this money from the poor to give to the rich? Let's take a look. The far left is former Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant. He was the man in charge of the state. of Mississippi when all of this went down. Now next to him is John Davis, the state's former welfare agency director. Then next is Nancy New. She was the head of a nonprofit in Mississippi that worked with the state welfare agency. And then next to her is of course Brett Farr,

former NFL quarterback and Mississippi native. They're all caught up in an alleged welfare fraud scheme that to the Mississippi state auditor says involved the misuse of more than $70 million. Fav allegedly writing in one text, Nancy, Santa came today and dropped some money off. The messages don't indicate Favre knew exactly where the cash was coming from, though. Then just last week, Davis pled guilty to several federal and state charges. In the plea, Davis also agreed to fully cooperate with process. prosecutors as they pursue the case further. How insanely gross is it that these individuals, and I'm talking about the actual officials,

politicians in Mississippi, tell people living in poverty, tell people who are suffering, whose children are going hungry, that they need to pick themselves up by the bootstraps, that they are ideologically opposed to government handouts, that people just need to to work harder, that living in poverty is really their own fault and that the federal government or the state government really shouldn't subsidize them because of their laziness or whatever, their poor decisions, whatever excuses they come up with to avoid helping our fellow Americans in need. And then at the same time, they've got no problem misusing that money that is supposed to be used for people in poverty to build nonsense things like avoid.

volleyball court? Listen, no offense to the volleyball players out there, it's a lovely sport. I hope you all have lovely volleyball courts, okay? Welfare money should not be used for your volleyball court under any circumstance, okay? That money is supposed to help people in need, and that is not what happened in Mississippi where poverty is overrepresented, especially when you compare their poverty rate to the national average. Let's get to some of those numbers right now, okay? First off, people living in poverty in Mississippi have to jump through significant hoops just to get approved for a tiny, tiny, tiny amount of assistance. So keep in mind the millions of dollars that was allocated for Brett Farms' cute little project. And then

compare it to this. So 10th or temporary assistance for needy families is for families that have at least one child younger than 18, to qualify in Mississippi, the household income must be at or below 185% of the federal poverty level. The current upper income limit for a family of three, of three people, is $680 a month. $680 a month if you qualify in Mississippi Okay, you have to jump through hoops for it. But when it comes to Brett Favre in his volleyball arena, I'm sorry, it wasn't a court. It was an arena, to be fair. $5 million for the volleyball arena.

$680 a month for a needy family that is living at or below the poverty rate, 185% of the federal poverty rate. Okay, great. When people do qualify, it's honestly insulting. So the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service said that in 2020, New Hampshire had the highest TAMP payment in the country, which was $862 a month for a single parent with one child. Mississippi's monthly payment for a family of two was $146. In 2021, Mississippi, thankfully, luckily, increased its payments by $90 per month per family. the state's first increase since 1999.

And the Associated Press did some good work here. They researched some poverty statistics from 1982 through 2021. And it shows that Mississippi was the poorest state for 19 of those 40 years. In 2021, the U.S. poverty rate, meaning the federal poverty rate was 11.6%. Mississippi's was the highest in the nation, 17.4%. You've got people in Jackson, Mississippi, who don't even have access to safe, clean, drinking water. And these government officials decided to take that money that was allocated specifically

for people in need, give those people in need a middle finger, and then give the wealthy that same money so they can build their volleyball arenas and what have you. These politicians are sick. They're self-interested, they're narcissists, they have no interest in making this country a better place. And what really has failed voters in this country is how the media provides cover for them until it's too late, until these clowns get elected. George Santos in New York is a great example. Super grateful that the New York Times decided to do an investigation into who, you know, newly elected congressman George Santos is after he got elected. But I would venture to say that the voters in his district deserve to know about his lies and his fraud prior to the election happening.

It's just, it's gross. The media has failed us. Our institutions fail us. When you look at it. at how people in Mississippi are getting screwed over and how they're dealing with this pain and suffering day in and day out with no real representation. It gives you a sense of how broken our political system is on a state and federal level. All right, we got to take a break. When we come back, we've got more news for you, including Lauren Bobert firing some shots against Trump politically, obviously. We've got that story and more coming right up. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen to ad-free, access members-only bonus content, and more

by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.