The Young Turks - Tattoos or Terrorists

Episode Date: March 28, 2025

Palestinian Journalist Hossam Shabat Killed In IDF Airstrike. Man With Autism Awareness Tattoo Deported To El Salvador. Intelligence Center Compares CEO Assassin To Robin Hood. Host: Ana Kasparian SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE ☞ https://www.youtube.com/@TheYoungTurks FOLLOW US ON: FACEBOOK ☞ https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER ☞ https://twitter.com/TheYoungTurks INSTAGRAM ☞ https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK ☞ https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕MERCH ☞ https:/www.shoptyt.com 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. What's up, everyone, welcome to TYT. I'm your host, Anna Kasparian. And today's show is going to be a little bit different, a little bit different. So, Jank Uger usually takes Wednesdays off to handle CEO business type stuff. But this week, he took Thursday off to do that. And I don't have a co-host for the second hour. So I'll be doing the entire main show solo, but we've got a lot of really great stories to get to.

So definitely stick around for that. In the bonus episode for our members, super producer Kate Bettino will be joining us. Honestly, I don't know what we're going to talk about yet, but it's going to be a lot of fun. And if you have any questions as a member, please write in during our bonus episode today and we'll do our best to answer them. I'm really looking forward to any of you who don't know Kate yet, meeting her, getting to know her. She's part of the incredible team behind the scenes that makes the show possible every single day. And I know I talk about the team a lot, but they're incredible. They're really, really hard workers, super bright people.

And so I'm really looking forward to that bonus episode today. In the show, though, we're going to talk a little bit about what's currently transpiring in Gaza. There's a pretty big story that's gotten a little bit of coverage in regard to a journalist who had been working for an American publication who has now been killed. We'll give you an update on how many hundreds of journalists have been killed in Gaza. We'll also talk a little bit about, well, this investigation by an intelligence organization into public sentiment surrounding Luigi Mangione. I think the findings of their investigation is very interesting. And if we actually had some smart politicians in the country,

they would maybe heed warning and understand that some of the issues that Americans are grappling with without any real representation in Congress is going to lead to some serious problems. In fact, this group even referred to it as a national security issue. Later in the second hour of the show, we're going to, I guess, lighten things up a little bit by talking about the House hearing yesterday. It was the Doge hearing into NPR and PBS. Of course, House Republicans want to strip these two organizations of any federal funding they receive. We'll talk about how that hearing was handled and more. So as always, if you like the show, you can share it. It's a free way to help support us. You can also become a member by going to t-y-t.com slash join. All right, let's begin with the first pretty brutal story. There reports Israel is considering a major ground invasion of Gaza to reoccupy the entire territory. The death toll in Gaza has now surpass 50,000, and it's actually expected to be much higher. Israel's killed 206 journalists in Gaza since October 2023.

Well, one of those journalists who was killed recently by Israeli defense forces actually worked for drop site news. Of course, that is a publication here in the United States. And the people behind it are friends of the show, Ryan Grimm, for instance, Jeremy Scahill. And they had hired a journalist in Gaza to cover what is happening on the ground as this war continues. And he was killed. His name was Hossam Sabat. and he is one of the hundreds of Palestinian journalists who have been killed in the Gaza Strip throughout this war. And it appears that he actually was a specific target by the Israeli

defense forces. He was placed on a hit list. He was only 24 years old. So he was actually the only member of his family who decided to remain in the northern half of the Gaza Strip in order to report on what was happening on the ground. However, he did eventually get displaced. In fact, he was displaced 20 separate times by the IDF throughout the current war on Gaza. Last month, during the so-called ceasefire, he was reunited with his mother for the first time in 492 days. He is now dead. So here he is talking about what it's like to report on the war in Gaza.

Let's take a look. Are you not afraid for your life? As long as there are massacres and bombings, should we stop? What do you think? So despite the massacres, you keep going? There are massacres and bombings, so we must continue covering and spreading the truth. The Israeli occupation is determined to chase down journalists to prevent the exposure of their crimes. Yesterday, the horrors of the massacre hurt everyone, and also,

disturb the Israeli occupying forces. That's why they issued threats against Nassah Sharif and several other journalists. So if you take a step back right now and you look at the whole picture of what is happening to journalists in Gaza, these are individuals who do reporting on the ground and get information to the general public throughout the globe in regard to how Israel is conducting this war, what the IDF is doing, the atrocities that are being committed, the war crimes. that are being committed, these are all things that the Israeli government would rather not have reported. Which is why in October, the Israeli military placed Hossam and five other Palestinian journalists.

Palestinian journalists on a hit list. At the time, he said it felt like he was hunted. He called on people to speak out using the hashtag, protect the journalists. In fact, you wrote at the time, I plead everyone to share the reality about journalists in order to spread awareness about the real plans of the Israeli occupation to target journalists in order to impose a media blackout, spread the hashtag, and talk about us. I mean, I'm obviously happy to draw attention to this story. I mean, this is something that clearly is an important thing to talk about. But aside from the brutal attacks, the killing, intentions, intentional killings of journalists in Gaza on the ground. Take a look at what's happening here in the United States, where you have green card holders, where you have students here on student visas, working on their doctoral program, getting swept up, arrested in the middle of the day simply for writing an op ed for their school

newspaper that is critical of how Israel is prosecuting this war. That was a story we reported on yesterday. The Israeli government would like to carry out their atrocities without any accountability at all. And look, to be sure, as long as the United States continues to be bribed by the Israel lobby, Israel is free to do whatever war crime it wants to commit. They're free to slaughter as many Palestinians as they would like. It is a shameful truth. It's something that embarrasses me about the American government.

But that is the reality. They're free to do it. They don't have to worry about any consequences or retaliation whatsoever. But they can't even handle Americans voicing their dissent. They can't handle green card holders, permanent U.S. residents, not engaging in terrorism, not even supporting Hamas. Simply expressing their criticism of the Israeli government is enough to convince Donald Trump, who has been funded by Miriam Adelson, Sheldon Adelson.

To the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, you give him the money, he'll do whatever you want. He'll be your puppet. He'll be your puppet. There's no question. So you have the Trump administration using American resources to round up American, not American, but green card holders, visa recipients who are here on a student visa, round them up, deport them. Even in the case of green card holders, where you would literally need a judge to adjudicate the claims that are being made against these. individuals, it doesn't matter. He'll do anything. He'll violate constitutional rights.

Because God forbid, you say anything that hurts the feelings of a government that is carrying out some of the worst atrocities I have seen in my lifetime. And that is saying something, considering the fact that, obviously, I've lived through what happened in the preemptive war on Iraq in 2003, the war crimes that were committed by U.S. soldiers. And guess what? Americans were free to be critical of that. Okay, the American government didn't round us up, you know, and ensure that we were paying consequences for having the audacity to be critical of how the U.S. was prosecuting the war in Iraq or Afghanistan, for that matter. But if you're criticizing Israel, oh, well, that

will get you smeared as a terrorist immediately. It's, guys, this is sick. This is sick. You don't even have to have a strong opinion on the war on Gaza. You don't have to pick a side. But if you're a principled person who believes in due process, who wants to protect freedom of expression, this is a huge issue. It is a huge issue that we pay taxes to an American government that isn't putting us first, that isn't putting our constitutional rights first. We're paying taxes to a government that is far more concerned with representing the best interests of a foreign government that's currently carrying out atrocities. Sorry for that tangent, but I just see the two stories as connected.

You know, the very intentional slaughter of journalists on the ground in Gaza and the demands to deport any American or any student in America who's here either with a. a visa or a green card. It's just sick, it really is. So as I mentioned in October, the Israeli military had placed the journalists that we're talking about here on a hit list, and they carried out that hit. Now last December, when the IDF killed five journalists in a single airstrike on a vehicle, Dropsite News had reported this, and this is a quote from Hosom. Shabbat. That's the journalist we're speaking of. Our job is only to die. I hate the whole

world. No one is doing anything. I swear I've come to hate this job. I've started saying to we've started saying to each other, okay, whose turn is it? Our families consider us already martyed. So just think about the intense bravery someone needs to have in order to want to do this job in the first place, knowing that you're going to have a target on your back. He knew he had a target on his back, but he wanted to ensure that there was information getting out there and that the Israeli government was not successful in hindering the free flow of information in regard to what's happening on the ground. And the fact that hundreds of journalists have been killed is obviously, in my opinion, not an accident. And it's reminiscent of other atrocities. And so there's a lot of debate.

A lot of people get their feelings hurt when you bring up the word genocide. And I understand it, you know, especially if you are an Israeli yourself, right? You might be an American Israeli. You might be an Israeli in Israel who agrees with what the government is doing. But maybe you're not fully aware of what history indicates about these types of acts, right? So Jank has gotten a lot of attacks back in the day because of an op-ed he wrote when he was a college student. In that op-ed, he had denied the Armenian genocide. Obviously, I disagreed with that.

I didn't cut him out of my life, obviously, because I thought it would be far better to continue the dialogue, continue conversations about it, provide evidence, make a persuasive case. And after some time, guess what? I mean, the information I was getting to him, the evidence I was getting to him, was irrefutable. And he changed his mind.

I think that's a lesson that a lot of people on the left can learn. rather than cutting people out or pushing people away, maybe consider making persuasive arguments because you can win people over. Now, I give you that backstory because think about everything that's been happening in Gaza. And now let's go to the atrocities that were committed against the Armenians that were totally denied. It wasn't accepted as a genocide. It's still not accepted as a genocide by the Turkish government. But the international community calls it what it is.

So I'm going to go to the first video. This is difficult to watch, but I just want you to draw the parallels here. Take a look. On the 24th of April, hundreds of influential Armenians, including priests, politicians, journalists, and academics were arrested. They were detained, deported, and most would be killed. Similar orders came down across the empire. Any potential Armenian leadership was completely decapitated.

To this day, the 24th of April is widely marked as the start of the Armenian Genocide. At the core of the genocide was the Tekir Law, or the temporary law of deportation, passed in May 1915. This ordered the mass resettlement of Armenians away from vulnerable regions and into more easily controlled areas of the empire. The aim was to break up Armenian communities and prevent any organized Armenian. resistance from forming. Starting in June 1915, the government started liquidating and redistributing Armenian property as part of the displacement process. Do you see the parallels, killing journalists, rounding up academics, destroying them too, running Armenians out of their homes, confiscating their homes, ethnic cleansing, all of that. All of that happened. And

You know, the Turks had their own version of settlers, really, who terrorized Armenians during death marches, but gave the Turkish government at the time plausible deniability because these individuals weren't officially part of their government. It really does remind me of how settlers are operating in the West Bank, for instance. You know, they're not part of the government, But you'll see IDF soldiers nearby, you know, turning the other way as these atrocities are committed. These crimes are committed against innocent Palestinians who are simply trying to live in their own homes in land that belongs to them in the West Bank. So take a look at this. The deportation of Armenians occurred mostly on foot.

Whole villages and towns were forced to march hundreds of miles from their homes to the new designated settlement sites. These marches forced their victims through harsh deserts with little food, water or shelter. With the army occupied by the war, so-called specialist groups oversaw these marches. These unofficial militias gave the government plausible deniability, which the Turkish government has relied upon ever since, and put the victims in the hands of thousands of undisciplined and unaccountable men. Fighting age men and boys were singled out, separated from the women and children and executed.

Tens of thousands of men and boys died in this way, leaving behind traumatized and vulnerable families of women and children who were easily preyed upon by the guards overseeing the marches. Starvation and exhaustion killed hundreds every day. The Armenians were barely given enough food to survive. So if we're willing to call the Armenian genocide what it is, the Armenian genocide, we see these parallels with how the Israeli government is carrying out their war against Palestinians in Gaza. Why is it so unacceptable? Why is it so offensive to call it

a genocide? And look, it gets easier and easier to call it what it is when you see the reporting on the ground, when you see the atrocities that are being committed, when you hear the reports from American doctors in regard to Palestinian children who have bullet holes in their heads from Israeli snipers. You think that was a mistake? You think they're killing the kids on mistake as a mistake? Yeah, okay. Look, they don't want anyone to even call it what it is. And when I say they, I mean the Israeli government. They don't like it. They don't like the criticism because they want to think of themselves as the real victims here. And look, on October 7th, they were the victims. Okay, the atrocities committed by Hamas were unacceptable. And to be quite

Frank, I knew this was coming. I knew this was coming. Because Hamas has nothing compared to the military might that the United States has provided to Israel. So it was the perfect excuse for Israel to carry out exactly what it's doing right now. They're starting to lose some people, even some of the supporters of Israel and the atrocities that it had committed in the past. And so that's, in my opinion, the reason why they want to censor people, they want to prevent criticism, they want to prevent the truth from getting out. And the best way to do that is to kill the journalists. More than 200 journalists are dead in Gaza. That's not an accident. It's very much intentional. And for all the people in the audience who are like, oh, God, Anna cares about this story too much. She brings it up too much. There's too much showtime dedicated to it. Yeah, I do care about the story a lot because I do see the parallel. And it makes me sick knowing the history of my family to now live in a country that is represented by a government that is doing the same thing to the Palestinians as was done to the Armenians.

And yeah, I'm saying it. That doesn't mean that, you know, there's malice in my heart toward civilians in any way. But the Israeli government, that's a different story. absolutely sick that we're aiding and abetting this, but there you have it. All right, we got to take a break. When we come back, I want to talk a little bit about what's happening in this country. So we'll talk a little bit about some of the immigration mistakes that have been made and some of the disgusting, you know, PR work that Christy Noem has been doing.

So we've got that and more coming up. Don't miss it. On July 18th, get excited. This is big! For the summer's biggest adventure. I think I just smurf my pants. That's a little too excited. Sorry! Smurfs.

Only dinner's July 18th. Welcome back to the show, everyone, Anna Kasparian with you. And we should check in on how the Trump administration is carrying out its immigration policies. Because it appears that they have one speed. And that's go fast, break things, and don't take responsibility for it. And I think what we're seeing here with the deportation of immigrants to El Salvador is a good example. Let's get into it. Here at Cicott today and visiting this facility. And first of all, I want to thank El Salvador and their president for their partnership with the United States of America to bring our terrorists here and to incarcerate them and have consequences for the violence that they have perpetuated in our communities. I also want everybody to know if you come to our country illegally, this is one of the consequences you could face.

First of all, do not come to our country illegally. You will be removed and you will be prosecuted. know that this facility is one of the tools in our toolkit that we will use if you commit crimes against the American people. Well, there you have Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem using actual human beings as a prop for her cute little video there. She's in El Salvador. She is showing off the detention facility for terrorists that immigrants have been sent to by the Trump administration. And now she's threatening to send even more immigrants there, presumably with no due process or even proof that these people are even criminals.

Now, look, there are two things happening here, and I don't want anyone to conflate the two. The right would argue anyone who enters the country illegally is a criminal, and we should treat them all the same. I disagree with that entirely, entirely. Okay. Now, I want to separate people who might have entered the country illegally, okay, from those who also did the same, But on top of that, you know, are part of gangs or committing violent crimes and all that stuff. I know. There are people on the far left who think you shouldn't even do that differentiation. Everyone should be allowed to stay. I disagree entirely. You can be upset about that if you'd like. Okay.

Now, here's the thing, though, if you're going to try to justify deporting Venezuelan migrants to another country, not Venezuela, to El Salvador, and your whole argument is, well, these are dangerous violent criminals. That should be adjudicated by the courts. Because if you create a situation in which it is okay for the executive branch to just unilaterally point at anyone and accuse them of anything, and without any due process, they are punished for it, that's what I call big government, my friends. Government doesn't get any bigger than that. And it's something that deteriorates the rights of everyone. Due process is super important. Because if you create this situation now under Trump and for anyone on the right who might be watching this, if you think that's okay because you like Trump, you agree with everything Trump's doing, well, I mean, that sets a precedent for a Democratic president to come in. I'm pretty sure you wouldn't want a Democratic president or members of that president's cabinet to point at people that might be on your side and say, ah, they're engaging in criminality. I'm going to punish them. No due process. First of all, I'd be furious about this.

that because whether someone holds ideas or political views that differ from mine doesn't matter. At the end of the day, the bigger picture is the importance of protecting our rights and not allowing anyone in government to unilaterally decide whether or not we are guilty of something. We have a whole system of government, a whole system of checks and balances. A judge needs to weigh in and adjudicate. You need evidence of wrong. You need evidence that a crime is committed. And that brings us to this unbelievably disgusting story involving one of the migrants who was sent to this facility for terrorists in El Salvador, just simply based on a tattoo that the Trump administration mistook for a Trend de Aragua tattoo. In reality, it was the symbol representing autism awareness.

So thanks to new reporting, we have this shocking example of how ICE and Homeland Security snatched this Venezuelan migrant, who likely had nothing to do with gangs, nothing to do with violent criminality simply because of their tattoos. One of the men included on the list of deportees is Neri Alvarado Borges. And according to Mother Jones, he may have been targeted because of an autism awareness tattoo. Alvarado lived in a small city in northern Venezuela before coming to the United States in late 2023. His father is a farmer and his mother supports his 15 year old brother, Nellie Nellerson. So here's a photo. Here's Neri with his brother. So Alvarado's older sister, Maria, insists that her brother has absolutely no connection to Trenda Aragua. And that should be adjudicated through our courts, but the Trump administration doesn't believe in due process. And unfortunately, there's so much hatred toward immigrants in this country that people are

willing to sacrifice their own rights. They're willing to sacrifice due process in order to get rid of these people, even if there's no evidence that they're part of Trenda, Aragua at all. So she also said that he used to teach swimming classes for children with developmental disabilities. Wow, real threat to the country. So let's take a look at the tattoo. This is a tattoo in question. Anyone who confuses this for a gang tattoo is a literal moron, okay? And should, I mean, should probably go to like continuation school because their high school diploma means nothing. Like if you're not able to determine that that is not a gang tattoo, there's something wrong with you. Now Maria says anyone who's talked to Neri for even an hour can tell you what a great person he is. Truly, as a family, we are completely devastated to see him going through something. something so unjust, especially knowing that he's never done anything wrong. He's someone who, as they say, wouldn't even hurt a fly. And by the way, guys, the detention facility that this man was sent to is like you, it's full

to the brim of actual violent criminals. It is literally a detention facility for terrorists in El Salvador. So do you really think that someone who simply entered the country illegally? I get it. People don't like that. I get it. But do you think that that is enough to put that person in a prison cell in El Salvador that is meant for terrorist and violent, hardened criminals?

Nonetheless, according to the report, Alvarado was detained by ICE outside his apartment in early February and brought in for questioning Juan Enrique Hernandez, the owner of two Venezuelan bakeries in the Dallas area and Alvarado's boss told Mother Jones. One day later, Hernandez went to see him in detention. Alvarado told Hernandez that an ICE agent had asked him if he knew why he had been picked up. Alvarado said, he did not know. Well, you're here because of your tattoos. The ice agent replied, according to Hernandez. We're finding and questioning everyone, who has tattoos. Okay.

Apparently we have ICE agents who are morons and can't differentiate between gang tattoos and an autism awareness tattoo. According to both Hernandez and Marie Alvarado, the ICE agent told Neri, you're clean, I'm going to put down here that you have nothing to do with Trend de Aragua. But for some unknown reason, another official in ICE's

Dallas field office decided to, you know, keep Alvarado detained anyway. And so shortly before he was sent to El Salvador, nearly reportedly told Hernandez, there are 90 of us here. We all have tattoos. We were all detained for the same reasons. From what they told me, we are going to be deported. So they assumed that meant he'd be deported to, you know, Venezuela. That's where he's from, not El Salvador. Now, there are some issues right now with Venezuela because they're refusing to take their own citizens back. And so that led to an issue for the Trump administration. Well, what do we do with these migrants? And that's when they made the deal to pay El Salvador $6 million in U.S. taxpayer money to detain undocumented immigrants from our country

in their prison system, in this facility that was built for terrorists and hardened violent criminals. By the way, man, Venezuela, what a joke, seriously. You're not going to take your own people back. You're going to acknowledge that this is what Trump is going to do with them, and you're totally fine with it. Okay, absolute garbage. So, sadly, it's not just neary. So Mother Jones spoke to the friends and family members of nine other men who believed that they were also sent to SICOT. That's the facility in El Salvador because of their tattoos. All of them say that their loved ones had no connection to gangs whatsoever. And many provided documented evidence that they had no criminal record, even in Venezuela.

But the government is defiant because, of course. And look, let's just talk about the political motivations here, okay? Because I think that's what's driving this more than anything. Trump is starting to see a pretty significant decline in his approval ratings, especially on specific issues like the economy for obvious reasons. But the one area where Trump is still polling pretty well among the American people is immigration. And so he's going to emphasize his immigration policies. He's going to double down. And in fact, recently he was frustrated because you can't just do mass deportation. without the resources necessary to do it.

You need Congress to pass legislation and fund the agenda that you want to carry out. But Trump knows that's not going to happen. Okay, so he's been frustrated by that. And now it's just anyone that I can deport, anyone that gets caught up in this whole mess, I don't care. We're not going to make any apologies for it. We're not going to look back and say, hey, we made mistakes. We're just going to keep going because this is the one area where Trump seems to be pretty popular. Now, will he continue to be popular in this area when you hear stories of American citizens

who accidentally got rounded up? When you hear stories of migrants who may have entered the country illegally but haven't done anything wrong other than that, haven't joined a gang, haven't committed violent crimes. Are Americans going to be cool with more and more stories like this coming out? I don't know. To be honest, I don't know. I keep getting surprised by the things that end up being popular these days. But I guess we're going to have to wait and see. I find this to be incredibly unjust, again, because of the lack of due process, because of the fact that someone who merely entered the country illegally is now stuck in a prison cell that was meant for terrorists and violent criminals. So, as I mentioned, the government is defiant Robert Surnah, an acting field

office director for ICE's removal operations branch, said the agency did not simply rely on social media posts, photographs of the alien displaying gang-related hand gestures or tattoos alone. Oh, okay, great. So what did you rely on? Well, he acknowledged that many of the Venezuelans Trump deported under the Alien Enemies Act had no criminal histories in the United States. Oh, wow, what an admission? Okay, great. But he did twist that fact to justify the deportations without due process. And again, that's the important thing here, the lack of due process. The lack of a criminal record does not indicate they pose a limited threat. In fact, based upon their association with TDA, by the way, who determines that they have an association with TDA?

Just anyone in the Trump administration can make that point and we're just going to believe it without any evidence? Okay, yeah. The lack of specific information about each individual actually highlights the risk they pose. It demonstrates that they are terrorists with regard to whom we lack a complete profile. Okay, just let that sink in. We don't have any record of any wrongdoing, but that could mean we just don't know, and this person could actually be really dangerous. We just don't have a record.

That is such a crazy thing to say. I mean, it could demonstrate that you have no proof that they're guilty. of committing the crimes that you've accused them for and have used as justification for their deportation. The Justice Department said in a court filing Monday that it was exercising what's commonly called the state secrets privilege in the case because sharing the information would harm diplomatic relations and national security. So they're reaching for anything. We have the evidence, but we don't want to share it publicly because national security threat. It might ruin our relationship with our allies. Okay, right.

But you know, to be fair, Donald Trump, well known for wanting to maintain America's relationship with its allies. Okay. And even though the administration is facing lawsuits over their use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport immigrants with no due process, the privilege allows the U.S. government to withhold sensitive information, such as intelligence sources and methods and foreign affairs details from becoming public as part of a court case. So that's the excuse that they're using. I don't know if that's going to

really pass the smell test through these lawsuits that have been filed against the Trump administration. As we know, Judge James Bosberg has been trying to determine whether the Trump administration violated his order to halt or turn around the deportation flights to El Salvador. He wanted to know when the planes took off and landed and how many people were abolished. those flights. But Pam Bondi, Marco Rubio, and Christie Nome claimed to the judge that releasing information about the flights could compromise law enforcement methods. Obviously, it's just a flat out lie. So Ashley Deeks, a law professor who teaches classes on national security, makes this argument. The Trump administration's use of the privilege in the Venezuelan's case

was noteworthy because it wasn't in response to a request for information from the opposing attorneys, but rather from the judge himself. So look, honestly, what happens next really isn't clear. I have no idea. But to make myself abundantly clear, if our executive branch is going to be allowed to just simply accuse anyone of anything with no due process, this country, our constitutional rights are being dismantled right before our very eyes. And yes, constitutional rights are extended to people who are in the country illegally. This has been adjudicated by the Supreme Court over and over again. Even if you're an undocumented immigrant in the United States of America, you are still protected by the First Amendment, freedom of speech. You're still,

you still have rights, including the right to due process. And these individuals who were accused of being members of Trenta Aragua, never got their day in court, never had anything looked at by a judge. They got rounded up by members of ICE at the direction of the Trump administration. And without any evidence being provided, without any proof, they got accused of being gang members and violent individuals who pose a threat to our national security, and they got deported to a place where actual violent people and terrorists are being detained. It's sick. It really is. It's sick. Now you want to make an argument for deporting people who are here illegally, okay, let's have that conversation, let's have that debate, let's have that argument.

But to make things up about people, to paint them as violent, dangerous individuals and not prove it at all is a huge problem for me. And it should be a huge problem for the rest of the country, especially those who purport to care about constitutional rights whenever they're least, favorite politicians are in charge. You got to be consistent. You either care about our Constitution or you don't, period. And I see a lot of hypocritical behavior going on right now. On the right, as they're aiding and abetting this nonsense that could turn around and bite them in the ass.

Remember, Americans overwhelmingly supported the Patriot Act, which violated their own civil liberties because they were so scared after 9-11. And then when all was said and done, they realized, man, we effed up. We allowed the government to scare us into essentially giving away our rights. And honestly, we're letting it happen again. We've got to take a break. We'll be right back.

Welcome back to TYT, Anna Casparian with you. Let's get right to our next story because I want to talk a little bit about what a state intelligence organization has discovered about sentiment surrounding Luigi Mangione. Celebrating anybody's murder is wrong. Understanding why the celebration is happening is also really important. The American people are angry and rightfully so. feel the system is rigged against them. That's why they elected Donald Trump. And that's why an assassin is now treated like Robin Hood. That was actually great commentary. There are a lot of things that that host from News Nation says that I disagree with. But that was that was correct.

Celebrating murder is wrong. However, it is important to understand why people are celebrating the murder of United Healthcare CEO, Brian Thompson. Now, Luigi Mangione, of course, is the individual who allegedly carried out that murder. But one week after that killing happened, a report compiled by the Connecticut Intelligence Center admitted that rising healthcare costs are in fact correlated to threats against executives and could potentially lead to civil unrest. In fact, they consider this a possible national security threat. So as the American Prospect explains this regional intelligence outfit is one of the dozens of, you know, like similar centers across the country that communicate intel between federal agencies and state

law enforcement. They write that health care expenditure in the United States increased from $2.75 trillion in 2004 to $4.09 trillion in 2018 in inflation-adjusted dollars. 2019 and 2020 saw expenditures of $4.2 trillion and $4.6 trillion respectfully, which represents a 10.6% increase year over year and was largely influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic. So I don't know if everyone in the audience understands what I'm about to describe, but I know I felt it. I know a lot of Americans feel it. And it's just this, this sense that you're constantly being squeezed. It's like being in a room where the walls are slowly starting to come in on you, right? And it just gets harder and harder to deal with the simple things that should be easy in life. Access to affordable health care is definitely part of that frustration.

Working 12, 16 hours a day, taking on two, three jobs to make ends meet and still being unable to afford housing. All of these things, I believe, has led to the anger, the rage, everything we're seeing among the American electorate right now. And it created the perfect environment for someone like Donald Trump, who purported to be, you know, this populist to come in and, you know, sweep away all of these voters who were just desperate for anyone to even acknowledge that these issues existed. Now, the way he is carrying out his term makes it clear that a lot of what he purported to care about isn't really what he cared about at all, does not really intend to do it. He's focused all of his energy on cutting services.

And I think that has a lot to do with the fact that the tech bros have essentially co-opted the MAGA movement and the more economically populist MAGA types. I got to be honest with you guys. Seems like you guys are on the back burner for the Trump administration. But don't worry. The wealthy will get their $4.5 trillion in taxes very, very soon. And I'm sure that'll trickle all over you. So just like it did last time, right? Now, the Connecticut Intelligence Center also writes that historically, threats of actual acts of violence against those in the health care industry rose by more than 60% from 2011 to 2018. So they cite not only high health care costs, but also wealth inequality. as a continuing factor that really jeopardizes or threatens national security, creates national security vulnerabilities. Overall, trust in the U.S. healthcare system is at a historic low, only marginally higher than the all-time low in 2007, while levels of income inequality have reached historic highs. A financial study reveals among the leading contributors to

low trust were concerns about financial motives, quality of care, influence of other entities or agendas, and perception of discrimination or bias. Let's just talk briefly about influence of other entities or agendas. Could private equity firms be part of that? The fact that you have private investors buying up hospitals now, consolidating said hospitals, because why would investors invest in anything. They want to return on their investment. How do you maximize profits? You cut services, you fire nurses, workers,

all sorts of important staff in the hospital in order to minimize your costs, maximize your profits. So even if you're a fortunate American who has decent insurance that doesn't deny every single claim you make, well, you're still going to have to deal with a hospital system in the United States now that is being chipped away at by private equity

firms who are seeking to use these facilities as a money making opportunity. So I can totally understand why these bullet points are being mentioned in this report. And they go on to say that in 2021, New York had a 10-year high 488 homicides. I don't know, did they? I think that might be made up. I don't know if that's true. It's weird. Anyway, I'll continue. In 2021, New York had a 10-year high 488 homicides, while the New York City Police Department cleared only 56% according to their own data. The general public may view the ensuing manhunt and subsequent arrest of Mangione as NYPD and largely policing as a whole as a tool that is willing to spend massive resources to protect the wealthy while the average citizen is left to their

own means for personal security. Man, I got to be honest, that one hit really deep because it's true. Because it's true, there was a nationwide manhood for Luigi Mangione. It wasn't just the NYPD. When a health care executive is murdered, obviously that should be investigated. I'm not saying that the police shouldn't have taken that seriously. But really, The NYPD has a 56% clearance rate when it came to the homicides that were committed in 2021. That's a bit of an issue, isn't it? It kind of reminds me of when all of these follow home robberies were happening in Los Angeles,

meaning people would go out with their friends or significant other and enjoy a nice dinner. And then these robbers would literally follow them home and then rob them the second they, you know, turned the key to enter their home. A lot of those cases were unsolved. None of those people got caught. Maybe some of them got caught, but most of them did not. Something similar happened to Mayor Karen Bass. Oh, they caught the robber real quick, real quick.

Okay, they're not going to hesitate. Now imagine living in a world where that kind of policing happens for everybody, not just powerful people or rich people. Finally, the dossier makes the shocking admission that many of you, Thompson as a symbolic representation of both as reports of insurance companies denying life-sustaining medication coverage, circulate online. It is not an unfair comparison to equate the current reaction toward Mangioni to the reactions to Robin Hood.

Citizens may see Mangione's alleged actions as an attack against a system designed to work against them. And look, that's exactly why Mangione got the positive reaction he did, despite the fact that he did kill someone in cold blood, allegedly. I want to be very careful in case something crazy happens and they have mistaken identity. But honestly, I mean, everyone seems to accept that he's likely the murderer here. Now, while business elites and media pundits gas-light Americans into thinking that they're, you know, just too whiny about how screwed up the health care system in America really is. Even the intelligence community acknowledges that the system is, in fact, breeding resentment, anger, and this destabilizes a society.

I think that's what we're starting to see. It's about to get even worse, thanks to Donald Trump and his pick to run these centers for Medicare and Medicaid. That person is Dr. Oz. And I want to talk a little bit about what he is planning to do. So, according to a new report by DropSight News, Dr. Oz, who was tapped by Donald Trump to serve as the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, he might be looking to privatize the entirety of our Medicare system. And look, it's already partly privatized, unfortunately, and that has led to American taxpayers getting price gouged by these private insurers who run Medicare advantage. But Dr. Oz loves it. And he might actually do that to the

entirety of the program. So Medicare Advantage, just so we're all up to date on what that is. It's basically publicly funded through Medicare dollars, but it's privately run through private insurers like United Health Care. And so as a United Health shareholder and licensed insurance broker, Oz has long been financially and ideologically committed to the takeover of traditional Medicare by private insurers. So private insurers already receive more than than half of Medicare's $840 billion budget. So that's what I'm referring to when I say that Medicare is already partly privatized.

But that's been a disaster. And now with the help of Trump and Dr. Oz, they're plotting to basically take the rest in a system that Oz calls Medicare Advantage for All, right? He's like, oh, Medicare for All was really popular. Let me piggyback off that messaging and just add another word. hopefully that'll trick people into supporting it. Medicare Advantage for all.

But make no mistake, Medicare advantage is the privately run part of Medicare that has, again, been full of fraud, full of waste and abuse. There hasn't been a lot of attention paid to Medicare Advantage, interestingly enough, but nonetheless. So how would this work? According to DropSight, there are two ways Republicans could carry out this assault on traditional Medicare. The first and more difficult way would involve an act of Congress.

that basically transfers current Medicare enrollees into Medicare Advantage plan. So taking them off the public system, transferring them over to the privately run system. The second method involves what's known as the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, or CMMI. So it's a policy hub with the power to essentially implement pilot projects to test different payment and delivery methods. And if these pilots are determined successful defined as reducing costs without impacting quality or improving quality without increasing costs, then CMS can ramp them up nationwide without congressional oversight. But here's the thing. The Trump administration can just lie, right? Like they can just pretend that, oh, no, no, no, Medicare Advantage is actually saving money. But we have a mountain of evidence to show that that's not the case. Medicare Advantage because it is run by private companies seeking to maximize their profits, have abused the system, have even turned in claims to be authorized for services that were never

even rendered. Okay? Like, that's the kind of fraud that has been going on with Medicare Advantage plans. And so a source on the Hill and another with CMMI actually confirmed to drop site that multiple pilots are being prepared to push Medicare Advantage enrollment at the expense of traditional Medicare. As called for, by the way, in Project 2025, the first would make Medicare advantage the default enrollment for newly eligible seniors. Okay, so understand that. Right now, if you enroll for Medicare, you're not automatically enrolled to Medicare Advantage. You would

have to do that yourself. So in this case, no, the default would be you're enrolled in the private version of Medicare. So the second approach would move as would move an as yet unknown percentage of those currently in traditional Medicare into a Medicare Advantage plan. The third would automatically assign all existing Medicare enrollees within certain counties to something very similar to a Medicare Advantage plan. All Oz, again, would have to do is basically deem these pilots as, like, super successful. They're saving the government money. Ed Weisbart, who is the National Secretary of the Physicians for a National Health Program, argues,

they are likely to ignore comparative data from the last 20 years because all of that data shows Medicare Advantage and similar programs drive up the cost. of healthcare while harming millions of Americans. Instead, they'll fabricate their own measurements of success and use these pilots to turn our beloved Medicare program over to the investment community indifferent to the untold harm it would cause. And by the way, I mean, privately run again, you have to emphasize, it's about making a profit. It's about returning profit to your investors.

It's not about the best care. It's not about obviously affordable care. It's not about that. And by the way, he's right that Medicare is beloved according to KFF. 92% of beneficiaries, 65 years or older rate Medicare's performance positively. Not only would Americans get screwed out of the best thing the federal government provides for them if Dr. Oz gets his way, it would also cost a crap ton of money. According to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, the program's watchdog agency,

oh, wow, I thought Doge was the only watchdog agency in town. But this is the actual watchdog agency that actually wants to cut out waste, fraud, and abuse. Medicare Advantage plans cost taxpayers, 22% more than traditional Medicare, amounting to a projected $83 billion in 2024. So just let that sink in. American taxpayers are already getting price gouged by pharmaceutical companies because Medicare isn't allowed to negotiate drug prices. I mean, how is that in any way a pro-capitalist way of doing things? You're not allowed to negotiate for lower drug prices? That's insane. So you're just

going to have to sit back as the American taxpayer and literally allow these drug companies to name their price. No negotiation. Medicare is going to pay for it. So they're getting price gouge in that way. And now, if all of this comes to fruition and the whole system is privatized, Medicare is going to cost more and it's going to provide less in terms of health care for our elders. And this is happening with that backdrop of Medicaid potentially getting cut as a result of the House blueprint for the upcoming budget bill. In that budget bill, the committee who is responsible for overseeing Medicaid and SNAP benefits, they've been ordered to, you know,

find some cuts, $880 billion in cuts. Where do you think those cuts are going to come from, guys? Where do you think, you know, the bulk of our spending is outside of defense, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, you know, the things that are actually worth paying taxes for? So we're not having to compromise.

about cutting the fat in the Pentagon, we're not having a conversation about lowering drug prices by allowing Medicare to negotiate all drug prices, not just a handful of them because of a weak bill that was passed during the Biden administration. Yeah, I'm calling it weak. Really, 10 drugs? Okay. I mean, the system is totally scamming us, totally ripping us off. And it's all happening with the help of who we're whoever's in charge at any given time, it doesn't matter if it's a Democrat or a Republican, this is what corporate rule looks like. You pay a lot more for a crappy product, just so a handful of people can make more money. It's gross. All right, we got to take a break. That does it for our first hour. When we come back for the second hour of the show, we'll talk a little bit about this potentially ugly fight that is really starting to escalate between Republicans in the House of Representatives. We've got that and more coming up.

Don't miss it.