The Young Turks - Tax The Rich

Episode Date: September 14, 2021

CA GOP Preemptively Admits Defeat, Cries Election Fraud. DeSantis Escalates Threats Against Biden Over COVID. Media's LAUGHABLE Attempt To Bolster Sinema's Obstruction. Louisiana Cops CAUGHT Covering Up Brutality. Texas Man KILLS Neighbor For Supporting Biden. AOC Attends Met Gala in "Tax The Rich" Dress. Tucker Carlson Backs Nicki Minaj's Bizarre Vaccine Claim Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Jake, you're at a consparing with you guys. How are you doing, Casparian? I'm doing all right. All right, I'm doing great. You're kidding me? I'm at top of the world. Now, we promised you guys a special Tuesday announcement. Is that part of the reason I'm not on top of the world?

I guess. So what's that announcement? Well, we're hiring a good deal of folks. So you guys know, of course, that we hired Dr. Rashad Richie. That had to hire was a little indisputable. But we also launched his podcast this week. So wherever you get your podcast, ACAST network or otherwise, go get Rashad's podcast. You'll find it indisputable too.

He is lighting the internet on fire. If you've noticed that your local website is on fire, that was Rashad. He did it. Okay. And so then on top of that, we're announcing today, David Schuster hired. Okay, so David's the star of Rebel headquarters. He's killing it over there. There's so many wonderful young turks hosts that you guys have seen throughout this network.

They're now full-time employees and amazing hosts of the TYT network. But we're also announcing one other hire today. Nina Turner, ladies and gentlemen, the Nina Turner. She's now going to be a regular guest host on the Young Turks on programs such as Young Turks, Indisputable, damage report, the conversation. And Nina and I will do a show on Thursdays coming up soon for the members where it's the power hour. Well, we're talking about how we get power and how we use power. So we will do all of that. And by the way, thank you to the members of Young Turks.

That's how we make this possible. That's how we bring these incredibly strong progressive voices together and create a progressive network that is going to dominate. And so I couldn't be more proud. Obviously, you know that Nina Turner's former state senator from Ohio, former campaign co-chair for Bernie Sanders presidential campaign. and wait a minute, drop it. Power, power, power, panel with Nina Turner, Jake Tugar, Hanna, Kisperian, the Nina Turner,

the Nina Turner, how are you today? Oh, wonderful, so glad to be. here. Wow, I need to go off and come back on. I get that that was truly amazing. You know, we have to do that wherever you go now. Like, when you go to lunch, they're like, dun, don, don't, don't. Drop it. Drop it, baby. Like, it's hot. Yes, because it is. Exactly. Guess why? Because it is. All right, Nina, it is just an absolute pleasure to have you on the network. And I cannot wait to do more and more shows with you. Thank you for bringing your strong voice to TYT. Well, amen to that. And thank you, TYT, the entire team for the great

work that you have done in independent media circles, bringing it to folks pushing for critical thinking and activism. And we certainly need more of that. So I am so excited. I'm excited for David too. Hello, David. And Dr. Ritchie, what can I say? He got a day after him. Maybe he's going get a month or a year pretty soon. I got to catch up with Dr. Ritchie. Absolutely. If you guys don't know, Flutton County where Atlanta is, named the whole day after Rashad Ritchie. I know. I mean, that's, I'm jealous. The three of us are still working on that. We haven't made too much Edway. What does the pussy got to do to get a day? Yeah, East Brunswick, where I grew up, New Jersey. Come on. I'm not saying anything,

but come on, help a brother out. Anyway. So seriously, it's great to have you here, and look, just as strong a voices you can possibly have. And so it's just an honor. And all right, so without further ado then, let's do the news again. All right, well, we start off with what is a local story, but does have some ramifications nationwide, especially considering what the GOP has devolved to when it comes to losing elections. So Larry Elder, the right winger, hoping to replace Democratic California Governor Gavin

Newsome in this recall election is already predicting defeat and blaming alleged voter fraud for why he's losing. Now let me just note that no analysis, like no ballots have been counted, I mean, the election is still ongoing, right? However, visitors to the Republican Challenger's official website have been directed to an election fraud page that preempts that instances of undocumented ballots have been discovered ahead of Tuesday's vote. Now, that would be impossible because none of the ballots have been counted yet, right?

In fact, in person voting hasn't happened yet, or it hadn't happened yet as they put this link in their website. On Monday, when the link was live on Elders campaign site, the election hadn't even happened yet. No results had been released. And Elder was still campaigning to replace Newsom as governor. The site was registered anonymously in August. Hours after NBC News contacted the Elder campaign Monday afternoon about the site, the disclaimer

about the campaign having funding or funded the site was added. Now another passage on the website said, quote, statistical analyses. used to detect fraud in elections held in third world nations such as Russia, Venezuela, and Iran have detected fraud in California, resulting in Governor Gavin Newsom being reinstated as governor. And of course, it wouldn't be a GOP effort unless there were calls for violence involved. Unfortunately, it also says, quote, they say that in America, there are four boxes of liberty, the soapbox, the ballot box, the jury box, and the ammo box, the website reads, pledging to bring legal cases. We, we, will we now have to fight California, the California

jury box in the hope that the final box, the one most akin to Pandora's, remains closed? So, I mean, it's just, this is what they do. This is what Trump did in the lead up to the 2020 general election. He then proceeded to claim that there was voter fraud and brought that argument into 60 different court battles, all of which the Trump campaign lost. Trump is now piggybacking off of Larry Elder's talking points about voter fraud in California, which of course does not exist. But this is what they do. They just claim voter fraud when they lose. And in this case, I mean, he's just expecting to lose. So he's really admitting defeat. preemptively.

Yeah, so there are three elements of this story. Number one, the preemptive concession, which is hilarious. I mean, he puts out a statement from his, funded by his own campaign about how he lost a day before he lost. And by the way, I don't even know that I'm not 100% for sure that he's going to lose. The elections today. And so I know everybody saw the last poll and he's up, Gavin Newsom's up significantly in the last poll so they think it's over.

And it probably is, but a lot of people don't like Gavin Newsom. And there's a, and the Democrats are pulling the usual stunt that they do, which is, don't worry about voting, we already won. That's what costs, partly what caused Hillary Clinton in the election. So that preemptive concession is absurd by Larry Elder, but they're so used to crying, they don't have any other mode. Oh, we're the victims. We lost.

Dude, you haven't even lost yet. Okay, number two, the brazen lies are, as usual, over the top and unbelievable. specific allusions to voter fraud that by definition could not have happened yet. There's been no votes counted. There's no been no votes reported. There's no analyses of ballots at all. From Iran or Venezuela or anywhere else. But for the right wing, you don't need the truth. It's totally optional. Here's a case where they're lying ahead of time and no one cares. But Nina, the one I'm most worried about is not the funny stuff. It's the serious stuff.

That mention of the ammo box is totally gratuitous. In the quote, they say, they say the four boxes. I don't know who says the four boxes of freedom. I never heard that. People are saying. Me either. I never heard it either. They are, this is lunacy. And it reminds me of a saying, never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

I mean, the only thing that they have is to continuously all over the country, not just in California, as we all know, is amp up voters to make them think that there is something wrong. wrong with the integrity of our voting processes in the United States of America. That's it. That is their entire song and dance. And the fact that Elder is actually doing this before the votes are counted is even more. It just causes great alarm for them to be doing that. We should be expanded and protecting access to the ballot box, not playing these games. And even the Brennan Center said you have greater likelihood to be struck by lightning than you do to see wholesale voter fraud in the United States of America.

But again, never let the truth get in the way of a good story. And so guys, I'm significantly worried here. This is now at least half a dozen Republican politicians, Cawthorne, Gates, Elder, and several others who have made references to the Second Amendment rights, you know what to do. Josh Mandel did it in Ohio, if anybody from the government shows up at your door. and now talking about the ammo box. And it's not clever to couch it in terms of, oh gosh, I hope we don't have to use ammunition against you. But if you make us do it by cheating, it's your fault.

It's your fault when, by the way, and they're saying this pre any evidence, pre the possibility of evidence even existing, right? That's right. And you're going to trigger. I mean, I hate to use the word trigger in this circumstance. so forgive me, but there are certain people who will be triggered by this type of language and they know it. No facts, no evidence, nothing, just the sheer fact that people in authority are continuously planting seeds of doubt in terms of the voting process in this country. It's

irresponsible and it's dangerous, Jenks. So I'm right with you. We should be worried. Right. And I mean, it has an impact on how Republican voters view our electoral system, which is fascinating because while they're worried about voter fraud, little do they know, because it's not reported in their media bubble in their media circles, that Republican lawmakers are the ones who consistently vote down legislation that would provide additional election security. So it's abundantly clear that they don't really see, and I'm talking about Republican lawmakers, they don't really see a problem with our election and the security around it. They just use this as a talking point to rile up their base.

and we've already seen how it leads to violence. I mean, what happened on January 6th, the nation's capital, was certainly incited by right-wing lawmakers, by Donald Trump, just lying continuously about what actually happened in the 2020 election. Now, much like Donald Trump, Larry Elder also refuses to commit to accepting the results of the election. Let's go to this next video that features Jacob Soberoff of MSNBC asking whether he will commit. Again, whether or not you win or lose, will you accept the results of the election

tomorrow? I think we all ought to be looking at election integrity, no matter whether you're a Democrat, an independent, or a Republican. Let's all make sure that the election is a fair election. So let's all work together, no matter what the results are, to make sure that the results are valid and legitimate. And everybody who voted should have voted. Let's all do that together. Is that a commitment to accept the results of the election tomorrow? Let's all do that together. Let's all work together on both sides of the aisle to make sure that the election is a fair election. So that is exactly what Trump did in the lead up to the 2020 election. He refused to commit to accepting the results should he lose. And to be clear, he did lose

and then refused to concede that he lost and claimed that there was widespread voter fraud, which was completely unfounded. But, you know, Elder is getting assistance from Trump as we speak in perpetuating this ridiculous talking point, and also from hosts over at Newsmax, which we'll get to in just a second. But I wanted to give you guys a chance to jump in. Yeah. So you never know, you notice that they never complain about election integrity on elections they win. So all of a sudden, on elections they win, it's perfect. Done just right. Dominion is not an issue. The voting machines are not an issue. There's no fraud. There's no undocumented immigrants. Hugo Chavez's ghost doesn't show up. He's

Super close elections, in purple districts, in purple states, when they win, there's never any issues. But the minute they lose, or in this case, and that's why this story's hilarious, before they lose, they think they're going to lose. So they're like, oh my God, election it took, Rudy. And then you say, hey, listen, let's fix elections. We'd love to do that. Let's get rid of this ridiculous chairmandery. Let's make sure there's paper ballots and everybody, I mean, Nina, progressives above all want to make sure that the votes are counted right. Who wouldn't want the votes counted right?

And yet these guys time and time again have fought our efforts to do that. So this isn't about election integrity at all. This is just about claiming victimhood, which is to me conservative 101. No, it is. And I mean, the, I mean, to get their voters hyped up, amped up in this way is, again, the height of irresponsibility. If they wanted to do the right thing, and it is truly, truly unfurly. fortunate that across the country, especially in the legislatures across this country, that Republicans are doing everything in their power to prevent people from having access to the ballot box in ways that would allow this democracy or this representative democracy to thrive. They're doing the exact opposite of what they claim to believe in. So this is, it's crazy. It really is. And let me, another point. The way that the recall is being used in California, this is not what the recall provision

for citizens there was supposed to be used for. You get mad at the current governor. So all of a sudden you want to recall this governor and spend countless amounts of taxpayers dollars that could be used in other ways to edify the people of the great state of California. But no, you are on this fools errand right now. So there should be some critique and lots of conversation about how these folks are wasting taxpayers' dollars on this foolishness, there is a way to recall somebody, and it's called the next election. And they could have waited until the next election cycle and see if,

in fact, they could have defeated the current governor. But no, they decided to cause this kind of chaos. Yeah, that's such a great point. So I voted no on the recall, not because I love Gavin Newsom, but because why? We're going to have an election in 2022. In fact, they'll start campaigning for it, like imminently. So it's going to run right into the next campaign. There's a total, utter waste of money. Recall is supposed to be, hey, that guy got, the governor got arrested. Can you believe what he did?

He's in jail. We need a new governor, right? It's not supposed to be, oh, but I really don't like my one of the Republican to win. I know. That's what the next election is for. Yeah, look, I disagree with you guys a bit when it comes to recalls, to be quite honest with you, because I despise Gavin Newsom. I think he's an awful governor, and he's proven that in so many different ways.

I think part of the problem with this recall election is that the lunacy of the right wing has drowned out the voices of progressives in the state who have had a huge problem with Gavin Newsome and his unwillingness to do anything about homelessness, providing shelter and housing for the homeless. He's certainly failed in terms of holding private utility companies like PG&E accountable for sparking wildfires that have devastating. state in entire communities in the state. He has bailed them out, in fact. So look, there are real issues with Gavin Newsom. However, unfortunately, those issues end up being completely drowned out by right-wingers like Larry Elder, who certainly doesn't care about these issues at all. In fact, he would double down on them and go even further in creating a rigged economic system in the state of California. So, you know, it's a bit of an issue that we can't have, like, a real progressive candidate in California, go up against Gavin Newsom, at least for this recall

election. But I'm also incredibly tired of corporate Democrats just doing whatever they want and never feeling like they're going to face a real challenge from a progressive, especially in a blue state like California. Well, let me assure you that this has got to be the last time. And so we, okay, they did it again on the recall. Put you in a box, you got no choice. You either to vote for a low, some horrible Republican like Larry Elder, or you got to vote for the corporate Democrat. But guys, next election, California is top two vote getters, move on to the general election. It does not have to be a Democrat and a Republican. It often is a Democrat and a Democrat. So next time, for God's stake, let's give one of the most progressive

states in the country a progressive choice. There's never a progressive choice. And part of The other reason is honestly, because the corporate media yells at progressive so much. If a progressive had actually run in this recall, they would have been eviscerated, not just by the California Democratic Party, but by the press. And they say, how dare you, how dare you, right? And so next time, I don't give a damn about how dare you, a progressive will almost definitely run, a major progressive against Gavin Newsom in the real election. So again, we had no choice here.

I voted no, and I assume you voted no. I voted no on the recall, yes. I mean, look at our options, they're awful. So I would rather stick to Gavin Newsom in the time being and hopefully beat him with a progressive candidate in the next election, yes. Yes. Yes, at some point, this has to be more than the lesser of the two evils. I mean, the lesser of two evils is still evil, so I get your point, but we're not having

the substantive debate about the issues you just laid out. Exactly. I mean, these folks are trying to recall this man over mass mandates and, you know, just total foolishness. So yeah, come on, California. 2022 is right around the corner. Exactly. All right, well, we got to take a break, but when we come back, we're going to switch over to what's going down in the state of Florida with Ron DeSantis now threatening government agencies in his own state if they implement vaccine mandates. We have those details and more when we return.

All right, back on Young Turks. Janky, Granite Kasparian, Nina Turner with you guys. All right, I'll get to some of the love on Twitch in the next social break, so hold for that. And more talk of wonderful things that might happen here. Anyways, but we got a lot more news for you guys, so Anna, take it away. All right, well, let's take a little trip to Florida. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has responded to President Joe Biden. vaccine mandates for specifically federal employees by stating that there would be

massive fines toward government agencies in the state of Florida if they happen to implement vaccine mandates of their own. Without further ado, let's go to DeSantis's statement. If a government agency in the state of Florida forces a vaccine as a condition to employment, that violates Florida law. And you will face, and you will face a $5,000 fine for every single violation. And so if you look at places here in Alachua County, like the city of Gainesville, I mean, that's millions and millions of dollars potentially in fines, Orange County, many more than that. At the end of the day, look, we did a lot in Florida to distribute access. And in December, when the Pfizer and all this stuff came out, you know, I said we would work very

hard, we'd prioritize our seniors, that we'd make it available for all, but mandatory for none. And that's been the policy that we've had from the beginning. Now let me be clear that Governor Ron DeSantis prioritized the vaccine, not just for seniors, specifically wealthy communities that had most of his donors living in them. Those were the people who were prioritized for the vaccine in the very beginning. But I also want to note that federal law supersedes state law, we know that. And the Biden administration has not implemented a vaccine mandate for all government employees, including local or municipal government employees.

He specifically implemented a vaccine mandate that impacts federal workers, right? So this story for me makes it abundantly clear that everything that governors like Ron DeSantis do in response to COVID is just political, right? Because this is his way of puffing up his chest like this tough guy who's responding to Biden when in reality the $5,000 fines that he's threatening local government agencies with. I mean, again, it has nothing to do with what Biden has implemented through his vaccine mandates. It has no impact on state and local government. Okay, so basically, this is just a glorified photo op. Totally. Because it doesn't affect what Biden said at all. It doesn't touch it. Doesn't involve

100 person companies. It doesn't involve the federal government. It's just state government. So he's just reiterating policy that he basically had in Florida anyway. So, but everybody goes along with it as if it's like a big deal, it's not a big deal, it's just a lie. And basically, given what Anna has told you, and we've covered on the show before, about how he gave it to his donors first, it's vaccines for the rich, propaganda for the rest of you. And what has been the result of that propaganda? Well, daily cases of coronavirus, I should say, deaths from coronavirus in Florida, seven-day average just now is 350 a day. So 350 people are dying every day in Florida because, and it's worse than it's ever been in Florida, even worse than the winter spike when the rest of the country had it, but we had no vaccine. But now Florida is so unvaccinated and unvaccinated are dying at such great rates that they're basically killing.

themselves on behalf of this insane propaganda by Republican leaders like DeSantis. And so, you know, it reminds me that scene from Star Wars. So this is how democracy dies with thunderous applause, right? In this case, this is how logic, facts, and science die with thunderous applause as everybody in that room is endangering themselves. And he doesn't, you know, he just doesn't care. I mean, we really need to in this, not just in this country, but in this world, get to herd immunity. And this guy, he's being totally irresponsible, just totally irresponsible, because he didn't care, because this is not just about his propaganda in that room today, but also

about 2024, make no mistake about it. Governor DeSantis will probably, like 99% put his name in the hat to run for president of the United States of America. So he's going to show us, he's going to show the great state of Florida just how. much he cares about the people there by continuing to push again, lunacy. This is the night for lunacy. These are the types of stories we're covering tonight. It makes no sense. Folks should listen to doctors. We understand that wearing a mask is helpful to helping to prevent the spread of the virus. We got the Delta variant. Other

variants are popping, wearing their ugly head. And for a leader to continuously put out this type of falsehoods. To me, he needs to be, he needs to be held to account. Florida, this man needs to be held to account. Yeah, and the unfortunate thing is, Ron DeSantis isn't the only one. He tends to be the most outspoken or vociferous because of, I think, his political aspirations, as Nina pointed to, I think you're absolutely right about that. But it's incredible to see how many right wing lawmakers have absolutely no problem watching their own constituents get sick, hospitalized, and even die from coronavirus if it means that putting propaganda against vaccines or mask mandates out there will help them politically either in the present or in the future.

And so they don't care. You're right. They absolutely don't care. And even though this was really a glorified photo op for DeSantis, there were other problematic. elements to this press conference because there was a state government employee by the name of a Dara's friend who stood up and told complete falsehoods about what the vaccine allegedly does. Let's take a quick look at that and then I'll debunk it. The vaccine changes your RNA. So for me, that's a problem. So I'm here with you folks. We don't want to have the vaccine. It's about our freedom and liberty. It's not about the vaccine.

They're taking away our freedom and liberty, little by little. They're using the vaccine for cover. Last year, they took away our religious rights. They are not defending our freedom of speech. And this is just one way to take us to the next step. So I'll get to the science regarding that false claim about the vaccine changing your RNA. But DeSantis was reached for comment, and a spokesperson responded and said, questions about why DeSantis didn't correct the speakers misses the point of the news conference.

In fact, let me give you the rest of the statement. The governor has never said the vaccine changes your RNA and nobody who has seen his 50 plus public appearances promoting vaccination throughout Florida this year would think that is the governor's position. The speaker whose remarks included that comment was at the press conference in his capacity as a member of a lawsuit against the city government's extreme overreach. So the governor, meaning the leader of that state, is standing right there, right next to him. He needed to correct the record right then and there.

He failed to do that. And again, there is no evidence indicating that the vaccine changes your DNA or your RNA. Unlike many vaccines which use a weakened or inactive germ to trigger an immune response, Pfizer's and Moderna's coronavirus vaccines do something different. They teach cells to make a protein or a piece of a protein to trigger the immune response. That immune response produces antibodies to protect against COVID-19. So here's the part that's incredibly relevant, okay? A person's genetic code is contained in DNA, which is enclosed by a cell's nucleus.

Neither the vaccine nor the virus can penetrate that nucleus or change the DNA. RNA consists of messenger molecules created by DNA. And so because the vaccine can't change our DNA, it can't change our RNA. The MRNA vaccine delivers messages to the ribosome, which makes proteins to make the protein that triggers the immune system to produce immunity against the actual virus. And listen, so many Americans have already been fully vaccinated. They're fine, they're thriving, and they're very unlikely to end up in the hospital or very unlike. to end up dead from coronavirus. The fact that people are still peddling these conspiracy theories is incredibly frustrating,

especially when you have the governor standing right next to him, who fails to correct the record. Well, I don't know, you say that, Anna, and all the world scientists say that, but you know, I took the vaccine and it changed my DMV, you know, and you never know, you never know. So look, it's like I can't believe we had to bother explaining that, that's so obvious, but But it isn't to Republicans, and they look at that and go, science, what would they know? I talked to a rando on 4chan, and he told me something else.

That guy definitely knows better than all of the world's scientists and all the world's doctors and understands RNA better than all of them do. But Republicans actually believe things like this. That's why the important part of that is that DeSantis knew politically, he couldn't correct that guy, because then people would be super mad at him. Steve Bannon earlier was talking about how Larry Elder blew the election in California when he refused to lie for a minute. He changed his mind later and did lie and said that Trump had won the election.

But for a second, he said Biden won fairly and squarely. And Ben is like, that's it. Well, you just took all the air out of the balloon. No Republican wants to vote for someone who won't lie. Right? And so obviously, Bannon didn't add the lie part. They're so pretending, et cetera. But guys, one last thing about that.

6 out of 10 Republican voters now say that saying that Trump won the 2020 election is a core part of being a Republican. A core part. Good Lord. So Nina, that's why if you're a Republican politician like DeSantis, it's, it's will endanger your career if you actually say things that are true. Good Lord. You know what I said earlier, never let the truth get in the way, It never let science get in the way of a good story because that's what's going on here. And even that guy that was speaking, I mean, he conflated so many things. So they're taking away our freedom and our liberty, our religious rights and our freedom of speech, while he was standing at a press conference exercising his free speech rights.

The irony there. I mean, again, what is the responsibility? Your point is, what is the responsibility of the governor of any state to not allow any, to propagate, to peddle these kinds of lies and misinformation, that can cost people their lies. I mean, this is not an exaggeration here, even as much as they don't want to admit it for political reasons that we do need to get to herd immunity. We need people to wear masks. We need people to do things, because this is not just a going alone for the government. All of us have skin, literally skin in the game and trying to tame.

the coronavirus. We all have a responsibility to do so. So again, Florida, look, y'all can do a new thing. Y'all don't got to stay with this guy, please, for the love of God. Progressives challenge him, and we cannot allow him to get to the White House by any. I mean, this is the pre-show right here, what we're seeing from DeSantis. Be afraid. Be very afraid. Yeah, and much like other states with Republican governors who are allegedly against the vaccine mandate, Florida, like these other states, already requires a variety of vaccines for children before they enter school, including for chickenpox, if there's been no previous infection, measles, mumps, and rebella. And then you have a list of other ones, including tetanus and whooping cough and hepatitis B. So, I mean, look, we keep repeating this over and over again. mandates are not new. We've had vaccine mandates, state by state for a very long time. But unfortunately, coronavirus, which has killed upward of 650,000 Americans already, has turned into a culture war issue. And as our fellow Americans continue to die needless deaths as a result

of this pandemic, Republican lawmakers continue exploiting it for political gain. And it's pretty disgusting. One last quick thought here. Look, the The Republicans did take a vaccine, a vaccine apparently against facts, because they're immune. You can tell them, hey, listen, Schmucks, you and your kids all took those vaccines in Florida for Rubella. We're talking about Rubella. We're talking about Rubella. You took it for Rubella, you took it for all those things. This is the same exact thing, approved by the FDA, same exact thing.

Nope, I don't care. I'm immune to facts. That's the one. Apparently, they snuck in one other vaccine in Florida. And so they don't care about your stinking logic or science or medicine or facts. They just want, and even at the risk of dying, they care that much about their feelings. And the feeling is mainly, I don't like liberals. And I'm dying to own the lips.

And that's where we are today. Let's take another break. And when we come back, Axios would have you believe that Kirsten Cinema is accountant-like, very concerned about the federal. debt and is looking at her spreadsheets when she decides whether or not she's going to support the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill. We've got that story and more when we come back. All right, back on TYT, Jenk, Anna and Nina with you guys. Let's do more stories. All right. Hans Nichols over at Axios had a laughable piece about Senator Kirsten Cinema, a conservative Democrat in the Senate, unfortunately, who has basically

said that she is not supportive of the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill, which includes several provisions that would materially improve the lives of Americans, including mandatory paid family leave, free community college, an expansion of Medicare to include coverage for hearing, dental and vision, you know, all the things that we actually need and want in the country. Now, the argument coming from Nichols is that, look, cinema is just really worried about the deficit, she's worried about the debt, and she's pouring over these spreadsheets to make sure that the numbers add up, okay? Let me give you a few excerpts. While Senator Joe Manchin is getting attention for bulking at a $3.5 trillion top line price tag, cinema's

Accountant-like focus on the bottom line will be equally important to winning the votes of them and other key Democrats. The piece continues. As early as July, she was clear the $3.5 trillion price tag was too high for her. Cinema refers to her spreadsheets as she strategizes with colleagues about next steps in the budget process. And as House and Senate committees begin to write specific legislation, she's updating her data to ensure she has accurate top and bottom line figures.

I don't know, maybe I'm being a little unfair to Senator Cinema. I think that there are other factors at play which tend to weigh in on her decision to speak out against an incredibly important piece of legislation. But who knows? Jake, what do you think? Yeah, that was awful. I was gonna say awful journalism, but it really wasn't. I mean, if a PR Flack wrote that, they'd be kind of embarrassed.

I looked for nuance. I looked for, normally what they do is like on the 18th paragraph, although Axios doesn't have that many paragraphs, they'll throw into like a slight critique to make it seem like, oh, we're journalists, we're journalists. They didn't even bother doing that in this case. Every part of the article was like, oh, what a tactician. I mean, just she's doing math all night, okay? She's doing it in her head, four plus four, eight.

That's from a comedian. Anyway, so, and she's, she cares about what's real. the numbers, and she's strategizing. Can she make it work? No. I mean, it's absurd. It's beyond absurd. And by the way, at one point in the piece, they painted it vis-a-vis Bernie,

who they made it seem like is impractical and doesn't care about math. Like, yeah, yeah, go ahead, Nina. You know, look, Jay, I like it straight, no chase. I'm glad that they didn't try to put on a facade of real journalism in this story. Just give it to a straight this way. I mean, the fact that this senator, continues to stand over and over again, her and her partner, Senator Joe Manchin. I don't know which one of them is the president.

Sometimes it's President Joe Manchin and Vice President Cinema. And other times it's President Cinema and Vice President Joe Manchin. But make no mistake about it, they do not care about the people who have the greatest needs in this country. We have neglected infrastructure needs, both hard infrastructure and soft infrastructure for decades in this country. And $3.5 trillion is the daggone compromise here. It's the compromise. And they want to keep fighting against that as if the people in their home states don't need the jobs. And as if in this country we don't need the requisite investments in our infrastructure, both hard and soft that we have neglected.

Government is designed for us to do collectively what we cannot do as individuals. So we should be making this investment in a whole lot more. 3.5, I agree with Senator Sanders and others who have said the 3.5 trillion is the compromise position. Exactly. I mean, Bernie initially was going for $5 trillion and settled for $3.5 trillion. And I love it when progressive speak out, like Representative Rashida Taleb, who said, no, the $3.5 trillion is not the ceiling. that is the floor in terms of the spending for this legislation. And I agree with her 100%. Also, I just, I'm getting real tired of reporters aiding and abetting the hollow talking points

coming from corporate Democrats, like the Joe Mansions and the Kirsten Cinemas of the world. Because the fact of the matter is they're motivated by their own personal investments. That's certainly the case with Joe Manchin. who's personally invested in the coal industry, which makes him half a million dollars a year, more than double his Senate salary. And then you have Kirsten Cinema, who just like Mansion, Coons, Warner,

all these other corporate Democrats in the Senate is receiving quite a bit of money from corporations. So I'll direct you all to the top industries who funded Cinema's campaign between 2015 and 2016, just one year, okay? Securities and investment, that's the top industry in terms of donations for her campaign. That's the financial industry. The financial industry, exactly.

So gee, I wonder why she's against the budget reconciliation bill, which calls for an increase in taxes for the wealthy. And then of course the insurance industry is on there, the real estate industry is on there. And I have no doubt that that has more of an impact on her decision making. than alleged spreadsheets, which I doubt even exist. The only math Kirsten Cinema and corporate Democrats like her do is counting how much money they're receiving from their corporate donors, and that's it. So guys, yeah, so I want to bring up the fact that this isn't, this story isn't really about Krista Cinema.

It's about how corporate media helps corporate Democrats and Republicans drive their agenda together as a team. Because this is an unbelievable fluff piece. I mean, think about the basis for it. They're celebrating that she has looked at numbers. Is that, that's the thing to celebrate? No, then you miss the lead. You buried the lead.

The lead should be 99 other senators don't care about numbers. What? That's a giant news story. Shouldn't they all care about numbers? She's looking at a spreadsheets. Why? Is that a big news event? Really?

And by the way, that might be true. And I think this is just nothing but propaganda, so I don't even believe she's ever looked at a spreadsheet. In fact, I think the point of the propaganda is they're like, wouldn't it be amazing if we looked at a spreadsheet? So let's tell them we looked at a spreadsheet, right? Wow, that'll shock them. Oh my God, we actually did a tiny portion of our job, right? And now I mean, go ahead. You took the words right out of my mouth.

I was going to say even if she did really look at the spreadsheets, that's her damn, that's her job. Good, love. But there's like, oh my God. What an accounting nerd. She knows the numbers, but now let's go to the juxtaposition. Yeah. Because here's the quote I was referring to. Cinema's intense interest in the numbers, intense interest in the numbers.

Anyway, also suggests she'll be a formidable foil for progressives like Senator Bernie Sanders, who are working to make the spending bill as big as possible. So she's a foil because Bernie doesn't care about numbers, presumably. She has an intense interest in numbers, and her foil, the opposite, is Bernie Sanders. He's this knucklehead. He wants to make it high for the voters. Nobody wants the voters to actually benefit from this. Spreadsheets.

So now you've got to be asking the question. Why? Why would Axios do this? Well, there's two main reasons. One is Access. So they'll be getting quotes from her when the negotiations get heated. And that's what everybody's going to want. What is Mansion is Cinema actually doing?

This reporter will have a scoop from the cinema camp. I guarantee it in the middle of those negotiations, that's part one. Part two is, this is an actual industry term, they do a kind of journalism called corridors of power. What that means is we are serving the corridors of power. So Lockheed Martin and many other advertisers, including the insurance industry, the banks, and all those same donors that Chris and Cinema have do ads on Axios. And look, I'm picking on Axios because it's a terrible article.

But this is really the business model for almost all of mainstream media, right? And so they all have the same exact incentives. And the Chamber of Commerce announced, we don't like this $3.5 trillion bill. We like the bipartisan one that's stuffed with goodies for us. This one raises our taxes. We don't like it at all. So Cinema's going to go kill it. And Axios is going to go help her.

And that is corporate media 101 in America. And just nothing for the poor, the working poor, and the barely middle class, in this country, this is really what this comes down to. Whose side are you on? Senator Sinema, whose side are you on, Senator Manchin? And in any other corporatists, whether they be Democrat or Republican, the suffering is immense right now. We got a pandemic, we got variance to that pandemic, we got people suffering this country, we got people suffering abroad. We spent what, I mean, trillions of dollars on war and war making.

And nobody, not I won't say nobody, but corporate Democrats like this, they say nair word, as my grandmother used to say. But the minute a package is fashioned to help the everyday people from all walks of life in this country, there they go with the damn spreadsheets. Yep, that's right. That's right. All of a sudden they're concerned about the deficit. Yeah. Hey, man, Nina is 100% right. Next time we talk about war, I want to see some goddamn spreadsheets. Because we look at numbers, we look at numbers, we care about them. Okay, let's see those spreadsheets. Intensely, intensely, that's right. All right, well, let's get to our final story of the hour regarding an investigation into Louisiana state troopers.

The Associated Press has conducted an investigation into the Louisiana State Troopers, and they have found that there have been cover-ups, brutal police beatings, and tapes that have been kept from the public, as the state troopers have told the public that the tapes don't even exist. Now, this AP review of internal investigative records and newly obtained videos identified at least a dozen cases over the past decade alone in which these Louisiana state troopers or their bosses either ignored or concealed evidence of beatings. They also deflected blame and impeded efforts to root out misconduct.

The AP writes that the review that they did, coming amid a widening federal investigation into state police misconduct, found troopers have made a habit of turning off or muting body cameras during pursuits. When footage is recorded, the agency routinely refuses to release it. So what exactly prompted this investigation in the first place? The Associated Press discloses that the state police have been under intense scrutiny since May when the AP published previously unreleased body cam footage of Ronald Green's May 10th, 2019 arrest at the end of a high speed chase near Monroe. It showed white troopers stunning, beating, and dragging green as he pleaded for mercy. In fact, one clip that a supervisor denied having for two years showed

troopers, leaving the heavyset green prone and shackled face down for more than nine minutes. Among the 49-year-old's last words, I'm your brother, I'm scared, I'm scared. Now, I want to show you a portion of that video so people can really understand just how brutal this was. I want to give you a warning because it is in fact graphic. But with that said, let's take a look. Warning, the video is disturbing. I'm scared. I'm your father. I'm scared. Ronald Green is pleading with Louisiana state police officers who rustle him to the ground,

following a pursuit in May 2019. After excerpts were published by the Associated Press, State Police released 40 minutes of body camera videos, which show Green being tased and punched from several angles. Angles. Officers say he continued to resist. Green could be heard repeatedly saying, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. The FBI is investigating Green's death and what led up to it.

But on the tape, Trooper Chris Hollingsworth is heard explaining what happened. I beat the ever-living out of him, choked him and everything else trying to get him under control. And the . . . . was still fighting and we were still wrestling with him trying to hold him down could be spitting blood everywhere, and then all of a sudden he just went limp. The state troopers initially blamed his death on a car crash, so they lied, obviously. Yeah, to me, first of all, credit to Associated Press, great journalism here, uncovering about a dozen cases that were over-the-top egregious. And in each of those cases, the police hid the evidence

for a very long time. So don't tell me about a few bad apples. This appears to be very very very standard operating procedure. You beat the hell out of detainees. Well, I'm calling them detainees. Now look, it's they're acting like military, and that's the lingo that's now pervasive. So you beat the hell out of citizens. And then you lie about it brazenly. In the Ronald Green case, we didn't even show you the worst part of the video. After they got him handcuffed and he's bloodied and he's been on the ground for nine minutes, then they start dragging him by his feet. And then they went and filed a report saying, oh, he hit a tree and died. And And the cops all along had the tape.

We got the tape recently, but the cops had it the whole time. And the whole time they're back in the other cops that they know for a fact are liars. Because it is part of the system. And Nina, there's a couple elements here. One is massive police reform across the country. And the second is, in the South, honestly, this seems to be almost part of the culture. Like yeah, of course, the cops are supposed to beat up black people. And by the way, a couple of poor white folks, never rich white folks.

but some poor white folks, and then we just think it's normal and we cover it up. There's definitely a caste and class element to this. And when I use the word cast, I'm black folks. And the whole notion of policing in America is really what is the policing relationship, using that term loosely, for the African American community. And what was it designed to do? never designed to protect and serve, because as you can see and hear from the officer's own mouth, they were talking about Mr. Green as if he was not a human being. And that natural bodily responses were somehow resisting arrest. Your body response, it is a natural response to continue to move when pain is being inflicted upon you.

the indifference that they had to this man's life. And let me tell you something, the governor of that state, the attorney general of that state, all kinds of investigation should be opened. Those officers upon that investigation, because I don't want to just base it on this one video, which to me the video says it all. Not only should they be fired, they should be absolutely charged. So the Department of Justice also needs to get involved in. cases like this and every single officer, administrator that had anything to do with the cover

up, they need to go. This is not policing. This is brutality that happens time and time again. And you know what, black folks and poor folks, but particularly black folks, we always need a camera to back us up. And even though they knew that footage existed, because they knew there was not going to be any consequence, they didn't give a damn about line. Yeah. There are some criminal charges, which I'll get to. But first, I want to go to a retired supervisor who actually oversaw a particularly violent click of troopers. And he told internal investigators this year that it was his common practice to rubber stamp officers' use of force reports without reviewing, without even looking at the body camp footage. Captain John Peters, the regional troop commander

recently retired after acknowledging, he approved troopers' use of force reports without reviewing their body camera video. Peters told investigators that approving such documents without watching the video was his common practice. Here's this quote, the ultimate responsibility is mine. Records show Peters wrote in an internal email about the approvals last year, I failed, he said. And regarding the criminal charges, there are some who are facing criminal charges for their brutality. One former trooper by the name of Jacob Brown was perhaps the agency's most prolifically violent officer in recent years.

Records show he tallied 23 uses of force dating to 2015, 19 on black people, and he faces charges in three separate beatings. Video and police records show he beat Aaron Larry Bowman 18 times with a flashlight after your deputies pulled him over for a traffic violation in May of 2019. State police also didn't investigate the attack until 536 days later, and only did so after a lawsuit from Bowman, who was left with a broken jaw, ribs and wrist, as well as a gash to his head that required six staples to close. And so to your point about the few rotten apples, Jank, you see you see.

hear very clearly that they're, like they're covering up, like they're covering up for each other. Their practices in investigating accusations of brutality, just makes it clear they're not really investigating at all. They give the stamp of approval to brutal police beatings without even looking at the body cam footage, because why even bother? They're gonna cover up for each other anyway, why bother looking at the footage? Yeah, let me be clear, I don't believe Captain Peter's at all. He said, I never looked at any of those tapes. Well, if that's true, that means you never did your job because your job was to look at those

tapes. And that was the core of your job. Well, then we should take his passion away. I agree. Well, you know why Captain Peters is lying? Because they needed someone who was one of them, a good guy they could trust in their gang, their mob, and he would purposely, he'd looked at the tapes and he'd bury them. And then he'd retire and go, it was all me.

My bad. But it doesn't matter because I'm retired. He should be charged. He should have his pension taken away. And then when you say that to cops, I'm like, my beloved pension. Well, they're beloved heads that you smashed open because you didn't care at all. You thought there's going to be no consequences.

That's what gangs do. They cover for each other. They cover up their criminality, et cetera. Don't get me wrong. There are a few good apples. There are. Yes. Yeah. There are.

But there, you know, let me, there's no consequence. That's why they had this kind of. cavalier attitude. And 19 of the 23, for that one example in it that you get, how in the hell did this man get to 23? Yep. How was he able to get? And 19 of the 23 were black? There it is. Now, it wouldn't matter to me if they were purple. Wrong is wrong and right is right. But you see the racialized anti-black pattern here because black people don't have to be treated with respect at all. The level of indifference and violence. And guess what? There should be felonies for any officer or any level of government that falsifies document, period.

Yeah. Yeah, we need to have accountability. For God's sake, is this our police or is it not our police? Because or are they hired to be security guards for the rich? And we are considered the enemy, the occupied people of America, because it certainly feels that way. And there is no question in Louisiana. It is disproportionately impacting African Americans at a massive rate. And again, there are white folks who-

By the way, too, Jank. I'm sorry. Paying taxes to get beat over the head like this or killed. That's exactly right. I mean, these are public servants. And anyone who tries to claim that they're not, that they're not supposed to be held accountable by the very people who pay their salaries, they're wrong, they're wrong.

These are supposed to be people who keep communities safe. And we've seen over and over again that that is not the case, that they target certain communities based on socioeconomic status and race, and just treat them with extreme brutality and get away with it. So anyway, they keep acting like the cops are above the law. And then they yell at us, you have to respect them. No, number one, you got to earn that respect. Number two, you got to earn your paycheck because you actually work for us and your job business

supposed to be, to brutalize us. It's supposed to protect us. They've lost track of that completely. And you can tell from the story, the reason we're so mad is this is not a one-off. This is systemic. They do it on purpose. No arrest should lead to somebody pleading for their life. I mean, that, I mean, can we just all agree with that point right there? Everyone here agrees. I bet you a lot of right wing do not agree. Yeah. And that's why they act the way they do, and it's the right wing that protects them, because they don't mind this result. We're outraged by this result, and they think, well, that's kind of what we hired them for. But we all pay their taxes, and this is unacceptable, and we're not going to allow it anymore

in America. We're going to stand up for ourselves. And if you don't like that, well, that's a sad day for you, because we're tired of these beatings and we're tired of these deaths. We are. We need a paradigm shift about what public safety looks like in totality. I mean, public safety is not just policing, it's education, it's jobs, it's infrastructure, it's clean air, clean food, cleaning water. How about that? What is real? Let's reimagine public safety in the United States of America. This is beyond the pale. I love it, yeah. All right, we are way out of time in this first hour. Nina's with us for this hour, but don't worry, guys, she's on indisputable on Thursday. She's going to be on all of our programming. She was on

damage report earlier today, and you're going to get to see some great interviews that Nina does on the conversation with some of the best progressives and most interesting, smartest people in the country. So get ready for all that. Nina, you're the best. Thank you. Thank you, Nina. Thank you. Back at you, Jenk and Anna. All right. Quick break, and then we'll come back with more news. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen ad free access members only bonus content and more by subscribing to apple podcasts at apple dot co slash t yt i'm your host jank huger and i'll see you soon