The Young Turks - Ted Cruz Hates His Wife

Episode Date: January 29, 2021

Robinhood, and other online brokerage firms, restrict trading on GameStop, AMC and other Reddit YOLO stocks. Plus AOC’s take, the users’ response to brokerage firms, and the newest Reddit-driven stock. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. Welcome, Friends to the Young Turks, you're watching TY with Anna Kasparian and Wazni Lombray. He is a writer for the athletic and also the host of woke bros along with Nandovila, another frequent co-host here at TYT. Was, it's so good to have you. Thank you.

It's good to be back. Thanks for having me back. You know, I know I got Brett in a little bit of trouble the time before last. So I'm happy to be, have been invited back. I hate being a terrible house guest. No, no. I mean, look, you have a potty mouth. It's okay. Sometimes we slip up, right? I don't mean to call you out, but it is what it is. But you're such, like, you're such a fan fave here at TYT. The last time you were on, someone from our publishing team reached out to me and was like, I love Waz.

And so, of course, we're not back on because you're fantastic. So I can't wait to talk about the Wall Street Betts story and all the updates that come along with it. We're going to do that at the top of the rundown today. But later in the show, we're also going to discuss some infighting with the GOP and how House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is trying to squash it, kind of. But I think that it's a story that Democrats can actually learn quite a bit from. And I'll make my case, especially when it comes to passing robust stimulus and, more importantly, survival and relief for the American people. So we're also going to discuss AOC's absolute fury at the fact that Republican lawmakers who have encouraged the riots in the Capitol, you know, they're not facing any consequences. And she is not letting that go. She's not dropping the topic. And I think it's important for her to keep voicing her opinion on that. And, you know, in the post game today, I'm not going to lie. We're going to do something incredibly juvenile. But I think it's going to open up a fun conversation. So I'm not going to give away too much about it.

Become a member, t.yt.com slash join, you'll see what I'm talking about. But was, why don't we get started with probably the most thrilling story I've come across in a long time. And that's not speaking well of the news cycle, but nonetheless, let's get it started. Following news that subreddit called Wall Street Betts brought a hedge fund, Melvin Capital, to its knees by pumping the value of stocks that Melvin Capital had shorted, like GameStop and AMC, turns out that some of these apps that allow retail traders to essentially engage in this kind of activity have squashed their ability to do so. So we learned recently that Robin Hood, the most prominent app that allows these day traders to engage in what Wall Street Betts has been engaging in,

has essentially stopped them from being able to buy stock that has been shorted by these hedge funds. So of course, GameStop is included, AMC is included. Robin Hood also confirmed that they made this decision through a blog post writing this. We continuously monitor the markets and make changes where necessary. In light of recent volatility, we are restricting transactions for certain securities to position closing only, meaning you can sell the stock, but you can't buy additional stock, including AMC, Blueberry, Bedbath and Beyond. You have Express in there, you have GameStop, of course, Naked Brands, Nokia, all sorts of companies that bring quite a bit of nostalgia to the millennial generation.

But nonetheless, they also write that we also raised margin requirements for certain securities. Now, as you can imagine, retail traders were not very happy about this news, and we just got word right before going live today that they have filed a class action lawsuit against Robin Hood. So as that story develops, we'll give you more details. But searches for GameStop, GME on the app itself no longer return any results. And interesting, 56% of all Robin Hood users own at least some GameStop stock, they are now unable to freely trade it. So, look, why is this happening? Well, it's happening because of something

that we see quite a bit of. Anytime a lawmaker wants to hold the wealthy accountable, anytime we have discussions about increasing taxes, anytime we talk about regulations, period, that is when the rich men cry. That's it. That was a long intro to the story. But I do want to talk about all of these wealthy individuals going on CNBC, absolutely crying. And by the way, simultaneously mocking the very people who successfully brought Melvin Capital to its knees.

We'll get to some of those videos in just a minute. But before we do so, Woz, I wanted to get some of your thoughts. You know, Anna, if you know anything about me, you know the story actually just cuts to the core of everything that I care about, right? Specifically because of how online communities form, everybody on the Wall Street Bet subreddit is very conscious of how the overlords, the financial wizards, if you will, But self-styled, by the way, that's what they call themselves, the financial wizards of high finance, how they feel about retail traders, how they feel about Main Street as opposed to Wall Street. You guys are novices. You guys aren't as smart as us. That's the reason you don't make the big bucks we do. Not because there are institutional advantages, not because there are legislative advantages, not because basically we make the rules to suit us so that we continue to make money. But because we're so much smarter than you. And so, you know, the way these communities form, guys and gals on this Reddit were like, we are finally going to get these fools.

We got them exactly where we want them. We know that this stock is undervalued. And now not only are we going to buy the stock, we're going to buy options on the stock to doubly screw these guys. And, you know, in the case of Melvin Capital, I just find it insane that these guys could lose $4.5 billion between December 26 and yesterday on this one bet. That's insane. That is crazy. I mean, and forget about all the other things when it comes to, you know, TD Ameritrade and Robin Hood and all of these other sites, taking stuff off so that these rich companies can be bailed out immediately,

just like that. Quick and like swiftly. It was like, no, the big guys are losing money. This is only supposed to flow in one direction. The money's supposed to flow out of our pockets and into theirs. Once it starts going the other way, it's like, oh, the Matrix is broken. What do we do? And so you see them step up immediately and guys going on.

team, this isn't right. They're targeting us. They're taking advantage of us. This isn't right. It's insane. There's so much, I mean, it's impossible to touch on every twist and turn and angle to the story. But let's start off with what Robin Hood purported to represent. I mean, it's in its name, right? The whole notion of taking from the rich, giving to the poor, that's what Robin Hood is. And that's the way that they've really advertised themselves. So it's, I mean, doubly infuriating to consider their marketing, consider their branding, and then look at what they did in responding to Wall Street bets in their own form of manipulation, right? Because they're not, I mean, these hedge funds can still short these stocks. It's not like these hedge funds are

stopping what they're doing. There's nothing preventing them from trading. They can proceed as usual. But what's happening right now is you have these platforms, you have Robin Hood, you mentioned TD Ameritrade, which we talked about a little bit yesterday on the show. And they're preventing retail traders from being able to purchase additional stock. How is that not manipulation, right? And by the way, I mean, look, I understand concerns about pumping and dumping, that was actually a pretty big part of what led to the Great Depression, including people buying stocks based on debt that they've taken out in order to purchase the stocks. But that's not, I went on the

message board and read pretty much for hours last night because I was so fascinated by this story. And they're not even talking about pumping and dumping. They're talking about buying and holding. If you look at the forum, you'll see them consistently say, hold, hold, hold. And they genuinely believe that, you know, Melvin Capital and other hedge funds that decided to short these companies were really underestimating the possibility of these companies succeeding. Now, with GameStop, obviously, there might be some fundamentals that make it clear that it was doomed. I mean, it lost quite a bit of money last year. And when you really think about how people are able to play video games at home, they don't need to go to these brick and mortar stores. their business model, unfortunately, is being harmed by that.

But with that said, there is that David and Goliath element to it. Yes, I absolutely understand that there are hedge funds and some pretty big Wall Street guys who got in on some of this action. I was reading about Blackstone engaging in this. But then there's one other thing I wanted to mention because you had talked about it on your podcast was the fact that Robin Hood had been selling data. about its users' behavior to hedge funds. So hedge funds could know what's going on.

Yeah, yeah, it's the classic double-dip. And you know, you should always be suspicious when an online forum is free, right? Like offer services for free because if the service is free, then you are the product in that service, right? And so you should always be wary of that. But yeah, some of the biggest hedge funds, which I'm pretty sure the Citadel group, which ended up bailing out Melvin Capital is one of the hedge funds that, you know, is part owner of Robin Hood, just so they can know what's going on on Main Street. Yeah, it's crazy that that would be the case, right?

Like, which shows you that like the investors of this company that's allegedly for, you know, democratizing Wall Street trading, right, is owned by one of the biggest hedge funds in the freaking world. But, you know, I think what's most important is that this raises an even bigger question. It's like, this is your job, right? Like, this is what you do for work. Like, GameStop is a company that's over. It's failing, right? But like, this can even happen at the rate that it does.

It says something about the very nature of your business. Like, what exactly is it that you guys are doing? You're just glorified freaking dice rollers. You're glorified gamblers. You're not even poker players, right? Like, you're not even skilled. You're just glorified, you know, basically people that are shooting craps. It's incredible.

Well, Ben Shapiro would disagree with you. He tweeted about this and doesn't find it amusing in the slightest and does not believe that the stock market is a giant casino. Even though, I mean, when you really think about it, I mean, what is the value of a hedge fund betting against a company. Like, what does that do to benefit society in any way? I mean, it's just a way to make a bet. And if you win that bet, you win some money. And that's what they were banking on. And it didn't work out for them this time around. And being able to short stocks. I mean, if they decided to do that based on flawed analysis,

just putting that out there leads to other investors selling their shares of that stock. It manipulates the price of the stock, 100%, which is all these. Reddit users were doing. They did the same thing. But in reverse and knowing that these guys placed very risk, that's another thing, very risky bets. And you know what's so funny is these guys would say these are probably some of the least riskier bets that they're probably making on a day-to-day basis, right? Like normally, you know, something like a Reddit form, aren't marshalling all of their resources to come at these guys, right? So they would say like, This is actually one of the least riskier things we could be doing.

Wait do you see this other thing that we're doing, right? And, you know, you're going to hear a counter argument that, you know, some of these hedge funds are basically, they house some of the pension funds of everyday people. And, you know, the guys at the top aren't personally invested in these hedge funds. Like, their own money when the company goes bankrupt isn't tied into it. And a lot of little guys might get hurt by some of this, which may be true. But all that says to me is we need to legislate these cats. I'm sorry. That just means you shouldn't be able to do this.

You shouldn't be able to risk the money of everyday people on your little parlor games. That's all that says to me. That means we should be guaranteeing the money of normal people. Use your own money to do this crazy stuff with. But you know, you're going to hear that argument come out too. Yeah, I think I think that's the biggest argument, right? Because for me, it's not to say, oh, I'm in favor of manipulation when one side is doing it versus the other. To me, what this does is it makes it very clear that manipulation is taking place, it's been taking place

by people at the very top. I mean, when Congress passes massive tax cuts for the wealthy, and Trump and his Republican goons lie to the American people about how these tax cuts are incredibly important because they're going to take the money that they saved and they're going to increase your wages and they're going to create jobs. Of course they didn't do any of that. They use that money to do corporate stock buybacks and artificially inflate the value of their stocks. That's what they did. And so why is that kind of manipulation totally fine? But what we're seeing with Wall Street bets is unacceptable and we immediately need to put a halt to it. Why is it okay for the Federal Reserve to pump money into these companies and

banks and then they turn around and literally do the same thing, artificially inflate the value of their shares. That kind of manipulation, totally fine. But when you have, you know, people on a board, a subreddit do this, then oh my gosh, we need to make sure that some action is taken to stop it. And one other thing that really, so my point is the manipulation shouldn't be okay and there should be regulations in place. So people don't feel as uneasy as I personally do when you put money in a 401k or whatever retirement account or pension that you have, right? Because it can be manipulated and it's always the little guy who ends up getting hurt. And by the way, this is why social security is so important because you should have some form of retirement

that isn't tied to risk the way, you know, a 401k is or an IRA is or a pension is. So with that said, though, I do want to just mention one other quick thing that I noticed. That was actually kind of shocking. This whole story has brought out rage in people that I didn't even expect, including Fox business host Charles Payne. Okay? So here he is talking about, or here's his response to what Robin Hood did. Take a look.

First of all, all of this nonsense, all of this noise, all of this wanting by Wall Street, it's making me sick. 140% of GameStop was short. I didn't hear one person on TV complaining about Wall Street trying to crush GameStop. 140% short. I told my subscribers buy this stock, and they made a fortune. I also told them to buy Virgin Space Virgin. We took profits on that today. Fizz, that's up huge.

Tangers is up huge. Neil, you can't allow Wall Street to short 75% of a stock, and nobody says anything, crush these companies into the dirt. And then when the individual investor makes money, everyone's up in arms. Oh, if they're going to lose their shirt, don't you think people are trading? If it traded 80 billion shares today, people are ringing a register. What? I mean, I agree with everything he's saying. And I just don't know what to make of it, right?

Because you have people that you typically completely disagree with. People who have actually gone out of their way to support the kinds of policies that I was referring to earlier, like corporate stock buybacks, tax cuts for the rich, now feeling absolute rage over the fact that the system is, yeah, rigged against the little guy. It's been rigged against the little guy. Yeah, it's, again, the reason why I love this story is because it crystallizes everything, right? The lines are so clearly drawn of who us is and them are. And it goes across the board. You either one of these Wall Street Titans or you're not. And that's pretty obvious.

And there's so many more of us than them. And again, the swiftness with which the company stepped in. And these are the strictest free market absolutest people on planet Earth. And what did Robin Hood and these private institutions, the system essentially, stepped in immediately to be like, oh no, poor baby Wall Street. We can't let you fail. No, baby. Come here. Let me nurse you back to help, baby.

Let me nurse you back. I got to bring you back, baby. You can't die on me. No, baby. Not even like immediately this happens. And again, these are the, and again, and we're going to talk about what they did on MSNBC. I mean, excuse me, on CNBC, which was disgusting. But, you know, and even when they're crying, they can't help but sling insults at normal people.

And talk about, oh, you're collecting this. And it's, it's amazing. And I just love how they are just exposing themselves and laying themselves bare. And again, when our government, the federal government, again, the most powerful entity on planet Earth, guys, on planet Earth comes out and saves these guys immediately. And it's a year now. And we don't know if we could get people $1,400, even though we promised them $2,000, even though they probably need $10,000 more.

It's amazing. Yeah, it is amazing. And I would regret not ending this segment today by going back to our buddy, Leon Cooperman, who happens to be one of the Wall Street guys. who not only cries whenever you propose higher taxes and maybe some regulation, but certainly felt the need to insult the retail traders on the subreddit Wall Street bets. Let's hear what you had to say during a recent interview on CNBC. As a result of, like I said, free money, free commissions, getting checks from the government,

seeking home and trading your own account. And there's no way anybody, I'm not involved in GameStop. I'm not long. I'm not short. Okay, there's no way to convince me that game stock is not going to be a lower price stock a year or two years or now. Nobody. I'm trying to say there's three markets out there, okay? The Fang market is not expensive if you look at it relative to interest rates. Then you have the Robin Hood Market, which I have said before on your program, is going to end in tears, in my opinion.

And regrettably, the very next day after I said that, some gentleman committed suicide, because she lost a lot of money trading. That is a loser's game. They don't have any idea what they're doing. Right, but part of the issue, part of the issue, what gets, I think, you know, gets the ire of this cohort is when people like you suggest, quote, they don't have any idea what they're doing.

Bill Parcell said it well. You are what your record says you are. If you're an astute trader and you can consistently take profits out of the market, God bless you, that's a good way of doing it. I'm an investor. I don't damn anybody who does it. differently. I respect people that generate results. All I'm saying is I would be shocked if the guys that are long, you know, game stop will turn out to be right.

Over the years, I've noticed that the short sellers tend to be smarter than the guys in the long side. But I don't damn anybody for what's going on. I mean, are the short sellers smarter or are there like fundamental advantages that they get to take advantage of. Because because the hedge funds not only get to short the market, then they get to go on CNBC and talk about how they're shorting certain companies. And that creates the domino effect that I was referring to earlier. And was, I just want to point out what he said and clarify what he said in the beginning of that clip. Because think about the way he's describing these retail traders. He illustrated them as sitting on their asses, collecting these government

checks and getting the opportunity to trade for free on apps like Robin Hood. Right, you can feel the contempt. You can see it. Yeah, but the government checks was good in 2009, though. It was fine for them. When they got the government checks in 2009 and when they got the government checks last year back in April, there was nothing fine with collecting those checks. He didn't go on CNBC and call these people welfare freeloaders. I didn't see it. It never happens. It never freaking happen. So these guys are click, you're a joke. And I think what people need to remember, if you watch the Wolf of Wall Street and Leo and his homies are doing these penny stocks and they're scaring people out of money because they have information that other people don't. And that part, that doctor they're calling in Iowa cannot connect with, you know, some construction guy in Encino, right? But that's not the case anymore. Right? And I think I think the best part about this, but my favorite part, is literally people collectively using the little pennies that they have to screw these guys. Because you can't do it by yourself.

And I think it's going to sow a recognition amongst people that you can't take these people on alone. It has to be collective. The collective will has to come at these people and destroy them. And again, we got to hold our politicians accountable as well. When Joe Biden goes in front of a bunch of Wall Street investors and says, Nothing will fundamentally change for pigs like that disgusting animal who we just showed a clip up. That's a problem. I mean, we've got to put pressure on those guys too.

Yes, absolutely. We got to take a break. But when we come back, Ted Cruz attempting to work with AOC on doing something about the inequality within our stock markets. How did AOC respond? You don't want to miss that story. We've got that and more for you when we come back. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-F-The-Republic, or UNFTR. As a Young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations

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So search for UNFDR in your podcast app today and get ready to get informed, angered, and entertained all at the same time. Thank you. Hey, everyone, welcome to our first social break of the day, just a quick note about one of our first social break of the day. just a quick note about one of our partners. So if you open an aspiration account and you haven't previously done any business with them before, you will be entered for your chance to win a lifetime TYT membership. It's just a little something we're offering to sweeten the deal.

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You can check that out at 8.30 p.m. Eastern time, 5.30 p.m. Pacific tonight. And our Twitch channel is at twitch.tv slash TYT. All right, let me move over to our member section and read some of your comments. Lynn writes in and says, oh, Anna got a shout out on David Packman's show today. Tweets from Anna and AOC were used on David Packman's show today. When talking about the GameStop story, he referred to Anna as our friend from TYT. Look, I love, I love kind people in this space. Even if we have disagreements here and there, it's usually disagreements on the margins.

And it's always best to like work together and collectively come up with solutions to hold politicians accountable, try to change the system for the better. And you know, David Packman's a great guy. So thank you to David. Jank flexing triceps writes in and says, why most Robin Hood accounts have GameStop is because a lot of people sign up, a lot of the people who sign up are offered one free stock with sign up. One of the sign up stocks was GameStop because it was so cheap. I didn't know that. So thank you for that context. It's important. All right, it's pronounced miscellania. Royce in and says, Robin Hood is now selling people's stock without their permission to mitigate the risk to their accounts. Pretty

sure that's just called theft. So thank you for writing in about that. I saw some, I saw some tweets about that and I wanted to mention it, but I hadn't been able to confirm it. So I did didn't want to spread any misinformation, but it is something that people are certainly alleging right now. Someone who likes Bernie Sanders also writes in and says there's a lot of idiot economists who think that the ability to short sell is necessary to avoid stocks being inflated by allowing for a sophisticated trader to collect for mistakes of noise traders. They miss the fact that basically everyone is a noise trader and shorting a company does nothing to help society. It's just a straight up gamble that siphons value towards people who like to gamble.

Absolutely. We have about 11 seconds left. So why don't we get back to the show? And when we come back for our next social break, I'll read more of your comments. See you there. Welcome back to TYTYT, Anna Kasparean and Wazni Longer, Welcome back to TYT, Anna Casparian and Wozni Lombray with you. Make sure you check out his work over at Woke Bros. That's his podcast and also the athletic where Waz is an NBA writer. Do you only write about the NBA over at, I'm not a sports person. So don't hate on me for not.

No, yeah. I mean, when I'm writing about sports is about the NBA, but I try to tackle other things, mainly like important stuff like sneakers and fashion. I love it. I love it. Have fun with your career. It can't always be doom and gloom. But anyway, why don't we move over to AOC and her interaction with Ted Cruz today, which was fascinating.

So following Robin Hood's decision to prevent retail stock traders from buying shares of stocks that had been shorted by hedge funds, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spoke out, tweeting the following. This is unacceptable, she writes. We now need to know more about Robin Hood's decision to block retail investors from purchasing stock, while hedge funds are freely able to trade the stock as they see fit. As a member of the Financial Services Committee, I'd support a hearing if necessary. She also continued to tweet, inquiries into freezes should not be limited solely to Robin Hood. This is a serious matter.

Committee investigators should examine any retail services freezing stock purchases in the course of potential. investigations, especially those allowing sales, but freezing purchases. And so that was her way of essentially signaling that it's not just Robin Hood. You have other apps, like TD Ameritrade is also restricting the buying of certain stocks. So she wants them to be held accountable. She wants investigations. There's currently a class action lawsuit filed against Robin Hood for what they've done. But all of a sudden, slimy Senator Ted Cruz, decides to slither into this conversation and to pretend as though he's a man of the people. And he, of course, quote tweets saying that he fully agrees. He fully agrees with AOC.

And so is AOC interested in maybe joining forces to do something about this? Not with Ted Cruz. Not with Republicans like Ted Cruz. And for a very specific reason, she responded by saying, I'm happy to work with Republicans on this issue where there's common ground. But you almost had me murdered three weeks ago, so you can sit this one out. Happy to work with almost any other GOP that aren't trying to get me killed. In the meantime, if you want to help, you can resign. Some pretty strong words. I also want to mention that Ted Cruz's wife, Heidi Cruz, works for Goldman Sacks. So after serving at Goldman Sachs for seven years, Cruz was promoted in 2012 to regional head of the Southwest United States for the investment management division in Houston. So either Ted Cruz

is full of crap, which I think is true, or he just really hates his wife, because this is now the second time he's publicly snubbed his own wife. Well, that, you know, it's funny that you would mention that, and because I was about to say AOC right there is essentially the opposite of Ted Cruz, you know, sucking. up, we'll say to Donald Trump after calling his wife fat and ugly and saying that his dad killed JFK. This is the opposite of what Ted Cruz did when faced with somebody who blatantly went against them. And obviously in their role with what happened at the Capitol, like Ted Cruz again, like I feel like this is the second time in a row I'm on here to talk about

this dude. He is just a blatant fraud, right? And, you know, and I guess. He likes to piggyback on things and try to seem, because every Republican has to try to fake like there's some every man, because part of the rhetoric of the Republican Party is anti-elite, even though, again, Ted Cruz is like a Harvard, Yale, Princeton dude, right? Clerks for a Supreme Court judge. Like, he is the definition, he's the elite of the elite of the elite, right? If you're a Republican, you're not a real Republican if you don't do that kind of lip service. But yeah, you know, AOC actually has integrity. You know, like if you pay attention to what she's, what she's been doing her entire career, as short as it may be, she stayed on message and on brand. And obviously, this is a like a classic example of the little guy completely getting screwed over. So it's obvious with side she's going to be on. Tech Cruz is just a phony.

Yeah, I see him as someone who tries to like ride a popular way for his own political benefit. But when it comes to the fundamental issues that lead to the kind of inequality that we're seeing in this country, he's been part and parcel of that. Like he's been a big proponent of the types of policies that lead to inequality in the United States. And by the way, AOC is absolutely right. Remember, Ted Cruz was one of the first Republican senators, along with Josh Hawley, to raise his hand and say that he was going to challenge the electoral college votes for Joe Biden. And all of that, unfortunately, snowballed into all these provocations that led to the capital riots. And AOC is furious about it. And she should be. She's also furious that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy

refuses to hold anyone accountable in the House for some of the threats that they've engaged in. You know, you have Q&on conspiracy theorists in the Republican Party now who have engaged in social media comments, basically advocating for physical harm against certain democratic lawmakers. And so in a recent interview, Representative Ocasio-Cortez brought that up, and I wanted to share that with you. Let's look. There are legitimate white supremacist sympathizers that sit at the heart and at the core of the Republican caucus in the House of Representatives. And when you see someone like the House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of the Republican Party respond to white supremacist vitriol coming from his own members, not with censure like they did

with Representative Steve King of Iowa, not with being stripped of committees, not with any consequence, you have to wonder who actually has that power. And it increasingly seems, unfortunately, that in the House Republican caucus, Kevin McCarthy answers to these Q&N members of Congress, not the other way around. And so when I hear that Representative McCarthy is going to pull a member aside who has made white supremacists sympathizing comments, the thing that I think is, what is he going to tell them. Keep it up. At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control of our online lives, constantly monitoring us and storing and selling our data. But

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months for free with this exclusive link just for TYT fans. That's EXP-R-E-S-V-N.com. slash t yt check it out today because there are no consequences in the republican caucus for violence there's no consequences for racism no consequences for misogy no consequences for insurrection and no consequences means that they condone it it means that that silence is acceptance and they want it i mean she she's she's she's absolutely right. It doesn't seem like McCarthy has any interest in rooting out some of the toxicity that we experienced during the Trump administration. Like Trumpism is here to stay. Trumpism is just something that unfortunately, it's the mutation of the Tea Party.

And the fact that his response to like Marjorie Taylor Green and the fact that just like a year or two ago, she was engaging in like awful, awful violent rhetoric on social media aimed at democratic lawmakers. He doesn't even want to hold her accountable for that. He's like, I'll talk to her. Yeah, what are you going to say? It's just, it's so infuriating. And I don't, I don't know if there are going to be any consequences. At this point, I'm not expecting anything to happen. You know what's so funny about this, the sad irony is that these Tea Party QAnon, proud boy, adjacent type of Republican Congress members are what the squad and progressives on the Democratic side aspire to be essentially influential, right? Like if, like AOC is somebody who, if she were not

as talented as she is, so obviously is, and gained the following and engendered the loved that she has out in the world amongst progressives who aren't in her district, like she's made herself into a national figure who has to be reckoned with. Nancy Pelosi would marginalize her like that quickly. I mean, she has. Yeah. Right, right. And so, you know, Nancy Pelosi can actually go get the ruler and spank her the way the nuns in my old Catholic school used to do, okay? She can actually do that. They can't do that on the other side. Those guys are not on the fringes anymore.

They were. They're not on the fringes anymore. They are in power. They represent a power structure within that party. So you can't just elbow them out and sort of little guy them, little bro them and say, hey, man, you got to fall in line. No, no, no, no. You don't get to tell me what to do.

I have power and agency within this body. So go kick rocks, Kevin McCarthy. You can cry all you want. And you know what I love to, Anna, the other day I saw, you know, my lady, because, you know, she doesn't follow politics quite as closely as we do, but she follows enough. And she's like, man, can you believe the Coke said they're not going to support the interactionist? I'm like, the Coke's invented the Tea Party. What are we talking about? I was supposed to rejoice in that.

They literally made this stuff in the lab talking about grassroots campaign and all of that. They were the financial mic behind the Tea Party. The people who started this sort of stuff, this sort of backriding, yes. Yes, the Koch brothers co-opted the Tea Party. The initial message of the Tea Party was actually all about the financial inequality that we're seeing in this country. And then the Koch brothers were like, we need to get involved, right? And so they got involved with the money and did succeed in changing the messaging from, you know, I think something that some on the left can agree with to, no, we need tax cuts and deregulation.

Right. And deficit hogs. They love talking about the deficit. We can't help. We got to be austere. The deficit is going to eat our children in their sleep. No, no, no, we got to do that. Tea Party.

Yep. Yep, exactly. Well, since we're on that topic, I'll let you guys know that in the next segment after break, we're going to talk a little bit about what Joe Biden's latest strategy is in getting economic. economic relief to Americans, there is some bad news. So I will give you the details. You can judge for yourselves. But we got to take a break before we get to that. So stick around. We'll be back in a few minutes. No, John, no, bring that comment back. I was about to read a comment that you just deleted.

Ah, I bathe in a very stable geniuses tears, had a comment about what the scuttlebutt is regarding Robin Hood. So hopefully we get that back soon and I'll read that for you. So I'm going to go to Super Chats for now. They suck fat, long grass-filled donkey logs, writes in and says, the fact that they allow selling and not buying means it can only go down exactly. That is direct wrongful manipulation. There are more of us than them. And the truth is they need us.

We don't need them. Sick of hearing the lie that we need them when they take more than they put out. they are a drain on us, they can please leave. Dr. Zippy McScoots also writes in and says, I had $1,000 worth of game stock stock. I sold it and made $22,000. Thank you, Reddit. Well played, well played.

That's amazing. I'm really happy for you. And also like super sad for me. Like I wish I got it on that. It sounds amazing. All right. New York's Ninth Wonder writes it and says, We will need a public audit of communications between Robin Hood, Melvin, and Citadel, lots of rocket ship emojis.

J.M. also writes it and says 401k slash 403B, etc. were used to shift savings burden to employees. Pensions average 25% employee funding versus 80% while managers take fees in 401Ks. God, it's so frustrating. Oh, and the comment that I was talking about is back in the members section. So I'm going to go ahead and read that. No worries. By the way, it's like the doc, sometimes we have some issues with it. No one's at fault, no worries. I bathe in a very stable geniuses tears, says Scuttlebutt is that trading app that's supposed to be for the people, not another tool to keep us down.

Yeah, I mean, that was the point that I was making. It's just so funny that they use that kind of branding and marketing, and then they turn around and screw people over. Anyway, let me also thank our new YouTube members, Paula A. Lewis and Adam DeMont, thank you so much. We really appreciate your support. And would you look at that? I got a minute left. So let me move over to Twitch. Sounds like Ryan, two months tier one. Thank you so much. Brandy Lou, four months tier one and gifted a sub. Super Ivan Chris, four months prime. Thank you. Carly Knight Art, new tier one. CARP ODB gifted a sub, Carmilla's curse, is it Carmilla, Carmela, gifted a sub, thank you. E.K. Greens, gifted five subs. Columbia Rican, gifted a sub. And tell me what to put gifted 14 subs. Thank you so much, guys. We really appreciate your support. We are about to do a banana story about what Biden is thinking regarding passing economic relief. I'm not in favor of this policy or the strategy, but you might think differently. So why don't we get back to the show?

I'll give you all the details. Welcome back to TYT, everyone, everyone. Berrin and Wozni Lombre with you. It's been a while since Joe Biden was inaugurated. And remember, we were promised quite a few things on day one. Now, Biden has passed quite a few executive orders. But the real question here is, when are Americans going to get that robust economic relief that they were promised? And of course, as always, Republicans are serving as an obstacle. Biden should have expected it. And so now he's switching gears. But is he making the right decision?

Well, let's talk about it a little bit. Progressive lawmakers are pushing back against the possibility of the White House, offering a far skimpier relief bill in order to appeal to Republican lawmakers. Joe Biden seems pretty hellbent on passing something in a bipartisan way. And so his thinking is, well, maybe if I just pass some sort of skinny bill, something that would be appealing to Republicans, we can get it done. and then somewhere down the line, I'll pass something more robust through reconciliation. So this was reported by Politico, and they write that National Economic Council Director,

Brian Dees, and his mission is to figure out what a 60 vote package, meaning a bipartisan package for the Senate, looks like. Biden aides are clear-eyed that such a deal will be far short of his $1.9 trillion proposal. Now, a 60-vote deal would have to be skimely. for, by the way, state and local relief, which is something that Democrats claim they really care about, and less money for vaccine distribution, which seems ridiculous right now, unemployment insurance, and nutritional assistance or SNAP. It would have far more targeted relief checks, meaning more means testing. We are told by administration sources that a bill of this sort might be in the $600 to $800 billion range.

So it is certainly far skimpier than the $1.9 trillion that was previously proposed by Biden. Now the goal here is to pass the skimpier version, so Biden can basically be able to say, look at that, bipartisanship, I succeeded. And then through reconciliation, he would pass a more robust bill, a second bill that would include all of the different elements that were cut out in the first bill. Progressives are not happy about this. I'll give you their response in just a minute. But, Was, I wanted to get your thoughts.

Yeah, I pretty much said most of this, but I will say that, you know, I don't understand the strategy here. I don't know how the strategy can be to pass something much skimpier, try to get however many Republicans, about a dozen Republicans or 10 Republicans on board to get the 60 filibuster-proof majority,

super majority in there, how that can be more effective than figuring out how to court the votes for reconciliation from those idiot Democrats in West Virginia and Arizona. I don't want to say their names because I'm just so disgusted by them. I don't know what the strategy is. Maybe Joe Biden is a master legislator, Anna, and he's going to get this through and he's going to come through for the American people and is going to deliver democratic waves of results going forward. And we're going to the new millennia. No, it's not going to happen. This grew in the picture. It's obvious. Yeah, they are. And look, what's insane is that most of the discussions right now are focused on what can we do to appeal to Republican lawmakers who really have absolutely no

interest in helping Joe Biden pass popular relief packages. They would much rather do exactly what they did under the Obama administration, which is obstruct and prevent the passage of legislation because they know that if Democrats fail, then it's much easier for them to win back majorities in the House and the Senate. And also, I just, I really think that there's a part of this for Biden where he wants to prove himself, you know, because there have been, such as us, even establishment corporate media types have kind of like snickered and laughed at the idea of unity among congressional Democrats and Republicans, especially considering that so many of the congressional Republicans were part of questioning and challenging Biden's electoral

college vote. So I think, you know, Biden does want to at least give the appearance that he is able to do things in a bipartisan way. But this is not a time to prove yourself on nonsense. Like no one cares. No one cares about how you can unite Congress. Everyone does care, though, about ensuring that you provide economic relief as soon as possible. So let's stop having these conversations about, you know, oh, maybe we do a skimp beer bill first and then a more robust bill later through reconciliation. Just get them what they need now. We need money for vaccine distribution now. That's not something that we should even have a discussion about cutting from the next relief bill. It just doesn't make any sense at all. And by the way, there's

quite a bit that Joe Biden can do unilaterally. There's quite a bit the executive branch can do unilaterally without even having to deal with Congress. And I know Congress isn't gonna like it because they're lazy and they never get anything done. And then as soon as a president decides to do something through executive order, they cry about it, right? But David Dayan wrote a fantastic series. There's a series in The American Prospect that I highly recommend you you guys read. And it talks about all of the different things that Biden can do legally, constitutionally, in order to provide relief to Americans right away. And I want to give you a little taste of that from an interview that David Dayan had on the majority report. Take a look.

What could he do in the context of health care at this point? Well, there are a few things, obviously reversing some of the Trump administration policies on junk insurance, some of the ways that he used to get really poor insurance back into the health care system, that would be sort of the bare minimum. There is, and I haven't fully researched this, but I believe there is a way to through the emergency regulations, to essentially give people who are uninsured and have coronavirus or in heart, hit areas with the coronavirus to give them Medicare.

And the one precedent for this is the city of Libby, Montana, which had a toxic asbestos situation because there was a plant there that was spewing this into the air. And all residents of Libby, Montana, are on Medicare for life. And it's because of this emergency production that you can do to say that because, through no fault of their own. They have been sick and they're going to have these high health care costs. We as a country are going to, you know, because of this natural disaster, we're going to pick them up and we're going to give them Medicare. So that's one example. And what he said there is true. The executive branch can unilaterally

decide in this emergency situation to provide Medicare for people who lost their health insurance, for instance, their employer-based health insurance as a result of getting laid on. off. One other thing that Biden could do, not just Biden, the education secretary can unilaterally do, is cancel all federal student loan debt, all of it. It's legal to do that unilaterally without Congress's approval. Now again, Congress isn't going to like it. Republicans, of course, are going to cry as they did with Obama doing things through executive orders. But let's just remember how heavy-handed Trump was with executive orders when he was in charge. Yeah, I just love, I want to take a positive view because, you know, I am somebody who was very bearish on Joe Biden from the start of his candidacy throughout the primary, through the campaign after he won the primary. And now I remain bearish. But maybe, look, maybe he's like, look, I campaigned on being the guy that would be able to come to Washington and wave my magic wand.

bond of bipartisanship over everybody, even though it's been about 30 years of, you know, sectarian politics. I campaign on this. So I'm going to try. And maybe he's going to try. And when he fails, he's going to say, all right, guys, he can come out incredibly say, he gave it the old college try. And now he's going to do, take the necessary steps to do things by themselves, period. How they get some of the more conservative Democrats in the caucus to play ball, I don't know. I don't know that these are traditional politicians in the sense that they can be bought and paid by just straight up pork for their districts, right? Like a normal politician would be like, I'll sell you my vote, but you need to deliver X, Y, and Z to West Virginia. You need to deliver X, Y, and Z to Arizona. That's what normal traditional politicians used to do. I don't know that these guys these days are self-interested in that way, right? So we'll see if that works. But, you know, I would love for Joe Biden to come out. And on the first day, instead of asking for permission, ask forgiveness, just do it.

Just go out and do what you want, how you want, because you were elected to do so. I think the biggest problem, and this disconnect doesn't get discussed enough, is that Joe Biden and Democrats keep debating this issue as if the economic relief is not popular among Republican voters. Remember, Republican politicians and Joe Manchin and Kirsten Cinema are not representing the best interests of their constituents. They're afraid of upsetting their donors, there are other reasons. But if you look at what their actual constituents want, especially in West Virginia, by the way, which was already dealing with extreme poverty before the pandemic, they certainly do want economic relief. When it comes to the 2000

$1,000 stimulus checks. Remember, when Mansion had signal that he was against that amount, there were all sorts of efforts, you know, radio ads, calling him out. And he started to kind of backtrack a little bit because he realized, oh, wait, people are actually paying attention. And my own constituents absolutely do want this kind of relief. So this is my way of saying and buttressing your point, that if Democrats want to hold mansions feet to the fire, they certainly can do that. They know they can do that, because what they're proposing is popular. Who cares what Republican lawmakers want? What they want, which is basically more austerity, no relief, is incredibly unpopular. So run on that. Go out there and make sure that their constituents

know about it and that their constituents harass the hell out of them about it. That's how you play hardball. And we'll talk about that a little more in the next story. But first we got to take a break. When we come back, Kevin McCarthy had an interesting talk with Republican lawmakers. But through that talk, I think we can learn a lesson on the left. So let's take a quick break. And when we come back, I'll give you the details on that and more.

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.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.