The Young Turks - The White House Is Imploding! NYT Op-Ed From Inside.

Episode Date: September 6, 2018

A portion of our Young Turks Main Show from September 5, 2018. For more go to http://tyt.com/JOIN. A book and an anonymous op-ed: The White House is imploding. 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. All right, welcome to the Young Turks. Thank you, Granite, Kusperin with you guys. Big show ahead as usual, especially in the ear of Donald Trump. Now, normally, I tell you, oh, my God, you got to wait for a story later on the program, just the way the rhythm of the rundown, which I believe was a song back.

in the day. Rhythm of the rundown? Can you feel the rhythm of the rundown? No, okay. That's, I made that up. Okay. Okay. Okay, so sometimes it'll be the fourth story, the fifth story, the A story.

Wrong, today's the first story. So you don't have to wait much longer. But before we get to that, just real quick, you know, we're doing this membership drive. We launched it yesterday. You guys were incredible bananas, bonkers, all those words that need to be applied to you, remember, you are bonkers. And Anna did an outlandish thing yesterday, called for 30,000 subscribers by the end of the day. So first of all, let me just remind you the number of subscribers we started with.

Again, this is nuts, we too are bonkers. You're not supposed to tell the number of subscribers you have, almost no company does that publicly and at least at this level of detail. So let's see what we started with yesterday when we started the membership drive, 27,661. And Anna said, can we see 30,000 by the end of the day? Well, that's impossible. The overall goal of 100,000 by the end of the year is impossible. So there's a lot of impossible things going on.

But yesterday was unbelievable. Today continues to be unbelievable. So we actually got more than a thousand, but 30,000. Okay, I can't take it anymore. What's the number? What's the number? I'm losing my mind right now. The current number is 28,5707.

You know, it's all right. It's all right. No, no, no. For everyone who's considering signing up, but hasn't made that leap yet, I believe in you. We believe in you. And you obviously believe in us. So just take that dive. Do it.

How is that for encouragement? Do it. Do it now. Okay, no, seriously, there's some chance we can get to $30,000. I don't know. By the end of the day, is that mental? I don't know. I might actually present a full story doing the shoulder shimmy if that happens.

Like I'd be too excited, I wouldn't be able to stop myself. Full shoulder shimmy story if we can get a bite today, okay? A little bit in the front, a little bit in the back. No, but in all seriousness though, guys. And thank you, thank you for all the, not just joining up, but all the kind words, etc. Now we're reading the Young Turks members' comments first and foremost in the comments section. and you do that on the website on t yt.com, obviously when we're live, you just, there's a live button you could press and, and obviously to join up t.com slash join. All right, thank you.

Now, the biggest story of the day. Yes. By the way, don't undersell the rest of the rundown because it's pretty damn good, okay? No, I know, but look, my job is to keep it real. Okay, this first story is amazing. It is. All right. The New York Times has just published an op-ed, and this op-ed was written by an anonymous individual. However, this is actually a senior Trump official. Now, because of obvious reasons, this senior Trump official has decided to not share his or her, most likely his, identity. Is it?

Hmm. Okay. So look, this op-ed does not look good for Trump. And this is not a former Trump administration official. This is a current Trump senior official. And here is what he or she has to say. The dilemma which he, meaning Trump, does not fully grasp is that many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda

and his worst inclinations. So that's an amazing admission right there. It's unprecedented. I've never seen anything like that where an administration official says, yes, I am inside the administration and working against. against the wishes of the president, oftentimes, not all times. He goes on to clarify, let's assume for now that it's a he, because that is the overwhelming majority of the people that work at the White House, that no, you have to understand

something. There's a lot that I'm proud of that we did in this administration. Deregulation, tax cuts, you get the picture. Right. And so they're definitely a Republican, no question you can tell from the way they've written op-ed and how they brag about free markets and all the other things. But what they're saying is, you have to understand, we're not opposed to the president's agenda.

Those of us who are inside, and it's not, he says, it's not just him, that there are many others inside the White House. They're not opposed to the president's agenda at all. They're opposed to the president being off the rails, as he describes it, and an endanger to national security, and basically our form of government. This confirms every single thing that we've been telling you on the Young Turks for the last two years. Now, you can choose not to believe anything you like, but New York Times isn't going to print this article and possibly ruin their reputation. If this isn't a senior

administration official, it most certainly is. This is a view from inside the White House, and it is frightening. The best way to summarize this is by going to one line that stood out to me the most in this entire op-ed, where this individual clearly stated, don't worry, there are adults in the room. Okay, so let's get to the rest of this. So early on in this op-ed, the Trump administration official says, you know, that there are, of course, people trying to go against or work against or mitigate his worst inclinations. And he says, I would know I'm one of them.

So he's clear in saying that he is part of the resistance to Donald Trump within his own administration. To be clear, ours is not the popular resistance of the left. We want the administration to succeed and think many of its policies have already made America safer and more prosperous. Agreed to disagree on that, but that's okay. Right. So he continues. The president continues to act in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic.

See, that's really important. And that's another thing that we've been emphasizing on this show. Hey, hey, people say, won't Mike Pence be worse than Donald Trump because he's actually competent might get more Republican agenda passed into law? No, that's not the point, guys. You're missing the point. Donald Trump doesn't believe in democracy. And as this guy talks about, no, he's like in private too, he loves dictators. And he just, he would destroy our form of government and our republic in a heartbeat if he thought

it was to his slight advantage, particularly financial advantage. So you're not getting the severity of the situation. That is why there's this unprecedented source within the White House going, he's a danger to the Republic, we work with them every day. That is an unbelievable statement, danger to the Republic, because Donald Trump is now the President of the United States and does not believe in our form of government. So there were specifics noted in this op-ed, but one of the specifics that stood out to me personally was the utter disdain this particular person has for Trump's policies

on trade. And that also solidified, in my opinion, the credibility of this person. person being in Trump's administration. We're talking about Republicans who traditionally have loved free trade, hate the idea of tariffs. And then Trump comes in and he decides, no, I'm going to impose tariffs randomly and sporadically and do so in a weirdly retaliatory way. And Republicans have spoken out against it. Now, in this case, there are members of his administration who are lifelong Republicans, I would assume, and they see this, they see Trump's policies, and they're speaking out against it, and this op-ed is no exception.

But I, look, I want to be clear about something, because that example has two different directions, right? On the one hand, you clearly the guy is, see that the guy's clearly conservative, Republican, et cetera. On the other hand, if all of this was just about, hey, I don't like Donald Trump's proposals on free trade, then I'd say this guy is a traitor. I mean, that's a strong language, and I don't mean to the country, but I would say, yeah, okay, you disagree with the president.

you're not allowed to undermine him, get the hell out of the White House. I don't want him arrested or anything, but I don't care if Donald Trump is the most conservative or the most right-wing guy in the country. If you just don't like his policies, then don't work with him. I need you to understand, and his example is clarify, it is not about that. It's not about policy. The guy is mentally unstable. He invokes the 25th Amendment, something we've been telling you about on the show all the

time. I said it so many times, it's not about impeachment as much as it is about the 24th Amendment. The President is deeply unstable. And to give you an example of how unstable this person thinks Trump is, he writes, the root of the problem is the president's amorality. Anyone who works with him knows he is not moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making. So his morality is called into question, which is unsurprising for us, but it is good

to hear it from someone who works closely with him. Anyone who works with him, he says throughout knows he's unstable, immoral, changes his mind all the time. So that reference to first principles is, as a politician, you are supposed to theoretically have principles. Now I think that that's overrated. I don't think a lot of them have principles. I think their principal is who's signing my checks, the donors, et cetera.

Now, having said that, yes, but they pretend, at least pretend to have principles. Hey, I am for this and I am against that. As he explains throughout the article here, he's like, no, no, he changes his mind on a minute to minute basis. There is no guiding principles for Donald Trump. The only thing is, what's in his childish, stupid head at that moment. That's why even when they undermine his policies, he doesn't even realize they're undermining his policies, because he's too stupid to realize it.

Right. So he also writes, in addition to his mass marketing of the notion that the press is the enemy of the people, President Trump's impulses are generally anti-trade and anti-democratic. So the anti-trade part that I was referring to earlier was in that excerpt. But, you know, the anti-democratic part is something that this person touched on throughout the op-ed, this worry about Trump's authoritarian nature, this worry about Trump having this affinity for authoritarian leaders throughout the world. He continues to talk about some of Trump's successes, but says that those successes didn't

happen because of Trump. Those successes happened despite Trump, which I thought were some strong words. So he lists those successes by saying, you know, affect. defective deregulation, historic tax reform, a more robust military and more. And then he says, the successes have come despite not because of the president's leadership style, which is adversarial, petty, and ineffective. So that's all the things, again, we've been telling you, you can see with your own eyes. He's clearly adversarial, and some people like that about him.

But the question was, is that part of a strategy? And I told you for two straight years, any pundit on TV talking about, okay, but Donald Trump did this because of his strategy is that. I'm like, no, you don't know him at all, I ignore anything this person says, because they're still trying to pretend that Donald Trump is smart and has strategy. No, here is a senior administration officials saying, there ain't no strategy, and he's wildly ineffective. He's just lashing about because he's unintelligent, a child, impetuous, and yes, your eyes are

not deceiving you, ineffective. The only thing we ever get done is despite him, not because he had some sort of brilliant strategy. So there's more. He writes about what it's like to have meetings with Trump and how disastrous they are. Meetings with him veer off topic and off the rails. He engages in repetitive rants, which is unsurprising, and his impulsiveness results in half-baked, ill-informed, and occasionally reckless decisions that have to be walked back.

So one thing that I want to just quickly point out, because we've talked about it yesterday, and I think it's definitely related to this op-ed that we're reading today, Bob Woodward's book is coming out soon. And multiple publications, including The Washington Post, got an early copy of it. They reviewed it and reported on some of the accusations against Trump, which, by the way, Woodward is a renowned journalist. He spoke to current administration officials, former administration officials, and he's credible. And so now all of a sudden, a day after the reporting happens on that book, you have a senior

Trump official coming out and saying these things. And what it's really doing is reinforcing what Woodward has written about in his book. But more importantly, I think that this is a way, this is my speculation. I feel like this is a way of someone within the administration trying to calm or ease everyone's nerves, but also maybe even possibly trying to, in the future, clear himself of any possible wrongdoing. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. So, but, and they're saying, look, remember, we're the good, we were the good guys trying to prevent this madman from doing something absolutely crazy. Don't hold us accountable for his actions. We're actually trying to restrain him. I'm going to relate to the Game of Thrones

in a little bit. But before I do that, two things on Woodward. And he's at this point, fairly establishment, to say the least, right? And so people talk to Woodward if they're worried about something. So Republicans are going to go talk to Woodward. if they want to send a message. And the message that they're sending from inside the White House is, help, help, SOS. You guys that are not inside the White House have no idea how deeply irrational, impetuous, and ineffective Donald Trump is, and how mentally unstable he is. We can't say it publicly.

And finally, after Woodward's book has become public, this guy comes down and goes, I'm just going to say it. I mean, I can't, if I out myself, I'll be fired, right? I don't want to be fired. I want to keep control of the Mad King, but at this point, I got to let you know, the guy's lost his mind. We have got somebody in charge who has no mind at all. And that's what's coming through here. And last thing on Woodward is, remember he got famous during Watergate, him and Bernstein

had the famous deep throat source inside the Nixon White House. There's not one deep throat here, there's like dozens of deep throats. So many people inside the administration talked to Bob Woodward, and we're like, help, help, somebody, get this guy out, you guys don't understand the severity of the problem. And I think part of it is a genuine concern about the direction the country's going in, but I think part of it is also the fact that Trump shows how unbelievably disloyal he is to everyone around him. Like he will shiv people, you know, at the slightest perception of wrongdoing, right?

And so Trump's made a lot of enemies. And one of the things that I worry about, Jank, is his base. Because Trump has already planted a seed of rigged elections, media is enemy of the people. And if the Mueller investigation goes forward in the way that we suspect it's going to go forward, I'm worried that his base is going to think that there was collusion against Trump and that things could get violent as a result of that. So I don't know, we can have a longer conversation. But I do want to give you more of what this official wrote.

Yeah, quick thing on the basis, look, at some point, half of them are going to be embarrassed. It turns out they were following someone who had already lost his mind. And just like happened with Nixon, you won't be able to find a Nixon voter. After Nixon got impeached, they would do polls and they'll say, did you vote for Nixon? Now, even though he won and he won overwhelmingly, the polls would indicate that only a tiny percentage of the American people voted for. The reality is, of course they voted for him. They were just too embarrassed to say it.

And yes, there'll be some people who will hold on for dear life and they'll watch in for wars and they'll believe every conspiracy and they'll think, no, he wasn't crazy, everyone else inside the White House was crazy. And Q was going to let us know about how the insane asylum had been let out and put into the White House against the wishes of Donald Trump, even though he picked them, right? And they'll have all these conspiracies, and that'll be a significant chunk of the country. But probably a lot of people will say, I'm Trump, no. I didn't vote for him.

I don't know what you did Trump. Who's strong? Yeah. I mean, to a lesser extent that happened with George Bush as well. And by the way, I mean, as we go here, you got to understand, there was one other thing that we were right about. Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. This is the Republicans is going, pushing him out the door, going, you guys don't get it.

He's got to go. He's got to go. So let me give you more. Some of his aides, meaning some of Trump's aides, have been cast as villains by the media. But in private, they have gone to great lengths to keep bad decisions contained. to the West Wing, though they are clearly not always successful. That's going to go to my Kingslayer theory in a minute. Okay, but there's more.

Americans should know that there are adults in the room, and that's what I referenced earlier in the story, we fully recognize what is happening and we are trying to do what's right even when Donald Trump won't. And finally, given the instability, many witnessed, there were early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the president. But no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis. So we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction until one

way or another, it's over. Gary, he's telling you, use the 25th Amendment. We're inside the building. The guy is insane. Use the 25th Amendment. That is when the cabinet gets together and says, and there are a couple of different ways do it, but mainly the cabinet can say the president is mentally disabled. We need to remove him from office using the 25th Amendment and put in the vice president.

I think they're gonna have to go to it. And so that's not me saying it. And I know a lot of people thought, oh, no, you guys are progressives, you're biased against them. Look, man, we're biased against all those conservatives, right? That's our perspective. I don't like John McCain. I didn't think he lost his mind.

I can't stand Marco Rubio, but I don't think Mark Rubio is crazy or stupid. is a slime ball, that doesn't mean that if he became president, we say, now he's lost his mind, no, he is who he is. This guy, we've been telling you from day one, he's monumentally, I mean, and now I'm actually feeling bad about calling him stupid about a billion times because he might be mentally damaged. I'm not, look again, it's not me, it's a senior administration official saying, push the button, 25th Amendment, we gotta think about it, and we gotta hang on for dear life inside the

House until it's over. Can he get any stronger than that? It's pretty incredible. And he can, you know, he talks about how privately, he shows a preference for autocrats and dictators, and he talks about John McCain and how he was honorable and put that last letter in saying, don't do partisanship. He's like, look, man, I'm a Republican, but this is not time for Republican-Democrat games. He said about McCain, Mr. Trump may fear such an honorable man, but we're not.

should revere them. Wow. Wow. Talking about how Trump is such a jerk that he fears honorable people. Okay. So, tick, tick, tick. So finally, Kingslayer. Now, obviously in this context, we don't mean literally, we mean politically. But it's possible that there is someone close to the king, a hand of the king, if you will, in the Game of Thrones analogy, who just takes out a political sword and goes, we're done with this because he's the mad king. So who could it be? And I'm not saying that they're going to do it. But if they were a real patriot, they would. And how would they do it? Because again, we're talking about politics here, not physical stuff. So it can't be someone who's tangential. It can't even be someone that Trump is known

to be fighting with a little bit. So it can't even be his own chief of staff, John Kelly. I was thinking it was probably John Kelly. Yeah, but he'd just say, oh, he's deep state. I never liked him in the first place, and the base would rally, et cetera. It has to be someone that base deeply, deeply trusts. Gary Cohn, maybe? No, nope, no way. They'll call him a globalist, Goldman Sachs guy, et cetera. So the one person I thought of is...

We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-Fing the Republic or UNFTR. As a young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations are constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the rich and power. But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the conventional wisdom. In each episode of Un-B-The-Republic or UNFTR, the host delves into a different historical episode or topic that's generally misunderstood or purposely obfuscated by the so-called powers that be. Featuring in-depth research, razor-sharp commentary, and just the right amount of vulgarity,

the UNFTR podcast takes a sledgehammer to what you think. thought you knew about some of the nation's most sacred historical cows. But don't just take my word for it. The New York Times described UNFTR as consistently compelling and educational, aiming to challenge conventional wisdom and upend the historical narratives that were taught in school. For as the great philosopher Yoda once put it, You must unlearn what you have learned. And that's true whether you're in Jedi training,

or you're uprooting and exposing all the propaganda and disinformation you've been. been fed over the course of your lifetime. So search for UNFDR in your podcast app today and get ready to get informed, angered, and entertained all at the same time. Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Oh, Jorabs. Yeah, yeah, that's a possibility. If she came out one day and said, uh, sorry guys, but I'm, I'm tendering my resignation.

that 25th Amendment should be invoked, the president has lost his mind. I don't think it's her. I think that it would actually hurt her way more than help her. I mean, she's on the record on a regular basis defending him, defending the very thing. If she wrote this, defending the very things that she's speaking out against in this op-ed, right? But remember, anyone who wrote this op-ed is lying through their teeth publicly. Because when asked, they don't raise their hand. And they're like, oh, yeah, yeah, Donald Trump's lost his mind.

you guys should use the 25th Amendment, they go, oh, no, Donald Trump is wonderful. What do you mean? Of course, I fully support him. So I'm not saying this Sarah Huckabee Sanders. I'm not saying Sarah Huckabee Sanders is going to do that. I'm not saying anybody inside the Trump White House is necessarily going to do that. But if there was a truly honorable person in a position like that, again, it can't be a rinky dink person, people won't, you know, act.

But if it was somebody like Sarah Huckabee Sanders, she actually could save the country. If she stepped up to that podium and said, the president has lost his mind, you should use the 25th Amendment, that would have immediate, massive reverberations and the Republicans who are plenty angry at them already. Now, especially with the dumb Southerner comment, my God, he has lost so much support in the Senate in the House among Republicans that they might come out and go, that's it, we got to go. Sorry, 25th Amendment. So, or impeachment or whatever it takes. But that's where we are, guys. Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. Tick, tick.

We're near the end. He's now no inconceivable that a man this unstable can last four years. That's what I said on day one. That's what I'm saying today. And you will see that I am completely right about that. Am I going to lose my bet against you? Well, I, you know, I've been saying before the midterms, there's only about two months left, on the other hand, this is the most unprecedented thing I have ever seen, a senior

administration official putting out an SOS publicly in the New York Times saying, somebody, for God's sake, do something. So could it happen in the next two months? It could. Okay, well, I'm glad it was only $50. All right, and I win either way when you really think about it. Okay, we're gonna take a quick break. When we come back, Trump's reaction to the Woodward book, how he wants to change laws as a result

of what that book says about him, and then later on, we hopefully will get to the story about STDs that I've been dying to talk about. Okay, STDs later in the program. All right, back on the Young Turks, Jank and Anna, with you guys. We have breaking news in a second related to the story we just told you. I want to read a couple of quick comments first. Dale Chomsky says, this is member comments from t.t.com, always skeptical of palis intrigue, it rarely does anything substantive and tends to serve the already powerful.

Yeah, these are not normal times, brother. Okay, so this is not normal palis intrigue as you're about to see in a sec too. Eric Orchenko says the first story today is a perfect example what only TYT provides, layers of context without the empty establishment of media shock and analysis that proves true, glad to be member. Thank you, Eric. Super appreciated. And here, let me just give you two more. This is from YouTube's super chat. Feresto Montero says, I'll sign up today if you'll tell us your opinion on the Donna Brazil tweets from last week. Okay, I'll look into it and tell you, no problem. I think she blocked JR on Twitter, which I thought was hilarious. So maybe we'll talk about it

in a postgame. So if you sign up, you'll get to see it on a postgame one day. TYT.com slash join. Lars Nilsson says on YouTube super chat, that the national. Nationalist increases poll numbers here in Sweden, just five days from the election, makes me very word. Joan TYT yesterday to feel some hope and unity against this cancer on society. I hear you on that, brother. So much more on that. In fact, let's go to the breaking news. All right. Following the New York Times op-ed that featured an administrative or Trump administration official, current Trump administration official, calling out Trump for his terrible behavior as president. Trump has responded to that op-ed by saying just one word on Twitter, treason. Also, Sarah Huckabee Sanders has issued a statement that I want to read to you right now.

She says the individual behind this piece has chosen to deceive rather than support the duly elected president of the United States. He is not putting country first, but putting himself and his ego ahead of the will of the American people. Yeah, so look, this reaction is unsurprisingly. In fact, as soon as I read that op-ed, I thought, why hasn't Trump tweeted yet? He is going to be in an absolute rage. But this is going to actually spin him into a different set of problems.

Because look, in life overall, the first mistake isn't an issue. It's when you compound the mistakes in a panic is when you get into real trouble. Oh, he's the compounder in chief. Exactly right, Anna. I mean, all he does is compound. And the worst situation is, the more he compounds. And this situation is code red. You have senior administration officials going out and telling the country, the president

is mentally unstable, you should consider using the 25th Amendment. And so of course Trump's going to lose his whatever mind he has left. And according to the senior administration official, it isn't much. So he comes out and goes treason into the abyss. I was saying in our initial coverage of it, there needs to be some sort of king slayer to the Mad King, again, it's a political analogy, obviously not a physical one, and we're saying about maybe Sarah Huckabee Sanders, if she were to come out and to say, no, it's true, the president has lost his mind, that would make a giant difference.

And Anna pointed out, very unlikely to be her, of course. But, you know, as I was reading it, and then Edward, our stage manager said the same thing during the break before this story came out, Kelly Ann Conway is the most likely person because her husband is constantly tweeting against Donald Trump to begin with. But see, that gets into Palestine intrigue because the issue is, and the substance of it is much, much more important than who the leaker is. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. But it's fun to speculate about who it is.

By the way, one final part of Sarah Huckabee Sanders' statement that I think is relevant to this, she believes that this person should do the right thing. This coward should do the right thing and resign. Yeah. Yeah. So, and as Anna alluded to in the initial story, we're gonna find out who this person is. And I don't know if it'll be before Donald Trump leaves office or after he leaves office. But if he leaves office and the whole country is relieved because it turns out that that

administration official is correct and everyone else in the administration, it was actually trying to make sure that Donald Trump doesn't do something crazy and break the country. threatened the health of our republic, as the person said, then I think there's going to be a moment where the Republicans pretend they didn't know, and all the senators and Congress people go, well, but if I knew that, I didn't know that. In reality, of course, they do know that. There was actually, believe it or not, I can't believe I'm saying this sentence, but a great report from Red State, which is a conservative blog I can't stand.

But Eric Erickson did actually talk to a Republican congressman off the record. And a Republican congressman said, oh, we all know, we all know he's crazy. And, you know, and I can't stand the guy. None of us can stand the guy. But we can't say it, otherwise our base is gonna flip out and vote us out of office. So, but I've been telling you that from day one. Of course they know they're in the room with them. Who could sit in the room with them and not realize what an idiot he is or unstable he is,

and what a danger he is, and he doesn't understand democracy, doesn't understand our former government at all. I mean, but you know what, that argument about, oh, we can't, we can't do the right thing, because if we do the right thing, our base will be upset with us. It shows you this disconnect between these elected officials and their own constituents, right? The lack of communication, the lack of helping them, the lack of representing them. They don't trust you because you haven't served them, right? So they see Trump is the person who's, because of his populist rhetoric, the person who will serve them.

You need to do a better job to make your case against Trump. They're too afraid to do it. I mean, you want to talk about a coward. Cowards are the people who know how dangerous Donald Trump is and don't do anything about it because of their own political careers. Exactly. So at least this official that came out to the New York Times is trying to do something to warn the country.

Should he do more? Of course I think he should do more. But at least he's done that, which the rest of them haven't. And he talks about there's two tracks inside the White House. One is Donald Trump, which is off the rails. And he's like, even if we wanted to follow his agenda, he says, which agenda? He changes his mind every minute. So it's impossible to follow anyway.

So what we do is we find the course that is least damaging to the country, and we go on that track. And so it's not him alone. He says, Bob Woodward's book backs it up, every other piece of reporting we have backs it up, that there are a great number of people inside the White House that knows the president is unstable, and so they're trying to keep them on the right track in their minds. So look, I think that once Trump has gone, all those cowards will then come out and pretend, the ones that knew all along will pretend, especially the congressmen and the senators, that they didn't know.

And then they'll turn around and make a hero out of this guy, because they'll say, oh yeah, he's the one that let us know, and that's why it was important, and he's a hero and all that stuff. But the reality is, right now, they all already know and they won't act because of how afraid they are. Exactly. Which is so sad. They're afraid of a guy who belongs in an insane asylum. They're willing to sacrifice our democracy in order to maintain and preserve their political

careers. I mean, just think about that for a second. Let's move on to my favorite part of the show today, okay? As you all know, we are doing a membership drive. and our goal is to reach 100,000 members by the end of the year. Very lofty goal, but I believe in us, I think that we can do it. When I say we, I mean you, the young Turks. So we received tweets from our members that I want to share with you all that I personally

love, made me all emotional. So let's take a look at the first tweet. This is from Brian Madrigal, and he said, I'm excited at what Jenk just announced, I'm paying for content and also for progressive change. me any other program you pay for that is doing those two things, pay for that is doing those two things. Hashtag proud to you, I team member. Brian, thank you, brother.

And you know, that is what we promise. I know that a lot of the rest of the press doesn't like that. And they go, oh, you guys are activists, you're not allowed to do that. Who's stopping us? And if we have 100,000 members, correct the answer is no one. They won't be able to stop us. So yes, we believe in change. And that's why we helped support the just Democratic candidates.

26 of them have already won their primaries. When no one believed, no one believed last night, Ianna Presley won, another shocking upset. Shocking upset after shocking upset. Are we proud that we helped to make that happen? Even if it was a small role, a midsize role, whatever role it was, you're absolutely right that we're proud. Of course we're proud, because we fight for change and that's getting you guys real change. We featured all those candidates.

We tried to help in every way we could with the uncorrupted candidates. And if we made a difference, that's a fantastic thing. And to Anna's point, you guys made the difference. You watched, you voted, you volunteered, some of you gave to them as well. And I want you to keep doing that and we'll talk about that more later in the show. Jeff Barrett says, I consider TYT network membership and investment in my kids' future well-being. Wow, thank you, Jeff. That's actually really powerful.

Okay, Andrew Johnson says, I was part of that, I was part of that first number by a day, by a day became an activist yesterday and it's worth the money. Love the post game. Can't wait to see no filter. Yes. Yes. I like how Anna Reggie's live. Can't wait to see no filter episodes as soon as they're up.

Love Anna and I love John and Jank and Hassan. Love all of you guys and I felt bad by watching on YouTube. Don't feel bad about watching on YouTube. Watch wherever you get this program. They're on a lot of different platforms. But if you become a member, well, that's fantastic and we appreciate it. Obviously, it's t.t.com slash join. And if you don't know, no filters, obviously, Anna's show.

Why is it obvious? Hence the excitement. All right. John the writer says, been a member for over two years and I have zero regrets, absolutely love this network, just kid, except Michael Shore, just kidding, dude, even you. Okay, I like that one Because look, we kid each other all the time Yesterday after the show

So I'm gonna be to Jimmy about Michael And as much as they fight on air They go over beer afterwards And you know what Jimmy said about Michael? He's like, you know why I like Michael? Because he's funny Michael is pretty funny He's got that dry sense of humor

Dude, he is super dry By the way, his show is reasonably sure And so our shows Like No Filter is a podcast on our app But members get all the shows. So that's another, obviously, huge reason to join. Q, the nurse, wrote us and said, just upgraded from a TYT insider to TYT activist, but I want to do more. Please make a way for people to gift six-month or one-year memberships.

Hashtag Whisper of a Dream, hashtag Too Strong, hashtag TYT Army. I love every one of these tweets. Okay, so we are working on that gifting program. We will get that to you guys later. Thank you for asking to do that. You guys are amazing. So we will start that a little bit later. And I'm all about whisper of a dream.

Me, John, and Jimmy talked about that a lot yesterday in terms of the progressive wave that's coming, not just a democratic wave, but a progressive wave. And look, you need media to back that up. And so we appreciate you guys literally being that media because you are the young Turks. So t.com slash join. By the way, also check out Jimmy's shows, Jimmy Doors show and aggressive progressive, Both in the network and John's show, Damage Report, also in the network, you get basically progressive Netflix, all of these different progressive shows in one place, and that's TYT.

So yesterday we started at 27,661, first day of the membership drive. Today when we started the show was 28,507. Let me see the new number now. Oh, my God! That's amazing. You guys, come on, let's get to 30,000. Let's get to 30,000. But you don't understand.

Let's please get to 30,000. Let's do it. I'm so excited right now. Like, I need to call down. Plus your heart, man. That's awesome. By the way, when you guys first showed the 501, I was like, oh, it didn't move at all. Shwang, wang, wang.

I know. I'm like, all right, let's get off and get off and get off. All right. But you guys know us, man. We're 100% real. We're surprised every time the number moves. So thank you again. Tyt.com slash join.

And by the way, the activist thinks she was referring to is there's, once you get to go to the signup and you click, you'll see that there's two levels. $4.99 gets you all the shows because we want to make sure everybody gets them, okay? But if you go to $10 that supports independent media and you get extra things like you get first access to so many of the things that we do, okay? So please check out both of those and thank you to all of you. All right. Following news of Bob Woodward's, following news of Bob Woodward's new book, Fear, Donald Trump has decided that since all these books are coming out that make me look really bad, maybe I should change laws to kind of censor people from saying negative things about me.

I'm not kidding. So Trump decided to tweet about how there is a need to change our libel laws, indicating that he believes Bob Woodward has made things up in his book. Let me give you his tweet. He says, isn't it a shame that someone can write an article or book totally make up stories and form a picture of a person that is literally the exact opposite of the fact and get away with it without retribution or cost? You know what?

I do think it's a shame. Trump, someone who does this on a regular basis, don't know why Washington politicians don't change libel laws. Now this isn't the first time that Trump has called for a change in libel laws. In fact, he did so back in January after Michael Wolfe had released his book, Fire and Fury. In fact, we have video of what Trump had to say. Let's take a look. We are going to take a strong look at our country's libel laws so that when somebody

says something that is false and defamatory about someone, that person will have meaningful recourse in our courts. Our current libel laws are a sham and a disgrace and do not represent American values or American fairness. So we're going to take a strong look at that. We want fairness. You can't say things that are false, knowingly false, and be able to smile as money pours into your bank account.

We're going to take a very, very strong look at that. So I enjoyed Rex Tillerson, former Secretary of State, who's not in the administration there, looking super uncomfortable thinking, oh, when will this moron stop? One of the reasons he left was because in that same book, they explained in other stories that Rex Tillerson walked out of a meeting, which is also in Bob Woodward's new book, and said he's an effing moron. And apparently, according to the senior administration official that wrote an op-ed in the New York Times today, everybody in the administration.

knows it. And this is an excellent example of it. The guy talked about how that Donald Trump was basically a danger to the health of our republic, right? Well, look at this tweet. Don't know why Washington politicians don't change libel laws. I know it's called the First Amendment because politicians can't shut people up from criticizing them because it is the very, very core of our Constitution and what it means to be an American.

But he doesn't understand that and doesn't care about that. He thinks, and as he once famously said about North Korea, he said, oh, Kim Jong-un's a good guy, and he's very strong. When he tells people to stand up, they stand up in North Korea. Why can't we do that here? I wish it was like that here. That's because North Korea is a dictatorship. By the way, a communist dictatorship.

And we don't live in a dictatorship. We live in a democracy where we're free to disagree with you and say so publicly. But he hates that. So he's like, why don't the politicians just get together and institute corruption, where we just shut everybody up and don't let them speak against the powerful. Why don't we just do that? And the earlier sentence, he says, people can say these things about us, politicians, and get away with it without retribution.

This guy doesn't care about America. He doesn't even understand America. No, he doesn't. And also, there are laws protecting individuals from libel, right, from slander, defamation. And so if Trump genuinely believed that these accusations were made up, he could take Woodward to court, right? But he would have to prove malice, meaning reckless disregard for truth, bad intent. But we know that there wasn't a reckless disregard for truth. We know that Trump wouldn't take him to court because he has absolutely no merit to do that.

And by the way, our libel laws, first of all, very state by state. That's something that Trump should know. But we've had libel laws since, you know, the mid-19, I'm sorry, since the mid-1700s. And so the defense for libel suits or defamation suits is the truth, right? And nothing made that clear than the very first case in U.S. history that I wanted to just quickly talk about because I find this stuff super interesting. So let's go to Graphics 6. New York City publisher John Peter Zanger was imprisoned for eight months back in 19, I'm sorry,

back in 1734, okay, for printing attacks on the governor of the colony. Zanger won his case and was acquitted by jury in 1735 under the council of Andrew Hamilton. The case established some precedent that the truth should be an absolute defense against libel charges. So he proved, no, I'm telling the truth about this person. in a position of power. And the lawyer in that case was so important, they made a Broadway play out of it. 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 that doesn't mean we have to let them. It's possible to stay anonymous online and hide your data from the prying eyes of big tech. And one of the best ways is with ExpressVPN. ExpressVPN hides your IP address, making your active ID more difficult to trace and sell the advertisers. ExpressVPN also encrypts 100% of your network data to protect you from eavesdroppers and cybercriminals. And it's also easy to install. A single mouse click protects all your devices. But listen, guys, this is important. ExpressVPN is rated number one by CNET and Wired magazine.

So take back control of your life online and secure your data with a top VPN solution available, ExpressVPN. And if you go to ExpressVPN.com slash TYT, you can get three extra months for free with this exclusive link just for T-Y-T fans. That's E-X-P-R-E-S-S-V-P-N dot com slash T-YT. Check it out today. They did? No, that was Alexander Hamilton. Oh, like what?

I don't know, I don't know too much about that world. Okay, anyway, all right, leave it to me to make a story super goofy. But yes, truth is a defense, and that's a sad day for Donald Trump, because he's totally unaccustomed to it. Of course, the people in Woodward's book are telling the truth, and Donald Trump isn't. He's a pathological liar, or is his own personal attorney said, according to Bob Woodward, he's an effing liar and a goddamn dumbbell. Yeah, by the way, a few other things that I want to point to, Trump, of course, loves to tweet,

but a lot of his tweets don't age well. And of course, during the Obama administration, Trump had very strong feelings about Bob Woodward, So here's what he had tweeted back in the day. This is a tweet from February 23, 2013. Trump had written in regard to Bob Woodward, must read column by Bob Woodward explaining how Obama pushed for sequestration and promised no tax increase. Oh, seems like you thought he was really credible back then. Another tweet.

Of course. Only the Obama White House can get away with attacking Bob Woodward. Oops. Yeah. Okay, and that ironically proves the case in Bob Woodward's book and the New York Times op-ed from a senior administration official saying Donald Trump changes his positions so frequently no one knows what his real positions are. And because part of what it matters and what it relies on is, what does Donald Trump

think is to his advantage at that particular moment? Because he has no principles, he's like, Woodward attacks Obama, me like, Woodward, Woodward really credible and good. Woodward attacks me, boo, me no like Woodward. Woodward bad. I sue libel, I sue Woodward. He libel. By the way, he was complimentary toward Bob Woodward just recently, right, prior to all

these publications printing the content of the book. So Woodward is kind of like Managault Newman, Amorosa, in that he has receipts. He has recording. So here is a portion of a recording. that he had of Donald Trump conversing with him about the book. Take a listen. It's really too bad because nobody told me about it and I would have loved to have spoken to you.

You know I'm very open to you. I think you've always been fair, but we'll see what happens. Oops. Me like Woodward, me no like Woodward, what did Woodward say? This is the clown in office. But, you know, all that aside, the most important thing. here, guys, is he just, we got a president who doesn't believe in the First Amendment. Of course we're allowed to criticize politicians. Of course we're allowed to talk to reporters about politicians.

There's literally nothing more American than that. Exactly. When we come back, some Republican lawmakers from the South sharing their opinions about Trump's statements about Southerners. We hope you're enjoying this free clip from the Young Turks. If you want to get the whole show and more exclusive content while supporting independent media, become a member at t-y-t.com slash join today. In the meantime, enjoy this free second. Back on I.N. Turks, some member comments, the Uncle Ray says, have been watching for years, so I guess the least I could do was join up, love you guys, right back at you, Uncle Ray.

I'm sorry, the Uncle Ray. Viscuous writes in, the member fee is worth it for the member chat alone. That's true. On YouTube, which is, look, it's got a lot of great things, YouTube super chat where you read all the time, et cetera. But the regular chat on YouTube is a little bit chat roulette from the old days, okay? I'm just keeping it real. There's nudity?

No, no. But I mean, that's not a lot. But I mean, there's a lot of madness there, right? But the member chat is just for the members, so it's like rational, decent people who are part of our community, and so that's on t.y.t.com, okay? L.A.G. says, that's funny already. It's ALY, though. Bukisha. Just became a member last Friday, and I've been following TYT for 10 years now, made sense to finally join the TYT family. I just paid for the year. Makes more sense to me this way.

Well, thank you, Ali. We appreciate it. Could you imagine if it really was Sasha Baron Cohen? I could imagine it. He's like, respect. Yeah. Okay, this is a really good point on Twitter. One dirty lib, which is already funny, says Donald Trump paid the National Inquirer to kill stories and make up stories about Hillary during the 2016 election. Now he wants to punish those who write lies, hashtag facts about him and his administration. Yes.

Hashtack tyrannical government. Yes. That's a great point. He's the one that purposely did libel and defamation against Hillary Clinton against Ted Cruz. Yes. Yes. He got the National Inquirer to write stories about how Ted Cruz had five mistresses

It's preposterous, right? No one believes that. And, okay, and as somewhat more credible that his father killed JFK. Not credible. I'm kidding, it's not at all credible, but more credible than, you know, him having a bunch of affairs, that's for sure. So, and it's always projection, and with Donald Trump, et cetera, okay, right. Michelle, sorry, Mitchell Hodges writes also on Twitter, recent member, long-time listener,

TYT, I'm not American, but TYT, inspire me to get involved with politics in Australia and make positive change for our country in the world. Hashtag no Trump's down under, okay? Damn. Mr. Worldwide. All right, I love it. Last one. Maria Costaneda on YouTube Super Chat.

Got to evaluate my budget tonight to become a member. Please take a look at Arizona Supreme Court that do see expanded slash pact, and it's rejecting 270,000 signature ballot measures for teacher pay. We will look into that. That's how we do this show together. Thank you, Mario. All right. What's next, Dana?

All right. Donald Trump has been accused of calling Jeff Sessions retarded, and that was one of the claims made in Bob Woodward's new book, Fear. And so Trump also specifically, allegedly called out Jeff Sessions for being a dumb Southerner. And that is not playing well with some members of Trump's base. And it certainly isn't playing well with some Republican lawmakers from the South. So just to give you the specifics, the book recounts Trump making pointed remarks such as mentally retarded and dumb Southerner and claimed that Trump had mocked the Attorney

General's Southern Twang behind his back. Now, Trump has denied this, and he has denied it strongly, mostly because of the fact that this would hurt him politically if he didn't strongly deny it. He says the following. The already discredited, it has not been discredited, the already discredited Woodward book, so many lies and phony sources, has me calling Jeff Sessions, quote, mentally retarded and a dumb Southerner. I said neither, never used those terms on anyone, including Jeff, and being a southerner

is a great thing, he made this up to divide. Okay. So interesting things have happened since these allegations, since Trump. Trump's denial of the allegations, people are now coming out of the woodwork. Like, they're just coming out and they're like, hey, yo, I got, I got evidence of him using this type of rhetoric in regard to people he doesn't like, people he disagrees with. And so Howard Stern shared some video from 2004 when Trump was on his show, and we had a little montage for you. So let's take a look.

That's right. And you know who told me that one? I have a golf pro who's mentally retrial. I mean, he's like, really not a smart guy. I was criticized in one magazine where the writer was retarded. He said, Donald Trump put up $7 million. So that's the guy who said, I've never used the term. You're on tape, you schmuck. He, man, he, that's why he's pathological. He can't help but lie, nonstop.

Yeah. It doesn't matter that he's going to get caught. That's two different Howard Stern interviews from the same year from O.F. before. But, and he knows he said those things, he probably said those things a hundred times. But he comes down and said, never use that word, never. No, but you don't get it, Jank. It's this weird, deep state conspiracy where they found someone who has his exact looks, his exact

voice, and they made that actor, this crisis actor, say these words. And then they even took the video and lowered the quality of it to make it look like it was from 2004. I mean, it's amazing what they do. It is amazing. Yeah. By the way, so who are the lawmakers who are not happy about what Trump said about Southerners? You have Senator Johnny Isaacson from Georgia. He was quoted as saying, I'm a Southerner. People can judge my intellect, my IQ, by my product and what I produce rather than what somebody else says. Hold on here because this is really important. It's important for two reasons. First of all, if they thought it wasn't a real story, Isaacson would have said,

I'm not gonna respond to that, that's nonsense, that's not true. Or the president said no such thing, even if he was like 20% on certain, 80% on certain, it doesn't matter, he wouldn't have said, hey, I'm not a dumb Southerner. He knows Trump said it, that's why he says, look, you judge me by my IQ and by my actions. He is directing that at the president, because he knows, just like everybody in Washington knows, of course, Trump said it. The second reason, this is the most important part of this story. If he loses those Republican senators in the South, no, no, no, and then they'll be asking him,

who's retarded now, right? And so, look, and it's a word, and to be fair to Donald Trump, so it's a word that's deeply offensive, and so, by the way, do you think other Republicans might have also used it? Of course. And to be fair to Trump, in 2004, it was not considered as offensive. Now, some people will say, no, no, no, it was very, very offensive. I get you, but it's considered far more offensive today, okay?

So I'm giving you all that, because that's, this story isn't about that. It's about his nonstop lies, his nonstop attack against his own administration officials, and against fellow Republicans. It's going to catch up with them. This is, those Republican senators in the South saying these comments, is that moment catching up to Donald Trump. Yes. Okay, and it'd get much worse if we now start talking about imp.

And those guys go, oh, what did you say about dumb Southerners again? So Senator Isaacson from Georgia isn't the only lawmaker who came out and said something about this. You also have Richard Shelby from Alabama who said this. I guess the president, he says what he thinks. I think the president's probably got a lot of respect for the South. I hope so. He did well there without the South.

He wouldn't be the President of the United States. Again, clearly he thinks Trump did say it. That's why he says the president says what he thinks. And this is all, this is political speak for, you better watch yourself. And of course, Trump can't do that. Now look, we keep using the same word because it's in the context of this story. I'm gonna say it one last time because there's also another amazing instance of Donald Trump using it.

It was in the case of Marley Matlin. So she is an actress who is deaf. She was on Apprentice with Donald Trump. This is so disgusting, by the way, what he said about her. He asked, quote, Marley, is she retarded? He said Trump, a person who worked on the show said, Trump would make fun of her voice. He said, like to make it seem like she was mentally not there, it sounded like he got a real kick out of it. It was really upsetting.

Now, there's so many layers to that, because Donald Trump's too stupid to really. realize she's deaf has no actual mental issues. He's the one with mental issues who thinks, oh, a person who sounds funny is probably not bright. Oh my God, okay? And- I know, by the way, the idea of Trump going around talking about people not being bright is amazing. Like that's not lost on us, we know, right? But this whole debate about him using that word is relevant.

And I would give anything. to have an opportunity to sit down with Sarah Palin who supports Donald Trump and ask her what she thinks about these statements. Because if you can remember, Rahm Emanuel had called progressives, okay, effing retarded. And that was deeply offensive, not just to progressives, but to everyone who, you know, disagrees with the use of that word. Sarah Palin was angry about it, remember? She made a big deal about it because one of her children has a disability.

That's right, that's right. Rahm Emanuel, of course, former chief of staff to Barack Obama, and a guy who hates progressives and part of the reason Obama hired him. So we keep it real on both fronts. And now that's why we ask is Sarah Palin actually going to be honest when it's about a Republican? And my guess is probably not. She certainly has not spoken out about this. And she jumped all over the Rahm Emanuel comments, another case of hypocrisy here.

The degree to which Marley Matlin is smarter than Donald Trump is indescribable. But this is another, you know, thing that Trump does, which is unbearable, he attacks people with disabilities. You remember the reporter with disability that he famously made fun of? Oh, I remember. We have video of that. This is him talking about Sergei Kovaleski, a reporter who has a disability. Written by a nice reporter.

Now the poor guy, you got to see this guy, oh, I don't know what I said, I don't remember. He's going like, I don't remember, oh, maybe that's what I said. is unbelievable. Could you imagine if Obama did that? Unthinkable, unthinkable. And then the line that always sticks out for me, people have forgotten it because he's done so many, thousands of crazy, stupid things. But when he was talking about the Paralympics and he's like, oh, they're good, brave

people. I mean, a little tough to watch. Who says that while you're speaking in front of people who are participating in the Paralympics? It's unbelievable. You're the president of the United States because he's too stupid to understand. That's not a thing you say in that context or any context, okay, and that's who he is. I mean, this story is littered with irony of the most mentally challenged person in public life in America, going around calling other people mentally retarded.

But the most important part of the story is not that. It's that he's on borrowed time. He has alienated anyone who would stick up for him and who could help him in Washington. He has no allies left. When you have no allies left, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. One day he's going to be a diner in a diner. He's going to see somebody walking and boom, lights out. Of course, politically.

We got to take a break. When we come back some updates on the Kavanaugh hearings, we have some juicy tidbits on that. And then later on in the show, we will talk about a great idea that Bernie Sanders has when it comes to major corporations underpaying their employees. Roe Kana. That's amazing. I love that idea. It's so wonderfully progressive. Let's talk about it when we return. 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.