The Young Turks - The Young Turks 11.09.17: Roy Moore, Trump in China, Louis CK, and Terry Crews

Episode Date: November 10, 2017

A portion of our Young Turks Main Show from November 9th, 2017. For more go to http://www.tytnetwork.com/join. Hour 1: John Iadarola, Jayar Jackson, & Mark Thompson. Roy Moore accused of molesting teenager. Why Trump didn’t take Q’s in China. TYT Investigates: Apple expose. Tax cut updates. Delhi pollution emergency.  Hour 2: Grace Baldridge, Mark Thompson, & Hasan Piker. Louis CK sexual assault allegations. Terry Crews files suit against Hollywood exec. Chance the Rapper’s speech at Chicago council meeting. Twitter criticism over verifying White Supremacists. TSA fails to detect weapons 75% of time. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I was going to say every day. Yeah, you're also welcome every day. Also, everybody, welcome to the show whenever you're watching, whatever day that is. You're not welcome on Tuesdays. No, that's the least welcoming of days. We're good on Thursdays, though. I'm John O'R. Probably, maybe I'll mess that up. And I'm joined by J.R. Jackson.

Middle seat. Middle sheet. We let him on the show from time to time, but only in the middle seat. Well, he actually, tonight, he made a nice concession to me because they wanted me in the middle seat. And I said, I hate the middle seat. And then, of course, we all hate the middle seat. Yeah, that's some trivia. Nobody likes sitting in the middle.

So every time you see someone there, they were, they're either the nice person at the table or the one we respect least. Or one of the two. Or. But JR was angelic in taking the middle seat. That was very nice of you. And Mark Thompson on the show again, twice in one week. Always nice to see. And we have got some big stories for you today. Obviously, I think you can guess what the lead story will be.

But we have updates on Donald Trump's Asian vacation. We also have some more stuff coming out of the Paradise Paper supplemented by some great work by TYT investigates and an idea of what the Senate might end up doing when it comes to their tax plan. So all of that will be coming up for the course of the next hour. We'll, of course, be starting off with Roy Moore. Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore was an embarrassment for the GOP since he won the primary, somewhat surprisingly, and all of that was before it was revealed that he apparently had a number of relationships with underaged girls back in the late 70s and early 80s. And that has caused a number of prominent Republicans to denounce more or sort of denounce him while leaving a lot of wiggle room or quickly walk away from the person asking the question. So that you add all that up, and it's a bad situation for the GOP. But we want to give you the details of what was revealed by the Washington Post today.

So it turns out that back when he was a judge, there was a 14-year-old girl, Lay Corfman, that was sitting outside of her mother, outside of a courthouse because a custody hearing was going on, which is great context for this. He approaches the mom and the daughter and says that the mom can go inside a deal with the legal stuff, and he will stay outside with the, child, which is very nice of him. Unfortunately, he had an ulterior motive. Alone with Lay, Moore chatted her up and asked for her phone number. Days later, he picked her up around the corner from her house, drove her around 30. I noticed that she was around the corner from her house, not at her house. That's interesting that that's how we set that up. Drove her about 30 minutes to his home in the woods, told her how pretty she was and kissed her. On a second visit, she says, he took off her shirt and pants and removed his clothes.

He touched her over her bra and underpants, she says, and guided her hand to touch him over his underwear. She was quoted by the Washington Post as saying, I wanted it over with, I wanted out, please just get this over with. Whatever this is, just get it over. And so she asked to be taken home and he took her home at that point. Now, two of her childhood friends say that she told them back at the time that she was seeing an older man.

And one says that at the time she identified him as more. So this is not, you know, just looking back 30 plus years. She had been talking to people about this, including to her mother, inside of 10 years of it happening. Now, there are three other women interviewed by the post that say that Moore pursued them when they were between the ages of 16 and 18. Wendy Miller says she was 14 and working as a Santa's helper at a mall. That's just terrible. When Moore first approached her, thankfully he was. waited two years before he started asking her out on dates. And there was another 17-year-old

they spoke to in her high school. So he knew exactly how old she was, because she was still in high school at that point. Understand that he was in his 30s when all of these situations were going on. Now, with those two women, apparently didn't go beyond kissing. But there was an 18-year-old cheerleader that says that Moore took her out on dates that included bottles of wine when she was not of legal age to drink the wine. And so this adds up to a problem for him because there apparently is a pattern of behavior where he was targeting women as young as 14 for dates. Yeah, cruising malls and high schools. Malls and high schools looking for people working with Santas. That's a pretty dark situation. Now, he did respond. His campaign responds

saying these allegations are completely false and are a desperate political attack by the National Democrat Party and the Washington Post on this campaign. Now, I don't know about all of the women, but Corfman, the 14-year-old in the story, says that she has voted for the Republican in the last three presidential elections. She voted for Donald Trump, and apparently none of the women have been involved in any way in terms of donations or anything with this race. So the idea that they are just hacks trying to help the campaign is not just offensive in the normal way that these sorts of allegations are, but it's also unfounded in any way. She's a Donald Trump supporter that he apparently tried to seduce while she was 14 years old.

It's weird how sexual, we've been talking a lot lately about harassers, abusers, in this case, potential pedophiles. They don't really fall within one party or another, and their victims don't always fall within one party another. I'm sure when he was cruising the malls in the high schools back in the 70s, he wasn't going, is this person going to be a future Republican before I harassed and maybe try to seduce her. And I mean, there was the 18-year-old that he gave wine to. I'm not sure if that went to every one of his targets. But so it's a shame that you even have to say, hey, so just to point out you guys, this victim of this pedophile, this potential pedophile, voted for Trump, didn't care about all the things that. was coming out about him during the election, has voted for Republicans in the past so that

so that the attack on her won't be, oh, look at this, just a lying dim. That's all they're ever doing, trying to get us and take us down. It happens to, from people of any political stripe and of people, too political than alien. Yeah, and that was obviously that was to refute his general argument, which was that it's politically motivated, and of course he kept just throwing that up. It's politically motivated, politically motivated, and that's going to be the size that fits. all on this issue. It's interesting also to see some in the GOP pulling away from him, but some defending him.

And I was seeing something from the state auditor there and quoting Bible and saying that, you know, even with Joseph and Mary, Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult. I'm thinking, wow, I mean, that's a tortured kind of defense for this. We never know that as stupid as an example as that is. I mean, I don't know a lot about the Bible, but they didn't even sleep together. Like, that was the whole point to that story, you moron. Again, the atheist has to remind the Christian of how this thing plays out. Yeah.

And it's disgusting. I love that, like, he, like, Roy Moore is like, today, spotlight in the news, perverted Alabama politician. And this state order is like, hold my beer. I think I can beat him. Right. No, exactly. No, it's, look, there's no, there's no defense. This, this may stick, particularly when you see so many. of the GOP melting away from him right now.

Yeah, yeah, so we actually have a little bit of that here in this compilation that J.R. put together, you're going to see Richard Shelby and Jeff Flake responding to questions about these new allegations. If there is any shred of truth to these stories, he ought to step aside. And now. Would he be fit to serve in the Senate if he's true? No, no. No.

If there's any shred of truth, he ought to step aside. I mean, just with regard to Roy Moore, those stories. Those stories are appalling, not just appalling. It's a devastating, nasty story. If the revelations, if that's true, I don't believe there'd be any place for him in the U.S. Senate, okay? So in addition to them, you also have Mitch McConnell calling him to step down if it's true. So again, leaving themselves some wiggle room there.

But John McCain said the allegations against Roy Moore are deeply disturbing and disqualifying. He should immediately step down and allow the people. of Alabama to elect a candidate they can be proud of. So John McCain, perhaps the least sort of hedging his bets out of home. Yeah, you know, this kind of lends to what I was thinking when I saw the immediate refusal or rebuttal of him, which doesn't happen like, which is why I was a little bit surprising. Richard Shelby, after he said the first parts of there, a follow-up question said, so do you think he should carry on and maybe go on and serve if he wins?

And he said, well, you know who I supported in the primary. It wasn't this guy. I think Luther Strange. Sure. So the point being, they didn't, the guys that didn't want him because of his other political innings, they know how much of how many racist things he said. He backed the whole birtherism thing and his homophobia behavior. So all that they already know about, know how hard it's going to be to have this guy around.

He's crazy. So they're like, okay, let's hurry up and say, let's get him out for this reason, because we didn't want him for the other reasons we'd have to defend him for. that weren't particularly illegal, just deplorable. Yeah. Yeah, although, and again, it's good to see them actually coming out against him for the most part. And again, I'm going to have one or two that are pretty bad of people defending him. But they are coming out against him.

But in the wake of the Access Hollywood tape, some prominent Republicans denounce Trump and now enthusiastically work to advance his agenda every single day. So these sorts of denunciations only go so far. It is weird, by the way, Johnny, that politics is that one, that sort of you don't know which way it's going to fall. I mean, you know, show business, everybody's pulling movies and reshooting films and guys are losing their jobs and are closing down studios and declaring bankruptcy at the first width of sexual harassment and certainly these rape allegations as well.

But here, as you mentioned, the Access Hollywood tape, we end up with the President of the United States. You know, you're not sure how much will stick. I think J.R. makes a great point when he talks about the fact that it may be the extremism here in Roy Moore that will, that is, he hasn't made a lot of friends along the way that may heard him also. Yeah, maybe. And I noticed one of the first things that came out about this, I think they actually tried to beat the Washington Post to publishing this. Somebody tipped them off, but Breitbart put in an article as a part of several articles about that this is

a hit job, basically. And they defended his relationships with most of the women saying he's just being romantic and stuff like that. There's nothing immoral about, you know, habitually trying to date people who are 47% as old as you. Now, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, I love it you did the percentage. That's quite impressive. I'm probably wrong. And then they got to the section with the 14-year-old, and they didn't even comment on that. They just linked to the post section on it and then moved on to other stuff.

And so... Yeah, the 14-year-old is indefensible. It's indefensible. And so this is the outlet that pushed the Pizza Gate conspiracy amongst others, was so concerned about pedophilia in Washington, now working, getting out as fast as they can to run interference for a guy who apparently was a serial pedophile back in the 7th. So the reason that they think this is all politically motivated is because this is a card that they play a lot of times. Let's just go ahead and bash anyone by any way we can, something completely embarrassing or even something that most people actually accept or other people have done in normal relationship situations.

But let's just put that stuff out there and maybe destroy them. So when it's something that's actually really bad, they're out to destroy me. Everybody's out to get me. No one has been treated. I think this was this particular one. No one has been treated as badly as Roy Moore has. No more politician in history, except your boy, the president said the same thing already. Exactly, yeah. At some point, there's only one who's treated worse than everyone else.

Actually, could you get ready to jump ahead to Graphic 14? I want to turn to another angle on this. Obviously, Roy Moore in a lot of trouble because of what he has alleged to have done. But it's interesting. We're talking about projection here. This is a guy known for taking extreme hard lines on religious issues. He's an Islamophobic. saying that people are Muslims shouldn't be allowed to serve, homophobe and stuff like that. And then he has this dark past when it comes to his dating history. And so, J.R. found this video of him back in 2005 talking about homosexuality with what you know now about his behavior. Let's listen.

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angered, and entertained all at the same time. It's immoral. It is defined by the law as detestable. It was against the law in most states. We get our morality from the Holy Bible upon which this nation was founded. Just behind, because it's done behind closed doors, it can still be prohibited by state law. Yes, they get it from the Bible for what that's worth. Also, back in the 90s, understand this, and this is getting even closer to his sort of behavior, in the 90s, he ruled in a divorce case that a woman who had a lesbian affair couldn't visit her children unsupervised or with her partner, writing that, quote, minor children will be detrimentally affected by the present lifestyle of the mother.

also the judge. Moore was the only vote in favor of a daycare worker who raped a 12-year-old, claiming that there was no, quote, implied threat of serious physical injury. This guy has a history of taking odd lines on abuse of children. It's just, it's so obscene. Oh, my, it's so despicable. He's so deplorable. He's an awful guy.

It's great that you're reviewing this. He is a disgusting person. He said this about homosexuality. The effect of such a lifestyle upon children must not be ignored and the lifestyle should never be tolerated. Because we have to watch out for the children and keep them pure and innocent until they hit 14, in which case I'm trying to take them to a cafe or something. Again, like you said, from the very beginning, the first victim we talked about, Lee Kaufman. She was 14 sitting outside and he said, oh, let's let your mother go in so I can be here alone with you.

So you can see where he gets his mindset of what he thinks. actual sexual predators are like because they're lesbian or at their present lesbian exercises at the time. So she can't be left alone with her own child, but they can leave your ass alone with someone else's child. Yeah. Yeah. And so there's one other tweet I wanted to read for you. So we talked about some of the politicians on the Republican side, Senate, generally in the Senate, that are coming out against more now at least. We'll see what happens if he goes on to win the election. But a journalist Daniel Dale has been communicating with a county chair for the Republican Party in Alabama to see what they think.

He talked with Alabama Bibb County Republican chairman Jerry Powell, his graphic 17, Jerry Powell told him that he'd vote for Roy Moore, even if he did commit a sex crime against a girl, saying I would vote for him because I wouldn't want to vote for Doug. I'm not saying I support what he did. Just say, if you want to hand him government authority and power after knowing the person he is, you are supporting what he did and what he is. Because everything that he's been since then should have given us pretty strong hints

of the sort of lifestyle he was leading himself. I'm telling you, man, you're going to get tired of hearing this analogy and you probably already are tired of hearing it. Man, if you're a Cowboys fan and then your favorite player is up on some kind of charge, you'd be like, well, I don't care, just let him finish the season because I'd like to win this is just my fantasy team and I've got bets.

So they don't actually care about the actions and activities of their favorite players, they actually just want to win and say, I see we won. I just don't want to vote for Doug. I just don't want to see the Packers win. That's all. I just don't want to see it. So please let my guy play.

And you see that played out at every level of government. We've seen it play out in every level of election. And we've seen the demonization of the other side to the point that, yeah, you begin to go, no, no, I just don't want anything. I just don't want that other side. That works both ways, by the way. I understand on our team, too. But I think we call out fact, we're prone to that, to calling out fact, I think more quickly

than is the GOP. Yeah, yeah. And so let's talk about winning, because it doesn't look like he's going to step down. My guess is that he won't unless his pressure continues, which, you know, with the meat of the way it is, nothing continues for more than 24 hours or so. And even if they tried to take him off, they'd be in a bit of a bind because that election to replace Jeff Sessions, his seat in the Senate, is on December 12th, and according to their Constitution, you can't be taken off the ballot within 76 days of an election.

So unless they break the rules, and this has happened before, that name is going to be on there, no matter what. We'll see how the people of Alabama respond. Now, he's been leading by about nine points in most of the polls for the past month or so, is trying to see. sleep of the 14 year old, is that worth nine points? I don't know in 2017 in America, but perhaps. And if a Democrat were to take that seat, which nobody expected, that would bring the Senate to 5149, making it that much more difficult for Republicans to pass some of their priorities of the next few years. And although there would still be very little chance of the Democrats taking the Senate in 2018, it does bring it a little bit closer to the realm of possibility.

John, it's good that I work with you most days and I'm sitting next to you not because your positive energy. It is good. It's like, it's helpful, but it's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. This guy's going to win easily. Oh, yeah, I've learned about that. His leave's going to increase. I'm going to make really bad predictions.

I'm just laying out possible roads. He's going to win by 10 to 11 points instead of the 9. I think he's going to gain points. Because just because of, okay. Well, they're going to, of the witch hunt that's underway on him. Is that what you're saying? It's going to be, look at the, look at these, look at the Democrat part. They're trying to attack our boy.

Oh, now I really want to stick it to them and let them know that I'm so stupid. I'm willing, look at the quote. I don't know who that guy was. If he did commit these acts, it's okay, it's great, man. I want to support him just so I can say, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the only reason. You know, it's your fantasy football sports team analogy. It really is.

But John's scenario, who needs House of Cards when you've got that? I mean, that's the idea that this 11th hour fact could change an election and that a Democrat could actually win this seat. Wow. But I think ultimately, I side with JR. I think they're they sort of, the ends justify the means or whoever they want to, you know, do the jiu-jitsu mentally on it. Yeah, and look, I know we've been saying they seem that the willingness of some Republicans that announce him is, as J.R. said, an indication of how uncomfortable that some of them are at least pop. publicly with him, regardless of what they believe privately. But this guy, you know, getting into office isn't just one more number making votes more difficult for the other side. Imagine what this guy can do with the higher profile he'll have. He'll be serving on committees. He'll be introducing legislation. He'll be at confirmation hearings. He will be helping to advise in the choice of Supreme Court justices and things like that. This is a terrible, terrible guy. Even in a political environment infested with some truly disgusting creatures. This guy stands out and has stood out for decades.

Long before there was Trumpism, there was moreism, and it was disgusting. Apparently it was disgusting all the way back to the late 70s. And if this guy gets into the Senate, that will be just another really dark mark on our country. That's a great point. It's really with an extreme agenda of the sort that he has pursued decade after decade, we've detailed it here for you. I mean, the homophobia, the racism, the birther thing, which he never, he always insisted upon. And, you know, it's, well, I still don't believe that Barack Obama, you know, as far as I'm concerned, Barack Obama wasn't, is not an American.

I mean, this is the kind of pig-headedness that, and that does, it disrespects pigs that are better headed than that. So I apologize. But you get my point. Yeah, he's, he can pursue a despicable agenda. Exactly. Exactly. Mark Thompson, noted pig defender. Anyway, we're going to take our first break.

What's up? And more ways than one. Exactly. He stands up for animals. He does, and we need to. We're going to take our first break when we come back. What has Donald Trump been up to in China now? We're going to try to find out. We'll see if we have any success after this.

Hey, guys, welcome back to the second hour, Grace Baldridge. Hassan Piker, for Thompson. This is going to be fun. I just realized I hadn't been on a show with Hassan in, it's been probably like six months which we used to do we used to hit pop trigger every morning together and then I got cut and then he got hard cut I got I got a hard cut from a mirror the executive producer well the problem was is that he I was threatened by his masculinity I needed to be I need to be the most masculine person on every panel I'm on and that's why I'm

wearing flannel and many of you don't know this but grace is the definition of toxic masculinity Oh, my gosh, you're crazy. Well, we have a lot to get into today. We're going to be talking about more allegations of sexual misconduct and assault coming out of Hollywood. We're going to be talking about Chance the Rapper. I know that's something that Hassan is going to talk about. Twitter verification is verification validation. That's going to be a conversation.

And then we also have some news coming out of TSA that is a little disheartening and reasons why we can say fuck on French radio. So with that said, let's just jump right into this first story. Today, the New York Times released a report detailing allegations of sexual misconduct by comedian Louis C.K. It is a detailed report. They spoke to a number of women. In part, what they are saying is now, after years of unsubstantiated rumors about Louis C.K. masturbating in front of associates, women are coming forward to describe what they experienced, even amid the current burst of sexual. misconduct accusations against powerful men. The stories about Louis C.K. stand out because he has so few equals in comedy. Louis C.K. is a huge comedic titan.

Now, when the Times reached out to Louis C.K.'s publicist whose name is Lewis K. They said Louis, Louis is not going to answer any questions. Also, the Thursday premiere of his movie, I Love You Daddy, was abruptly canceled. This also raises some questions about the anecdotes that Louis C. tells in his own comedy, some are pointing to the questionable material that is in this movie that was premiering, I Love You, Daddy. There are a lot of stories. One of those stories comes from comedian Rebecca Corey.

Rebecca tells her story about how she was on set for a 2005 pilot with Louis CK, and he approached her asking if he could masturbate in front of her. Now, when she said no, and also reminded him that he had a daughter and a pregnant wife at the time, he just said that he had issues, and then this is what she says happened next. Word quickly reached the show's executive producers, Courtney Cox and David Arquette, who both confirmed the incident. What happened to Rebecca on that set was awful, Ms. Cox said in an email, adding that she felt outrage and shock. My concern was to create an environment where Rebecca felt safe, protected, and heard. She said they discussed her tailing the production.

Ms. Corey decided to continue with the show. Things were going well for me, Ms. Corey said in the statement, and I had no interest in being the person who shut down a production. A lot of what you're hearing in this report is women with experiencing fear of speaking out because this is such an incredibly powerful figure in Hollywood, also represented by a very powerful manager in Hollywood. The article calls out his manager, Dave Becky, who certain women, say, tried to silence them from sharing their story. Dave Becky, Louis C.K.,'s manager, wanted them to stop telling people about their encounter with Louis C.K., Lee Kernas, one of the women's managers at the time, confirmed on Thursday. that he had a conversation in which he told Mr. Becky that Luis C.K.'s behavior toward the women had been offensive. Mr. Kernis also said that Mr. Becky was upset that the women were talking

openly about the incident. Now, when the Times reached out to Mr. Becky, he said that he doesn't recall the specifics of this conversation, which took place between two comedians, a Ms. Goodman and a Ms. Wollov. But he did know that he never threatened anyone. So he's come out saying that that is not something that he did. He right now represents Kevin Hart, Aziz Ansari, Amy Poehler, as well as a number of other comedic performers. So that's something that they want to point out when it comes to the abuse of power in the industry and people that were complicit in this. Tignitaro is a comedian whose Amazon Series 1 Mississippi lists Louis CK as an executive producer,

and she has spoken out against Louis CK. She says in part, sadly, I've come to learn that Louis CK's victims are not only real, she said by email, but many are actual friends of mine within the comedy community, like Ms. Corey, who confided in her, she said. I think it's just important to note that Ms. Nataro is coming out and speaking because the comedy community is so insular and protective, and it is important that we celebrate these voices that are coming forward and standing with the women. Now, people are wondering, what is Louis C.K. saying, now he hasn't released a statement as of this taping, but some women are saying that after the fact, he did apologize to them, but those apologies have some troubling implications.

For example, Ms. Corey says that she received an email from Louis CK, which then followed up with a phone call from Louis CK, apologizing for his behavior in 2005. This took place in 2015. She says when he phoned her, he said he was sorry for shoving her in a bathroom. Ms. Corey replied that he had never done that, but he had instead asked to masturbate in front of her, responding in a shaky voice. He acknowledged it and said, I used to misread people back then, she recalled. So I know that's a lot of information.

I wanted to just break down the article. There's a lot in there. And I would urge you to please read the full article so you can get the full context of the story. Now I want to toss over to you guys. What was your response in reading this? Were you surprised? It had been out there, huh? Yeah.

Look, I've been a fan of Louis C.K. And you heard some of these rumors in the past. And I actually want to make an interesting note about that, too. Like, Gawker uncovered, the majority of the things that the New York Times discussed back in 2012, if I'm not mistaken. And at the time, you thought they were unsubstantiated rumors that you thought that they were potentially accusations. And Gawker already had like a troubled history. So people didn't really pay much attention to it. And because like you said, because Luis E.K. is so powerful and his manager was so powerful because he's such a comedic powerhouse and comedy is such an insular

community, people kind of kept it under wraps for a very long time. Public opinion hadn't swayed that way. So one of the co-authors of this New York Times article was also an author on the Harvey Weinstein piece. So I think that what we have seen recently is this snowball effect. If Harvey Weinstein can be taken down, who else has been abusing their power can be taken down. So I think that it's good to bring up the Gawker piece. I've seen that on Twitter. A lot of people are saying, hey, Gawker was already talking about this. Why didn't anyone care? Because the unfortunate truth of the matter was, is that no one believed these women yet. They were saying, oh, it's rumor. Louis C.K. himself, when he was asked about this, would always dismiss it as rumor.

I'm not going to address it because if I talk about rumors, then it makes them bigger than they are. Well, now you have women that are speaking on the record who feel as though they are to be believed because if Harvey Weinstein can be taken down, then why can't we take down the big wig of comedy as well, who has been abusing his power for years and years and years. Yeah, it was just a cry on the night before, and now the whole culture is swinging in this direction. And as you say, the snowball effect, it felt very Cosbyish before, you know. Cosby was known for a long time. And even that account that you read with the young actress feeling as though, well, I've complained, but I don't want to shut this whole production down.

Back in the early Cosby stories, you kind of heard that same thing. Like, you heard, who's going to believe me? They're going to believe me? Are they going to believe this comedy titan? And you also heard, I don't want to end my career. I don't want to shut this production down. I don't want to shut my career down. So I think there's so many reasons that people didn't step forward before.

But now in this culture and climate, it's safe to step forward. And so all the things that we had heard are Redding Gawker now get some authenticity because so many people are coming forward now, are comfortable with it. At this stage, Louis has not released a statement, although he did cancel his premiere. He also canceled an appearance on late night with Stephen Colbert. So I'm wondering, what do you think is the move from here? Will he be releasing a statement? Like, I don't know what happens here.

Do you think that we'll see charges pressed for some of this? There's a statute of limitation when it comes to this sort of stuff. And depending on the severity of the crime itself, you think we'll see more women come forward. Yeah, I mean, there's always obviously a civil suit that could potentially be launched against Louis CK. And I hope there are some punitive measures because, look, we need to have a system of deterrence. Like, we need to make sure that in the future, people do feel unsafe. And by the way, I don't just mean men, women too. Anyone who coerces others, abuses their power, their position of power to gain sexual favors from unwanted victims or even in certain instances abuses them physically, it should be punished in some capacity.

And most importantly, be fearful that there could be some sort of widespread movement that outs them. And having said that, though, there are a lot of accusations being launched at the moment. We also must not forget, while we should believe women, because the majority of the time, they are absolutely true. And they get nothing out of coming out. And they have everything to lose when they come out and talk about these things. And it's also emotionally tolling. We shouldn't forget that there is such a thing as due process in the end of the day. But obviously, if there are, if there are, you know, 20 people identifying identical instances and with one person, and that's usually a pattern that we've seen with Bill Cosby, everyone usually says the exact same things. Everyone has similar experiences. Same with Louis C.K. He masturbated in front of, you know, pulled him into the room. Harvey Weinstein got naked in front of them in a hotel room. Like, their acts are usually similar. So there's a pattern that we can observe to, you know,

to assess whether or not there is validity. And I think in this instance, absolutely. But again, let's not forget that there is such a thing as due process. Because there are certain people that have been accused as well where there's only one victim. And before an actual case is launched against them to vilify someone publicly also could potentially be problematic down the line. Yeah, there's been no presumption of innocence in many of these cases. And it's a really interesting point that Assam makes because there has been no, well, let's wait for due process to take a course for precisely the reason that Hassan is identifying, which is it's the same MO with all of

these women in all these different cases, with the Weinstein case, with this case. And, you know, as these stories come forward, and this has the additional element where she actually went to producers and said, hey, this just happened. And so they corroborated also. Many of the women in the article, and they have corroborated their stories with other people that they spoke to following the incident. So this isn't, you know, just, you know, women coming forward and seeking out the New York. These were, the New York Times really did their due diligence to track down these people and get statements from other people on the set or other, their managers, other people they worked with. Right, they made contemporaneous complaints to their friends.

Like, you'll never believe what just happened type stuff. And you need that to create a situation that clearly points the legitimacy of a claim and of an assault. But the reason that so many companies are closing down production, the reason that they're reshooting movies right now with Kevin Spacey not in it anymore. And the reason is because of what Asana is talking about, which is that these stories are credible and they're credible because all the elements are the same. The M.O. is there from too many people. And as Grace says, and those people told others at the time.

Yeah. All right. Well, we need to move on to our next story, which, you know, it's just a little bit of a pivot away. 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.

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Terry Cruz has filed a police report alleging Stop. Do you know how fast you were going? I'm going to have to write you a ticket to my new movie, The Naked Gun. Liam Neeson. Buy your tickets now. I get a free Tilly Dog. Not included. The Naked Gun. Tickets on sale now. August 1st. Sexual assault by a high-level Hollywood executive. This has been confirmed by the Los Angeles Police Department. Since Cruz's alleged incident occurred last year, it is within the statute of limitations for sexual assault in the state of California. Last week, the Hollywood reporter reported that WME agent Adam Venet was the subject of Cruz's tweets. Venet was put on leave by WME. Cruz has not publicly identified Venet, however, and Venet has not yet commented.

Now, you may remember that Cruz did tweet about an incident that happened to him, and in part here is what he was saying. This whole thing with Harvey Weinstein is giving me PTSD. Why? Because this kind of thing happened to me. My wife and I were at a Hollywood function last year and a high-level Hollywood executive came over to me and groped my privates. He says that his wife saw everything and that this agent just looked at him

like he was totally crazy and he grinned like a jerk, he says he thought about beating him up, but then he knew that the headline would be a 240-pound black man stomps out Hollywood honcho, so he decided not to do that. But Cruz said he talked to everyone he knew who worked with the executive about what happened to him, adding that the executive called him the next day

to apologize but never really explained why he did what he did. He didn't want to take it further at the time because he didn't want to be ostracized, which he says is, quote, par for the course when the predator has power and influence, ending with who is going to believe you. This is, wow, this story is pretty crazy because we do not talk about sexual assault when it comes to men.

A lot of times there, unfortunately, the power dynamic is such that women are the victims in these cases. So it is very powerful that Terry Cruz came forward. He also ended saying that he hopes that his story will deterredder and encourage someone who feels hopeless, men so are just underreport sexual assault. So we know that these numbers, it's hard to track down the actual statistics behind this. But I want to get a reaction from you both. Now that he is going to the LAPD, there are charges being filed.

This is something that is new and different in this playing field. Yeah, but it's got a lot of the same elements that we've just been talking about, right? The power dynamic. Power dynamic. powerful, as you say, a powerful power dynamic that is in favor of the assauter and

that person who is assaulted has no power is worried about losing what little they have and in his case destroying his career. What's changed is now he's grown in stature and as Grace mentioned before the atmosphere has changed and this

Weinstein even notes the fact that with the Weinstein allegations coming out and there being more discussion of this he felt wow, I want to step forward my story because I'm getting flashbacks about this and it's pretty ugly. Yeah, making this as unsafe as a space for predators as possible is one of the really overwhelming positives that's come out of this really gross situation. I mean, and by the way, I want to also acknowledge for the previous story in this one, the bravery of people coming out, because I mentioned before already, but they have literally everything to lose and nothing to gain from coming out and talking. about these. And we have seen in the past people not believing the victims that do end up coming out. So it's good that like I said, I'm a big dude too. Like I'm six foot four. I'm also

240 pounds. And I've been groped before. Like, and obviously everyone has a different way of dealing with it. For me, it was, it was a different experience. Like I didn't, I didn't, I was confused by it, obviously, and I think you might even remember, I discussed this event with you, too, another friend of ours from the same dude, the same night, Will also was somewhat assaulted in a similar fashion. And what did you do? Just ignore it? Well, I, I'm told the person multiple times, like, back off, no, like, I don't want to be involved in this. And then he continued to do it. So I just left, not realizing they would continue to do it. But what I learned from that story is that in that instance, if you don't deal with it or if you don't inform people,

then he can go and commit the same things on other people as well, unsuspecting victims in that same instance. So it does happen to men as well. And I guess we're- And there's such a stigma around men talking about it. So I think that it is really bold and brave of Terry Cruz to come forward and sort of say, all right, I will be the first person to say that this happens to men as well. We need to acknowledge it. There is a problem in this industry. It does disproportionately affect women, but men are not excluded from these numbers. And I absolutely celebrate him for doing so. Again, we can't stress this enough. You don't, you have everything to lose and nothing to gain by coming forward. It's incredibly

difficult for these people to do so. What I think is going to be really interesting to see is now that there are charges to be filed, and at the time of this reporting, the LAPD has not responded to a request from Business Insider on the specifics of what they will be investigating and looking into, but that there were charges filed is, I think, an important step in just dissuading predators from furthering what was a very toxic culture in this industry. Look, and by the way, in these instances, it's hard to even have a dialogue about what men might be feeling. Like, because I've experienced this. I've listened to many different comedians and other performers try to unpack like a different perspective in this instance,

like perspective of male who feels that maybe they were in a situation where they not, they might have been the perpetrators. And the thing is like there needs to be more communication about what to do and what not to. This is actually a piece I'm working on currently and I'm talking to a bunch of female journalists right now, like trying to figure out what the boundaries are and explaining them and communicating them as best as possible. Because I think that's one of the issues is that because we come from such puritanical roots, especially in regards to the way we understand sexuality and sex, and it's such a taboo subject

to discuss openly. And also even in private, we don't have great sexual education. And I don't just mean that in a reproductive health sense. I mean that in like sexual etiquette, boundaries. Consent. And consent, yeah. We need to have a serious, open and honest dialogue about what it means to consent and establish maybe new boundaries, like serious boundaries with potential legal implications around consent. Because, and I'm not excusing violent predators, but sex is a confusing thing, especially amongst the opposite genders.

There's like, it's like male and female relationships is all I can speak to. But it's complicated, it's confusing, and there's a lot of like mystery involved in it. And because of that, because of the mysterious nature of it, it's difficult to assess what you're doing and how it might be perceived from the other side. One thing that you do to someone might be totally acceptable to another person and work in your favor. So the reason why I'm mentioning this side is she's just to say, look, if you're fearful that you might have been in a situation where you feel as though you've done something wrong, understand what you're doing, like understand, try to understand for future instances how your actions might be received. You know, in the male-male situation, I can see the water being muddy, like, sort of like, hey, man, just shake it off. That guy's crazy, he's weird. But in the male-female situation, which is the majority of these situations, I don't see the water as muddy at all.

In fact, if somebody grabs and gropes you, that's clearly out of bounds. Somebody whips out their penis and start, well, you can stop right there. If they whip out their penis, that's clearly right. 100%. That wasn't even what I was referring to. Those are very obvious instances, right? But what I'm referring to is like what people don't understand, and this is all. what I got from talking to a bunch of other female journalists about this is, like, what people

perceive as sexual harassment is very personal to them and differs from case to case. And in a lot of the feedback that I got, like, for example, very, very easy one that almost all men and women commit, because I used to give advice to all my friends on, you know, how to text girls and guys as well, like constantly pursuing someone could be harassment. And you might be doing that right now. And you have no idea. But like it's, and part of it's because Hollywood has kind of trained us in a way in pop culture and trained us in a way to, to look at certain things as romantic. And people don't really understand and they give in to their, their lizard brains. And, and, you know, you constantly text the girl thinking like, oh, eventually this will change.

and you'll get out of the friend zone. Like, you won't. And those behaviors that you think might be creepy could potentially be harassing the other person. So that's what I was referring to, not obvious instances of like groping or doing something that you know is bad. Right. You know what I mean? When it comes to the sexuality of the situation, then at least I think male, feel male stuff is clearer. But I think the male male stuff, I'm kind of glad you told your story because I'm thinking, what do you do in that situation?

Do you just move on or do you just, you know, like, this is, Terry Cruz could have just moved. Don could have just said, ah, you know, that was so effed up. And hopefully this is the beginning to a comprehensive reform in the entertainment industry. Now, we have to go to a quick break, but when we come back, we're going to be taking a hard turn away from this conversation. We're going to be talking about Chancellor Rapper. We also are going to be having a conversation on Twitter and verification. I want to know how many times Hassan can plug his Twitter account. I would like to hear your thoughts.

So please tweet us at hashtag TYT Live over under 10, over under 10. I'm saying around like seven, I think. We'll see. We'll see after the break. the hunt. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen to ad-free, access members, only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Yugar, and I'll see you soon.