The Young Turks - The Young Turks 11.20.17: Trump Voter, Kellyanne Flip-Flops, Russell Simmons & Brett Ratner, and Terry Crews

Episode Date: November 21, 2017

A portion of our Young Turks Main Show from November 20th, 2017. For more go to http://www.tytnetwork.com/join. Hour 1: Cenk. Trump voter: If Jesus told me Trump is with Russia, I would check first. Kellyanne flip-flops on Moore. Alabama pastor still backs Moore. McMaster mocked Trump’s intelligence. 2nd woman comes out on Al Franken. TYT Investigates: Mulvaney’s brother hiding Apple’s cash. Charles Manson dead.  Hour 2: Cenk, Brett Erlich, & Grace Baldridge. Russell Simmons & Brett Ratner new sexual assault allegations. Terry Crews calls out Russell Simmons. Glenn Thrush put on leave from NYT for sexual assault. Mom sentenced after not taking sick kid to doctor. Elderly couple arrested over cops mistaken hibiscus plant for marijuana. 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. You like podcasts? Or I like podcasts. Get the TYT podcast. Get the whole show and TYT interviews at old school and aggressive, progressive, progressive, so many wonderful TYT shows.

No ads. Become a member right now. TYT network.com slash join. All right. Welcome the Young Turks. We've got a tough show ahead for you guys today. Lots of uncomfortable conversations, because that is the times that we are in. There are, if you think there's a lot of news out there about sexual assault and sexual harassment, you are right.

Because it is not a new epidemic. It's one that's been around a long, long time. We're just now finding out about the scope of it, and it is daunting. So we've got stories in the first hour, we've got stories in the second hour. In the second hour, more stories about Brett Ratner, now involving Russell Simmons. That's tough. I know Russell Simmons a tiny bit. It'll be a tough conversation.

And then we also have Glenn Thrush, a New York Times reporter that's been accused. These are important conversations to have, and I think that they require nuance. We're going to try to give that to you at not inconsiderable risk of being misunderstood. So that's going to be later in the program. Don't worry, I'm going to start with something fun in a second. But I want to tell you about one other story that's going to be in the news today. Story out about General McMaster, he is top official for Donald Trump, has apparently called Trump a dope. It has the mentality of a kindergartner.

Now, is that story true? More importantly, whether it's true or not true, why was it leaked today? That is an amazing story. The story's interesting in and of itself, but why it exists is even more interesting. That's just a little bit later in this hour. So get the whole show, by the way, ad-free by going to t-y-tnetwork.com slash join. All right, let me start with the first story, which is fun. Okay.

CNN was doing a focus group, as they like to do from time to time, of Donald Trump voters. And boy, they're an interesting lot, as you're about to see. But particularly, we want to talk about Mark Lee here. He is a Jamaican man, apparently, according to his own words. He's now, of course, lives in America and is a citizen and voted for Trump. And he's a business owner. And does he still support Trump? Oh, yes.

Beyond your wildest imaginations. He's about to say something unbelievable that even the rest of the panel finds unbelievable. but I think, unfortunately, is indicative of a lot of the followers of Donald Trump and what I would call the cult of Donald Trump. First, let's start off nice and easy before he gets to the even more outrageous stuff. But first, swamp, I thought you were against the swamp. Alison Cameron, again, doing a great job here at CNN, asking, well, if you've got all these people who are powerful elites that are now, for example,

and she didn't get into this level of detail, but rewriting the tax code to their own. benefit, I thought you guys were against the swamp. So let's see how that conversation goes. The swamp is horrible. And Trump is there. He's there for the small guy. He's there for people like myself. Though his cabinet is filled with multi-millionaires.

I love that. They're not politicians. And you don't see them as part of the swamp who have capitalized on the system. In a capitalist system, you're allowed to make money. Being rich is good. Yeah, so then what is the swamp? The swamp for me is, yes, you almost nailed it. It's the mainstream.

It's the elites that look down on a small guy like myself. But Mark, the Trump's cabinet is laughing at you right now. The tax cuts, 80% of them are going to the top 1%. And by the year 2027, anyone making under $75,000 is getting a tax increase. They're robbing from the poor to give the rich. Now, in the case of this gentleman here, I don't know how wealthy he is. He says he owns a business, so maybe he's among the wealthy and thinks that's fantastic. I can't wait to rob the poor for my own benefit.

It's my swamp now. I don't know. I don't know his intentions. I do know he's a little touched, as you're about to see in a second. But when you have a cult like this, it doesn't matter what the facts are. Hey, they are benefiting themselves. They are taking money from people that are the small guys, as you described it, and giving it to them. Trump is getting rid of the estate tax.

It's going to save his kids over a billion dollars if Trump is right about his wealth. That's enriching himself and his family, let alone the alternative minimum tax. That's going to save him, again, if his numbers are accurate, hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes. He's through all of this. He's creating a giant deficit to benefit himself. That is a swamp, but you don't want to see it because, nope, Donald Trump is a demigod. In his case, quite literally, get a load of what he says next. You know, I own a pest control company.

It's not much, but it's mine. You know, and I work hard for it. You know, I never went to college. Just your typical guy who's trying to make a living. And for years, they've been just kicking us to the side. And here comes the president. I will, let me tell you, if Jesus Christ gets down off the cross and told me Trump is with Russia, I would tell him, hold on a second.

I need a check with the president if it's true. Wow. So this is exactly how occult operates. It doesn't matter. Whatever dear leader says, I believe it. Christian, Jesus, is he an important figure? I don't know if he's an important figure. Donald Trump, obviously, above Jesus, above Jesus.

I'm sure that if you ask Mark Lee, he would tell you he was a devout Christian. You're no such thing, man. Look, I don't care to judge other people's religions and their degree of religiosity. But if you are a Christian and you think Donald Trump is above Jesus Christ and you'd have to check with Trump to see if Jesus is telling the truth, I'm not sure that you read the Bible or really understand what it means. Okay, I wasn't the only one shocked by that statement. Even his fellow Trump-loving panelists were a little surprised. JR producer has done a great job of noting their surprise. Let's take a look at it one at a time.

I would tell him, hold on a second. I need a check with the president if it's true. Why do you believe Donald Trump over everybody else? Why? Yeah, I'll give her credit. She was as surprised as the rest of us like, wow, Jesus, Lord mercy. Quite literally. I've been to Jamaica too.

All right, well, let's take a look at the next reaction. I would tell him, hold on a second. I need to check with the president if it's true. Why do you believe Donald Trump over everybody else? Why? I love the woman's reaction. Now we're going to go to last guy here. But notice that he doesn't seem quite as put back by it.

He seems kind of entertained by the idea. Let's watch. I would tell him, hold on a second. I need a check with the president if it's true. Why do you believe Donald Trump over everybody else? Why? That was looking like, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. But I'm not putting that statement on anyone but Mark Lee,

who was the man preposterous enough to make it. But you might not be surprised if you know what he does, right? apparently at Mara Lago. At first, when this part of the clip began and I was watching it, I thought, oh, okay, he goes to Mara Lago. Maybe he really is rich and he's going to get some of those tax cuts. That's fine. No, find out why he goes to Mara Lago. I believe in him. He's a good man. He has taken so much shots for us. Why do you think he's more trustworthy than he's based on everything he's been doing? He's been winning. Listen, I go to Maralago, whenever he's coming in, hold up my sign.

And what does your sign say? Black's for Trump. I'm Jamaican, I'm black. I love the guy. I think that he is getting one part of that sign wrong. Maybe black for Trump. But there are a couple of guys. They are.

And they're in the cult. And whatever the dear leader says is true, it doesn't matter what Jesus thinks. It doesn't matter what anyone thinks. Now you wonder why they don't trust the media. I mean, look, the conversation about the mainstream media is a gigantic one and a little bit separate. But even when they do things that are clearly true, these guys go, no, I wouldn't believe Jesus if Jesus told me that Trump was doing something wrong. You think I'm going to listen to CNN?

I'm going to listen to the New York Times? Of course they're not going to believe what the news reports because they're in a cult. They're not thinking for themselves. They have given away their judgment to their leader. I mean, the guy waste his weekends, going to them. Mar-a-Lago so that the dear leader can see his sign, Blacks for Trump. It's one of the saddest and yet most amusing things I've ever heard. The only thing I can see is I'm super glad I don't have that guy's life.

Okay. I should be his dear leader. I'm Mr. Jamaica. You know, I don't know what he's doing. Why are you showing up here with signs about how great I am? All right, anyway, get your priorities right. Have I mentioned to you before that I'm Mr. Jamaica? All right, let's move on, let's move on.

Okay, let's go to Kellyanneco. Now, the other day, Kellyanne Conway actually said something refreshing. Believe it or not, right? I mean, it wasn't a grand statement. It was a very obvious statement. But at least she said it. So let's watch. A lot of people think that Roy Moore should be removed.

Well, and I'll repeat what our White House Director of Legislative Affairs said on a Sunday show. We were on different Sunday shows. Whatever the facts end up being, the premises, of course, the principle, the incontrovertible principle, is that there's no Senate seat that's worth more than a child. And we all want to put that forward. I have three daughters and a son. Frankly, we all are watching this. There you go. Finally, something good out of Kellyanne Conway.

No Senate seat is worth that. of the life of a child. I think at least all of us can agree to that. That was on November 16th. Well, she went on Fox and Friends again this morning and thinks, well, maybe there is something worth a child's life. Let's watch. I think the Democrats are in big trouble because they have to defend 25 Senate seats next year. Ten in states the president won. Five, he won by massive double digits. And Doug Jones in Alabama, folks, don't be fooled. He'll be a vote against tax cuts. He's Weak on crime, weak on borders. He's strong on raising your taxes.

He's terrible for property owners. And Doug Jones is a doctrinaire liberal, which is why he's not saying anything and why the media are trying to boost him. So vote Roy Moore? I'm telling you that we want the votes in the Senate to get this tax bill through. And the media, if the media were really concerned about all these allegations and that was truly about and the Democrats, Al Franken would be on the ash heap of bygone half funny comedians. Oh, so there is something worth a child's life integrity and a violation of a girl who was 14 years old. It turns out it's tax cuts.

We have our answer. Well, nothing is worth that. I mean, unless we're going to give tax cuts to billionaires and to multinational corporations, then really what's a little child molestation among friends? Kelly on Conway, those are your two sets of words there. One saying nothing is worth it, then coming back on and saying, yes, we want your votes for Roy Moore because of tax cuts. By the way, what are you talking about? Senator Franken is all over the news.

We've covered him in the past. We're going to cover him again today. And you want to bring up Senator Franken and allegations of touching women inappropriately. Well, then your boss should resign immediately because there's six. of those allegations against them. These people have no bounds of decency at all. Here's more from Kellyanne Conway, who thinks apparently life of child is not that big a deal

if she's got tax cuts. Excuse me? But the RNC is withdrawn support for Roy Moore. Mitch McConnell's withdrawn support. So is the young Republicans vote withdrawn for support for Roy. And a lot of women. Right. And you know what?

I just want everybody to know Doug Jones. Nobody ever says his name. pretend that he's some kind of conservative Democrat in Alabama, and he's not. Kelly, Ann? And yes. Will the president be going back down to Alabama to campaign on behalf of Roy Moore before the special election? There's no plan to do that.

Oh, so I see. That's the distinction. In fact, Mark Short, the White House Legislative Affairs Director, said, if he did not believe that the women's accusations were credible referring to Trump, he would be down campaigning for more. He has not done that. which actually makes it worse. So he does believe the women. He believes that Roy Moore drove a 14-year-old 30 minutes into the woods,

took off almost all her clothes and tried to get her to touch his naked genitalia. A 14-year-old, which is against the law in Alabama. Apparently he believes them. That's why he's not down there campaigning. But he sent Kellyanne Conway on TV to say, a child in the woods, naked, a man in his 30s taking advantage of that child, what's the big deal? We got tax cuts for the rich, we got to pass. Remember, don't vote for the other guy.

We need votes for Roy Moore. Your position, Kellyanne, is crystal clear. Thank you. 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 powerful. 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 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 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 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. They are horrible people. Okay. Now, speaking of horrible people, more defensive of Roy Moore, that gets worse. worse and worse. Okay. Roy Moore has been accused of inappropriately touching, to say the least, many girls under the age of 18. There are some 16 to 18 year olds he has admitted dating and says he likes beautiful young girls. He does not admit that he sexually assaulted a 14-year-old when he He drove her into the woods into his house and took off almost all her clothes,

took off all his clothes, et cetera, okay? And tried to get her to touch his naked genitalia. He does not admit that he took a 16-year-old in his car and drove around to the back of the parking lot and tried to rape her. Now, those are stories that have come out. They have, they're very credible. They're so credible that even Republican leadership has turned on Roy Moore and said that even if he wins, he maybe should not be seated.

Mitch McConnell, the leader of the Republicans in the Senate, says that he believes the women. He left a 16-year-old on the cold pavement half-naked after he had tried to take her clothes off, and she fought back, and he pushed her out of the car. That's who Roy Moore is. By the way, she has evidence of his signing her yearbook before that incident. It's talking about what a cute little girl that she is. he's in his 30s at the time. But nope, some conservatives think not only do they not believe the women,

but that even if they did believe the women, what's the big deal? Okay, you think it's an exaggeration? Listen to them for yourself. Here's Wayne Allen Root, a despicable right-wing talk show host. And by the way, let's even throw the idea out there that it's true. In fact, 39 years ago, Roy Moore was a 32-year-old district attorney, handsome and swashbuckling, and he was hitting on some young girls who were pretty. I saw the pictures.

They were beautiful young girls, and they could have passed for 20. He was a swash-buckling, handsome. How do you even know how handsome he was or how swash-buckling? But that's the thing. That's what these guys, they think, hey, you want to hit on a 14-year-old? Now that's wrong. Yes, it's wrong. And I saw the picture he's referring.

I don't want to keep showing the picture of a 14-year-old girl. But you know what she looks like? 14. It's a picture with her mom. She looks like a young girl that doesn't look anywhere near 20. I'll give you more details. This is from Brad Reed at Ross story. He said, in reality, one of Moore's accusers says that he tried to force her to touch

his gentle illness when she was 14 years old. So it's not a thing about Wayne Allen Root said, he was just kissing them, what's the big deal? No, he did way worse than that. He then said, additionally, more knew that at least some of the women he was pursuing were still teenagers because he sought some of their parents' permission to date their daughters. Oh, I mean, could have been 20. I mean, he asked permission from the 16-year-old's mom if this pervert can date,

this 32-year-old guy could date this 16-year-old and try to have sex with her. So, but could have been 20. No, more knew she wasn't 20 in that case. case. Root went on to claim that while more may have indeed made sexual advances towards teenagers, he at least wasn't a homosexual like Hillary Clinton or former President Barack Obama. These people are lunatics. And dangerous ones, because if Wayne Allen Root thinks it's no big deal for a man in his 30s to try to make out with a 14-year-old and then do far worse, Well, he's also very dangerous, but we're not done yet.

We now go to pastors, evangelical pastors. Now, these are men of the cloth. I mean, these are men who are really religious and hence moral, right? So the Boston Globe did a good job. They went and asked them. So they interviewed nearly 10 evangelical pastors, all of whom said the allegations did not change their support for the candidate. Of course not. One of the guys was Pastor Earl Wise.

He said, I don't know how much these women are getting paid, but I can only believe they're getting a healthy sum. So, no, never believe the women. It's not to say that all women are, by definition, right? But here you have the almost entire Republican leadership saying that they are right. You've got untold number of witnesses, including at the time, The women come out of this situation reported to their boyfriends, to their loved ones from all the way back then when they had no idea the Roy Moore would ever run for the Senate or have any important political position. And they had told people back then.

But no, no, no, no. Earl Wise, an evangelical pastor says, no, I don't believe them. They're all getting paid for it. But it gets worse. He says, there ought to be a statute of limitations on this stuff. How these gals came up with this, I don't know. they must have had some sweet dreams somewhere down the line. I'm pretty sure the 16-year-old who said that Roy Moore tried to rape her in his car and tore her clothes off and tried to force her head down onto his genitals did not have sweet dreams about it.

These men are disgusting and saying like, oh, come on, why is there a statute of limitations on child molestation? By the way, there's a statute of limitations on almost all other crimes in Alabama, but not on child molestation. And here's an evangelical pastor saying, oh, now you molest a 14-year-old and you can't get away with it if they find out. One of the hardest parts of getting older is feeling like something's off in your body, but not knowing exactly what. It's not just aging. It's often your hormones, too. When they fall out of balance, everything feels off. But here's the good news.

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entire first order at happy mammoth.com with code next chapter at checkout. Visit happy mammoth.com today and get your old self back naturally. Later, there's got to be a limit on that. But he's not done. He says, plus, there are some 14-year-olds who the way they look could pass for 20. In other words, here's these pastors who keep looking at 14-year-olds thinking about how attractive they look, as attractive as they think 20-year-olds apparently look. Ten evangelical pastors, all of them said, nope, don't care about kids, morality, whatever. Women are probably liars, they're probably doing it for the money, and even if they're

not in the case of Earl Wise, he says, so what, I mean, some 14-year-olds look hot. Now, I don't want you to get the wrong idea that this is all Christians or all Christian leaders. Absolutely not. A group of nearly 60 progressive pastors has denounced Roy Moore, calling him extremist and unfit for office. Now, those are progressive pastors. Evangelical pastors, on the other hand, supporting Roy Moore, well, now you know what you're getting with them. and I wouldn't put any kids in any of their churches, and I wouldn't trust them if your kids' lives depended on it.

But they seem to think, I don't care if you're in my tribe, morality was always a punchline apparently for them. They never, ever cared. It was all a front for tribalism. If you're in my tribe, I protect you. even if you've done something terrible to other people even in our own tribe but that's okay they had it coming they were cute 14 year olds why do they stick with Roy Moore he's against the other tribes he hates the same people I hate for conservative evangelical pastors that are

backing Roy Moore today that is apparently what they mean by family values I hate the same people is Roy Moore. Wow. What values. At least thank you for making it clear. We'll be right back. All right. Back on a young church, Jen, Grace, and Brent with you guys today. So guys, before we get to the depressing stories of today. So many. Yes. There's literally so many we couldn't keep up. Tambour and Rose didn't make the cut. But it's, it's amazing. All right, let me read some tweets for you guys. Sean Ferris says, Jesus, who even pretends to think they're not buying the votes at this point? The American government is for sale for the highest bidder. And spoiler alert, it ain't people who won the bidding war. No, no. The reason that the working poor

and the middle class are going to get tax increases is because you guys don't have lobbyists. Matthew Reed says, Republicans use language that confuses people. They don't ever tell you that tax raise always puts more money in the pockets of the rich. In fact, this next tax plan, the one that already passed the house, 80% of the money goes to the top 1%. 80%. No, they're not going to admit that. The nonpartisan groups that looked into it will tell you that that's the case, but the Republicans don't want you to know that. But apparently you found out because it's polling really, really badly. All right, member shout-outs are Adam Vargas and Shannon bail. Thank you guys. You guys allow us to be independent media. We appreciate it.

And we got a post game for you guys today. Later in the week, we have Old School. We had a great episode of Old School last week with me, Ben, Stephen, Mark Thompson. Please check that out if you remember. I had an interview with Reza Aslan, which I thought was really interesting this morning. Members get to see the interviews live, and you'll also have it up for you, of course, later. So, t-y-tnetwork.com slash join to become a member. All right, Grace, what's next?

All right. We have a pretty heavy second hour, but I will guide you through it. So let's just start off with a new report from the Los Angeles Times. On Sunday, the Los Angeles Times published a comprehensive report that details new allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse by Russell Simmons and Brett Ratner. Now, the report is about 13 pages in length. It's very long, but I'm going to walk you through it. It centers around the accusations of a model, Carrie Klausen Kaleigh, who is 17 years old at the time. She tells her story about how she went back to the apartment of the deaf jam recording mogul Russell Simmons to take a look at what he and Brett said was a music video.

Then she says quickly Simmons began making aggressive sexual advances yanking off her clothes, Kaleighi said. I looked over at Brett and said, help me. And I'll never forget the look on his face, she recalled. In that moment, the realization fell on me that they were in it together. Now, for his part, Russell Simmons has vehemently denied these allegations. He has cited all the work that he's put in for women's advocacy and his involvement in the hashtag Me Too campaign. He also released a statement which said in part.

In a statement, Simmons 60 strongly disputed her account. Everything that occurred between Carrie and me occurred with her full consent and participation, he said. Much of the two days and one night he spent with her, he said, was with other people or in public. Ratner had no recollection of Collegi asking him for help and denied witnessing her protest. His attorney Martin Singer said, now this comes on the heels of many women coming forward. and speaking about their own allegations of abuse by Brett Ratner. And what the Los Angeles Times report breaks down is how they see that Ratner was surrounding himself with other powerful Hollywood players that were complicit in his abuse and sometimes

even participating. They say, in several of the accounts, the women said that Ratner 48 surrounded himself with powerful friends, including Simmons and filmmaker James Tobik, who, while sharing Ratner's Playboy lifestyle, have also been accused of engaging in sexual misconduct. Those friendships, some women said, enabled inappropriate behavior within the group, sometimes by active participation and in other cases by simply providing venues for incidences to take place. There's a number of things that come up. They have a whole bunch of different women that speak on the record about their own experiences with these men.

Some of this stuff is just coming out from their own words. So, for example, in 2007 in Russell Simmons' book, he talks about his relationship with Brett Ratner, saying in part after he hung around a bit and figured out that I liked models, then he made it his business to take me to every model's apartment he could find. Then there's also a 2005 Playboy article where Simmons left the table where he was talking with the interview, and then it came to light that when he left the table for about an hour, it was to engage in sex with a model who Ratner had just had sex with. So there are all these stories that the Los Angeles Times breaks down,

a number of women speaking on the record. And then just to walk you through it again before I get a response from you all, Simmons attorney has said, Simmons attorney has provided a signed statement from Simmons, former assistant Anthony Mack, McNair, who said he saw Collegie go to Simmons' bedroom on her own volition without any coercion or undue influence. McNair said the group also went out to a nightclub later that evening. McNair said he saw Collegie at Simmons house the next day, an assertion affirmed by Simmons and did not notice any visible signs of distress or anything improper that had occurred. Now, Kaligi retorts saying that she did not see anyone but Simmons or Radner

at Simmons home and did not recall being there the next day. The Times could not reach McNair for comment. She also, after the Times published the story about Ratner, she reached out to him and told him that she was going to publicly tell her story that she was considering that. She urged him to disclose his past behavior. He called her. She said, and they spoke for 27 minutes, according to phone records reviewed by the Times. Simmons said she did not deny, Simmons said he did not deny any of the claims. Instead, he apologized mentioning that he is now a father of two daughters. So that is sort of the spark notes of what is detailed in this Los Angeles Times account.

You guys read it through. What was your response? So let's separate out the issues. So there's Brett Ratner, who there is a lot of credible allegations against, including in the last set of stories and this set of stories. This story is ostensibly about Russell Simmons, at least that's the headlines. But when you read it, there's far more cases about Brett Ratner. And so those allegations look incredibly credible.

Okay, so Ratner is and should be in a world of trouble. Now, Russell Simmons and Ratner hung out together that by itself doesn't prove anything, okay? On the other hand, the allegations by Collegi are disturbing, to say the least. And look, I should, whatever there's any kind of bias or conflict of interest, I try to be transparent about it. I know Russell Simmons a tiny bit. He's been on the show a couple of times. I've been on panels with him. I like him.

I don't know anything about this, right? And as what happened with Cosby, I liked his work. And Russell Simmons did run DMC and Beastie Boys and Public Enemy. And that's three out of the top, what, five favorite things that I grew up to. And so it's, well, I'm telling you that in an effort to get past it, okay? So the assistant saying she came back later. Well, that actually happens a lot. It is logical for people to think, oh, well, that must mean that she liked them.

No, no, not necessarily the case at all. That's part of the power dynamic here is that a lot of the women and sometimes men feel that if they don't do as they're told, their careers are going to be absolutely ruined. So yes, sometimes they show up the next day. And in this case, we don't even know if she showed up the next day. That's just what the assistant is saying. And in the case of Ratner, there's another story in this long L.A. time story about a woman who then after Ratner brushed up against her and made inappropriate comments and physical actions, she wrote him a nice note. But Anita Hill wrote a nice note to Clarence Thomas. Many women write nice notes later because they're afraid that they're going to lose their careers.

And also, it's not just that. It's that they feel like, oh, am I doing the wrong thing by challenging them? And is everybody going to say that I'm a poor sport or a thousand different pressures here? So if the allegations are true in the case of Collegi, and right now, unlike Ratner, this appears to be the sole claim against Russell Simmons. You know, as with these stories, you never know if that's how it's going to wind up. But if they're true, they're devastating. So, Brett, let's get your input. I watch the news lately, similar to the way I watch the Walking Dead, just to see which one of my heroes will turn out to be like a soulless blood-sucking creep.

Like, you know, like in Walking Dead they turn into zombies. In the news, my heroes turn into, they turn out to be sexual predators. And it's so devastating. And I totally get it. I think an important part is for people who look up. to certain folks, as you can't not. There's going to be people you look up to. For me, it's Al Franken and Louis C.K.

And then you hear these stories, you read these stories, and you think to yourself, there is, it's okay to have that first reaction of, it's unavoidable, to have that first reaction of, I love that person. Oh my God, I watched every episode of the Cosby show. That was like my TV dad. But you have to kind of compartmentalize it, as you hear that a lot of victims have to compartmentalize the feelings they have surrounding it. an event like this and try to figure out what actually happened.

I think something important with the Collegian one or whatever, I don't know how it, Collegie. Is this part, did you read the part about the lawyer, what the lawyers have said? Afterwards, you know, there's this part in the article where they expose or whatever you want to call it, where there's this moment where years later Russell Simmons approaches Collegi and they embrace, they have it, they talk about the incident and they don't give specifics about what was apologized for, but there was some kind of apology and there was like a hug, one said. But then, and it seems like they're working towards some kind of solution between the two of them, but then the lawyers come in with a statement. And the statement is things like now, however,

I guess maybe it's a Ratner, there's one where Ratner and there's another one with Simmons lawyer where it's like they never heard any alleged, or they basically say that there was never, I don't know, they kind of, they kind of equivocate and say, this is not an admission of guilt. And that's what's frustrating is that the lawyers have been able to identify exactly the power structures in place that keep certain bits of evidence from coming into any potential legal case. And you hear all these guys say, well, I've grown a lot as a person and I am going through, I was in a really tough place back then. But they never really want to take full responsibility.

And they definitely don't want to suffer any kind of legal consequence. And so they want this like hug at the whatever it is Soho House to mean something. But the lawyer step in it like, but it can't be any like legal consequence that they suffer. That's something that's frustrating for me. Well, yeah. I mean, and you can understand why. If it is true and he admits it that probably are legal consequences. And so his lawyer is going to tackle him and say, don't do that.

I'm not saying that that's right. I'm just telling you what a lawyer is going to do. And look, it's just these are all super hard because, you know, they say we believe the women is now a saying, right? And I want you to understand what that means. It's a little bit like Black Lives Matter. It doesn't mean that no other lives matter, right? It means Black Lives Matter as well. and we believe the women doesn't mean that you that every woman is always telling truth in every case

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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. We're now to state in our society where all those charges that we didn't believe, we brushed under the rug and didn't give credit to, it turns out they were largely right, okay? It doesn't mean that you believe every single woman.

Of course, there's a case in Virginia that Rolling Stone got in so much. trouble for where a woman had made up allegations. And they investigated and turned out it wasn't true. And we have a criminal justice system where we don't just believe people. We go through a process. But the phrase does mean something, which is in the past, they were largely not believed. And in reality, about 2% of cases statistically are not true. Ninety-eight percent are true. And what we're talking about is empowering people who have been powerless, whose voices did not matter for so long. And now, because of what has swayed in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein piece, now these women are feeling emboldened to come forward. I don't even want to say

these women, these people are coming forward because just later we're going to be talking about Terry Cruz. But for years, there was this in Hollywood, and in other industries as well, as we will also discuss, there was this insane power dynamic where these people at the top just wielded such influence that people felt powerless to come forward, or they felt powerless to voice how they were truly, how they truly felt a situation went down. And that is crystal clear in this Los Angeles Times piece because they also talk with the actress Sarah Shahi, who talks about her experience with Brett Ratner that she felt was inappropriate, but that she also felt like she had to keep up a good relationship

with him because of his power in Hollywood. And then, you know, Brett and I were talking before we went to tape about, how do you reconcile that? Like, should she have called him out earlier? But that's what we believe the woman means, because back then it was really, really, really hard to come out because people wouldn't believe you. And back then it was like two months ago. So now you're getting an amalanche of these stories because there's almost like a sense of relief from women who have held this back for so long, finally going, oh, I can say it and somebody will believe me. And she says, she says, I was trying to be a smart business woman.

This is Sarah Shahi by keeping the lines of communication open. I played the Hollywood game like every other actress. And then Ratner's attorney vehemently denies this, saying that, you know, she was very flirty. These overwhelming contradictions make the claims inherently improbable is, is, you know, what he says to her part. But I think that what we hear from these actresses, especially that are coming forward, is like, this was the territory. This is what you had to do to get work. Right. It's like all these wide-eyed models who, you know, when they were 17, they came to Los Angeles and they had these dreams of making it as a

a model or an actress. Like, in my opinion, from what I've read, and this is just my speculation, Brett Ratner wasn't dreaming of coming to Hollywood just to be the director. He was dreaming about having these interactions, getting to a point where he had, like, the jet and the fancy

house, where he'd get women into his place, and he was going to design it here, and there'd be a jacuzzi there, and he'd have all these women over, and since he became Brett Ratner, he was going to have this. Another weird part of it is, like, now I'm reading into, like, his father issues that he had, and all of this. And the role that

Russell Simmons played in that dynamic. Russell Simmons, you had various other, like, hanging out with Roman Polanski was like a father figure of his, and you know the stories behind that. And there was another prominent executive that ran Paramountas. Yeah. And I get it. And there's all

these things happening, but it really frustrates me when I see things like, you know, Russell Simmons saying, he has found peace now. It's like, well, that's the most selfish of prose. I'm glad you've found peace. But like think about all the stuff you put the, I mean, maybe not him, but like generally the entire dynamic is this has created a very weird place for people to have to, to handle

the lay of the land. And you find yourself saying, well, the most, me anyways, I find myself saying the most pure sold person is the one who sees this injustice and says, no, I have to stop it immediately. That's a really tough place to put someone in. And then I find myself saying someone who waited until a moment when they had a little power, even though they benefited. Like, for me, it's Tignitaro. Like, Tignitaro is the one who said, who made this Louis C.K. thing kind of happened, one of the very few. But she wouldn't have been able to make the difference unless she had gotten Louis C.K.

To produce some of her stuff. And so she benefited, I guess, in a certain way. But then she becomes the one who is now big enough to say something that gets more people to do the research combined with the Gawker article. Finally, the New York Times says it. So she didn't speak. out, I mean, I guess people like her haven't all spoken out immediately. But when they do get some power, I just don't know where to draw the line. And I find like we all need a PhD and ethics

math at the end of this because we have so many data points on what kind of purview can be in America. Well, but look, nuance matters. And so that's why I'm trying to constantly hear of context. So the last piece of context here. For Ratner, if he wanted to have the Hollywood lifestyle and have the jacuzzi and the girls. He shares that with almost every guy in the country. That's totally different than the descriptions that many of these women give, including Jamie Ong, who says she was 21. She's at his mansion in Hollywood. And then he corners her in a room, won't let her leave. It starts groping at her and then takes out his penis and does what he has apparently done with Olivia Munn, et cetera. And he tries to get her to touch it. She

won't. And finally he mastered. So this is something that many women have accused Ratner of. That is, that is, I hope not in the dreams of the young kids who are trying to get the jacuzzi in Hollywood. But I think it's the same. It's just he had this dream. And I think that dream is inherently sexist. Like the dream that I will have a, you know, money and power, which will translate to women in bikinis under Heff's waterfall. Like that is inherently sexist because it implies that women are attracted to money and power, and that's just not, I don't think that's a nice thing to do. Whether it's true or not, I'm sure there are women who are attracted to that, and I'm sure he had success with certain women, and then he comes along women who had, like,

a good relationship with their father or whatever, and they finally say no. But I don't know, I just, I feel like Brett Ratner didn't start off with the first woman when he got his first director's gig and had him up to his hotel room and without his junk, and when she said, no, started masturbating in front of her. I think he, over time, honed this, like, sick trap that he lured a lot of people into and he got better at it and more confident in it and he became more Brett Ratner than he was before and he got to a point but it started with that first you get the money then you get the power you know and the last thing on Russell Simmons is that what Grace read to you was from Ture who had interviewed him back in 1994 not about the

collegi thing but about how Brett Ratner apparently was done with a girl and Russell Simmons went up and also had some sort of relationship with her. No one is alleging that that was not consensual. So, you know, if it was consensual, that's their business. And I don't want to get into the business of overly judging people's sex lives because we're not those people. We're not the, you know, the evangelical pastors and hypocrites, etc., getting into people's sex lives and telling them what to do and what not to do.

We only care about stuff that is non-consensual or creates, you know, a work environment where there's sexual harassment and it's hostile, et cetera. So so far, the only charge against Russell Simmons is the one from Kaleighi. And sometimes there could be a misinterpretation. She thought it wasn't consensual, he thought it was. I don't know if that's what they're going to claim. But to be clear, she says she fought it wildly so that there should not have been any mistake as to what went down.

And so eventually she says she acquiesced to oral sex that she felt like she had no choice in getting out of that situation. So I want to be as clear as we can on the facts presented. Yeah, it's pretty unsettling stuff. And we're actually going to be staying with Russell Simmons for this next story. Deals with Terry Cruz as well. So after Terry Cruz slams Russell Simmons on Twitter, after Russell Simmons sends him an email asking him to sort of

Take it easy on the agent Adam Bennett, who Terry Cruz has accused of groping him at a party. So in the email that he posted to his Twitter, it's from Russell Simmons with just the subject line agent reading, did he ever apologize, give the agent a pass, ask that he be reinstated with great love. All things are possible. Terry Cruz then tweeted, message Russell Simmons sent me regarding my sexual assault case against Adam Bennett of WME. Dear at Uncle Rush, no one gets a pass in all. caps. And what I think is interesting, I found this quote with regards to the emotional intelligence that Terry Cruz displayed, saying, quote, the email Simmons reportedly sent Cruz

as more evidence of the dark side by asking Cruz to, quote, give the agent a pass, it sends the message that a weak apology is sufficient to alleviate any severe emotional pain and suffering experience by the victim. It also implies that excusing this type of behavior is somehow taking the high road. But that couldn't be further from the truth. That message has since become complicated by new and disturbing allegations against Simmons himself, which you can check out our discussion of that in another TYT video. Now, just to give you guys up-to-date context on what's going on, Variety Report on November 3rd that Mr. Venet was on leave as the agency looked into the actor's accusations, but

Mr. Cruz had not publicly identified Mr. Venet until Wednesday. Mr. Cruz, who had been represented by WME, but not by Mr. Venet, personally left the agency last week. Mr. Bennett represented some of Hollywood's most well-known actors, including Emma Stone, Adam Sandler, Celesteor, Silone, Michael B. Jordan, Dustin Hoffman, and Eddie Murphy. So what was your reaction when you saw Terry Cruz taking this email, private email correspondence to Twitter? I personally thought this was incredibly, like, bold and awesome for calling him out. No one gets a pass.

Yeah, I'm not sure I thought it was awesome. And I'll tell you a couple of distinctions here. So first off, of course it shouldn't matter between male and female. victims. But I think what it is is that there's a little different standards between not male or female, but thick skin versus thin skin. And I'm not saying that to disparage people who have thin skin. I'm just saying that people have different reactions.

You know, as I was reading this story, because the guy grabbed him from the front, okay? We've covered stories in the past here where a couple of guys here have been grabbed from the from the back. And I remember, you know, I told the story in one of our post games for the members about the Cuban guy who grabbed me in the middle of a melee and Elian Gazzal. And I was amused by it. I didn't care. A couple other guys here have been grabbed. And then I realized this was reading Terracuse. I remember someone once grabbed me from the front, but I cared so little about it that I don't even remember who it was. And I just thought it was kind of weird, but like he had done it jokingly or something. And I was like, well, that's super weird. And

I moved on with my life. So I tell you that, because I've got thick skin. And so if someone says, hey, Jank, maybe let it go, I would take that as a private correspondence and his opinion that I should. And I wouldn't be intimidated by it. If I didn't want to let it go, I'd tell him to piss off, right? Because I have the benefit of having the privilege of being secure and confident and in a decent place in my life and my career where I could make those decisions.

and I'm not intimidated by anybody but I actually think that it you know and it's like saying that it's so like moving on I'm saying they should be left up to the victim and Terracuse doesn't want to move on so there's nothing

wrong with that at all but if someone did want to move on I also think there's nothing wrong with that right but it's not Russell Simmons place to then come say hey give this guy a pass did he apologize ask that he be reinstated you know

Terry Cruz said that he felt the most emasculated in his life by the groping incident that Adam Bennett by what happened and transpired by him and Adam Bennett subsequent response was just laughing in his face I just I think that it was wildly inappropriate for Russell Simmons to insert himself into this because how you feel when you have been groped is totally different and you can't sort of project that onto how other people should feel

that's actually my point I just want to be clear about that that's actually my point which is that you have to remember that not everybody thinks like you do. Just because I'm thick-skinned doesn't mean everybody else is thick-skinned. And it's still a fireable offense. It's a wildly awful inappropriate behavior by Adam Bennett to someone that is at his agency at a party with his wife there. So, yeah, he shouldn't be given a pass.

That's bad. Don't do that. Sorry, you struck out, Adam Bennett. I was ragging my mind around this, like, sexual harassment thing. And the sexual harassment, I talked to someone in law enforcement, and they said that There's a lot that goes into it, of course. But one is their working relationship, and then where it happened, and then a bunch of other things. But the working relationship has the most effect on it.

So in this situation, what was the working relationship between Terry Cruz and Adam Venet? Was it his agent? Not his agent. So then it's just some guy at that point. And we're all loosely related in the production process, but it wasn't at a meeting. It wasn't in anything like that. I think the thought, I can't tell Terry Cruz what to do or think. If it was me, I've been in situations where, like, I knew that someone was acting inappropriately and I was like, I can handle this.

That's not a big problem for me. My priority would be like, I want to help the discussion. The discussion would probably be, in my opinion, would be best served by kind of a 10,000 foot view since Terry Cruz is. so accomplished, unless this was a serial offender who has offended a lot of people, it would be nice to have the discussion. Definitely, if a name is dropped, it's the name of Adam Bennett, the person who did it. To bring Russell Simmons into it seems like a little outside. Another qualifying factor would be like, what's the relationship between Terry Cruz and Russell

Simmons? If they're really close friends and you're, and you've had a good relationship and my friend sends me this email, especially with no punctuation, I would think. It sounds like a friend's email, sort of, because there's no punctuation. But then with like this weird, like I'm going to gag with great love, all things are possible. I think he writes that all the time. Right. That's a sign off.

I will also say, but it's so connected. I don't know. That's one of those things we're like, if I like Russell Simmons, you're right, with great love, all things are possible. But if the, you know, someone's been pulling on, you know, if you want to, you know, destroy a sweater and you just pull the string as he walks away, like then he is now an evil person and I hate him because he says things like with. With great love, all things are possible. I've found peace because I have two daughters now. Yeah. I don't know, it's tough.

Okay, so again, let's be clear here in context matters. Yes. No one thinks that what Adam Bennett did to Terry Cruz is okay. Nobody thinks that, right? So now, earlier I said, I think, skin, if somebody had done it to me, I don't encourage it and don't do that. And I might have a different opinion, you know, later if it happened to me. but I'm saying that that's up to Terry Cruz is decided he was not okay with it.

So Adam Bennett should never have done that. That's obvious. That's clear. That part is easy. I think the harder part is the Russell Simmons part where it's a private correspondence and Terry Cruz is putting it out there. That's where context matters a lot. Because if Terry doesn't know Russell at all and Russell's all of a sudden like,

and Russell knows Adam Bennett and they have business together and he writes him like, Hey, be cool, but that's a different thing, right? On the other hand, if Russell Simmons and Terry Cruz know each other well, and then I, like, if I know two guys and I step into the middle not having anything to do with work, right? And I'd be like, hey, guys, you sure can't work this out? All of a sudden, I'm a bad guy, and somebody's going to send that email out. Do you see what I'm saying? Right, but what I would say back is, then it sounds like he's just showing up and be like,

hello, Russell Simmons is in the room, and I produce a lot of stuff. And I'm saying, I ask a question, but regardless of the answer, I say, did he give a, did he ever apologize? Then write in to give the agent a pass, ask that he'd be reinstated. Like, if I care a lot, I don't know, I'm not Russell Simmons, obviously, and not Russell Simmons, but, you know, like, write more words, write a thoughtful email as opposed to like three things, one of which is a question you don't wait for the answer for. The next two are directives on how to get this guy a pass.

Well, furthermore, I think that why. This sort of resonated with me is that, you know, Russell Simmons is incredibly powerful in so many industries. And I look at this as Terry Cruz sort of speaking truth to power and calling this out, especially when we think about Russell Simmons' relationship to Brett Ratner who had, you know, and his history of sexual abuse, I wonder how Russell Simmons has thought of those. Like, oh, give him a pass. Did he apologize? I understand why Terry Cruz chose Russell Simmons to call out. Like, we cannot give sexual predators a pass. I understand that connection. And I think that, you know, Twitter is just is the, is the forum that everyone,

our world leaders are using to announce policy. And if this is going to be the new policy in Hollywood, I understand why Terry Cruz chose that platform. I would also say that like this is the, this is the difficult discussion what we're having now. I know for a fact that in the first 20 minutes of the show, I've said things that I won't, I won't stand by it. I mean, I'll stand by it because of where I was at the time. But this is all in the service of trying to wrap your head around. And I feel like that's where everybody is now. There's just so much noise and so many accusations. I saw a rundown of accusations and people who have suffered consequences and resigned. And I knew a bunch of them. Like I've worked with a bunch of them. I'm like, oh my God,

that's ridiculous. And I'd never heard, some of them I'd heard rumors about, but others I hadn't. And that's what's so difficult. And I know that in the wake of this, there will be people who, who, upon whom justice is meted out correctly. And I fear that in the wake of this, there will be people who suffer consequences that they do not deserve because, for some reason, the court of public opinion just went off the rails on them. And that's what's so difficult. And I look at this with the Russell Simmons thing, and this might be one of them. But it also might be true. And we need to remember, we need to take into consideration every aspect of every implication that may have as we have this discussion.

And before we draw conclusions, and I think that's it. Yeah, so the last thing for me on this is that context matters. And so if Terry Cruz thought that Russell Simmons is trying to intimidate him by sending this message, and so he wants to then make it public, I totally get it, and I understand. And again, I don't know their relationship. If he knows him and he's taking a private email and throwing him under the the bus. But so, so central to this is all these weird, secretive discussions guys are having behind

the scenes that are making things go away. And this is part of it. So maybe this is a learning moment to say, like, don't send an email to someone that could have an impact because this is a high profile person in a high profile case. I'm talking about Terry Cruz here who, who you're sending an email to. And so he might just say, I want to get it out. I want to get everything out there. So don't send something in that situation that you would be ashamed of leaking.

But I totally get it. Like, you put me on blast? I thought we were friends. Yeah, well, we have to go to a break, but I'm glad we're having these important discussions. I know it's difficult. I know they're lengthy. But I think it's so important to air them out. And I'll be interested to see what people have to do it.

Yeah. And when we come back on the Glenn Thrust story, I think it gets even harder. I know. So buckle up and brace for impact. We'll be right back. You like podcasts? Oh, I like podcasts. Get the TYT podcast, get the whole show,

and TYT interviews at old school and aggressive, progressive, so many wonderful TYT shows. No ads. Become a member right now. TYTNetwork.com slash join. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks.

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