The Young Turks - The Young Turks 12.06.17: Trump and Pompeo, Santa-Hating Pastor, Franken, and Hero Cop

Episode Date: December 7, 2017

A portion of our Young Turks Main Show from December 6th, 2017. For more go to http://www.tytnetwork.com/join. Hour 1: Cenk. Trump and Pompeo want private spies who report directly to them. Santa-hating pastor. Trump to recognize Jerusalem at Israel capital. Bannon rips Romney for Moore criticism.  Hour 2: Cenk & John. Democrats: Franken should resign. Time Person of the Year: the silence breakers. Poll: GOPers want Trump to break rules to make things right. Hero cop who saved Pulse nightclub lives fired for PTSD. 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. Thanks for watching. We're listening to this free version of the Young Turks podcast. You know that the full show is at t-y-tnetwork.com slash join. If you become a member, you get the full show ad-free.

We love you for watching or listening either way. There's going to be a new free podcast tomorrow. You can keep on doing that. But if you want to get the full show ad-free, t-y-T-network.com slash join. All right, we got an amazing show for you guys tonight. A wonderful show, full of interesting announcements, twists and turns, good news and bad news.

Senator Franken, has he resigned? No one knows. There are reports that he will resign tomorrow. There are reports that he will not resign tomorrow. Democrats have turned on him. That is going to be an interesting development. Meanwhile, Republicans fervently defending Roy Moore on national television. He has a lunatic conspiracy theory that I'd like to share with you later in the program.

It's nothing new with his child molestation. It's something else entirely. Like we let so many things slide by. Like Roy Moore is a certifiable lunatic. He should be in an insane asylum. And we are justifiably talking about how he's a child predator. But we should also remember that he is preposterously stupid. and so are the people considering voting for.

So anyways, I'm very clear about that, and we will talk about that a little bit later of the program. And then the capital of Israel is apparently moving to Jerusalem, or at least our embassy is. And will that set the world on fire? Well, we got a day of rage that is planned for Friday in the Middle East by Palestinians and others. Okay, so thank you, Donald Trump, for giving us days of rage. And I'll tell you about what his actual plan in regards to that might be.

But before I get started with the good news, one other thing. So we've got, speaking of days of rage and fires throughout the world, we've got one here in L.A. Thank you to everybody who showed up here today under difficult circumstances. Anna couldn't make it. She, her house is very near the fire. And so I am told that this is a Chinese hoax, but my house is about a mile away from the fire. I can assure you it is not a Chinese hoax. We've got four raging fires that has happened already in the month of December.

In the month of December in California, the planet is literally on fire. So we might talk more about that in the postgame show. So that's t-y-tnetwork.com slash join. You have the post-game show and the whole two-hour show. free, and you support independent media. All right, now, having said that, let's do our fun, major announcements. Let's go over here, okay? Well, the just Democrats are onto a very important progressive cause that I want to tell

you about. It is in regards to the budget showdown. What we're saying is no dream, no deal. So if the Dream Act is not included in this deal, no Democrats should sign on to it. If they do, it'll be an unbelievable cave in. And just when you thought the Democrats were fighting back, if they came in on this, it'll be the worst. Now, luckily they're not, some of them are fighting back. I want to show you that right now.

Now, some people who are running for Congress, some people who are already in Congress, let's start that video. I'm Raul Grigalva. Hi, I'm Amy DeLella. I'm Rick Trevino. I'm Antoinette deo Lopez. I'm Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. I'm a Justice Democrat. I'm a Justice Democrat.

Wait, what? What is this? Roel Grijalva, legendary progressive in Congress, Justice Democrat. We're coming. So now, I'm going to tell you more about no dream, no deal, and that's very important. But if you don't know Rao Grijalva, you need to. And I don't use the word legend loosely. So let me give you a sense of who Grahalla is.

He's, of course, the U.S. representative from Arizona's third district. He's co-chair of the Progressive Caucus, one of the most progressive members of Congress, first vice chair of the Hispanic Caucus, Vice Chair of the LGBT Equality Caucus, co-sponsor of Medicare for All, co-sponsor to make public college tuition free, co-sponsor to raise the minimum wage at $15 an hour, co-sponsor of H.R. 771 to allow equal access to women's health and abortion coverage and health insurance. And he has introduced H.R. 3227 that eliminates private prisons. How much do I love this guy? Co-sponsor of H.R. 1144 to add Wall Street speculation tax.

As progressive as it gets. So it is a great honor to have the second incumbent, Raul Grijalba, join the Justice Democrats along with Rokana. There are now 37 just Democrats, including 35 running for office as we speak. Some like Doug Avelgate set to topple Daryl Issa, which is going to be a great, great victory, and many others that are leading in their races. And we did not plan it this way, just turned out this way. 19 women, 18 men, 18 non-white candidates, 19 white candidates. That's real diversity, and that's when you look for best of the best.

That's what you get. So now, back to what Grahava cares deeply about and rightly so and what we all care about, which is making sure that the people that are now being threatened with basically eviction from this country, the only country they've ever known imminently because of Donald Trump and the Republicans, that we fight for them and that we win. This is all about policy and about winning on policy. So, first of all, go sign the petition, JusticeDemocrats.com, no dream, no deal. I don't know why every single Democrat wouldn't be on board for this.

How could you possibly give into the Republican budget with nothing to return for it? Even after Donald Trump promised the Dream Act in a compromise with Schumer and Pelosi, he's now backed away from that. But this should be absolutely non-negotiable. So in order to tell you more about that and how many Democrats are on board, let's go back to the video about this issue because it's really important and watch it in its entirety. I'm Raul Grichalva. Hi, I'm Amy DeLella.

I'm Rick Trevino. I'm Antoinettezadio Lopez. I'm Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. I'm a Justice Democrat. And I'm a Justice Democrat running for Congress. And I'm a Justice Democrat running for Congress in New York's 14th Congressional District. Earlier this year, Donald Trump signed an executive order.

to repeal deportation protections for dreamers, promising at the time that Congress would pass a replacement. Dreamers are undocumented immigrants. We're brought into the United States as children. They were brought here, not of their own volition. They have grown up in this country, worked in this country, and know no other home of then America. And now because of Trump's actions, all 800,000 of them are at risk of being deported unless we get the Dream Act passed in Congress. And for once, we have an actual chance to fight back and win this very important battle. You see, Republicans haven't been able to get enough with their own party together. To keep the government funded.

So on December 8th, they're going to need Democrats to keep the government operational. This is a chance for Democrats to demand something for bailing out the Republicans. A rare chance to win a victory. We are telling Democrats and Condors demand that the DREAM Act gets passed. This should be an absolute no-brainer. 73% of Americans believe the dreamers should have a path to citizenship. 25 House Democrats have already pledged to oppose any year-in-spending legislation. Without prior passage or inclusion of a clean Dream Act.

Even one Republican member of Congress has pledged to shut down the government unless the Dream Act is passed. We only need 65 more Democrats to join us. So that 800,000 lives can avoid ruin. All of us have a chance to get something really good done. So I'm calling on Will Hur to do what I would do if I had his job. I'm calling on Ruben Kewen. I'm calling on House Democrats to do what I do if I had your job. So I'm calling on my colleagues.

Pledge publicly to oppose any year-end spending legislation. Without prior passage or inclusion of a clean dream act. You have a chance to get something real done. And this is our time to do something right. Don't mess it up. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-F-The-Republic, or UNFTR. As a Young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations 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-F-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 wisdom and upend the historical narrative.

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. All right, listen, here's a couple of other things that you could do. First of all, as you saw there, 25 House Democrats are already on board, but they should all be on board. And the just Democrats have done this before. We passed with the Medicare, we helped with Medicare for All. We had a petition that had over 100,000 people, and it moved about 70 Democratic congressmen, actually more than 70 Democratic congressmen to say that they would co-sponsor it. And previously they had not said that.

Let's make that happen in this case. We need about 65 more House Democrats. I, again, I don't know why every Democrat wouldn't be on board for this. What's your excuse? What are you just going to let them pass the budget? No, of course, this is the bare minimum that we should ask for. So we're also partnering with our dream coalition led by Erica Andiola. She was the press secretary for Bernie Sanders in the 2016 campaign.

And when you sign the petition, it's going to give you an option to participate in the sit-ins that are now beginning to happen. So if you're, if you want to do that, you want to take direct action, that is wonderful. So check that box. They'll reach out to you and they'll show you where you can help to do sit-ins to get action to actually move on this issue. Again, the petition is justicedemocrats.com slash no dream, no deal. And we'll have the link down below if you're watching this video on YouTube and in the comment section on Facebook. first comment if you're watching on Facebook. So please go do that right now.

And remember, of course, on social media, it's hashtag no dream, no deal. I'm enormously proud to have Roel Grijalva as part of the Justice Democrats and to be partnering with such great people both in office and out of office. And this is how we fight. The whole point of Justice Democrats is to be strong progressives, uncorrupted Democrats. We're going to fight for the issues and win on policy. Let's go get this done together. Okay, by the way, I have more exciting announcements,

including something wonderful that's going to happen next Monday. Okay, keep on rolling, baby. Keep on rolling. I know it's dark times, but the way you get out of dark times is not by being despondent, but by fighting back. All right. Now, speaking of dark times, that brings me to the next story. The Intercept has a terrific story from Matt Cole and Jeremy Scahill about a private intelligence agency that the Trump administration is considering setting up outside of the CIA.

This is unbelievable. Every part of this story is worse than the next part. Wait till you see how it's funded and who it's funded by. So this is, of course, antithetical to democracy, but let me explain it in detail. Let's go to the intercept story. They explain the Trump administration is considering a set of proposals developed by Blackwater founder, Eric Prince, and a retired CIA officer with assistance from Oliver North, a key figure in the Iran-Contra scandal to provide CIA director Mike Pompeo and the White House with a global private spy network that would circumvent official U.S. intelligence agencies, according to several current. and former U.S. intelligence officials and others familiar with the proposal. That's insane.

That's setting up, you didn't complain about the deep state. First of all, that is the deep state, and it's setting up a private deep state within the CIA, with apparently now the person who's being proposed to the head of the CIA, Mike Pompeo, to lead it. It's going, it's circumventing our democracy. So let's find out to what purpose and by whom, because this is. is potentially not only disastrous, but it alters what our government is. So more details.

Pompeo, a former U.S. intelligence official said, can't trust the CIA bureaucracy, so we need to create this thing that reports just directly to him. Now, Pompeo is going to be the head of the CIA. And according to this report, he doesn't even trust the CIA at all, the people that work under him. And instead of directing his employees to do what they are told, and remember, Pompeo was a massive right winger, he could tell him to do what he wants, and they have to listen to him. And he says, no, no, no, I want a private intelligence agency that he could direct outside of the CIA. And same senior U.S. intelligence official says, it is a direct action

arm, totally off the books. Oh, great, it's off the books. So that we can't it, it is not accountable, it does not answer to the American people. And this is an intelligence, part of the intelligence agency that not only collects intelligence, but will take direct action, meaning physical violence, sometimes kidnappings, and God knows what else. Eric Prince previously was involved in our assassination program that was launched during the Bush administration in regards to al-Qaeda. Now, they never actually used that program, but they did hatch it, and he was part of it.

So, but let's find out more details about this particular program. Some of the individuals involved with the proposals secretly met with major Trump donors asking them to help finance operations before any official contracts were signed. Do you have any idea how dangerous that is? So they go to a bunch of really rich people, millionaires and billionaires, and they say, hey, we'd like a private CIA, basically. Now, who do you think that private CIA is going to work for? You? No, by definition, it doesn't work for you. It doesn't work for the American people.

It will work for the people signing the paycheck. So the billionaires will have their own private CIA. And it will be enmeshed with the CIA that currently exists. That's insanity. Now, if you're a right-winger, you think, ah, authoritarian, great, fascist takeover, I love it. Think about this. If you set that precedent, now this, the left doesn't actually do this, but in your same conspiracy theories, they do.

And if you set the president, precedent, they theoretically could in the future. What if a liberal were to come into office and go, I don't like the current CIA? I'm going to get George Soros to finance a private CIA that only works for the liberal agenda. That's insane. It's equally insane when the right wing does it, and probably far, far more dangerous. So, but it only gets worse. So let's continue. The proposals would utilize an army of,

of spies with no official cover in several countries deemed, quote, denied areas for current American intelligence personnel, including North Korea and Iran. Oh, great. So we're going to send in a private army of spies funded by incredibly wealthy people with their own financial interests in mind inside Iran to go screw up our foreign policy in Iran, not coordinating not only with the CIA, but the State Department. so they can go and screw up peace deals, North Korea, and they can agitate and start wars that we then have to fight.

By the way, which would also get them more contracts, bigger contracts, more money. So they have an incentive to go inside those countries and create wars. This is insanity defined. If we don't stop, this is fascism. No, it's not an exaggeration, it's not anywhere near hyperbole. This is exactly, to the word, to the T, How fascism starts. Okay, it keeps going and it keeps getting worse.

The White House is also considered creating a new global rendition unit meant to capture terrorist suspects around the world, as well as a propaganda campaign in the Middle East and Europe to combat Islamic extremism and Iran. Now, if you think, well, okay, kidnapping al-Qaeda guys or ISIS guys, that doesn't sound so bad. Now, if the U.S. government is doing it and the CIA is helping and we go and capture a terrorist, as we did in a couple of countries recently, I actually am in favor of that because I would rather use special forces than go do what I view to be indiscriminate bombing, which hits civilians far too much. And I'm really proud of our special forces for some of the operations they've done. Some have not gone well. Some have been remarkably clean and captured the target that we were looking for who might do harm to us. But those are our special forces.

If billionaires fund their own special forces, and then they go in with a vague mandate about, oh, go get the bad guys in the Middle East. And do you even know who they're working for and what their agenda is? Who are the private donors? Are they left wing, right wing? Well, in this case, you know they're right wing. Are they in favor of American foreign policy or another country's foreign policy? And what in the world would they do inside Iran in order to, quote, unquote, get the bad guys,

including kidnappings. And are they really going to stop at quote-unquote Islamic extremists or anyone that they are politically opposed to inside Iran, the Middle East or anywhere else? Or, hey, we don't like that guy either. I'm paying you. So go kidnap that guy too. It's okay. We've got the blessing of the CIA director and the president.

Then they have their private armies and then there goes our democracy. Okay. So, now when the White House is asked about this, they denied eight weeks of Sunday. They say the White House does not and would not support such a proposal. Okay, that's a national security council spokesperson. The White House has denied it as well. So you might say, oh, maybe they got the story wrong. You know, maybe this has no truth whatsoever to it.

I mean, private armies, that sounds ridiculous. No, of course not. They're not going to really do that, right? Well, let's dive in a little bit more and see what's already public, what's already confirmed. So they explain, at the heart of the scheme being considered by the White House, our Blackwater founder, Eric Prince and his longtime associate's CIA veteran John McGuire, who currently works for intelligence contractor Amnator Group. McGuire also served on Trump's transition team.

So deeply connected to Trump. Now you remember Eric Prince also went to Seychelles and had a private meeting with Russian officials, which he recently finally admitted to. They won't tell us what Eric Prince and the Russian officials talked about in regards to Trump. That's also very interesting. But okay, so that's who these two guys are. So what have they done in the past? McGuire and Prince met together in September with a senior CIA official at a Virginia restaurant

to discuss privatizing the war in Afghanistan. Now that is no longer secret in the beginning. Oh, no, no, no, privatizing a war, that sounds ridiculous. No, later Eric Prince came out, wrote an op-ed, went all over cable news, and made the argument that we should have a private army fighting the war in Afghanistan, accountable to the American people? Nope. Nope. It's a private army, an army of mercenaries, accountable to whoever signs their paychecks. Insanity, and they're now out and open about it. So now when Prince and the White House said, oh, no, no, no, we just like a private army for Afghanistan,

a private army of spies as well, but golly gee, we would never. No, we know you would. You've said publicly that you would, and that you lobbying very hard to make that happen. But okay, wait, wait, it gets worse. So Amnader Group and who are these guys and who's funding them right now? Okay, Prince and McGuire have a long professional relationship. McGuire recently completed a stint as a consultant with Prince's company Frontier Services Group, a Hong Kong-based security and logistics company partially owned by the Chinese government. Are you kidding me?

So we're going to have guys working for the Chinese government who are going to run our private CIA. But what? For the purpose of the American people? Hell no. Hell no. This is unreal. Absolutely unreal. And so you don't know who will be funding them here in America.

We do know that currently they are partly funded by the Chinese government. They'd like a private army, which they have admitted to, to fight them. in Afghanistan, which might lead to a larger private army, which would make Eric Prince and McGuire far richer and would make our government less accountable, not even a democracy if we've got private armies. Now private spies. Okay, and we are to trust these people because they're really good at their job. Oh, you don't understand. They're they're real veterans. They know what they're doing. They're really smart and experienced. Really? So let's find out just a tiny bit more about who these, what these guys believe.

So they hold meetings at the Trump Hotel in Washington to make sure that the deep state has not tapped their phones or wired the room. Okay. Now, I don't know, look, if they're doing things that are illegal, I hope that we do have a legal warrant and are investigating them. So I don't know if their concern there is warranted or not, but other people that they're doing, The Intercept talked to that knows of them, including intelligence officials, said that they usually, the room that they meet in the Trump Hotel, they have nicknamed the tinfoil room. That's not a good sign. So why are they nuts?

What's going on here? Okay, wait till you get a load of this. McGuire told at least two people that National Security Advisor, H.R. McMaster, in coordination with the top official at the National Security Agency, authorized surveillance of Steve Bannon and Trump family members. members, including Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, adding to these unsubstantiated claims, McGuire told the potential donors, he also had evidence McMaster used a burner phone to send information gathered through the surveillance to a facility in Cyprus owned by George Soros.

These guys are lunatics. But you think that the fascists in Germany were rational? No, they were also lunatics. They believed in crazy, crazy stuff. Conspiracy theories about who actually ruled the world. And by the way, it's a similar conspiracy here. Oh, George Soros secretly rules the world. Like, look, if you think there's warrants out for Donald Trump,

Eric Trump, and some of the stuff is being surveilled, I don't know that. I don't know that's true. I would be surprised, but not shocked. If Mueller's investigation has gone further, they could have warrants and perhaps they're surveilling some things. But would it be through the national security advisor? No.

And H.R. McMaster is deeply right wing. Why would he spy on his own president? Okay, but even if you were to concede all of that madness, then McMaster, the right wing national security advisor to Trump, is secretly reporting things to George Soros and Cyprus? That's cuckoo for cocoa puffs. These lunatics are trying to take over our government. and they are so deeply irrational that they believe in insane conspiracy theories.

If any of this, remember they denied that they were going to start the private army, then they lobbied publicly to start the private army. Luckily, we didn't get that in Afghanistan. Cooler heads prevailed, but they're still trying. If they ever go towards a private army or a private CIA, they should all be impeached. And if Pompeo has anything new with this, he should never, ever lead the CIA who he, apparently does not trust and is looking to subvert and undermine as he comes in. By the way, which fits Trump's pattern.

You bring in someone who hates the EPA to destroy the EPA. You're bringing in someone who has said that they would like to get rid of the Department of Energy to head the Department of Energy. And the list goes on and on, say with the Department of Education. And in this case, a guy who apparently might want to destroy the CIA to lead the CIA. And if you think the CIA has done things wrong, you're absolutely right. If you think a private army partly funded by the Chinese and partly funded by American billionaires would do better, you're just as nuts as they are. This cannot be allowed to happen. It would completely ruin our democracy.

Okay. Now, those are some dark stuff. So let me lighten it up for you guys and give you the story I promised you yesterday. Okay. I mean, it's a funny way of lighting it up. But it's, but it makes sense. Okay, so Christmas is around the corner and a lot of folks are excited, including me. Love Christmas. We already got our Christmas tree. And I've said this many times on the show. I love capitalist Christmas.

I don't think it has anything to do with religion. I'm pretty sure Santa in that giant red suit was, did not come from Nazareth. Anyway, a guy who apparently agrees with that side of it is Pastor David Grisham. He doesn't think that Santa is real. No. Unlike Megan Kelly who thinks Santa is real and white, Christian doesn't think he's real at all. So that's the part that's sensible.

The rest is not remotely sensible. And borders on lunacy as is usual because he is a right winger. So he has attacked the idea of Santa in Texas before. He's done an execution of Santa before, which I'm going to show you in a minute. Okay. But he's at it again. this time he's at the North Pole. Uh-oh, Santa, watch out, he's closing in.

No, it's literally North Pole, Alaska, and he goes and finds a Santa over there and starts yelling at him and the kids nearby. Let's watch. Hi, folks, hi kids. My name is Pastor David. I wanted to tell you guys that the real reason for the season for Christmas is about Jesus. Jesus Christ was born 2017 years ago in a manger in Bethlehem and Israel, and that Christmas is really all about Jesus.

And I wanted to tell you kids today, too, that Santa Claus does not exist. Santa Claus is not real. The man you're going to meet today is a man wearing a suit like a costume, and it's make-believe. It's not real. It's just fake. Your parents have been telling you a story that is not true. There are no reindeer, flying reindeer. There's no, yes, ma'am.

We understand that you have your beliefs, but everybody else have their beliefs as well. If you would not interfere with our other customers, we're really there. I'm not interfering. I'm just telling you the truth, and then I'll leave. I'll be done in about a minute. No, sir. She said leave, so go. Leave and let us enjoy our holiday. Okay, I'm done.

I'm leaving. Whatever you want to do. I'm done. I'm leaving. Bye. You all have a nice day. Okay. If you thought the good folks in Alaska were mad, wait until you see the good folks in Texas, but hold.

Okay. Look, is he correct that Christmas has nothing to do with the religion of Christianity as it is currently practiced in America and throughout the world? Yes, absolutely correct. The Christmas tree is a pagan tradition. There are no pine trees like that in Bethlehem. Okay, it's in northern Europe, and it represents eternal life, and it is 100%, very clearly, a pagan tradition having nothing to do with Christianity.

And the list goes on and on. There's also no Easter Bunny in the Bible. I don't know if you knew that. And Santa Claus is largely a capitalist creation that was AB tested throughout the years. At some point, he had a green suit. It didn't play well. At one point, he was skinny. That didn't play well.

So they made him fatter. They gave him a red suit. They eventually made him drink Coke. That's why we all like him. You saw that store in Alaska? What does that have to do with Christianity? There are no crosses. There's no Bibles.

It's just lit up like a Christmas tree. And we all love it. All that was market tested to create a holiday, an artificial holiday that we all love. Now, on the other hand, he says, oh, that's not real Santa on the radio. That's preposterous. No, what's real is a guy who was born of a virgin, walked on water, and raised the dead. Okay, whatever myth you'd like to believe. Okay, now here's old Pastor David last year trying this in Texas.

Folks, my name is Pastor David. Kids, I wanted to tell you today that there is no such thing as Santa Claus. Santa Claus does not exist. The Christmas season is about Jesus. Jesus was born 2016 years ago, but Santa does not exist. Santa's not real. And parents, y'all need to stop lying to your children and telling them that Santa Claus is real. When in fact, he's not. Now, remember, don't lie to your children about Santa. Lied to them about Jesus. Tell him, oh, no, no. He turned water into wine. We all got drunk. We all got drunk.

I think he turned the water into wine. And there's something about the fish, and he definitely walked on water. He definitely. Tell them those lies, not the lies about Santa. That's outrageous. Anyway, here comes a Texas dad. Let's watch. There is no Santa Claus.

There is no Santa Claus. It's about Jesus. Tell them the truth Yes, we do Tell them the truth Sir, don't put your hands on it Go on Quit talking his best

You understand me Keep your hands to yourself I got my kids over there We don't need you coming over there Blabbing whatever the hell you blabbing I'm telling them the truth That there is no Santa Claus Go

I'm not leaving I'm not leaving You need to keep your hands to yourself Sir Don't put your hands on people That's a song Don't come over here talking your mess And don't come over here and tell your children

The truth That there is no Santa Claus That's not a true decision for me to tell my kids what's the truth and what's not. The truth is there is no Santa Claus. There is no Santa and Christmas is about Jesus. And the parents are all right with lying to their kids. Yeah. Now your decision to make that.

That's a sin. It's a sin in the eyes of God. Kids, there is no Santa. Santa's not real. Your parents are lying to you. Don't believe it. He's lucky nobody pulled a gun, man. Anyway, it was okay.

It was okay. Nobody got hurt. But that is part of Texas that I like. Go on now. Go tell your mess somewhere else. By the way, Jesus was born 2016 years ago. No, actually, he was born nowhere near December 25th if you believe the Bible. I believe he was born in the spring based on their best reading of the tea leaves of the incredibly vague Bible. The December 25th time was because of the winter solstice, also a pagan tradition having nothing to do with Christianity.

So he should actually be ranting and raving around April in the malls. Hey guys, this is when Jesus was born. We got it all wrong. Bring in the Santa today. Okay, wait, we haven't even gotten to the Santa execution yet. Fire away. You have been duly pronounced guilty and are hereby sentenced to death by having your miserable stuffing shot out by firing squad. We would plead that the Lord have mercy on your soul, but you have no soul.

Do you have any last words? Of course you don't, because you can't talk, you don't exist. Firing squad, charge your weapons. Come to the ready. Aim, power! Ready, aim, park. Ready, aim, put! The chipped at race.

Okay, I don't know whether to be amused by that guy or frightened, because that dude's dangerous. Okay, no one who executes Santa isn't dangerous. So he explains, no, no, we're just playing. By the way, did you notice that his scroll that he was wearing? First of all, it's awesome that he had a scroll. Second of all, it was made of crayons, giant crayons. Okay. Do you know what I'm doing?

Of course you don't, because you don't exist. Plus, you're a piñata. Anyway, now he's going to give you a caveat here. Now, we're doing this all in good fun. We chose a pinata on purpose to make sure that no one would confuse this with a real person. Because as Christians, we do not advocate violence against real people. We have horror violence. So this is all just for good fun.

It's like parity. Okay. Of course, you notice this shirt that says coexists and it's X down. We wouldn't want to coexist. That would be terrible. No, no, no, don't coexist. But they would never do any violence. They were just executing Santa in good fun.

Now, if that's not the Christmas spirit, I don't know what it is. All right, wait till next year. God knows what he does that. All right, guys, we got to take a break. Now, massive news. Donald Trump has announced that we're going to move our embassy to Jerusalem. God knows what kind of trouble that could create the defense of Roy Moore are preposterous. And is Al Franken going to resign tomorrow?

We have the latest when we return. You're right in the middle of this podcast. We've got another great segment coming up for you. If you'd like the full show, which is actually five segments, go to t-y-tnetwork.com slash join. You become a member, you support the show, you support independent media, and you get the whole two-hour show ad-free every day. Let's go do it now.

All right, back on a young Turks, Jordan writes in, quote, my own personal Vietnam. How did any vet vote for this guy? And that was part of the problem. Among other things. Yeah, that was part of the problem of the Clinton campaign. They only focused on like one thing. Okay, he's a bad guy, he's bad to women, he's bad to different races, because that was tied to their demographic strategy.

But you should have undercut him on what were his supposed strengths. Like, oh, I'm strong. Well, no, you're not. You didn't go to Vietnam and instead you said this, right? They should have. It's very tough. People have built up such thick armor against persuasion. I know, but they should have.

But guys who went to Vietnam talking about how he was a very brave soldier for avoiding STDs at orgies. Yeah. And had to get under the, I mean, all you needed was 39,000 votes. Hey, it's locker room talk. It's like how I talk. But probably not. In that case, it seems too offensive. Carly B.

And I'm Catholic. Jesus was very clear about what people who abuse children can expect from him. And sadly, Alabama voters appear to be more fond of molesters than the God they claim to believe in. And finally, progressive plumber says, having watched every episode of House, Trump is showing symptoms of syphilis of the brain. Okay. A house reference. I love that. I miss that show.

Probably not. And your diagnosis because of what you've watched on TV is not necessarily. the most reliable thing. If we were conservatives, we'd write a blog about it. Well-known expert, progressive plumber says. Probably. I will admit, after I've watched all of house like three times, I feel like I'm a little bit better at diagnosing things than none, people who haven't watched it. I'm not saying I'm great. I'm at least like Ben Carson level. Oh, my wife is convinced that she's a better doctor than any doctor because she Googles it.

Oh, okay. No, I don't need to Google it. I've watched it that many times. Okay, I got you. All right. And member shadows. Members of shoutouts today are John Clipston and Lauren Brown Jarvis. So thank you guys for making independent media possible. And tonight on the post game, we're going to talk a little bit about the fires that are engulfing L.A. That's personal in our lives. And also a story we didn't get to about the mysterious going on in Donald Trump's Twitter account in the last 48 hours, which might actually match up with that denture

story. So let's start a conspiracy theory in the post game today. because Chris Eliza actually did write something interesting about what Trump has been doing and not doing it on Twitter over the last two days. I think I know what you're talking about. And I think someone is tweeting for him and is also stealing his teeth. Okay, it could be. There's Twitter elves. Anyway, check that out on the postgame if you're a member. TYT network.com slash join.

Okay, now perhaps the biggest other than Jerusalem, biggest domestic political story of the day. I don't know if by the time you watch this video, Al Franken will be a senator or. or not. I know that when we're filming it, he is a senator, but beyond that, I don't know. And here's why. We started off the day with the first of two more women accusing Al Franken of sexual misconduct, groping, and related activities. And we're going to give you details on those right now. The first comes from Tina Dupuis saying, this is from the Atlantic. D.C. was decked out and packed in for the inauguration of a young and popular new president. The town was buzzing with optimism. And one of the many events on our list was a swanky Media Matters

party with Democratic Notables everywhere. Then I saw Al Franken. I only bug celebrities for pictures when it'll make my foster mom happy. She loves Franken, so I asked to get a picture with him. We posed for the shot. He immediately put his hand on my waist, grabbing a handful of flesh. I froze, then he squeezed at least twice. So that was the first.

And then a little bit later on, a second additional accuser came out. A former Democratic congressional aide who had done a radio show with Al Franken and then had this experience immediately afterwards saying he was between me and the door and he was coming at me to kiss me. It was very quick and I think my brain had to work really hard to be like, wait, what is happening? But I knew whatever was happening was not right and I ducked. I was really startled by it and I just sort of booked it toward the door and he said it's my right as an entertainer. So the additional women come out and then relatively early in the morning other women start coming out. These women are Democratic senators and they begin what appeared to be

a coordinated effort to put pressure on him to leave office. And so I believe Christian Gillibrand might have been the first, but Kamala Harrison, a number of other female senators came out, joined eventually by male senators as well. The number passed 30. Initially, Chuck Schumer said that he was sort of waiting to find out more information than he too came out saying that while he respects El Franken, respects his work and his accomplishments, he doesn't believe that it's possible for him to represent the people of his state, and so it would be in his best interest to step down as well. And then we find out from

Minnesota Public Radio. If you bring up this tweet, you'll see the two sides of this. So in the first, Senator Franken is preparing to resign amid a cascade of calls. This is from a Democratic official unnamed who'd spoken to Al Franken and key aids. Senator Franken then responded to that saying that they had not made a final decision, and it's expected that tomorrow something will come out. So- It's complicated. Yep. Just Democrats did a petition about this. The minute the first story broke, it's Graphic 50.

It's JustDemocrats.com slash Franken. And 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 cyber criminals. And it's also easy to install.

A single mouse click protects all your devices. But listen, guys, this is important. ExpressVPN is rated number one by CNET and Wired magazine. So take back control of your life online and secure your data with a top VPN solution available, ExpressVPN. And if you go to expressvpn.com slash t-y-t, 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. And I thought that it was a little premature, and I voted no, but I lost that vote. And it turns out they were right.

and many more women have come forward and look I have my own issues with Al Franken they're only related around policy I think that I was very hopeful about Al Franken because I worked with him briefly at Air America I knew him just a tiny bit barely at all right so but I thought he worked at Air America he wrote a great book he was a really good Progressive against Bill O'Reilly and others? Yes, that he was going to come out guns blazing. No, he came out and immediately went into a cave in my opinion

and other than doing this to women, he didn't do much in his first term. In my opinion, I know some other progressives get mad at that, but look, I feel like progressives can fight really, really hard. They should be, you know, Fox News should be attacking a progressive

like Al Franken every day because he's fighting so hard for Medicare for all, so hard for $15 minimum wage. You go down the list, right? And no, he chose a well-worn strategy of, no, you don't say anything in your first term. You respect seniority. And if you make it through your first term without any controversies, then you're very likely to be re-elected. But to what end? To what end? Well, but then you could like, you could do it again. I know, but to what end? But then you could like do it a third time. Right. So when do you actually start fighting? And there were some, you know,

flashes of the old Al Franken that was on Air America when, you know, he did a pretty good job of cross-examining Neil Gorsuch when he was, and I would say, and some others at the beginning of the year. Yeah, and I would say actually that was his cross-examinations of some of these folks when they came up as Gorsuch did for the Supreme Court seat was probably the best stuff that he did. With DeVos, I mean, he was, it made for some amazing viewing. Yeah, and look, I like to think that we're fair and give credit where credit is due. So, We gave him a lot of credit for that. We did not give him, we took away credit when he would just hide and not fight for progressives.

But those were my policy issues with him. And I thought that just Democrats, they were doing the right thing. They were saying, hey, we've got to protect women under any and all circumstances. And we can't tolerate this. And it turns out, yeah, we've now lost track of how many women have come out. I literally, I don't remember if it's seven or eight or now it's not. I think it's nine as of today. Yeah, yeah. And so, and by the way, I don't believe that all of the Democratic senators have come out against him,

but also the two independents, Angus King and Bernie Sanders have also said that he should resign. Although notably the Republicans are playing a little bit safe. Perhaps we can get into why that might be, although if it's not already obvious. Yeah, I think, look, I have the same sorts of issues with him in terms of not really accomplishing much. He doesn't really give him Fox News much reason to attack him on a regular basis. In terms of whether the initial petition or the cause from the resign initially were premature, I think people are entitled to whatever view they have. I think it might have been a little bit premature.

I mean, the first woman that accused him said that she accepted his apology and she specifically said that she did not want him to resign. Now, you can say it's not up to her. That's totally fine. You can say that you find it hard to imagine how he could represent you. I totally get that. And it becomes progressively harder with every additional woman that comes out. And I've talked with some liberals who feel like considering the fact that while Democrats are taking this seriously in the past few weeks since we on the panel actually predicted that this would start to hit Congress with Conyers and now Franken, the Republicans are apparently just not going to.

They're not going to. And unilateral disarmament makes a lot of people really uncomfortable in a time when things are so close to split and the stakes are so high. but I told my friend, who I disagree with on a lot of issues, I consider myself a progressive because the core values I have inform my political behavior and my political preferences. And at some point, I have to have standards, not just for people I oppose, but for people I support as well. And how can you tell someone in Minnesota that they're wrong to think that this guy probably can't represent them when he has this long history going back before he was a center and after of treating women in this very consistent way.

Yeah, so that's exactly why I hesitated, John. It's not because of the sexual harassment, that's terrible. It's because Democrats generally do unilaterally disarmed. So now, that's both a great thing and a bad thing. So the great part of it is you're supposed to do the right thing. So for Kanyeers to step down and Franklin to step down, if he does, is the right thing. And I was for an ethics investigation immediately, of course, right? And I wanted to see what happened.

Now we're up to nine women. So we've got a good sense of what happened, right? So we're done with that. Of course, he should resign. And whether it's Keith Ellison or anyone else, we should have a real progressive in Minnesota and one that actually fights for us. Maybe one of John Conyers' relatives. Yeah, yeah, that's what Conyers wants, of course, in his seat of Michigan.

So, but if they think it's an effective political strategy, and it looks like the Democrats are pushing out Conyers and Franken, so that they can, so that Republicans can't, hit them on that anymore on cable TV when a week before the Roy Moore election, it will not be an effective political strategy. That's okay, they should do it anyway because it's the right thing to do, okay? Not pragmatically, but because it lines up with your values. That's right. You should do it based on values and I support that. But I think that they think like, oh, this will get the Republicans, we'll take out all the Democrats who've done the wrong things, and then they'll

be forced to, no, they're not going to be forced to do anything. They're just going to laugh at you and go, ha, ha, you idiots, you admitted it. And now we got rid of you guys. And no, we're going to still do everything. And we're never going to admit it. Roy Moore is never going to admit it. Donald Trump is never going to admit it. They're never going to leave office.

And we're not going to do any of that. And this is the uneven playing field that we have, which drives me crazy. I agree. That will definitely happen. I mean, if we found a child's body in Roy Moore's house, that would buy like two weeks of him not being funded by the RNC at this point. And I agree there's probably some Democrats who are making that sort of pragmatic decision. But I think especially with the coordinated, like the first seven or 10

Democratic female senators who came out, came out within minutes of each other. So it seems like they'd met up and talked about it. I don't think that they were motivated purely by political concerns. I think that they see this as this social movement that we have that is long overdue, finally coming to one of the places where it's perhaps been most due. And I think that they felt like they can be a part of attaining that change. And this is how you do that. They can't control Roy Moore or Mitch McConnell, but they can put pressure on people that on their side. And if that's what they can do, that's what they'll do. Look, and others as well, not just the female senators. I don't begrudge them that. And of course, I support their decision,

like I just said. And I don't question why they're doing it. But I would be shocked if Democratic leadership didn't get together and think, oh, Kellyanne Conway on TV is saying that, oh, you got Franken and Conyers. And so let's just get rid of them. And then that'll help us make our case against Roy Moore. It won't. You don't think you can reason with her? First of all, you're never going to, like, it's not like Kelly Ann Conn was going to be like, oh, you got me, you're right, now we're hypocrites. Doug Jones, Doug Jones, Doug Jones.

And I guess- Probably not. The conservative voters in Alabama that you're trying to flip, don't care. Al Franken and Kanye was a punchline. It was a retort. They didn't actually, you think they cared that Al Franken was grabbing women? They felt bad for those women, really bad. Oh, they have no morality at all. They don't mind that Roy Moore was raping a 16-year-old in a parking lot. If Al Franken was a conservative, they'd be celebrating him in the streets.

They'd be firing guns into the air going, y'all! Okay, that's what they'd be doing. So you're not going to convince anybody in Alabama based on getting rid of Franklin and Congress. You should anyway, but I'd be shocked if the Democratic leaders, in their infinite idiocy thought, like, oh, this will get them. Yeah. Why don't we turn to a similar topic? It's related to it, but slightly more positive before we take our next break.

Okay. Times 2017 person of the year has been chosen. We had the shortlist earlier this week, and now we know it is the silence breakers. The women and in some cases men who helped to come forward, despite the very real possibility that would be devastating to them financially in terms of their career and in terms of their reputation to talk about the sexual harassment and sexual assault they had personally faced or been exposed to. And that began this process that eventually moved into certain social movements. You had the hashtag Me Too and a number of other things like that, which has created this moment where in media and in politics in some other areas, including business, people are being held accountable in a way that they have never been held accountable before.

It's certainly not in these numbers and at such high positions of power and authority. So the silence breakers were chosen. We can show you this cover of Time magazine here. You're going to see some of the women who are involved in this. There's some controversy as well, which I would prefer not to focus too much on. One is some people said, look at the elbow of the woman being cut off. It's sort of messed up of them to cut a woman off when they brought her in for the photo. But they responded that, no, that is an intentional thing.

it's to represent the women that they've talked to who still don't feel like they can come out openly, and they will tell their stories, but they feel they must do it anonymously. And so the woman who is her face is hidden there is a representative of that. And we also have a short video. We're only going to play you a little bit of it, but talking about this moment that these women and others have helped to achieve. We can't all be sluts. We can't all be asking for it. I am here to give you permission to be angry. This reality might not have to be our reality anymore.

I felt this crushing sense of powerlessness. This is the time to take my power back. Here's my story. ...provestigation into sexual harassment. I felt it was my duty for the women who are silent to be brave. It's okay to stand up for yourself. Miller Swift appearing in court today. People forget a lot that there's a human behind this,

someone who is very hurt and wrong. Not two. Two needs me. All tweets from all spacey, now under criminal and that is crazy. I always thought maybe things could change for my daughter. I never thought things could change from me. As I said, that's just a portion of the video. You can find the full video on time.com.

And we'll put it in the description box. Whenever we reference a video or an article, it's almost always in the description box below if you're watching on YouTube or oftentimes in the comment section on Facebook. So, great selection. It makes perfect sense. It seems maybe not in hindsight, but certainly in hindsight that it almost had to be. Yeah. And of course it has to be a collection of them.

You can't just give it to one of the women because so many were brave and came out. And if you're- Many more were profiled in the magazine, obviously only so many are on the cover, but many people were a part of this. And not just immediately, but you know, you can go back to the origins of the movement before there was even Twitter. Right, and some of them are women you don't recognize one from who came out at Uber and talked about sexual harassment in the workplace, et cetera.

Some of the ones you do recognize, Ashley Judd, one of the first to come out against Harvey Weinstein. Taylor Swift, or if you remember, now it seems like it was a million years ago, but it was actually just a couple of months ago when she sued for just one dollar, just to prove a point of a DJ who had grabbed her ass and proved in court that he had. and had tried to sue her. Yes. Because she came out against it. Right.

Now, all the other case I think you could make for person of the year, honestly, is for Donald Trump. Because he's caused such mayhem. The person of the year is not something that is necessary. It can be congratulatory. In this case, it's laudatory that women had the courage to come out. But it's also given the people who've had great impact for better or for worse. And Stalin, Hitler, et cetera. And Trump was the person of the year last year, and definitely that was accurate.

He was, for better or for worse. And this year he was the runner up, and which, of course, he was bitter about and complained about earlier and did that preemptive tweet. Like, oh, I didn't want it anyway, I turned it down. And think about now that you know who the person of the year is, he's saying, oh, yeah, the women who were abused, including by Donald Trump, got it. Well, I didn't want it anyway. I turned it down.

I could have had it instead of those chicks, but I didn't want it. That's why they gave it to the women instead. Yeah. He also congratulated the women on winning the time. popular vote, but he still won the time electoral college. And he also bragged that they technically got first, but he got second, and he's exactly the sort of sexual abuser that they're organizing against. So he's really one and two. So I would like to congratulate him on that. Yeah. But anyway, yes, it's a great choice. There were, you know, obviously, you know, Colin Kaepernick and

his movement incredibly important as well. I thought that those, those were both possibilities. symbolically, Bob Mueller is certainly a possibility if they wanted to really give the finger to Donald Trump, which I guess this also does. But yeah, obviously this is just the beginning of this movement, and there will be a lot more heads rolling that has, again, been long overdue, but it's great to see the recognition in this particular form. Well, and I know what you're thinking, yes, yes, but who's the Turk of the year and the jerk of the year, which is what we do at the end of the year every year?

Well, you're going to have to hold because we do wait until the very end. Candidates could still come in. Okay. Does this put pressure on you? Because they came out first. So now if you choose someone else, you've got to explain why. Yeah, I hear you. Previous jerks of the year have been Ted Cruz, Donald Trump, among others.

Yeah. Oh, I remember, no, it hasn't been Donald Trump? Because I actually, I can't say why. I had to do research on this this morning. At 2015 was Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Donald Trump was a runner-up. Again, he's always the runner-up, never the bride. And last year, do you remember who it was?

Oh, I thought it was last year. Trump? Maybe I'm wrong. I'm sorry if I remember. I think he was in the top five. It was Debbie Wasserman-Schultz. Oh, because we let people vote. Oh, we let people vote. Yes, yes, yes. There are arguments to be made.

Anyway, so we'll give you the candidates a little bit later in the month, and then we'll have a final decision for you guys. But this is a nice appetizer, Times Person of the Year, for the real course, which is, of course, our awards. All right, wait for us to make a serious story totally goofy. That's totally my fault. I think Time did a great job here. And really...

And the women did a great job. Yeah, and calling out what was, as we've said on the show many times, a sea change, a cultural change. Now, it's one thing to have change in politics and sometimes policy and some are really important, like Affordable Care Act, it does. It changes policy in a really important way. But a cultural change is actually the largest change you could have. And I think these women in their great courage have caused a cultural change, which could protect millions of women going forward from here on out. So richly deserved and great job by time in pointing it out.

Okay, all right, let's take a quick break here, guys, but we're not done yet. There are more good stories and bad stories and devastating stories. Got a scary poll for you. Yes, scary poll time when we return. Thanks for watching what I hope was a lovely edition of the Young Turks. Now, you know that that is two of the five segments that we do, because that's free. We want to have you support independent media and can watch the whole show that we do every day. That's five segments overall.

no ads at all that's at t yt network dot com slash join come become a member thanks for watching either way thanks for listening to the full episode of the young turks support our work listen ad free access members only bonus content and more by subscribing to apple podcasts at apple dot co slash t yt i'm your host jank yugar and i'll see you soon