The Young Turks - The Young Turks - December 14, 2020

Episode Date: December 15, 2020

It’s official, Trump lost the 2020 election. Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur discuss on The Young Turks. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. All right, welcome to the Young Turks, Jane Q, Granite Kasparian, down goes Trump one more time. There's actually a couple more times we'll do this, but I'll save it for the actual story we're going to do in a minute. And breaking news that we'll get to you in a couple of minutes about more chaos at the White House.

And it is endless. But now we're also going to importantly move on to what the Biden administration should do and progressives versus centrist Democrats within that, within Democratic Party. But first, I want to thank everybody, as I always do, for keeping us strong and sustainable. and for bringing change into this world along with us at t yt.com slash go. So I'll read some names real quick because these are the people that make the show happen. Edmund from Connecticut, 10 bucks, Phyllis from California, 20 bucks, Corey from Washington, 50 bucks, Victoria from Massachusetts, 27, and Herbert from Florida, 127 to get the press on T-shirt.

You guys all are in a sense, the executive producers of the Young Turks. So thank you. Let's take a real quick look at the thermometer. This is the end of this campaign for this year. and we're trying to get to 2 million by the end of the year. You guys are the Young Turks. You are that change in hope that we're trying to bring the country. All right.

Speaking of change and hope, that brings us to the first story. All right. The 538 electors in the Electoral College got together today and voted in their state capitals in most cases to further make it official that Joe Biden is in fact the president-elect of the United States. he did in fact win the general election. I feel like we, in some ways, cover the same story just in different flavors. But again, this is another blow to Donald Trump and his team, who, of course, failed to provide any evidence of widespread voter fraud. It's abundantly clear that Joe Biden is, in fact, the winner. And so what's the next step? Well, at this point, the ballots will be sent

to Congress. They should be there by December 23rd. And then the has, House and the Senate will deal with it on January 6th. That's when they will be counting those ballots by the electors. Now, I should also note that, well, actually, before I go on with possible consequences for Republican lawmakers who went along with Donald Trump's lies about widespread voter fraud, Jake, I wanted you to jump in and share your thoughts about Biden being announced as a winner yet again in this election cycle. My first thought is this. Down goes Trump. Down goes Trump. Officially, down goes Trump.

The electoral colleges voted, it is over. Joe Biden has more than 270 votes. He will have 306 by the end. This is as official as it gets. So no ansips or butts, except of course, Trump in his utter humiliating desperation, trying to find a way around it. He's sending out his go, well, maybe we'll do different sleight of elections anyway. Dude, it's over it.

They already voted. The actual electors already, but maybe we can do it. Maybe we can get Congress dealing for us. At this point, their tears are delicious. Guess O'Donnell, one more time. You're fired. You're fired. You're fired. You're fired. Okay. Shop t-y-t.com. I love that shirt. I wear it in every opportunity. I do laundry more often just so I can wear the your fired t-shirts that I have. Shop t-y-y-t.com. Rub it in his face. Yes, I'm super happy about it. And guys, last thing before we give you the rest of the story about the consequences, is that look, the reason we keep telling you about these, all these different stages is because at every stage, Trump tries a new layer of the coup. Now the slow motion political coup has come to an end. They don't, they didn't get the memo. People like Karl Rove got the memo. They're saying, you're beginning to look like a sore loser. Really beginning to? Okay, But at this point, he looks just downright pathetic, which I'm here for. Yeah, definitely. I mean, we're luckily both now on the same page when it comes to this

coup attempt, because I think that one of the biggest disagreements that you and I had was, I just, I thought that there was like maybe half a percentage chance that it would work, but I was already on the camp of let's just clown him. This isn't serious, it doesn't make sense. So now you're no longer concerned and we can have fun by dunking on Donald Trump and his goons. You know, we can tag team it. It'll be a lot of fun. Oh, 100%. Yeah, can't wait.

You know me. Collecting maggatiers daily for too strong coffee. Yes. All right. So now let's move on to what I think makes a lot of sense regarding the Republican lawmakers who signed on to to Attorney General from Texas, Ken Paxton's lawsuit, which he filed with the Supreme Court, arguing that the votes from four battleground states should have been thrown out because of widespread voter fraud. Of course, there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud. And the

Supreme Court totally rejected the case, which again further solidified the fact that Joe Biden did win the general election. Now, there were about 18 representatives, Republican congressmen from these four battleground states who signed on to that lawsuit, who were supportive of that lawsuit, and who believed that it was the right thing to do to throw out the votes of their own constituents because they wanted to go along with this ridiculous talking point by Donald Trump and his supporters. And so I want to show you who these people are and give you a little sense of what Representative Bill Preskell is arguing. So if you look at the list, 18 representatives, Republican representatives from Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin, and Michigan.

And so here's what Bill Preskell wants to do. He argues that today I'm calling on House leaders to refuse to seat any members trying to overturn the election and make Donald Trump an elected, unelected dictator. And he cites the Constitution in order to make this case, arguing that the texts of the 14th Amendment expressly forbids members of Congress from engaging in rebellion against the United States. Trying to overturn a Democratic election and install a dictator seems like a pretty clear example of that. So the argument here is do not swear in these Republican congressmen who signed on to what Ken Paxton had filed with the Supreme Court. Yeah, so now here comes a rebellion. And in this case, ironically, a rebellion.

So Pascal makes a great point. He's like, look, it's literally in the Constitution. You can't support sedition against America, an actual open political rebellion. And that's the 14th Amendment, obviously, in the aftermath of the civil war. And so they were passed it to say, hey, you can't commit treason and then come and be elected as part of the United States of America that you were rebellious. And in this case, it was pretty close to literal where they said we don't want democracy. We do not want you to count the votes of Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. We want you to throw away all those votes and declare Trump King. And so they say declare him president, but if you're not counting the actual votes, no, you'd be declaring him king. So Pascal is right in and of himself. But Rebellion Pack in a new petition is adding on to that point, okay? And the petition is at enforce the 14th.com, enforce the 14th.com.

And we'll put it in the description box below where we have our links, if you're watching this later on YouTube, Facebook, and other platforms. So it's basically saying, look, if you guys think the election is fraudulent, well, then obviously we shouldn't sit you in Congress, because you just told us your own elections were fraudulent. We didn't say it. We're going to sit everyone who thinks the elections were fine. But since you're saying, hey, this election was totally fake and we should not count it, why would we seat you? That makes no sense. We're just doing you a favor by following through on what your demand is. Now, in the case of the 18 that are specifically in the four states elected, affected, well, you guys all signed

not like something that's online. You went to the Supreme Court and said our elections in these four states were totally fraudulent. Well, then of course we can't sit you. You just declared your own race as fraudulent. It would be malpractice of Nancy Pelosi's Speaker of the House to sit at a bare minimum. Even if you put aside the 126 overall Republican Congressman, And by the way, that's about two thirds of all of the congressmen, Republican congressman right now, okay? But the 18 that are in the four affected states that said, my election was a fraud, there's no way you should sit them. We should at least debate this in Congress, should we or shouldn't we? And maybe if we, the Rebellion Pack petition gets a ton of signatures, it could wake some people up and have them go, yeah, wait, why do we always unilaterally surrender?

That's the whole point of Rebellion Pack. No, we fight back. We should actually fight back against Republicans. So, and it highlights the coup they were trying to do. It is politically savvy. It is the right framing. So that's why RebellionPact.com is doing it. And that's very likely why Democratic leadership at the end will not do it. But I want to give them the most credit, though, to be fair, to Bill Pasqurell, a congressman who is not necessarily most progressive, but one of the biggest fighters in the Democratic Party. And I sincerely appreciate that. Absolutely. And I'll just add one more thing about these Republican lawmakers. Again, 126 of them, which is a pretty devastating number when you consider

what they're willing to put on the line for their own political careers and to remain in this good graces of someone who lost the election, Donald Trump. You know, even at this stage in my life, after covering like years and years of stories involving self-interested politicians who don't really care to do the right thing if it means that it's going to harm their political careers in any way. To put your name on a document like this, essentially dismantling our democratic process, but also more importantly, remember, these are representatives from states where They're advocating for throwing out their votes like, oh, I represent you, you're my constituent, but your vote doesn't matter because I'm being bullied by Donald Trump, because I'm intimidated

by Donald Trump, because I'm scared about what his voters might do, I'm afraid that they might, you know, harm my political career in some way. It's, these are not people who are fit to represent anyone, anyone, because they don't care to represent anyone. They only care to represent their own self-interest. It's insane and it's just so depressing. to see. Look, I know what the Republican Party is. I know what politicians are. But at the same time, if you had asked me to make a prediction or guess whether or not something like this would happen, I wouldn't guess that this many Republican lawmakers would put their name on a document advocating to throw out their own constituents ballots because they're afraid of Donald Trump. It's just really

sad. I mean, it's a cactosrophy, 100%. Yeah. And in fact, today, just a little while ago, Republican Congressman Paul Mitchell said, that's it. I've had enough of the Republican Party. I'm leaving. And he said that, he said, despite the fact that I voted for Trump in this election and I voted with him in Congress 95% of the time. I agree with his policies. I am deeply right wing and I totally agree with Trump's policies. But I didn't sign up for a coup. He didn't say the word coup. But he said, I didn't sign up to destroy our democracy. And and to say to people that your vote doesn't count. That's crazy and I'm out. But so far, three Republican congressmen that have said that publicly, they're all outgoing. They've either retired or lost the primary because if you're still a Republican, the Republican voters love the idea of a dictator. So you cannot openly say that you're for democracy if you're a Republican elected official anymore unless you're leaving office. we do have a breaking news story to share with you all. But before I go to it, a quick question

to our wonderful producer, Brett, can we use the bumper or no? Is it too late? As the White House insurance? No, okay, sorry. This is the late breaking story. I was testing my luck to see if we could use a bumper. But no worries. Let's do the story because it's huge. So Donald Trump has announced via Twitter that William Barr, his attorney general, will be leaving the White House pretty soon. Let me read you the wording in his tweet. He says, just had a very nice meeting with Attorney General Bill Barr at the White House. Our relationship has been a very good one. He has done an outstanding job. As per letter, Bill will be leaving just before Christmas to spend the holidays with his family.

It's actually shockingly polite, considering what Trump really feels toward Attorney General Barr, which I'll get into in just a second. Deputy Attorney General Jeff Rosen, an outstanding person, will become acting Attorney General. Highly respected, Richard Donahue, will be taking over the duties of Deputy Attorney General. Thank you to all. So that was the entirety of his tweet. Jank, first impressions. What do you think?

Yeah, so if you don't know the full context of Bill Barr, you won't know how stunning this is. I mean, he has intervened at least half a dozen times in preposterous extra legal maneuvers to help Donald Trump, including most famously, of course, in the Mueller report and the impeachment cases. In the Mueller report, he declared that Mueller said that Trump had not done it. Well, that is not what the report had said. It was outrageous. It was an, and he wouldn't let anybody see the Mueller report. He mischaracterized it on purpose, all to cover for Donald Trump. And the list goes on and on. He intervened when he shouldn't have to ask for leniency for Roger Stone. He's delaying illegal proceedings on a rape case against Donald Trump. It goes on and on

no one has defended Donald Trump legally more and more effectively than Bill Barr. But at the end, when Donald Trump 100% clearly lost the election, and there was absolutely no evidence at all to overturn that result, Bill Bart had did the cardinal sin of saying the truth for once. He said there just is not voter fraud in this election in a scale that would overturn the results. And Trump was furious. He's like, look, I hired you to lie, cheat, and steal for me. So not for the country. I don't care that you're technically supposed to represent the people of the United States as the attorney general. No, I hired you to be my lawyer against the law and steal. And you won't steal it, so you're fired.

So he puts out a nice tweet so it doesn't look like that he's doing a panic fire. And so that it won't look like he's asking the next acting attorney general to steal the election for him. But he definitely will, 100%. Right. And so the letter that Donald Trump was referencing in his tweet was a letter that William Barr, put out. And in that letter, he was also incredibly polite to Trump and, you know, heaped praise on him. Let me give you a little excerpt where he writes, your 2016 victory speech in which you reached out to your opponents and called for working together for the benefit of the American people was immediately met by a partisan onslaught against you in which no tactic, no matter how abusive and deceitful, was out of bound. So even at this late date, William Barr, after everything that Donald Trump has done, is still at least overtly supportive. Who knows how he really feels about Trump internally?

You know, there have been some reports indicating that he's not intimidated by Trump, that, you know, he's just a ranting wannabe dictator. I'm paraphrasing for the most part. But one thing that I do want to also add is Donald Trump wasn't just furious with William Barr over the fact that he was willing to tell the truth about the lack of evidence showing any widespread voter fraud. He was also furious with William Barr for refusing to overly politicize this investigation into Joe Biden. So Trump was really hoping that prior to the election, the Justice Department would announce these big investigations into Joe Biden

and his dealings with foreign companies. And I don't know why Barr decided to do things the way he did. He certainly went along with Trump's disinformation campaign prior to election day about alleged widespread voter fraud tied to mail-in ballots. But that was the first thing, basically, that Trump was furious about. And then his hatred for Barr was solidified after Barr refused to go along with the voter fraud talking points coming from Trump and his campaign. Yeah. So I think that Barr drew the line on a couple of places for here, I'll tender a guess for a while. On the Hunter Biden stuff, he's like, look, I'm willing to lie about other people's

investigations. I'm willing to order illegal investigations, because that's around the edges. Nobody's going to put me in jail for ordering an extra investigation, right? But I'm not willing to make up evidence that actually could get me disbarred and imprisoned. I'm just not going to do that. So why? Because it's about his personal preservation. He's like, I'm not going to jail for you. I'll do everything, every lie, every piece of cheating you need outside of actually going to jail, risking going to jail, right? And so, and then after the election, he said all those things about, oh my God, fraud and mail and ballots are terrible, and I'm having this Justice Department look into it in case it was a stealable election. If it was close enough

that a little bit of shenanigans could paper over the real results, they could steal the thing and then just go too late, too late, nothing you can do about it, right? But this turns out to be not a stealable election because they needed to steal four different states, some with small margins, some with gigantic margins. So Barr looked at it, Mitch McConnell looked at it, they had a meeting. That was where the Republican establishment decided Donald Trump's fate. I told you guys on that day. And that's when they came out and said, we're having the Justice Department look into serious allegations, et cetera, reserving the right to see if it's stealable, we'll go for the steal.

If it's not, we'll come back and have Barr say, no, no, no, you know, the Republican parties, they're good guys. And we said that Biden had won, right? So they realized they had to go to Plan B. And Trump really thought that they were just his personal lackeys, like that he was a mob boss and he could just order them around. But really, the biggest power in the Republican Party is Mitch McConnell. So McConnell, very likely told Barr we're done with him. And so that's why Barr did what he did. And that's why Trump was furious.

And I'll give you the exact quote that Anna was alluding to behind the scenes, after Trump unloaded on him several times. And I guess Bill Barr, you know, these guys. after all this, they're still a little naive. He thought, after I've done every dirty trick in the book for you, Trump, you're not going to throw me under a bus. Wrong again, Bill. Of course he did. So after he got thrown under a bus, he apparently said to insiders,

Barr cannot be intimidated by Trump. This is the real story. None of this matters is the deposed king ranting, irrelevant to the course of justice and the Trump's election laws. Okay. It's incredible. Yeah, when you were trying to help the king, it was all good. But now that he's a deposed king and he's lost power and you can't ride on those, the coattails of that power, all of a sudden, you're pointing out the rantings of a deposed king behind the seats. How very, very bold. Yeah, you know, and one other thing I just wanted to add, remember, William Barr's whole political ideology centers around the idea that the executive branch should increase as much power and solidify that power as well.

possible. And so I'm curious, I mean, look, we're talking about people who, for the most part, unless it has to do with their own political careers or self-interest, are not reasonable people. But I do wonder whether this experience with Donald Trump and the fragility of the democracy that we're living under has made him question what he previously believed or maybe currently believes about executive power. Because if you give one branch of government, especially the executive branch, like unlimited power to do whatever it wants unilaterally, you're asking for trouble. You're really asking for, you know, jeopardizing our democratic process. And if Trump could have had his way, yeah, he would totally just take this election, doesn't care about democracy,

doesn't care about what the majority of Americans voted for, and he would just remain in power. And that's pretty terrifying, especially because who knows, maybe next time around we wouldn't have these types of safeguards. We wouldn't have some voices of reason who would do the right thing if someone wanted to just stay in office and refuse to leave. Yeah, by the way, we should immediately get rid of the Electoral College. I know it's a difficult process, but the Democrats should actually try for the first time in their lives because Trump lost the popular vote by $3 million last time around and still became president. This time he lost by $7 million. And they're, you know, they tried everything he could to even steal this election. So what are we going to do?

We need to win elections by eight, nine million votes in order for there to be a Democrat elected safely. I mean, God help us. If it was six or only six or five million that Biden had won by, Bill Barr would not have had this position. He would have had the opposite position because he would have thought, yes, we can't hang on to power. Yes, I love executive authority. No, I don't mind a king as long as there's a realistic chance we could actually gain that power. The only reason why he appears to be acting on principle is because he realizes there is no realistic chance of Trump holding on the power. Keep it real. All right.

Well, we got to go to break, but when we come back, we'll share what electors in Michigan had to go through because of some Trump supporters and the threats that they were making in regard to these people's lives. And also, I just want to encourage you guys. If you're watching live, please share and like this stream. It's one of the best ways to help share this message and to get progressive ideas out there. Again, please do so. We would really appreciate it. And we're about to take a social break. We'll be right back.

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

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You know, I'm going to be able to be. All right, so let me give you guys a couple programming notes. We got a new show on Twitch now. So we're going to try this for a little while. Deep dive with Jordan Yule, Jordan's awesome, badass progressive, and he's already big on Twitch. So he's going to do a deep dive on the stories from the Young Turks. He'll also talk about the chatter on Twitter and talk to you guys on Twitch. It's a limited series. It starts at 2.30 p.m. Eastern exclusively on Twitch. That's Twitch.tv slash

TYT. So check it out starting tomorrow. Okay. And then we're doing Turks and Jerks like we do at the end of every year. But this time we're having you guys vote. So go to 2.it.com slash polls. You'll see another poll from today's show. But you'll see all the different Turks and jerks. And we need your votes on there to determine the winners and to get the final five finalists. Now, let me go to your comments. I bathe in a very stable geniuses. Tears right in the member section. Pascarro might be right on the Constitution, but Democrats are spineless by and large.

Those Congress people will be seated. Congress's civility guidelines will be in overdrive. 100% right. There's no, I hear you. We need to create public pressure to show what the Republicans are actually about. Now some folks on cable news are actually beginning to realize it. That's why signing that petition

in force of 14.com makes a difference. a difference, but will Pelosi actually do it? Of course not. She has no strength at all. Shikata Ghanai, right, saying sadly to me, Barr resigning is a harbinger of the fact that Trump isn't finished with his madness and Barr is no longer willing to play. I can't help but believe that Trump is not going to go out easily. No, of course not. But you know, he can keep going, but at this point I really think it's a zero percent chance and it's just become more humiliating by the day. Captain Cornball says, the fact that Barr has the legal dirt from the last few years is possibly why Trump's tweet is so nice. That's an interesting point. I hadn't thought of that.

Anna, you want to jump in? Yeah, I did want to jump in. So one of our supporters, viewers, members, you know, we communicate on a regular basis. I sent a pretty sad message that I wanted to share with you all. Eddie writes in and says, hey, Anna, I wanted you to know that I've been hospitalized with coronavirus today. My kidneys are also at 15%. If you can tell Jank, Brett, J.R and the rest of the crew, I'd appreciate it. So everyone, please send some love and support to Eddie. You know, he's very active on Twitter during the live show, and I just wanted to tell him hang in there. Yeah, absolutely, Eddie. We're all rooting for you, obviously. Last one goes to Beth Rose. Love TYT and just find you guys on my Roku channel. Now that's all my dog will be watching

because the smart TV is downstairs and I'm in my office. I love you. All right, back on the Young Church, Jane Canana with you. Lots to discuss, including some of the violence over the weekend coming up a little bit later in the program. But we also want to discuss the fights happening within Democratic Party because that's the most relevant thing now that Joe Biden's going to be president. and there are at least 10 Justice Democrats in Congress, which can make a difference. So let's begin those conversations. Anna, what's the next story? All right, well, let's talk about what happened in Michigan. Legislative office buildings in Lansing, Michigan had to close due to security concerns after, you know, lawmakers and

electors received election-related death threats from Trump supporters. Now, the electors, of course, throughout the country gathered today in their respective states in order to cast their votes, which of course confirmed again that Joe Biden has won the general election. Now there have been some threats against Michigan delegates to the electoral college who are expected or have cast their votes already for Joe Biden from the Senate chamber. And so let me share what some of these representatives shared on social media. Kevin Hurdle, for instance, wrote all how races, I'm sorry, all house offices have been closed tomorrow because credible threats have been made as Michigan's electors to the Electoral College will meet at the Capitol.

My office will monitor voicemail and are available to assist you at, and then he gives his email address. Also, Amber McCann, who's a spokesperson for State Senator Mike Shurkey, says, the following, the decision was not made because of anticipated protests, but because of credible threats of violence. And so let's talk about the protests that was taking place. I'm not sure if it actually happened. But there were, of course, Trump supporters who were planning on protesting in the capital, the state capital, of course. And there were some threats associated with those protesters and what they wanted to do, their message in this protest was essentially to implement or install, I should say, different electors who would probably carry out Trump's bidding in the Michigan

electoral count, which is just obviously shameful. And one of those people involved in that is a state lawmaker, Michigan lawmaker. His name is Representative Gary Eisen. And he said during a radio interview that he's part of the protests, right? And he said, yeah, there could be There could be violence associated with that. So let me give you the specific details. Asked if he could assure listeners, it would not, it would be safe in Michigan at the Capitol building. Representative Gary Eisen responded, no. I don't know because what we're doing today is uncharted. It hasn't been done. It's not me doing it. It's the Michigan house. It's the Michigan party. I'm just a witness. And so later, he was taken off of

his committee assignments as a result of what he was saying. Luckily, both Democratic and Republican lawmakers in the state realized how dangerous it is to in any way encourage violence associated with these protests. And so in response to that, Jank, he said, I want to assure everyone that those of us who are supporting an alternative slate of electors intend to do so peacefully and legally, I wanted to attend today's event to help prevent violence, not promote it. Well, It's interesting that you didn't say that initially. It's interesting that he didn't commit to no violence when he was specifically asked about it during a radio interview.

But nonetheless, Jank. Yeah, shockingly enough, as with many other politicians, it's when his own power was threatened when he was stripped of those committee positions, that all of a sudden he found the correct position. Before he's like, violence, yeah, could be, yeah, oh, are we doing violence? Sounds pretty good, right? I'm losing my power. No, I meant nonviolence. So let me give you another quote from him from earlier. He said about this event, quote, I was warned that it's going to be violence,

going to be protests, and they asked me if I would assist today. And I said, you know what? How can I not? That's my job. So he seemed pretty clearly in favor of violence before, loses some committee seats and some power at t yt 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 express vpn express VPN hides your IP address making your activity more difficult to trace and sell the advertisers ExpressVPN also encrypts 100% of your network data to protect you from eavesdroppers and cybercriminals.

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And all of a sudden, oh, did I say violence? I didn't mean violence. I mean, only if we could get away with it. We can't get away with it. Okay, I guess we'll have to stay in a democracy. We were really hoping for a dictatorship. That's his buddies in the Republican Party, including 126 of them in the United States Congress.

They said to invalidate every vote in Michigan and just declare Trump the winner. So you think guys who are in favor of dictatorships aren't in favor of violence? Of course they are. That's why he said it in the first place. Right, exactly. And look, this is what Republicans who dare to challenge Donald Trump, who refuse to be intimidated by Donald Trump, have to deal with. They have to deal with threats of violence. I mean, we saw a little of what these pro-Trump protests turn into in places like Washington, D.C. over the week.

weekend where four different people were stabbed, were injured as a result of proud boys and other, you know, Magachuds carrying out acts of violence because they can't have their way in dismantling our democratic process. And so, you know, I'm not making excuses for Republicans who end up licking Trump's boots. If anything, these are the types of people who go around talking about how feminism has led to the pacification of men. But then at the same time, all it takes is this lazy. incompetent fool to intimidate them and they're so easily intimidated. So it's just, it's

interesting to see how this plays out. But I do feel bad for lawmakers who feel threatened and feel like they can't perform their jobs safely, that they have to be escorted by authorities to the Capitol building or to, you know, state buildings as a result of these threats. It's insane. And what I'm worried about is even as it becomes more and more clear that there's no way that Trump can steal this election, you think that his supporters are going to stop? You think that Trump is going to finally concede and discourage people from carrying out acts of violence? He loves this stuff. And it's just, it's terrifying that he continues to egg people on like this. And remember, guys, this is in a state where a militia had planned to kidnap and execute

the governor. It was not a hypothetical. They're in jail right now. They were arrested. They were planning to actually kidnap and execute the Democratic governor of Michigan. So there has been not only credible threats of violence, there was a credible plot of violence that led to everyone in the plot being arrested and charged with very serious crimes of potentially domestic terrorism. So in that same state, to egg people on for violence is as usual with the Trump Republicans beyond insanity. And so these are the guys who said, oh, there's planes full of Antifa guys, they're going to do violence that never materialized, but the minute they think they're going to lose their power, everybody get out the streets and do violence. So look, we got to get back to sanity

and being a country that has rule of law and that doesn't have thugs running around in brown or golden green shirts or whatever the proud boys are, by the way, because they did it this weekend. They were all over the, both the state of Washington and the city of Washington committing violence in the streets. So it's not, none of this is a hypothetical. It is very real. And those legislators in Michigan should be very careful because there's right wing lunatics who've been egged on by guys like Eisen and Trump to commit slow motion domestic terrorism. Like it's not all going to come on the day that the electors vote. It's not all going to come on inauguration day. But little little by little, they just keep sending folks out there to do random acts of terror because they

told them that their country was stolen from them. They fed them nothing but lies and told them violence was the answer. All right, well, I want to switch gears and talk a little bit about progressives and the types of strategies they can take in order to pressure Democratic leadership in Congress to do the right thing, especially when it comes to Medicare for all. Before we engage in that detailed story, let's take our final break for this particular hour. And when we come back, I'll give you the details on a giant debate that raged over Twitter over the weekend. And it is about strategy. It is an important discussion. And we'll give you the details on that and more when we return.

You know, I'm going to be. All right, um, so it turns out the polling on Turks and jerks are closed. You guys let me know that. You're right, because I just realized the specials tomorrow. I forgot to read you that part. It said 8.30 p.m. Eastern Turks and jerks. So check that out. Tonight we got the Georgia election special. So Ben Dixon, John Iderola, myself, Ida Rodriguez, to talk about all the details of Georgia

election. So no post game will be live and free available to everyone. No old school, well, we would normally record it today, but we're going to do the Georgia special tonight. Okay. So now let me read you guys more comments. First of all, are Andrew Ogg upgraded to premium level by hitting that join button below if you're watching live on YouTube? We appreciate it. Arthur Ott, Elizabeth Moore, John Down, Lux, 92 just became members. You guys are the best. You make this show possible. Now, Thomas Johnson, with a super chat that is controversial, but this is what we're going to get to in a second. This is his opinion, not mine. He said, it's time to call out a new crowd of progress. Grifters, Glenn Greenwald, Jimmy Dorr, any progressives should be highly critical of Biden. But what distinguishes this group is their apology for Trump and right wing populists. So hold on that thought. I have a slightly different take on that. We all have slightly

different takes on it, but that's the conversation we're about to have. So Michael Goldman says, looking forward to watching just Democrats build a squad launch on Zoom tomorrow, hoping Jank and Ryan Grimm, I get to participate. No, it's great. Definitely. participate, that's awesome, but Ryan, I don't know about Ryan, I'm not in it. But that's okay. They might do some important endorsements soon. So keep looking out for just Democrats. Finfan 33 says, congrats on the faithful electors. Now not seating the 116 traders and eight attorney generals would be great, of course. Greg Ryan says, Jenk, once Trump is out of office, he can finally be rebanned by TYT, please. Thanks for all you do. Probably not there yet. But

You're going to get a vote for Manna. And yeah, Sandra the Burninator writes in on Super Chat. The Proud Boys ruined my Pittsburgh colors of black and gold. Jank will know what I mean. Yes. No, no, no. They don't own those colors. Those are our colors.

Okay. Hell no. I mean, they already mess with the American flag's colors. I'm not going to let them mess with the Steelers. The only thing potentially more American than the American flag is the Pittsburgh Steelers. So let's just keep it real on that. Okay, and Nordlich on Twitch says 500 bits for the Salty Dragon. I think technically it's just the Salt Dragon, but we appreciate it.

Thank you. A.J. Nestor writes in, Biden wins for the 53rd time and also this six-month subscription on Twitch. We appreciate it, brothers and sisters. We're coming right back. All right back on the young church, Jane and Anna with you guys, time finally for the Democratic split. upon us. Joe Biden is officially won. And now we fight. Yes, exactly. All right. Well, part of that is a big debate that happened over the weekend that I want to share with you. And I think that this is a pretty productive debate and conversation that's taking place. So let's get right to it.

So the big debate over the weekend was whether progressive lawmakers in the House of Representatives should refuse to support Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House unless she commit to bringing Medicare for All to the House floor for a vote. Now, as we all know, Nancy Pelosi has been nominated to serve as Speaker of the House again, but the official vote confirming that she'll be Speaker of the House in the next session hasn't happened yet. And so the idea here is to use that leverage against Nancy Pelosi and to pressure her to bring Medicare for all to the floor for a vote. Now, David Serota has shared his thoughts on this. And I like what Sarota has to say, because of all the different options, the nuances of shifting the power

dynamic, which I think is an important part of the conversation. Now, to be sure, Sarota is, in fact, in favor of using that strategy that I just described, of the progressive members of the House withholding their support for Nancy Pelosi until she commit to that floor vote on Medicare for all. But he does also acknowledge that this would be a performative vote, writing, only asking for that performative vote rather than asking for things that might change the structural power dynamic would be a waste. And yet another instance of progressives reverting to a feckless tradition of prioritizing spectacles rather than wielding of actual power. And to add to that, that every person from every party seems to gravitate toward that spectacle. And I think that

is a problem, right? I mean, when you see lawmakers on Twitter, for instance, say things about how, oh, this needs to happen and that needs to happen, okay, great, well, you're elected to be placed in a position of power to actually fight to make that happen. So get off Twitter and make it happen. But let me give you more of what Soroda has to say. If members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus were serious about championing Medicare for all and about using their momentary power in the speaker race as leverage, they could do much more than merely push for a ceremonial Medicare for all vote that might be helpfully clarifying, but also would very likely fail. So what does he mean when he says

clarifying but would likely fail? So there aren't enough members in the House who support Medicare for all for Medicare for all to pass. And so the argument is, well, it's not just a performative vote, it just makes it abundantly clear which Democrats are actually in favor of Medicare for all and which Democrats are not. And so a lot of this pressure has been directed toward AOC, which we'll get to in just a second. But first, I want to give you some of the the other options that were provided by Sarota. So for instance, House members can actually circumvent normal rules and committee procedures to force a floor vote on the issue. Sorota writes this, creating a discharge petition on Medicare for all would help clarify

who actually supports the program and who is merely co-sponsoring Medicare for all legislation as a performative but empty gesture. Also, let me just note this, although I don't think it'll ever happen in a million years, Joe Biden as president can actually unilaterally have everyone covered with Medicare for all with a single payer healthcare system during a pandemic. It's actually due to the Affordable Care Act and how it's written, it essentially indicates that the president, again, can make sure that everyone has Medicare for all during a pandemic. Now, will Biden do that? I highly doubt it, especially since he's the type of person who will commit not once, but twice, to vetoing a Medicare for all bill if it lands on his desk.

They can also condition their vote on the removal, I think this is important, the removal of Representative Richard Neal, who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee. As we know, he is funded by the private health care industry. He's the Democratic lawmaker who has fought aggressively to defeat bills that would end surprise medical billing. So to shift power in the House Ways and Means Committee is incredibly important. And so who's second in line to take that role as as chair of the committee, well, it's actually a Democratic lawmaker who's much more progressive, Representative Lloyd Doggett, who again is the next in line and would be much more supportive of Medicare for all. So there's more, and I'll get to it in just a second, but the point here is

Sarota's supportive of what is being proposed and withholding votes. But he is also making the argument that there's other more, there are other paths to gaining something a little more substantive, which again is a shift of power within the House. Yeah, there's a really important wrinkle and clarity that I want to add to this. So if you vote against Pelosi, there's a couple of different ways to vote against her. One is to propose a Democratic alternative. Cerroda is in favor of that. What Jimmy Doer initially is proposing is just vote against her with the Republicans.

so that she's blocked, but that would likely make Kevin McCarthy, the Speaker of the House. And so that's a much bolder line of action. And you could have any opinion you want about that boldness. So I'm going to share my opinion in a second. I agree and disagree with both of them and a lot of people on this issue. I like them all. And it's perfectly normal for all of us to disagree slightly. So and for everyone to make their case. So please, everybody act responsibly in thinking and knowing that not everyone you disagree with on every issue is a bad actor, okay? So on all sides. So first of all, I want to give Jimmy credit because he's actually taking action here, which almost no one ever does, and I think it's actually constructive.

So I would give him double credit for that. Now, where do I stand on this? And first of all, let me say that challenging votes that are considered automatic in Congress is definitely the right course of action. It's only a question of how and when on which votes can you have the maximum impact. And so I definitely am in favor of challenging votes. And I'll be in favor of that probably dozens of times going forward in the next two years alone. So now number two, am I in favor of challenging Pelosi by another Denver? Yeah, I've yelled and screamed a thousand times.

For God's sake, will anyone step up and challenge her from the left? The only challenges she has ever received in her whole life is from the right. So I think that the progressives in Congress, not challenging her from the left is totally wrong strategy. In fact, I'm going to read you one of our members, but I'm going to do it. disagree. Someone who likes AOC rodent, I would suggest simply trusting our own people, people funded politicians in matters of strategy. They know the cost and benefits a thousand times better than people on Twitter and a million times better than Jimmy Dorr. All right, I hear you, but

I hate to disappoint you, but no, I've talked to a lot of people in Washington. There's almost no strategy. I'm being honest with you. I think those progressives in Congress are wonderful. You guys help getting them, get them elected. They actually do have principles. They're great on policies. They're great on congressional hearings. Are they great on strategy? I haven't seen it yet.

Honestly, I haven't seen one piece of strategy work against corporate Democrats. I haven't really even seen them fight corporate Democrats, to be honest. And I love them, but I'm being realistic with you, that my job is to give you the news. So before I go further, Anna, did you want to say something to that? Yeah, I did want to say something because I really want to, unacquited, I'm equivocally share what my views are on the actual issue at hand. I shared my personal views on how I feel about the specific messenger. But I don't want to get into details on that because I think that the actual issue does matter.

I have absolutely no problem with pressuring our lawmakers. I have no problem pressuring members of the squad. They deserve more pressure considering the fact that they're supposed to be the democratic lawmakers who serve the best interests of the vast majority of Americans who actually want single payer health care or to improve wages or to do a whole host of things that our congressional lawmakers have abandoned us on. And so if they use their leverage in the way that's been proposed by Jimmy Dorr, I have no problem with that, right? I do think it's important to consider intentions, but whatever, we're not going to talk about that in the context of this story.

Now, I do also think that there are upsides and downsides to all of the strategies that have been proposed, right? And so let's say worst case scenario, progressive lawmakers carry this out. There is a significant downside to it if there's a possibility that you have a Republican speaker, because how are you going to get anything done with a Republican speaker? And then at the same time, imagine if we actually do manage to get two Democrats and the runoff race in Georgia elected, right? So then you're going to needlessly create a roadblock to possibly passing legislation that we want. But that's just a risk that maybe, you know,

people are willing to take. But if you're going to hold lawmakers accountable, I'm not against that. If you're going to pressure lawmakers, I'm not against that. I love what Soroda is specifically proposing here in regard to Richard Neal. Richard Neal should not be the chair of the House Ways and means committee. He's definitely standing in the way. He's a giant obstacle when it comes to getting anything accomplished when it comes to health care in America. Yeah, no. Look, I love the Richard Neal idea. You know me. I loathe Richie Neal, and because he's the worst, one of the most corrupt Democrats I've ever seen in my lifetime, and specifically on the issue of health care. And the executive authority suggestion he has are great. But wait a minute, let's be clear, though.

criticize Sarota too. And again, I have nothing but respect for him, and he was a contributor here, and we have him on all the time. But number one, it's not performative to draw a line in the sand. It draws media attention, and media attention helps in framing and branding. Part of the reason why AOC is so successful is she's great at drawing media attention. That's not a bad thing. What is it done? It put Green New Deal on the map. It put a lot of policies that the mainstream media was not reporting on or considering on the map. So I think dismissing it as performative is not correct. And second of all, hold that thought, because I want to respond to what you just said, Jank. So okay, that's fair enough. But one other thing to take into

consideration, and this is probably what I'm most concerned about. So let's say best case scenario, the strategy works, and then they hold this vote. And the prediction, I think it's an accurate prediction is that there aren't enough votes to pass Medicare for all. What does that mean? Look, we know how Nancy Pelosi fights progressives, right? She's a dove when it comes to Republicans. But when it comes to progressives, she fights hard. When it comes to fighting on behalf of her donors, she fights hard. And so I'm worried that if that vote fails, well then she can use that as an excuse for not ever, you know, holding another vote or ever wanting to pass Medicare for all in the future. Like, oh, look at that. They failed.

No one wants it. Let's move on. Are you in any way concerned about that? Yeah, so let me be clear because this gets to the end game, right? So number one, let's split it into two things. Let's talk about the immediate that I want to answer your question because they're related. So So Sirota says, I don't want to do it if it means Kevin McCarthy is Speaker of the House. I agree with him. The problem is if we agree with that, well, since there is no one running from the left, that's your only choice. And so let's be realistic, you also can't make the Richie Neal ask, you can't make the

executive authority ask, you can't make any of these ass unless you're willing to say, I'm going to vote against you, even if it means Kevin McCarthy's speaker. So let's just make up our mind on how we want to do this strategy. So look, so him proposing better ass is good and helpful and constructive, but saying that you could get to those ass in a non-performative way is not true. At the end of the day, you must vote no on something, right? So now in this case, this is all, unfortunately, I wish it was more impactful, but likely to be much to do about nothing because right now it's in Congress, there's one libertarian,

five seats undecided, 196 Republicans and 233 Democrats. Even if all 10 Justice Democrats vote, no, there could barely muster up another handful of progressives to vote with them. It's not enough to swing that vote. If you think, oh, the progressive caucus is huge. No, the progressive caucus is filled with posers. So it's filled with great people, but a lot of people who are also also on the new Democrat coalition, Blue Dog Democrats, those are totally conservative Democrats. They're just throwing their name into every caucus. The progressive caucus is no way going to vote against Pelosi and in favor of McCarthy. It's not gonna happen, okay? And in fact, there's a downside to that strategy, the original strategy proposed by Jimmy Dorr, which is that the

media, and I get it, we'll fight the media in other ways, et cetera, and I love that fight. But the So the media will say, aha, we knew it, the far left is the same as the far right, and they're now voting with some of the worst Republicans, right? So at the end of the day, what do I think? And I'm gonna ask you guys, because we've got a poll on this, because I think it's a really interesting and tough question. I would not hold the line on this vote. I do not want to risk Kevin McCarthy being speaker.

I don't think strategically it's the right framing on this particular issue. But if you say, okay, Jake, then you're voting for to not hold a line ever. No, not at all true. I will, I'm happy to say no to the defense bill. I, depending on the situation, I might vote yes on shutting the government down if we don't get some, any kind of compromise ever, ever to the left. So I'm willing to go very far on many different so called must pass bills. Because I, especially with the defense bill, I don't give a damn if it passes.

I know everybody in Washington cries over it, but if you're a progressive, you shouldn't be crying over, oh my God, did the defense contractors get enough, right? So there will be opportunities, and we should do every one of these strategies. We've got to pick our spots and helping the Republicans in this case, the potential for helping the Republicans, I don't think is the right way to go. Yeah, and then there was one other thing I wanted to mention that I thought was a good idea by Sarota, where he argues, you know, a vote on Medicare for all is one thing. But you could also schedule a vote to allow states to create their own single payer health care, right? And that's I don't agree with that. Oh, you don't agree with that. Yeah. And so. It is an interesting

strategy, though. Let me just give some context so the audience knows what we're talking about. So Rokana proposed legislation that would empower the Department of Health and Human Services to approve waivers to states that want to create their own single payer health care system. And, you know, should that pass, keep in mind that Javier Becerra, who is support, supportive of Medicare for all could be the new secretary of health and human services. And so that's a good sign. That could pave the way for Medicare for all, at least on a state level. But I want to hear your thoughts real quick on that, Jank. Yeah, I just think that doing the state level is much, much harder. You need national infrastructure for this.

So I don't want to go to a halfway measure that then fails because it wasn't for the whole country. And then, oh, no, we've set the movement back for no reason. Nationwide, it definitely works. It works in every developed country in the world. We're the only ones who don't have it. But am I positive that Vermont's going to get it right or California is going to get it right? I'm not positive. And so they might not be able to do it without the national budget behind it, honestly.

And I don't want to go to weak sauce alternatives, in my opinion, okay? So I definitely want a Medicare for all vote on the Florida House. It will be, so on that I agree a billion percent with Jimmy and that and that side of the equation. Because you know who needs to know who's going to vote against Medicare for all? I need to know because I am going to make a list and I will primary those people. Okay, I will help every organization that primaries those people. I'll help every pack, every candidate that primaries those guys. guys. And we need a list. They're lying. Hey, I'll give you a perfect. Last two things is perfect

example. And everybody go to t.t.com slash polls because we really, really want to know your opinion on this because it's a super interesting issue. And I don't know where you guys are going to come out on it. Okay. So now, the last two things that are important are, look, Tim Ryan ran for president. When he did, I caught up with him at the Iowa steak out, okay? like where they cook steaks, one of those QT American traditions. And he's a co-sponsor of Medicare for All. And I said, so if you win, will you do Medicare for All? He said, absolutely not. What? And then I asked him, if there's a vote on Medicare for all, will you vote for all? If the winner asks you to, okay? And so here's the poll, by the way. Should progressives in

Congress, withhold her votes for Pelosi, unless you promise them Medicare for all floor vote. So check that out, t.yt.com slash polls slash M4A, but you can just do polls and it will get you there. Okay. So Tim said, Congressman Ryan said, no, he wouldn't even vote for it, even if the Democratic president asked them to. So the people who co-sign on to Medicare for all, half of them are lying. They're not telling the truth at all. So then I want to know who's lying and who's not. Are you going to represent your voters or you're not? So, and then secondly, that's why I'm so excited about the possibility of Nina Turner running for Congress. I mean, she's already filed. There's already a page, Nina Turner.com slash hello. That's to raise money for her. She's, it looks like she's definitely running.

So if she's got a campaign page for donations, go for it, okay? And so why do I care about that? Because in a moment where somebody says, hey, you know, somebody should run against Nancy Pelosi, who's a Democrat and not just Kevin McCarthy. Right now, I love them, but they're all like, oh, no, everybody in Washington would be really mad at us. You're not going to tell Nina Turner that. Nina Turner is going to do something like that in a second. They're going to say, hey, Nina, people are going to be mad at you if you run against Nancy Pelosi from the left.

She'd be like duly noted. Hello, somebody. I'm running. Okay, so Nina Turner.com slash hello. Put her in Congress. We'll get a lot of these floor votes. All right. That does it for hour one. When we come back from the break, J.R. Jackson will be joining for hour two. And it's going to be a fantastic show. So I'll see you guys in just a bit. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen to ad-free, access members only bonus content and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.