The Young Turks - The Young Turks - January 12, 2021

Episode Date: January 13, 2021

The Justice Democrats have made their first endorsement of this cycle...Nina Turner! Cenk Uygur, Nina Turner, Alexandra Rojas, and Ana Kasparian 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, well, the Young Turks, Jake, you Granite and Consparing with you guys. We have an amazing show for you guys tonight. Mitch McConnell kind of wants Trump impeached. Wait, what? Okay, that story's coming up in a little bit. Trump inciting more violence, that's not surprising, and more violence apparently planned.

Also not surprising. We will get to that. And obviously, give you guys a heads up on where that violence might happen, because this is the insane world that we live in. Okay, but having said that there's a lot of wonderful exclusives on this show, we have been exclusive on a new piece of art that Jim Carrey is revealing today on the Young Turks. That's fun for everybody. And we have a fun exclusive for you guys starting right now. So normally we don't do a lot of guests off the top of the show, but sometimes the Just Democrats is a little bit different. And so, and we've had some nice historic moments on the show with the Justice Democrats.

So joining us now is the executive director of said Justice Democrats, Alexander Rojas. Alex, welcome back to the Young Turks. Hey, thanks so much for having me. Excited to be here. Welcome, Alex. Yeah, it's great to have you. And we're gonna do something fun today. I hear you have a special surprise guest for us with a fun announcement. What is it? We do, we do, drum roll please. We have made our first endorsement as Justice Democrats for this cycle, and we could not be

more excited, more humbled, more honored, and how serendipitous it is that it is the state Senate Senator Nina Turner, the progressive giant. The person that I know when I was a founding member and the founding staffer at Justice Democrats was one of the few people that took us seriously, that talked to our candidates. And so we just could not be more proud. So she's our special guest for today. In fact, here comes the Nina Turner. Joining us right now. All right, how's this for fun? The gang's back together. So everybody, the first thing you need to do is J-DEMS dot us slash Nina Turner.

I'm not saying anything except for the URL, which I just said, and will be in the description box below. J-Dems. us slash Nina Turner, that's giving the Nina's campaign, which is absolutely critical, as you'll see here. So, Senator Turner, before we turn to you, Alex, you guys have specific criteria and things that you look for in Justice Democrats. So let me ask you funny questions, since Nina's on with us. What was it about Senator Turner that got you guys to endorse her?

Well, I mean, she talks about this in her announcement video, and it's just been in every action that I know that I've at least seen from the way that she's worked with Justice Democrats, which is her entire life has been fighting and centering, working and poor people in a time where our country desperately needs urgent leadership, whether it was her time as a Cleveland City Councilwoman, her time in the state Senate, her time as a national co-chair for Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign, and so many other things that she has done throughout her career, it has demonstrated through and through that she is committed to not just this office of running for Congress, but to the movement of people and our collective solidarity together

to actually get what we need to done in Congress in a progressive agenda. So I believe that Nina puts movement first. She puts others before herself and that type of selfless leadership, especially right now where we see in Congress where if we didn't have a Cory Bush, we didn't have a Jamal Bowman, we didn't have an AOC or Rashida or Ayana, what that would look like. And so imagine if we had a Congress full of Nina Turner's. If we had a Congress full of Jamal Bowman's and Corey Bush's, we would see a lot more action on the things that need to get done. And we know that once Nina Turner enters, she will. So Senate of Nina Turner, now in order to take the Justice Democrats endorsement, you have to be corporate pack free, very progressive and in a fighting attitude.

Are you comfortable with all those things, Senator? Let me think about that extraordinarily comfortable with all of those things. It's so honored by Alex and the rest of the team and the Justice Democrats and what they stand for. You know, I was talking to my staff earlier today and I said, you know what? I've been a Justice Democrat before that term became cool, you know, just the personification of what that means and what this organization means. And just even looking back at the wonderful video that they created and to see people like Congresswoman or, of Cortez and others sitting on that couch and I'm on the screen trying to pump them up and talk to them about what power means and why it's so important, it's so important to have

the people's power in the hands of people who will not capitulate when it comes to standing up for the poor to working for in the barely middle class. So to be in fellowship yet again with the Justice Democrats, but on the other side, I'm the candidate now. I feel like I've come full circle and it means so much to me to have their endorsement. Yeah, here comes justice. So have I mentioned J-Dems.us slash Nina Turner? I think I might have mentioned that. All right, so let me go back to Alex for a second.

So Alex, how much was just Democrats involved in the Cory Bush campaign to expel the Republicans from Congress? Because mainly you're known for electoral politics, but sometimes you get involved in legislative matters as well. So Corey Bush is a just Democrat. Everybody knows that. But how can a group like Justice Democrats also support actions, whether it's this one or later ones on the minimum wage and others? That's great. And right now, if you want to learn more about Cory Bush's resolution and sign up to also stand by her in holding these folks accountable, you can go to go to gopku.com to check out the number of folks from the progressive world that are signed on.

But this, you know, it's taken a lot to even get here, right? Before in 2018, it was AOC and Rashida and Ilhan and Ayanna. And then this year we were able to elect Marie Newman, Jamal Bowman, and Cory Bush. And so the dynamics have radically shifted, at least internally at Justice Democrats, it obviously externally for the first time we hired a political director because now that we have gotten really good on the front end of knowing what it takes to sort of fire all cylinders on a campaign that we've been a part of, we also now need to invest in governance and actually making sure that all of the work that we are doing on the front end for campaigns is being

translated into Congress. And I think there's a lot that Justice Democrats, alongside the sort of breadth of progressive folks that have been doing a lot of work on the Hill, there's so many opportunities. So our political director has been working closely with all squad members' offices to make sure that we're in communication. And specifically for Cory Bush, We've been obviously with her since day one, and we are so proud to see her on day one, literally, of her first term in Congress, actually bringing, demonstrating what it means to hold the GOP accountable, especially when, you know, our country is faced with attacks of fascists and neo-Nazis have literally entered the capital floor. So I think she and others is not just her, it's Ilhan drafting the articles of impeachment. It's Jamal writing a bill to investigate the capital police. And then like who alluded to, it's Mitch McConnell even coming out now saying that he might support articles of impeachment. And we know that that pressure is because justice Democrats, because progressives in Congress are actually making noise and are shifting the Overton window, even on something that should be so clear.

And so we've been doing a lot of communication support, political support, whatever we can provide. but it really is Congresswoman Bush that's leading the effort. You know, I have a question, you know, to kind of buttress your point, Alex, directed toward Senator Turner, because, you know, it's very clear that the message coming from progressive lawmakers, specifically Justice Democrats, is a popular one. But, you know, we still have a situation in which some corporate Democrats remain defiant in their own political ideology. They continue to push back against progressive policy proposals. And so what do you envision your strategy to be once you're in Congress and you're able to really make the case for the policies that we desperately need in this country, not just for progressives, but for working people overall across the ideological spectrum?

How do you strategize to get these Democrats on board when they've been so defiant so far? Thank you for that, Anna. The progress of progressives, and particularly just as Democrats, but progressives, people who are not just saying the word, but they live the word. A line Democrats lost so many seats in 2020. It gives the progressives an opportunity to leverage. And that's exactly what we need to do to be united in that leverage for good. Anna, you really point out something that's very important. People might not necessarily call themselves progressive, the term itself.

But when you begin to drill down and peel back the layers, you talk about health care, you talk about the 90 million plus people who are either uninsured or underinsured, you talk about people who don't have food, you talk about people who don't have a roof over their head when they lay down tonight. When you talk about those issues, the material, changing the material conditions of people, people can relate to that. And that is the call of a justice Democrat, a justice driven mission. And on the backdrop as we go into next week. And this point is very important because we're going to have a whole lot of people quoting the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Can I get a hell of somebody on that?

But they don't live out the vision of the radical Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was despised in his time by white America. He was barely getting loved by Black America. But his vision is that of justice, justice economically, politically, socially, racially, environmentally. He was against war. He talked about being seduced by materialism. You mean it. The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his contemporaries very much ahead of their time. And the justice Democrats are very much in that spirit.

They're in the spirit of Mayor Carl B. Stokes from my hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, or Congressman Lewis Stokes his brother from my hometown, it means to push when you have the people's power and to not equivocate on what is just what is right and what is good. And then they are going to have to come around because not only are the justice,

Democrats, and progressives right there, but the American people are right there and they are in the world of family. Lou Hamers here. We're going to leverage to answer you. That was a long way for me to say. We need to make some demands like, like Frederick Douglass said, and leverage and make sure that there's consequences for not answering the demands of the people. So Senator Turner, along the lines of what Anna was saying, I want to go down a list real quick of the things that are happening right now in Congress and what you would do if you were there today.

So first, would you support Cory Bush's resolution to expel the Republicans that voted against certification? I definitely support that and welcome her leadership. As Alex laid out, she is in there doing the daggone thing. And she was in that first class as well. So I'm just beaming with pride. She calls me big sister. I call her little, she called me big sis. I call her little sister.

But just beaming with pride because she is going, she is there right now doing the exact work that she told the people of her district. And by extension, the people of this nation that she would do. So I would be right there in support of her. Yeah, and by the way, as the audience, you know, Corey Bush has already endorsed Senator Nina Turner and a lot more on the way coming there. So, but let's continue along those lines. This was a little harder. So, although for you, not very, $2,000 checks, the Democrats promised it. But of course, as soon as the Democrats get to Senate, Manchin says, whoa, whoa, whoa, I don't know about those $2,000 checks.

I don't know if they're necessary. So I suspect that you would be in favor of the $2,000 checks. That's why I say it's not very tough for you in that regard. But what do you do with a problem like Manchin? Manchin must be held to account by the Democrat Democratic caucus itself. He needs to get on board and stop the foolishness. And this smoke screen that he and others are putting up about they don't know if it's going to go to the people who need it. It will go to the people who needed millions of people in this country need that.

And not just this $2,000. They haven't had relief since March, but we need to give them $2,000 monthly until we get through this pandemic and sure up small businesses and other businesses that employ the people of this thing. How can you in good consciousness? I don't know how some of those folks go to sleep at night, knowing that you have the power in your hands to ameliorate so much suffering in this country. Joe Manchin should be held to account by the Democratic caucus of the United States Senate. And if he don't get on board, then baby, they all need to banty about and get them out of there, period. There ain't no time to play games on this one. Absolutely.

Well, he's also playing games on impeachment, saying although he thinks Trump should be impeached, he thinks it's a bad idea to bring into the Senate where he says the Republicans will vote it down and then perhaps we should do it later. It's reckless and dangerous, yeah. So reckless. What's your reaction to that? And then I'll turn to Senator Turner. I just, I think it's reckless and dangerous. I think that Senator Turner is absolutely right that the Democratic caucus should hold him to account because we're going to pay for it in 2020 or 2024 or future on down the line if we don't actually deliver for the American people. And we should not be having Democrats within our own caucus be stopping immediate relief when there are millions of people that,

Senator Turner just referred to, not only that, there's some people that it's not, it's not like their rent or their payments have been relieved. They've just been pushed back. And that is going to be the ripple effects on our economy, the ripple effects on our society. In addition to what's happening right in this moment outside of the pandemic when the National Guard is being pulled away or could be pulled away from vaccine distribution, it's a very serious matter. And I hope that Senator Joe Manchin understands that it is dangerous. It is reckless as a strategy for the Democratic Party and is dangerous for Americans that need help right now, including in West Virginia.

That's right. Yeah, Alex, yeah, that's what I was gonna say I'm saying. But yeah, his state of his state that he represents, the level of poverty there. Yeah. So anyway, yeah. Yeah, so- Yeah, I wanted to add to that real quick, sorry, Jank, but I mean, that's part of what frustrates me personally, and this is of course my opinion, but of the Democratic Party overall, that Joe Manchin feels emboldened enough to come out and say that he's against $2,000 checks as if his own constituents aren't in favor of those checks, which does create a perfect opportunity for the Democratic Party to make its case and hold Senator Manchin accountable, right?

Use press conferences, you know, media appearances, whatever it is, to call him out. by name and say, hey, the good people of West Virginia also need some economic relief during this time of crisis, and he's the one who's standing in the way of us getting that accomplished. And so I guess my question to you is, Senator Turner, would you be willing to call these Democrats out by name when they serve as massive obstacles in getting important policy passed? You know, part of our job in that kind of service is to educate the people and to let them know who's really on their side to call the question. So absolutely, I've been on record calling the question for several years now, and I definitely

will not hesitate, especially of something of this magnitude. You know, this is not child's play. This is life and death for so many people right now in this moment, not just in our country, but in the entire world. And in the wealthiest country on the face of the earth, we have a senator or any other Senator that is holding up survival checks to people. It is immoral. It's unconscionable.

And yeah, we got to start calling our names. So yes. Love it. Yeah. So Senator Turner, one last question then, and it goes along those lines. So look, if and hopefully when you get into Congress, they will immediately tell you, look, you've got to look out for your colleagues. And we're all in this together. And so there's a lot of blue dog Democrats in this caucus and they're worried about winning in purple districts.

And that will often be in conflict with the interest of your voters, honestly, who would want the $2,000 checks, higher minimum wage, tougher police reform, et cetera. So when leadership asks you to make sure you support your Democratic colleagues, and that's a tough question, how do you answer that question? I will support my Democratic colleagues as long as they support the people. because my first my first obligation is to the mother down the street who can't afford her groceries. My first obligation is for the family where the mother and or the father may have lost their job. My first obligation are to those children who because of the pandemic do not have the requisite technology that they need and have lost so much time in their education because they may live in a district that does not have all the resources needed to educate them. first obligation and my only special interest are the people who elected me to do their bidding.

So my Democratic colleagues going to get all my support, all my love, baby, as long as they standing up for the least of these, our sisters and brothers in this country, they got my support. And people wonder why we support Nina Turner. All right, J.dams.j.coms.com slash Nina Turner. It's going to be in the description box below if you're watching this later on YouTube or Facebook. So easy to click on it. Then you bring that change.

You bring Nina Turner into Congress and let her do what she does, okay? And you make that happen. And she, you empower her, she empowers you. That's how this thing works, okay? And Justice Democrats helps facilitate all of that. So don't forget to show some love to justdemocrats.com as well. And then the fun begins. So let's see how it turns out, obviously.

But we all know that Nina Turner is a hell of a fighter for progressives. And it's great to have you both on Alex Rojas and Senator Nina Turner running for Congress in Ohio. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you, guys. Thank you, Anna. Thank you. All right, guys. We're going to take a quick break and we'll come back and tell you that breaking news about how McConnell might be supporting impeachment of Donald Trump.

A lot more news. So stay right here. 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 narratives that were taught in school. For as the great philosopher Yoda once put it, you must unlearn what you have learned. And that's true whether you're in Jedi training or you're uprooting and exposing all the

propaganda and disinformation you've been fed over the course of your lifetime. So search for UNFDR in your podcast app today and get ready to get informed, angered, and entertained all at the same time. Thank you. I'm going to be able to be. All right, back during the break here, I want to tell you a couple of the things. We got inauguration coverage coming up on January 20th, obviously God knows what's going to happen on that day. Unfortunately, it's become an open question as to, I mean, we'll probably get to it later in the show.

But they're saying that they're not going to let, they're going to have all the Republicans, everybody go through metal detectors because they don't trust the Republican congressman not to murder Joe Biden. That's the insanity that we're in now. So we're we're going to cover it for you on all of our platforms. It starts at noon Eastern. We're going to go throughout the day, Dr. Rashad Richie, Frederick Joseph, Jason Carter, Mathie Al-Hasson, myself, Anna, John Ida, all of us are going to be here. So check that out. All right. So I want to tell you about something super cool as well. So Jay Tomlson does Best of the Left podcast, and he's now celebrating his 15th anniversary. It's amazing to me. I remember when Jay first reached out to me and said, hey, do you mind if we feature

the Young Turks every once in a while in our collection of Left Wing podcast? I was like, no, I don't mind. That'd be great. Apparently some people were concerned about that. I'm not concerned. I love that he spread the message. This is how people chip in and do it in their own way. And Jay's been doing it for 15 years. There's a compilation of all the different progressive shows. He also does thoughtful analysis and commentary on top. He takes from 150 different sources.

It's a great day in America that on his 15th anniversary, there's 150 sources to take from. They didn't used to be that many progressive voices out there. Is some of the other's commentary in there, I guess? I guess. And so where can you listen to it? Well, obviously, bestof the left.com slash listen. Best of the left.com slash listen. And by the way, it's award winning.

He curates it himself. And their latest episode is Road to Sedition, where for the last 15 years, Jay's been marking all the horrible things the Republicans and Trump have been doing to get us to this point. He says there's some young turks clips in there as well. Well, make sure you check it out. He's a wonderful ally, and this is how progressives work together.

That's why we've been supporting Jay as much as we possibly can't throughout this entire time. And he does wonderful work, check out the podcast. Okay, real quick from our member section, someone who likes Bernie Sanders says, there's so much power in this panel, it's beyond a power panel. Agreed, Nina Turner and Alex Horace was wonderful on there. Naudius Maximus says, Nina Turner, what a wonderful, righteous woman talking to talk and walking the walk in the wall. walk 100% right. Mickey C writes in, Nina is so inspirational that she gives me hope at a time when I have very little left. Don't worry. Hope is on the way. Case A says Nina's the MVP of 2021 already.

All right of young Turks, Jake and Anna with you on a wild day in America. So Casper, I hear you've got crazy news. Let's do it. I do. This is, I don't know if this is real life. This is not something I would expect, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a man who has stood by Donald Trump's side throughout the last four years, has allegedly said that he is supportive of House Democrats' efforts to impeach Trump over the riots that happened with insurrectionists breaching the capital last week. So here's what we've learned through reporting. over at the New York Times, McConnell, the Republican leader, has told associates that he believes

President Trump committed impeachable offenses and that he is pleased that Democrats are moving to impeach him, believing that it will make it easier to purge him from the party, according to people familiar with his thinking. McConnell, a Republican of Kentucky, has indicated that he wants to see the specific article of impeachment that the House is set to approve on Wednesday, which is expected to draw support from as many as a dozen Republicans, potentially including, and by the way, this was actually just announced. So it is including Republican Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, whose father is a war criminal.

But nonetheless, she is the party's number third, number three in the House. So, you know, while some might give her some credit for signing on to this article of impeachment, let's not forget who Liz Cheney really is, not interested in rehabbing her reputation. But it is important for Republicans to also sign on to impeaching Donald Trump, because if there isn't a clear sign sent regarding, you know, consequences for insurrection or more importantly inciting this type of violence in the Capitol, then it would just further emboldened these Trump supporters in the future. All right, so let me bring you down a little further.

So is Mitch McConnell going to vote to actually convict him? Well, that we're not as clear about. So I don't want people getting excited saying Mitch McConnell is definitely throwing out Donald Trump. But is he open to it? Definitely, because the devil's in the details. And the devil is McConnell. But anyway, so that's a whole other story. But in this case, he's doing the right thing.

Of course, always for the wrong reasons, I'll get to that in a second. So how do I know he's definitely open to it? not just that he's allowing this to go in the New York Times. And if he didn't agree with it, he would definitely put out a forceful statement saying it's outrageous, it's fake news, it's not real. And he has not put out any of those statements. But it's also because when Biden's team, or maybe Biden himself actually, according to New York Times, called McConnell and said, hey, how would your timeline for impeachment work? McConnell did not say there ain't no timeline for conviction in the Senate. It's not going to happen. He easily could have said that. And he

He would have immediately kiboshed it. And you know Joe Biden, if McConnell says something, it's done. Biden would have dropped it, right? And so instead McConnell said, hmm, let me check in with the House parliamentarian to get back to you on the rules of that. Oh, that means he's definitely open to it. He's like, let's figure out how we can do this thing. So why, why is McConnell open to it?

So if they start impeachment now, look, it's slightly debatable, whether you can't impeach a president after he has left office. Most indications are that you can, and many people have been impeached after they have left office. But what is not debatable is if you start impeachment before he leaves office, can you convict him later in the Senate? Because the House impeaches and the Senate convicts. Yes, definitely. That has been done many times. So now, that gets to why McConnell might be doing this. Because if you are convicted in the Senate after you've been impeached in the house. You're not just thrown out of office now, because you say what's the point of doing if Trump's already left office? You're never allowed to run for office

again. Sorry. Oh, and now we have it. So that was exactly what was implied in this story about Mitch McConnell, where he says that this might be the best way to purge the Republican Party of Donald Trump. And I do think that, first of all, that is an important point. to bring up. I do think that's a good reason. If I were a Republican lawmaker and I were thinking strategically about the future, I would try to find ways to distance the party from Donald Trump as much as humanly possible. He's been incredibly destructive to the Republican party, even though the majority of Republican supporters and voters seem to think that Donald Trump is absolutely fantastic. I'm worried about what happens after Biden's first term,

especially if people are still experiencing economic turmoil and complete and utter frustration as a result of our government just completely abandoning them when it comes to their own economic worries. But I mean, this would, if it goes through, if Trump is impeached for the second time and then the trial happens in the Senate, while Biden is inaugurated, he's already in power, it could mean if the Senate approves it and convicts him that it's over for Trump. They don't have to worry about him running again in the future. Then they can focus their energy on Don Jr. And his, you know, his ambitions in politics.

Yeah. So look, we can't live our lives worried about how Donald Trump's fans are going to get angry and what kind of violence they're going to turn to. So if they ban Trump from politics forever, yes, Trump's fans will be. irate, they'll probably cause some violence, but I don't care. We don't negotiate with terrorists. So I think having someone permanently banned from politics is a hell of a thing. And so I would not be in favor of that unless it is the most extreme circumstances. And here we have, obviously, the most extreme circumstances. And guys, I'll break it down for you guys on whether

the Senate is going to convict or not, okay? So a lot of Republicans would love to get them out of their hair. On the other hand, they don't want to upset their base that supports Donald Trump. So right now, if the vote was held today in the Senate, the Republicans would not vote to convict them overall. A couple might, Romney might, Sass might, Murkowski might, but overall, they will not get to two-thirds to convict. They will not be enough Republicans. Why? Because polls coming out saying of Republican voters, only 15% want them thrown out of office, 83% want them to stay, 55% believe that Trump had absolutely no role in riots. 7 out of 10 believe he had little or no role. And a majority of Republican voters believe that

Joe Biden caused the riots. These are all facts. PBS, Marist, poll, UGov poll, they all confirm. So right now, if they held the vote, there's no way the Senate Republicans are going to vote to convict Donald Trump. But, and this is a giant but, between now and the inauguration, there are several times when there might be more violence. We're going to talk about it later in the show, January 17th, January 20th, people, right-wing supporters of Donald Trump are planning violence. And Trump is going around saying, hey, this could be very dangerous if people are against me. He's still hanging it on, talking about the anger, etc. If he causes a second time for people in power, Republican congressmen and senators to be in physical danger and they worry

about their own well-being, that's the only thing they care about. At that point, that's the only thing that'll trump their political ambition, because they were apparently furious. Trump would not take their calls when they were bunkered in in Capitol Hill. When they were being Seged, apparently Lindsey Graham furious and yelling, like, why would won't he come save us, right? Because of course he's not going to save you, you idiot, you idiot, right? So they're scared to Trump, but if he threatens their life again, I think they go to convict him and just get him out of politics forever. That's my sense of how it's going to go down. And by the way, a Republican put out a message today, a senator, Rob Portman, basically verifying this exact thing.

I was planning to say, where he said Trump must now put out a clarion call, be very, very, very clear that no violence is to be tolerated ever. If he doesn't do that and we get violence afterwards, then it's his fault. And so that's as suspected, that exactly is the standard the Republican senators will use to see if they're going to convict or not. And you know, you do have Republican lawmakers, you know, like Representative Jim Jordan, Representative McGovern, who are now releasing more and more statements about their experience during that Capitol Hill riot with the insurrectionists. And, you know, their language is pretty harsh. And they're referring to the evil in their eyes, which is pretty fascinating. Because,

again, for four years straight, they have minimized the role of white, right-wing gang members in this country. They've minimized the role of people like Kyle Rittenhouse. who showed up to a protest happening in a city that he doesn't even live in. And then he, of course, proceeded to shoot three people with two people dying as a result. I mean, these are instances that happened prior to the riots in the Capitol that the Republican party was either hush, hush about, refused to condemn publicly, or in some cases even went out of their way to justify and cover up for it. So it's just interesting to see how Republican lawmakers are only willing to change their tune on Donald Trump and what he has promoted if it

specifically impacts them and their own safety. They thought this was all cute, fun in games until they realized that they had empowered and enabled a monster in this country that not only incited violence in the lead up to these riots, let's be clear. I mean, he has essentially given like a wink and a nod to right wing. extremists in this country since the beginning of his first term, or in his only term, luckily. 100%. All right. Let's do the next story. All right, well, let's talk about the planned riots, because that is a legitimate concern. The FBI is warning of armed pro-Trump protesters in all, and protesters is a very generous way of labeling them. But they are threatening to storm 50 state

capitals and do so while they're armed. This is according to a bulletin that was released by the FBI. And there are two days in particular that the FBI wants, you know, the American people to be careful about, vigilant about. And that's January 17th and also, of course, inauguration day on January 20th. The FBI has also received information in recent days on a group calling for storming state, local, and federal government courthouses and administrative buildings in the event, President Donald Trump is removed from office prior to inauguration day. And let me read you just an excerpt from the bulletin released by the FBI, where they write that the FBI received information about an unidentified armed group intending to travel to Washington, D.C. on the 16th of January, they have warned that if Congress attempts to remove POTUS via the 25th Amendment, a huge uprising will occur. And by the way, I should note that Donald Trump spoke to reporters today and specifically

mentioned the efforts by House Democrats to impeach him. And the way he talked about it was, it was clearly a threat. Basically, you know, these Democrats better not go forward with these attempts to impeach me because people are very angry about that. There's a lot of anger about that, essentially saying don't try to hold me accountable or else my supporters will come after you. There could be violence. And then, of course, he loves to talk out of both sides of his mouth and said that he doesn't want violence.

But as we've known, he has consistently, you know, pushed his supporters to engage in violence, especially if it has to do with helping Trump politically, including, of course, overturning the results of the election in his favor. Yeah, Anna, he put the plausible deniability in there by saying he's against violence. And so all of his supporters will always turn back to that. And like they do, they always have excuses for him. He said, oh, there's very fine people on both sides when the Nazis and Confederate supporting people attack in Charlottesville. And they say, oh, no, no, no, he didn't mean the neo-Nazis. He just met the people who love the Confederacy and slavery.

Okay, if you think that's an excuse. And so in this case, they'll say, oh, no, he said he was against violence. But at the same exact time, in the same exact speech, he very clearly said that this is dangerous if they come after me and there'll be a lot of anger. In other words, you better not do it. Otherwise, I'll send my minions to attack you again. And remember, now we have detailed reporting from January 6th where he was apparently fairly elated about the violence and refused repeated calls to try to put an end to it. For hours, literally for hours. He was paralyzed by watching what was unfolding on television. And he, of course, I mean, look, Donald Trump sees it as people fighting on his behalf. Of course,

he enjoys that and is willing to risk the lives of members of his own party just to enjoy what happened in the Capitol. He needs to be removed from office right away. But I'm not done yet. That was the FBI bulletin. But Capitol Police have also briefed members of Congress about, you know, the potential for more violence, you know, leading up to inauguration day. Now, I want to remind you all that Capitol Police is now under new leadership following, you know, how poorly they handled and prepared for the insurrectionists on January 6th. But the new leadership did warn members of Congress that there could be some pretty serious violence leading up to the inauguration on a private call Monday night, for instance, new leaders of the Capitol Police told House Democrats that they were closely monitoring three separate plans that could pose serious threats to members of Congress. The first is a demonstration billed as the largest armed protest ever to take place on American soil. Another is a protest in honor of Ashley Babbitt. The woman killed while trying to climb into the Speaker's lobby through a broken window. Also, another demonstration.

would involve insurrectionists forming a perimeter around the Capitol, and this is terrifying, the White House and the Supreme Court, and then blocking Democrats from entering the Capitol, perhaps even killing them so that Republicans can take control of the government. Look, let's just be clear about something, okay? For anyone who thinks it's the right strategy to minimize what happened last week, for people who think, oh, there's no way that there could ever be a successful coup by these individuals. They don't have military backing except they had members of the military among them as they were engaging in these riots in the capital. But you don't need a military in order to try to do a coup. But what matters even more is that these are individuals who are engaging in this violent behavior with the intention of overthrowing our government. That is what their intention is. And they have been persuaded, they have been incited by members of our Congress, Republican

members of our Congress, and the Commander-in-Chief Donald Trump. That is a serious situation. And if there aren't actual consequences for what took place, then all it does is further emboldened both Republican voters and Republican lawmakers to become more and more brazen in their efforts to maintain power, even if it means dismantling our Democratic process. So I want to read you one more incredibly scary quote, Anna. And so you mentioned how they were already the National Guard and the Capitol Police were readying rules of engagement of warfare. At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking

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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. That was the language that was used. But it went a little further than just the rioters and Trump's MAGA Legion. I want to give you a quote here from Huffing the Post. One topic of discussion was the need to put every member of Congress through a metal detector before the inauguration.

A member on the call told Huffposts that there was an, quote, eyes wide open realization that Capitol Police needed to take precautions against, quote, all these members who were in league with the insurrectionists who love to carry their guns. The lawmaker added, you can't just let them bypass security and walk right up to Biden and Harris at inauguration. The Capitol police are going to have Congress people go through metal detectors because they're not positive that one of the Republicans in Congress wouldn't assassinate Joe Biden and or Kamala Harris. I mean, that's the state of insanity right now in the United States of America. I can't say I blame them for wanting to take those types of precautions. I mean, remember, even after the insurrectionist breached the capital, After all of that went down, you still had Republican members of Congress, you still had Senator Josh Hawley push forward with their gross strategy of enabling Donald Trump and questioning the certification of the electoral college votes, even though they know that there is absolutely

no evidence of widespread voter fraud. They still did it. Now, am I saying that Josh Holly specifically is a threat to the lives of Democratic lawmakers? I mean, he creates a threat by emboldening and enabling the lies and deception surrounding this election. But, you know, we're talking about lawmakers in Congress, Republican lawmakers who are clearly unhinged. Like, these are not, you know, normal people who value democracy, who value the lives and the safety of their colleagues, whether it's Republican colleagues or Democratic colleagues, they don't care. The only thing they've cared about so far is doing whatever it takes to pander to Donald Trump's base. And so I don't know, if I were a Democrat, I would want to be incredibly

careful. And I don't blame them for wanting to ensure that everyone goes through metal detectors and that Republican lawmakers aren't packing on a day when Joe Biden is going to be inaugurated because he is the rightful winner of the general election. Yeah. So last two things on that, look, guys, on the day of the of the riots where their lives were in danger and they They were all in one location, the Democrat and Republican Congress people. They had Kellyanne Conway, Ivanka Trump, and several others close to Donald Trump, called Trump to get them help, to get the National Guard, to clear the building, et cetera. And Trump would not take the call.

He was busy watching TV. So in other words, that's him saying, I don't care if you guys live or die. I don't care, I kind of like it. And so now the memo's out, no, this is real and your lives are in danger. And do you blame Capitol Police for not trusting the actual Republican Congress people themselves? The new Q&I Congresswoman, or one of the new Q&I Congresswoman, Lauren Bobbert, both said that she would bring a Glock to the Capitol. And while the riots were happening, she was talking about where Nancy Pelosi was moving within

the building. So yeah, of course you shouldn't trust her. And basically the police are now saying, no, you're not allowed to bring your Glock to inauguration because there's some chance you're nuts and part of the insurrection. Yeah, she was live tweeting where Nancy Pelosi was as these insurrectionists were in the building, as they had breached the Capitol. So again, you know, just going back to the point I was making, I don't, I don't blame anyone who wants to take extra precautions to ensure that they're safe. This is unfortunately the climate that we're living in. And again, it's been incited and emboldened by Donald Trump and his Republican congressional lackeys. So we got to take another break. So let's do that. But when we come back,

I do want to focus on a little more detail regarding what Donald Trump was doing as these insurrectionists were rioting in the capital. So lots to get to stick around. Don't miss it. We'll see you in just a few minutes. All right, I want to tell you guys about a fun exclusive that we've got, Jim Carrey's not just an excellent actor and comedian. He's also an artist and he watched The Young Turks. So every once in a while he gives us six So we've got a new piece of art from Jim Carrey about Donald Trump, as usual, I love it. But I wanted to give you background on it first. We'd also had the exclusive on a shining inspired cartoon that Jim Carrey had done earlier about Trump. I want to show you that first, remind you of what that is before we show you the new piece of art.

So we explained at the time, there's a lot of reasons why Carrie went in this direction. in this direction. This was before the violence broke out. And it was pretty prescient. There's Trump, like a madman, roaming, you know, both the White House, which kind of has a shining feel inside in some ways, and the gardens and the Capitol, et cetera. That cartoon turned out to be foreshadowing in a pretty scary way. And it says, you're the caretaker, Mr. Trump, you've always been the caretaker. Okay, so now I want to show you the follow-up to that. The new cartoon Jim Carrey is releasing today right here, let's take a look at that.

Now, this is also Shining Inspired, and I want to explain Carrie writes like Jack Torrance at the end of the shining, evil has been defeated, but not destroyed. It lies frozen and dormant, but very much alive, and waiting to be invited back by another perfect host. Ah, that's scary. It's totally true. So let me explain all the ways that I think it's true and why I think that's really great art. So look, you guys have heard me talk about art before and I've got mixed feelings about modern

art. The color brown is still the color brown. I'm not that or the color orange, I'm not that interested. But art with meaning and symbolism, I love. So in this case, Jim is right. You think it's gone? It's not gone. If we're lucky, it's frozen, right?

Even if they impeach Donald Trump and convict him in the Senate and he could never return to politics, it isn't about Trump. It's about that, for lack of a better way of putting it, the evil inside that people are looking for, that fear and hatred of the others. If it isn't Trump, it could be Cruz, it could be Holly, it could be someone else. But someone's going to go grab that mantle. And when it rises again, unfortunately, tens of millions of Americans are going to be ready to support it. So don't sleep on it.

Don't think that it's over. It's a great artistic way of showing, no, we got a long way to go before there's an end to this. And don't forget, Trump isn't gone. He's just frozen there waiting. And that psyche, unfortunately, embedded in some portion of the American population, is just waiting to rise again. So we have to be ever vigilant. Love it. Okay, we've got so much more show for you guys. I'm afraid that I'm not going to be able to get to your comments, even though they were all wonderful.

So many new people joined. Hit the join button below if you're watching on YouTube to do that. t.yt.com slash join anywhere else. We'll be right back. Thank you. All right, back on a Young Turks, Jank and Anna with you guys. Casper, go.

All right. What I said was totally appropriate. And if you look at what other people have said, politicians at a high level, about the riots during the summer, the horrible riots in Portland and Seattle and various other places, that was a real problem,

what they said. Well, that is Donald Trump's first public statement, you know, in response to some of the details that we're now learning about the insurrectionists that rioted in the Capitol building. He is deciding to deflect from his own responsibility in inciting the violence that took place, and instead he's focusing his energy on condemning and persecuting Black Lives Matter protesters over the summer. But let me just remind you all that in regard to the civil unrest we experienced over the summer, there were no reports of police actually helping anyone engage in criminality other than right-wing extremists. You didn't have the high volume of deaths that you experienced in

the Capitol and one day five people died during the Capitol Hill riots. Also, pipe bombs were found. These rioters decided to plant pipe bombs near the RNC and the DNC, and then, of course, let's not forget that the whole point of the Black Lives Matter protest was to change policing in this country so it isn't riddled with brutality toward very specific communities throughout America. When it came to the insurrectionists, they were insurrectionists. Like they wanted to throw out our democratic process just to ensure that someone like Donald Trump remains in power. So to deflect from what actually happened last week to focus on Black Lives Matter, to even try to draw these equivalencies is absolutely pathetic. But House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy argues that, no, no, no, Trump actually does take a little bit of responsibility. According to the Hill, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told GOP lawmakers on a conference call that Trump told him privately that he takes some responsibility for inciting the riots. Trump has not done so publicly, and to be quite honest with you, I don't believe what Kevin McCarthy is saying here.

Yeah, go ahead. Let me just jump in on that real quick. So there's been mixed reporting on that. So now most of the reporters are saying that McCarthy actually told the other. Republicans that he thinks Trump had a role in inciting the violence. Not that Trump admitted it to him. And in fact, Trump has of course never said that publicly disavowed it. And he said his words are totally appropriate, as you guys know. And then on top of that, Trump is apparently miffed that he did that video saying that there would be orderly transition to a new administration the day after the riot.

He's mad that they convinced him to do that. He thinks that that made him look weak by saying that there would be a peaceful transition. No, I mean, it's the fact that Mike Pence is refusing to invoke the 25th Amendment. I mean, even in this late date. And it's also incredibly frustrating that you have people in Trump's cabinet stepping down from the administration, when in reality, they might appear like they're taking a bold stance here, but they're not. They're doing the exact opposite. They would have been far more effective if they remained in the administration and had the

courage to invoke the 25th Amendment and get this insane person out of the White House, especially considering how unstable everything is with him in a position of power. But we don't know what he's going to do. Clearly, he doesn't think what happened in the Capitol was a big deal. In fact, it seems like he's actually pretty supportive of it and refuses to take any personal responsibility for the damage that was done on that day, not just a property, but more importantly to our democracy. You know, it's just, it's insane. He needs to be out immediately. I know that there's, you know, a little over a week left, but that doesn't matter. I wish these, you know, Trump cabinet members just had the courage to do the right thing. But I mean, they've stuck by his side. So I guess it's naive to even think they do that. Well, I think the Pence example is an amazing one.

So I want you guys to know the details because they're really quite horrific. So apparently Pence decided to stay in the Capitol. Secret Service was trying to usher him out of the building. And I don't know if it was because he was worried about leaving the building and running into those folks, or if he was making it a point of principle to stay with the rest of the Congress people in the Capitol. But he was in there and there's no question that some of the people in the riot were coming to specifically murder Mike Pence. There's the video of dozens of people chanting as they're breaking

the door down. They're chanting, hang Mike Pence, hang Mike Pence. There's guys with zip ties and nooses. So they're coming to kill Donald Trump's own vice president. And at the time, people are calling into Donald Trump, Kellyanne Conway, Ivanka Trump. They're calling Jared Kushner to call Donald Trump to get him to get people to back out so that nobody gets hurt, including his own vice president. And he would not do it. And now this is one more thing that's stunning about this. He never called Mike. Mike Pence was in the building. It took six hours to clear the building and Mike Pence was in there through all the violence. He never once called Mike Pence to see if he was okay. He raged tweeted about him in the middle of the riot saying that it was his

fault and he shouldn't have, he wasn't brave enough to have the real electors be seated, not the fake electors of Biden. He did at 224 when the building had already been breached for about 20 minutes. And apparently, since all this went down, he's never called Mike Pence to see if he was okay. Now, it's- Of course he hasn't. Of course he hasn't. Why are you surprised? Why are you surprised. In his speech, you know, he encouraged his supporters to hold Pence accountable for agreeing to certify the electoral college votes. But I also want to remind you all of what he said during this so-called Stop the Steel rally, which happened right before these insurrectionists stormed the Capitol building. He breached it and then proceeded to wreak havoc there. Let's take

a look at what he said. And we fight. We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, You're not going to have a country anymore. We're going to try and give our Republicans the weak ones because the strong ones don't need any of our help. We're going to try and give them the kind of pride, boldness that they need to take back our country. So let's walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. I want to thank you all. You know, and at the same event, of course, you had Republican representative Paul Gosar echoing similar messaging, encouraging people to do what they did. And everyone needs to be held accountable for that. Again, because if you don't do that, it just further emboldened these Republican lawmakers. I mean, they have, of course, engaged in so many different stunts. And at this point where they have Willie Nillie, put other people's lives in danger. If there aren't consequences for it, who knows how far

they're going to go in the future. Also, Trump followed all of this with more threats in regard to what the House is trying to do in impeaching Donald Trump for the second time, which by the way, he'd be the first president to be impeached twice. Trump who spoke to reporters at the White House before leaving Washington for a trip to Texas on Tuesday to tour sections of the border wall. He said that impeachment would be continuation of the greatest witch hunt in the history of politics and accused Democrats of endangering the country in moving forward with it. By the way, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is said to be supportive of the impeachment efforts. But here is a direct statement. He says that this impeachment is causing

tremendous anger. For Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer to continue on this path, I think it's causing tremendous danger to our country and it's causing tremendous anger. And then of course he followed it with, I want no violence for plausible deniability. But you know what he's doing there. That's the way he messages to his supporters to engage in the violent behavior that we experienced last week. Yeah, look, last two things here. Number one, it's one thing if you engage in that kind of rhetoric about fight like hell and go down Pennsylvania Avenue beforehand. And then you saw saw what happened and you were remorseful and you were like, oh my God, I didn't mean that. No, no, no, no, no, don't break into the building. No, no, no, don't kill people.

That's what do you guys know? That's crazy, right? It's another thing for you to talk like that. And then violence breaks out and five people die, including a police officer. And you're still talking about, well, opposing me could be dangerous. And it wouldn't make a lot of people angry. He has no remorse at all. In fact, in the video he did, he was forced to do in the middle of that day, he said that they were very special people, the rioters, and then he loved them. And in a tweet, so they, look, guys, think about it this way. They're asking Trump to send in the National Guard to protect the lives of Democratic and Republican Congresspeople on his own vice president. To this day, no one knows who gave the order because Trump apparently did not.

He did not want the National Guard to protect their lives. Amazing. Amazing. Then they ask him to to do that video and he was very reluctant to do the video where he was going to tell them, now I remember stay peaceful. Why is he reluctant? Everyone acknowledges he was reluctant. Why is he reluctant to say something as simple as stay peaceful? But that leads to the last part. They wanted him to put out a tweet. And the thing that he fought the most on was the very last two words in the tweet, which were literally stay peaceful. He didn't want to tweet and he had to be convinced by his entire staff to write that in. It's super clear.

He liked the violence. He liked the people who were fighting like hell for him and that they were threatening the lives of others because he thought that gives me leverage, that gives me more power. Because to him, there is no shame. Democracy is irrelevant. America is irrelevant. The lives of other people are irrelevant. The only thing that matters is how much power do I have?

That's the kind of psychopath that's the president right now. And I have to leave you guys with this one statement from a Trump advisor who was asked why Trump was unwilling to do anything when he had people close to him, people in his administration, even Kellyanne Conway urging him to do something as this violence had broken out. And his advisor told the Washington Post, quote, he was hard to reach. And you know why? Why? Because it was live TV. If it was TiVo or if it's TiVo, he just hits pause and takes the calls. If it's live TV, he watches it. And he was just watching it all unfold. Just imagine the president of the United States standing there or sitting there, watching the insurrectionists breach the Capitol, watching them engage in acts of violence, seeing the images of these right wing extremists holding flexicuffs. And you can't get them. away from the television to do the right thing, to lead. I mean, he's not much of a leader, but to at least in this case call for an end to the violence, you couldn't get him to do it

because he was enamored with what he was seeing on television. It's just absolutely horrendous, disgusting behavior. And that's who Donald Trump is. Yeah, you remember that picture of the drawn guns holding the door of the house? Who sees that and thinks, oh, there's no danger here. No, he saw it. He was watching live TV. He saw there was enormous danger to the lives of those other legislators. And he purposely didn't make the call to get them to safety. That's who Donald Trump is. All right. That does it for our first hour. Jank will be leaving. Thanks, Jank. And Benjamin Dixon will be joining us for hour two. Don't miss it. We'll be right back.

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.co slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Yugar, and I'll see you soon.