The Young Turks - The Young Turks - January 4, 2021

Episode Date: January 5, 2021

Highlights from Trump's unbelievable call with Georgia election officials. Aida Rodriguez 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. What's up, everyone. Welcome to TYT. I'm Anna Casparian. Joining us today is the lovely and wonderful Ida Rodriguez, regular on this show and someone who I'm super excited to ring in the new year with. Well, I mean, we've rung it in. But to do the first episode of the main show with you is definitely a treat. So Ida, thank you for joining us today. Thank you for having me. Happy New Year to you and all of the TYT sane people out there. And let's go get them again.

We gotta keep going. We gotta keep going, absolutely. In fact, we are gonna keep going with specials. And tomorrow there's gonna be an important special regarding the Senate runoff races in Georgia. So we will be doing some live coverage of that following the main show at 8 p.m. Eastern time, 5 p.m. Pacific. Hosting that special will be, of course, myself, Jank Yugar. Ida Rodriguez will be here as well, and so will Benjamin Dixon. You can check it out live again at 8 p.m. Eastern Time at t.yt.com slash live or all of the other various platforms we're on, including Samsung TV Plus,

YouTube TV, Xfinity, X1, Flex, you guys get the picture. So wherever you get TYT, you'll be able to watch our special tomorrow. Also, one quick note about the month of January. Jank Yuger has taken a sabbatical to finish writing his book. And so he will be here to do live coverage of the Georgia primary, I'm sorry, the Georgia runoff races tomorrow. But we are going to have all of our wonderful regulars joining us. It'll be a rotating co-host for the remainder of January. So I'm really looking forward to it. I love amplifying other voices and getting some other people on the show. So Ida, thank you so much for joining us. You know, you're kicking this off and I couldn't think of anyone better. And I think we're going to have a great

show. So let's get started. Let's start off with some news that broke over the weekend. I want to give you some more details about it. It has to do with Trump's call that's been leaked to the press. So in a now leaked call to Georgia's secretary of state, Brad Raffensberger, Donald Trump urges election officials to, quote, find votes in the state that would help him overturn the election results. Don't believe me? Well, it was an hour-long call. Clearly, we can't have you listen

to the full hour-long call during this program, but we did pick out some highlights. Let's listen to the first. You should want to have an accurate election and you're a Republican. We believe, but we do have an accurate election. No, I know you don't. No, no, you know.

You don't have, you don't have, not even close. You got, you're off by hundreds of thousands of votes. You know what they did and you're not reporting it. That's a, you know, that's a criminal, that's a criminal offense. And, you know, you can't let that happen. That's a big risk to you and to Ryan. Your lawyer, that's a big risk. But they are shredding ballots, in my opinion, based on what I've heard,

and they are removing machinery and they're moving it as fast as they can, both of which are criminal fines and you can't let it happen. and you are letting it happen. You know what I mean? I'm notifying you that you're letting it happen. So look, all I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more that we have because we won the state. I mean, is anyone really surprised that Trump would say this openly during a call,

especially after he was impeached for what he had said to the leader of Ukraine regarding withholding congressionally appropriated military support until they announced some sort of sham investigation into Joe Biden to hurt his chances of getting elected. So it doesn't surprise me that after really getting away with that with Republicans exonerating him, now you have a situation in which he just brazenly tells the Secretary of State from Georgia to find 11,000 votes to help him overturn the results of the election. It's just, and then also issues threats, as you can hear in that video. I also want to just give you a quick statement.

This goes, just to amplify what he said in that video regarding the risks. He said, you know what they did and you're not reporting it. You know that's a criminal, that's a criminal offense and you know you can't let that happen. That's a big risk to you and to Ryan. Ryan is the chief lawyer for the Secretary of State. lawyer, that's a big risk. And so this call happened over the weekend, guys. This is not a call that happened immediately after the election results were called.

This happened over the weekend, meaning Don Trump and his lawyers have already lost dozens, over 50 legal battles regarding their unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud. Everything that he's claiming to have happened in the state of Georgia during the election didn't happen. They haven't provided a shred of evidence for it. But it doesn't matter. It's clear from this hour long call that he's just trying to get these Republican officials in the state of Georgia to help him out, to find enough ballots, find enough votes in his favor

to overturn the election results. Ida. It's funny because you know what, Donald Trump has realized that the more he says stuff over and over again through repetition, that there's a group of people who believes it. And so he tries it at all cost, right? So he's a con man, he's a criminal. This is how he's criminally minded. This is how he operates.

And that's why he's hitting the man with the hustle. It's like the street hustle. He's like, yeah, you know, all I need is, it sounds like somebody doing the card shuffle on the street in New York, you know, he's just like hitting with the hustle. He's like, I'm trying to tell you wink, wink, wink, I need you to find this many votes because this is what we need. It's all gibberish. You know, a funny thing is that shame on the Republicans because Donald Trump feels emboldened enough that he could get away with this stuff. He's been able to do it so many times with so many other people that he doesn't have any shame. Why would he have any shame when he gets away with this kind of stuff all the time? Look at Ted Cruz. I believe Ted Cruz thinks his wife is ugly too the way he's rolling with Donald Trump. Oh, my God.

Yeah, he's allowed. The way that Donald Trump has unabashedly just, I mean, he unapologetically just been so what's egregious and astreperist is the word. I learned that word for the SATs for a reason. He is completely unruly. And he is, he doesn't care because he knows that he can, all the angles that he tries, at some point somebody caves. And that is why he's able to do something like that without any shame. I mean, I think it's really indicative of his experience as someone who is allegedly a businessman.

And I only say, I only say allegedly because of the fact that he has failed so many times as a businessman, like gone bankrupt six times. But nonetheless, I mean, he did manage to secure hundreds of millions of dollars in loans that he really did not qualify for as someone who had gone bankrupt six times. But he always finds a way, right? He got Deutsche Bank to give him the loans that he desperately needed, even though no other lender was willing to work with him. And it's because in business, he's been able to find a way to massage situations. He's always been able to find loopholes. And I think this might actually be one of the first times in his life where he's not able to utilize a loophole or forces his way into getting exactly what he wants. And so he's befuddled

by it. He's dumbfounded by it. And at the same time, I mean, we can't in any way launder the image of the dozens, in the case of the House of Representatives, hundreds of lawmakers who are willing to go along with Donald Trump's sham lies. It's just unbelievable. And then there was one other video I wanted to share with you guys, though. So let's listen to the other highlight that I thought It was worth your attention and we'll break it down. Mr. President, you have people that submit information and we have our people that submit information and then it comes before the court. And the court then has to make a determination. We have to stand by our numbers.

We believe our numbers are right. Well, under law, you're not allowed to give faulty election results. Okay. You're not allowed to do that and that's what you've done. This is a faulty election result. And honestly, this should go very fast. You should meet tomorrow because you have a big election coming up. And because of what you've done to the president, you know, the people of Georgia know that this was a scam.

And because of what you've done to the president, a lot of people aren't going out to vote. And a lot of Republicans are going to vote negative because they hate what you did to the president. Okay, they hate it. So one theme throughout this call is how Trump is subtly threatening, you know, the Republican Party. In this case, specifically, you know, Republican lawmakers and the Republican Party in the state of Georgia because of the Senate runoff races that are going to take place tomorrow on January 5th. And so he's basically saying like, do what I want or else, you know, maybe my supporters in Georgia, they're not going to show up to vote for Kelly Perdue. I don't know why I always do that. Kelly

Leffler and David Perdue. And so he also continued to say that the people of Georgia are angry, the people of the country are angry. And there's nothing wrong with saying that you, that you know, that you've recalculated. Oh, he wants them to. But here's the thing, they have done hand recounts in Georgia. And every single time, it just confirms the fact that, Joe Biden beat him. So what he's asking for here isn't, you know, anything legitimate. What he's asking for, and I think it's implied pretty clearly, is for them to just find enough ballots to overturn the results of the election in the state of Georgia. And by the way, legal experts are saying that this is a serious problem that he should be investigated for, which I'll get to

in just a minute. But Ida, I want to get your thoughts on that. First, I have thoughts on why you say Kelly Perdue is that you made a contraction of two trash politicians and you just come back to them and just got it all in one swing. You know, I just, I think we spend so much time on Donald Trump and I'm seriously just counting down the days for him to be done because there are so many other trash politicians in Washington, D.C. who are still going to be there after Donald Trump is gone and I want to just. focus on taking out that trash. But I just think, like I said, he is, he brought, he brought that bold criminal mentality and behavior to the White House. And now it has a stain on it. And we already, it's already, I mean, our government, these corporations running this country, it's already bad. We're a joke to the rest of the world. But I think that this stain is just, It's another level of low that our American politics has gone to, to let a con man.

The host of The Apprentice run the free world, you know, with the dixie kids, you know, vanilla ice, like the whole thing, the whole kit and caboodle, it just, we are going to have to, it's going to take a long time for us to get back to dignity in the White House. Just dignity, basic dignity, and it's just gross. Yeah, I mean, I think that what we're going to experience in Washington in, unfortunately, to some extent, is a reflection of what we're seeing on Twitter, like the most extreme groups of people who have been sucked in by conspiracy theories and don't really know how governing really works, demanding certain things, you know, leading to all sorts of strange arguments and decisions, divisions as well. And what I really mean by that is when you look at Republican voters specifically, the majority of them think Donald Trump did a fantastic job, the vast majority of them. That is the Republican Party, that is the Republican electorate.

I don't know, and I don't think that it's actually gonna change much. So we'll see how that all really plays out in four years, which I'm not looking forward to. But we're gonna see more of this Trumpist mentality play out. through the Republican Party, which is why you have so many Republican lawmakers signing on to these false allegations of widespread voter fraud. You have all these lawmakers saying that they're going to challenge the electoral votes on January 6th in a ceremonial event. And it's a problem. It really is a problem because I don't see it going away. I think the only thing you can hope for, no, you can't hope for, but the only thing you should be asking for is that there is an

investigation into this type of behavior. One state law, one state law, one state law, by the way, makes it a felony to solicit, request, command, importune, or otherwise attempt to cause another person to engage in election fraud. By urging election officials to find votes that were not legally cast for him, Trump could be prosecuted under law. And interestingly enough, Hakeem Jeffries in the House of Representatives was asked whether or not they were considering launching an investigation into this. And unironically, he said that they want to look forward. So if there aren't going to be any consequences for this kind of behavior, then nothing is going to change. This kind of stuff is going to continue happening. And it's pathetic and shameful.

And it shows, you know, it sets of precedents, a precedent. But what I was going to say was how many laws do they have to break? I can't, I'm so tired of, I'm not on Twitter, the Hatch Act. Oh, they violated the Hatch Act. There have not been any consequences for this behavior. You know, it's just, it's. It's just ridiculous. What I'd look at it is, the optimist that I am, is just it has really exposed how poor our education system is in this country, how really deeply rooted the corruption from these corporations are in our political system and our lawmaking. It really has exposed how we are not the country that we like to pretend to be in the face of the world. And I hope that in exposing all of this stuff, Donald Trump came as a major symptom of what's wrong

with this country, that we can actually start addressing these problems realistically, because to see these people yelling out at us that we're trying to turn America into Venezuela, as they say, it's just like, wow, like we really have gone backwards, or have we? Yeah, I mean, it does feel like we've gone backwards quite a bit. And it's scary stuff. There's no question about that. Well, let's move on to what the reactions have been to that leaked tape. Because believe it or not, there have been some Republicans who have been willing to go on

the record and speak out against what Trump is doing. So with more evidence mounting that Donald Trump and his team of two-bit lawyers have been making up allegations of widespread voter fraud in an attempt to overturn the valid results of the general election, a newly leaked call has added to that evidence. And in this case, it's Donald Trump talking to Georgia's Secretary of State Ken Rathensberger. Now, the highlights in that tape indicate that Trump wanted officials in Georgia to find enough ballots to essentially put Trump over the edge and overturn the election results. In response to that tape, though, where Trump rehashed all of these ridiculous, unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud, you have people,

From Fox News, people who have supported him like Steve Ducey speaking out and saying, no, pouring cold water on this, there's no evidence of widespread voter fraud. Watch. So many people have questions. Integrity is so important. And there are these battleground states where they change the laws, they change the rules at the last minute, and people have a problem with that. And they're worried that if they don't do something about it now, this will continue and mail-in ballots will continue in the next election. You know, and it's got no shot of success. That's the case that Donald Trump and his lawyers have put out, they said there's all this evidence, but they haven't really produced the evidence. If you, I read the entire one-hour and two-minute

call the president had with Brad Raftonsberger yesterday, and at one point the president was talking about how thousands of dead people voted, and the Secretary of State down in Georgia said, you know, Mr. President, we looked into that. We could only find two people who were listed as dead who actually did the voting. And it was, you know, it was a mistake in the house or something like that was just in that state in the state of georgia so all ultimately is this going to make any difference you know brian to your point probably not but for a lot of people who feel like they've been listening to the president of the united states and he is asking for loyalty to them they're standing up for him at the 11th hour because

after wednesday that's it now again that was uh ducy commenting specifically on donald trump's with the Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensberger, I know I misspoken, said Ken in the beginning of the story. But nonetheless, I think what he says there is absolutely true. I just wish that, you know, our Fox and friends didn't enable Donald Trump in this kind of behavior all throughout his term. But now, when it's become clear that Trump is absolutely trying to do the most undemocratic thing imaginable, I don't know if Ducey's doing this to clean up his image because he has been an enabler for Trump, but at least he's speaking the truth about what's really going on and is, again, pouring cold water on these allegations of widespread voter fraud.

She looked like she wanted to, she looked like she was supporting him and she really wanted, she thought she was going to get a cosine. And he was not, because you know what it is, there's a type of woman that Donald Trump gravitates to and elevates their platforms. and he promotes. And I think that they like to, you know, ingratiate themselves to him because they think that there's opportunity in that. But at this point, I think all Americans should be looking at who's fighting for our democracy, regardless of what political party that they belong to. Because that's what we're fighting for at this point. He's really trying to con us out of our democracy because he's been hanging out with these, you know, dictators. And he thinks he can run that game on America. Yeah, I know. It's incredible. So brazen about it as well, right? I mean, what we're hearing from people like David Perdue in Georgia is, well, you know, the real problem here is that Donald Trump was recorded without his knowledge. No, I think the real problem here is that we have someone who's trying to single-handedly dismantle our democratic process and overturn the legitimate

results of the general election. I think that's the real problem. By the way, Kelly Leffler, breaking news story just now has confirmed that she plans on challenging the electoral votes on January 6th. So this goes along with proving yourself to be a true Trump loyalist in order to get people to get out the vote. But hey, I mean, if there's widespread voter fraud and it's impacting elections like the one in Georgia, do Republican voters really want to show up to the polls and engage in a sham election? I don't know. And look, obviously, I want everyone to show up to vote. I'm not trying to discourage anybody. But my point here is that this talking point, this attempt by Donald Trump's camp to overturn the results of the election, has in fact

discouraged confidence in our electoral process. And Republican lawmakers in the state of Georgia are panicking right now because they're worried that there won't be enough Republican voters to show up and reelect Kelly Leffler and David Perdue. And to be quite honest with you, That is a result that I would celebrate. I think they're awful lawmakers. But again, it shows you how much Trump can really undermine democracy just by calling into question a legitimate election that he's provided absolutely no evidence of voter fraud of. I love that he said, they're going to vote negative. I mean, we have one more video.

We have one more video because even Brian Kilmead, by the way, decided to. to tell the truth about what's going on with this election. I just worry about this, if you have that along with the protest the president's going for on Tuesday and Wednesday, I mean, this is the type of anarchy that doesn't work for anybody, Republicans or Democrats in the big picture. And I just think it's up to the president's legal team to produce what they're telling them they have. For example, if they have 200 dead people voting in Nevada, kind of.

I see the names, 200, if you have thousands, you're telling the president, you've got thousands of dead people voting in Georgia, show the president and then have the president hold it up. Because if there's 2,000, it's mostly like, most likely 20,000. But so far, there's just no proof of it. And just because you voted for the president, it doesn't mean that this actual evidence exists. Mm, mm, mm, couldn't help but admit that he hasn't seen the evidence because no one has. seen the evidence, including Trump appointed federal judges who have heard these challenges to the election results and have thrown these cases out because Trump and his lawyers don't

have evidence. They don't. So now you even have Fox News, which for a while served as state sponsored press for Donald Trump, speaking out against the narrative that he's pushing out here regarding, again, unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud. You know, they are realizing that he's not going to be around and they need to get cool with the next president, make sure that they got, they have some grace, they're going to want some interviews and they're going to want some ratings. But I just think that at some point, people are like the gig is up and we just can't keep doing this, you know. And what Donald Trump knows is that he's dealing with cult like behavior, which is why he keeps speaking to those people

with those talking points because anyone who has any sense of logic, any semblance of intelligence understands that what he is talking about is unfounded. So at this point, he's going to continue speaking to the people that he's been speaking to. What he doesn't realize is that this is not how you run this. This is not like some poker table in the back alley where you can just say, this is what we're doing. This is the United States of America. And it's been running for quite some time with policies in place. And even though as shady as it can be, you're not just going to bring your little street game into the house and think that you're just going to flip the table like that and just take it. But he really thinks that he can. You know why? Because he is

president in the first place. He knew people around Donald Trump always said that when he started to run. He never thought that he could be and he didn't take it seriously. And what happened? He became the president of the United States. So why wouldn't he think that he could steal another election? He became president in the first place. The dumb dumb from the apprentice, the dumb who couldn't do, who's bad at real estate, bad at wine, bad at corporations, bad at everything that he does. He's bad at marriage. He became the president of the United States of America. So why wouldn't he think he could do this? I don't get it. I don't understand why anybody is appalled by his audacity to believe that he can do what he's done. Look what he's

done. Definitely. He said among some of the greatest leaders of the world across the table from them as the president of the United States. That happened. And then and then he met Kim Jong-un, and then they fell in love. Of course. No, no, I know. I know. I know. You know, you I know, I know you're, that's such a great point. I mean, he, I would say he's delusional, but again, he's had everything he's wanted his entire life. And he genuinely thinks that he's, you know, earned things, even though he inherited all the money he had and then proceeded to go bankrupt several times, lose it. Again, he's always found a loophole. He's always found a way to either intimidate people, take advantage of loopholes, and get exactly what he wants. So it certainly

doesn't surprise me that he's doing what he's doing right now. But I will say, even at this late date, even after years of covering just the selfishness and the narcissism among Republican lawmakers, it is pretty depressing to see how many of them are willing to go along with this narrative just for their own political benefit. And it gives you a sense of who they really are. Don't forget their names. They deserve to suffer the consequences of trying to help to dismantle or democratic process. We got to take a break. Go ahead.

Let me just say something quickly. I really want people to understand those people who watch this to hate that Donald Trump is not trying to hold on to America because he cares about the people. He wants to impact and rectify what he did with this pandemic. He wants to help the businesses and the working man. He realized that he and his family capitalized greatly, economically, off of this country. They hustled this country and they hustled them into their bank accounts, into their well-being, into their lives, and they don't want to let that go.

So these people who think that he really is trying to hold on to the country, count how many times he's talked about people with the virus, talk, I don't know how many times he's talked about the working man, the small businesses, all of the devastation that is happening in this country, he doesn't. All he talks about is how he doesn't want to let his office go, Because him, Ivanka, all the criminals around him have made so much money off of this country, they don't want to let the hustle go. Well, we got to take a break. When we come back, Tom Cotton is breaking with the Republican Party on this issue. We'll give you those details. And then later in the show, some of my favorite stories of the day, we'll talk a little bit about the PAYGO car bouts that progressives have accomplished in the House. This is really important news. And later, we'll also give you an update on the fate of Julianne.

Assange. There's been a major update on his case and the United States attempt to extradite him. So we'll give you those details and more later in the show. Come right back. Can't wait to share more details with you. 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-B-The-Republic or UNFTR, the host delves into a different historical

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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. So, you know,

I'm going to be able to be. Hey everyone. Welcome to our social break. Just a quick note about one of our partners who we genuinely enjoy working with. Aspiration is a financial institution that does not invest any of their deposits into the fossil fuel industry, which is incredibly important at a time when we're trying to do what it takes to mitigate the impacts of climate change. You can sign up today by going to aspiration.com slash t-y-t. Also, you should be protecting your online activity, and the best way to do so is through a VPN. We've partnered up with pure VPN where you can protect your online security, but more importantly,

you get a giant discount because we've partnered with them. TYT.com slash pure VPN to learn more details on that. TYT.com slash pure VPN. And I wanted to read some member comments. By the way, for those of you who might wonder, like, why does Anna keep looking off to the sides? Because I have my camera here and then my computer screen here. And it's awkward. But just wanted to let you guys know in case you're wondering.

In our member's comment, we have jaded Storm who says Anna and Ida, single-handedly two of my favorite hosts. with the clap emoji. Thank you so much. We also have someone who likes Bernie Sanders, who has a comment on the Trump stories that we just did. Trump's entire life has been a series of him repeating things over and over and wearing down the opposition until they cave and give him what he wants. I was genuinely worried that our democracy would crumble against that strategy, but thankfully it seems it was strong enough to hold. Yeah, and I wonder how, I wonder, Once it became very clear to Republican lawmakers that the fate of the election results is really

going to be up to the House. So their Republican lawmakers are going to challenge the electoral votes, and then Congress has to vote on it, right? So the Senate might go along with Trump's lies, but obviously the House of Representatives is controlled by Democrats, and they're not going to go along with Donald Trump's lies. And so once Republican lawmakers realize that they can be on the record as these Trump loyalists without actually worrying about the possibility of overturning the election results, they did it. They did this because it's a good political calculation for their own political careers. That's it. But when it comes to telling the truth, I mean, how many of them behind closed doors think that Donald Trump is an absolute lunatic,

but want to appeal to his base for their own political reasons? That's what's really going on. It's depressing. Kevin for truth and justice writes in and says, what I just heard from Donald Trump was about as close to treason through threat as I've ever heard. Yeah, and Democrats, how about for a minute, let's not look forward, okay? How about just for like a few months, we look backward and reflect on what Donald Trump has tried to do to this democracy and make sure that he pays the consequences for that. I would prefer that over what they're saying now. Anyway, let's get back to the show. Everyone, welcome back to TYT.

No, we're not back yet. Welcome back, everyone back, everyone. with Anna Casparian and Ida Rodriguez. Everyone please check out Ida's podcast, The Truth Serum, which I'm a big fan of, lots of really important conversations on there. Ida, anywhere else that you want to, you know, direct people to to find some of your work? Yes, go to Netflix and laugh on me, please watch They Ready. I'm also on Showtime and HBO Max. I have specials on all three. So check out some of the comedy and laugh a little, because Some of y'all are a little too uptight.

You know, I could use it. I think I'm going to watch a, I'm going to watch some, I've already seen they ready. You totally killed it. I think I'm ready for some more stand up, though. I could use it for sure. I'm definitely in the uptight category today. So just keeping it real with you guys. All right.

Well, one more Trump-related election story to share with you. And this one's a doozy, especially considering how much of an enabler, this person has been. So, Senator Tom Cotton, a Republican who is considering a presidential run in 2024, has decided to break from the Republican Party in regard to challenging the electoral votes on January 6th. Now, this is an effort that was spearheaded by Republican representatives like Louis Gohmert, in the House, of course. And then in the Senate, Josh Hawley raised his hand and said, Yeah, yeah, I'll definitely challenge the election results in the Senate. Now, Cotton has responded to that.

According to the Hill, Cotton warned that an effort spearheaded by senators Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz in the Senate, two other 24 White House hopefuls, to challenge the electoral votes of several swing states that went for the president-elect Joe Biden could establish unwise precedents. So pay close attention to his framing here, because what he does is try to appease. to Republican loyalists in a way that frames this as a problem that could lead to more power for Democrats. He says the founders entrusted our elections chiefly to the states, not Congress. They entrusted the election of our president to the people acting through the electoral college, not Congress. And they entrusted the adjudication of election disputes to the courts,

not Congress. Under the Constitution and federal law, Congress's power is limited to counting electoral votes submitted by the state. Now, to be clear, the event that takes place on January 6th is mostly a ceremonial event. However, because these Republican lawmakers are planning on challenging the electoral votes, what will happen is both chambers of Congress will have to vote on whether or not, you know, they agree with challenging these electoral votes. Obviously, there might be some possibility that this goes through in the Senate, but the House of Representatives is not buying it. No one should buy it. Let's be clear on that. There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud. But what Cotton is saying here is if we go through with this

stunt, what this could do is jeopardize the future of the electoral college, which I personally would love to get rid of, but he's saying that, no, no, no, we can't do that because if we get rid of the electoral college, there'll be too much power in the hands of the federal government as opposed to the states, which get to decide how to run their elections. Cotton said it would imperil the electoral college and the voice it gives to smaller states like Arkansas and help Democrats, quote, achieve their longstanding goal of eliminating the electoral college. He said, if Congress overrides the electoral college's vote, it would, quote, take another big step toward federalizing election law. And by the way, Donald Trump wasn't very happy with him

after he took this break from the Republican Party and the stunts that they're trying to pull on behalf of Donald Trump. On Twitter, he wrote Senator Tom Cotton, Republicans have pulses, I'm sorry, Republicans have pluses and minuses. But one thing is sure, they never forget, which, you know, comes across as a threat, although I don't know really what the threat is. Like, we're not going to support you in 2024. Okay, well, you undo, you dismantle democracy. It doesn't even matter. And that's what Trump is trying to do.

So Ida, jump in. It means they're going to vote negative. I'm never letting that go. But you know what I think is funny. I just think Cotton has started campaigning. He's already directly opposing some of the policies of the people who are going to be trying to run as well. weird old Cruz and he's just he's already just he's already I mean he wears awful ties I'm sorry

I had to say something that Bert and Ernie tie that he had on just drove me crazy and out of my mind but I think that what's going on here is that he is just everybody in the Republican Party now is zooming in on their little cluster of Republicans that that channel their way of thinking And so he's like, I'm part of this group of the people who believe this. That's what they're all doing. They're all. And then there are those that are falling off that I don't know if Trump has pictures in a vote or videos or whatever he has on some people like Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz who were, you know, direct, an direct opposition. But I just think that they're all playing politics.

They're all running their own game. And Tom Cottonon is not exempt from that. He is establishing himself, you know, and, you know, the, the trigger words, what the Democrats have been trying to do for a long time and getting rid of the electoral college. Which Republicans are you talk? I mean, which Democrats are you talking about, Tom? Because I just think that it's really interesting. At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control

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Choice of words, because they are all insulting constantly, They're constantly insulting the Republican base. They are constantly thinking that they can drive these people through fear. They can drive these people through ignorance, through, you know, words. And they do it all the time. That's what they're doing. Yeah, because they can. It's worked.

I mean, again, the Republican electorate loves Donald Trump. I mean, even polling today after hundreds of thousands of Americans have died during this pandemic, after he's shown absolutely no interest in doing the right thing to protect Americans from this deadly virus, the majority of Republican voters still think Trump did a fantastic job. They support him. They believe the lies. And it really, and I'm not saying that simply to, you know, insult them as dumb or anything like that. But I just think that they are, they live in a right wing media ecosystem that we are unable to penetrate. So they hang on his every word. And when people are in a bad place, as many Americans are right now, it's easy to emotionally manipulate them.

And we see that quite a bit on the right. We see that quite a bit with Donald Trump, where he will use the rhetoric of a populist. And then, of course, when you take a look at his actual dealings, and I wish Americans did this overall. Just stop paying attention to the rhetoric and look at the actions that are being taken by both parties, right? What are they voting in favor of? What kinds of conflicts of interest exist, right? Who's funding some of these efforts? Look at those actions. Look at the self-dealing that Donald Trump engaged in during his four years in office where he, you know, there was a story that got no attention. It drove me crazy. Eight million dollars in taxpayer money has been funneled to his private businesses during the last four years. So he'll hold all sorts of government events

at his properties. And all of that money, of course, gets funneled into his properties. That's taxpayer money that gets into his private businesses and obviously enriches Donald Trump and his family. These are real issues while most Americans right now are struggling to pay their rent, put food on the table, and just get through each month without the real economic relief that they desperately need. So many people are dying from this pandemic, it doesn't matter. He can just lie to them. And again, the majority of Republican voters think he's doing a fantastic job. I don't know how to break through to them. I don't. I just think shame on all these politicians, though, because I think that listening to Cotton just now when he said that, you know, setting this

president, these presidents can affect smaller, the representation in places like Arkansas, but you don't hear him talking about how the people of Arkansas are in dire need in areas that really, really are important. And if you want to be the president of the United States, the education system, the drug problem that they have in the state, the poverty, you know, like it's really interesting to me what's important for Arkansas, which is in direct benefit to him, as opposed to what's important to Arkansas for the people. And that's the thing that I have a problem with these politicians, that they're not talking about the people. They are just talking about territory and how they're going to control it.

Yeah, you know, that's such a great point, Ida, because what he's doing in his argument is essentially talking about, you know, electoral rules that benefit the Republican lawmakers and the Republican Party. The conversation isn't really about doing the right thing to ensure that the government ends up protecting and representing the best interests of their constituents. The conversation's never really about that. And all you need to do is pay attention to the framing and the conversation to notice. And then I'm going to leave you with one final quote from former Republican House Speaker, Paul Ryan, who's been very quiet after he left the House of Representatives in 2018. But he did release a statement saying that the Trump campaign had ample opportunity to challenge election results. And those efforts failed from lack of evidence. If states wish to reform their process for future elections, that is their prerogative. But Joe Biden's victory is entirely legitimate. Something tells me that Paul Ryan would like to come back to politics but doesn't feel comfortable doing it while Trump is still in charge.

So to me, it's no surprise that he finally said something. And I think, unfortunately, we're going to see more of Paul Ryan moving forward. With that said, though, we've got to take a break. And when we come back, we're going to switch gears and talk a little bit about what's going on with the Democratic Party. There was a victory. Some might think a small victory, but it does clear the way for possible progressive legislation. We'll be right back. Thank you. All right, welcome to our social break. I wanted to read a comment from Jess in our member section, and then I'm going to move on to Super Chats and Twitch just to give everyone a little love. Just makes a great point. Let's not give Tom Cotton or any other Republican credit for honoring our Constitution. Jess, I hope we didn't come across that way, because I'm certainly not giving him credit.

Remember, Tom Cotton is the one who published that disgusting New York Times op-ed, telling Donald Trump to send the military to the Black Lives Matter protests, which is unconstitutional, by the way, to basically rain terror on them and stop them from protesting. That's who Tom Cotton is. So I would never want to launder his image or forget what he engaged in, in enabling Donald Trump. And even in the case of those federal, not federal agents, the military getting involved, push Trump even further to the right. So great point. Thank you for writing in. I want to now read a few super chats. We have lots of sweet comments from people like Malouche,

who says, TYT, keep doing what you're doing. Ida, I love you. Lots of love for Ida, including from socially Democrat, who says, can we get a short, shareable clip of Ida, say, Venezuela, pretty please. And I do it. I don't know. That's be crazy. They're trying to turn America into Venezuela. It drives me.

Oh my God. Okay. Gabby, Gabi says, you ladies are the best. Thank you so much for writing in. Gabby. I appreciate you. Derek says, thank you for everything you do.

Please de-stress. Get some ice cream. Oh, I will. Trust me. There's always some ice cream in the fridge or something you deserve. you deserve having to cover sedition from a sitting president. Yeah, all of that is definitely hard to like stomach every day, but also, you know, the inaction by Democrats, like to see

Republican, I'm sorry, Democratic leadership say that they're not going to investigate Donald Trump because they want to move forward or look forward. That's also very frustrating. So let's go to our Twitch section where Obie Mom Canobi is always like the headliner, okay, gifted five subs. Also, it's her birthday. Obie Mom Canobi. Everyone wish her a happy birthday. Thank you so much for everything you do in creating a positive environment on our Twitch channel and supporting TYT and just being someone who makes me feel like doing this is worth it. I really appreciate you. Brother Mucker says, oh, Brother Mucker gifted five subs. Didn't say. anything, but thank you for that. Cactus girl, three months prime, three months, yay me. Post Malones or post melon, new prime, television, the cat. I'm sorry, I'm thinking about rappers, I guess. Hold on. My page moved. Oh, Elinger, seven months, tier one, lucky number seven, chaos emerald new tier one ladybug dragon seven months prime um bull man uh three months tier one with the comment it's nice to see ida again ida is my girlfriend's favorite so ida you're

getting a lot of love today's which you definitely deserve and uh we got to get back to the show when we do get to hear more of ida's takes come right back We're going to be able to be. Welcome back to TYT, Anna and Ida with you. During the break, Ida said something about Eric Trump looking like there's not much going on behind the eyes. And it reminded me like of a short, like I always get this word wrong and I don't want to mess it up in anger Brett. It was a sketch. Was it a sketch?

Yes, it was a sketch on family guy where Melania Trump is blowing bubbles and Eric Trump is like running around the backyard like a child. It's really funny. Anyway, but with that said, let's move on to some positive news. We don't get that quite often. But this is a good update on what's happening among Democrats in the House of Representatives. So let's get right to it. Progressives in the House of Representatives have scored a significant victory in legislative rules that would essentially clear the way for progressive policy proposals to actually

pass. Now, what do I mean by that? This has everything to do with a topic that we've discussed on the show before. It's known as PAYGO. And what PAYGO would do, it would hinder the possibility of bold progressive policies from passing because essentially it would force the lawmakers proposing it to account for the funding of that bill by cutting funding to other programs or finding ways to pay for the program as you go. Now that's a difficult thing to do with legislation like let's say the Green New Deal or Medicare for all. And so it was important for lawmakers, progressive lawmakers to ensure that these bold policies were not, did not follow under the umbrella of having to abide by PAYGO rules. And so they managed to get what they wanted. And the way

that this language is written is incredibly broad, which means that this will likely apply to any policy proposal that we feel strongly about at the moment. So just a little bit of background on PAYGO, because I think it's important to understand how this all worked. PAYGO really came about following the Reagan administration. There was an explosion in spending, deficit spending specifically. And of course, Democrats started to panic about deficit spending, which is why they first implemented it then. It expired in 2002, and George W. Bush did not do anything about it. However, back in 2010, the Obama administration did allow the law to take effect again with some major exemptions.

Now, Republicans have never followed through with PAYGO. They don't care. They don't really think they need to abide by those rules. Democrats, however, did abide by it, and it was a huge problem. As David Atkins and Washington Monthly writes, as if driven by masochism or perpetual fear of bad faith attacks, Democrats in the House have. continue to maintain a standing rule committing themselves balanced budget legislating. This despite the fact that Republicans hold themselves to no such constraints and the fact

that both interest rates and inflation remain extremely low, while the need for infrastructure, health and social spending remains dire. Now House Dems under pressure from their more progressive members like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are said to loosen those pay-go rules for bills relating to COVID and climate. change. So this is incredibly good news. The rules package, by the way, for the 117th Congress, unveiled by House Democrats on Friday would grant a sweeping new exemption from deficit controls for legislation related to the coronavirus pandemic or efforts to curb climate change. And look, the most important thing here is that the language is intentionally broad, so it does apply to some pretty important policy goals. The text of the resolution,

which House leaders expect will take up Monday, would provide House budget chairman John Yarmouth broad authority to adjust cost estimates for certain bills so that their budgetary impacts don't count as increasing deficits under House rules. So this is good news. This is important. This is the kind of, I guess, negotiating that takes place behind the scenes that we might not be privy to, but I think it would be a mistake to think that progressive lawmakers aren't fighting at all. This is such an important rule change that, again, does make it easier for us to get the policy proposals that we want past. That doesn't mean that we're anywhere close to it. We need to keep fighting. But again, this is a good update. You know, I think I saw that picture that Jamal Bowman,

And Cory Bush joined the squad. And it was, you know, an inspiring picture to see. Well, also it was like kind of depressing to think that what is it? It's missing Bernie Sanders and a few other people who are actually really on the ground fighting for the everyday person and the everyday working human being in America who is worthy of good climate and health care. But, you know, getting constantly attacked by people because Politicians are being politicians in Washington has become exhausting for me, which is one of the reasons why I've been taking a break from a lot of these people who constantly come at AOC and are constantly coming at Rashida and constantly coming at Ilhan. And the people who are actually, you know, standing in the face of guns, life, death threats to ask for the basic needs that we should have as human beings who should have a. a quality standard of life in this country. And so when I hear of these results and, you know,

I do come under fire because people are like, well, the Democrats are just as much trash as the Republicans. There are people who are in that system trying to work within that system to make some things happen for us. And they do it every day risking their lives and the lives of the families and their loved ones. So I'm excited about anyone that we have as progressives because the villains get all the, you know, they get all the play. They get all the media. They get all the attention. It is constant. And we should just take these victories, no matter how small they may seem to us, and just know that those are steps in the right direction for what we want for the people of this country. Yeah. And I think that it's, I think it's important to hold politicians accountable regardless of where they fall on the, ideology spectrum. So I don't think that members of the squad are immune to any criticism or critique. However, I also think that it's important to both think about how we can use, let's say,

political theater or pressure to persuade these progressive lawmakers to maybe fight a little harder when we feel like they're not. But there's the other side of it, which to be quite honest with you, personally speaking is not my favorite part, which is the power building, and I'm not even just talking about organizing, which is super important. But the electoral politics matter. Structural politics matters, right? So it's important to understand what kind of roadblocks stand in our way in passing progressive policy proposals. I think it's also important to learn from how the Republican Party was able to accumulate power following FDR because obviously they despise what FDR did with the New Deal. They wanted to essentially

dismantle that and undo it, and they've been fighting on that ever since. But if you pay close attention, what did they do? They focus their energies on ensuring that they got conservative federal judges appointed and confirmed. Obviously, the same with the Supreme Court. In this case, I think it's important to also look at the certain congressional rules that are standing in the way. And then the other thing to focus on is, look, I get the frustration toward the Democratic Party. I mean, I feel it in my bones. And when we hear rhetoric like, oh, there's no difference between Democrats and Republicans, well, it depends on what we're talking about. If we're talking about their treatment toward corporations, I think that they are actually incredibly similar.

They have similar donors. There's no question about that, which is why money in politics is a problem. But then when you look at other issues, like take a step back, really, do you think that the Democratic Party is going to actively attempt to dismantle our electoral process to ensure that a Democrat stays in power in the executive branch? These are serious questions. And I think that we need to be precise in the arguments that we're making. And everyone's angry. I get it. I'm angry, but anger can usually cloud your judgment and lead to pretty bad decisions. We got to vote strategically. We got to think about politics structurally and what we can do to change it to our advantage. And we need to find ways to effectively push progressive lawmakers to do

what we need them to do in representing us. And we need to increase that progressive voting block. And I'm really happy that we did that during this past election cycle with people like like Cory Bush and Jamal Bowman. Yeah, I just want to say this because I did come under fire. And I don't dignify some of the people on Twitter who are gunning and coming from their anger, their sexism and their racism that they're unaware of because they consider themselves progressives. The truth of the matter is, and I stand by this, is that when you talk about AOC and you talk about Rashida Talib and Ilhan and you talk about Ayanna, we have to be honest about the fact that

the fact that sometimes they're held to a higher standard because they are women of color. And it is not their job to save the United States of America. Yes, they can be criticized. I will be the first one to say, I don't like when you do that. And I don't appreciate it. But I'm not going to, I'm not going to stand by a bunch of white dudes who call themselves progressives because they believe in climate change, coming for women of color and attacking them, expecting them to do things that white men have not done for decades in this country. And now you want to put it on the shoulders of a woman that's merely 30 years old to come and save your ass. So yes, I stand by that. And that does not mean that AOC and any of them are not, are beyond being criticized and being held accountable. But those of us who are people of color can see the racism and the women can feel the sexism from these angry dudes who feel like they can just come at us that way. Why don't you take that energy to some of these men?

You come to women that way because you think that you can. You're not tweeting Jamal Bowman like that. And that is the problem that I have with it. And I'm glad that we talked about this now because I had a lot of people, even Latinos coming from me telling me, well, AOC should be held to the same standard, the same, not a higher standard. And yes, she can be criticized and she does the political thing because she's a politician. But I'm not going to stand by and let people just think that they can come for them. and demand that women of color save America yet again.

Yeah, I agree with you. And the other point that I want to make about it is as progressives, we know that we can't win based on the numbers that we have right now, right? So you might look at some polling that indicates that the majority of Americans want Medicare for all, and that's a fantastic start. But that's very different from persuading people to engage in activism, whether it's strategic voting or organizing or whatever, if we have a coalition that's unfriendly, unwelcoming, and incredibly antagonistic to anyone who might have different thoughts or maybe some mild questions regarding

strategy. I think that we need to foster an environment that is welcoming. I think that we need to listen to other people's ideas and consider them. And right now, at least based on the online left, which I do not think is representative of the real life. left. It's not a welcoming place. And we got to really question whether or not some of the discourse taking place right now is the best way in getting what we need. But more importantly, in persuading lawmakers to really represent us in our best interests. Because I can tell you something. If someone walks up to me and punches me in the face and accuses me of doing all these terrible things, I'm not going to want to work with them. I'm not going to turn around

and be like, oh, great point. Thank you for that sucker punch. I'm now going to go off and do what you want. No, it actually disempowers progressives in doing that. And I think it's a bad idea. Anyway, but we do have to take a break. When we come back, we're going to talk a little bit about Janet Yellen. That's Biden's treasury pick. There was a story about her in Politico that people are very upset about, even though they should be focusing on how money in politics really serves as a conflict of interest among our lawmakers and politicians. We have that story more for you when we come 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.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.