The Young Turks - The Young Turks - November 17, 2020

Episode Date: November 18, 2020

A new report shows Trump wanted to bomb an Iranian nuclear site. Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur discuss on The Young Turks. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. Thank you. All right, welcome to the Young Church. Jank U Granite and Kisperin with you guys. Lots of happiness, lots of rage on today's show. So the rage comes first.

For those of you who like that, you'll be happy to hear that. We have the fist bump hurt around the world. We'll get to that a little bit later in the program. And then we've got a free live public post game for everybody today. We don't often do that. It's usually just for the members. But today we're going to keep rolling it. And then after that, Dr. Jank is in the house slash not a real doctor.

I'm going to answer your questions about how to be happy and about your personal lives. We've got a bunch of videos in. It's fun. It's great. I'll do that. I'll take your questions throughout. We'll go for three hours because you can't solve happiness in just one hour. Anyway, that's later.

I can't solve it real quick, boss man. Real quick. Can't wait. Salt Dragon, I believe that you could solve it in the wrong direction fairly quickly. Wrong direction for you maybe. Yeah, that's right. For me. I agree.

I agree Salt Dragon. Anyway, so what dragon are you, Twitch? Okay, anyways. So one quick thing before we get started, though, thermometer, as always. This is important guys, and you guys carry us, and boy, do we need to be carried in a lot of ways. But anyways, t-y-t.com slash go.

Can I see the thermometer? We were trying to get the 68th. Wait, what happened? 63,000, 345? That doesn't seem right. I think we were trying to get to 68,000. Well, anyway, good luck to us. Apparently we need a lot more than I realized.

So t-y-t.com slash go. See, I'm even happy about that. We'll get to that later in the program. All right, Casper, let's get started. All right. As always, Donald Trump's foreign policy seems to make absolutely no sense. He has attempted conflicting foreign policy proposals, and I'll tell you what they are, and you'll understand what I mean when I say they're conflicting.

So here's the bad news. Donald Trump apparently tried to take some sort of military action against Iran last week. But luckily, people like Mike Pompeo stopped him from doing so. So Trump reportedly talked about launching a military strike against Iran last week after reports of a significant increase in the country stockpile of nuclear material. Now, as most of you probably know, Donald Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal back in 2018. And when he did that, Iran actually continued abiding by that nuclear deal as long as they could. But Trump re-implemented these crippling sanctions against the country. And finally, they decided that they would continue on with their uranium enrichment program that goes against the Iran nuclear deal, which at that point was invalid because Trump pulled out of it.

Now, the International Atomic Agency, Energy Agency, reported that Iran's uranium stockpile was now 12 times larger than permitted under the nuclear accord that Trump abandoned in 2018. So this report concluded that Iran now had a stockpile of more than 2,442 kilograms or over 500, I'm sorry, 5,385 pounds of low enriched uranium, essentially enough material to build two nuclear weapons. However, those nuclear weapons would take some time to build, but they have the material if they chose to go in that direction. And so as a result, Donald Trump wanted to take military action against Iran just last week. And according to the New York Times, Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Christopher Miller, the acting defense

secretary, and General Mark Millie, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned that a a strike against Iran's facilities could easily escalate into a broader conflict in the last weeks of Trump's presidency. So this is what? The third situation in which Trump nearly launched a military strike against Iran and luckily was talked out of it. And then at the same time, a breaking news story today, Trump is withdrawing 2,500 troops, U.S. troops from both Iraq and Afghanistan. Of course, there are military generals who disagree with this decision, but I think it's actually the right move.

So that's where you get these conflicting foreign policy proposals or decisions. On one hand, with Afghanistan and Iraq, he's making the right decision with Iran. Luckily, he didn't actually go for it, but had he not gotten talked out of it by people surrounding him, he would have launched a military strike in Iran. Yeah. You know, he does sometimes get talked out of things. A lot of times he doesn't get talked out of things. People have been trying to talk him out of pretending that there was voter fraud in this election for weeks now.

And he's like, nope, nope. Actually what they're literally trying to do, including his lawyers, was to try to talk him out of lying about it. And he's like, nope, nope, I'm going to put Rudy in charge and he's going to lie twice as much. But there are a couple of instances where he was talked out of it. First of all, when he said, why don't we have 10 times as many nukes as we have now? They're like, he was bankrupt the country immediately. And he's like, oh, okay. another time he thought about

nuking a hurricane and they're like no, that would actually take the radioactive material and spread it out much further plus you're an idiot and he got talked out of that one so he got talked out of this one great but the twist in the story is Pompeo is one of the guys who talked him out

of it. So weird. That is really strange because Pompeo is a hawk he's a neocon and he loves the idea of pushing America into war. He must have thought this is so ill-advised and ill-prepared that even though I love war, this might actually backfire. So, boy, it must have been an even worse idea than we imagine, and we imagine it to be a

horrific idea. So now, one of the things I convinced Trump was, they're like, you know, sir, your base hates the endless wars. You know how you've been talking about it for four or five years now? And so this would definitely start an endless war in the Middle East. And I guess that worked. So, hey, look, I always credit where credit is due. So for all them, Pence, Pompeo, etc., that talked Trump out of it, great job. Thank you. Okay. So now, in terms of the nukes and nuclear material, I want to be super clear. Iran has never had a nuclear weapon. And whenever we're talking about this, it's about enough material to build a weapon. Okay, so before Obama struck the deal with Iran, they had way more material to build a weapon than

they do today, okay? Then we strike the deal. They remove 97% of the material. The international bodies verify, everybody's happy. The Russians, the Chinese, the Europeans, Americans, everybody's happy with the deal. Iran is actually taking the uranium out of the country. And then because of that, they're getting the upsides of the deal, economic upsides of the deal as well.

So now Trump ends the deal, and then they go back to stockpiling material for a weapon. Now apparently they have enough material for two nukes, okay? Before, under Obama, zero, zero, zero. And he took it way down, right? Now back up to two. And then one of the reasons that Trump is mad, and New York Times did a very good job reporting almost all this story, except one part that was, to me, frustrating. They agreed with the neocon framing that Iran was now cheating.

Wait a minute, how could they be cheating if we broke the deal? deal. There is no deal. We tore the deal up. So what kind of a weird world do you live in where you go, all right, I'm going back to sanctioning you. I'm going to try to take as much money of your money as possible. I'm going to try to bankrupt your country, make sure that your citizens are impoverished and super mad at you and suffer greatly. But you have to keep abiding by the deal. No, that's not a thing. So of course, Iran started collecting uranium again. Do I like that? No, that's why I liked Obama's deal. I don't want him collecting uranium. I don't want him having enough materials for two nukes. That's why Trump was a billion percent wrong in getting

rid of that deal. And that's why I told you guys when they were thinking of signing it and when they did sign it and all the way through to Trump ripping it up. That was one of the best deals I have ever seen in American foreign policy. And one of the things that I give Obama unmitigated credit for. And of course, that's what drove Trump crazy. And that's why he had to botch it. And if he had doubled down here and attacked Iran because of his own mistakes, boy, that would have been classic Trump digging deeper when you're already messed up. But luckily, so far, he hasn't done that. We got about two months to run out the clock here before he does something irrational and rash for God knows what reason. But for now, thank God it's averted.

Yeah, and I have to add one more thing, just to kind of buttress your point, Jank, about how the Iran nuclear deal was fantastic. and, of course, as a result, Trump would want to pull out. Part of the reasoning behind launching some sort of military strike against Iran last week is that it would make the situation a lot harder for Joe Biden if he wanted to reenter the Iran nuclear deal. Trump wants to do anything and everything possible to prevent that from happening. That's how, I mean, he operates out of spite quite a bit, especially when it comes to dismantling some of the accomplishments from the Obama era.

And last week, one of the other things that Trump did was slap on even more sanctions against Iran. And again, the reasoning behind that was let's continue to dissolve any type of diplomatic relationship we have with Iran. That way Biden isn't able to enter another Iran nuclear deal. It's just absolutely pathetic, petty, and what you would expect from Donald Trump. All right. So let's move on to our next story, moving on to coronavirus, because it's still very serious. And Scott Atlas is still saying irresponsible things. Let's do it.

Donald Trump's coronavirus advisor continues to give Americans awful, irresponsible advice related to the coronavirus. In fact, during a recent interview with Fox News, he urged people to essentially enjoy the holidays with people who are the most vulnerable to the virus. Take a look. This kind of isolation is one of the unspoken tragedies of the elderly who are now being told, don't see your family at Thanksgiving. For many people, this is their final Thanksgiving, believe it or not. What are we doing here? I think we have to have a policy, which I have been advocating, which is a whole person,

whole health policy. It's not about just stopping cases of COVID. We have to talk about the damage of the policy itself. We want to protect the elderly, but we can't. cannot lock down. So it might be their last holiday season if you expose them to a virus that's incredibly lethal to elderly people, especially at a time when the country is experiencing a severe spike in new coronavirus cases and hospitals around the country are overwhelmed and literally

do not have room to bring in new patients. So you could either listen to a buffoon like Scott Atlas, who's just been condemned by Stanford University and I'll give you the details on that in just a second. Or you can listen to science and protect your loved ones and not expose them to this virus as, you know, he's advising you to do. It's insane. Yeah, look, this is so gratuitous that I can't even make heads or tails out of it. It's almost like he's trying to kill people. I mean, the very, very last thing you would do, even if you believed in herd immunity as Scott Atlas appears to, and you did with thought mass or a matter of freedom, et cetera, still at the very bottom of the list would be,

go expose the elderly people in your family. But why? It doesn't have anything to do with opening up business. It doesn't have anything to do with your precious stock market. Why are you exposing family members and trying to make it their last Thanksgiving? What an insane thing to do! So I mentioned herd immunity. Scott Atlas is an advocate of it. He, because he got so much pushback from every other doctor on the planet, he says,

well, technically, no, I'm not saying that exact phrase, wink, wink, and then he explains exactly why he's in favor of herd immunity. So the one country that tried that other than the US de facto doing it was Sweden. So I just want to show you a chart real quick of what happened with Sweden recently and what they've decided to do. This Dr. Scott Godlieb, who used to also work in the Trump administration tweeting about it, Oh, look at that giant spike up. Oops, there goes herd immunity.

So that's what happened in Sweden. So Gottlieb explains this. Sweden has now banned gathering of more than eight people as a second wave of coronavirus continues to grow. And the quote is, don't go to gyms, don't go to libraries, don't host dinners, cancel, says the Swedish prime minister. So Sweden has waved the white flag, as it were, and said, we were wrong.

Herd immunity is a terrible idea. All it does is leading leads to more people getting killed before the vaccine. But Scott Atlas is telling you to go kill your grandma by going to Thanksgiving with her and exposing her for no reason at all. And obviously I'm using hyperbole here, but I just cannot fathom why in the world he would say what he'd say. Yeah, it really makes absolutely no sense. And keep in mind that the surge in new coronavirus cases has become so severe that you have Republican governors throughout the country now implement. mask mandates. It's not a polite piece of advice. It's not something that's recommended. It is a mandate. Everyone needs to wear masks when they're indoors. And again, we're not just

talking about Michigan. We're not just talking about California. We're talking about states like Iowa, states like North Dakota, where the surge is particularly bad. And so luckily, there are some Republican lawmakers, at least on a local level, who understand the importance of encouraging people to wear masks. In other states, you have businesses shutting down early, in-person dining at a halt. And so people are taking, you know, this issue seriously. It's just unfortunate that we continue to have not only a lack of leadership on a federal level, but we have like counter to good leadership or good advice on a federal level.

And it's just, it's pathetic. All right, let's move on to one of my favorite stuff. stories of the day. We talk a lot about how Republicans suck, but Democrats suck too. And this story is a perfect example of it. So Californians were issued a coronavirus travel advisory recently, discouraging them from any travel unless it is for essential purposes. Anyone who does travel out of state would have to quarantine for 14 days. And that is the responsible thing to do as the country is experiencing a spike in coronavirus cases. But apparently, That advisory doesn't apply to the governor, Gavin Newsom, who decided to travel to Napa Valley for a fancy dinner with lobbyists.

Let me give you the details. Governor Gavin Newsom is weathering a ferocious backlash for his decision to attend a 50th birthday celebration for lobbyist Jason Kinney on November 6th at the French laundry, a bucket list level dining icon in Napa County. So Newsome said that while the outdoor meal did not violate coronavirus restrictions, he showed poor judgment in attending. Now, there's the coronavirus angle, which is certainly a valid concern to discuss. But there's also a larger issue that infects every part of our political system. And that's the issue of corruption. Remember, he went to Napa Valley to wine and dine in this fancy place with a lobbyist to celebrate a lobbyist's birthday. And it's not just any lobbyist.

It's apparently someone who's very close to Gavin Newsom and has certainly influenced Newsom's leadership here in the state of California. And I'll give you specific examples of that in just a minute. But, Jank, do you want to jump in? Yeah, so I don't understand why they do these things. So do they not mean it? Because we mean it, when we tell you, hey, make sure you're wearing a mask indoors, we really want to protect your health. And when we talk about how dangerous coronaviruses, we're careful to tell you that it is so easily transmissible. Luckily, the fatality rates have come down.

We're trying to give you the full context of it so that you and your loved ones are safe. After seeing these stories, it's possible. And now you're going to think, Jane, you're so naive, right? The Democratic politicians never really meant it. And it's not fair to call them all Democratic politicians because now there's real progress. in the party, but that some of them thought maybe it was just a political gimmick or something, because why the hell would you go and have these dinners with people you don't know well? You're right next to them eating food, which is among the most dangerous things you could do.

In Newsom's case, they claim it was outdoor, I guess I'll believe them. In the Hawaii case, it's indoors. And by the way, Newsom is in the middle of the political spectrum within the Democratic Party. The guys that are going to Hawaii to meet with the lobbyists are all conservative Democrats. So it's not surprising that they would agree more with the Republican position, I guess, of coronavirus. Who cares, man, I got oil lobbyists to meet with? But most importantly, as Anna explains the story to you, you'll see that the real problem is they're hooked, they're addicted to the lobbyist money. And so no matter what happens, coronavirus, endangering themselves and their level, it doesn't matter.

I got to get the oil money. I got to get it. And it's the problem of having it entrenched in our system. So Republicans and Democrats are hooked on it. That's why Young Turks emphasizes getting money out of politics more than any other issue. Otherwise, you're not going to have either party that's honest. And this story is a great example of it. Exactly.

So I want to get back to Jason Kinney because he is. a well-known lobbyist, who, again, to repeat myself, has had influence on some of the bad decisions that Gavin Newsom has made in the state of California. So just to give you a little background on Kinney, political reports that Kinney was chief speechwriter for Governor Gray Davis, served for years as a senior strategist for Senate Democrats, and as long-counseled Newsom politically, he continues to advise Newsom on politics, even as his lucrative, newly launched lobbying firm works on bills that could land on Newsom's desk. There's a huge conflict of interest there. Now, while Kinney worked on Newsom's transition team and has continued to counsel

the governor, he has also launched a lobbying shop, Axiom advisors, whose client list included major California players that spent heavily to influence state policy. Axiom reaped $10.9 million worth of lobbying work in 2019 to 2020, the first legislative season during which Newsom was governor. Now, there are serious ramifications to this. So, for instance, some of these smaller amusement parks wanted to reopen in the middle of this pandemic, right? And so fairly recently Gavin Newsom did announce that smaller parks can reopen. Well, what was the decision? Like, what was the reasoning behind that? Was it based on what doctors were saying? Health officials, did he talk to scientists? Like, is this the best.

out, especially considering we're experiencing a surge in coronavirus cases. Well, apparently the single most, the single most, I don't think this is the right one, my bad, take that down. So basically three different park operators hired Axiom, the lobbying group. And then Axiom, of course, is going to lobby to Gavin Newsom. And then Gavin Newsom announces, I'm going to open some of the smaller parks, right? Now, recently he decided to close parks down again because, of course, there's a coronavirus surge, but there are other examples, including fracking, which Gavin Newsom publicly says he's against. But behind the scenes, he's like handing out fracking permits left and right. Okay, there's no question. So the single most, reneupe, can you say this word, Jane? Renumerative. Renumerative.

So I guess lucrative client for Axiom in the last two years has been Marathon Petroleum, given Kinney's firm $525,000 worth of business. Marathon is a member of a powerful oil industry organization that battled proposals to ban hydraulic fracking. So then I looked into some of the fracking permits that were given by Gavin Newsom. And here's what I found. On June 1st, in the midst of the turmoil created by the coronavirus pandemic and the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, California Governor Gavin Newsom's administration quietly passed 12 fracking permits to ERA Energy, a joint venture owned by ExxonMobil and Shell.

Era has well-connected lobbyists in its corner who work for the firm Axiom advisors. Yeah, so there's supposed to be some sort of moratorium. Gavin Newsom said would exist on fracking, and then he's allowing fracking permits all over California. So that is a curious moratorium. Perhaps he doesn't quite understand what that word means. And then he's asking the legislature for a ban on fracking. That's what publicly facing, that's what Gavin Newsom is asking for. Meanwhile, he's telling one of his best friends, Kenny the lobbyist, get me some fracking permits.

Where do you need him? Where do you need him? Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's do more fracking before I ask for the fracking ban. So this is why people hate politicians. And by the way, Gavin Newsom, if he has a good explanation for this, he's hiding it. He should explain it in public because, you know, maybe we're getting it wrong. Maybe there's a great reason to frack. Maybe he, moratorium doesn't mean what it sounds like it means.

Maybe him asking to ban the fracking is to, is a plea for help. Like, oh, I love fracking and I love lobbyists that my friends profit from. Help me, help me ban it, right? Because I can't control myself. So this is the sickness of money in politics. It just permeates everything. Because when the, I don't think Gavin Newsom's a bad guy. I think that Gavin Newsom is a very regular politician.

I think he's a questionable guy to say. Okay, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what we think of him personally, right? What matters is what drives him. And like almost every politician in the country, what drives him is the money, the money, the money. Not for personal enrichment necessarily, that might come later. But I need the campaign contributions to win the next race, in the next race, and the next race, and the next rate. So I got to make as many lobbyist friends as I can.

I got to help the oil industry as much as I can until it becomes politically damaging and then I'll go raise money from environmental groups. but the money, the money, the money, right? Republicans are masters at this. Democrats are idiots. They take less money than the Republicans do, but sell out just as much. And so they play a losing game nonstop. It's not just Newsom, it's not just California, it's all of it. But one other point of criticism here for one other set of folks, which is, in this case,

political writing a couple of good articles about their politico's center right, okay? So they're not insane right, like all the daily X and Daily Y that you see online. etc and the bright parts of the world but they are definitely right leaning so in this case it winds up being a good thing because they're about the only people holding democratic politicians accountable because god forbid the LA Times or San Francisco Chronicle should do or any local news station in California ever do any real investigative journalism it might hurt their beloved Democratic Party they need to access they need to access so much why aren't they screaming from the rooftops about how Gavin Newsom is fracking all over the place.

And why did it take political to embarrass them in getting this scoop about his fancy lobbyist dinners? Nah, they don't want to do any journalism, man. There's nothing that corporate media loves more than corporate Democrats. Corporate Republicans come in second. Yeah, yeah. No, it's absolutely true. But it's just amazing how, yeah, no shame.

Fancy dinners, lobbyists, you see the end result of terrible policies actually being implemented. And, you know, and Jenk is right. This is not a virus that simply infects local politicians in the state of California. This is our entire political system. And that's the reason why, regardless of what polling indicates, regardless of what Americans actually want, in the end, we get politicians who pass legislation as favors to their donors. All right, we got to take a break. come back. Trash. There's a lot of trash in this country. I'm going to tell you who the trash is, and I'm going to show you a strong Republican who's actually fighting back.

We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-F-E-Bing the Republic, or UNFTR. As a Young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations are constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the rich and powerful. But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the conventional wisdom. In each episode of Un-B-The-Republic, or UNFTR, the host delves into a different historical episode or topic that's generally misunderstood or purposely obfuscated by the so-called powers that be. Featuring in-depth research, razor-sharp commentary, and just the right amount of vulgarity, the UNFTR podcast takes a sledgehammer to what you thought you knew about some of the nation's most sacred historical cows. But don't just take my word for it. The New York Times described UNFTR as consistently compelling and educational,

aiming to challenge conventional wisdom and upend the historical narratives that were taught in school. For as the great philosopher Yoda once put it, you must not learn what you have learned. And that's true whether you're in Jedi training or you're uprooting and exposing all the propaganda and disinformation you've been fed over the course of your lifetime. So search for UNFDR in your podcast app today. and get ready to get informed, angered, and entertained, all at the same time.

All back on the Young Turks. So we got a new sponsor for you guys, fun one. Math leaks. I don't know why it leaks, but it does. And what it is is tutoring online, basically, which, boy, do we need that in the air of social distancing. in math from basically around junior high all the way through college. So my kids could use this too.

So they're not quite in junior college, but they're almost at that level. Anyway, t-y-t.com slash math, check it out. Okay, don't, don't. I should not get into my kids' grades, that's for sure. Anyway, they drive me crazy. Will you do your homework? Anyways, let's go to a YouTube super chat. Just Lucy writes in, I love my salt queen.

All hail the salt queen. Anna is both the salt queen and the salt dragon. So I don't know if that makes her munificent in a positive way. Remunerative. No, Anna, it's renumerative. No, it's not. Anyway, okay, Roger Meadows writes in on Super Chat. California is a ballot initiative state.

Why not start petitions to shut revolving door politics, publicly financing of elections, regulate big money in elections, and ban fracking? So this is the stuff I know that you guys don't know and why get so frustrated. that a lot of folks including democratic politicians and democratic so-called progressive groups and it's because Wolfpack trying to do that ballot initiative

and you have no idea the hate that we got from mostly democratic groups. You're trying to take money out of politics in California? How dare you? Right? Jesus, man. So the level of corruption is worse than you realize. Wolf dash pack.com by the way.

And last one from Superchat is Thomas Johnson. He said, I think this is a third day, no, sorry, progressives are very wrong about free trade. We must oppose trade agreements without environmental and labor standards, no sweatshops. But assuming those are met, trade is win-win, give folks in very poor country's opportunity to work at U.S. firms, give us cheap goods. Thomas, I hear you, but I hear you so much, I largely agree. So I don't know which progressives you're referring to, although there are progressives in that camp. You're right about that. But thank you for doing super chat, brother.

We appreciate it. And last two here is Gabby Mereda says, I'm 100% with Anna. Trump's entire presidency is just spite as distilled into a political ideology. And Gabby, as usual, that's a really great way of putting it. That's exactly right. Spite distilled into a political ideology. And finally, let me give myself a shout out here. In the member section, I can't keep up with the mass inertia, writes in, man, Jank is tireless.

He's a force of nature. Thank you. That's very nice of you. Sometimes I question if that's a good thing, guys. All right, Dr. Chank, I'll teach you how to be happy. That's later today. Stay right here. Like and share the stream.

Anna, what's next? All right. Brad Rathensberger, the Secretary of State from the state of Georgia, is calling out Senator Lindsey Graham because, according to what he said in a recent interview, Graham wanted him to throw out perfectly legal ballots in this. the state of Georgia. So Graham apparently questioned Raffensberger about the state's signature matching law and whether political bias could have prompted poll workers to accept ballots with non-matching signatures. Graham also asked whether the Secretary of State had the power to toss

all male ballots in counties found to have higher rates of non-matching signatures, Raffensberger said. Now, he also said that he was stunned that Graham appeared to suggest that he find a way to toss legally cast ballots. Absent court intervention, Raffensberger doesn't have the power to do what Graham suggested. And by the way, what Graham suggested is not only unethical, it's possibly illegal as well, as counties administer elections in the state of Georgia. Now, I'm going to give you Graham's response in just a minute. But, Jank, why don't you jump in? Yeah, I hate to give any credit to Jennifer Rubin, who hates Progressive so much.

at the Washington Post. But she's the only one, to be fair to her, because that's what we do. We're fair and honest. She's the only one who I saw wrote an opinion piece explaining the different laws that Lindsey Graham might have broken. And there's at least one federal and two Georgia laws that he might have broken, including interfering with voting rights. And some of them are felonies.

Some of them are at least a year in prison. So now, will Lindsay Graham be held accountable? Of course not. I would ask for the bare, bare minimum, at least, which is Chuck Schumer should ask for his Senate ethics investigation. Did our fellow senator here break the law? And should there be consequences for that? And remember, the person saying he broke the law and saying he was trying to cheat

and do voter fraud is a fellow Republican, the Republican Secretary of Georgia. So if he was a Democrat, tarred and feathered and he'd be halfway to prison by now, right? And he would have already resigned because he didn't want to be a distraction to the party and all of that. But he's a Republican and the Democrats are the weakest party in American history. And by the way, you're going to get excellent example of that in a minute in this story. But I want to let Anna finish the rest of the details. And then we'll talk to you about how tough the Democrats are being to Lindsey Graham.

So a little bit more about Raffensberger, because remember, he is being targeted by Donald Trump, because Donald Trump doesn't like the results of the election. Georgia did flip from red to blue and voted for Biden in this election. They're doing a hand count because Biden did win by a slight margin, 14,000 votes. And so what I like about him, though, is that he's not allowing the Kelly Loeffler's or the David Perdue's of the world come at him. He's not letting Trump come at him. And he's not letting Lindsey Graham come at him either. And so he went on this media tour to call them out.

And here's a little taste of that. Well, he asked if the ballots could be matched back to the voters. And then I got the sense implied that then you could throw those out. And he really would look at the counties with the highest frequent error of signatures. So that's the impression that I got. You say, Senator Graham wanted you to find ways to get rid of legally cast ballots. Well, it was just an implication that look hard and see how many ballots you could throw out. During our discussion, he asked if ballots could be matched back to the envelope, the absentee ballots,

could be matched back to the envelope. I explained our process after it went through two sets of signature match. At that point, they were separated. But then Senator Graham applied for us to audit the envelopes and then throw out the ballots for county. who had the highest frequency error of signatures. So again, he's repeating the fact that Lindsay Graham wanted him to throw out perfectly fine ballots that were legally cast. And in response to these allegations, Lindsay Graham said this, oh my, that's ridiculous. What I'm trying to find out was how do you verify signatures for mail and ballots in these states?

I thought it was a good conversation. I'm surprised to hear him characterize it that way. Oh, yeah. Now, Lindsay Graham is the worst kind of politician. He doesn't stand for anyone or anything. All Lindsay Graham thinks about is himself and which boots he can lick in order to further his own political career. And nothing makes that clear than a video that surfaced today featuring Lindsey Graham,

who's totally enabling Donald Trump's lives about election fraud, giving Kamala Harris a little fist bump, little congratulations, good job. Now, Kamala Harris probably shouldn't have her fist ready for that bump. I don't really understand her reasoning behind that. So in this situation, they both kind of suck. Like, how are you going to be friendly to a guy who's enabling your political opponent's ridiculous conspiracy theories about this election and how you guys allegedly stole it? You're going to give him a fist bump? Okay, fine.

No, not fine. Okay, so let me rage about this. So I blame Kamala Harris even more. And so I, oh, Khybe, oh, no, no, if she does it by definition, it must be great. Oh, she should have hug Lindsey Graham even more. Look, Lindsay Graham right now, according to another Republican, is trying to steal the election so that Kamala Harris never becomes vice president. That's happening right now. That's not happening.

Oh, it's not ancient history and they letting bygones be bygones. He's doing it today. Do you know what it means when he says to the Secretary of State of Georgia? By the way, he's not from Georgia. He's from South Carolina, totally different state. He's going to interfering in Georgia to say, don't just throw out the ballots that we think might have issues. Throw out every ballot in that county. And if it's a Democratic county, oh, well, what are you going to do?

I guess you have to throw out all the ballots. And a guy explains to him, that would be, that's illegal. I can't throw on valid ballots because you want Trump to win. So I can't believe there. And it turns out we found it. We found the one honest Republican in the country happens to be the Secretary of State for Georgia. And he's not on our side. He's been like he's a Trump supporter.

He doesn't agree with us on any other issue. He's just saying, I'm not going to lie and cheat and steal and commit crimes on your behalf. And I'm not going to enable you to do it, Lindsay Graham. And as Kamala Harris knows that, I don't know if Lindsey Graham had his fist out like a mile before the video, right? But in the video, you can see it for yourself. Kamala Harris has her fist out first, right? Look, watch. And then he goes and meets it.

So like, hey, way to try to rob the election and steal it from us. Way to end democracy. No, the reason I can't stand it, guys, is because apparently it's all theater. And we tell you that on the earth curse all the time. But there's an excellent example of it. Oh, golly, gee, I don't want Kamala Harris to be vice president. and they're such a danger to the country. Fist bump! Oh, Lizzie Grant's trying to steal the election.

Oh, fist bump. Why? Because they don't actually care about any of it. It's Kabuki Theater, okay? The only people they care about is people inside the clumb. So it's not Democrats versus Republicans. It's Democrats and Republicans versus the rest of us. And that's a perfect example of it. But another one here, let's show a Feinstein picture. Feinstein, huffing and puffing it, oh, Amy, Coney, Barrett, I can't believe it. And then at the end of the hearings, she says, oh, this is the greatest hearings we've ever had. so much, Lindsey Graham. And then she goes in the middle of coronavirus, without a mask, goes and hugs Lindsay Graham. Like, oh, you did such a great job of putting a Republican

out of the Supreme Court. I love that it. It's six to three now. When I tell my voters I care about pro-choice, I'm lying. When I tell them, I care about the Affordable Care Act, I'm lying. When Kamala Harris says, I'm going to fight for you guys, I'm lying. What I'm doing instead is bear hugs to the Republicans, because they're my actual friends, because we're all the elite together. So I have no interest in any of it. Screw Lindsey Graham, but Kamala Harris. I know, by the way, why does she do it? You're saying, I mean, what the hell? This guy's trying to rob you as you speak. Why do you do it? Not only because of the rules of the club, and by the way, the rules of the club are also that

Republicans can rip your face off while fist bumping you, but Democrats have to kiss their ass. I don't agree to those rules. I don't agree. The second reason she's doing it is because the Washington media. We see this and we're disgusted by it. I guarantee. to you that not all of you because some of you watch CNN and read New York Times and listen to the whispers of NPR and oh that's so great it's comedy. C-O-M-I-T-Y. It's a comedy of

errors is what it is. Oh my God, it's my partnership. So they will all love this. We hate it. 80% of you will hate it. But people in Washington are like, oh, Kamala Harris. Oh, you're so great for working with Lindsey Graham even though he's a potential

criminal who tried to actually rob you. more important than you. He tried to rob all of us because we're the voters. We're the ones who are theoretically supposed to be in charge. And we try to put you in charge instead of Donald Trump because we load that guy. Meanwhile, you're happily fist bumping his top ally who appears to be a criminal. Will they bring him up on any kind of charges? Of course not. It's the club. Nope. Now everybody's above the law and that's why they love each other. It's the rest of us that they kick down nonstop to. All right, we got to take a break.

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Pocket in the Pocket says, seeing Kamala Harris and Lizzie Graham fist bump is kind of like seeing pro wrestlers break Kafei. I can never pronounce that word, and I love wrestling. Like when they stop pretending that they're wrestling and they admit it's an act, right? And that's kind of what Kamala Harris and Lizzie Graham did. It's actually a great analogy minus my pronunciation.

Anyways, Mr. Lundberg writes in breaking news in Washington Post, and I've confirmed this. This is true. Quote, deadlocked board in Key Michigan County fails to certify vote totals by deadline. The board is two Democrats and two Republicans, and the Republicans are refusing to certify Wayne County. Well, what's in Wayne County? Detroit. That's where most of the Democratic votes are. So Mr. Lumberg says, here we go on the theft.

That's why I told you every day that he does not concede is a danger to the republic. People think like, why are you raging? It's funny. It's cute. He's crying. Who cares? No, every day they're trying with 100% of their might to cheat and steal at this election. In Michigan, Biden won by over 140,000 votes.

Nope. Now, officially, the Republicans are like, nope, nope, we're just going to try to steal it. So, this day, man, it has been trying to ruin my mood before we get to Dr. Jank. But I'm going to do this last comment anyway. Shadows writes in, can't wait to see Dr. Jank later tonight. I've always loved hearing Jank's outlook on life in general. He has a great positive attitude over the years. I've used some of his takes on things in my own life. And this brought smiles to me when needed. You're amazing for saying that. We're going to try that for three hours today. in about 40 minutes. So stay right here.

All of it is public and available to everyone. I'm going to try to give you guys some life advice. God help you all, okay? And thank you to the members that make this show possible on YouTube. You hit the join button below. Everyone else, t.com slash join. All right, Anna, back to you. Donald Trump refuses to concede to Joe Biden in the general election,

even though Joe Biden won, he won 306 electoral votes. And so Trump's campaign lawyers have continued. with some of these lawsuits and key battleground states. However, there's been some drama recently as these campaign lawyers have feuded with Rudy Giuliani. Drama as the White House turns. Made some very big mistakes. I asked for his resignation. I'm disappointed in the attorney general.

So as the Trump campaign has learned through dozens of lawsuits it's filed, it doesn't really have much evidence. They don't have much of a case in a lot of these arguments that they're putting forth. And so his lawyers are trying to reason with him, hey, here's the reality of the situation. It might not make sense to pursue this trial or this, I'm sorry, this case or this battle. Trump doesn't like that. And neither does Rudy Giuliani, who is someone who enables Trump probably more than anyone else. And so as a result, Giuliani is not only getting involved in these various court battles, but he's bungling them and embarrassing the Trump campaign

along with Trump campaign lawyers. CNN has more details on this. Let's watch. We've learned that last week the president was upset when he found out his campaign was dropping the Arizona lawsuit. So he summoned officials to the Oval Office and campaign officials and lawyers. Rudy Giuliani was on the phone and I'm told by multiple sources, it became very contentious with Rudy Giuliani accusing the Trump campaign lawyers of lying to the president, even though they had been telling him the truth that the odds were stacked against him that he likely would not be able to change the outcome of the election. Rudy called them liars. In response, the deputy campaign manager, Justin Clark fired back at him and called him

an F8A hole. This was all unfolding in the Oval Office with the president, the vice president. The next day, Rudy Giuliani was put in charge by President Trump. Delicious. It gets worse from there. But, Jake, do you want to chime in before we go to the next video? Yeah, so apparently there's streaming matches. There's a whole new report on it now. Another lunatic has joined the team. Apparently, her name is Jenna Ellis. And she's yelling at all the staffers. You will not respond to anyone that is not named Rudy or Jenna. And the chief strategist is Jason Miller, who's a terrible guy, right? And he's like, wait, you're not going to out terrible me.

Like, what do you mean? Like, so now I'm not in charge? She's like, yes. And he's like, okay, you're crazy. And they start shouting at each other. This is all according to new reports. And then other people are starting to shout. And they're both threatening to call the president.

They're having a crazy off inside the White House. whoever's craziest wins and gets the ear of the president. Why? Because the fish wroughts from the head down. They already had the first screaming match. And at the end of the screaming match, everybody was like, boy, man, Rudy was off the rails. Even the other nuts thought Rudy was off the rails. Trump at the end of the meeting goes, Rudy, it is.

No, it's, it's. And he's bungled the case in Pennsylvania. But before I get to the details on that, I should note that Rudy, Giuliani also committed perjury. So basically he has been suspended by the bar in Washington, D.C. as a result of failing to pay his dues. So he did commit perjury in the documents pertaining to the legal challenge that they brought forth in the middle district of Pennsylvania. So there's that issue. And also when he was arguing in that case in Pennsylvania, he was making allegations that weren't even in the official complaint.

He claimed that, you know, there was voter fraud happening, but that's not what that case is about. It's about the poll monitors. The argument here is that Trump's poll monitors weren't given access in order to monitor the poll workers, and that's already been debunked. But that wasn't what he was arguing when, you know, he took a leadership role in this case, And he just totally embarrassed himself. And so we have more details, though, on the conflict between Giuliani and the campaign lawyers. Jank, did you want to jump before you from that?

Yeah, one briefings, guys. So even at this late date, people are some wondering, like, well, is it three-dimensional chess by Rudy and Trump to go so over the top that they're just increasing their framing? And it's part of a strategy, right? No, when you go into a court and you're arguing the wrong case, that is part of no strategy at all, where the judge is like, do you know what's in your papers? Do you have any idea what we're discussing today in this courtroom? That is not strategy.

That is a person who is a certified lunatic with dementia or whatever he has, going around, going, oh, I'll show you we didn't commit murder. Nobody charged you with a murder. What are you talking about? Like, no, these guys are totally nuts. Yeah, so we have one more video. Let's take a quick look at that. Rudy's strategy here is essentially to go guns ablazing, fight till the bitter end, and to focus on conspiracy theories.

Rudy has been in the president's ear pushing these conspiracy theories about election software made by the company, Dominion, and allegedly changing votes. There is no evidence to support this. Dominion's come out to refute it. U.S. government officials have come out to refute it. There have been no cases filed, no evidence shown. But that is really where Rudy's focus is. And I'm told by sources that he's really been pushing that with Trump and making him think that there's a chance if he pushes with these legal cases that really are just a long shot. The ones that are already happening right now are just a long shot. And we're already seeing some shakeup with Rudy at the helm now,

Anderson. Today, there was the second set of lawyers who were replaced in the Pennsylvania case, and I'm told that that was directly related to Rudy. It's just amazing. It's just amazing. I know, but look, guys, it's three-quarters funny, but a quarter dangerous, because as we just reported to you guys, and it was a thank you to one of our members, Mr. Lundberg, who pointed out in the middle of the live show, we do this show together with the members. And he's right. When looked at it during the break, Washington Post reporting that Republicans in Wayne County, which has Detroit, are saying, we're not going to certify the results. Find one Michigan by over 148,000 votes. And unfortunately, that commission is

two Republicans, two Democrats. And two Republicans go, nope, we just want to steal the election. We're not certifying. So now what are you going to do? We're not certifying. We're going for the steal. We don't care who won. Now what are you going to do? So, So that's where we are. The lunatics are in charge in the Republican Party, and God knows what they'll do. So every minute that Trump continues to pretend he didn't lose this election is a danger to the republic. So, and it's not funny that the president of the United States is lying and trying to end

our democracy, and that he has a certifiable insane lunatic. running his legal team, and meanwhile, Republicans across the country believe him and are trying to steal the election as we speak. That's the kind of folks that are now in charge of the Republican Party. We've got a postgame that's free to everybody, so stay right here, including Biden driving us nuts. We'll be right back. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen ad-free, access members, only bonus content, and more.

by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.co slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.