The Young Turks - Third Party Party

Episode Date: May 13, 2021

Liz Cheney declares war on Trump moments after her ouster, pledging to do all she can to ensure Trump never gets “near the Oval Office” again. A bunch of old Republicans that the Trump GOP doesn��t care about are threatening to form a new party. Jim Jordan accuses Liz Cheney of pulling “Democrat talking points” in a speech calling out the election Big Lie. 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. Welcome, everyone, you're watching The Young Turks with Anna Kasparian. I'll be doing the first hour of the show solo today, and John Ida Rola will join me for the second hour, where we will do all of the updates on the conflict in Israel. The story is rapidly developing, unfortunately, in all the wrong ways, but we will tell you what's happening on the ground and what we've learned in the last 24 hours in regard to Israeli airstrikes in Gaza and Hamas's retaliation, which, of course, includes rockets that are very quickly intercept. by Israel's Iron Dome. But we're going to hold on that story because I would like to have John Iderola here with me to help discuss it.

In the first hour today, though, we are going to discuss the ongoing war within the GOP. There is an update on the story involving Representative Liz Cheney and her defiance in regard to avoiding the lies that the Republican Party has decided to latch on to about the 2020 election. We'll also talk about the comeback for corporate stock buybacks, which is an interesting story to ignore for the mainstream media, considering the fact that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce just urged the Biden administration to end unemployment benefits early to basically force workers back to jobs that pay incredibly low wages. So I'm looking forward to sharing that story and more with you. But before we get to all of it, I just want to encourage you guys to like and share the stream.

We want to get as many people watching this stream as possible. We want to get the message out there. And it's just an easy way to help support the show and support what we do here. So thank you to all of you who do that on a regular basis. And for anyone who's considering doing it, thank you. We really, really, really do appreciate it. All right, well, moving on to our first story of the day. The ongoing war in the GOP.

The House GOP have now officially voted to remove Liz Cheney as chair of the Republican Conference. This was something that Cheney was already being threatened by because of the fact that she refuses to lie to the American people about what really transpired during the 2020 election. While Trump loyalists want to pretend as though the election was somehow stolen from Trump, Liz Cheney is one of the few Republican lawmakers who's actually told the truth. Now before Republican lawmakers voted, Cheney gave a speech that was booed by her own colleagues. In that speech, she said, quote, we cannot let the former president drag us backward and make us complicit in his efforts to unravel our democracy. Down the path lies our destruction and potentially the destruction of our country. She also said if you want leaders who will enable and spread his destructive lies, I'm not your person. You have plenty of others to choose from.

That will be their legacy, but I promise you this. After today, I will be leading the fight to restore our party. and our nation to conservative principles, to defeating socialism, to defending our republic, and to making the GOP worthy again of being the party of Lincoln. Now, clearly I've got no love for Liz Cheney, but she does deserve some credit for being willing to tell the truth, even as her own colleagues threatened her along the way. And after her speech, we found out that Representative Virginia Fox put forward a motion to remove her. She was removed from her post by a voice vote.

So this wasn't an anonymous vote, which was initially the plan. Cheney had demanded that they hold a vote that is not anonymous. You know, people should be on the record. They kind of chose a middle ground where they did this through a voice vote. And it's obviously very difficult to determine who voted which way. But nonetheless, she's been removed from that position. Representative Steve Scalise, also a member of the GOP leadership, said it's not about right or wrong, essentially saying the quiet parts out loud, it's about the focus of our conference and focusing on pushing back on the agenda that's being pushed by the Biden administration. Now, I would argue that it's not impossible, it's not even difficult to push back against policies you disagree with, while also simultaneously acknowledging the truth, the reality.

of the election, the actual events that transpired. But Republicans are going to go along with whatever Donald Trump has to say. Donald Trump is delusional enough to believe that the election was stolen from him, even though he and his lawyers failed to provide a single shred of evidence indicating that there was widespread voter fraud or any type of attempt to steal the election from him. But Republicans are going to go along with his talking points because the Republican Party is now clearly the party of Trump, to the point where some of the most conservative members of their caucus will be pushed back against, will be removed from leadership positions just for telling the American people the truth. Now, after the vote, Liz Cheney spoke

to the press and had a pretty significant commitment to the future of the Republican Party and Donald Trump's political future as well. Let's watch. I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office. We have seen the danger that he continues to provoke with his language. We have seen his lack of commitment and dedication to the Constitution. So she's planning on fighting aggressively against the, I guess the possibility of Donald Trump running again and making his way to the Oval Office. I really don't know what her game plan is, because in order to do that, you would need to

take a look at the Republican electorate and find a way to persuade them that Donald Trump is not the right leader for the party, not the right president to represent Republican constituents. And so far, any and all efforts to do that, whether it's by the left, clearly, or by right like Liz Cheney. It just has not worked. It has not worked. So it's really unclear what the future of Republicans like Liz Cheney is going to look like. Is she going to suffer consequences by her own constituents for having the audacity to tell the truth about the election? And so it's hard to really predict what the future holds. But if you look at the current polling in

regard to Donald Trump's popularity with Republican voters, there's a reason why Republican lawmakers are supporting him and going along with his talking points, because they know that their voters will probably come out against them. There will be considerable backlash if they say anything against Donald Trump's narratives. Now, one other thing to bring up that I think is pretty relevant here. Republican lawmakers decided to leave the room as Liz Cheney gave her speech on the House floor. In fact, some of her colleagues even booed her. I want to show you a small portion of the speech that she gave on the House floor. This happened prior to the voice vote. Millions of Americans have been misled by the former president. They have heard only his words,

but not the truth, as he continues to undermine our democratic process, sowing seeds of doubt about whether democracy really works at all. Our duty is clear. Every one of us who has sworn the oath must act to prevent the unraveling of our democracy. This is not about policy. This is not about partisanship. This is about our duty as Americans. remaining silent and ignoring the lie emboldens the liar.

I will not participate in that. I will not sit back and watch in silence while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former president's crusade to undermine our democracy. Attacks against our democratic process and the rule of law empower our adversaries and feed communist propaganda that American democracy is a failure. We must speak the truth.

Our election was not stolen, and America has not failed. She's getting what she deserves. The chickens have come home to roost. And let me be clear about what I mean here. While I give her credit for the fact that she's willing to suffer the consequences to tell the truth about what actually transpired during the 2020 election, she is standing there and literally lying about communist propaganda, that there's communist propaganda. What communist propaganda? So Liz Cheney and Republicans like her have lied to the American people consistently throughout their tenure. And when you do that, when you

are part and parcel of this militarized effort in the Middle East, when you're someone who push the American people to support and accept a preemptive war in Iraq based on false pretenses, based on a lie that there were weapons of mass destruction. When you have built your entire career off of lies, you're going to lose people and they're going to have a lot less interest in what you have to say, even when you're telling the truth. She had destroyed her credibility way earlier. I mean, she's continuing to do so while she's lying on the house floor by making up stories and fear mongering about communist propaganda. What communist propaganda? Our corporate media would never dare to challenge corporate power in this country.

I mean, that's one of the biggest problems. But she's worried about communist propaganda. Okay. Well, I also want to get to Trump's statement on this because, of course, he's taken a victory lap. He recognizes that he's taken full control of the GOP. And he says this about Liz Cheney. Liz Cheney is a bitter, horrible human being, he says, with no irony. I watched her yesterday and realized how bad she is for the Republican Party. She has no personality or anything good having to do with politics or our country. She's a talking point for Democrats, whether that means the border, the gas lines, inflation, or destroying our economy. Now, Elise Stefaniq, who is also a GOP lawmaker, has raised her hand.

He's like, I'd like to take that leadership role that we've just ousted Liz Cheney from. Elise Stefonic has actually voted with Trump less than Liz Cheney has. So I just find it fascinating that while Trump lists all of these talking points about Liz Cheney that are not true at all, Elise Stefonic, the person who he's very supportive of to fill this leadership role, has actually gone against Trump policy-wise through her votes. And he doesn't care because he just wants someone who's going to loudly accept and loudly regurgitate what he has to say about the 2020 election. Now, the second part of his statement, I think, is fascinating because it goes to what I was saying

earlier. He said, quote, she's a warmonger whose family stupidly pushed us into the never-ending Middle East disaster, draining our wealth and depleting our government. great military, the worst decision in our country's history. I look forward to soon watching her as a paid contributor on CNN or MSNBC, MS, I'm sorry, MSDNC, which is a talking point that's typically regurgitated by the Jimmy Doors of the world. Now, I want to make a point about how that statement is ridiculous when you take a look at Donald Trump's record on foreign policy. Donald Trump's record on foreign policy was garbage. He vetoed bipartisan efforts,

a bipartisan resolution to get the United States out of Yemen. He vetoed that. Donald Trump ripped up the Iran nuclear deal, and obviously that increased tensions with Iran. We didn't need to be there. Iran is now doing exactly what the nuclear deal prevented them from doing, which is enriching uranium. He also implemented sanctions against the Iranian people, which has led to incredible pain and suffering among its civilians during the coronavirus pandemic. He's been a complete, and utter disaster. Tried to cover up for Mohammed bin Salman after he ordered the murder and dismemberment of

Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post journalist and U.S. resident. So let's get that caveat out of the way because I acknowledge that Donald Trump's foreign policy was trash. But with that said, his comments about Liz Cheney ring true. She absolutely was in favor of the preemptive war in Iraq. She has created think tanks with the likes of Bill Crystal in order to manufacture consent for forever wars abroad. And you have to keep in mind that it's not just Democratic voters in this country who sent

their children to fight those wars. It was also Republican voters who sent their children to fight those wars. wars. And when those children came back, they were abandoned. They weren't given the health care they needed. They weren't given the mental health care they needed after suffering from PTSD and other mental health issues after dealing with multiple deployments to the Middle East. So as much as I can't stand Donald Trump. And while I completely acknowledge he's a complete and utter liar, Liz Cheney has created this bed for herself and now she has to lay in it. Those kinds of statements ring true.

And I think that it does have an impact on Republican voters and who they choose to support moving forward. I just wish that the same voters were a little more aware of how Donald Trump was a continuation of the same foreign policy that we experienced during the Bush era, during the Obama era, and now all. also during the Biden era. Doesn't matter what the administration is. Our foreign policy in the last several decades has not changed. But when Liz Cheney tries to tell the truth, she needs to understand that she's already destroyed her credibility. And she's got to take responsibility for that as well.

All right, well, let's move on to what some of these traditional Republicans plan to do now that they're absolutely outraged and disgusted with the outcome of this whole Liz Cheney situation. A group of more than 100 former GOP officials who have absolutely no power are writing a strongly worded letter to the GOP. That's what they're doing, strongly worded letter. And they're also threatening to do something that could be fascinating. They're threatening to form a new party to fight back against the party of Trump. Now, of course, this is in response to the House Republicans ousting Representative Liz Cheney

from her leadership role. she refused to regurgitate Donald Trump's talking points on the 2020 election. Let me give you more details on who these people are and what they're planning on doing. A letter headlined, a call for American renewal, is an exploratory move toward forming a breakaway party, two of its organizers said. The group is dismayed by what it says is a modern Republican party driven by its allegiance to Trump, who continues to falsely claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him. So forming a third party is fascinating, and I think I want to see how it plays out.

I think this could actually be very positive, because one of my worries was that the Democratic party was going to take on more and more of these never-Trump Republicans, and these never-Trump Republicans are Bush-era Republicans who are awful. I don't think that the Trump administration and the terrible nature of that administration should launder the reputation of these never Trump Republicans, the very people who love corporate deregulation, the people who love forever wars in the Middle East, the people who typically love to engage in fear mongering and scare mongering rhetoric in regard to China. These are the people who have absolutely no interest in bettering working conditions for Americans. They're not

our friends. And we don't need them in the Republican Party. So the idea of them forming a third party, Interesting. Might be good. Let me give you more details. The letter signatories who include former ambassadors, governors, congressional members, and cabinet secretaries want the Republican Party to return to principled leadership and reject division and conspiracy theories or face a new party dedicated to fighting for Republicans such as Cheney and against fear mongering and lies. Miles Taylor, if you can remember, was a former Trump administration official, and he said that the Republican Party is broken. He stepped down from Trump's administration. It's time for a resistance of the rationales against the radicals. So he's referring to the current Republican Party, the party of Trump as the radicals. And I should also note that none of the people backing this latest effort are currently serving. in any position of power.

They're not currently elected in any office. These are former Republican officials and politicians. Backers of the reform group include Republican governors Tom Ridge, Christy Todd, I'm sorry, Christine Todd Whitman, George W. Bush era transportation secretary, Mary Peters, and former House members, Charlie Dent, Barbara Comstock, Reid Ribble, and Mickey Edwards. Look, these people have no power right now, like none.

And Republican voters have no interest in what they have to say. However, I do think that it's a better option for the Democratic Party to have these never Trumpers form whatever third party they want, knowing, by the way, that that third party has no shot. But even though it has no shot at winning, what's important to take away here is, A, we're not going to have to worry about them in the Democratic Party if they do in fact form third party. And B, this is really a threat to the possibility of Trump winning the 2024 election should he choose to run and should he win the Republican primary, which I would

venture to say he probably would win that primary. Because obviously all you need is just like a little slice of Republican voters to reject the Trump ticket and go for this traditional GOP branding that's being presented in this proposed third party. So will this maybe get some of these Republican lawmakers to question the direction they're going in? Maybe. But right now, what they're doing is just listening to their constituents. And their constituents, unfortunately, overwhelmingly approved of the job that Donald Trump did. So backers of the reform group, I'm sorry, let me get to this NBC poll because it kind of gives you a sense of what I'm talking about here.

Now, it's been several months since Trump has been in power. His numbers are declining a little bit. A recent NBC news poll found that 44% of Republicans said that they support Trump more than the GOP. So these are people who would follow Trump no matter where he goes. If he decides to form a third party, they would follow him. But Trump isn't gonna form a third party. Obviously, Trump is gonna remain in the Republican Party. And if he runs for 2024, he'll do it on the Republican ticket.

But that's compared to 50% who said they support the GOP more than the former president. So things can change, and I think that it's important to keep that in mind. But as it stands today, I think that this threat coming from traditional Republicans, the never Trumpers, could be an interesting one for the current Republican Party because they can't stand to lose any votes. I mean, I imagine that it's going to be a close election in 2024, and the possibility of a third Republican-like party basically taking some of those votes away might terrify them, might make them think a little differently about how they proceed. But we'll see how this all plays out. I think it's an interesting proposal, and the number one upside to it is it gives these never-Trump Republican voters a home, a place to go. And luckily, it won't be the Democratic Party. All right, we got to take a break.

When we come back, we have more news for you guys, including gas shortages in seven different states as a result of hackers, stopping operations of one of the largest oil pipelines in the country. And we'll also talk about Jim Jordan and what he had to say about Liz Cheney in this whole debacle. Come right back. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-Fitting 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 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. I'm going to be. I'm going to be able to be. I'm going to be.

So, I'm going to be able to be. You're listening to Cool Jazz 95 FM. I need to be pumped up today, guys. I need to be pumped up. Anyway, effectos writes in in our member section and says, Republicans, I'm being canceled. Also Republicans cancel Liz Cheney. Yeah, I mean, listen, most people who whine about cancel culture are full of it.

Most of them are hypocritical. I think that there are actual legitimate critiques of cancel culture. And I try to come at it from a good faith perspective, but it's rare to find. to be honest. Let me also give you guys some programming notes. Like, what the hell? Am I not going to tell you guys what's happening on the show? Bonus episode coming up today after the second hour.

We used to call it the post game. Not calling it post game anymore. We want to call it the bonus episode because it is, in fact, a bonus that our members get. And if you're wondering, like, what the hell? I want the bonus episode? How do I get access to it? You just need to click that join button if you're watching on YouTube. or you can go to tyt.com slash join our members get all sorts of exclusive programming and other perks

so please check it out we absolutely love i love the bonus episode there it is look at that they've even put together a great video showing you guys how it all works so just click that join button dollar 99 a month that's one of the options 499 a month that's t yt essentials don't you want to be essential so definitely check that out waznia by the way is killing it on our Twitch channel. And so tune in to Woznia Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 10 p.m. Eastern time, 7 p.m. Pacific. And that's at twitch.tv slash t-y-t. It's just a really fun show to watch, along with the other programming that we have on our Twitch channel that I love listening to and watching while I'm cooking. Because I like to laugh. Happy half hours

another great show. So make sure you check that out. That's hosted on Wednesdays after our bonus show. by Brett Ehrlich, who is a jack of all trades. He basically does work for everything that you see on this network. It's incredible. Anyway, more comments. Let's go to the mathematician who says, Anna, ask yourself something. Why is it that only right wingers are allowed to form a third party in America?

And if AOC and the squad tried to do such a thing, they'd be attacked like they bombed the White House and in all likelihood lose their careers. Because a third party will lose. A third party will, and the never Trump Republicans forming this third party know that the party is going to lose. The whole point is to threaten the Republican Party by taking some of their necessary votes away in a close presidential election. That's what they're doing. They know they're going to lose. Our system is intentionally set up to ensure that a third party can't win. We had a conversation about that on Jacobin. You should check it out.

All right, let's get back to the show. You're messing with my Zen thing, man. do have to read one comment from our member, Okam's taser, because I found it funny. I wish I could just boo my coworkers when I disagreed with them and then be able to spin my behavior as patriotic. I also wish I could just walk out on work meetings with no excuse. Yeah, I mean, I feel the same way about this, clearly, the whole Lish Cheney situation. But I also felt that way when Biden responded to calls for policy by saying, you know what, I'm gonna form a commission to study whether we should pass a policy on gun violence.

Okay, so now I say that to Jank every time he gives me a new task to do at work. I'll be like, I got it, definitely, let me just form this commission to study the task that you're talking about, and then I'll determine and decide whether or not I actually execute that task. Anyway, let's move on to our next story, and I encourage you guys to share this, because every time Jim Jordan thinks that his opinion matters, anytime he wants to say something combative, anytime he wants to lie, I see it as an opportunity to bring up the fact that he has been accused of covering up sexual abuse. So share this video, I definitely recommend you do that.

Representative Jim Jordan, a Trump loyalist, and a man who seems to have a knack for covering up sexual abuse allegations allegedly, has decided to throw stones. that Liz Cheney for refusing to lie to the American people about the 2020 election. She has refused to regurgitate Donald Trump's talking points about how the election was stolen from him, something that he had no evidence of. Now, let's hear Jim Jordan's exchange with Laura Ingram about Liz Cheney and why she was ousted from Republican leadership. Now, how is anything she's saying different from any garden variety left-wing pundit on MSNBC? I mean, they're literally citing her every morning on MSNBC and talk about her plight and how courageous she is.

If Republicans are getting praised by that crowd, isn't that kind of an obvious? That's not the person you want leading the party? No, and this is not new. This happened on January 13th when the Democrats went with their impeachment. I was the guy charged with managing our time on the Republican side. And all we heard was Danny Hoyer and other Democrats reciting statements that Congresswoman Cheney had made. This has been a pattern. And I think frankly now there's just enough of our conference who have said, we got to make a change. And it's going to happen tomorrow morning. Again, we tried to warn them and they didn't listen.

We try to warn them and they didn't. She's like the most unbearable, insufferable person on Fox. I know that there's a long list of people who fall under that category. But there's something about Laura Ingram that, anyway, so Jim Jordan knows that Liz Cheney has voted along with Trump. She is a committed, conservative vote on the policies, on the, on the, any issue that Republicans want to get passed. Liz Cheney has been on board. In fact, she has voted along with Donald Trump far more often than Elise. Stefanik, who is now going to take Liz Cheney's role in the leadership position that Cheney

was ousted from. And what's amazing here is what we're hearing from the Republican Party, this is important, is that even when they know the truth, even when they know right from wrong, they are going to do whatever is necessary to push back against Biden. That is their number one priority. That's all they care about. So even if Biden does something good, something that they typically would agree with, they're going to pretend they disagree and they're going to push back against it because

their whole purpose, even if it hurts their own constituents, is to push back against Biden. So I say that because every time we hear from Senator Joe Manchin about the importance of working with the Republican Party, understand that they have no interest in doing that at all. They don't care. They don't care about how effective the infrastructure policies would be in improving the lives of Republican constituents in their states. They don't care about whether those very policies or policies that they themselves would want to champion if they were in the position of power that Biden's in. Their whole point is to push back against Joe Biden no matter what. And that includes perpetuating a lie that the election was stolen from Donald Trump.

So I'm not interested in hearing Joe Manchin's stupid lies, because that's what they are in effect, lies about the importance of bipartisanship and reaching across the aisle and working together. They don't want to work with Democrats, they've made that abundantly clear, and Joe Manchin is just using that as cover for the fact that he wants to do right by his corporate donors. So that's part number one of this story. Part number two is this. Since Jim Jordan felt the need to remind me about his existence by doing that interview, I feel the need to repeat a story that we've already covered. But every time that Jim Jordan wants to do a media appearance, I'm going to repeat the story. We're going to cover it every single time that Jim Jordan goes out there in the media to get a little attention for himself and to lie.

Jim Jordan certainly has some Cajones to go on national television and accuse Liz Cheney of anything when he himself has faced some very serious allegations of covering up sexual assault and sexual abuse allegations at Ohio State University. This is a story that's been developing for years now. Jim Jordan accused of begging former Ohio State wrestler not to support reports of sex. sexual abuse. Hmm. We should watch a quick report on that just to remember, just to remember what that abuse was.

Ohio State announced it was investigating abuse allegations against a man by the name of Dr. Richard Strauss for allegedly abusing students from the mid-1970s to the mid-late 1990s. One former wrestler telling CNN, Dr. Strauss touched him inappropriately starting when he, He was a teenager. He says Strauss sexually molested some of his other teammates as well. That wrestler Michael D. Sabato says it was common knowledge among team members about this doctor and about what he would allegedly do during examinations. D. Sabato says he and other wrestlers spoke openly about it, openly about inappropriate touching,

and he says staff, including Jim Jordan, who was a wrestling coach at the time, He says knew about what the doctor was allegedly doing. So Jim Jordan was apparently approached by several athletes about this sexual abuse. The perpetrator, Richard Strauss, is no longer alive. So he's not going to face the criminal consequences that he deserves to face. However, if Jim Jordan did in fact... At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control of our online. lives, constantly monitoring us and storing and selling our data. But that doesn't mean

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And if you go to ExpressVPN.com slash T-Y-T, you can get three extra months for free with this exclusive link just for T-Y-T fans. That's E-X-P-R-E-S-S-V-P-N dot com slash T-YT. Check it out today. To know about this abuse and went out of his way to cover it up, He should certainly suffer the consequences of that. I mean, people forget to even mention it. I mean, imagine inviting this guy on your show to opine on anything as he's facing this investigation.

Now, of course, Jim Jordan completely denies it. However, there's already been some fascinating testimony from the brother of Mike DeSabato. His name is Adam DeSabato. And Mike DeSabato was the whistleblower who exposed. the abuse by Richard Strauss. He testified, by the way, Wednesday during, this is an old report, so not Wednesday of this week, but earlier, during a public hearing in the state legislature that when the story came out in July of 2018, he received a tearful phone call from Jim Jordan. What was that phone call about? Well, why don't we take a little listen to Adam DeSabato?

Jim Jordan called me crying, crying, crying, groveling on the 4th of July begging me to go against my brother, begging me, crying for a half hour. That's the kind of cover-ups that's going on there. Jim Jordan called me.

several times after that. That week I had to have my lawyer call him telling him to stop calling me. I had a teammate, George Pardos, I called and told him. Call Jim Jordan and tell him to quit calling me or I'm going to beat his ass. He's throwing us under the bus, all of us.

He's a coward. He's a coward. He's not a leader. He's a coward. He certainly is a coward because as much as I despise Jim Jordan, I will give him enough credit to acknowledge that he knows what the truth is regarding the 2020 election. But he's too afraid. He doesn't have the courage to do what Liz Cheney did, which in my opinion is not that difficult.

Tell the truth about the 2020 election. He's terrified of Donald Trump. He's terrified of Trump supporters. and he would rather squander and destroy our democratic process, our democracy, freedom, all the things that Republicans claim to care so much about. He would rather destroy all of that in order to be the coward he is and go along with Donald Trump's talking points and lies about the 2020 election. That's your Jim Jordan is.

He's also the type of guy, according to multiple allegations now, who will help cover up the abuse perpetrated by a sexual predator. And Fox News will invite him on so he can share his perspective at his point of view, his cowardly disgusting perspective on Liz Cheney in the 2020 election. An Ohio State Independent Investigation into the abuse did not make conclusive determinations about whether particular employees knew about the abuse by Strauss, but this is important, but a report issued in May said coaches didn't. know. It said Strauss, who killed himself in 2005, sexually abused at least 177 male students

from 1979 to 1996. And if Jim Jordan did call Adam DeSabato and begged him to stop talking about it, begged him to change his story, pretty sure those phone records exist. So we'll find out eventually what Jim Jordan really knew, what he didn't know, how he engaged in this controversy. What I do know for sure, though, is that Jim Jordan is a complete and utter coward and an embarrassment to this country. We got to take a break. When we come back, we'll discuss the gas shortages in several states, all because a private company decided that they didn't want to spend any money on cybersecurity.

Deregulation. Delicious. We'll be right back. Thank you. Hey everyone, welcome to our social break. I'm going to read some super chat comments. Ruthless Dragon says solo Anna is fire. Thank you. I really appreciate it, especially because today was just, it's really hard to produce what's happening in Israel right now, and you've got to make sure that you keep up with all of the updates. And so I had very little time to like actually

reflect on what I wanted to say about these stories. So I'm glad that you guys are enjoying the show because I was nervous about it today. But I'm glad you're, you're enjoying it. The Bernie Bro says, or that Bernie Bro says, do you think that every presidential election, if Republicans don't win, they'll pull the fraud card now? Is that the route we're going? Yeah, I think so. I think this is just going to be a continuous effort by, and the thing that I keep thinking back on, because I can't help it, is how Republicans claimed that Hillary Clinton and the Democrats wouldn't accept the results of the 2016 election, when in fact they did.

Hillary Clinton went to the woods. She disappeared for a while, which I wish she would go back there, to be honest. But remember that they would, they made that video of our reaction to Trump winning, go viral. We had a meltdown, they said. We had a meltdown. We had a meltdown. Okay. Alexander Linder regarding communist propaganda, Cheney refers to the propaganda in China and Russia about the failing U.S. democracy.

Of course, neither of them are communist. Yeah, thank you. China is kicking our ass economically because we agreed to free trade deals and we shipped our jobs to China. To say that China is a communist country, I think, really, it just displays the complete lack of understanding or knowledge about how these various systems of government work. Peter Hamby says, I'd like to see how this will cause more GOP on GOP in fighting. it's impossible to see a tri-partisanship, especially McConnell's order to fail Biden. Yeah, I just, Republicans have no interest in doing the right thing. It's amazing. Like every lawmaker who's going along with Donald Trump right now is just going in this short-sided route

of personal gain, personal enrichment, what can I do in the short term for my own political career, not at all thinking about the importance of doing the right thing to maintain our democratic process. They have no interest in uniting Americans. Are you kidding me right now? Even if there was no dispute over the election, they would still do the same obstruction to Biden that they did under the Obama administration, which is why it's so infuriating to hear any Democrat talk about the importance of reaching across the aisle and working together in a bipartisan fashion. They don't like you. They're not going to work with you.

All right, 10 more seconds. I'll read one more comment from Quelly Walker. They got Liz back for the moron. Now he won't tell that they all participated in insider trading. We all know. Welcome back to TYT. Thank you so much for watching. And I encourage you to like and share this stream. We want to get as many live viewers as possible. And if you're watching live us a super chat comment, which I'll read during our social breaks. That's for everyone viewing on line right now.

With that said, let's move on to our next story about gas shortages, which Americans in several states are unfortunately having to deal with right now. The East Coast is already feeling the immediate effects of the colonial pipeline shutdown following a ransomware attack by hackers. Many are actually right now trying to panic by gas. Some are even hoarding gasoline out of fear that they won't have access to it very soon. And unfortunately, that's leading to a situation where others who haven't been able to purchase gas yet are coming across pumps that are out. And so if you live in Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, it's likely you're experiencing this firsthand. and it's absolutely devastating. For their role,

Colonial Pipeline is planning on getting back up and operating again within the week, although that was a very vague timeline and we don't really have any certainty about when this pipeline, which is one of the country's largest, will be functioning again. Now, one woman in South Carolina,

a resident said it was unbelievable. When I was driving today, I thought it was a catastrophe coming. I've seen all these cars waiting and I was like, oh my God, I have to fill my tank up. And so the Biden administration is trying to urge people to not panic by and to avoid hoarding gas. But of course, people aren't really listening because the panic has already set in. The 5,500 mile pipeline delivers roughly 45% of the fuels used on the East Coast. So with that in mind, you can understand why this is such a devastating cyber attack.

And if you're curious about how this happened, you can check out our initial video on this. When the story first broke, we gave you all the details on that. But as I mentioned, the Biden administration is now saying, you know, please stop hoarding the gas. The U.S. Energy Secretary urged motorists not to panic by fuel and said officials are considering moving supply by train or ship, if necessary. Also, just to give you a sense of how much this is impacting states in the South, the South was, in fact, hit the hardest. Late Monday, almost 6.5% of gas stations in Virginia were out of fuel, according to travel app gas buddy. It said more than 1% of stations in North Carolina and Florida had no gas. And remember, that was on Monday.

We're now dealing with the same situation on Wednesday. So it's very likely that people are experiencing, you know, a lack of gas at stations in these particular states. Governors from North Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia have declared a state of emergency. North Carolina governor, Roy Cooper, suspended some regulations to make sure the state has enough fuel. Meanwhile, Georgia governor, Brian Kemp, suspended the gas tax. So I want to go to this video that kind of gives you a sense of how people are feeling on the ground in these states, what they're experiencing, and just how catastrophic this incident really is. And then we'll talk about why this happened. Take a look.

We got a call from family and said you better fuel up before you hit Tennessee. The Secretary of Energy urged people not to panic by fuel and said they are considering moving supply by train or ship if necessary. We're asking people not to hoard and know that We are all over this. The ransomware attack on colonial pipeline carried out by the Russian criminal hacking group Darkside is having the kind of impact many analysts predicted. This is a massive pipeline and without it, we're quickly realizing what can happen. Fuel is starting to run out.

The 5,500 mile pipeline supplies 40% of the East Coast fuel. Shortages are now being reported in seven states, including Georgia, where the governor suspended the gasoline tax. It'll probably help level the price at the pump off for a little while. Airlines are also feeling it. American forced to add refueling stops for two of its long-haul flights. And while Colonial Pipeline says that it expects to be up and running by the end of the week, the Biden administration is under pressure to make sure it doesn't happen again. This is a dark example of how these cyber attacks can have real demonstrable impacts on our economy and our national security. Oh, it's fascinating to hear a Republican lawmaker talk about these cyber attacks and how threatening

they are to our national security, to our economy. I agree, I agree. The only problem is, for those who want Biden to do something, what exactly are they expecting him to do? Are they expecting regulation? Because the fact of the matter is, colonial pipeline is a privately held company. It's privately held by, you know, some foreign actors. Certainly the Koch brothers.

And so are we calling on regulating this private company to ensure that they're actually spending the necessary resources to bulk up their cybersecurity? Because a private company has one goal and one goal only, and that's to maximize their profits and to lower their costs. So are they going to take necessary actions to prevent something that could happen in the future? or are they going to save that money in order to return more to their shareholders to beef up their executive pay? That's the question we need to be asking right now. Because again, a Republican lawmaker in that video specifically said, I mean, this is serious, this is very serious, but this is a private company.

So let's talk about what we've experienced historically with private companies and their unwillingness to spend the necessary resource. to bulk up their security, certainly their cyber security. There was an interesting article written years ago in issues in science and technology that I think perfectly applies to what we're experiencing today. Businesses have not displayed a strong commitment to cybersecurity, to put it mildly. Many corporate leaders and the think tanks they're associated with the corporate world maintain one version or another of a libertarian or conservative laissez-faire approach.

basically holding that they are the best, or they are best left alone, not regulated, free to follow their own courses. They further hold that their main duty is to their shareholders who own the corporations and not to the common good. That's how private companies operate, folks. So when you have a pipeline that provides fuel to 45% of people in. in the East Coast, or 45% of the fuel to the East Coast, I should say. Obviously, that's an important pipeline, right?

Obviously, that's a pipeline that you'd want to secure. But if you've got a private company, the only way you can ensure that they take the appropriate measures is if you regulate them. And there's no conversation about that. This is not a government entity. This is a private corporation. They want to maximize profits. they're not going to do the right thing out of the goodness of their hearts.

There's no morality here. Morality doesn't weigh in to their decisions here. Profits do. Which is why these types of situations happen all the time. We just experienced it in Texas with their privatized electric grid. Well, let me give you more. The effects of industrial espionage are often not in evidence for several years, beyond the horizons of many CEOs who are concerned primarily with the short-term profits

and stock prices of their corporations. I need you guys to understand this. This is how it works. This is how the system works. It's not broken. This is how the system works. They're not going to take the appropriate measures to protect themselves from any hacker, from any ransomware. not gonna do it because that would require them to spend, to invest in the company.

And the only investment that we've been seeing from private corporations lately is in the form of corporate stock buyback to further enrich themselves and increase their profits through artificially inflating the price of their stock. That's what they do. That's their, that's their way of investing in their companies. Let me give you more. Governments that seek to address private sector cyber vulnerabilities face serious pushback against onerous regulations and reservations about creating a moral hazard if they assume responsibility for protecting the private sector. These reasons and others have made a government solution to this worsening private sector predicament unsatisfactory, a situation that is unlikely to fundamentally change for the foreseeable future. Buckle up, folks. Buckle up.

There's going to be more and more of this. And so has there been an example of the federal government using regulation as an effective tool to protect people? Yeah, yeah. In fact, when it comes to credit cards, something really fascinating happened in the 1970s that I'd love to share with you. The credit card system is often cited as an example where incentives are correctly aligned. from the 1970s when the government placed limitations on consumer liability for fraudulent

charges. This change in liability motivated the industry to develop needed security measures. So once you shift the costs from the consumers, from ordinary Americans to the corporate executives, then all of a sudden it looks like they have an incentive. Oh, maybe we need to beef up our security to prevent fraud. Because previously, before this, if you were the victim of fraud as an ordinary American, oh, then you got to deal with it. But once there were regulations indicating that the credit card issuer would have to deal with it, well, they have an incentive to beef up their security. They want to prevent fraud because they don't want to have to pay.

What we're experiencing right now is not the bug, it is the feature. this is this is how it works and we got to be real about that when it comes to certain parts of society that we need for security for safety for sustenance for shelter for health care all of those things that are so important to our survival we really have to question does it make sense for these services for these things to be provided to us by private corporations that have one goal and one goal only, maximize profits. So while Republicans claim that this is awful, we got to do something about this. I think we need to ask that follow-up question.

Okay, great, what do you propose we do? Do you propose that the federal government take public resources and just shift it over to private company so they don't have to pay for security? So the U.S. taxpayer pays for security on their behalf? Because if that's what they're proposing, they can go ahead and F off. But if they're proposing regulation, then I'm interested in having a conversation. Then we should maybe take a little listen to what they have to say. But my guess is they're not interested in that.

Final story for you guys. Corporate stock buybacks are back. Fun. Private companies are currently asking the Biden administration to prematurely. end the federally subsidized unemployment benefits of $300 a week to Americans who were laid off during the pandemic. They're worried. They want people to get back to work. They're having a difficult time enticing their employees to get back to work. And while these companies refuse to maybe increase their wages, so workers aren't, you know, persuaded by a measly $300 a week

to stay at home, they've decided, no, we're going to do this by force, we're going to try to get the government to cut Americans off, but we're not going to increase wages. In fact, corporations have decided we're going to take the money we do have, you know, the money that could afford us higher wages, and we're just going to buy shares of our own stock, you know, what we usually do. So let me give you those details. The Financial Times reported that in what its analysts dubbed a buyback bonanza. Goldman projected shares repurchases by

U.S. companies would increase 35% this year from 2020. In fact, they've spent a considerable amount of money buying shares of their own stock already. U.S. companies announced $484 billion in share buybacks in the first

four months of this year. The highest such total in at least two decades, according to Goldman Sachs. So they can't afford to pay their workers a living wage. They can't, they won't even agree to pay their workers just a little more, a little more than $300 a week to get them back to work. But they will buy shares of their own stock. So let's take a look at this fun graph that the Financial Times put together,

which shows you just how much corporate stock buybacks have increased in recent years. So you'll see, you know, starting in 2000, In 2000, you have some corporate stock buybacks. Number goes down significantly in 09 for obvious reasons. We have an economic collapse. Funny, in 2020, when these companies were being bailed out by the Federal Reserve, they were doing corporate stock buybacks. Fascinating, really interesting stuff there.

And then you look at 2021 and the graph just skyrockets to already nearly $500 billion. And it's frustrating because places like CNBC will just go ahead and share the corporate perspective on this. They won't talk about how wages have remained stagnant, how that is a problem in discouraging people to go back to work. They won't talk about that. They might address it, but immediately use the same talking points we hear from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, probably one of the worst groups in this country, especially when it

comes to the well-being of American workers. Let's take a quick look at how CNBC covered this story. I spoke with Neil Bradley. He's the executive vice president of the Chamber of Commerce just a couple of minutes ago. And he said that, you know, this unemployment benefit, it might have been the right time last year to do that. But now the time has passed. They're calling for an end of this supplemental $300 a week in payments to workers saying there's simply a worker shortage in this country. But I asked him, though, isn't there a wage shortage? If you're struggling to get people to come out to work, isn't that more about wages than it is about workers? Here's what he said. Wages were a bright spot in this jobs report, right? So, you know,

wages were up about 7 tenths of a percent here. So employers are responding. But remember, now employers are having to compete not just with each other for workers. They're competing with the government who is paying people more not to work than they made working. What kind of garbage argument was that? No, wages are doing great, guys. Wages are so good. They've increased seven, seven eighths, or I'm sorry, seven tenths of one percent, which by the way, he's full of it because he immediately follows that with, you know, but now we got to compete with with the U.S. government that's paying Americans, a whopping $300 a week?

$300 a week. How can we compete with that? We have to have some money left over to do corporate stock buybacks. I mean, we got to pay ourselves, guys. That's what this is about. He's so ridiculous. It's ridiculous. It's so ridiculous to even play that song,

to play that video as if what he's saying is in any way legitimate. It's not. It's not. Jamie Diamond, chief executive of J.P. Morgan, whose board gave the green light to a $30 billion buyback program in December said last month his bank was buying back stock because our cup runneth over. Oh, that's fascinating. Is that what you told the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, when you were taking printed money from the Federal Reserve, when needed to be bailed out by the Federal Reserve, when you needed insanely low interest

rates from the Federal Reserve, is that what Jamie Diamond had to say? Our cup Runneth over? Let me give you more. Keep in mind, I want you guys to understand how all of this works, because while Americans were debating over scraps for ordinary people who had been laid off from their jobs, while members of Congress were like, I don't know, should it be $400 or should it be $300 a week? We don't know. We can't decide. While that was going on, the Federal Reserve, under the leadership of Jerome Powell lowered interest rates to near zero and also printed money for these companies and these banks because they needed liquidity guys they needed liquidity we didn't need liquidity no one in this no one in this office needed liquidity none of those

tens of millions of laid off workers needed liquidity it was it was jp morgan guys they needed liquidity not us and what that refers to is quantitative easing no me print who I greatly admire, wrote a fantastic book about this called Collusion. It's about how central banks manipulate the market. And this is how it works. Quantitative easing, also known as large-scale asset purchases, typically involves a central bank, like the U.S. Federal Reserve, itself purchasing government bonds or long-term securities

in order to add liquidity back into the market. The Fed announced that it would commence the quantitative easing program, with an immediate $80 billion buy, but would purchase at least $700 billion in assets over the coming months with no limit. And that's exactly what they did. In fact, the Federal Reserve's balance sheet ballooned following their March 15th 2020 announcement to carry out quantitative easing to increase the liquidity of U.S. banks. It reached 7.81 trillion U.S. dollars as of May 5th, 2021. This measure was taken to increase the money supply and stimulate economic growth in the wake of the damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. How are you guys feeling? You feeling that economic growth?

Because what these banks ended up doing was making it incredibly difficult to borrow. You think that they actually loaned money out to chumps like us? I mean, that's the whole argument behind creating liquidity, right? So you want to make sure the economy is moving along. But these banks clearly had no interest in loaning the money to people who needed it to stay afloat. We're sitting around waiting for our feckless, loser lawmakers to carry out our best interest when in fact all they did was nickel and dime the American people. And there was no discussion, no debate about the Federal Reserve implementing quantitative easing. There was no debate about them printing money.

There was no debate about them lowering interest rates in order to make it easier for these businesses, These massive corporations who do not pay a living wage in many cases to their workers to essentially enrich themselves further. And so now they got a little bit of cash and they've already announced that they plan on doing record corporate stock buybacks, the same thing they did with their windfall from Trump's tax cuts for the rich in corporations. But guess what? As I've said before, I'll say it again.

This is not the bug. It is the feature. When we come back from the break, John Iderola will be joining me for an update. on what's happening in Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. 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 at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.