The Young Turks - Trump Admits Syria All About Oil

Episode Date: October 22, 2019

Trump admits what's really going on in Syria. Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian, hosts of The Young Turks, break it down. 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. Hey, guys, you've heard of the Young Turks podcast because you're listening to it right now. But make sure that you subscribe and give it a five star rating if you like it. Thank you for listening. All right, welcome to the Young Turks. Jake Huger, Anna Kusparing with you guys.

And what you will hear throughout the background of this show is, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, okay. So many disastrous things going on for Trump. Indeed, indeed, indeed. Lots of disaster, lots of disaster. But the testimony of the Ukrainian ambassador to Ukraine is the most disastrous. But wait, hold, because McConnell's response might be even more disastrous. Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick.

Okay, world of trouble for Donald Trump. But you know what? Also amazing stories about the Democratic primary later, including panic Democratic donors. Yes, I love the smell of panic among Democratic donors in the morning. And so they've gotten together, they're like, what are we gonna do? A progressive might win, what are we gonna do? Former DNC officials panicking online. So that is going to be great.

Delicious. Can't wait, delish, let's get started. All right. So I want to just quickly remind you guys that I will be at Politicon this coming weekend. I will be in conversation with Tommy Laren, so please check that out. In conversation. In conversation, yes. So I will be there specifically on Saturday and I'm flying out immediately after this conversation

because I got to get back to LA and get work done for this show. So for people who are asking, look, I'm so grateful for people who are going to take the time to be there. Some are asking if I'm going to do, you know, fan meetups or whatever at Politicon. And the answer is no. Part of the reason why the answer is no is because I don't want to be in that environment longer than I need to. I'm just keeping it real. It is a bad environment. Yeah, not because you guys, obviously, but because of the right wing presence there.

Yes. And so they can be vitupative from time to time. And without a thug like me at her side, well, it's a little bit more parallel. No, I gotta be honest, I do feel more comfortable with you by my side. So I'm not gonna be there with Jank, I will be there alone. And so just keep that in mind. But please come and watch and support, that would mean the world to me. All right, great, let's do it.

Let's get started. All right, so the Trump administration is doing nothing to hide the fact that they will keep troops, US troops in Syria specifically to guard oil fields. Initially, they made it seem like they were doing so to ensure that ISIS or Bashar al-Assad didn't have access to that oil. But in reality, Trump is taking the gloves off and he's admitting that he's looking to see if U.S. businesses, specifically U.S. oil companies can go in and use some of that oil. So let me give you the details on what he had to say.

Now this is according to the Wall Street Journal, they reported this. Trump was quoted as saying, I always said, if you're going in, keep the oil. We'll work something out with the Kurds so that they have some money, so that they have some cash flow. Maybe we'll get one of our big oil companies to go in and do it properly. Now I want to take you back to 2016, because there was a foreshadowing moment where Donald Trump talked about what he would do if he had the opportunity to make decisions in Syria. Take a look.

I've always said, shouldn't be there, but if we're gonna get out, Take the oil. If we would have taken the oil, you wouldn't have ISIS, because ISIS formed with the power and the wealth of that oil. How are we going to take the oil? How are we going to do that? Just, you would leave a certain group behind, and you would take various sections where they have the oil. They have, people don't know this about Iraq, but they have among the largest oil reserves in the world, in the entire world. We get nothing. You know, it used to be to the victor, belong, the spoils. Now, there was no victor there, believe me, there was no victor.

But I always said, take the oil. So I apologize, I misspoke. I meant in Iraq, what he would do in Iraq. And so he now wants to do the same thing in Syria. All right, so here we go, let's break this down. Number one, he says, nobody knew this, but Iraq has huge oil reserves. Everyone knew that. Everyone on the planet except you who apparently found out right before you went on air in that particular interview.

Okay, in fact, I'm going to get back to that because that is really, really important to give you context of how much oil reserves of Syria have and what's the conversation we're having around this. But again, here, there's two different things that Trump is doing. One is terrible, the other one is actually not so bad. So the terrible thing is saying, yeah, we'll just take their oil. Now, look, think about what happened in that area. 11,000 Kurds died fighting ISIS. So we gave air support and we gave some logistical support. But our own special forces guys say the Kurds did all the fighting, we would give them the positions and then we would back away.

Okay, they lost 11,000 people. What does Trump say? He says, well, maybe they could keep some of the money. Maybe. What do you mean maybe they could keep some of the money? It's their oil. Trump's like, oh, you did all the dying, it's your land, it's the oil under your land, but I'm going to take it all, and then maybe I'll share some of it with you.

Who are you? What are you talking about? So this is total insanity, right? Now, on the other hand, the part that's slightly refreshing is, that's what every American president thinks. They just never say it. So Donald Trump is willing to say, the quiet parts out loud, we've had this same conversation over and over again, not in the context of oil, but now. it's in the context of oil.

He is doing what many other previous presidents have done when it comes to their decision making in the Middle East. It's because he's not savvy enough, he's not intelligent enough to realize you're not supposed to say that out loud. Now why aren't you supposed to say it out loud? Like a lot of Magu guys would be like, whoa, what do you mean? You're criticizing him for it now that you're doing this too? Are you criticizing him for being honest?

No guys, you don't get it. We're not supposed to do any of that. And it's illegal to sell that oil. It actually technically belongs to the government of Syria. Now there's some thoughtful people who are thinking about how do we get in on the action, right? But in a way that's legal. Maybe we could put it in an escrow account to be divvied up after the Syrian civil war is over.

Maybe we can share some of the proceeds with Assad or Russia to make it more palatable and hence make it legal. But we couldn't go into Iraq and just take their oil. That is not legal. They would be, if you thought the Iraq war was a mess now, it would have been an even bigger mess. What savvy politicians normally do is, my God, I care about the liberation of Iraq and the people of Iraq. Oh my God, weapons of mass destruction.

Right, exactly. And all that stuff. And then what they do is they tell the Iraq government, I put you in place and I could take you out with my CIA, so you better give the contract to my friends at ExxonMobil and Shell and BP and all those different things depending on who the allies are, right? So that's how things are normally done, a deceitful, horrible way that things are normally done. But so Trump is wrong that you can't just take it. And you certainly shouldn't say it, you idiot, right?

But at the end of the day, everybody's looking to get the money from the oil. And that is what this is about. Exactly. So I wanna take you to a quote by Brett McGurk, who was a former White House official. He resigned under Trump. And here's what he had to say about oil in Syria. Oil, like it or not, is owned by the Syrian state. Maybe there are new lawyers, but it was just illegal for an American company to go in and

seize and exploit these assets. Now, where did Donald Trump get this idea? Did he come up with it himself? The Wall Street Journal reports that he came up with this idea in regard to protecting the Syrian oil fields after having a conversation with Senator Lindsey Graham. So that goes to the point that was made earlier. You know, the entire U.S. government infrastructure and the way things work, it gives you a sense of the decision making during previous administrations.

Like the same players exist. Lindsay Graham's been around for a while. And he is one of the influencing factors when it comes to decision making in the Middle East. Also, U.S. officials said the oil could be exported through Iraq. Some of Syria's lower quality heavy oil, they say, might be blended with higher quality Iraqi crude before being sold on the international market, but oil analysts dispute this is unlikely or unprofitable. So quick point about that.

As we reported earlier, Donald Trump decided, all right, well, I'm gonna pull the US troops out of northern Syria, I'm not gonna send them home, as I've said to the media. In fact, I'm gonna go ahead and send them to Iraq. And Iraq has responded to this by saying, no, we don't want US troops, additional US troops in the country, please don't send them here. And when it comes to this idea of blending Syrian oil with Iraqi oil, no one's even talked to the Iraqi government about that. All right, so I have two very important points to make that go along the same lines.

So I'm gonna quote the Wall Street Journal here, and I want you to pay careful attention to what they're saying. American officials have hoped that they and the Kurds could maintain control of that oil rich territory building leverage that could be used of political discussions about the future of Syria eventually are held. They go on to say, at a minimum, the U.S. has wanted to keep the oil fields out of the hands of the Islamic state militants and the Russians. So what are the important parts of that?

Why did I read that to you? Well, first of all, if you notice, America was largely in the north and talking about our wonderful allies in the Kurds, yes, they fought ISIS, et cetera. Now, you don't hear much about us being in central Syria or southern Syria. You want to know why? Because the only oil in Syria is in the north. The rest of it is irrelevant, okay? Now they point out American officials have always talked about the oil rich areas of Syria.

So it's not just Trump, it's all these American officials, they only strategize around oil. And mainly they want to keep ISIS is temporary. They mainly want to keep it out of the hands and the influence of the Russians who also have their giant oil companies that are connected to the Russian oligarchs. So at the end of the day, what is it all about? Money, of course, it's about the oil and the money. And so again, Trump is the only one brazen enough to just flat out say it. So as we're leaving the northern part of Syria, Lindsay Graham and other officials go to

Trump and go, now obviously you don't give a damn about the Kurds, you don't care about them being our allies, you just say it's a bunch of sand that they're fighting over, He literally said that, okay? But remember, there's oil there and that's money. And Trump's like, wait a minute, okay, all right, we gotta protect the oil fields because that's money, I get it. I don't care about people, who cares about people, but the money I want. So that's why they convince them to keep some troops to protect the oil fields.

Exactly. So with that said, let's go to Donald Trump just yesterday, talking about that specifically. We've secured the oil. If you remember, I didn't want to go into Iraq. I was a civilian, so I had no power over it. But I always was speaking against going into Iraq was not a great decision. But I always said, if you're going in, keep the oil.

Same thing here, keep the oil. We don't want to keep the oil. And we'll work something out with the Kurds so that they have some money, they have some cash flow. Maybe we'll get one of our big oil companies to go in and do it properly. Do you maintain a limited number of troops in Syria? Well, we don't think it's gonna be necessary.

I don't want to leave troops there. It's very dangerous for, you know, we had 28 troops is a turn now. People said 50, it was 28. I don't think it's necessary other than that we secured the oil. It's in a little different section, but we just secured the oil. So we have a small group there and we've secured the oil. Other than that, there's no reason for it, in our opinion.

The guy's got Tourette's, I mean, he has mental problems. And so he just keeps repeating, he's like, and that's why you see him admit crimes over and over again. He's like, oh yeah, yeah, no, no, I asked them to look into Biden. I asked Ukraine to look into Biden. You're admitting a crime. I asked them. I asked them to look into Biden, right? I want the oil, I want the oil, the money, the money, the money.

How about the Kurds, our allies that Lindsay Graham and everybody else pretended to care about? Yeah, I want the oil, I want the oil, the oil, the oil. So I have a question because as we know, the U.S. leaving our former allies now, the Kurds, defend for themselves against the Turks, has been disastrous, right? It's disastrous when it comes to future foreign policy decisions because why would anyone want to work with the United States? on anything if you know that the US could renege on their promises. But if oil, of course, is always going to be an influencing factor for lawmakers and presidents in the United States, is it an influencing factor for Turkey? I don't know if you know the answer to that.

I mean, obviously, yeah, of course, I get it, but the reason why I bring that up is because Erdogan keeps saying that the Kurds pose a national security threat to Turkey, right? But we know that, you know, the Kurds in northern Syria don't simply consist of the PKK, which is a terrorist group in Turkey, right? But he keeps generalizing about the Kurds in northern Syria. So that's both, right? So are they real terrorists from the PKK inside Turkey, definitely? Are the Turkish citizens really pissed about that, definitely?

So it's like saying to Israel, who cares that Hamas is bombing you guys? No one cares, the Palestinians are great. Well, the Israelis don't view it that way when you talk about Hamas, et cetera. So the Turks don't view the PKK that way, so that's true. And they love that he's creating that safe zone in northern Syria, so it's very popular in Turkey. Now, on the other hand, does he also want some access to the oil? Of course, of course he does.

And remember, there were rumors that Turkey, and especially Erdogan's government, was profiting off of that oil being sold even when it was controlled by ISIS. So at the end of the day, ISIS, Kurds. Syria, who cares? Where's the money? And you think the Republicans care that we betrayed our allies to Kurds? How many allies have we betrayed? No, the only reason they care about northern Syria is because that's the only place that has oil.

That's why Lindsay Graham goes in and tells Trump, hey, listen, remember, the oil. And that's why Trump then comes out of the meetings and goes, oil, oil, oil, right? Last thing, guys, about this. So we went into Iraq and we keep saying Iran, Iran, Iran, Iran. And of course, the only other country we're really agitating against is Venezuela. That might seem random, right? But we never went in full force to Syria. We only sent in some degree of troops to northern Syria, smattering is in other places, but

we did go into Iraq. So you know what I looked up today? The amount of crude oil that comes out of all these different countries. So Syria, at its height, was 400,000 barrels of oil. I mean, at some point it had reached 600,000, but right before the war. It was 400,000 barrels of oil. Right now, it's down to 30,000 and it's almost all in northern Syria. Okay, so how much was Iraq to give you a sense of comparison?

Iraq is 4.4 million barrels of oil. Wow. 11 times of Syria. So, hey, voila, even though we had huge issues in Syria, we did not do a full force invasion of Syria, but we did do one of Iraq, even though we had almost no problems with Iraq at the time. Remember, Iraq did not attack us on 9-11. We just picked Iraq randomly?

No, it turns out they're the number four oil producing country in the world. Now, where is Iran? Number five. They produce four million barrels of oil or crude oil as opposed to just the 400,000 that came out of Syria even before the war. So 10 times more oil in Iran, 10 times more rhetoric about how we have to defeat Iran than talking about going into Syria, okay. And you want to know where North Korea is on the list?

Not even on the list, they don't have any oil. So even though if they say, oh, Iraq, we're concerned about human rights violations, North Korea has concentration camps. They said, oh, well, we're worried about weapons of mass destruction. North Korea said, we're building nukes, then they tested their long-range missiles, and then they built the nukes, they now have eight nukes, and they've tested all their long-range missiles. Nothing, nothing at all.

No action, why? oil. Now, how about Venezuela? Number 11. Until recently, they were in the top 10, and so when you look at the list of top 10, top 11 oil producing countries, they're either all us, controlled by us, or massive armies like Russia and China. The only ones that are not controlled by us were Iraq, Iran, Venezuela. Huh, funny how all the warmongering is about those three countries. And then you have people in the mainstream media who will cover all of these wars and never talk about the real motivation.

And then they say, oh, we're journalists, well, if you say so. But if you think it's a coincidence that we war monger about all the oil producing countries, and then for our supposed justifications that are much worse in the other countries, we leave them completely alone because they have no oil, and you think that's a coincidence, well, then You shouldn't be a journalist because you can't put anything together. You can't go from point A to point B if your life depended on it. So this is the reality of what's happening in all across the world, but particularly in Syria today, and why we care about northern Syria, we don't care about the rest of Syria, and

why we don't care about the people, but we do care about the oil. Damn, prosecutor Yuga, rest his case. Look at that, a little extra research, I like. Not that you don't do it usually, but like those facts are amazing. All right, anyway, I was impressed by that. We got to take a break. When we come back, we're going to give you updates on the impeachment investigation, including acting U.S. Ambassador Bill Taylor testifying against Donald Trump. It's dromsy as... We need to talk about a relatively new show called Unfficking 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 kids. conventional wisdom. In each episode of

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All right, back on the young Turks, member comments as usual, Amira, Amira writes, and of course Trump wants the oil, because also like the tin man, he has no heart, stealing natural resources just part of that game. And then Kagnosco, this says typically, typical Donny Tiny Hands, he never pays his bills, and of course he takes the oil. So these are all from our member section at tyt.com slash join to become a member. Ecclectic miscellaneous says Anna, Jank might not be there at Politicon, but you will not be alone. A number of TYT fans have already mentioned that we're going to be there in the audience to root for you. And Nashville is not as conservative as you think. Besides, you're going to defeat Tommy Lauren so decisively in your quote unquote conversation, aka debate. that she and her conservative fans are going to leave the event crying in need of a safe face.

Thank you. That means a lot to me. Look, I don't, I don't want her to not end up doing it. So, I'm just, anyway, it's going to be a great conversation. I'm just going to put it there. Leave it there. And thank you for coming. It means a lot to me. All right, Keldo 3 ad says, a Green New Deal would end the wars because we would no longer rely on big oil, 100%, right? All these calculations are based on antiquated, so-called strategery. But really, it's just about the money today. That's what they care about. That's the only thing they care about.

That boys hell on Turles on Twitter says, if Trump stopped saying nobody knew, he'd seem about five IQ points smarter. That's right. Not that much, but a little bit, because he keeps saying things like, nobody knew you get three points for a field goal in football. Nobody knew that. Nobody knew you get six points. You have to actually do an extra point.

to get the seven. Nobody knew that. Everybody knew that. Okay, anyways. All right, what's next? All right. Today is a difficult day for Donald Trump because the current acting U.S. ambassador,

William Taylor, also known as Bill Taylor, testified about the release of military aid to Ukraine and specifically said that the release of that military aid that was approved by Congress, by the way, was contingent on the Ukrainians, publicly announcing that they were launching an investigation into Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden. So there's a headline from the Washington Post.

U.S. envoy says he was told release of Ukraine aid was contingent on public declaration to investigate Biden's in the, and the 2016 election. In regards to the 2016 election, as we had mentioned earlier, that has to do with this crazy conspiracy theory that Donald Trump believes. He thinks that there's some sort of secret server being kept in Ukraine. That has all of Hillary Clinton's emails, again, that is a conspiracy theory, but he continues to believe that that server exists. So he wanted the Ukrainians to investigate it.

Now before I get to more details on what he said during this testimony and during this deposition, and it was a disaster, Jenk, do you want to jump in? Yeah, I want to make one thing clear. When he says that it was contingent on a public declaration, Trump thought that if Zelensky, The Ukrainian leader made a public declaration that he was gonna investigate the Bidens, then he'd be on the hook for it. So that's what he was looking for in order to release the money. And Taylor, the ambassador said that another ambassador, Sondland, who was our envoy to the European Union, told him, and he testified to this, that, quote, everything was dependent on such an announcement, including security assistance.

Over. End of this. Quid pro quo. Now, like I've been telling you from day one and the Democrats do a miserable job pointing this out on television, this is the second crime. Even asking for assistance from a foreign country in your political campaign is already a crime. But now saying that you are not going to get the assistance that the United States Congress already assigned to you and already allocated to you is a second crime of basically extortion

and several other issues. But the Republicans' only claim was, yeah, okay, well, he might have asked for assistance, but I don't know, get over it, right? That's not really a defense. But he didn't do quid pro quo. Now we know for certain he absolutely did do quid pro quo. And one of the Democrats coming out, and granted it's Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, but still she heard the testimony with her own ears.

He said, it was the most damning testimony I have heard. Exactly, because the EU ambassador, Gordon Sondland, who had testified earlier, kept saying things like, I do not recall. And so there were a lot of blanks in terms of the testimony that he gave. According to what Wasserman Schultz said, all of a sudden you have Taylor come in and he really did connect the puzzle, the missing pieces to the puzzle. So I just want to say one important thing about that. When Sullen testified, they half got Trump because Sondland said, hey, when I told Taylor,

the guy who's testifying today, hey, remember, there is no quid pro quo, stop sending written text, let's talk on the phone, right? He said, that wasn't me, Trump told me to say that. So that's him half throwing Trump under a bus. But on everything else, because he's also on the hook, he said, I don't remember. I mean, that was a whole two months ago, I don't remember, I don't remember. So that's to protect himself as well as Trump. So when Democrats came out of that closed door meeting, they were like, good, good, it was good,

right? But they didn't come out with their hair on fire. So I knew that they hadn't fully gotten them, right? Now Taylor goes in testify, they like burst the doors open. They're like, we got them, we got them, damning evidence, right? And Taylor, Taylor was really the one who wanted to pump the brakes as all of this was going down. He was like, what's going on here? This is wrong. We can't do this. And he was told by Sunland over and over again through texts that were also given to Congress. This is what

Trump wants. You're mischaracterizing what his intentions are. Go forward. Now let me give you actual quotes from what William Taylor said, just to give you a sense of how detailed it is and why the testimony he gave today is so problematic for Donald Trump. So he says, quote, During that phone call, Ambassador Sunland told me that President Trump had told him that he wants President Vladimir Zelensky to state publicly that Ukraine will investigate Burisma and alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election. Now, Burisma, as we've told you, is the gas company that Hunter Biden was on the board of. Ambassador Sunland also told me that he now recognized that he had made a mistake by earlier

telling the Ukrainian officials to whom he spoke that a White House meeting with President Zelensky was dependent on a public announcement of investigations. In fact, Ambassador Sunland said, quote, everything was dependent on such an announcement, including security assistance. Finally, Taylor said, quote, he said that President Trump wanted President Zelensky in a public box by making a public statement about ordering such investigations. And finally, Taylor testified that he stands by his characterization that it was crazy to make the assistance contingent on investigations he found troubling.

Now he made that statement during his communications with Sondland, which we'll get into in just a minute. Yeah, so we already saw some of the texts where Sondland keeps saying to Taylor, get off of texts, get off a text, right? So at one point, Taylor on September 1st, as Vice President, and Pence is set to meet with Zelensky, says, are we now saying that security assistance and White House meetings are conditioned on investigations? And Sondland replies, call me.

Okay, in other words, don't write that down, call me. Yeah, of course that's what they were saying. And now all of those texts that seemed very clear are backed up by his testimony today, saying, yes, of course, that's exactly what we were talking about. And in another text, Taylor says, the nightmare is that they give the interview and they don't get the security assistance. The Russians love it. And then in brackets, he says, and I quit. So meaning Zelensky then agrees to the nightmare scenario, Zelensky says to Trump, okay, fine, I'll do, I'll publicly declare that we're going to do an investigation of the Bidens.

And then we don't give them the money anyway. And then we would lose all credibility. The Ukrainians would be screwed. And that's why the Russians would love it. And yeah, let me give you more from that conversation. And again, this is all via text. William Taylor also continues to write to Sondland, quote, The message to the Ukrainians and Russians we send with the decision on security assistance is key.

With the hold, we have already shaken their faith in us. Thus, my nightmare scenario. And then in response to that, Sondland said, said, we have identified the best path forward. As I said on the phone, Taylor replied. I think it's crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a national campaign. And then five hours went by before Sunland finally replied to that. And then he later testified that he was relaying only what Trump told him in an intervening phone call.

And then finally, here's what Gordon Sunland did reply with five hours later. Bill, I believe you are incorrect about President Trump's intentions. The president has been crystal clear, no quid pro quos of any kind. The president is trying to evaluate whether Ukraine is truly going to adopt the transparency and reforms that President Zelensky promised during the campaign. So that's the quote that Sondland then tells Congress, yeah, Trump told me to say that. Right. And obviously no one believes that, and every other text indicates there was a quid pro quo.

And now the testimony confirms there was a quid pro quo. And so, and Sondland doesn't deny it. He just says, hey, listen, man, the thing denying the quid pro quo was written by Trump. It wasn't written by me and everything else, I don't remember. And now Taylor comes in and goes, yes, I do remember. Those are the conversations. By the way, there's a third person, Kurt Volker. He's the one that started all these chain of events by releasing the text between the three

of them. And so Volker says there was a quid pro quo, Taylor says there was a quid pro quo. Someone doesn't deny it. The only person denying a quid pro quo is Donald Trump, who says, it was a perfect call. I also wanna just quickly note that these are individuals who are still serving in government and the State Department came out and said that no one should respond to these subpoenas, no one should cooperate with this investigation.

But you have people who are ignoring that and they are testifying, they are giving their depositions, the walls are closing in on Donald Trump. And today's testimony was certainly the most damning. And I think that this is the right way to go. I mean, look, there's a huge risk in ignoring those subpoenas and continuing to provide cover for Trump. He's a criminal. What he did is illegal, and that's why he's facing this investigation in the first place.

They have to come forward and they have to play ball, or else they're on the line as well. So look, you know me, I think the Democrats are incredibly weak. You know, his co-conspirator on campaign finance violations on the hush money is in prison right now. That's a felony. The obstruction of justice in the Russia case was a felony. Now you've got two different felonies in this case, campaign finance violations and extortion. So you've got four felonies on the guy. But the Democrats are so weak. Like if there's, let's take a different crime, like a robbery, right? The Democrats need someone to say, yes, we committed the robbery together. Yes, here is my video evidence of the robbery. Yes, here are 12 witnesses of the

robbery for the Democrats to go, oh my God, I think we got him. Yeah, you had him before, but this is over the top. No question about it. So right now, every Democrat should be on television saying it's over. We're definitely going to impeach him. He's definitely committed a crime here. And every Republican who supports him is supporting a criminal. Exactly. And yet, you know, look, They, you know, they're excited, they put out, Nancy Pelosi put out another letter. You know, some of them saying the testimony was damning. This is as excited as the Democrats get. But you got to hold the Republicans accountable.

Now, part of the reason for that is Trump today bragged that 95% of Republican voters are still with him. That's largely true. So it's not just Trump, that's the criminal. 95% of Republican voters are like, yes, we love those kind of criminals that break the law. Who cares about rule of law? As long as the criminal's on their side. Of course, okay, and white.

And now, but more, most importantly, the Republicans in Congress, new poll out, approval of how they're handling this impeachment situation is down at 30%. Now disapproval is at 57%. That's nearly two to one. They're in a world of trouble. So you put pressure on the Republicans because they're the ones who could convict in the Senate. You guys know how this game is played at all, right?

And so right now, there's almost no pressure on those senators, but the only pressure they're feeling is their own polling in their own states, as guys like Mitch McConnell are worried about losing their own elections. But I tell you all that, because this is game set and match. If you had any kind of decent political opposition, Trump is definitely impeached and in serious jeopardy of being convicted and thrown out of office. So, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. Well, speaking of Mitch McConnell, there's another part of the story that I love.

So Donald Trump claimed that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell described his phone call with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky as perfect. Now that phone call is at the center of the impeachment investigation on Donald Trump, and it's because he was reaching out to a foreign leader to dig up dirt on his political opponent, Joe Biden. Now, when reporters caught up with Senator McConnell to ask him about this so-called perfect phone call, here's what he had to say. The president has said that you told him that his phone call with the Ukrainian president

was perfect and innocent. Do you believe that the president has handled this Ukrainian situation? We've not had any conversations on that subject. So he was lying about that? I don't recall any conversations with the president about that phone call. Oh boy guys, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. You understand what happened there? She says, the president says you had a conversation with him, and you said that yes, and you confirmed that this call with the Ukrainian president was perfect.

Did you do that? He's like, no, I did not. I did not have that conversation with the president. Are you saying the president's a liar? That's when if you're still in Trump's camp, you go, oh, no, no, no, no, I'm not saying that. No, you're trying to put words in my mouth. I support the president completely. We just didn't happen to have that conversation.

Instead, McConnell said, you'll have to ask him. Well, that's the leader of the Republicans in the Senate. The Senate is where they have convictions. Exactly. And earlier McConnell said that he would hold a vote in regard to removing Donald Trump if he is impeached by the House, which it appears he most certainly will be. So, look, Mitch McConnell is a tribalist. guy when it comes to Republicans, and it takes a lot for him to say anything that would

shine a negative light on anyone in the party. So for him to contradict Donald Trump, that is big. And so I think, look, I think members of the Senate, Republican members of the Senate really, this is the reason why they don't want the impeachment investigation. They don't want to have to take that vote on whether or not Trump should be removed from office. I mean, let's talk about democratic stupidity. Last week, we shared an article with you where some of the conservative Democrats in the House were counseling other Democrats.

Whatever you do, if you're on TV, don't talk about impeachment. Let's all stay quiet about it. So lame. So dumb. Unbelievably dumb. They're like, well, what about us conservative Democrats that are in purple districts? No, you schmucks. What about Republicans that are in purple districts?

So they're in a cold sweat panic now. Right now, there's a poll out saying approval of Republicans, in handling impeachment is at 30% disapprovals at 57%, nearly two to one, deeply unpopular as they try to cover for Donald Trump. All they've done so far is covered for Donald Trump, and it is not playing well. Anyone who criticizes Donald Trump, Francis Rooney in Pennsylvania, Republican congressman, right winger, came out and said, yeah, look, man, probably impeachment. And then he said, I reside.

Okay, because they're like, look, our primary voters love Donald Trump, and they don't care how much of a criminal he is, but in general election, we have no chance of winning. Yet the Democrats are like, how do we give this away? How do we give this away? How do we fumble it away, right? But it looks like McConnell's not going to let them fumble it away, because McConnell's own poll number is at 36% in Kentucky. Bad.

Nah, nah, nah, nah. Look, I'm not saying McConnell's gonna lose, because I never underestimate Chuck Schumer's ability to blow any election. He's in the middle of trying to blow that election in Kentucky right now. But any decent Democrat should pulverize Mitch McConnell in Kentucky. If you're an incumbent, this is important political context, guys. For an incumbent, historically, the standard is 50%. If you're under 50%, you're in a lot of trouble in your elections.

Incomments should be well above 50%. McConnell's on 36. So the turtle withdrew into his shelf for a long time, right? When the impeachment talk began, normally he comes out guns blazing. Oh, the Democrats are outrageous. This is the most unprecedented abuse of power I've ever seen. He'll do that, right? They're like, hey, Mitch, where are you?

He's like, right, go right back into his shell. Now he's out of his shell, and they're like, are you calling President Trump a liar? You'll have to ask him that. He's, look, McConnell's job is to keep the Senate and also to keep his own seat. His own seat's in trouble, and he's the Senate Majority Leader. Corey Gardner is a goner in Colorado, Susan Collins is a goner in Maine, that's two already, and so many others are in trouble. Now, Joni Ernst in Iowa, in Iowa, is in a total panic.

She's afraid she's going to lose her seat. Martha McSally in Arizona, it was nice knowing you, bye-bye, okay? So with the Senate going and maybe his own seat going, now behind the scenes, the Republican senators are doing calculations. And that's what you just saw there, Trump is in even bigger trouble than he realizes. That's why he's tweeting like a sweaty-tooth madman this morning. Like, oh my God, you should fight Republicans, you gotta stick together. The Democrats are so vicious, hilarious.

But what he's panicked about is not Nancy Pelosi. He's panicked about Mitch McConnell. Well, we have more on that when we come back from the break, specifically more on his unhinged, panicky tweets and what he's said in them. So we'll give you that and more when we were... 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 we have to let them.

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In the meantime, enjoy this free section. All right, back on the Young Turks. let's go to the members as usual t yt.com slash join and become a member corn pop's cousin fruit loop writes in that's their handle Trump is invading the country's personal space against their will to get what he wants can't deny this dude stays on brand

UC flyer of charger okay whatever that handle is is it an abuse of executive power for Trump to hold the aid for any reason at all. Isn't it the power of the purse held by Congress, not the executive branch? Yes. Now, there could be legitimate reasons if by the time the money was allocated, but before it was sent, the country has done something in the meanwhile, and it actually affects U.S. interests, not Donald Trump's interest, not any Democrat or Republican interests, but the country's interest. Maybe the executive branch could hold it under those circumstances,

but definitely not under these circumstances. IM SOX says it would be really bad if the White House released a memo of a phone call that corroborated everything Taylor said. Oh, right, they did. So, I mean, they have him eight ways to Sunday. They have them in every conceivable way. This is a prosecutor's dream come true. Normally in cases like this, you wouldn't have anywhere near this much evidence.

It is absolutely overwhelming. coming. So let me read one last one from Twitter, Davey M says, the time is coming when Republicans will not be afraid of a Trump tweet. Well, that's where we are. We're on the razor's edge right now. They're still worried about losing their primaries if Trump tweets about them. But remember, soon we'll be past the primaries.

Once we're past the primaries, the only thing that the Republicans senators have to worry about is the general election. And then bye bye. Let's talk about some Doe. If you are wondering, how do I get started with investing? Doe is a wonderful company, one that we've partnered with. And if you go to Doe.com slash TYT, you can learn more about it. Download the app, it asks you some questions about your personal interests.

And based on how you answer those questions, they give you some suggestions on how you can invest your money. So if you have issues with certain industries, you can obviously make that clear. It's just a great way to invest your money. And it only takes under three minutes to create your account with them. So please check them out. And then finally, Friday's power panel will not be available on YouTube, but it will be available on YouTube TV.

So if you're interested in watching the show on any of these platforms you can. You can watch us on Roku, Zumo, YouTube TV, and Pluto TV. And members can always get it, of course. Yeah. join or slash Anna to sign up. And then you could watch on t.com slash live after you're a member. But check us out on all those platforms. We have a 24 hour television channel including all the shows.

And that obviously includes Anna's no filter. Yeah. All right. So let's move on to the rest of the news. Donald Trump has victimized himself as someone who's being lynched as a result of this impeachment investigation, which of course he's brought on himself by asking a foreign leader to dig up dirt on his political rival. He said this through a tweet. Here's the tweet in question. So someday if a Democrat becomes president and the Republicans win the House, even by a tiny

margin, they can impeach the president without due process or fairness or any legal rights. All Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here, a lynching, but we will win. Okay, I want to say two things here before we get into all the indignation about this that I think is righteous and what Donald Trump has actually advocated for, which is a modern day lynching. I'll get to that, that's very important. First of all, they keep the Republicans talking points, even without the using the word lynching is, how dare they overturn the election by impeaching a president?

This is a coup, it's overturning an election, there's no due process, what are you talking about? There's a constitutional due process that is written in literally into the document about how to do impeachment. They're following that process. You have all the due process in the world. In fact, this is not a criminal case. You need two-thirds to convict in the Senate controlled by the Republicans. I mean, that'd be a dream come true for any actual defendant.

Oh, it'll be stacked by your family and friends, the jury will, and you need to get over two-thirds. So you have all of these processes. If they say that you can't do impeachment under that circumstance, well, that means you can never do impeachment. Well, impeachment by definition removes a sitting president who was duly elected. So it is not a coup, it is a normal constitutional thing. Otherwise, the president can get into office and start shooting people and executing them at

will and go, nope, it's a coup if you try to get rid of me for breaking the law, because this is a normal, you know, you're trying to get rid of a duly elected president. No, this is exactly what you do when a sitting president commits a crime. When he puts himself in the position of a victim, understand what he's doing. No one should ever hold me accountable for my actions. I should be considered above the law. Our system of checks and balances should be thrown out the window. I get to do whatever I want, whenever I want, regardless of how unconstitutional it is,

and there should be absolutely no repercussions. And honestly, up until this point, it appeared that that's the way things were gonna go for him. Democrats had been so incredibly weak, to compare himself and what he's going through, based on what he brought upon himself, you know, to say that it's a lynching, I mean, when you look into what lynchings were and how people were brutalized and dehumanized, it's just disgusting to hear this kind of language. I want to give you two quotes from lawmakers on this, but Jay, go ahead.

Before we get through the quotes, I want to tell you, even though it's deeply uncomfortable what they actually did in the lynching. So they'd grab the person, almost every time the person would be innocent, of course. That doesn't matter. It's just because they were black. And they would sometimes drag them through town. Sometimes, and this is the part that's, well, every part of it is unbelievably disturbing. They'd have a picnic around the murder.

So they would hang the person in different order sometimes, they'd burn the person alive, And then they'd bring their kids and have the picnic around the body. And then as a memento, they would take piece of the charred body home. So that's a real lynching and that's really uncomfortable to hear, but you need to understand what a real lynching is when you hear this jackass talking about, oh, now they're going to hold me accountable like a regular citizen while I'm being lynched. No, Mr. Orange Man, this is not a lynching. So House Majority Whip, Representative Jim Clyburn, said, quote, this is one word that no president

ought to apply to himself. I'm a product of the South. I know the history of that word. This is a word that we ought to be very, very careful about using. And as we know, Donald Trump isn't very, very careful about anything. And he has absolutely no respect for anyone, anyone. And he certainly has no respect for the truth or the history of this country and what certain groups have gone through as a result of the history of this country.

And then finally, I want to give you a tweet from Representative Bobby Rush. He says, quote, you think this impeachment is a lynching? What the hell is wrong with you? Do you know how many people who look like me have been lynched since the inception of this country by people who look like you delete this tweet? Look, I'm gonna give you a quick quote from Allen Green too. He gave an impassion speech today on the floor of the House. He's a Democrat from Texas.

He said, if you continue to weaponize racism and bigotry, this makes you no better than those who are screaming blood and soil, the Jews will not replace us. It makes you no better than them. It makes you no better than those who burn crosses, and it makes you no better than those who wear hoods and white robes. Do you not understand what you're doing to this country? So you say, well, that's pretty heavy words from Mal Green, who says it makes you no better than anyone who wears hoods and white robes.

But let me tell you about a modern day lynching that Donald Trump wanted to do. So, I just told you how bad lynchings are. And so is it right for me to use it in the context of what Donald Trump has done? Well, you be the judge. So when the Central Park 5 were arrested in New York, Donald Trump didn't care about due process. Now he's crying about due process when he's got all the due process in the world. He took out an op-ed, a very expensive op-ed in New York Times that said, bring back the death penalty, bring back our police and he wanted those teens, those kids, all murdered.

And well, it turns out they were innocent, just like in the old days. And 13 years later, they were exonerated. It was not their DNA, it was a DNA of another inmate, and he confessed to the crimes. He was a serial rapist. He had raped that woman in Central Park 5, and in Central Park, and those Central Park 5 kids were blamed for it. Now, after the exoneration, they were let go, obviously, and they won a huge settlement, $41 million. I could argue that it should be more.

They robbed them of all that time of their lives, the most unjust way you could imagine with people like Donald Trump screaming bloody murder saying, kill them, kill them. I mean, that's what an op-ed in the New York Times is, calling for their execution. So after they were exonerated, Donald Trump said, quote, you have people on both sides of that. You have people on both sides of what, you monster? No, he said, well, I mean, look, some say they did it, some say they didn't do it. They were exonerated, it's not their DNA, the other guy confessed and it's his DNA. You have people on both sides of that.

That's what he says every time. When it comes to the issue of race, oh, some people are saying the Jews will not replace us. Well, there's some very fine people on that side. There's people on both sides of it. Some people say that, you know, that the kids were completely innocent, and I say they should have been lynched. There are people on both sides of that, but he's not done. He also said, he even wrote an op-ed in the daily news in 2014, saying my opinion on the settlement

of the Central Park Jogger case is that it's a disgrace. He said the kids shouldn't have been paid at all. They should, and he went on to say, quote, what about other people who were brutalized that night in addition to the jogger? In other words, I don't care that they didn't do it. They probably did something else. Right. Now, why do you think that they did something else?

Oh, because they're brown and black. If this is not a call for a modern day lynching, I don't know what is. And he wasn't done. One more tweet from Donald Trump about it. He said, tell me, what were they doing in the park playing checkers? Well, if they're black and they're brown, I don't care how young they are, I don't care how innocent they are, they must have done something. I mean, black kids playing checkers in the park? Of course not. No, no, no. I don't care they didn't do it. I wanted them lynched. I wanted them executed and murdered after they were exonerated. After they were exonerated. And now this monster of a man, when he's finally being held to account a little bit, says, oh my God, I'm being lynched. Yeah, you'll excuse us if we have no sympathy for you.

completely ignorant of history and one of the worst people that has ever held any office in the history of this country. And yes, a full-blown 100% racist to his core. And if you didn't know it, and you never heard about the Central Part 5 and you never heard anything Donald Trump said, okay, I guess you live in a cave. If you just saw this and you still think Donald Trump's my guy, you are a racist through And through and through, just own it. So now that you guys have the facts on what lynching is and who Donald Trump is, let's go to Republicans in their response to it.

So a number of Republican lawmakers have decided to line up in defense of Donald Trump and his statements regarding how he feels that he is being lynched as a result of this impeachment investigation. Now, what he said was obviously offensive, especially when you understand what lynching is. But with that said, let's go to Lindsay Graham, who never, ever passes up an opportunity to defend Donald Trump. Take a look. So it shows a lot of things about our national media. When it's about Trump, who cares about the process, as long as you get him. So, yeah, this is a lynching in every sense. This is un-American.

So if you know anything about the history of lynching in America, the statements from Donald Trump are so incredibly ridiculous and offensive, and Lindsey Graham has decided he's going to dismiss the history. Take a look. Can you see what a lot of African Americans, though, would be offended by him comparing it to lynching compared to what happened during the Civil Rights and the South? You know, I think lynching has been seen as somebody taking the law in their own hands and out to get somebody for no good reason. Yes, African Americans lynched. Other people have been

lynched throughout history. What does lynching mean? And a mob grabs you. They don't give you a chance to defend yourself. They don't tell you what happened to you. They just destroy you. That's exactly what's going on in the United States House of Representatives right now. Yeah, you'll excuse me if a racist senator from South Carolina explaining to me what lynching is, because his beloved Donald Trump was affected is not persuasive. So look, I'm going to say it again. In lynchings, they would hang people, they would burn people, they would do picnics around the burned body, they would take body parts home as momentous momentos to celebrate how

would they destroy that person's life and they showed it to their kids. So now you say, oh, but the elite, the elite are being held to account for. for one tiny second. How dare you? Now I'm gonna say my whole party built on racism called the Southern Strategy where we said, hey, remember you racist Dixiecrats who used to vote with the Democratic Party. Don't worry, we're the new racist party. We're the new racist party.

That's what the Southern strategy was, no question about it. That is how guys like Lindsey Graham won their seat in the South. That's how he won in South Carolina by saying, we are the racist party, we are the Republicans, We will stand up for you, rancous. And now he comes around and telling me that Donald Trump is being lynched because somebody might hold that jackass to account for the first time in his life. If we were allowed to, I would say much harsher words about Lindsey Graham and his goddamn party built on a foundation of racism.

It is not just about Donald Trump saying that he was lynched. It is all of these monsters in the Republican Party who defend him. And why do I get so upset? It's not just because of the history of lynching and the fact that we never have an honest conversation about it, everybody's too uncomfortable. You know what else happened in slavery? Rape over and over and over again. African American women in this country were systematically raped by slave owners.

And then we got Rushland, Boston, we had Fox News saying, oh, slavery, it wasn't that big a deal. You remember when Bill O'Reilly said, well, we gave him food and clothing, you monster of monsters. And so now they go around and say, oh, Trump is an anomaly. Well, if he's an anomaly, why is the racist Lindsey Graham defending him? Why is Jim Jordan? Why are all these Republicans defending him? Why is the entire Republican Party on the side of Donald Trump?

Only a couple of guys have broken off, Justin Amash, and then he was tart and feathered and run out of the party. And he's a deep right winger, a crazy right winger. And they're like, how dare you betray Donald Trump? You're no longer in this party. And they're primaring him. All of the Republicans are guilty. Media, god damn it, do your job.

Do your job. No, no, no, no, no. I can't say Republicans are guilty. 95% of Republican voters support Donald Trump, even though they know all of these horrible things. But no, the media won't say it. I might lose audience, I might lose ratings, I might lose access. Oh my God, oh no, the Republicans aren't guilty. They're not guilty, they are guilty.

They are guilty, they're all on his side right now. Later, they will turn on Donald Trump when they're not. afraid of losing their own seats. And then all the mainstream media, hear me now, quote me later. All of them will turn around and go, oh, bravo Republicans. Such courage, they'll say. You see, we told you Trump was an anomaly. He is not an anomaly.

The entire party is based on a foundation of racism. That is an absolute fact proof today. Later, the mainstream media will try to whitewash it. You'd be nuts to ever vote for a Republican. So let's give you another example. Here's Jim Jordan. The other thing is that this morning, the president was very critical of this investigation. We refer to it as a lynching. Is that appropriate? The president's frustrated. I mean, if you had to go through the three years that the president's had to live through,

I think just as an example of the frustration the president feels. Remember, this all started even before he got elected. Going through that and now this ridiculous charade that the Democrats are putting him through, you can understand why the president's frustrating. No, I cannot understand it. Cannot Jim Jordan, you goddamn racist. I hope you're driven from Washington, I hope you never want to win another election. And anybody who votes for Jim Jordan backing a racist like Donald Trump putting his lot in

with him, well, you're putting in your lot with these scumbags, these monsters who go around and abuse facts, abuse our laws, and then come around and add insult to injury by telling us. They're the victims. They're the victims of a lynching. Please spare me. The entire party is filled with grotesque monsters. No, here on this show, we actually tell you the truth, or almost the only outlet in media who actually does, yes, obviously I have an opinion. I don't know if you could tell, right? But we actually give you the facts first. And so what is the fact? What is the fact? Does the entire Republican Party support Donald Trump or Donald? don't they?

They do. Almost all the politicians, you, I'll name you the exceptions, Justin Amosch was an exception. Now Mitt Romney's thinking about becoming an exception, right? But every other Republican national politician supports Donald Trump through all the monstrous things he has done. 95% of Republican voters, hey, you say, hey, some polls is 89%. Fine, they all support Donald Trump. I'm giving you facts.

Later, when the mainstream media says to you, oh, he was an executive. exception, and he doesn't represent the Republican Party, they will be lying. They will be lying on behalf of Donald Trump. They might do it in a very calm way. They might say, oh, yes, I'm reading a television prompter. I'm a news actor reading that prompter that a producer read should put on there to be neutral, neutral to the facts, neutral to the reality, not objective, not objective. Objectively, the entire Republican Party loves what Donald Trump is doing.

They stand firmly behind them. But later, they will change history. And they will say, no, no, no, the Republicans are wonderful. I can't tell the difference between a Republican and Democrat. And eventually, they all voted against them, they'll say. No, no, no, no. You see what's happening today. That's the face of the Republican Party.

All right, we got to take a break. We will be right back. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work. access members, only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.co slash TYT. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.