The Young Turks - Trump Begging To Be Impeached

Episode Date: September 21, 2019

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Trump threatened the Ukrainian government to get dirt on Joe Biden's son. Ana Kasparian, Adrienne Lawrence, and Maz Jobrani, 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. What's up, everyone? Welcome to the Young Turks.

It's Friday, which means it's time to do. drop our super old school outdated power panel. As power panel time, Mahz Jabrani. How are, Anna? Great, I'm great, Adrian Lawrence. Hello. I'm loving today's show. Look, there are all sorts of stories that I'm looking forward to covering, but the absolute

Best story has to do with climate change and the fact that we have all these young activists in more than 150 countries getting active, demanding change, demanding aggressive action by our politicians. We're gonna get to that later in the show. We sent Emma Vigland to the demonstrations in New York, John Ida Rola, to the protests in L.A. We have lots of great video to share with you guys. And of course, we're gonna cover some of the updates to the whistleblower complaint that that we gave you some details about yesterday.

That story has developed and it is insane. But before we get to all of that, just wanted to see how you guys are doing? You guys excited? I'm excited. There's so much to cover. Life is good, you know, a lot to talk about. Yeah, it seems like there's something every day, every day, no matter what angle, no matter what you're concerned, there's something.

Yeah, and it's Friday, which means as soon as we're done with the show, approximately 58 stories will break. Exactly. Well, I've been trying to, I've been working on projects. So what happens is you take a few hours to write something or be with your kids, be with your kids, be with your kids. And then you turn it on and they go, something else just happened. Exactly. I mean, this week alone, there was fear that we're going to invade Iran.

Yes. I mean, that feels like an old school story at this point. Yes, but this time at least we were locked and loaded, not cocked and loaded. Remember last time? Yes, I do. But also we have to think about we're so busy that the whole UFO stuff that came out that said, you know, where the government said it was legit, that there was. a UFO sighting and all this other stuff, that doesn't even really get play. Doesn't make any news, yeah.

No. And Stallone's coming out with First Blood 10, something like that today? Okay. So there's a lot going on in the world. That's a pretty big story. That's a big story. That's a big story. Yeah.

All right, well, let's get to an actual big story. And it has to do with what we reported on yesterday, the whistleblower complaint. We have a little more information regarding the whistleblower complaint that was filed against Donald Trump and a conversation he had with a foreign leader where he allegedly made some sort of promise. Now the whistleblower who has not been identified is part of the intelligence community. And this individual found the phone call troubling enough and the alleged promise troubling enough to file a formal whistleblower complaint.

Now after that was done, there's been a lot of back and forth about whether or not the director of national intelligence did the right thing in withholding details of this complaint from congressional lawmakers. But today we found out that Ukraine is involved, allegedly involved. We still don't know too many specifics about what happened in these exchanges between Donald Trump and the leader of Ukraine. But I do want to give you some of the details we do know so far. So two and a half weeks before the complaint was filed, Trump spoke with the Ukrainian president,

a comedian and political newcomer who was elected in a landslide in May. Now that call is already under investigation by House Democrats, according to the Washington Post, who are examining whether Trump and his attorney, Rudy Giuliani, sought to manipulate the Ukrainian government into helping Trump's reelection campaign. Lawmakers have demanded a full transcript and a list of participants on the call. Now, after this story broke by the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal broke a story indicating that on at least eight separate occasions, Donald Trump pressured the Ukrainian government to conduct some sort of investigation into Joe Biden's son.

Now, Joe Biden's son was employed as a board member for an oil company in Ukraine. And so it appears, based on reporting right now, that Trump was looking to get some help from Ukraine to find dirt or dig up dirt on Joe Biden's son. And remember, Donald Trump is seeking reelection, so this is not something that you should be doing. This is illegal, you shouldn't be working with foreign governments to help you in your campaign. So Trump in a July phone call repeatedly pressured the president of Ukraine to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's son, urging the president about eight times

to work with Rudy Giuliani, his personal lawyer on the probe. So I'm gonna go to a timeline to kind of help people really understand and visualize how this all went down. But I do want to get your thoughts before we go to that video. Well, I mean, he's done it before. He sought the Russians help to win the first election. So now he's just moving over to Ukraine to get help. I think it'll be really funny if we found out that the whistleblower was Melania.

And you know what I'm saying? She's just trying to try to get him out of there or something, you know, like- I really I really want my husband to be best. Please get them out. So. No, but it's, you know what I found also very troubling was before we found out it was Ukraine, there was a list going around. And because this guy really functions, he's, you know, a lot of people said we want an outsider,

we want someone without experience, but you start to see what someone without experience does. They talk to other governments, revealing secrets sometimes, asking for favors sometimes, and The list included, I remember people were saying it could have, before we knew it was Ukraine, and we still don't know for sure, but they were saying it could be Ukraine, could be Israel, could be North Korea, could be Russia. We don't know who he gave some information to. He's been talking to illicitly. So that shows you that this guy really doesn't know what he's doing.

Yeah, I mean, so I agree with you to some extent. I think it's a mixed bag. I think that he either doesn't know what he's doing in some cases or he knows exactly what he's doing, but might not know that he's breaking the law. which is not an excuse. But in this case, I mean, after that lengthy Mueller investigation, he knows that working with a foreign country to help benefit your campaign is unlawful. That was the whole point of the investigation.

So again, look, this stuff is not, in my mind, it's not confirmed yet. We don't know the extent to which an alleged deal was made. What we do know is that there are individuals who are informed on what's going on by behind the scenes and they're speaking to the press about this investigation. At the same time, remember, congressional lawmakers still don't have the details of that whistleblower report. The director of national intelligence has decided that he doesn't want to share this information with Congress.

His name is Joseph McGuire, and he alleges that he spoke to the Justice Department, the same justice department under William Barr, who likes to protect Donald Trump, and they informed him that he doesn't need to go and speak to Congress about the whistleblower complaint. Okay, but the inspector general is very much concerned, and he is the one who has kind of come forward to tell congressional lawmakers what's really going on, right? So the whole issue here is, did Donald Trump tell Ukrainian politicians that he would withhold foreign aid from the country unless they did an investigation into Joe Biden's son? That is what the allegation is here.

And to help you understand the timeline of how this all allegedly went down, let's take a look at this next video. It's Alison Camerata explaining everything in detail. Giuliani and President Trump spoke with the Ukrainians. The president threatened to withhold $250 million in military aid to Ukraine. Weeks later, three House committees launched investigations into whether the president and Giuliani were pressuring the Ukrainians to help Mr. Trump's reelection can't. campaign. A few days after that, the Trump administration abandoned the effort to withhold

military aid. And now, CNN has learned the White House and Justice Department advised the intelligence chief to withhold the whistleblowers complaint from Congress. So the House Democrats, specifically individuals in the House Intelligence Committee, are moving forward with the investigation. They want to know exactly what that whistleblower report contained. But at the same time, I mean, there are so many investigations being done on Donald Trump. And it just feels like nothing ever gets anywhere because they're unwilling to take it to the next step.

And I think that's absolutely right. And kind of just to build off what you were saying earlier, I think Donald Trump knows what he's doing. It's a fact that we won't hold him accountable. He also knows that nothing's going to happen. So why not continue to break the law? And we see this kind of relationship he's built with Russia. And we know that Russia and Ukraine have had strained relationships to begin.

with, so to be able to, you know, join forces and bully up and let me see if I can strong arm Ukraine by withholding aid. And who knows what else he told Ukraine's president in that call. But we know that he doesn't see any ramifications because we've given him no reason to think there will be any ramifications or consequences for his behavior. Yeah, and he's also had, I guess this week, there was a couple of appeals of they were trying to get his taxes, he appealed that. He's, you know, if he's got deep pockets and he keep appealing stuff, it's gonna be, it

It will take some in the Republican Party to open their eyes and go, and I don't know if it's ever going to happen, but for them to go, wait a minute, this is actually, it is an attack on America and American democracy. Because really what he's doing is by playing this game, making a call and telling another guy to strong arm his own government to make, to investigate something, it's just basically, it is the playbook of a dictator, right? So it is gonna take someone in the Republican Party or something to happen that's undeniable. I mean, this is just an open, it's, they're doing it in the open, right?

They are doing it in the open. And he is, to Adrian's point, he's definitely emboldened by the fact that he hasn't been held accountable at all by the Democratic Party. They're incredibly weak, Nancy Pelosi specifically, who refuses to even open an impeachment inquiry, right? And so some people might argue, oh, you know, all this nonsense about Russia, what's the point? of this, it's not gonna go anywhere, but it's not just about Russia, okay? These are new allegations that aren't even related to Russia, this is about Ukraine and potentially

having a US president try to dig up dirt about his political opponent for his reelection campaign using a foreign government, that's illegal, he's not supposed to do that. But there's also a litany of other issues, including the obstruction of justice, which again, if you read the Mueller report, is clearly outlined in that report. There's the fact that he used this charitable foundation to enrich himself. There's so many different, the hush money payments, but it doesn't matter. There's nothing in my mind that would, even if it's clear cut, it's obvious, the evidence is right in front of you.

There is nothing that will push Democratic leadership to have the courage to do the right thing. And that's pathetic. And the same goes for Republicans. Republicans are protecting their tribe, they're protecting Trump, and they refuse to hold them accountable because they're worried about their own political careers. Every Republican politician who has spoken out against Trump has paid a political price for that. So it's about the party, it's about the Republican voters and what they're complicit in. And it's really pathetic and sad.

One thing I wanted to clarify though is Michael Atkinson, who is the inspector general. He answered some questions by members of Congress. And while he says that it is not his right to share the details of the- report, the one thing that he did tell them is that it wasn't one call. So Michael Atkinson actually said that there were several conversations between Donald Trump and the leader of Ukraine, however, he can't get into the details of all of those calls or what the inspector, I'm sorry, or what the whistleblowers report said. Now Donald Trump though has been asked some questions about this and let's take a look at

what he has to say. It's a partisan whistleblower. They shouldn't even have information. I've had conversations with many leaders that are always appropriate. On that point, did you discuss Joe Biden, his son or his family with the leader? It doesn't matter what I discussed, but I will say this. Somebody ought to look into Joe Biden's statement because it was disgraceful where he talked about billions of dollars that he's not giving to a certain country unless a certain prosecutor has taken off the case. So somebody ought to look into that, and you wouldn't because he's a Democrat.

I don't know the identity of the whistleblower. I just hear it say partisan person, meaning it comes out from another party. Is he and Joe Biden during the conversation? I don't want to talk about any conversation. So what he's referring to is a prosecutor who was looking into the oil company that Joe Biden's son was working at. And this prosecutor was so corrupt that politicians in Ukraine voted him out. And the government of Ukraine looked into these allegations against Joe Biden's son, alleging, you know, there might have been a conflict of interest when it came to this prosecutor.

And they actually cleared him of it. So Donald Trump, let's not allow Republicans and specifically Donald Trump to distract us from what the heart of this issue is. It is not Joe Biden, someone who I have no love for, by the way. It has everything to do with the fact that he could be working with a foreign government to dig up dirt on his political opponent, which is illegal, it is a crime. He was investigated for that in the context of the Russia investigation. This is the country we're living in, right?

First of all, he looked horrible. When doesn't he? Well, presidency is supposed to aid you, but I mean, he's just like, I mean, he looked horrible. Yeah, there wasn't much to the start. I'm not that pretty, but I mean, he just looks, he looks worse than, I mean, that's, I don't know, he looks guilty, he looks guilty, he looks guilty and stressed. He looks like he's using my foundation.

Okay? But I'll tell you what- The color is not right. The thing with what you were just saying about what he brought up, I was just hearing somebody analyzed the fact that I guess Biden in some speech referenced that whole, the investigation from the Ukrainian prosecutor. And I guess that's circulating now amongst a lot of conservatives saying, look, Biden's admitting to this. So basically it's a conspiracy, they've taken that, turn it into a conspiracy theory.

And he's trying to deflect yet again. And they're going into, there was a congressman who is. saying, oh, this sounds like another one of those deep state type things. You know, the thing about the deep state and the crooked media and the fake news, all this stuff, all right, let's say there is at some point someone's out to get you. Maybe someone's not on your side, maybe you see that. But if every time you do something that does not seem right and you go, no, no, it's not me, it's them.

Every time someone criticize, as a comedian, I'm a comedian. If every time people keep criticizing me, I go, well, they're obviously on Kevin Hart's payroll, they're trying to get me, obviously. I mean, it's like, at some point you got to sit there and go, we've done something wrong. And he never does that. I know that's politics, you're not supposed to, but this guy's never at one point just said, look, I was wrong or I'm wrong, or maybe this is wrong, or he just deflects and moves on.

And he also, he self-incriminates all the time on Twitter. I mean, his Twitter storm just last night, I woke up and it was like, nothing but defense angry tweets, which make him look even more guilty, right? So again, we need to know more detail as to what took place during those multiple conversations. We need to have some confirmation that he was trying to work with a foreign government to dig up dirt on a political opponent. Again, none of this stuff is really verified yet. But what I do know is that even if it is verified, what's happened time and time again is

he hasn't faced any consequences for it. So, I mean, can you imagine how brazen you need to be to undergo the kind of investigation he just went through with Mueller and then turn around and do the exact same thing that you were accused of with Russia? This is such the life he leads. And a lot of Americans of privilege leave this exact same life, where they continue to gauge in this behavior. And we've recently seen that with the Me Too movement, where we find out that litanies

of women have come against these men and brought all the evidence, and they are still in their jobs in position. Trump is just reflective of the fact that our society does not hold certain individuals accountable, but lets them stay in their position regardless of whether they're following the rules, the law, what may have you. And we have an accountability problem, and that's it. Absolutely. And I think he placed the call, like, just a few days after the Mueller report.

I mean, it's, he didn't even give it a moment to breathe. See, he doesn't even have to try to hide. That's how egregious our system is. I keep saying he's kind of like the American Omar Gaddafi. He had so many yes people around him that he just hadn't heard no in a long time. This guy was born into privilege, has heard yes his whole life. And so like you said, he just keeps repeating whatever, even if somebody says to him. I mean, there should be somebody there that goes, listen, there's got to be, if you really

want to try and get this message to the Ukrainian guy, there's got to be another way to do it. You shouldn't be doing it. Yeah, well, he'll ask that person to resign. Yeah. Remember? Like he surrounds himself with yes, man. And there is a price to pay when you do that. Because you have no one challenging you, and you're going to slip up.

And we all know Donald Trump is messy as hell. Yeah. Yeah. So there's one other part of this story that I want to do quickly. There isn't much to say about it other than why do people allow Rudy Giuliani on television? I'm not talking about cable news, I'm specifically talking about people who are on his side. Anyway, so let's get to that story. Rudy Giuliani went on Cuomo prime time in order to respond to some of the accusations against Donald Trump.

There's a big story involving a whistleblower who filed a formal complaint about a phone conversation that Trump allegedly had with a foreign leader. And in that conversation, he allegedly made a troubling promise to a foreign leader. The Washington Post later updated the story, and it indicated that on multiple occasions, Donald Trump allegedly pressured the Ukrainian government to dig up some dirt on Joe Biden's son, who was on the board of a gas company in the country. Now, with that said, Giuliani goes on Cuomo's show to defend himself, defend Trump. Giuliani was allegedly part of this investigation that Trump was allegedly pushing for.

And I keep saying that because, again, we don't know all the details of what happened during these communications. But nonetheless, here's Giuliani attempting to defend himself. But if you have two brains cells to rub together, you can see what's going on here. take a look. Did you ask the Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden? No, actually I didn't. I asked the Ukraine to investigate the allegations that there was interference in the election of 2016 by the Ukrainians for the benefit of Hillary Clinton, for which there already is a court finding. You never asked anything about Hunter Biden. You never asked anything about Joe Biden. The only thing I asked about Joe Biden is to get to the bottom of how it was that Lutsenko,

who was appointed, dismissed the case against anti. So you did ask Ukraine. to look into Joe Biden? Of course I did. You just said you didn't. No, I didn't ask him to look into Joe Biden. I asked him to look at the allegations that related to my client. I mean, that interview went on for about 30 minutes. So he just said two different things in that short clip that we showed you.

He admitted to working with the Ukrainians to dig up dirt on Joe Biden. And then as soon as he was asked that follow up, he immediately changed course. That's such an SNL sketch just waiting to happen, right? That was amazing. That, oh, I thought you were talking about another Joe Biden, not that Joe Biden. But what's crazy is that he, is there some things, I don't know about this. Is there accusations that Ukraine interfered on behalf of Hillary and Russia, or is he just throwing that out as another thing?

It's a form, it's a way to deflect. It's a way to distract from the heart of this conversation. He made all sorts of crazy conspiratorial claims throughout that 30 minute long interview. Yeah, and the thing that gets me, too, is like, you know, I don't really talk about the things I do on behalf of my client or at the direction of my client, because generally that's attorney-client privilege, so I think that's really interesting that Rudy Giuliani, as a personal attorney for Trump is out here on CNN, talking about the things he did at the direction of his client, but that's between them. But also, too, you know, it just seems Giuliani, he was such a good lawyer at one point in time. Now, I don't really know what's going on, but at some point, it just, it has to be wrong to have him on because clearly he's incriminating himself. engaging in all sorts of shenanigans. And I understand that there will be no, you know, ramifications or consequences at all. But at some point, it's just got to be like elder abuse. It just seems wrong.

Yeah, look, I mean, he wants to go on. He wants to, you know, share his piece. I love that he incriminates himself. What I don't love is that there's no follow up after that. And so we'll see how this all plays out. We'll update you guys on the story. But in the meantime, we're going to take a break. And when we come back, we are going to cover, in my opinion, the best story of the day, the climate protests throughout the world.

We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-F-The Republic or UNFTR. As a Young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations are constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the rich and powerful. But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the conventional wisdom. In each episode of Un-B-The-Republic, or UNFTR, the host delves into a different historical 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. Welcome back to TYT, Anna, Maas, and Adrian with you.

I want to do some quick live read, some announcements. So Friday Power Panel, as you guys know, we're trying to do our show on different platforms. So our Friday power panels are a little different. We are going to air on Pluto TV, Zumo, the Roku channel, and YouTube TV. But we won't be on YouTube next Friday. We're not on YouTube this Friday either. We're just trying to diversify and try different platforms out.

So please check us out on some of those platforms that I mentioned. Also, a quick announcement about some political stuff going on. So on Sunday, September 22nd, Jank Yugar will join Morgan Harper. for a fundraiser in Los Angeles. She's running for Congress's, she's running for Congress in Ohio's third district. This is an incredibly important election. It's incredibly important that we get more Justice Democrats elected, so we have a progressive caucus and we're able to accomplish some of these policies that we want to accomplish.

Look, guys, we can't accomplish all these wonderful policies that we're hearing from candidates like Bernie Sanders unless we have the congressional. power to do it. So please get involved. If you're interested, you can join by going to Rush Street in Culver City this Sunday at 7.30 p.m. You can RSVP at t-y-t.m. M-H-4-O-H-O-H. So obviously Morgan Harper for Ohio.org. All right, t-y-t.mh-4-oh-H.org. All right. And then finally, Rokana will be on the conversation. So tune into that. Monday, September 23rd is the date. And of course, as always, the conversation starts at 5 p.m. Pacific, 8 p.m. Eastern. Okay, so let's get to my favorite story, super inspiring.

Young activists from more than 150 countries have decided to skip school and take to the streets in order to demand more aggressive policy from lawmakers pertaining to climate change. I love this, especially when you look at the demographics, you see how young they are. According to the Washington Post in London, thousands marched past 10 Downing Street and the Houses of Parliament, some holding aloft signs that read, winter is not coming, and I'm taking time out of my lessons to teach you. I love that salty last one, that's really good. Martha Lickman, a 13-year-old Londoner, clutched a sign that read, oceans are rising, and so

are we. And just seeing this type of activism from young people really fires me up. We sent John Ida Rola and Emma Viglin to some of these demonstrations. Emma's in New York, John is in Los Angeles. Let's start off with Emma in New York and see what some of these activists had to say. It shouldn't have to take us all together screaming, screaming for climate change for us to help our world. You know, like this should be normal. I am eternally frustrated with the decisions that our lawmakers are making because it is putting us, our lives, our children's lives, and our grandchildren's lives at risk.

and they can't see that because they're old. And as like a young person, and we're all relatively young people, we know this is the one chance we have before we're gone. Our planet is dying, and we are doing nothing to save it. We need to march just help save our planet. All the adults are helping us with our future, like going to college and stuff, but there's no point if there's not going to be an earth for us to, like, stay yet. We got to, like, keep this Earth, otherwise there's nothing for us to fight for.

I really want to have kids one day, and I don't. think morally, ethically I could bring a human into the world knowing that this is going to happen. I want to live past 25 on an earth that's inhabitable. That's true. Yeah? Yeah. You're down for living past 25? Yeah, just a little bit. Don't destroy your planet. We want to invade it. The world is changing and not in a good way. We need to save our world. I love this And I'm really curious to see how right-wing media covers these demonstrations, or if they even cover it at all. Because oftentimes when they do, they try to make these activists look as though they have no idea what they're talking about. They just want to skip school.

But these are incredibly smart kids. And they know what's at stake. And it's just so great to see them. I mean, the numbers are insane. Yes, absolutely. And they have every reason and right to be upset because we all are thinking this as well in terms of, well, are we going to have kids? They're saying 2050 is the cutoff in terms of actual life and being able to survive. And whether you know that or not, is it right to bring a child into this world?

There are so many factors and things going on right now with the climate. And the reality is it's not necessarily that they're just old in terms of the decision makers. It's that they're greedy. And they're looking for ways to fill their coffers as opposed to ways to keep us all alive. And having these young kids out here, man, I was on a playground or I was hanging out with my friends when I was a kid. These kids are out here trying to save us. They should be able to live their lives, but the reality is they may not have anything to live for. Yeah, right, when we will have the headline will say, you know, smart-ass kids talk back or something, right?

Paid child actors. But you know how they like that one. I really hope, I got young kids. I feel that my kids are way further advanced than I am in their thought process, and I hope we can learn from them. The one thing that I'm a little worried about is I remember as a kid in the early 80s, we were writing letters to President Reagan asking him to stop the nuclear race. And it feels like we've come full circle and you got a guy now like Trump who's like saying, can we nuke storms and stuff.

I mean, it's crazy, right? Or even like gun violence, I did my college thesis on it. That was 20 years ago. And here we are, we're still in the same situation, if not worse. And so I hope that what these kids are doing actually has an effect. I wish as a society we could maybe reframe our energies. My kids play a lot of sports, which is good. They play club sports.

But what about like instead of club soccer, what if you had like club climate change protesting or something? You know what if every week? Like a political activism class? Every week, you're like, we're gonna go, we're gonna go protest. Yeah. You know? That's kind of cool.

And I wish kids at a younger age could actually vote. I think then we might get some progressive things happening, but unfortunately they can't. Well, I'm so glad you mentioned that because a lot of them are underage. They're not old enough to vote, so that's a great point. But there was a report I was watching on TV where a reporter on the ground asked how many of you here are old enough to vote and a lot of people raise their hands. And so people are fired up and I hope that these are the types of issues that encourage people to go to the polls and vote for the right candidate who has the right plan.

plan in place. Now with that said, John Ida Rola went to the demonstrations in Los Angeles and spoke to some of those demonstrators about which candidate they felt was the best in helping to combat climate change. Take a look. On the Democratic side, we had that climate town hall, some of them have plans. Who do you trust on this issue? Well, obviously you trust Bernie.

That's my answer. Any of the other? Oh yeah, Warren. I mean, I trust them all to some degree, less so with the more moderates Delaney and so. forth, but, but, and Biden. Whether it's a Democrat or Republican who gets, gets in the office next time, please just address the issue. I've been following Bernie since the last election, so yeah, I'm still a Bernie, Bernie fan.

Any of the others or is it, is it Bernie all the way on this? I also like Elizabeth Warren, but I think definitely Bernie is on the top of my list. If you look at the most recent debates, that it was one of the biggest topics, if not the biggest topic and past debates, probably in the past like 10 years. Yeah. Anyone stand out? I mean, I just like the way that Bernie Sanders handles everything because he's very clear cut. He's to the point, it's very simple language. Yeah. It's not a lot of like political hoopla. So one of the reasons why John kept asking any other candidates is because he kept interviewing people who mentioned Bernie. Yes. And he wanted some diversity in

the answers and had a tough time getting it. So we didn't cut out interviews where where people were endorsing other candidates, it's just he didn't run, or come across people who wanted other candidates, or mentioned other candidates, I should say. Well, it's good that every one of them, it's on their agenda, and it's again horrific when we see Trump say things like, I'm the best for the environment, I love the environment, I'm gonna roll back the California regulations, and he's, you know, bigger cars are better for the environment, because then you're safer and if you get hit, I mean, the stuff he puts out there is totally nonsensical.

So the big news is we have moved, at least, to the point where every candidate on the Democratic side knows that this is an issue that we have to prioritize. It's actually kind of pathetic because every candidate will acknowledge it. But in terms of action and a plan put forward to actually combat this, I mean, you have one candidate that has the most robust plan in place, right? And that is Bernie Sanders with the Green New Deal. And that's probably the reason why these activists mentioned him. as the candidate they prefer. Yeah, and it makes sense that, you know, and the population that comes out there

and is more willing to speak up would be Bernie followers, because as you mentioned, he has the most robust plan. The thing is, it's like, as you also mention, the fact that somebody needs to do something. And unfortunately, I find that the moderate candidates are the candidates that are more aligned with corporations, that's the big problem we have here,

is trying to keep them happy yet keep the earth sustained. That's not how it's going to work. You need someone who's willing to check these corporations and stand up to them, And that's really Sanders or Warren, that's no one else. And of course, that's probably why large corporations in mainstream media despise those two. Well, I want to move on to a different angle to this story because the activists, of course, are front and center. They're the most important.

But there were some great speeches by public figures, and I want to share those with you. So during the demonstrations in more than 150 countries to raise awareness and demand aggressive action against climate change, There were some speeches by individuals like Jane Fonda and Greta Toonberg that I really think is important for you guys to hear. I'm going to start off with Jane Fonda. She was in Los Angeles. John Ida Rola was there to report from the ground. And here is a part of her speech. This is going to take an all-out war on drilling, on fracking, on deregulation, and racism and misogyny.

And colonialism and despair. Register to vote. Get everyone you know registered. Beware of candidates who favor cautious moderate approaches. It's too late for that. If we'd started 30 years ago when everybody who has the oil extractions knew, if we'd started then, it wouldn't have to be so radical. But now our house is on fire, as Greta Toonberg says, and we have to act accordingly and vote for candidates who understand why the scope of the Green New Deal is required.

So one of our producers who was there with John said that her speech was so powerful that it brought tears to her eyes. Wow. So I love seeing people who, look, I mean, I'm not saying this to insult her age, but I love seeing older, wealthy people. people get involved in this fight, and it's genuine, it's sincere, it's not a, it's not due to political motivation, she's not running for president, she's not doing this for political gain, she's doing it because she cares. And hopefully it whips other people into shape, so they realize, hey, this is a serious issue.

Yeah, she's always been politically active. There was a great documentary on HBO about her, so I would hope people will watch it. I think it's a four-part series, and you watch it, you realize, wow, even at the, at the top of her fame, she was putting it on the line. Kind of like Muhammad Ali has and Colin Kaepernick now, you know, there are some people who at the top of their game are willing to speak out. And I have utmost respect for those people because I feel like what's the point of having fame or being an artist if you're not saying anything? Yeah, like Shailene Woodley, she was arrested at Standing Rock because she felt that it was important to take part in those demonstrations.

It's like, I have so much respect for her. She was in custody as a result of her political activism. So I have a lot of admiration for people who do that. Absolutely. And Jane Fonda, something I can definitely speak to, being a part of the women's media center. You know, she's one of the founding partners with Gloria Steinem and also Robin Morgan that focuses on elevating the voice of women in media. Again, at her age, as someone who's been in the game for a long time and has made, you know,

considerable wealth. She could quit that stuff. She doesn't have to raise awareness to issues that are important to her. But she's out there in L.A. in the heat, yelling at the top of her lungs, getting it done. And it's a beautiful thing because she's using her voice to draw attention to issues that need to be brought attention to. She is using her privilege and she is executing beautifully. And that's something we should all be grateful for. It's just, it's incredible.

Well, one other incredible aspect of this was Greta Toonberg's speech. She spoke in New York and we're going to show you a snippet of that. Take a look. We have not taken to the streets sacrificing our education for the adults and politicians to take selfies with us and tell us that they really, really admire what we do. We are doing this to wake the leaders up. We are doing this to get them to act. We deserve a safe future. And we demand a safe future. Is that really too much to ask?

Right now, we are the ones who are making a difference. If no one else will take action, then we will. Oh, God, it gets me emotional. It's incredible. And, you know, there's a lot of downsides to the Internet of I know firsthand, but one of the best parts of it is that there are no gatekeepers of information, right? So young people are so much more informed these days because they have all the information at their fingertips. And think about how much education, public education gets defunded, how much it gets money. because of, you know, political parties who don't want teachers to teach kids about the reality

of what's really going on, or even the reality of American history. So to know that that information is out there, it's democratized, and people can really inform themselves about the reality of our environment, about our politics, our history is so important. I love watching that. It gave me chills down my spine. Yeah. And I do hope, like you were saying, I mean, the hope is that there are people seeing

this, they could see that there is this movement, I mean, obviously we keep, it feels like they keep denying it, right? If they are on the side of the corporations and they're on the right, they just keep denying it and they keep saying, no, they're saying these kids don't know what they're talking about or what have you, but I guess I don't know what it takes, I don't know how many people it takes to be in the streets for them to finally do something, but, you know. Well, here's what I think makes a difference. political pressure in the form of primary candidates who, and I say primaring because we don't

have time for weak Democrats, right? So I know that some of these activists are too young to vote. However, if you do have the ability to vote, support a primary candidate who wants to do something or pass aggressive legislation to combat climate change. You know, I think that far too often incumbents get reelected because people aren't paying attention. We have a lot more political capital than we even realize. And it's time that we flex that muscle and hold people accountable.

Yeah. All right. So let's take a break. When we come back, we're going to switch gears and talk about other news, including Megan McCain walking off the set of the view. Joroms. We'll be right. At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control

of our online lives, constantly monitoring us, and stories. and selling our data, but that doesn't mean we have to let them. It's possible to stay anonymous online and hide your data from the prying eyes of big tech. And one of the best ways is with ExpressVPN. ExpressVPN hides your IP address, making your active ID more difficult to trace and sell the advertisers. ExpressVPN also encrypts 100% of your network data to protect you from eavesdroppers and cyber criminals. And it's also easy to install. A single mouse click protects all your devices. But listen, guys, this is important. ExpressVPN is rated number one by CNET and Wired magazine. So take back control of your life online and secure your data with a top VPN

solution available, ExpressVPN. 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.com slash T-YT. Check it out today. We hope you're enjoying this free clip from the Young Turks. If you want to get the whole show and more exclusive content while supporting independent media, become a member at t-y-t.com slash join today. In the meantime, enjoy this free section. Welcome back. I wanted to read a few member comments before we moved on.

Humanity is lost, commented in a way that does not match this person's name or a handle. These kids are amazing. They are paying attention. J.R., no, J. Rocks says every single one of these kids is attached to voting adults. That would never hear the end of voting against, that would never hear the end of voting against those kids' best interests. I love these young humans. Yeah, I hope that they're pressuring their parents to vote the right way.

But we know that, I mean, parents don't necessarily agree with their, the political views of their kids. Like I know that from experience, right? My parents aren't Trump supporters or anything like that, but we have disagreements. Especially nowadays, I think there's a lot of arguments happening at family dinners. Yes, sure. Yeah. Yeah.

Very much so. All right. Vicki says 67 here and we were protesting for more love for Mother Earth when I was young and some changes were made. I love this. I also love the youngs on TYT. You, Jank, the whole crew give me hope that there will be an end to corruption. Thank you for this progressive voice.

Thank you, Vicki. That means a lot to me. Randy Lieb says, Greta is speaking with no prompter or script. She's speaking from the heart. Yeah, she's incredible. All right. And I don't like to ignore the TYT live. So Pai M. Jafari says, watching TYT and Maz Jabrani is in the panel.

The Young Turks, I love you guys even more. All right, you got to be a Persian name. So I think that's probably a cousin or somebody. Thanks, buddy. By the way, I want to off camera because we've got to move on to the rest of the stories. But I want to ask you about Iran a little bit. Yeah, yeah, I got, yeah, sure. What you think about Zareef.

Yeah. Yeah, really curious. Okay, Jeremy 1984 says, am I the only one who sees that the 1800s and 1960s are horrifically gelling or jelling, jelling into the mid-2000s? Yeah, I don't know. I don't know exactly what you mean. Flesh that out a little more for me. Yeah, that's a little.

I mean, the 1960s was like, you know, peace and all that stuff. And now we had this to the protest, protest. Maybe the 1800, did they have climate change protests in the 1800s? I don't know. I wasn't a big actor back then though. No, I know. Yeah, I was not around. All right, well, let's get to some more news, including a nonsensical deal that Trump made.

The Trump administration has made some sort of asylum deal with El Salvador. Now this is something that the Trump administration has been pushing for, and what this deal would essentially do is allow the United States to turn asylum seekers away at the border and direct them for refuge in El Salvador. Now keep in mind that there are people fleeing El Salvador due to crime, however crime has dropped in the country. It's been, it's decreased 50% since last year, but still, we're still seeing asylum seekers from El Salvador today.

Now, U.S. officials describe the deal as an asylum cooperation agreement in the insisting that such an accord does not amount to what is known as a safe third country deal. That term has been stigmatized in Central America in large part because it would be difficult to consider the Northern Triangle region of El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala as a safe haven given that it has among the highest homicide rates in the world. By the way, the asylum seekers that are likely to be sent to El Salvador include individuals from Nicaragua, Cuba, and other nations.

As part of the plan, the United States will help build an asylum system in El Salvador and in other nations in the region, seeking to fund the effort through the United Nations refugee agencies. So I actually think that second part is great, and that's where Trump should be focusing, right? What can we do to solve like the root of the problem? So the root of the problem isn't, oh, people are fleeing violence and coming to the United States, so we need to get rid of them. The violence that they're running from is something that we can help these countries combat

so we don't have these giant groups of asylum seekers coming to the border. But he hasn't done that. I mean, he's pulled foreign aid out of these countries. He's been incredibly punitive toward them if they don't give him exactly what he wants. And that's actually made the crisis of the border worse. So I like that he's at least willing to help build up some of these countries and help fund them so we don't have as much of a crisis as we do. Yeah, no, I think that that's a really good point because essentially if they're fleeing

from this poverty, destruction, murderous environment, and there's no kind of social support system put in place to reduce that, then essentially having that 50% drop and homicide rate will be, you know, for nothing, essentially, because it might even go back to being that way if you are continuing to throw people back into that environment without a safety net or some way to keep them from joining gangs, which was a big problem. in El Salvador, or other things that will really cripple the system even further. So there has to be something there and that investment made. Yeah, and it sounds like from what I read, it's kind of like right now it's just a reshuffling.

You're Guatemala, you go to El Salvador, you're Salvador and you go to Guatemala, which is not a solution. And the unfortunate thing is, it really is an inhumane, some of these solutions are inhumane in that we are privileged to be living here. This guy, Donald Trump, is privileged to have been born here. If you were born elsewhere in one of these countries, his life would be very different. But if you look at the world, not just as a country, but as a human being, we're all part of the same earth, then you try to find humane ways to deal with this.

Yes, the immigration system is broken, but to say I'm gonna turn you back around and send you to another violent place is not the solution either. Exactly. But what you said is part of the solution, which is let's try and build these places up, let's try and build more security in these places. Then you say, okay, yeah, we can send you back to a safe place. But to send these people back to a place that's probably still very unsafe, in my opinion, is not good enough.

It's actually a really a bad idea. Yeah, I totally agree with you. And one thing that I find so fascinating about how the story is being reported and the different groups of people who are going to be diverted now to El Salvador. Like you have Cubans, like Cuban refugees involved in this, right? And I say refugees, but that's not really the right word, asylum seekers, I guess. And remember, we granted amnesty to generations of Cubans. I mean, they, because, hey, they were persecuted through communism and Castro.

You know, we've heard all that propaganda over and over again. And some of them were, right? So I understand, you let them in. I'm not saying that you turn them away, but you have giant voting blocks in Florida consisting of Cubans who loved Donald. Trump, while he is literally turning their own people away, and they'll support that immigration policy because, hey, I got mine. I got mine, right?

So who cares about new waves of Cuban immigrants trying to come in for economic opportunities or asylum? You just reminded me of something that happens in my community, in the Iranian-American community. It really is bothersome to me. There are a lot of Iranians, there's a handful of Iranians who are pro-Trump. Now I sit there, I go, first of all, I go, okay, if you're Republican and it's a fiscal thing, I understand.

But let's call this guy what he is. He is a racist, he is a sexist, he is a bad human being, let's call a spade of spade. And then when he comes and he does this travel ban, where he bans Iranians from coming to America, and it's not terrorists that are coming. It was students that were coming to America who would come here to better themselves. They're already getting crushed under the Iranian government, which is a bad government. It's an oppressive government. Now they can't come here.

And then you've got these people that continue. make excuses for Trump. Of course. The original excuse on the travel ban was, oh, no, it's only 90 days so that he can figure out what's going on and fix it. Well, it's been two years, and I get messages all the time. I got a message just a couple days ago from a lady who said, I've married somebody, I'm an American citizen, he's in Iran, I'm having trouble getting him here, there's families

that are separated, there's people that are separated because, you know, that need medical attention, there's a lot going on, and yet within my own community, there's people, yes, you people, I'm talking to you, you can tweet me if you want, you can tweet me if you want, You can criticize me if you want, but you're supporting Trump and you shouldn't be. And you should stand up for, you should stand up for these people that are immigrants just like you and I were that are trying to come here for a better life. Yes. I can't stand people who take advantage of opportunities and shut the door behind them.

Yes. Makes me sick, honestly. All right, so we gotta get to this fun story. I'm gonna end the first hour with a fun story. So, the ladies at the view. argue quite a bit. As we know, Megan McCain argues the most, and today was no exception. In fact, things got very heated as they were discussing the whistleblower within the intelligence community who filed a formal whistleblower complaint against Donald Trump because he allegedly

made a troublesome promise to a foreign leader. Now, let's set this up for you. Here's how the conversation started to get fiery. I'm talking about sending Rudy Giuliani out to distract this. I'm talking about telling us yesterday that, I don't know, Stephen Miller is actually dating a human being, not uninflatable. To distract us. They do those. I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means. But the alternative is asking if Nancy Pelosi is going to impeach the president over this and we don't even know what happened yet. I'm like, this is insanity. Why are we talking about Nancy Pelosi impeaching that? There's way too much talk about. I'm confused in the sense that so people, you're saying, Megan, that people are against this.

There's a lot of people who are okay with what Julian Assange did, who are not okay with what this, or this, I'm sorry, that are okay with what Julian Assange did and not okay with what this whistleblower did. And who are okay, I'm sorry. There's a lot of people who defend Julian Assange. There's a lot of people in this country. There's a lot of people on the hard left that defend Julian Assange. Well, let's say a lot of them. The left is happy that there's a whistleblower blowing the whistle on Trump. The less is happy about that.

What's saying, though, it's what Julian Assange did in my mind, too. And releasing Hillary Clinton's email. president is being charged with doing, or people are assuming that he did, it's putting people's lives in danger, it's putting our national intelligence, is throwing them completely under the bus for their own time. Isn't, I think Julian Assange is our traitor. Excuse me, maybe I was clumsy in the way that I said. Okay, so if you had a hard time deciphering what was going on, it's okay.

I get it. That was a little difficult to follow. I don't really know what Megan McCain's argument is. I got to be honest, I watched the same video a billion times. I think her disdain for Julian Assange, which by the way, Julian Assange has nothing to do with this latest whistleblower report, nothing to do with it. She's just so stuck on Julian Assange. Her disdain for Julian Assange is spilling over into this new story. And I don't know whether she's in favor of what this whistleblower did or whether she's against it.

It's clear that Abby Huntsman thinks that it's dangerous if a whistleblower, you know, blows the whistle when the president might have made a troublesome. promise to a foreign country? I don't know. But it's just, like, the whole conversation's a mess. Oh, yeah, absolutely. It's like, Magna Cain always just wants to jump into something and create this drama with no substance. Yeah.

And it just, it's almost like having a child in a conversation where that child is that tantrum type, and there's just no value to it. And, like, watching that, that was nonsense, please. Well, it's about to get worse. So, look, I think the producers. that the view knew what they were doing when they included Anna Navarro on that panel. Because Anna Navarro, I don't agree with her on a lot of things. Some things I do agree with her on, but she's fiery and she doesn't hold back.

When you couple that with Megan McCain, who takes everything personally and makes it about her, you're gonna have these moments. And so things immediately devolved. Take a look. Excuse me, maybe I was clumsy in the way that I said it. I'm trying to say that Abby, Abby was, I don't know what you just said. But I said, don't scream at me. I'm two feet away. I'll read it. Let me read it.

Trump has denied doing anything improper. We'll be right back. Later, climate strike. Millions of school kids are staging a worldwide walkout to sound the alarm about a future of environmental devastation. Will it be a wake-up call? So she walked off, she walked off the stage. It was hilarious because the announcer was like, millions of students are a stage and go walkout, and so is Megan McCain. That's what she should have just said.

And it's like just like a child when Anna puts her in her place and says, you know what, that you don't need to yell at me. She gets upset because my God, she can't handle essentially being told that your behavior is not okay. It's just a tantrum. She yelled at Anna Navarro, said, excuse me. And yeah, Anna Navarro is literally two feet away, so don't yell at me. I don't think that that's a rude thing to say. I think it's rude to yell at someone who you're disagreeing with.

Now things get heated in political debate. Like, Jank and I have gotten into debates and it might get fiery, but we never disrespect each other, right? Like I feel safe in disagreeing with him. I feel like I'm not gonna be retaliated against. These debates on the view always devolved because I just feel like Megan McCain makes it about her. It's not about you.

You're discussing a political story that has nothing to do with Assange, it has nothing to do with you, she constantly feels attacked, and I think that that makes for good TV, to be honest with you. It feels like they've had like wine or something, like they've been drinking a lot of shardinac because it does. It gets that, I mean, look at us, we're having a conversation. Yeah. But it doesn't, it's not getting, I mean, it feels to me like you're right, they want that

fiery, they want that battle, you know, and exactly what you just said, which is, I don't even know what her argument was. No, she didn't have one. Because we know she doesn't like Trump, because Trump, you know, has, his, is, is denigrated her father, so is she defending? I don't know, that's the problem. Like, I don't know what her argument is. I don't even think the women on that panel were clear on what her argument was.

And she gets so angry and defensive. And so, look, it adds nothing in terms of substance for a political debate or a conversation. But it's entertaining to watch, so I think the producers know what they're doing in creating so-called good TV. But in terms of discourse and rhetoric and actually pushing an important topic through to the public's to make sure that they're informed about it, this show doesn't do that. Well, it made the news, we're talking about it. So that's why they want this stuff.

It's good for them, like you said. And you don't know, she could actually get some kind of booster or bonus in her contract based on this stuff because essentially it's like the real housewise. People will watch it as long as you're acting up. So I bring this all up to just make sure that you guys remember that the New York Times wrote a piece, a profile on the view, referring to the view as this country's most important political talk show. That's what they did.

I got paid. So I'm gonna leave this story with the final video. We don't even have to come back to the panel. I just want you guys to take a little gander at what the audience look like as Megan McCain was walking off the stage. That does it for hour one. Thank you to Maj Gibrani and Adrian Lawrence. Brooke Thomas is next.

Enjoy hour two and this next video. The school kids are staging a worldwide walkout to sound the alarm about a future of environmental devastation. Will it be a wake-up call or a waste of time? 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.