The Young Turks - Trump Refuses Border Wall Negotiations And Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez DESTROYS Trump

Episode Date: January 10, 2019

Trump stormed out of a meeting with Democratic Leadership after they AGAIN denied him border wall funding. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did not mince words after Trump's Oval Office Address. Get exclusive access to our best content. http://tyt.com/GETACCESS 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. If you like the Young Turks podcast, I think you'll love a lot of the podcasts on the TYT Network. Old school, it's one of my favorites, one of the favorites for a lot of the listeners. Please check that out, subscribe, share it, that makes a big difference, and give it a five-star rating. Thank you.

It's the Young Turks. I was doing an Anna impression there. I don't know if anybody knows. But Anna Kisperian is here. I'm here, Johnny Rola. Jank is still gone. Still good riddance. But we have a lot of, I'm kidding.

And he might actually watch, honestly. When he travels, I think he still pays attention to the news a lot. But anyway, we've got a great couple of hours for you. Anne and I are going to lead you through the first hour where we're going to be talking about the fallout from last night's presidential address, as well as a bunch of additional news. And in fact, more good news. We have just a little bit more good news for you.

We don't often get that. We certainly don't get that two days running, but we do today. And it's not all good, obviously. We're gonna be talking about the government shutdown, the way it is affecting working Americans, the way it's affecting national security as well. So lots to talk about, and then we'll have a second hour. Yes, I'm really looking forward to the second hour. There is no government shutdown news in hour two of today's show, mostly because I don't

know if you can relate to this. I am exhausted from talking about the same thing over and over again. So we are gonna cover the relevant part of that story in hour one, but in hour two, we're actually going to revisit the financial situation that millennials are dealing with. And it's not just about millennials, older generations are dealing with an insane amount of consumer debt. And we're also going to discuss Donald Trump threatening the state of California yet again with rescinding FEMA funding for wildfires.

Yeah, arguably threatening us with a fiery death, actually. Pretty much, yes. It's not really exaggerating it. But just the firemen, you know, just the people out there fighting. He wants them to be left without resources. You know, that's exciting. The level of, or the lack, I should say, of empathy and common sense and just leadership skills that Trump, you know, shows on a regular basis is mind blowing to me.

Yeah, yeah. Well, look, we should have known. He's a guy who doesn't like dogs. That tells you everything you need to know. He doesn't like dogs. No, where's the White House dog? Is there any redeemable quality with this guy? Hair.

Anyway, so we do have a lot of news that we're going to get too. So why don't we just jump right into it? Let's do it. I know that you don't want to talk about the shutdown. So that's what we're going to do for the next 4 minutes. No, I do an hour one, not an hour two. Exactly. Okay, let's do that.

Earlier today, Donald Trump met with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi. Obviously, yesterday he addressed the nation. They gave their counterattack such as it was. And today they met. And since then, the media has been walled. the wall coverage about it. That is a complete waste of time. We're gonna walk you through everything you need to know about this meeting in like 60 seconds.

So they met, reports from inside of the meeting, both from Donald Trump and from others who are actually somewhat trustworthy, say he asked for funding for the wall, they said no, he stormed out. That's the whole thing. I don't know how you fill multiple hours of news coverage about it, but that is not only what happened, that's what we would have predicted would happen. He is going to, I would assume break eventually, but we're not quite there yet. Yeah, so the financial situation for these government workers has become increasingly dire

for obvious reasons. A lot of them are working for free, a lot of them have given up and they've quit. And here we have a president who is ignoring the advice of every competent person and continuing on with this temper tantrum. And there is no end in sight. So again, Democrats have offered funding for border protection, okay, to the tune of I believe $1.3 billion, not funding for this nonsense wall, but funding for increased border security. And it's not good enough for him.

He demands $5.7 billion for the border wall. So this continues. I mean, right now this is the second longest government shutdown. I believe the longest government shutdown in history was in the 1990s. It was 21 days. We're quickly approaching that. Yeah, by this weekend, we'll have that. The one thing he has going for him is that if there are any political leaders in this country

who would actually buckle and hand over billions of dollars for wall, I think Chuck and Nancy might potentially be them. I mean, it's like the idea that they're definitely not going to give him the wall, I mean, how many years into this whole Trump thing are we? If you could still maintain that sort of positivity, I can't match you on that. Do you think that they will eventually cave and give him what you want? I don't think that that's the more likely outcome. I think that he is now flying high off of his speech, not because it actually changed

a situation, but because as soon as he stopped talking and breathing heavily through his nose, he began being stroked by all of his advisors saying, you did a great job, you're amazing. And that will sustain him for a little while. But then he goes back, he starts watching the news and he sees that, I mean, look, maybe polling will come out and it was a gigantic success, I kind of doubt it. And his mood is going to darken again. The thing is, in past shutdowns, you had politicians who had a degree of perhaps shame and also empathy for the people.

Whether they were Democrats or Republicans, they had some of that. He doesn't care about anyone other than himself, including his family. And so because this shutdown is not personally hurting him, all of what we're going to talk about for the rest of the hour, or a good chunk of it anyway, having to do with how this is affecting real Americans, he doesn't care about any of that. But if this does hurt him more in the polls, if it seems like it's likely that it'll hurt him in his reelection bid, then I think perhaps it's about him again. And so maybe he'll buckle.

He'll come up with some argument about how he never actually was asking for a wall or the Democrats are gonna pay for it. I don't know, I don't know what it'll be, but maybe that's what will happen. He does have this incredible ability to completely change his messaging and then claim that he had been saying the same thing all along. So is it possible that he can argue, agree to what the Democrats want? And then later argue that he never really wanted the funding for the wall in the first place, sure.

In fact, I encourage him to go in that direction. That is a good direction to go to. Because right now, his popularity, his approval rating is being hit by this. The majority of Americans do blame Trump for the government shutdown. They probably blame him for the government shutdown because he was on the record saying, quote, I would be proud to shut down the government for border security. That is what he said. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, he said, you know, why don't we go to video four, actually? Just in case there's anyone who wasn't around a couple of weeks ago when this process started, video four is going to lay out that he is very willing in advance to take the claim for the situation we're now in. If we don't get what we want, one way or the other, whether it's through you, through a military, through anything you want to call, I will shut down the government. Okay, fair enough. And I am proud, and I'll tell you what, I am proud to shut down the government. So I will take the mantle. I will be the one to shut it down.

I'm not gonna blame you for it. The last time you shut it down, it didn't work. I will take the mantle of shutting down. Okay, there. So he has the mantle, he's not blaming Chuck Schumer just so that we're clear on that. Right. Okay? Yeah.

Okay, and it doesn't matter if you can't get it through them, he'll get it through a military. We don't know who's military. I think it's Sweden, I don't know. He doesn't make any sense. Anyway, why don't we move on to something a little bit more, I think, productive, a little bit more positive. All right. Last night's Democratic response to what Donald Trump said, I found to be a little bit weak.

But there was a strong response not long after, and that was new representation. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who happened to be on Rachel Maddow's show. And so she was able to live respond to Donald Trump's address immediately afterward. And here's what she said. He has separated children from their families. He talked about what happened the day after Christmas. On the day of Christmas, a child died in ICE custody. The president should not be asking for more money to an agency that has systematically violated human rights.

The president should be really defending why we are funding such an agency. at all. The majority of the reason that people are undocumented is visa overstay. It's not because people are crossing a border illegally. It is because of visa overstay, which mind you, he's talking about legal immigration. He's trying to restrict every form of legal immigration there is in the United States. He's fighting against family reunification. He's fighting against the diversity visa lottery. He's fighting against almost every way that people can actually legally enter this country, forcing them to become undocumented, and then he's trying to attack their undocumented status. This is systematic, it is wrong, and it is anti-American. And again,

those women and children trying to come here with nothing but the shirts on their back to create an opportunity and to provide for this nation are acting more in an American tradition than this president is right now. Damn, that is good. I just got chills. I just got chills. Yeah. Yeah. By the way, this is a point aside from policy, it's incredible how much more articulate she is than the President of the United States. You know, someone who's much younger, obviously, someone who is not as experienced in the political

world, but has a better grasp of what this country stands for, has a better grasp of how things really work with immigration, who has a better grasp of, you know, what the actual issues are in terms of how to fix our broken immigration system. I mean, really, no one else in the mainstream media mentions, and they should, this should be something repeated over and over again. Trump is not going after illegal immigration. What he's doing is trying to restrict legal immigration. These are people who are seeking asylum at the border.

That is a form of seeking legal entry into the United States. So when he keeps referring to illegal aliens, or when he fearmongers about undocumented immigrants in the United States, he is not actually talking about people who are trying to come in through the legal way of seeking asylum. And that is the issue that's happening at the border right now, people who are fleeing violence in their own countries to seek asylum and safety here in the United States. That's what's really happening. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is amazing and fantastic, and it feels good to see someone who's

intelligent speak about this issue. Yeah, exactly. And because of the time of her comments coming not long after Donald Trump's address, we were able to compare it almost directly to other modes of communication. I mean, obviously with Donald Trump, you had endless lies, we debunk them at the time. And then you had the Democratic response, which largely on the policy was fine. I mean, they didn't say much, of course. lay out necessarily exactly what they want to see done, but they did lay out a good case

for what they did not want to see him do, which is fine. But with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, you not only have the right policies, you have an expression of the right values delivered in the right way. You have the trifecta, that's what we need to counter this. I don't think that it's ridiculous to say that the Democratic leadership, look, if they want to be behind the scenes and they want to be pulling the strings, obviously they're going to do that, they're the leadership. But they should push her forward as a messenger on this issue.

Look, how mocked were those two leaders on the Senate and the Democrat and the House side last night? I think obviously, optically, it was kind of a disaster. There are other people who could pick up that mantle who agree with you on stopping the wall, who want to see far more humane treatment of these people fleeing from violence in their home countries, and can deliver it in a way that expresses the values underlying the policies in a way that is human. So last night, when we did live coverage of both Trump speech, we fact-checked him, obviously. We went to the response by Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi. While all of this was happening, I felt a little bad when we wrapped up our coverage because

I was very critical of the optics in which, you know, that were portrayed when Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer were speaking. And I was like, do I have this anti-establishment Democrat bias that's making me see things in a way that might not be accurate? So I immediately started listening to MSNBC after we wrapped our show, because I wanted to hear what the pro establishment cable news network had to say about their response. And sure enough, there were very similar criticisms, and I commend them for that, because I know MSNBC shies away from criticizing establishment Democrats, or the establishment

in general. And look, their response was void of any passion, void of any emotion, right? And I think that in a case like this, it's important to show that this is an issue you care about, that you're compassionate toward asylum seekers at the border. But more importantly, that you're passionate about sharing the reality and the truth with the American people. And it was just such an awkward display. It made me feel a little uncomfortable watching it, even though the content of what they're

saying wasn't necessarily wrong. It just felt like this rehearsed response that was void of any passion. And it was strange to see that. And then of course that was followed with Bernie Sanders and Bernie Sanders was a person. That's the best way to describe it. He came at it with facts, he came at it with a genuine concern over what's going on right now. And he came at it with the reality of what Americans are really facing right now, what the real crises are right now. It's not women and children at the border seeking asylum.

If you're really genuinely worried about a national security threat, you should be worried about what's happening with our climate. You should be concerned about what's happening with health care in the country. And so it's good to see real progressives come at this from the right angle, from the right perspective. Yeah, and I just want to briefly point out, I mean, like I loved Bernie's remarks. It was good, and obviously he had, he had more time. And we had Alexandria Casa Cortezzi with like a minute of her video.

And he went on for longer than that. So he included a lot. I would say second for second, though, of the four addresses we've now seen, I like her is better and this is gonna piss off all the people that want to say that she's a lightweight. She was the only one not reading from a teleprompter. Yeah, that's a good point. She was just talking and she was expressing those things. And not to say that she's never thought about those things or spoken before.

Obviously, you start to get into certain rhythms, we do the same thing. But she was just communicating based on questions that happened to be posed to her. All the rest, including Bernie, we're reading prepared remarks. Yeah, that's a great point. And there's nothing wrong with reading prepared remarks. I mean, politicians do it all the time. But I think that when you speak off the cuff and you do so passionately and with the facts, you know, on your mind, that is way more effective in communicating the truth to the American

people. I think that that resonates more than reading a script. Yeah, and in terms, I'm gonna read from some of my prepared graphics. In terms of some of the other potential messengers, I mean, including AOC on this issue, let's go to a tweet that she sent out later last night. She quotes from the 1924 Ku Klux Klan convention, a quote, build a wall of steel. a wall as high as heaven against immigrants. A great idea never really dies.

And then says, we know our history and we are determined not to repeat its darkest hour. America is a nation of immigrants. Without immigrants, we are not America. That is a strong expression of our values. And then I also liked Representative Omar, if we bring up her tweet, doing a bit of fact-checking for Donald Trump, with U.S. immigrant apprehensions at the border with Mexico going back to the year 2000, showing that they are now at a 45-year low, down 75% from the year 2000. The facts don't lie, but Trump does, not $1 for his vanity wall, hashtag Trump shutdown.

So can I just jump in on that for a second? Representative Omar is 100% correct in the statistics there. And that is based on what Border Patrol has reported. And the reason why it's important, some people might look at those numbers, and they might think, Well, nearly 400,000 immigrants trying to enter the country illegally is still a problem. And if you want to make that point, I have no problem with that, that's fine. I might disagree with you, but the reason why it's important to show that statistic and juxtapose that number to what apprehensions were like in earlier years, in the 2000s, in

the early 2000s, we're not undergoing a crisis right now where there is a record number of people trying to enter the country illegally. That is just not the case. So the problem that we're having right now is that people are not even agreeing on the facts. Because look, immigration is broken. We do need to come up with solutions for immigration. There does need, we do need comprehensive immigration reform. But we can never get that if you can't agree on the foundation.

And the foundation includes the facts. What is the real problem? What are the real numbers? How can we solve it? Right? And that's just not where we're at right now. Yeah, if you can look at that and think that we are in a national emergency, then fine. But we were at a national emergency that was more severe for literally every other year stretching

back a half century. Right. A half century of which I'm not necessarily prepared to say, I don't know the numbers exactly. We were governed more by Republican presidents. But a lot of them were Republican presidential years. Two of them were years governed by Donald Trump. So if we were in more of a national emergency during those two years, what was he doing during that time?

Was he watching TV? Was he eating flail fish? Why did he wait two years until the eve of a Democratic Congress before finally declaring the national emergency that you believe we've been in for at least a half century, if not longer? But those are just the facts. Thank you, Representative Omar, for pointing those out. Yes. Okay.

I don't know if Donald Trump is necessarily thrilled with his performance. I have a feeling he's a, you know, he has a high opinion of himself, he probably will. But he also looks to external validation. That is one of the reasons why years after his inauguration, he still talks inaccurately about the crowd he was able to draw. So let's talk about numbers then. Let's talk about ratings, something that he as our reality TV star in chief is certainly interested in.

The quarter hour containing the president's speech drew a combined 28.1 household rating in metered markets across all of the major networks basically that were displaying his speech. So this is trying to be as fair as possible, including all of them. Interestingly, lately, though, the following 15 minutes, including analysis of his speech, and the Pelosi-Schumer rebuttal averaged to 29.3, 4% higher. Which means that after Donald Trump stopped talking, and we went back to those purveyors of fake news on all of those networks, and then Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, more people tuned in.

Now, once he gets these numbers, I have a feeling that that is going to annoy him, and that makes me a little bit happier. Yeah, that's a little tiny bit of good news. I don't know why the numbers are the way that they are. I would assume that he would have high ratings, I guess, for this Oval Office address. It could be that people were slow and tuning in, you know, they maybe didn't have the opportunity to tune at the top of the hour. Who knows, who cares?

But regardless of what the reasons are, it does bother him when he's not able to put on a show. Because that's really the thing that he's always cared the most about, he's a showman. And he always brags about ratings. He always brags about, you know, the drama and the popularity and all of that. And so if Democrats had higher viewership than he did, I'm sure it will get under his skin. And I do get a little bit of pleasure out of knowing that. The one other thing that I thought was fascinating, and this was reported by the New York Times

this morning, was that Trump actually did not think this Oval Office address was a good idea. His aides persuaded him to do it. And so that could be the reason why he came off as very low energy as he was reading a script off the teleprompter. And so, yes, I think you're right in that his aides will probably tell him he did a great job and applaud him and blow up his eagle a little more. But every show that I watched, every report that I read following the address was a little critical of his energy and reiterated what we've been saying, that anything that he has to say

isn't going to change anything. It's no different from what he's been doing on Twitter. And I think that, you know, that's another, I don't know if it's a win, but it's another upside to the aftermath of this. I don't think that it really helped him in any way. I don't think it's changed anyone's mind. And I was worried that he would fearmonger so much that some Americans who were kind of on the fence would end up believing him and thinking that this,

border wall funding is necessary. Yeah, and so I listed those numbers. I wanted to talk about this just briefly, not just to hopefully anger him if he sees it. That's a good part of it. It makes me feel better. But also, on the flip side, I mean, we talked after watching Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi last night and said that that also probably would not change many people's minds, if at all.

And that was before we knew that more people would see it than would see the present as well. So imagine in a different world where it had not been those two where it had been Representative Ocasio-Cortez or some other more dynamic persuasive, effective communicator. That was a gigantic opportunity that they were given to respond to the president. And I would say that it was kind of flubbed. I absolutely agree with you. So I don't know, I don't know whether or not more people watching the Democratic response works to our favor because that response was so incredibly awkward.

But can you imagine them giving someone like Representative Acacio-Cortez the opportunity to address Trump's statements? I mean, the mentality in Washington, and unfortunately I think this is the mentality in pretty much any other workspace, is that someone needs to pay their dues, it doesn't matter how popular they are, how good their ideas are, how passionate they are on the issue, or how much firsthand experience they have with the issue at hand. That person needs to pay their dues if they're new to the workspace. Yeah, yeah, especially if their policies differ from the political leadership.

I mean, I don't know exactly how long he's been around, but didn't after one of the state of the unions, didn't the young Kennedy get to respond? Oh, that's right. They at times have a lot, as long as your policies don't diverge too much from the leadership, maybe you can-you-can jump ahead. Yeah. Anyway, oh, and by the way, brief credit to Rachel Maddow. So the Democrats didn't dare put AOC forward to give the response, but Rachel Maddow had her

on knowing that was the night of the address so that she could respond. Yes. Which gave her a very big platform, thankfully. That's true, credit where credits do. Exactly. Yeah. And I would assume that if you were Rachel Maddow, I bet the ratings were pretty good on that. I could see her inviting AOC back in the near future.

I hope so. Yeah. Okay, we are going to take a short break. When we come back, a little bit more. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-Fitting the Republic or or UNFTR. As a Young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations are constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the rich and powerful. But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the conventional wisdom. In each episode

of Un-B-The Republic, or UNFTR, the host delves into a different historical episode or topic that's generally misunderstood or purposely obfuscated by the so-called powers that be, featuring in-depth research, razor-sharp commentary, and just the right amount of vulgarity, the UNFTR podcast takes a sledgehammer to what you thought you knew about some of the nation's most sacred historical cows. But don't just take my word for it. The New York Times described UNFTR as consistently compelling and educational, aiming to challenge conventional wisdom and upend the historical narratives that were taught in school. For as the great philosopher Yoda once put it, you must not learn what you have learned.

And that's true whether you're in Jedi training or you're uprooting and exposing all the propaganda and disinformation you've been fed over the course of your lifetime. So search for UNFDR in your podcast app today and get ready to get informed, angered, and entertained all at the same time. Hey everybody, welcome back to the Young Turks, Santa Casparian, John Iderola, lots more news for you. Before that, though, I do want to give shout-outs to a couple of TYT members. Those would be Heather Goyce and Jeffrey Wallace.

Thank you for being members. Obviously, you know, you benefited quite a bit in terms of access to additional materials like last night's special. But we very much appreciate you doing what you do so that we can do what we do. I've got some super chats for you from Shuyen who says, did someone take his bottle away so he shut the government down until he gets it back. That is a theory. We will send Ken Clippenstein to look into that. DeVoy.

Felipe Fisher says, looks like Whoopi got triggered with the idea of a 70% top marginal tax rate. Yes. Probably because she's worth $40 million. I didn't watch that, so I don't know. Whoopi has been on this, like, war path against Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Yeah? I love saying Congresswoman.

For a while? She's attacked her several times on the view at this point. And I, look, I want you guys to understand if someone is giving you the news and they're a household name, chances are that they're making tens of millions of dollars a year doing what they do. So do you think that they have an incentive? I mean, look, in some cases, wealthy people, like Warren Buffett, for instance, do want to pay more in taxes. So I don't want to make a generalization that rich people don't want to contribute more to society. But for the most part, if people are making a ton of money and a marginal tax rate increase is going to negatively impact them or they perceive it as a negative impact, they're going

to give you false information about what's really going on. So just know who you're getting your news from. That is true. If she is attacking her, I don't like that, but she played Gynon on Star Trek the next generation. So she's bought a lot of goodwill for me, let alone sister act, which is one of my favorite Look, you can appreciate someone's lifetime of work, you can really like someone, and you can still disagree with them politically. And when it comes to, I guess, a lot of political issues at this point, I disagree with

Whoopi Goldberg. Yeah. And by the way, just, so ASC proposes higher marginal tax rates. And like on cable TV, they don't generally like it. How weird. How weird. On CNN, you get your news from a literal air. On Fox News, Tucker Carlson, a literal air.

These are people of a special term for how much wealthier they are than we are. Exactly. Sean Hannity made $36 million last year. I wonder what his position on raising taxes is going to be. I'm sure he's going to critically think about it and talk to some economists and see whether or not it raises government revenue versus- Yeah, you know what? Lucky for you guys, you get to find out what his views are in the second hour of the show

today. We're gonna talk about his response to AOC's proposed increase for marginal taxes. Exactly. And one more comment on that, so Frank sent in a member comment saying she makes me want to run for U.S. Senate in 2020. Frank, run for U.S. Senate in 2020. More and more people should. I mean, it worked out pretty well this cycle.

A lot of the, how many names are we talking about already in this show and yesterday that probably two years ago weren't even thinking about the possibility of running for office? And now they're driving the conversation. It's been a long time since I've been inspired and she inspires me. She makes me want to be a better person. Yes. I'm grateful for that. I wanna be, but it seems really difficult.

So instead I'll just talk about how awesome they are. Okay, great. Yeah, okay. Let's jump back into the news. While Donald Trump is still considering declaring a national emergency and thus extending this government shutdown, I mean, we've reached 18 days, I think today, the second longest in history. The people who have been sort of cast aside without pay during this, 800,000 federal government

workers are now being forced to crowd fund for medicine and rent to make car payments for food. I mean, that is a sort of uniquely American thing to begin with that we make people so dependent on the online charity of others. Well, that has now had a bit of gasoline thrown on it because of so many people suddenly receiving no pay. Yeah, 800,000 Americans have been furloughed and are working without a paycheck. Don't know when the paycheck will actually come. And more than 700 accounts have been created on GoFundMe related to the shutdown according

to a spokeswoman for the company. I actually saw earlier today that number is now over 1,000 and expect that every day that this shutdown continues, more and more people will have to do that. Or else they will lose their cars, they will lose their apartments, God knows what else will end up happening to them and their families. And some of the people talking about this, about how willing these workers are to forego their pay are speaking about these workers in a variety of different incredibly disrespectful fashion.

So some people are saying that they're in this position because they were irresponsible. They should have thought about the possibility if they're being a shutdown or whatever. We'll return to that. I've heard this on Twitter, unfortunately. Can I jump in real quick? Okay. Around 70% of federal workers are living paycheck to paycheck. Oh, we got it, don't even work.

I know, I know. I'm sorry, I'm stepping on your lines, John. You are. But for anyone who makes that argument, oh, well, you should have prepared. for a government shutdown, the vast majority of these workers are living paycheck to paycheck. They're barely making it, so just keep that in mind. Yeah, exactly. Well, Trump is also speaking about them in ways that are sort of disconnected from reality.

So remember, as we prep video two, over 700, perhaps over 1,000 accounts on GoFundMe. He wants you to believe that they're not only doing okay, they're enthusiastic about the position that they've been put into. And I'm sure that the people that are on the receiving end will make adjustment. They always do. I think they will make an adjustment because they want to see the border taken care. They will make adjustment. People understand exactly what's going on.

Those people are great Americans. They're great patriots. They want to make sure we have a strong board. You know, government workers want to see the border taken care if it affects them very dearly. They love our country and they want to make sure that we have a strong border. But many of those people that won't be receiving a paycheck, many of those people agree 100% with what I'm doing. Many of those people, maybe even most of those people, that really have not been and will not be getting their money in at this moment, those people in many cases are the biggest fan of what we're doing. Okay, so there is no actual polling to support that.

idea of how little Donald Trump actually cares about that talking point that he has been deploying over and over, I can guarantee that among the 800,000 workers, some of them are Trump supporters, some of them are Trump fanatics, and probably don't really mind. You could find two or three people like that. Do that, and then use their names. Pretend that you care about the way that you're lying to the American people. But they don't. So from the president, they're perfectly fine with this. From GoFundMe, no, they need money to pay for their rent. So I want to give you some what has been posted online by these people in trying to get money, first a defense of these individuals.

Because as we said, some people are saying, well, they put themselves in bad economic positions if a month or two off of pay leaves them unable to pay for their necessities. So Johanna Petracelli is a NASA safety engineer who says, these aren't people who are irresponsible or haven't saved for emergencies or spend beyond their means. They're highly educated people who work at NASA, people with PhDs and astrophysics from MIT, flight controllers who keep the ISS and astronauts safe day after day. There are also janitors, administrative assistance, facility maintenance, and security guards who work long hours for very little pay.

So from the top to the bottom, these are people who were working full-time jobs and did not expect that simply because Donald Trump got his hackles up over the border wall that they might end up getting kicked out of their apartments. But now that is the position that they're in. So here are some of the experiences of those individuals. Julie Burr is a government worker who says, being a contracted government worker, I'm losing pay every day that this government shutdown continues. I've taken on extra shifts at my second job, but it isn't going to pay rent and all my bills.

Being a single mom, I'm in panic mode right now if you'd like to help any donations are appreciated. Jeffrey Davis, another worker says, as you may know we are in the middle of a government shutdown, how this personally affects me to my family is that while I'm in my family, is that while I am still required to go to work like normal, I am not currently receiving a paycheck. The president has already said he could go months or even a year under this shutdown. Until the shutdown ends, each day funds are getting more and more tight and will eventually run out, and I will no longer be able to pay rent or utilities and buy food. Any amount you're willing to donate will be greatly appreciated.

Kanata Holt, another worker says, I am a single mom of six children who depends solely on me. As a veteran and federal employee, my only income has been stopped due to the government. government shutdown. I have sought and exhausted all other resources, but they have not been enough to keep up with my bills or my children's needs. I am not sure when we will be able to return to work, and I am merely asking for those who can to please help with a monetary donation of your choice. A mom in need, God bless. Celia Handwold, one more, a TSA worker says, it's starting to get scary, still obligated to work, but not getting paid is not going to cut it for the bill collectors.

Right now I'm sick, but as soon as I'm better, it's back to work. There was a medicine and doctor visit. I need help. I don't think creditors will be compassionate to our plight. Please help me. Mortgage, food, electric gas, the little things that we really take for granted when we are working and getting paid. I'm trying to contact creditors, but they aren't all that receptive. There are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of additional people who have already signed up on GoFundMe who have very similar experiences. Soon, in all likelihood, there are hundreds of thousands of others who might not sign up on GoFundMe, but are every bit as much in need of assistance?

You know, it's pretty incredible how effective the attempts to divide the country have been, because the dysfunction of our government is now being blamed on the very workers who have dutifully shown up to their jobs, they work full time, they do everything that they need to do to be good members, productive members of society, and they're somehow getting blamed for not preparing in advance for the dysfunction that we're now seeing within our government. Yeah. We need to get back to a point where we actually had compassion, empathy, and love for our fellow Americans.

These are good people who work hard, and they're unfortunately on, you know, they got the short end of the stick when it came to what's happening, you know, with this government shutdown. I mean, that story of the mother, the single mother with six children, I can't even imagine, and again, to reiterate, 78% of these federal workers are living paycheck to paycheck. So to argue that they're to blame, that they didn't prepare enough for what's happening right now is complete and utter nonsense. It's so incredibly insulting. It is, it is.

And to say that while they're suffering, they really support me. They like what I am doing to them. They can't pay for their medicine, but they don't care because they want a wall. Trump is going to Trump. Trump is going to insult whoever he needs to insult or put down, whoever he needs to put down, or lie about whoever he needs to lie about to get his point across, to push his agenda. So anything he says doesn't surprise me at this point. But I just hope that Americans in general really understand what's going on right now.

And they don't blame the federal workers for what they're going through, that they don't add insult to injury because these are people who need help right now. And the last thing they need is to be on the receiving end of insults and vitriol. And unfortunately, it appears that to some extent that's what's going on here. And it's devastating. Exactly. Well, look, the last worker that we referenced there was a TSA worker, so why don't we transition to that part of this story?

The shutdown that we are in is supposedly about a national emergency. Well, whether you believe that that is true or not, whether that emergency actually exactly The shutdown itself has perched us on the precipice of a national emergency, that having to do with the safety of our airports and airplanes. And that is because about 10,000 air traffic controllers who work for the Federal Aviation Administration, and about 51,000 TSA administration officers have been told to keep working, to keep reporting to work because they're deemed essential. But many, as we've been talking about, they're not getting paid.

And so they're starting to call in sick, how long will they actually last? How many days would you go to work at a job? There's a good chance you probably didn't love going there regardless of the pay if you were no longer paid. Would you make it 10 days, 15 days, 20 days that you're working before you finally crack? Here's the thing, people love to hate the TSA and airport security. They are there for a reason though, whether you like all of what they do, there are some concerns about security that we should care about.

Now, in terms of their commitment, in a statement released earlier today, or actually this was yesterday, the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents the workers, warned that safety could take a big hit in transit hubs as the federal government shutdown drags into week three, leaving staff without pay. So that big organization, which represents them, worried about the long-term impact. And the council president for the TSA section of that organization said, every day I'm getting calls from my members about their extreme financial hardships and need for a paycheck. Some of them have already quit, and many are considering quitting the federal workforce

because of the shutdown. The loss of officers, while we're already shorthanded, will create a massive security risk for American travelers since we don't have enough trainees in the pipeline or the ability to process new hires. And I would say, if they were already having trouble attracting enough applicants, the prospect of starting the job with no pay is probably going to hurt recruitment even more. Yeah, I mean, that's a great point. And in an earlier story, we were talking about how the vast majority of these government workers

are working jobs that unfortunately don't pay enough to begin with. They're living paycheck to paycheck. And so the people who are either quitting or calling in sick aren't just doing so to protest. They're doing it so they can go work somewhere else and actually earn a paycheck to take care of their families. So think about that. I mean, who would be willing to continue working for the federal government when there is no solution in sight, when the president argues that this shutdown could last months

and even a year, all over the border wall, right? I know that if I had a family to take care of, if I were the breadwinner in my family, the number one thing I would consider doing is calling in sick first, as long as I can. So I can go work somewhere else and earn some money to provide for my family. family. Yeah. I mean, what do lawmakers think that government workers are supposed to do? I don't really know.

What does Trump think they're supposed to do, more importantly? Because he's really the one holding these people hostage right now. Yeah. Yeah, he is. And holding them hostage, again, as you said, for the wall, not for border security. Right. Democrats have already said they would give $1.7 billion for a number of different measures, many of which I think are probably a complete waste of money and the resource would be much

better used somewhere else. But if that's what you care about, they are willing to give it. He's just not willing to take it without a wall. So let's talk about this a little bit more. We have the TSA. That side of it, thankfully, the media is actually talking a little bit about. It's the sort of obvious public part of airport and airplane safety. And when it starts to become an issue and the lines start getting longer, people notice

that. But there are other concerns lurking in the background that aren't quite as obvious, but perhaps even more dire. And that has to do not with the TSA, but with the FAA and the safety of the actual airplane themselves. Because while the people at the actual airport that we're talking about that are starting to call in sick are deemed essential, there are other people that are not, including safety inspectors for the FAA.

Now, because they're not deemed essential, they're both not being paid and not working. So that does not mean that they're not showing up at the airports. And in some cases, some of them have shown up at a protested outside of the airports, holding up signs, talking about how essential they are. I want to show you a short video of one of these safety inspectors talking about how safe significant it is that they are not on the job. The reason we're here we're educating the public that because of the partial government shutdown, the FAA safety inspectors have been deemed non-essential.

The American public is being affected because we're not on the job to look at aviation safety. We're not inspecting the pilots. We're not inspecting the airlines. We're not inspecting the repair facilities. And on a normal day, sometimes we find that things slip and mistakes happen. We have found planes that are flying unsafe and without us on the job, then there's nobody to fulfill that function. This is out of control. This is out of control.

The whole argument in favor of this wall is that it's supposed to keep Americans safe because there's all this fear-mongering and nonsense going on about how, you know, these asylum seekers, most of whom are women and children, are somehow going to rape and murder Americans. Now again, that's complete and other lies coming from the president of the United States. He will use anecdotal evidence of undocumented immigrants in the United States who have committed crimes in order to bolster his claims, right? But what he's doing right now actually leads to an unsafe situation for how many Americans travel on planes on a daily basis?

Millions and millions, I assume. This is out of control. This is out of control. He's a child, he's a child. And the fact that people still support him after all of this is unbelievable to me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, over a trumped up national emergency and they're willing to create actual ones as a result of it. I mean, I'm not of the opinion that there has never been a justifiable government

shutdown, there are things worth fighting over. Obviously, this is not it. And especially to have the second longest government shutdown ever for complete BS and allowing all of these other things to fall by the wayside, that is truly scary. I won't go into too much details because my goal is not to scare you about this, but there's a ton of I don't know about planes or airports or air travel or all of that. But I would speak with our coworker Edwin, and he was talking about how this FAA safety inspection process actually works.

If you believe that, let's say tomorrow they end the shutdown, oh, we'll go. Good, everything's cured. They go back to work and everything's fine. That's not actually how it works. The stuff that's being missed right now, hypothetically, will not be checked once they come back. And it might not immediately cause a problem, but in a year or two or three years, it might. And so we might end up having some sort of tragic accident years from now caused by the Trump shutdown and we will have no idea.

His hands will be clean, at least technically, but the actual threat is still out there. Yeah, so just to give you guys some background, Edwin worked for a major airline company here in the U.S., so he has a lot of insight into how the safety regulations work. I should have said that, sorry. No, no, it's okay, I just want to make sure you guys know it's not just some random person who told us how fixed work and someone who actually has first-hand experience with it. I just assume you know who Edwin is. I know.

I know. Edwin is a jack-of-all-trades. Exactly. He stage manages here at TYT, but he also for a very long time worked for a major airline company. And so this is terrifying. This is really terrifying. And it's kind of incredible that these inspectors are not considered essential government workers.

Yeah, I don't think they know what the word essential means. Right. Yeah. Okay, why don't we take our second break? When we come back, a little bit of good news for you, once again, as was the case yesterday, coming out of New York City. 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 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 cybercriminals. 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 dot 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 support. Reporting Independent Media, become a member at t-y-t.com slash join today. In the meantime, enjoy this free segment. Okay, just a little bit more time in the first hour for you, but I do want to read a couple of comments. First, a member comment, I mostly want to read this because of the name.

I just want to say it. Sartorial narwhal says, Tell me. Trump will have to make an adjustment when Mueller comes to knock in. Perhaps we'll see. Let's see, on TYT live, Banks Terica said, I can't imagine making $36 million in one year and not thinking, yeah, I don't actually need all this money. But that's the thing.

They all do think they need the money, which is why you're not supposed to say it this way. They go insane. It is a kind of addiction. So look, obviously it's one thing to be in the financial situation that you're currently in and think that you're going to act a certain way. way if you become wealthy, but I have fantasies about what I would do if I made that kind of money, right? Because nothing feels better than helping someone in need, like knowing that you have the ability

to really change someone's life. So being able to create a scholarship fund, like so many awesome things you can do. And then you have the wealthy in this country who are like, no, give me more precious. I just rewatched for the rings. Not only did she watch the movie, but it's gotten in there. Yeah, yeah, precious. Oh my God. I don't want to spook this out of you.

I hope this continues. Like the idea of being able to change someone's life for the better. Like you have the power to do that and you want to do the exact opposite. Yeah, as I said on Twitter, if I had the money I would open up a board game cafe, I'd be done and everything about politics again. Of course, of course you would. Nerd. That's also true. And Ty Johnson sent a super chat saying, what are the odds that the shutdown hurts the stock market

and brings us closer to a recession or crash? The odds seem good. The thing that we have working in the stock market's favor is that it in many ways has absolutely nothing to do with the actual economy. So it might be insulated from it. But there are a lot of businesses that will not be able to get government back loans during this time. That could hurt the stock market, hypothetically.

Yeah, there's a lot of concern about how this will impact the economy. It hasn't yet. So some investors are finicky right now, but they haven't really started selling their shares. There was a lot more concern about trade negotiations, and it appears that trade negotiations with China will yield some better results. I don't know what the results are yet, neither do investors. So the stock market's been doing pretty well over this past week, yeah. I wanna say one more thing, I know that we gotta move on, but I happen to see a guy that

that the Coast Guard had sent out to its officers who, you know, as with many others, are not receiving pay, things you can do during the shutdown. They were told to do garage sales, so sell their belongings. And then there was a section, other things like that, but I would argue are pretty insulting that these people, full grown adults with full grown careers would have to do. But there was also stuff about the long term effects of it. And the thing is, I am sure Trump and Sean Hannity and all those others and never once thought about this, they think.

The poor, the peasants, they'll hurt for a little bit, but they'll eventually get their pay, no harm done. That's not how it works when you don't make millions of dollars. These people's credit is likely to be shredded by this experience. When they can't pay certain bills, when they get kicked out of their apartment, when their car gets repossessed, that is not something that economically is simply wiped clean when Chuck and Donald Trump shake hands. Their credit is going to be ruined for a long time, which means they're going to have to

pay more for all these necessities in the future. If they had ideas of getting a home, they might have to say goodbye to that possibility. If they wanted to start a business, well, perhaps not. Oh my God, imagine if you're living in a rent controlled apartment and you get evicted. Yeah. I mean- There's all sorts of ripple effects. Oh my God. Anyway, let's turn to, we're gonna end on a slightly positive story.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has introduced legislation earlier today that would for, I believe, the first time in U.S. history guarantee paid vacation of the people living in a particular city. Of course, that city is New York City. That's the one of his power over. The legislation would extend paid leave to 200,000 workers in the hotel and food industries, 180,000 workers in professional and business services, and 90,000 workers in retail, according to the mayor's office. All told, 500,000 workers in New York City who do not currently have any right or ability to access paid leave could get it if this actually becomes law.

Those companies would be required to grant at least two weeks off for full-time workers and paid off for part-time workers as well. It would give employees the ability to gradually accrue paid time off amounting to 10 days over a year. So depending on, you know, 10 days, 14 days, depending on the position of how long you've been there. So let me just start off by saying that all of these proposals coming from Bill de Blasio are great.

Yesterday we covered a story about how he wants to provide health care for every New Yorker. And that's great as well. But also, look, he's flirting with running for president in 2020. He hasn't announced yet or anything like that. But all of a sudden, he's like Oprah when she gave away cars to her audience, right? He's like, you get healthcare and you get paid time off. Like, it's amazing how these very real and important issues don't really seem to matter to some of our leaders until it could benefit them and their chances of getting something that

They want. Now, maybe I'm being unfair to Bill de Blasio, but he's had the opportunity to do this for a while now. I'm glad he finally got around to it. I wish it came a little sooner. Well, look, Bill de Blasio does not have a perfect reputation, but he has a little bit more historic call that this is not totally out of the norm for him than some do. Sure, yeah.

Look, and maybe I'm being too unfair to him, but I also want to be honest with the audience. You know, again, I applaud him for doing what he's doing, but it is also important. important to know what the intentions are behind the scenes. Yeah, that's true, but I will say, let's say that you're 100% right, let's say this is just pragmatic, I mean, the thing we talked about yesterday is largely in his direct control to be able to do. This one has to step past the legislature, it's a little bit more complicated, but there are different ways of like, I want to run for president, what am I going to do?

There's this, propose actual worker focused progressive changes, historic changes as we'll break down. And then there's like Gillibrand apparently was going and talking to people on Wall Street, seeing if they're interested in her potentially running. Or there's all the billionaires saying, you know, I could self-fund my campaign, isn't that awesome? Okay, it's awesome that you're rich, but that doesn't really do much for me or working class Americans.

So of the different models, I like this one. I'll take it, absolutely. And there's also the possibility that, you know, he actually believes in it. But I just do want to point out, no U.S. city or state requires paid time off for workers, While Puerto Rico does require employers to pay for time off, the law would exempt firms with fewer than five employees from the requirement. But again, if this passes, it will be historic. And hopefully, as with $15 an hour minimum wage, once you get it set up in certain important

cities, then it can start to spread. That is of course the hope. And by the way, there are at least 20 countries around the world that do mandate at least 10 days of paid vacations. Some have higher thresholds as well. Oh, it's weird, I thought America was number one. It's weird. It's weird how all these other countries somehow managed to take care of their citizens more

than the United States does. Weird. It is weird how that works out. It's almost as if we're not number one. Almost. I know, and some people get really offended when you say that, by the way, right? Like when you point out flaws in this country, because you love this country and you want it to do better, you want the lawmakers to do better, you want to take care of your fellow Americans

and make sure that they have a better quality of life. And for some reason, pointing that out offends people. You sound like a person that hates America. Well, right now, I wouldn't say that I hate America, but right now America is deeply, deeply, deeply flawed. And I think that it makes you more patriotic to point to those flaws and want to find solutions for them. Because what's more patriotic, pretending as if this country is perfect while Americans suffer?

Or actually pointing out the flaws and trying to find solutions for them. Sorry, I'm being a dick, but I totally agree with you, obviously. You know what, John, we have used that model for a while now. So maybe we can keep going, I don't know. No, I just want to briefly mention, we're on a big tangent, but I want to mention, I remember it was from one of Al Franken's books years and years and years ago, I read it. And he talked about the ways that liberals and conservatives love America. And he had a great analogy for it.

He said liberals love America, conservatives love America, like you love your mom, but at different stages of your life. Conservatives love America the way a child loves their mother. Their mother is perfect and virtuous and beautiful and how dare you insult their mother. Whereas liberals love America the way grown kids love their parents. They realize that their dad used to be an alcoholic and their mom's kind of racist and you want to make them a little bit better so you nudge them in the right direction. Doesn't mean you don't love them, but you see them accurately.

You see them for who they really are. So Al Franken, good job there. That was pretty amazing. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, he did a good job earlier. That's a great description. Yeah, I probably bungled it, by the way. I'll try to track down the actual thing.

Anyway, that's more than all the time we have for the first hour. That was fun, let's do it more. That was fun. We are gonna do it more. We're gonna do it tomorrow. There you go. And we're gonna take a break and then second hour. Yes, Ida Rodriguez and Brett Erlich will be joining me for hour two.

We're gonna talk about a wide variety of topics today. As I mentioned earlier, we will talk about what's happening with millennials and their finances. are looking pretty grim, just giving you a little spoiler alert there. And later on, we will talk about Sean Hannity, who earns $36 million a year complaining about paying a little more in taxes. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay. We'll see after that. 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.