The Young Turks - Trump Reminds Us How Far He's Lowered The Bar

Episode Date: August 8, 2019

Trump’s visit with mass shooting victims was a disaster. Cenk Uygur, Mark Thompson, and John Iadarola, 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. 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.

Welcome to the Young Turks, Jake Eugher, Mark Thompson, General, everybody. Okay, I'm in a good mood. I like mixing things up. So, look, if you're looking for an edge somewhere, what you're wanting to do is go to the edge with Mark Thompson. Oh, there you go. Very well done. And then after you listen to that podcast, you're going to need to get a damage report. Oh, seamless.

The man is such a pro. It's written. No, not written. But, you know, as I was thinking, Mark of Johnny Pie and Johnny Ty and True North over here, I realized that there was a massive disparity on this panel because John has the most nicknames and you have no nickname. No, it's time. Yeah, it is time. So I started playing around with some, I was walking here and I thought, the vicious vegan.

Oh, that's great. I think the edge sounds pretty cool. I think it's taken by the U-2 musician, though, The Edge. I like vicious vegans, alliterative, anyway. I don't know if the vicious thing is a little bit too. I know, that's why I was amused by it. I don't think that there are any vicious vegans. Okay, but I couldn't be wrong about that.

The vociferous vegan? It's a mouthful. We're going to work on it. All right, okay? Working time. Anyways, got a great second hour for you guys with Brooke and Ramesh as well. And then, Just Democrat's going to be on in the third hour. Speaking of shows, right?

And she was attacked by a New York Times reporter because they said, oh, now the Justice Democrats are running against another African American in that district. Except the problem is the Justice Democrat is also an African American. But the New York Times reporter failed to check that. Anyway, we're going to discuss that in the third hour today. Fun for everybody. Okay, so lots of madness in today's show, racist admitting that they're. racist accidentally, Fox News has figured out who's at fault for ice ripping families apart.

I don't know if you're going to be surprised or not surprised by their conclusion as to who's at fault. Obama. Now, in this case, it was Obama. Close. But we'll get to that story later. Anyways, tons and tons of stories. So, John, want to take it away?

Okay, let's do a follow up with the news from yesterday. Yesterday, Donald Trump headed to El Paso to comfort the victims of last weekend's terror attacks. But that is an important task for president. It was difficult for him for a couple of different reasons. One, everything about him. And two, that they didn't want to meet with him. Spokesman for the hospital said that this is a very sensitive time in their lives.

Some of them said they didn't want to meet with the president. Some of them didn't want any visitors. Although he also added that two victims who had previously been discharged from the the hospital did come to see Donald Trump, but none of them, none of the ones that were still in the hospital wanted to. That doesn't have from going. He did go. He talked with a hospital staff and talked as he does. Job you've done, and they're talking about it all over the world, and it's an honor to be with you. Look at this group of people. Can you believe this? Good looking for people. You're fantastic. I was here three months ago. We made a speech, and we had a state, and what was the name of the arena? That place was.

right? I was front rober. Right? The judges of respect. I was from Rome. What was the name? I was from Rome. Oh good. Come here, my.

That was some crowd. Thank you for all. And we had twice the number outside. And then you had this crazy Beto. Beto had like 400 people in a parking lot. They said his crowd was wonderful. But we had some. Oh, look at that.

Whoa, oh wow. Look at that. Look at that. I was encouraging her. Don't tell it to the press because they won't even believe it. No. I only believe it on voting on day, on the day of the vote. They said, what happened?

Okay, so one of the reasons I wanted to play that was, I just wanted to check from you guys, is it right to despise that 100%? Acknowledging that some of the people who were standing with him, big fans of him, apparently they'd been to his rally, but that that was what he talked about while at the hospital. Yeah, no, not remotely problematic to despise it. So, guys, I mean, look, again, I always wonder with the Trump supporters. Like really you think that it's the appropriate thing to do and always think about the shoe on the other foot I do that in our case and I've done it a thousand times on the show and I said guys remember now if the shoe was on another foot right if Obama had gone to the hospital where there had been a massacre and over 20 people murdered and said you know people are talking about it all over the world like first of all even if he just said that yeah because there was a massacre right but that's like nothing compared to the rest of it and this Obama's talking about oh yeah my

crowd sizes are awesome and the Republican crowd sizes suck and that's what we're celebrating here right? We're not celebrating anything dude. There people are in a hospital because they're injured from a massacre. It's not about you. It's not about you. Even if you were attacked. And in this case, he started it. He there was no attack. This in Ohio, he claims that the Democrats said nonsense. We'll show you the actual quotes. But in this case, he just comes into the hospital. I like El Paso. Because oh, I want to be big crowd. You shouldn't see the parking lot. Crazy Beto. If you're not embarrassed by that as a Trump supporter, there's something off with you.

I mean, okay, that's who you are. You're like, oh yeah, you know what? When people are almost died, those people in the hospital and then 22 others died, well, I talk about me too, I think that's the right thing, you go in there, you brag. That's the right thing to do, brag? Have you ever done that yourself? Like I keep asking you to think about Trump if he was in your life, like if you got no bar And a guy walks in and goes, you know, I'm a very stable genius.

I'm known for being a stable genius. You'd run for your life, right? Like in this case, if you're sick and you got shot and an uncle comes by, and instead of saying, hey, are you okay, is everything all right? He starts talking about, oh man, you should have seen how great I am. You did what, hey, we were trying to consult their, you know, the person who was shot. He's like, oh, I know, but let's talk about me, okay? And oh my God, my crowd sizes were great, and this other guy was terrible, you'd be like,

This uncle's nuts. Like, you know, I'm not sure we should have invited him to the hospital. But apparently Republicans see that and they're like, that's right. You go to a hospital instead of mourning, you brag about yourself. That's what a man would do. Okay, that's why we live on different planets. That's why you can't understand us and we can't understand you and you're pretty much the bad guys in the movie.

I mean, there might be those that fit that category of people who are okay with it. I think most Republicans, at least congressional Republicans, probably cringe because they, they understand the impropriety of what's going on. They understand sort of how, as Jenks says, it's, I had the same thought. Like, if you were going to visit somebody in the hospital and there was a guy who walks in and this guy, you know, you're surviving a massacre and the person comes in and they started talking about like their new car or something. No, no, you got to, people are really loving my car.

You got to, you know, you, it's the same thought, Jenk did, like, you know, you try to put yourself in the situation where this inappropriate, this series of inappropriate remarks could somehow exist, there's no way you're okay with it. But what Republicans are willing to do is not so much say, yeah, that's the guy we want, but they're willing to overlook it because of a political agenda. I think that is a more common Republican response than being okay with how inappropriate those comments and that disposition was. That's my sense of it.

And they just will never acknowledge that if Obama had done it, that they would have despised them for it. Oh, yeah. But another reason, so we can dislike it and we could be confused by it. But we also, we know that they love it. They will never tire, just like Trump will never tire of hearing how biggest crowd size is, how much he won by, how astounded everyone was, like they just want to hear that over and over. And I think it's because that Trump understands that people don't want to focus on themselves

and their issues, whether economic or health or whatever, they just want to feel like they're a part of something bigger. Like a lot of people invest a lot of themselves into a sports team that they like or whatever. For them, the MAGA movement, the crowd, whether they're in it or not, that's who they are. And they also need a mission. And the mission is who are we going to hate right now? Maybe it's Ilhan Omar, maybe it's AOC, now it's Crazy Beto. Because what I'm gonna do is, I'm gonna come as president, I'm gonna come to your city that's reeling from a terror attack, and I'm gonna insult your local politicians, that's what I'm gonna do.

And they love it. They want to hear how crazy Beto is. You know what, it's actually a good analogy, gentlemen, because I was thinking like when you said sports, yeah, if Terrell Owens was on your team, no matter how much of a jerk he was, you'd be like, yeah, that's right, you stuffed a football into the star, if you're visiting the Cowboys, yes, right? And if he goes to another team, that's some bitch, right? And that's how sports fans are, but that sports is just for fun.

So it's okay to like Terrell Owens, even though, you know, he's a big loudmouth, et cetera. I didn't kind of answer the game, and it's good, and I like the showboating, because it's It's a game. Yeah. This is not a game. Those people were nearly murdered, and their friends and their family members were actually murdered, not fun. Yeah.

Although not those people, because those people wouldn't meet with them. Those people who were in the hospital, for other reasons, they, yes, that's true. Okay, so really fast, I just want better work's response, because we do have another thing to analyze coming out of his trips to the two different cities. So better work for respondents saying this community is focused on healing, not hatred, not racism, certainly not crowd sizes. Our community and our country will not be defined by real Donald Trump's smallness. We will be defined by the love, compassion, and strength of El Paso.

So that is a responsible, that's a good comment. But it's not exciting, I guess. So he doesn't get me fired up to hate the other person, so he will probably be forgotten as a result of it. But in any event, that's El Paso. We talked yesterday about Dayton a little bit, and he was mad, his campaign was mad that people have been politicizing these sorts of things, using it for political. gain and to demonstrate that he tweeted out this video.

I think that this, again, I want to check you guys, I hate that, but I think that mainly just because I hate him. No, no. I know that they'll use it in ads and everything, but he appeared to be doing what he's supposed to do. No, no, there was nothing wrong with what he did. And in fact, the politicians on the left that he criticized in Ohio agreed that there was nothing wrong with what he did.

We'll get to that in a second. But making a video, campaign style video out of it, and then like bragging about it. But you, again, while you're supposed to be visiting people who suffered from yet another massacre on your watch, let's pause to note that you said during your acceptance speech that you alone could protect us, and you have been a miserable failure at that. I mean, an absolute train wreck of a failure, he hasn't protected us at all, and no one could make the argument that he has. So you can go into your alternative fact world, but the mass shootings have increased substantially

and partly fueled by his own white supremacy. Anyway, so he goes and does campaign style video. Is it horrible, obnoxious? Of course it is. Then he said, he told reporters that his opponents were politicizing the recent mass shootings and, quote, he would like to stay out of the political fray. Number one, if you'd like to stay out of the political fray, you shouldn't do, in essence, a campaign video at the hospital.

That's not the way you stay out of the political fray. Number two, he then said, then I saw a failed presidential candidate Sherrod Brown at zero percent and went on to go insult him and Mayor Whaley. Sherrod Brown never ran for president. He'd be pulling at zero percent because he's not running. Okay, but the guy, of course, is a moron, doesn't check for one second. God damn it, just Google it, just Google for one second. It doesn't take that long or have any of your assistance.

You have a thousand staffers at the White House, right? who's a Sherrod Brown, you're polling in 0% running for president and mayor and dog catcher. None of those things are true. He was thinking about running for president, but never actually ran for president. There are no polls of Sherrod Brown. Anyway, he attacks him over and over. Skavino, who's part of the communications team for Trump, says that Trump was received like, quote, like a rock star at the hospital.

Yeah, again, that's the thing you would do. If you were a decent human being, you would go to a hospital where a massacre happened and brag about how you're a rock star and then do a campaign style video. Okay, I got more on what Brown and Whaley actually said, but I want to let you read. Well, I just would say that Donald Trump is a photo op president. So in a sense, to Johnny's point, when he shows up at the hospital to console victims, and to meet with staff that we're attending to those victims. He's doing really what he does best,

and by that I mean really the only thing he can do well, which is to shake hands, smile, pose for pictures. The minute he has to speak, the minute he has to comment publicly, that's when you're going to get the reality, which is a guy who's, in essence, ignorant and has no interest in educating himself, and who will also really let the degree to which he's heinous to the core a show. And so had he just taken the pictures and, you know, greet it, that's what he should

be doing. He is a photo op president. But the minute he has to weigh in and articulate any fact at all or any thought at all, it reflects really who he is. So I want to make a quick prediction that I really hope that this is not right. But I saw him go to Dayton and insult their politicians, which you could never do his president, but he did it right after terror attack. And then he went to El Paso and he insulted their politicians, which again, you could never do. We remember in Puerto Rico, got into a feud, they're reeling from a hurricane. He gets into a feud with their politicians. He had a mini feud with the widow of a soldier who died because his call to her was so horrible

that she was angry about it. Those people who didn't see him when he went to the El Paso Hospital, one of them might go on the news next week once they've actually recovered and they're out of the hospital and talk about why they didn't want Trump to go, he's gonna attack them. Oh, no question. No question. You don't think that he's an attack? Great call.

Great call. And to Mark's point about a photo op, you know that they said they didn't want the reporters there because they didn't want to turn the hospital visit into a photo op. And then they made a campaign video out of it. Their hypocrisy knows no about us. But finally, I want to get to Skavino and Trump both attacked Brown and Whaley, the two Democratic senator and Democratic mayor in Dayton, or as he thinks Toledo. So he said, oh, they were terrible, they were vicious to the president.

So I'm going to quote, Sherrod Brown, the senator first. He was received as well as you can expect by the patients. They are hurting, he was comforting. He and Melania did the right things. It's his job in part to comfort people, and I'm glad he did it. Vicious, I can't believe they've ripped into Trump that way. They view that as a political attack, and then they go rip their face off, right? And well, let's go to the mayor, to be fair.

She said, I think the victims and the first responders were grateful that the president of the United States came to date. Oh, my God, I didn't know you were going to be that tough on Trump. Okay. And so he then viciously attacks them afterwards. No bounds, no bottom of the barrel, no morals. If you're proud to support that guy, okay, but I don't. And, you know, they say, oh, there's two Americas and we're two divided. Well, I want to be divided from you.

I don't want to hang out with you. You're a terrible person. And we can be divided politically, but certainly when it comes to decency, you would think that there is some spot that we all occupy together, some expectation of basic decency. Again, not looking for moral leadership from this guy, but some basic decency that you wouldn't think he'd, a line he wouldn't cross, we can't seem to even find that. No, I mean, depending on the poll, anywhere from over 70% to over 90% of Republicans, who who have now seen him do this a thousand times, 10,000 times fully support him.

They look at that and we think, I mean, all we're looking for is just bare minimum decency. He can't cross the lowest bar in American history and they look at him and go, go get him, Tiger. So that's why I say, look, no, I don't want to be buddies with you. Look, if you think that that's a nice thing to do, a great thing to do and you like that guy, and you think that guy's smart, we're not gonna have an interesting conversation anyway. I have a shirt that says he's a genius. The last thing I want to mention, just because we talked about this earlier this week,

in his comments about what could possibly come, what reforms could come from this, he said that there's appetite for background checks that he's considering it. I don't trust him, but he said that. And we talked about the last time that he said that, that the NRA tamp that down, and he said, okay, okay, no background checks. So he said it again, and news this morning, the NRA contacted him. So we'll see. Yeah.

But they warned him again, just like they did last time. Yeah, that nighttime call from Wayne LaPierre where he says, hey, listen, Sparky, let's not get you off the reservation. Remember, you know, we can't have you out there saying this stuff. Even though we know in Washington doesn't matter what the president wants. I mean, he could, that's why, in a sense, it's immaterial what Trump says. You can say whatever he wants about background checks. They're not going to move on, congressionally on it. Yeah, look, I'm not like the Democratic politicians.

They're all like flowers and roses and being nice, and he rips their face off anyway. I'll tell you what Donald Trump is, he's a coward and he's corrupt. So when the NRA calls, he said, oh, I'm sorry, what happened? Tough guy, I thought you were going to do the background checks. That's what you said last time, and then you cowered away because you're a coward. Commander Bonespurs, have you run from a battle recently? Because you've run from every battle in your life, and then he's cravenly corrupt. So he's like, don't know, I'm going to keep the NRA and check, none of these other politicians.

He said after Parkman, then the NRA called and said, hey, remember, idiot, we give you money. He's like, okay, sir, absolutely, sir, where's the check? Right, same thing's gonna happen total I mean you voted against the swamp he loves the swamp He's living in the swamp his old goddamn life if you can't see that you're an idiot So sorry I'm not gonna be like the other Democrats and like oh are you okay let's do kumbaya no if you like Trump You're stupid and craving as well sorry there you have it That's a bumper sticker okay Yeah let's do it I didn't even get into crowd sizes I got worse things

worse things to say about that. All right. When we come back, of course, Trump gets somebody killed. 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-F-The-Republic or Un-N-F-E-N-F-E-Rubble. 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, how you doing? Back on the Young Turks. So I've got a lot of comments for you guys.

C or J likely C writes in. Is that a reference to my name? I think so. Anyway, J. Don't you have some optimism for gun control, NRA TV is toast, and they've lost a ton of money. The majority in favor of gun control are well organized. No, the Republicans must be completely wiped out for us to get gun control. It doesn't matter. I mean, look, that's, you've heard me say it a billion times. Federal background checks, 97% of Americans want it. So persuasion is irrelevant.

The whole country's persuaded. Gun owners are persuaded. The most hard right wing, extreme right wingers are persuaded. We won everyone over except the Republican politicians because it's not about persuasion, it's about corruption. So until you end the corruption, no, I don't have optimism on those grants. Look, it's now boiling over so badly we might get federal background checks, but that's just as a release valve.

It's not to actually do anything about guns. So like assault rifles, impossible. With corruption still in place, there's no way you're gonna ban assault rifles. It's just not even close. Just on that, contrast that to New Zealand after the massacre. Two weeks later, they've got the ban and the buyback in place. Yeah. Blaine Egg writes in, how's this getting by you guys?

When a bully fights and you don't fight back, the bully wins. People start to follow that bully. They then join in with a bully. Trump is more powerful than ever because of them's lack fight. I don't think we're missing that. I think we say that all the time, right? Let me at them. Right?

Oh, another reason root for a progressive to win the Democratic nomination. I mean, look at that point, I'd be a billion percent on board for whoever won, right? And if I'm on TV all the time, fighting for those, I will rip Trump's face off. And when I do that, you think I won't get under his skin? And then he, oh, God, it'd be so easy, so easy to pulverize him. But the Democrats are like, oh, come on, right? Vote for Alex Morris in Massachusetts 1. Richard Neal, the head of the Ways and Means Committee, one of the most powerful Democrats,

won't get Trump's tax returns. Even though the state of New York passed the law saying, here it is, here it is, take the returns. He's like, no, I won't. I wouldn't be fighting Trump. I won't. Coward, coward, coward corporate Democrats. Make sure Richard Neal loses. Make damn sure of it. Go donate to Alex Morse right now. M-O-R-S-E. Anyway, you see my point. Wait, do I look like I'm fighting?

Look, in the post game today, I'll tell you the story of how the crowd turned in the middle of a fight for me. What I was in junior high, I was in a very serious fight. Kind of, we were kids. Anyway, and I'll tell you how the crowd swung, because it is an amazing story of how mob rule and how crowds react. You're 100% right, Blaine. It was basically the end of Rocky 4. Kind of, kind of, you'll see. Basically the same. Sounds like it could be. Yeah, t.yt.com slash join to get the last half hour where I'll tell that story.

All right, Ryan Zephyr on Twitter makes a great point. That Adam Trump just admitting the only way to make him look good is to mute 90% of what he says. I think so. I think they're like, oh good, good, this way he doesn't have to talk and all the idiots can just be, just all gauzy music, et cetera. really fast on that because maybe I'm crazy, but maybe somebody saw that as soon as this morning it was uploaded, but that was not the music that I heard when I first listened to it.

Cameron Caskey tweeted it out and he described it as the sort of music you'd have in a really bad, low budget pirate movie. And he was right, that was appropriate music, but it was like action movie music. Anyway, maybe somebody can tweet in like was it replaced at some point, because I feel like I'm going insane. All right, well, that could also be true. Both could be true, right. Pink Room Music, last one says, Trump at the hospital is George Costanza marvelling at his parking spot when he visits someone in the hospital.

That's great. Bravo, winner. Winner, winner, winner, winner. See, that's why we do the show together with the audience. That's just the birth. Absolutely. So, Pink Room Music, we're going to find a way to get you a T-shirt, okay? Pick whichever one you like. ShopTy.com, we'll find you, okay, we will find you.

Get you a t-shirt, check out all the options you get at shopty.com. All right, and speaking of sponsors, I like to pretend that shop TYT is an independent organization. Anyway, NordVPN, you guys know the deal. It's like a condom for your computer. Be safe, don't let anybody know which websites you're going to, et cetera, protect your URLs. It's like you could literally, it'll look like your computer. computers in a different country or in a different state.

The other day, I used NordVPN, so I looked up pizza places and I'm like, why do they want me to go to Missouri to get a pizza? And I was like, oh, I am in Missouri. So NordvPM.com slash T.I.T gets you 75% off, which is a little mental and a month off. So, all right, what's next? Okay, unfortunately we had to transition into something very dark. A 41 year old man from Detroit was deported to a robbery. back in June. His name was Jimmy Aldaoud, and he died earlier this week, apparently from

complications getting the medicine he needs to treat his diabetes. Now, that's horrible without anything added, but everything else that you hear about this only makes it worse. So an immigration attorney who works with him, a close friend of his family. Edward Bojoka says that the death was apparently linked to just an inability to obtain insulin. Now, he was an Iraqi national, Jimmy was, but he was born in Greece and came to the U.S. as a young child, apparently when he was just six months old. He had never lived in Iraq, obviously, as most people who've lived in America, their entire lives have not. He didn't speak Arabic. He was technically in Iraqi National, but there was nothing Iraqi about him any more than anyone sitting at this table. And yet,

they sent him back there because they don't care. They just don't care. We say this a lot about like people being deported hypothetically to Mexico or somewhere else in, you know, Latin or South America. But they do it to the Middle East too. And they send people into a context. They have no ability to deal with, you know, let alone any additional problems like his health problems, including potentially mental health problems. And so he died because he was on his own in a country he didn't know, surrounded by people

who speak a language that he can't speak. And his lawyer says, rest in peace, Jimmy, your blood is on the hands of ice in this administration. So when I first saw the headline, Iraqi man dies after Trump administration deports him. I have to confess that I had a number of assumptions in my head, all of which proved to be wrong. So I thought, well, maybe he was a translator for us. And if we sent him back, maybe some people that were on the opposite side want to get revenge on them, et cetera, et cetera. I think this story is in some ways worse. because, look, I know because I immigrated to this country when I was eight years old.

And he came here when he was six months old. And even as in coming here as an eight-year-old, you barely remember things before eight. And so I grew up an American. And in fact, my Turkish family makes fun of me for that. They're like, oh, look at the American over here. I said, oh, did you watch Seinfeld? Or do you want to eat pizza? Right?

I'm like, yeah, because that's the culture I grew up in. I'm culturally American, I'm as a citizen American, et cetera. This guy 100% in culturally, whether he was a citizen or not, right? And so when they, and it turns out, no, not only did he, was he not in the war, not a transit, none of that, he's not Muslim, he's Catholic, he's Chaldean, okay? That's a very specific sect in Iraq. And it turns out the Chaldeans here in America largely supported Donald. Trump in the election, and now they feel betrayed.

What did you think he was going to do? Did you think he was going to make a distinction? Oh, you're Iraqi, but you're Christian, so it's okay? You might think that's a normal distinction, and if you were a real evangelical, maybe you make that distinction. If you were a real American, you wouldn't make that distinction. You wouldn't care what his religion is, but, you know, he played up the whole, oh, evangelicals and I'm with you, Christians, et cetera.

No, he sees an Iraqi. Who cares that he's Christian? No, sending them back. And they're like, you're sending Christians back to Iraq in the disaster that Iraq is? Well, I mean, even if you didn't have the insulin problem that this guy Jimmy had, I mean, you're gonna be in a world trouble. You know, to John's point, he was homeless. He doesn't know anyone in Iraq.

He didn't grow up in Iraq at all. He doesn't know how to speak the language. So he didn't know how to get off the street. And then he dies because he can't get his medicine and nobody will help him. And that's what this country's turned into, that's what we do now. So look, I'll give you the important caveat. He did have a criminal record. So it's, you know, if you're just looking at that, I get it.

You can say, hey, listen, if you're committed a crime and you're not a citizen, they send you back. I understand that. And so this is in that sense, not as egregious so as some of the other Trump stories. It's egregious in the sense that, first of all, by the way, he's schizophrenic. That's why he has a criminal record according to his family, right? And so they're like, yeah, we're trying to help him, and we've been getting him counseling. sling, et cetera, et cetera.

And so if you're a conservative, you could say, yeah, I don't care. He committed a crime, sad day for him, he's not a citizen, he should go back. If you're, I hope, a normal person, you go, well, I get it on the crimes. But gosh, I wish that hadn't happened. I wish they hadn't sent him to a country he never lived in and where he died. I hope you think that. It also speaks to a recklessness when it comes to the way that a lot of these deportations are handled.

And I think that's sort of the meta problem that we always hear about, we're going to vet, and this is all going to be handled, and it's going to, remember Donald Trump early on, said everything's going to be handled humanely. But of course, it's been just the opposite. Everything's handled quite recklessly. And this is just really one more symptom of that recklessness. But just one thing, I got to ask of all across the country for the Trump supporters, when he comes for you, please don't be surprised.

Like, everybody is always shocked and chagrined and surprised. I remember there was this story, I think it was in Ohio. Middle of the country somewhere, they come and get this guy who's good business owner and have been running a diner, the community loves them, and they're like, but wait, we all voted for Trump. He doesn't care. The farmers all voted for Trump, now they're devastated. He doesn't care.

So just please don't be surprised when he comes for you. Yeah, he talks about how much he loves bikers for Trump. He tried to drive Harley Davidson out of business. Like there's no line he won't cross. With the international Christians, it's just a talking point that we need to protect them. It doesn't matter if it's them in Iraq, if it's the Coptic Christians, it is just a talking point. It's like how conservatives here in the U.S. bring up Chicago for gun violence. It's just a talking point.

They don't care about fixing it. They just think it's convenient to talk about it. And with this guy, so he's been here for a very long time, longer than the vast majority of most of us. He committed crimes, and I don't care. He's one of us. He just is. Like, I guess I have a fundamentally different idea of what makes you an American or makes you worthy to be here. But the people who fight, for instance, I had Jose Caballero on, a candidate

for Congress in California, and he wants to make, like, if you're here and you serve in the military, you become a citizen. Because obviously you deserve citizenship if you're willing to die for your country. And if you spend your entire life here, especially a difficult one, marked by mental health problems as well as other health problems, you're one of us. But for conservatives, it's not. It's the same as like white pride. It's just a stupid stand-in for your own deficiencies. You want to define yourself by something that just happened when you were born. You happen to be born here. You happen to be born a citizen. You didn't do anything for it. You're so obsessed with sovereignty and borders, it is nothing to do with you. It's just

supposed to make you better than people who've gone through hell to get here. Like the attacking a parent who would bring their kid 2,000 miles through horrendous conditions to get here, that person deserves it. More than the vast majority of people, deserves it more than I do. Honestly, I was born here, I became a citizen through no fault or effort of my own. But if somebody wants to serve in the military, if somebody gives their life, they start a business, they're here their whole lives, they start a family, they're one of us. So technically, we are the American dream, my family, right? We came to America because we love America, we believe in it, we believe in hope, opportunity,

et cetera, and this country gave us that hope and opportunity, and I think we've done a good job of taking advantage of that and giving back and being good citizens, et cetera. And we did the legal way, we did all the things that conservatives always want us to do, right? Hey, you gotta wait in line, we did wait in line, right? You gotta do it the legal way, we did do it the legal way. And then they say they would be welcoming. Yet right wingers every day will say, go, go back home, go back home, right? They never meant it.

They never meant any of it. It's just the matter of who's in the us and who's in them. And these Chaldean Catholics that voted for Trump, they thought they were part of the us. Come to find out, they're not. I'm questioning whether we should show the video of Jimmy talking before he was deported. I hesitate just because knowing that he died, it's so devastating. No, but people got to know what the reality is. Hiding the reality from them isn't going to help them.

So this is a video that had been posted by someone who knew him to Facebook when he had learned that he was going to be deported and he was justifiably scared. I was deported two and a half weeks ago. Speak up, please. I was, I've been to the United States since six months old, you know. And just two and a half weeks ago, immigration aid didn't pull me over since I'm going to Iraq. And I refuse. I said I've never been there.

I've been in this country my whole life, you know, which is pretty much work. I've just worked by six months. And they refused to listen to me. I wouldn't listen to me. They wouldn't let me call my family, nothing. They just said you go to Iraq and your best better is to cooperate with them. that way we're not going to send you up or we'll put you on our commercial flight. I begged them. I said, please. I've never seen that country. I've never been there. However,

they forced you. I'm here now. And I don't understand the language. Anything, I've been sleeping in the street. I'm diabetic. I take insulin shots. I've been throwing up, throwing up, sleeping in the street, trying to find something to eat. You know, I got nothing over here, as you can see. I was kicked in the back a couple days ago, claiming to get up the guy's properly. I was sleeping on the ground. He claimed it's his property. You know, I begged them. I said, please, sir, I've never seen this country. I don't understand language, you know, nobody speaks English. So that was actually after he went to Iraq, and he died shortly thereafter. So you might say that if you're a conservative that it was necessary, I hope you're not proud.

Okay, break or we'll push on another start? Yeah, I think that's probably your talk. Yeah, let's take a break, guys. When we come back, you're going to be shocked to find out. details from senior government officials about how the White House did not want to fight a white supremacist terrorists. At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control of our online lives, constantly monitoring us and storing and selling our data.

But that doesn't mean we have to let them. 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 TYT, 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 supporting independent media, become a member at t-y-t.com slash join today. In the meantime, enjoy this free segment. Hawaii says, of course that's the way to treat mentally ill people. There's no concern that you're schizophrenic and don't speak the language. How much you want to bet that Trump brags about this tomorrow or the next day, that poor guy. And so we were talking about it. Look, guys, if he wasn't mentally ill, he could have gone to the embassy and asked for help. He could have tried to find English speakers, et cetera.

He just had no sense about him. So he's just stayed in the street until he died. You look at that guy and go, yeah, yeah, I'll send him to his death. You know, by the way, John, we didn't get to it. You're going to deport a thousand Iraqis. I don't even know if the embassy would have helped him. Yeah. If he's not a citizen.

No, I mean, you hope for some degree of humanity, but haven't found it yet. Yeah, in the Trump administration. But the diplomats are often career diplomats and decent people. Anyway, pork chopper express says, careful, Jake, ICE may be listening. No, no, they're not coming for me. I'm coming for them. So they can come all day like, I'm a 100% American citizen. And I will shove that so far up there.

Okay, you get it. Finally, a comment I don't agree with. Unprecedented madness says John's speech needs to become viral. He was, it was a really great riff, I have to say. Yeah, nice job, John. Okay, I take it back immediately. DM Thomas on Twitter says, just hauled a treadmill into my house.

I'm parkeded by my fire TV so that when I get home from work, I can walk and watch TYT. I like that. Great idea. Yeah, lose weight while watching TYT. Okay, win win. Like a kind of like an aspiration.com slash TYT. Wow.

You can even log on to Aspiration.com slash TYT while doing it. By the way, you could watch Young Turks on your TV in a thousand different ways now. Fire, the Chromecast, we're on Apple TVs, we're on every kind of TV that you can imagine, right? Just look it up and either get the app, the TYT app, or just take it from your computer onto your TV. Before we launch you this, I just want to say one good thing quick because I never talk about this on the show, but you host a podcast so you know how difficult it is to get people to discover your podcast. If anyone is watching this right now and is a fan of either of our podcast, either the Edge or the damage report, please go on iTunes and leave a written review and rate the podcast. That would be great. I'm going to head home later.

Been in kind of a bad mood all day. It'd be cool to see a nice written review later and it helps more people see the programming that you yourself enjoy. So thank you. Oh, that's terrific. Very good. Yes, and by the way, also do it for old school, which we're all on from time to time, and the young Turks. But first. The edge with Mark Thompson.

That's what I was going to say. Okay, so why don't we jump to something really serious? Since he became president, Donald Trump hasn't just ignored white supremacy and domestic terror. He hasn't just not prioritized it. He's actually gone out of his way to make sure that our government does not have the funds or the manpower to do what's necessary to stop these sorts of attacks from happening. And this information that we're gonna talk about today comes from a senior administration official inside of the White House who was working in the areas of counterterrorism.

So Homeland Security officials apparently battled the White House for more than a year to get them to focus more on domestic terrorism. The White House wanted to focus only on the jihadist threat, which, while serious, says the anonymous source, ignored the reality that racial supremacist violence was rising fast here at home. They had major ideological blinders on as well as racial blinders. Yeah, can I just interrupt for a second? Because I don't think it's ideological blinders. It's not that they can't see it, they see it, they just don't really want to combat

it because they think it's their base. So it's way worse than ideological blinders. And in fact, as you'll see a little bit later here, these sources are not remotely progressive. No. They're just like, this is our job, we're supposed to fight. extremists, otherwise they kill everybody. Should we not do that? That's weird. So let me give you some more information from this source. That former senior administration official noted that the White House, especially the president, have a problem criticizing

white supremacy. And so there was this attempt to get a brief mention of domestic terrorism into the national counterterrorism strategy. He said of that, they didn't have the expectation that the White House or Trump would get behind it because the preponderance of it involves white supremacy, and that's not something the administration is comfortable speaking out against, until the other day by the president earlier this week, and even that was pretty hedged. And then there's a sentence, which is just it should be a national tragedy itself that it could be written and be true. During a lengthy back and forth, the senior source tells CNN, one White House official proposed that the national counterterrorism strategy focus on radical

Islamists and foreign drug dealers, since that would please the president, which as we all know is what the national counterterrorism strategy is written for? To please the president. Yes. So this source that CNN talked to said the last administration was too politically cautious in calling out the threat of Islamist terrorism. But that doesn't mean we need to overcorrect and ignore what was surging domestic threat. So obviously they're not anybody's liberal.

So no progressive thought, oh, the last administration is soft on Islamist terrorism, right? So this is a conservative person fairly clearly. And it says, but why, because I'm conservative and I thought we should have gone after Islamic terrorism more and called it by its name and et cetera, et cetera, and those talking points that you hear, that doesn't mean we should go after white supremacists who are killing people, does it? And, and that's the negotiation they had. They had to have a negotiation with the White House.

They're like, we're law enforcement, can you, can we pretty please do our job? And they're like, I don't know. So the way they resolved it is what they snuck in just one phrase and into their report so they could use it as an excuse to actually do their job. So I'll read that to you guys. So ultimately the White House added just one paragraph about domestic terrorism as a throwaway line. This is what the senior source says.

And that paragraph mentions, quote, other forms of violent extremism such as racially motivated extremism, that's the only phrase, that's it. Then it adds animal rights extremism, environmental extremism, sovereign citizen extremism, and militia extremism. So even in- Yeah, that's true. They add at least the militia and the sovereign citizens, et cetera. But even in the one sentence we got, it was divided equally between right-winging extremists

theoretical left-wing extremists. I say theoretical because where are they, right? Remember when the left-wing extremists shot up a whole town? Yeah, neither do I. Jank, this morning on the damage where I had an animal rights activist on, who's facing eight felony charges for attempting to free ducklings from a factory farm. That's a radical. Same as, you know, a white supremacist who kills 22 people.

And it's the equivalent of that they're good people on both sides kind of play, right? In other words, we're looking for white supremacy, extremism, but we're also looking equally at these other things, animal activists and the like. It's disgusting on a couple of different levels, one of which is you need these briefings, you need these strategies to be unfiltered. You need them to reflect the reality. I mean, we're dealing with serious threats to the nation and to people. well-being.

And you can't afford to have them, A, watered down, and B, altered to kiss the president's ass, which is really what's going on. And you'll remember, we're not allowed, I say we, just as a nation, to bring up in the form of any of the officials who are charged with election security, the notion that there might be foreign involvement in our election. Why? Because the president doesn't want to hear about it, and it challenges the legitimacy of his presidency. So, in other words, there are already a bunch of filters on the information.

that's coming into the Oval Office. And this is a really serious problem. And you wouldn't, last thing, I always thought, well, everybody knows Donald Trump is really not that bright. And so they're not going to pay too much attention to what he says. They're kind of going to do their own thing. There was that New York Times op-ed piece about, hey, don't worry, you know, we've got our hands on the wheel.

We give him a fake wheel to steer the car. But now we're realizing that, no, what's actually happening is the intelligence community and many around the White House are bending in. information and bending policy to please the president. And in this case, at least even the conservatives within Department of Homeland Security were like, let's just get them to agree to like blame the ducklings too, but sneak in the words so that at least we'll have some fig leaf to actually do our jobs, to go and make sure that they don't kill American citizens, right?

So credit to the guys at the Department of Homeland Security, no matter what their politics is that at least they're trying really hard to do the fake steering wheel and have an excuse. But if they couldn't put that in, then their hands would be tied. They literally couldn't do anything. They'd have to leave it to local law enforcement after the fact, et cetera. So to that point, I actually want to mention two other things. One, remember FBI director Chris Ray came and testified in front of Congress and said that where the majority of people that they're arresting for domestic terrorism is right-wing

extremists. But it's actually a bare majority. So they're still arresting plenty of Islamic extremists in the country. But then that made me think about it. On the other hand, so those are the arrests. But we know the ADL did a study of last year, 98% of all the killings were done by right-wing extremists. What does that tell you?

That means they got almost all the Islamic extremists that might have done something in the country, the FBI, and great credit to them for wonderful law enforcement there. But they didn't get all the right-wing extremists. Because they didn't have enough resources, they didn't have enough of a team, they didn't have enough of a budget, and since those guys made it through the, and weren't caught by law enforcement, they massacred a lot of people. And yes. And really fast, I want to demonstrate how perhaps we've ended up in a situation where

they're not going to track down those people. So really fast, I want to take you back to May 2017, the Joint Intelligence Bulletin titled White Supremicist Extremism Poses Persistent Threat of Lethal Violence. So this was relatively early on in the Trump administration. So they were still allowed to publish things like that. But it might have been a bad idea, because in that they talk about how serious white supremacist extremists are. If we could bring up the next graph, if you're gonna see that they break down all of the

different homicides that have been committed by white supremacist extremists, talk specifically about the threat that firearms in their hands could pose. But it seems in hindsight to have been a bad idea to even put it on the Trump administration's radar. Because less than a full month after that, the Department of Homeland Security cut grant funding to previously approved applicants whose focus was on studying extremists online networks and helping both white supremacists and Muslim extremists leave their movements. So these organizations had already been around, they'd already been vetted by the federal

government, they'd already been receiving funding that was cut right after a government report saying this is a serious problem and we need to take it seriously. Well, speaking of funding, to give you a sense of how bad this situation is, the source says, the reality is that there won't be a fiscal year 2020 budget for the department, so they'll have to make due. So they just, they don't have the money to actually, even if they had the inclination and it sounds like they do, no matter what their politics, at the lower levels at the Department of Homeland Security, not at the political levels.

They want to do their job, but they don't have a budget for it. And then finally, I also want to criticize Democrats, because Daryl Johnson, who was conservative again within the Department of Homeland Security who worked on this issue during the Bush administration would let a team that came out with a report saying the right-wing extremists are coming. They were a small movement before, but it looks like Obama might win, and if he does, it's going to get much larger we need to focus on it. That report written in the Bush administration gets released during the Obama administration. They yell at Obama, and honestly, Obama and the Democrats coward, and they shut that department

down and they eventually fired Daryl Johnson. It was the Obama team that did that. And Daryl Johnson says, I was a conservative, I was a goody, two shoes, boy Scott Mormon. He's like, I was against gay marriage, I was as conservative as it gets. And so when they fire my team and eventually I go, that sends a message to everybody. Do not, under any circumstances, go after right-wing extremism. Because if you do, there'll be a price to pay. So the Democrats and their cowardice and the Republicans in their viciousness led to this.

And Darryl Johnson says, the Republicans, he's now not a Republican anymore after all this. He said, look, I saw them with my own eyes fight against law enforcement over and over again. And I couldn't take it anymore. And he said at this point, they have blood on their hands. Okay, let's do the last story. Yes, one last story will do this really fast. For a long time, conservatives have said that they do not want an out-of-control federal government. They want to shrink it down.

They don't want it to be powerful. They like checks and balances and all of that. But that may be changing fast. Take a look at these poll results. We're going to bring this up really fast. It's going to show you what do these different groups think about expanding presidential power? So stopping presidents from having to worry so much about Congress and the courts, basically making a more powerful executive branch, a more powerful president. Well, the numbers are changing quickly.

To show you, we're to focus on one group, this is conservative Republicans, 52% as of the most recent polls, say yes, the president should not have to worry so much about Congress and the courts. That number, 52%, that doubled since the year before when it was 26%, and quadrupled since 2016 when it was 13%. So in the space of three years, maybe three and a half, depending on the month, it went from 13% to 52, which is just about as fast as I've ever seen any poll change. And for overall, there's two other things that are important about that.

So those are conservative Republicans, so they're the biggest hypocrites. But overall, for all Republicans, it didn't quadruple, it only tripled. It went from 14% of Republicans saying, no, too much executive power, this Obama guy is out of control, no way to now 43% of all Republicans are going, yeah, yeah, of course, the president should totally circumvent Congress in the court, so what do you mean, right? And they, and so now let's look at Democrats, because a lot of studies show, hey, wait a minute, this is human nature. You know, you look at facts that are against your side and you just justify it away, et cetera.

And we've shown you those studies because we're actually fair. In this case, yes, the Democrats actually did think now they're more concerned about executive power than they were under Obama. But it's only a 13 point swing for Democrats, whereas it's at 20. 29 point swing for all Republicans, let alone conservative Republicans. Even more, yeah. Yeah, so by more than a two to one margin, the Republicans were bigger hypocrites. So that's a fact.

And now the realities, how about us, right? When Obama was doing abuse of power, we called it out. So there are executive orders you can do that makes sense. And I thought that the ones he did on the environment were perfectly within the law and no problems at all. And by the way, Trump has done some executive orders that are within the law. And I've defended not the substance of the orders, but the ones that were within the law, I said, look, he has the right to do that, right?

He's the president of the United States. Now when Obama went outside the law, we tore into him. When Eric Holder, the attorney general, came out and said, oh yeah, no, we can kill American citizens abroad with drone strikes without going to the courts. People are like, you need due process to execute an American citizen. He said, no, no, you don't, now due process means. the executive branch just checking it with itself. No, that is not due process.

That is an absurd theory, a dangerous theory, totally unconstitutional theory. We call them out then, we're calling them out now, and Obama opened a lot of these doors. And Trump ran a bunch of bulls right through them, right? So we're consistent, these Republicans, see, that's why I say, look, they're not, I mean, I don't know if they know the facts and don't care, more likely, they don't know a damn thing. They just say, principles, what name so? I just don't care. I don't like Obama, I like Trump, I want Trump to do whatever the hell he wants, Constitution.

It's just a prop for us. Whereas on our side, we actually give a damn about the Constitution. That's exactly right. I mean, it's our team, we're allowed to take the edges. That's why we're allowed to deny subpoenas from Congress right now. I mean, there's a whole universe of things that are happening that really fly in the face of any kind of allegiance to a constitution. And it's all because it's just political, tribal politics.

Yeah, it's, the other thing I would suggest at the base of this is it shows how there really is a disregard for what the nation's government is based upon. You know, this balance of power that we're so proud of, you know, the three branches of government and all the stuff that you're taught and that you begin to, you know, treat in a sort of a reverential way, you realize that, hey, but when my guy's there, I don't really care about that crap. Just let that guy make the decisions. And so there really isn't any balance to the government that this side cares about.

Yeah, and the one other factor, especially in this, and maybe why this is an outlier as opposed to other studies that show that oftentimes progressives and conservatives are equally hypocritical in ignoring facts that are inconvenient, is that consumers by their nature are authoritarian. So they want a leader to just take over and lead. And so to them, like checking with Congress, that's a pain in the ass. They just don't fundamentally believe in the concept of democracy as much as we do. You can go ahead and cry about that, but that's just, that's the nature of conservatism,

that you believe in authoritarianism way more than progressives. Do progressives believe that we have to care more about what everybody thinks? That's what you make fun of all the time, right, if you're a conservative. So own it. Yeah, they've never had the attachment to people actually being involved in choosing their leaders and things like that that we have, but it's grown much worse. They're done with democracy, they're just not interested anymore. They want to end direct election of senators, they don't care anymore.

Yeah, and that goes to the last point. I'm so glad you brought that up, John, because demographically they're screwed. In the next election, based on the polling, they're screwed. You can go and tell, oh, you know, 2016, that's what you said, no, that's not what I said. And I think that a lot of the media is overreacting to 2016, Trump's going to get landslided. And they, in their hearts, the conservatives know it. And the conservative politicians know it in their brains. They look at the polling, they looked at the data, and they're like, we cannot win in the

democracy anymore. So let's try to figure out a way around democracy. Let's limit the number of voters, let's clean out the voter rolls, let's get rid of direct election of senators, let's make the presidency more authoritarian. How can we hold on the power when we have no prayer winning in the long run in a democracy? Yeah, or like if finally a Democrat wins the governorship, we strip them of all of his powers. You know, we'll just use whatever we have to take away the powers of what we can no longer keep. And gerrymandering, and the list goes on and on.

One party is in favor of democracy, and the Democrats have plenty of problems, but they're at least in favor of democracy. The Republicans. Maybe not in primaries. That's true, too. Putting the general election mostly. But look, that's why we're fair. It's true. In the primaries, in the state of like New York is supposed to be one of the most liberal states in the country, right?

They're terrible in how little they believe in democracy within primaries, right? So, and if the Democrats want to gerrymander, would be opposed to that. But the Republicans at this point, knowing that the writings on the wall, they got no interest in democracy and they show it in every way imaginable. So again, if you're in that camp, okay, but just own it, understand that you're less American than us. And that might sound painful to hear. You're like, what do you mean?

I'm so white. No, no, no. You kind of missed the whole point. Read the Constitution. Okay. Okay, we got to go. I like how much we plugged your shows. The edge with Mark Thompson, damage report, make sure you guys are checking it out.

When we come back, we got a lot more for you guys, including the Fox News's devastating reaction to the ice raids. I know it's not surprising, but it's still going to get under your skin when we return. 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.co slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.