The Young Turks - Trump Shuts Border Down And White House Officials Fighting Over Military Lethal Force

Episode Date: November 27, 2018

Trump shut down a major point of entry on the U.S.-Mexico border. White House Officials caved to Trump when granting military troops at the border the right to use lethal force. 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. All right, well, the Young Turks, a whole new week ahead for you guys. Happy Thanksgiving. Oh, ho. I don't think you do, oh, on Thanksgiving, plus it's past, but you see my point.

Jake Huger, Anna Gasparian with you. How you doing, Caspar. I'm good. Yeah, your hair color's a little different. Isn't it? Yeah, it's dark. I noticed it. I noticed it.

I think males are supposed to notice things like that. Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't be upset if you didn't, but yes, I tried to go back to my natural color. All right. It's not quite there yet, but it'll get there. All right. God bless. Okay.

So we have a thousand stories for you guys, and we've got families being tear gas at the border. You know that, that's coming up. But a lot more than that as we go forward in the show today, Ukraine and Russia are. Or sure, you got a climate report, you think the Trump administration trying to sneak it in on Friday is going to work wrong, not going to work, we're going to cover it. Okay, but before we do any of that, I want to basically follow up on something that I was doing all weekend, which I rather enjoyed. And now is even better updates and bigger updates.

So we've been doing this t.yt.com slash amplify program where we're trying to get our message out to the rest of the media. So far, excellent success. And I want to thank a number of people that have participated. And I've been saying this all weekend, Vanessa Brue got the package for Laura Ingram and her team and then we got a call from Laura Ingram and her team asking us to be on Fox News. Fascinating. So Vanessa, you're awesome.

Thank you. And then we also had Sean Christopher buy a package for reliable sources. Guess what? I was on reliable sources this weekend. So amazing success already and thank you guys for being involved. Of course, always impossible to tell if it's exactly because of that, but hey, we started the program and already this is rolling in and you guys are amazing. So I want to give you the latest updates since the last one I did on Sunday.

Jared DeSafee bought a package for CBS this morning, so their morning show will get Young Turks membership, including Gail King, best friend of Oprah Winfrey, Norodal, and so many others at that network We'll be getting TYT membership, which is awesome. And then today, Marie LaPosta bought a membership for Pod Save America. And since they do podcasts, I would rank them as among the most likely to use the Young Turks membership. So excellent purchase, Mary. Thank you.

And of course, Marie, and all the others that participate, look, you help build home progressives and you get the message out to others. It's a win-win, and we deeply appreciate it. And then later today, that was in the POTS of America, it was in the morning, and a little bit later, the view, which was a giant package because they have a giant show with a huge staff, bought by an anonymous viewer of TYT. So the view, including Whoopi Goldberg and all the others, will now get Young Turks membership. So I look forward to them listening to that and hopefully at least understanding the progressive

point of view. Now, here's a fun thing. We added some folks now to t-y-t.com slash Amplify. So, hardball with Chris Matthews, well, given what they have, some of the segments they've done in the past, I think they could be helped with a membership to a progressive outlet. Look, you know, we're perfectly aware, and we've been honest with you guys about it. Do we know that Chris Matthews is going to open up the package and start listening every day? Of course we don't know, for sure, of course we don't know, right?

On the other end, is there a chance? Yeah, because we'll be sending it to him. And is it possible that it's not Chris Matthews, but two, three, four people on a staff, and might that at least open their eyes of, oh, I thought the progressive position was Hillary Clinton. It turns out, no, there's a whole other universe out there of people who are fighting for Medicare for all, et cetera. So more people that you can buy packages for Wolf Blitzers and his whole team at the situation room.

There's a room full of folks there that need TYT membership. I like this one. Mediite. Mediaite covers the rest of the media and I think is very influential. Buying them, a package I think could be, could have significant amplifying effect, which is the whole point of the show. You guys like buying stuff for Fox News, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingram have gotten packages. So Sean Hannity, you could buy him a package and get him TYT membership.

Don't you imagine? Now, are we really gonna flip him? That would really be one of the most miraculous things that ever happened. Say, well, I was listening to the young church the other day, and I gotta tell you, they made a really good point. Okay, that would be very surprising, although with Tucker Carlson in my conversation with him, maybe not as shocking as you think, but the other thing you could do is, oh, I get it, these are the strong progressive voices, well that I'm gonna put them on air to battle, but that's

great because that gets our message out. it's me, Anna, Kyle Kalinsky, whoever it might be, John Iderall, et cetera. Now here's a twist. We added some people that were not in the media. Wouldn't it be not, this is a guy who understand the progressive message better than anyone? So this is more of a gift than anything else to his entire staff? Bernie Sanders. Why not get the gift of TYT membership to the Senate staff of President, I almost

said President Bernie Sanders? Getting a little ahead of myself. But it would be nice to have TYT membership for the White House one day. Also someone who might not hear it his office, as often, Nancy Pelosi. I think Nancy Pelosi could definitely use some TYT membership. And then we added another fun twist, which is let's get it to some celebrities, some celebrities we know and others that are progressive and have arranged, but that might not hear TYT membership on a regular basis.

So Willow and Will Smith, I hope they share it. with Jaden as well and other members of the Jada Pink and Smith as well and of the Smith family. We're getting enough for not only their families, but also for their staff. A lot of their folks work on progressive causes and it'd be great for them to know about it. Susan Surrendon, one of the best progressives in the country. She's been wonderful of the young Turks, so let's at least get her a TYT membership for her and her staff.

Shailene Woodley, another absolute rock star for progressive causes that always fights for us. And it'd just be a nice thank you to them to get them to IT membership. That'd be fantastic. You can do all that at t-y-t.com slash amplify. And if you just want to get a T-YT membership for yourself, get basically a progressive Netflix with about 17 shows we have on the network now, all for just $4.99 a month. Well, then obviously you could do that through t-y-t.com slash jank. Okay.

Now, look at that. Casper didn't even chime in. One last thing to panic about, it is apparently Cyber Monday, and that's a thing apparently. So we went nuts, 30% off of everything on shopty.com. What? Jesus of Lord mercy. Time to go nuts. We encourage you to go looting through our store.

No, okay, but we do encourage you to buy at our store with 30% off shoptyt.com. All right, thank you guys. Now Anna, what do you got? All right. Over the weekend, the Trump administration, in addition to border patrol officials, decided to escalate the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border. And they did so by closing one of the major ports of entry near San Diego. Now that led to a lot of issues, including as many as 500 migrants who had been peacefully

protesting rushing toward the border in an effort to enter the United States. and seek asylum. Now, here is Donald Trump talking about this whole incident and what he thinks needs to be done. If we find that it's uncontrollable, Josh, if we find that it's, it gets to a level where we are going to lose control or where people are going to start getting hurt, we will close entry into the country for a period of time until we can get it under control. The whole border, I mean the whole border. We're going to either have a border or we're not.

And when they lose control of the border on the Mexico side, we just try. close the border and they're not coming through, we're not letting criminals into our country. Gotta come in legally. So I just want to be as clear as possible with you guys. The port of entry is literally the legal way of entering the country and seeking asylum. These are not individuals who are attempting to enter the country illegally. We've known about the migrant caravan for how long now. And so they were planning on going through the port of entry, seeking asylum that way, and

going through the legal process to enter the United States. But the Trump administration decided to shut down the border. And even though it's being reported as something else, what really happened was Trump claimed that he had some sort of agreement with Mexican officials. And the agreement stated that Mexico would hold asylum seekers in their country until our immigration judges can get to them and make a decision as to whether or not they would be granted asylum. Once the Mexican authorities or Mexican government responded and said, no, we have not agreed to that deal, Trump made the decision to shut the border.

Now he shut the port of entry near San Diego for several hours on Sunday. He reopened the border at about 6 p.m. that very day. But this is ridiculous because all it's about is trying to prevent anyone from coming into the country, whether it's legally or illegally. Well, the second thing that it does, and I don't know if they intended this consequence or not, is that it causes great frustration for the people who are seeking legal asylum through a legal port of entry. And so they've been in some portions of the caravan have been in Tijuana for 10 days now. And they're living in squalid conditions in a sports center there that got converted into this

when it's not the main purpose of it. It could at most hold 3,500 people, but it's holding 5,000 people. So as that frustration built up, well, that's when a very few percentage of the folks in that caravan decided that they were going to try to run for the gate. And one of the witnesses said that the rumor was that the U.S. would open the gate for them. And then that's why they went to the gate. And instead, they got tear gas. Yeah, these are supposedly the criminals that Trump's talking about.

The real criminal here is unfortunately the person who's leading the country who refuses to follow the rule of law. We have laws pertaining to asylum seekers, and he doesn't respect those laws, and he will do anything and everything possible to prevent them from going through the legal process of seeking asylum. Okay, again, the port of entry is the exact way that these asylum seekers can legally enter the country. And again, Trump doesn't want that to happen.

Now with that said, as Jenk mentioned, some of these migrants attempted to rush the gate, And they were met by violence, by U.S. authorities and also Mexican authorities. So we're gonna show you a few videos kind of giving you a sense of what this chaotic scene was like. And again, the violence was only escalated because of Trump's decision to shut the port of entry down. Take a look. So they're being met with tear gas.

They're obviously running away. And all of these people have been very clear about. the reasons for seeking asylum. They're not the criminals, they're the ones running away from the criminals. And after going through this treacherous, you know, terrain, travel to try to get to the United States and enter the country in a legal way, you know, hearing that the border has been shut down, of course they're going to be frustrated, they're going to be angry. And so a few of them had apparently thrown projectiles at border patrol agents.

And Kirsten Nielsen, the Secretary of Homeland Security, released a statement saying this. Let's go to Graphics 27. As I have continually stated, DHS will not tolerate this type of lawlessness and will not hesitate to shut down ports of entry for security and public safety reasons. Yeah, look, I don't know if I even believe that anyone threw anything. So in these type of situations, there's always conflicting reports. And there's people saying that, look, we've been waiting to go through the whole time. And then they shut the wall.

And I think 39 people, roughly, that's the count, trying to get past the gate out of the 500 that were seeking asylum on that day, out of the 5,000 that are in the sports center in Tijuana. So it's a tiny percentage that got frustrated. And that's why I wonder, like, if the frustration is on purpose. It might not be. It might just be that Trump wants to slow them coming into the country by any. means possible, or it might be they think, well, we said they'd rush the gates, and so maybe if we bottle them up long enough, somebody will rush the gates, and then we'll have the video

and the pictures that we wanted. We could show on Fox News all day long ago, aha, the infestation, okay, and then you get the Department of Homeland Security to say, yeah, they threw something, we think. And so, and now, so we tear gas the hell out of them. Did you pay attention to see if it was all males, or if there were some women and children there? cares. And so, and then that's why you see the picture that you did of the mom with the kids running

away from the tear gas in terror. So apparently that's what we're doing in America now. So it could take months to a year in order to finally get your day in front of a judge as an asylum seeker to make your case and have a judge make a decision as to whether or not you're granted asylum. And so I understand the frustration that some Americans. are feeling regarding the number of migrants that are seeking asylum, the number of people who are trying to come into the country.

It absolutely is a crisis and the backlog is serious. But again, we keep trying to deal with the symptoms of a larger problem. Why are there so many asylum seekers? Why are they trying to come into the United States and why are they seeking refuge here? Okay, are there possibly U.S. foreign policy, has there been U.S. foreign policy? Has there been US foreign policy in the past that has actually exacerbated this problem? We never have a conversation about that, right? The drug war, how is it helping cartels and gangs in Central American countries thrive?

Is there something that we can do to take the power away from them? So they're not as powerful as they are in these countries, like Honduras, for instance. What can we do as Americans and what can politicians do as leaders to help alleviate this problem? So people aren't rushing into the United States seeking safety. So there's two schools with us on this. One is the conservative Fox News School of Thought, which is, oh, so are you trying to blame us? It's our fault? Yes, yes.

Okay. And now the other school of thought is, yeah, look, if you want the mass immigration to stop, let's look at the root cause so that we can help you and the whole country and the people that live in those countries as well, get to an answer so they're not constantly trying to come into the United States. So one thing would be, hey, if there was less violence in their home countries, not only would they have less reason to flee, but they have less reason to ask for a legitimate legal asylum because their lives are in danger in their own country.

What is causing the most amount of violence in their country? That is indisputable. It is the drug war. Who started the drug war? We did. All that is indisputable. Now you can say, oh, I'm offended, I need a safe space from your facts. Okay, but facts don't care about your feelings.

So the reality is, we started that drug war, it has led the violence, that is what they're fleeing from. Every reporter is consistent on two facts. None of the people in that caravan are armed, none of them, okay? And number two is, so that's the whole thing of like these are dangerous people coming in and including Middle Eastern, as Trump says. No, total lies. 100% lie.

If you choose to believe a lie, that's up to you. But every reporter on the scene says the opposite. The second thing is they are all running from violence. One witness, one of the people seeking asylum says, look, they're trying to initiate me and do a drug gang. So if I stay, I either have to become part of this violent gang, or I might be murdered for not joining the gang. So what am I going to do?

I packed up my kids and I ran. What am I going to do, right? You can say, blah, la, la, la, la, I don't want to hear that it's anyone else's fault. I like when Fox News blames the brown people, okay, and scares me. Well, okay, that's a choice you're making about your feelings, but they are not connected to the facts. If you want to solve the real issues here, both for their sake and our sake, you will look at the root cause of the problem.

And look, again, we're progressive, so we don't just look at things black and white. There are a lot of different factors. So there are more factors than just a drug war, but that is a huge factor. That is a huge factor. Yeah. And just one last thought on, okay, so, but what do you do when they get here? We have a system, guys. It's worked for all this time.

I know conservatives are frustrated by it because they think, well, you know, somehow people enter the system, but those that entered the country, what they would say illegally and undocumented, and now we have over 10 million people in the country that are undocumented. Yes, but they did not seek, those folks, the overwhelming majority of them, did not seek legal asylum as these people are. They did not come in a giant caravan that you could see from anywhere. Yes, some of them stuck into the country, maybe for similar reasons, maybe to get a job, etc., but these folks in particular, they've got you the most worried about, are the ones

doing it the most legal way, and yet we still tear gas them. I mean, what Trump is essentially doing is encouraging people to enter the country illegally, right? If you shut down ports of entry, when people are desperate and they're trying to protect not only their own lives, but also their children's lives, you think that Trump shutting down a port of entry is going to stop them from trying to enter the country illegally? Again, these people were trying to enter legally. We're going through the legal process to seek asylum.

Trump prevented that from happening. But I just want to ask Americans in general, but also in particular, Trump supporters, aren't you tired of being lied to at this point? Because he lies over and over again. A federal judge literally just blocked his efforts to bar migrants from seeking asylum if they've entered the country illegally. A federal judge deemed that unconstitutional because it's something that needs to be decided by Congress.

And now he's decided to just shut down a port of entry because he wanted to throw a temper tantrum over his inability to negotiate a deal with Mexican officials, okay? And again, to Anna's point, his lie about it. He said, oh yeah, the Mexico agreed to this. And they asked the president-elect, did you agree to this? And he's like, no, I didn't agree to that. He just makes things up nonstop. And he made up that there was Middle Eastern in the caravan.

He made up that they were dangerous and had, you know, all sorts of nefarious people in the caravan. But the caravan is so slow moving and so obvious, the reporters just went and asked all the people in the caravan, et cetera, they're like, there's no Middle Easterers here. No one's armed, no one's dangerous. And what are you guys going to do? Well, we're in a giant caravan because we're going to go seek asylum. If we wanted to sneak in, we wouldn't be in a giant caravan where you could all see us.

But logic does not penetrate the conservative mind. One final thing that I do want to add is that the upcoming fight pertaining to immigration also includes whether or not the government will be funded. So Trump is arguing that he will not sign any legislation to fund the government if Congress doesn't appropriate the funds necessary for the border wall. So that could cost about $22 billion. That's actually a low estimate. There are some estimates up to $70 billion.

So something to consider moving forward. For Trump, this is not about immigration. If he genuinely cared about undocumented immigration and stopping it, maybe he would focus on people who overstay their visas because more than half of immigrants who are undocumented come into the country with a visa and they overstay their visas. But this whole border situation is visual. The one thing Trump is good at is marketing, and he understands that humans are monkeys, and we respond to the visual effect of what's happening at the border right now.

There's about 6,000 migrants seeking asylum, okay? About 500 of them have already made their way to the border. That is not the heart of the immigration issue. The heart of the immigration issue is the inaction of Congress, their inability to pass any type of immigration reform, okay? And just the fact that we as Americans keep getting distracted by a non-issue when there's a bigger problem to focus on. By the way, why are they not passing immigration reform?

Because the overwhelming majority of the country actually wants a pathway to citizenship. And the Republicans say, well, that's inconvenient for us, because our base hates those people. And so they don't want them to have a pathway to citizenship, so we're going to block it. And then they turn around and blame the Democrats. But wait a minute, you're the ones who clearly, clearly had to be. control of Congress and the White House, and you didn't pass anything. Why didn't you pass anything?

That's because you know how deeply unpopular it is in the country, so you just sat on your hands and let this crisis happen, and it happened on your watch while you controlled every lever of power in Washington. We gotta take a quick break when we come back, some more updates on this immigration crisis, and later on in the show, we will discover what Hillary Clinton thinks European country should do with the migrant crisis. Well, look, Hillary said some good things over the weekend, and I gave her credit on that. This was not among them, so a bit disastrous, we'll explain.

All right, back on the Young Turks, Jen can Anna with you. Smooth, writes, and Hannity needs an intellectual spine as well. How much is that? Well, that one we can't do anything about. We can get him Young Turks membership through D.D.com slash amplify, but spine's not included. Meg writes, this is all members comments. Meg writes, and this border violence is so terrible and unnecessary, it breaks my heart. 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 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 have learned 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. heart, a theater goddess says, quote, we're not going to let criminals in. Yeah, how long do you all want to bet it takes before the Saudis involved in killing a U.S. reporter are allowed in? So you can dismember someone, that's okay, okay? But trying to get your kids into the country in a legal way, not okay, we've got to tear

gas you. I wonder if Trump's going to tear gas Mohammed bin Salman the next time he sees him. T. George 1971 says, so first America ripped children from their parents. Now America's tear gassing children, not so much a shining city on a hills, a dumpster fire, but lighting the international landscape. So unfortunately, a true and powerful analogy. Joseph says there's been a massive drought in Central America, exacerbated by climate change too. If people think that this is a lot of refugees, wait until climate change makes the tropics

uninhabitable, there will be millions more. Yes, that's another great point. And again, conservative heads explode. They're like, oh, it seems like you're blaming us. Well, God damn it, just think for a second. What is causing the problems, but they don't want to. They want a simple world where they can just blame the others and feel better about themselves while not solving the problem at all.

Great points, Joseph, thank you for bringing that up. Last one is from YouTube super chat. Mikhail Prania writes in, how about we add Bill Maher and Chelsea Handler to that celebrity list, they can definitely get on the left side of history. It's an interesting point, and we will consider that. Thank you for the suggestion. It's a very good suggestion, and I forgot to read the name for you guys. Rosara Dawson, another wonderful progressive, is also on the list at t.t.com slash amplify.

Okay, Anna, what's next? All right. During the Thanksgiving break, Politico reported that the Trump administration was involved in a fiery debate regarding whether or not U.S. military could use lethal force at the U.S. border. Now, this was in response to Trump's political stunt prior to the midterm elections taking place, where he sent 5,000 U.S. troops to the border in order to respond to migrants who are seeking asylum.

Now, the whole idea was that these asylum seekers were violent and dangerous, and that border patrol agents needed extra protection from the U.S. military. But as I had mentioned, the U.S. military is barred from using lethal force while on U.S. soil. In fact, there is a very specific law about that, stating that the U.S. military cannot act as a law enforcement agency on U.S. soil. So cabinet officials get together and they get into a fiery debate with Trump pushing to allow the military to use lethal force.

John Kelly, his chief of staff, and Kirsten Nielsen, the Homeland Security Secretary, both brought up the unconstitutionality of imposing this type of order. And Trump didn't care. He pushed for it, and eventually Kelly and Nielsen agreed to sign the order. And now, if Kirsten Nielsen tells the U.S. military that they can use lethal force at the border, they will be able to do so. Now whether or not this is going to be challenged in the courts, we'll see, but again, legal experts do say that this is unconstitutional.

Look, Trump has no boundaries, and he has no sense at all, and he thinks he's being a tough guy. First of all, deeply immoral, deeply illegal, unconstitutional, the list goes on. But also, I mean, when it comes to human lives, it feels a little gross to even talk about politics, but he's doing it for political reasons, and hence we have to analyze that. It would be terrible politics for him. Yeah, I get it. His base is vicious. But even so, even for the deplorables, If they shoot and kill people at the border, and then you've got pictures and videos of dead people at the border, my God, they shoot women and children. He orders the U.S. military to shoot them?

Nah, that's the end of him. I mean, look, and again, maybe I'm wrong, and a lot of progressives will disagree with me. I just don't think the country's that evil-hearted. I think that they're afraid, a lot of conservatives are afraid. of the others, oh my God, what if a trans person walks into my bathroom and then I guess my head would explode or I would be attracted to them? I don't know what they're afraid of, right?

But they're afraid of something. They're afraid of brown people. They're afraid of black people, even if they're unarmed. I get all that stuff. But to see blood in the streets like that, you know, I think that that would maybe shakes them out of their cognitive business or maybe I'm wrong. And they go, yes, finally murder at the border. I don't know, but I think it's a terrible idea in every regard.

Well, I agree with you in that it's a terrible idea, and I think that it's dangerous to set a precedent where we allow our military to use lethal force while on U.S. soil. I mean, we really need to ask ourselves if we're comfortable living in that type of country, and I know that I'm not, right? But going back to the immigration issue, I think you are wrong, Jank. And the reason why I say that is because remember, as this whole migrant caravan situation was unfolding, you had members of Trump's base arming up and going to the border with the intention of literally shooting asylum seekers if they attempted to enter the country.

Those were Trump fans, those were Trump supporters, crazy vigilantes. Now, do they represent all of Trump's voters? I'm very tempted to say yes, but probably not. Do they represent the majority of the country? No, they don't. But these migrants have already been met. with violence, unprecedented violence. And that happened just this past weekend.

And what do Trump supporters tell themselves? They try to justify it, they try to rationalize it, they try to minimize it. So- But it's a matter of percentages, I hear you. And man, if a majority of the Republican Party, if there is that kind of violence at the border, and our military uses force within the country, and there's two different problems there, right? And they're all like, yeah, it's great when the giant-bushableness.

big government comes in and starts shooting people within the country, look, that part I'm with you. They won't understand that that violates every principle they claim to have and why they think they needed their Second Amendment rights, right? But if they see dead kids at the border and they're still like, yes, will some percentage of them be like that, of course, of course they will, right? But I think another significant percentage will go, that's, God damn it, that's too much. I didn't sign up for this.

But we'll see, and look, but, you know, maybe the most important part of the story, even though those two elements are gigantic, is how fascism creeps in. He gives an unconstitutional order. They resist in the beginning, but then they make justifications, well, I do like my power. And, well, I could maybe provide a check on Donald Trump if I'm still here. But if I don't follow this order, I'll be gone, and maybe he'll have a more unstable person and will be in war shape. All those pretty little lies they tell themselves.

Meanwhile, you're not much of a check on Donald Trump. If you allow them to take that kind of unconstitutional action and have the military start, you know, shooting from inside our borders, then why were you there? I mean, that defeats the whole point of providing a check on Donald Trump. You guys aren't going to do a check on Donald Trump, okay? You're going to let them run Rockshod. And once this stuff settles in, if there is not an incredible, I don't mean a public outcry, we've seen that a thousand different times.

But consequences in the voting booth, then you gotta say, well, we gotta get the monsters out. Otherwise, fascism becomes accepted and we start shooting people like this at the border. And I also wanna make note of what an unbelievable coward John Kelly is. So this is a man who fought for our freedoms, fought for our constitution, right? A big military guy, tough guy, and everyone had high hopes that he would serve as a check or a balance to Trump because he doesn't believe in the Constitution. Trump has been abundantly clear about how he doesn't believe in the Constitution. He doesn't believe in the rule of law, he doesn't respect the way our government works.

But John Kelly has not served as a check on Donald Trump. In fact, what is John Kelly really done? I mean, he gets a little bit of pushback from Trump and then he goes ahead and caves or concedes to anything and everything Trump wants. You know, when political first reported that story, I was frustrated with Kirsten Nielsen because she wants power so badly that she'll let Trump, you know, yell at her, talk down to her, have her implement policies that she seems to have an issue with. But she'll implement them anyway because she loves that power, she wants to stay in that position.

But John Kelly, like, what, was it really worth it for you to go out there and fight for your country? Because you could be fighting for your country right now when it matters the most and he's not doing it? Those are tough words and they're absolutely correct. So look, H.R. McMaster, another retired general was the national security advisor for Bush. And another story that came out over the weekend, Bush apparently told the prime minister of Iraq, hey, we'd like your oil.

Hey, we helped liberate you. So I want to take your oil now. I want to take your natural resources that belongs to the Iraqi people. I don't care, give it to me. And everyone in the room was apparently horrified. H.R. McMaster, though, had the spine to tell the president, that's inappropriate. That'll make us an international pariah if people think we're stealing their natural resources, and that's why we use the United States military in the first place, not to do good in the world,

but to steal their oil. Now, look, in the way that he phrased it was not even as harsh as I just said, but he got that point across. Now, H.R. McMaster is no longer a national security advisor, because the petulant child, Donald Joffrey Trump does not like that and will immediately fire you. But hey, at least McMaster did the right thing and put a check on him. And you know what? We didn't take Iraq's oil. So McMaster at least did his job and said, not on my watch.

John Kelly, Kirsten Nielsen, everyone else of the White House right now says, yes, sir, absolutely, sir. On my watch, please proceed. They'll later write books, I guarantee it. They will later write books saying, oh, all the brave things I did that you didn't see. in blocking bits and pieces of Donald Trump's agenda. Well, you didn't block enough of it, because here it is. I mean, if a retired general does not understand the gravity of using military troops

inside the country or understands that it signs off on it anyway, what happened on your watch? John Kelly, the reality is fascism began under your watch. Exactly. All right, moving on. Following the closure of a major port of entry in San Diego in order to prevent migrants from entering the country legally to seek asylum, a number of them attempted to rush the border and were met with violence. Now border patrol agents used tear gas and the effects were obvious based on the videos

that were posted all over the place online. But Fox News wanted to minimize the severity of that situation as a way of justifying it and making it seem as though it really wasn't as bad as it seemed. It's not so terrible that Border Patrol agents are using tear gas against women and children who are fleeing violence from their own countries. Now Border Patrol Foundation President Ronald Colburn is one of those people who's trying to justify all of this and minimize how terrible it is. So let's hear what he has to say.

fire the tear gas. Is that warranted? Absolutely. And to clarify, the type of deterrent being used is OC pepper spray. It's literally water, pepper with a small amount of alcohol for evaporation purposes. It's natural. You could actually put it on your nachos and eat it. So it's a good way of deterring people. Oh, that's great. So I would like the opportunity to spray that tear gas or supposedly pepper spray all over his face because it's natural. It's probably good for your skin, you know? Maybe it'll help out with that situation you got going on.

Why don't we go ahead and spray your face with that natural product that you think isn't that big of a deal? I like how he also sprinkled in a little bit of racism along with the horrific ode to violence that he had. Well, you could put it on your nachos, that would be fine. To Anna's point, and I don't want any of this to happen because we're not monsters like the people on the right wing. Just the rhetorical question back at him given what he's saying, what if we put that stuff

on your food? My guess is you would say, oh, left wing mob. I can't believe it, what mobsters they are. And look, you guys need a safe space when someone protest you at a restaurant. And someone talks to you at a restaurant. And then you talk about, well, we're just giving them a little bit of pepper with their nachos as in reality you're tear gassing men, women, and children. Well, that's awfully convenient, right?

So they are, man. They get a kick out of this, some in the right wing. They look at this, and for them, that's like porn to them. And so I'm not surprised that guy said that. He'll say much worse, and the Fox News will eat it up. They're like, ooh, that was good, bringing him back. The audience really loved what a vicious racist, that guy was, that's wonderful, let's bring him back.

Yeah, the propaganda coming from Fox News. I mean, it makes me embarrassed, honestly, to be an American, to be associated with people like this, to justify using tear gas against people who are fleeing violence in their own countries. Like I get the frustration, again, when it comes to immigration, the inaction by Congress, The backlog at the border when it comes to these asylum seekers, I understand all of that. We need to find solutions to all of that. Using violence against them, not the solution that I'm looking for. Last thing on this, you know, on the show, we always talk about what if the shoe was on

the other foot. So hey, don't go to Tucker Carlson's house, you wouldn't like it if they went to Elizabeth Warren's house, et cetera, right? That's because we try to be decent people and think about, hey, no matter what the situation is, right wing or left wing, let's see if it's the right thing to do or not. For those guys, though, they never consider that the other people are humans that they could empathize with. So when we do that rhetorical trick that Anna just did, he said, okay, what if we tear tear gas you? He'd be like, how dare you? Why? Because he's a person. He's a human. Of course you

can't tear gas him. That would be monstrous. And if the government did it, they'd be jackbooted thugs and he'd have to grab his weapon and try to kill the government officials who tear gas them, right? But when you do it to Latin Americans at the border, I hope they enjoyed it with their nachos. So, because they're not really humans, he doesn't care about them. That's how they view the world, and it's really profoundly disturbing. We gotta take a break. When we come back, Hillary Clinton and her advice to European countries who have taken in large numbers of refugees, her advice is terrible, I'll give you that little teaser, and later

on, Trump is outraged over an accurate 60 minutes piece over his child separation policy. 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.com slash join today. In the meantime, enjoy this free second. All right, back on Young Turks, Jane and Anna with you guys. I'm going to read a list of names that have helped. At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control of our online lives.

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The Brave in the member section says, sorry, Jank, the U.S. helped bomb a bus of school children in Yemen, killing 40, nothing. Dead bodies at the border, I would imagine, not a big issue for Americans. I could be wrong, but a lot of the media did not specifically say, yes, that bus full of children was because of America. They're very reluctant to say that. And Yemen is a long way away, and yes, that's unfortunate, but unfortunately. It does make a difference in the minds of a lot of Americans, but I could be wrong.

Squenegi, there's no way I said that, right? On Twitter does not agree with me either, agrees with Franco, saying, well, Trump could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue, why not at the Mexican border? It's an interesting point. Obviously, he didn't yet, but we certainly think he might be able to get away with it. Anyway, Corey Brown on YouTube super chat says, closing the point of entry will cause people to move away from the point of entry and cross the border in more remote and dangerous areas.

The administration then used the excuse they crossed illegally to use the zero tolerance policy. It's a catch-22. That's why in the beginning of the show, I was wondering if that was the catch-22 that was intended in the first place. The only reason why I'm not sure that that's the case is because Trump is too stupid to think two steps ahead. So likely it's just a more simple, me no like them, me close border, oh no, they tried to cross border.

Me knew it. So that's more likely. Okay. Okay. And let me note one more time that we have 30% off today on everything at shoptyt.com. It's apparently Cyber Monday, so go ahead. This is a situation where you can go nuts. Get everything you can at shopty.com.

This is the perfect day for it. And the last probably big sale like this will have. That's the biggest sales I've ever seen us have. Anyway, and of course, if you just want to become a member and get all of our shows and support homo progressives, t.com slash jank. Okay? All right, what's next, Anna? The United States now has a record number of child migrants in detention.

These are minors who were either unaccompanied or who were separated from their parents as they approached the border. And 14,000 of them are currently in U.S. customers. and it's all because of Donald Trump's ridiculous draconian anti-immigration policies. Now with that said, over the weekend 60 Minutes aired a great piece regarding how the Trump administration didn't even notify the Department of Homeland Security about its implementation of the zero tolerance policy. In fact, the civil rights and civil liberties, the officer for civil rights and civil liberties

for the Department of Homeland Security, right before this was all implemented, spoke to 60 minutes and told them about how disastrous this was and how his services weren't even needed because the administration didn't really care to do things correctly, including keeping track of where the parents were and where the kids were. Take a look. If you're going to separate families in the pursuit of an immigration policy, it was irresponsible to push that on top of a system that wasn't prepared on the back end to allow the families to be reconciled later.

Scott Schuart was surprised by the new policy, even though he worked at Homeland Security headquarters at the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. He told us the order was so abrupt, it bypassed the usual review. If they had come to you, what would your office have said? We would have had advice on the way that needed to be done on the record keeping that needed to be done, and our advice on that wasn't sought out, and when we tried to provide it, it was ignored. What do you mean by record keeping?

Making sure that we knew where everybody was at all times so that they could be put into contact and reunited later. People were removed to other countries without there being good records of what adult went with what child. So we all knew that there was a lack of record keeping, which is why it was so difficult for the federal government to reunite the children with their parents. Now to be clear, the 14,000 minors in U.S. custody right now are not all children who are taken away from their parents.

Some of them are unaccompanied minors. Some of them do unfortunately still include some of the children who have not been reunited with their parents yet as a result of the zero tolerance policy. But the Trump administration has been implementing all sorts of anti-immigration policies that the media is not even aware of. So for instance, he's making it increasingly more difficult for sponsors to come forward and claim custody of these unaccompanied minors, which is why we have a record number in detention right now.

Now, Trump saw this 60 Minutes report and was outraged, but before we get to his tweets, Cenk, I want you to jump in. Yeah, no, just real quick, we have a great number of kids who we have no idea where their parents are. And that's what happens when you don't plan anything. And what did I tell you was the number one problem with Donald Trump from day one? Well, there's two huge problems, right? There's a host of a million others.

The two biggest ones are he doesn't believe in our system of government. And they're both at play here. So we have rules and processes for a reason. And he's like, well, what, I'm the president. Why don't I just make a decision and we just do it? Yeah, I got you. But you have to implement that. And so if you don't implement it, it comes back.

on you, but he's never had to deal with the consequences of any of his actions because he's been given money by his dad his whole life, he's been given privilege, and he went bankrupt six times, was bailed out anyway, he just doesn't know the consequences of his actions. And the second part is related to that, which is incompetence. And so an incompetent guy doesn't think through, okay, how do I plan this out to make sure that my policy is implemented in a way that is effective so that people think, hey, congratulations Donald Trump, nice job on that policy. He just thinks, me want policy, me want now, me want it, and he'll fire anyone in his past.

So they're like, yes, sir, absolutely, sir. And they immediately do the policy without preparing. And then you have this debacle that is in front of us. And even if you don't really care about the fate of these children, this is actually costing U.S. taxpayers way more money than the initial issues that we had with immigration, right? So, we're paying to detain 14,000 undocumented minors indefinitely, right? We're paying for that. These are for profit prisons, for profit facilities that are housing these kids, and we're paying

for them even though they're supposedly private companies. So Trump has only made a bad problem way worse. But let me give you his response to the 60 Minutes piece. He says, 60 Minutes did a phony story. Yeah, because anything that's negative toward Trump is phony, according to Trump. 60 minutes did a phony story about child separation when they know we had the exact same policy as the Obama administration. That is a lie.

In fact, a picture of children in jails was used by other fake media to show how bad, parentheses cruel we are, but it was in 2014 during the O years. Okay, so let's stop for a second. First off, the Obama administration did not implement a zero tolerance policy. Were there some cases in which children were separated from their parents? Yes, but that was not a policy of doing, you know, doing that to every family that came to the border. Trump specifically implemented this as a deterrent.

We know that because his own attorney general went on a speaking tour promoting it as a deterrent. And by the way, did not serve as a deterrent. Okay, secondly, there was a picture that went viral. And the picture, unfortunately, was from 2014. And there are misleading, you know, social media posts out there, we all know that. But what happened under the Obama administration was that a number, a huge number of undocumented, unaccompanied, migrant children showed up to the United States. They did not show up with their families, they showed up unaccompanied.

And the Obama administration had to figure out what to do, and that's a difficult situation. Did he handle it perfectly? No, of course not. But it's very different from purposely separating children from their parents. Well, we have a ton of credibility on this issue because we criticized Obama's immigration policies when he was in charge. Now we're criticizing Donald Trump's, and we're here to tell you, they're different. And so Obama was not a cake in the walk in the park either, a cake in the walk in the park.

Anyway, but a cake in the park would be nice. Anyway, and he deported more people than any other president before him, and we heavily criticized for that. But he did not rip children away from their parents on a regular basis because of a policy decision that he made. That was a significant difference and one that Trump made and bragged about in the beginning until he got a lot of blowback on it. And all of a sudden now he's hiding behind Obama pretending that he had the same policy.

And look, I don't know if the, and we talk about this often, whether the Trump's board has ever got tired of anything. But really, you think that every single negative story about Donald Trump is fake or phony? And when he says that, do you think like, oh, he got him again. For the 100th time in a row, that was also phony. Or do you secretly think, yeah, those are just negative stories about Donald Trump and he doesn't like it, and he calls it phony to attack him? You know that, right?

I think that in your heart of hearts, you definitely know that. So the person who's being phony is Donald Trump knowingly lying about those news reports. And I just want to read you the rest of his tweet to show you how he's knowingly lying. The rest of his tweet says, I tried to keep them together. No, you didn't, not remotely close. But the problem is when you do that, the vast numbers of additional people stormed the border. That makes no sense. First of all, you did not try to keep them together.

Again, your own attorney general on multiple occasions mentioned the implementation of this policy as a deterrent. So you didn't try to keep them together. You actively tried to separate them. And secondly, like your reasoning behind separating them. makes no sense. What do you mean? You think that people are going to storm the border if you keep families together?

People are still storming the border. People were still storming the border even after you implemented that policy. So yeah, what happened to the genius idea that that would work? Anyway, look, we've seen the MAGA guys and we went to the Trump rallies and they're on tape excusing it and go, yeah, of course children should be taken away from their parents. It's the parents' fault. Are you now going to turn around and say, no, Trump never meant to do that after you already He defended it and thought it was a great idea.

Again, they just don't care about logic. They just like, yeah, it was great when Trump ripped the families apart. Now it's great that he's pretending that he didn't. Yeah. All right, whatever, live in that world. That's a weird, scary, dark place. Enjoy the upside down. Moving on to Hillary Clinton and her interview with The Guardian.

The European Union has been coping with an influx of refugees, and many of these countries have actually decided to take in large numbers of migrants who are seeking safety. Now, Hillary Clinton, during a recent interview with The Guardian, was very much concerned that taking in too many migrants could lead to additional right-wing populism. And she talked about that a little bit in the context of the United States and how Donald Trump won. Now, to give you an idea of the numbers behind mass migration, more than one million migrants and refugees arrived to the European Union in 2015 alone. So large numbers of people and Germany under the leadership of Angela Merkel has decided to take in large numbers of migrants. Now, here's what Hillary Clinton has to say about that.

I think Europe needs to get a handle on migration because that is what lit the flame, meaning right-wing populism in places like the United States. She continues to say, I admire the very generous and compassionate approaches that were taken particularly by leaders like Angela Merkel, but I think it is fair to say Europe has done its part and must send a very clear message. We are not going to be able to continue to provide refuge and support, because if we don't deal with the migration issue, it will continue to royal the body politic. So, you know, people have divergent opinions on Hillary Clinton based on the past.

And so they either say stay in the woods forever or, oh, it's wonderful that her strong voice is out there fighting for issues we care about. Yes, there are people who actually believe that. So my opinion is based on what she says. I know, that's crazy, right? It kind of depends. So earlier in the weekend, I gave her credit because she came out and more aggressively attacked Fox News and explained some of the real problems with Donald Trump and not just the racism

and bigotry, but his incompetence, et cetera. And I thought, I wish she'd done that during the campaign. In that case, she might have swinged enough votes in those three states. And one, I thought that was a more effective attack. And people get criticized if you touch Fox News in America, because a lot of the rest of the media at some point worked at Fox News or want to work at Fox News. So they'll gang up on political leaders like Hillary Clinton, even though she's saying obvious things about Fox News.

But to me, I think that's good and I give her credit for that. These comments are not good. And look, we give you the full context. She did say Merkel was wonderful and compassion for doing it, so keep that in mind as well. Having said that, I'm going to say something really harsh here because I think it merits it. That sounded like Steve Bannon a little bit. So Steve Bannon says, hey, these storms of people coming in and we got to put an end to it, and otherwise they're going to take over Europe.

And he then celebrates the unleashing of right-wing populism. She is worried about the unleashing of right-wing populism, to be fair to her. She, of course, does not support Bannon's political ends, right? But it's the same middle sentence, and that is disconcerting. And so the reality is, Hillary Clinton did have something to do with this. So I'm gonna get a little harsher than almost, I'm sure, than almost anybody else in the media, which is, well, she voted for the Iraq war. That's what opened up the Pandora's box and created the refugee crisis in the first place.

That domino effect then went to Syria, and then now we have the middle east in large parts in chaos. And then when her actions led to those consequences, her answer is now to close the borders? Now, that is the wrong lesson to be learned from this. Right. And so on one hand, I understand her reasoning behind her statements. I do not agree with them to be clear, because there is a rise in right-wing populism. And we're seeing it all over the place.

I mean, Brazil just elected Jair Bolsonaro, who's a disaster. And he fancies himself as the Brazilian version of Trump. And so asking ourselves why this right-wing populism is happening. happening in the first place is important. And I do believe that there are people who are afraid of the others and they're afraid of the refugees and they've bought into the anti-refugee propaganda. But at the same time, look, Hillary Clinton again presents herself as this pathetic defeatist, right? Like we, no, no, no, we gotta cave into what the right wingers want because if we don't

do it, then there's gonna be a rise of right wingers. No, but they've already won. Like, if they're already having an impact on your policy proposals, they've already won. So let's move on. And then the second thing is what, you know, Jank alluded to, why do we have a refugee crisis? Is there something that the United States has done? Is there something that the Western world can do to help alleviate the situation or maybe things that we can prevent ourselves from doing in the future so we don't have a massive refugee crisis?

Like those conversations never happen. We always talk about a tiny band-aid for a gushing wound. Yeah, one more thing about that. Look, there's the problems that created this mess in the first place, which unfortunately Hillary Clinton aided and abetted. Now you can say, well, that's the past, I hear you. But let's make sure we don't make that mistake again, for example, in Iran. But she is a hawk within the Democratic Party.

And then, of course, on a political level, there's another thing that she does not want to acknowledged because it's inconvenient for her. The other answer is to go with left-wing populism. But left-wing populism almost defeated her in the primary, so she don't like that. No, she don't like that. No. And she gives you a skewed perspective on what's happening on the international stage, because she only points out the right-wing populace, and it's true that they exist both in Europe

and Brazil and here in America, but there's also a huge successful left-wing populace across the world. Obrador just won in Mexico. Obviously Bernie Sanders closed a 60-point lead on her, and that was near a miraculous fashion with almost no name recognition. Jeremy Corbyn closed a 20-point lead in one month and nearly won the elections in the UK. And then in other parts of Europe, huge left-wing populism in places like Greece, et cetera. Now the reality is that is the correct answer to right-wing populism.

Not, hey, everybody, bow your heads to the establishment, let's go back to trusting the elites. No, that's never going to work. That actually aids and abets right-wing populism more than any immigration policy. The correct answer is, no, the establishment did let you down. Now, don't look down for what caused your problems, look up. Look at Hillary Clinton's donors. That was part of the issue, right? Look at the Republican donors, a bigger part of the issue.

And the reality is they rigged the rules and only a left-wing populace. can actually fix those institutions and make things right and not just bow their heads and go, I guess we should do what the right wing wants, otherwise there'll be more right wing populism. No, here's a crazy idea, you should fight the right wing populace by excellent suggestions that would fix the system from the left. Let's take a quick break. When we come back, we're going to discuss more foreign policy because there's some drama

between Russia and Ukraine. occurred over the weekend. We'll give you the details on that and more. 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, Jan Yugar, and I'll see you soon.