The Young Turks - Trump Superfan Paints BIZARRE Tribute And Trump Grovels To Saudi Arabia

Episode Date: November 22, 2018

Jon McNaughton, a known superfan of Trump and talented painter, has added to his ridiculous collection of Trump tributes. In press interactions and tweet Trump showered Saudi Arabia with praise days after it was confirmed the Crown Prince ordered the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. 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, Chey, Eugenna, and Casparian, a lovely day ahead for you guys. Donald Trump might be arrested soon. That's fun. Getting a little ahead of ourselves or ahead of myself there.

Do you want to take another bet? No. Okay. Okay. No, I'm like, arrest is a bit much, okay? But he could be if he was not president and did not have 50 million crazed people in the country back at him. He would be.

If it was you, you would be arrested. I don't, we don't appreciate embellishments on this show. Okay? No hyperbole. Let's not get our hopes up. All right, I hear you. I hear you. But I was talking to a progressive earlier today and convinced them that there is actual factual basis

for optimism. Interesting. By the way, how many House seats of the Democrats picked up so far? Oh, right, 38, just like I said. It's almost as if my optimism is actually based on reality. I'm just saying, okay? So when I whisper of a dream, you could shout that from the rooftops. Whatever, let's move on.

Okay. I'm in a weird mood. So, guys, we're gonna have fun, and we also have disaster stories for you. We have an update on Avanotti that's fascinating. All right, anyways, but I wanted to update you guys on something we started yesterday. We started the Amplify program because we're crazy. And we decided, hey, you know what, let's get our strong progressive voice out there to the rest of the media. Because what we're missing is what a lot of the other media has, which is a media multiplier effect.

So we have these wonderful outlets that carry us, television, online platforms, et cetera. So that's great. But we wanted to make sure that we can get that message out to the mainstream media as well. So we start this program where you guys can basically buy membership for hosts that are on television and some others that are also in other forms of media and their entire team. They're producers, writers, guest bookers, et cetera. So in the first day, we put up Jake Tapper from CNN to get him and his crew, Young Turks membership, immediately gone. Jeff Yere bought that, and I want to give a shout out to all the people who did that.

And he gave $1,000. Anybody who gives $1,000 goes on a literal donor wall that we're going to do here. And it gets a T-shirt. Anybody given over $150 gets an exclusive t-y-shirt for this. So then we put up CNN Reliable Sources program with Brian Stelter. Boom, Sean Christopher took that. And then PBS News Hour and Binta Campbell took that one. Love it.

And then all in with Chris Hayes to get their progressive message to MSNBC. Gone. That was an anonymous TYT donor that did that. And then Cuomo, prime time, Chris Cuomo, Alex Wartmemp, got that one, that was amazing. Thank you, Alex, that's 2,500. For 2,500, both the person who gave for Chris Hayes and the Cuomo show can actually name something in the studio. So we're going to tell you where you can go to name things in the studio soon, and of course,

if you want to be anonymous, no problem at all, just don't fill in your last name. After you do the whole transaction, there's another pop-up that comes. If you don't fill in your last name, then we don't say your name on air and your call on whether you want to be on the donor wall or not. Okay, and then, so since all those went, well, we started asking you guys, well, should we give it to conservatives too, or in fact, you guys brought it up first? And so we did a poll. Should we also give Young Turks membership to Fox News hosts?

You guys voted 76% yes. So boom, we put some Fox News hosts up. So now Laura Ingram is up. That's a thousand bucks, I believe. And then Tucker Carlson, and then we still have other mainstream media, CBS this morning. Those morning shows actually go out to a lot of people. And Pod Save America, that's obviously a podcast. And they could use a progressive voice or two.

And then Anderson Cooper on CNN. of the, asking Bernie Sanders, how are you going to pay for that? And are you really saying Hillary Clinton might have changed votes based on the money that she has received? So I think he could use a progressive message from time to time as well. And we're doing the numbers based on how many people we think are in their staff, our best guess, and then we do our best to deliver it to them. So word in, Laura Ingram, gone, already gone, okay.

So you guys are amazing. That is Vanessa Abreu. Vanessa, you are awesome. Thank you for getting the progressive message to Laura Ingram. Could you imagine if she starts listening or maybe her top writers and producers do? And they're like, well, Laura, on the other hand. Hey, listen, I had an interesting conversation with Tuck Carlson at Politicon and he wound up saying some things we didn't expect and wound up having a little bit of an open mind.

So you never know, but look, if those people start getting that message, it is because of Jeff, Sean, Binta, Alex, and Vanessa, and we have all the other folks still up there on t-y-t.com slash amplify. So let's go get those. If you give under $1,000,000, we also read out your name and you get T-shirts for $150 above, et cetera. Speaking of shirts... I have a surprise! Yeah, you started changing in the middle. Like, what is this? Let's go to the tight shot.

Let's go to a tight shot. All right, get your whole, whole, home of the progressive sweater at shoptyt.com. Well, I do love Christmas. I don't know if I could wear a sweater. Oh, Edwin's got one too. Oh, no, what is this? Oh, get it! That is hilarious, man.

All right, so you can order now and get domestic orders here in the United States in time for Christmas, okay? So, I mean, who wouldn't want a giant sweater with Jake's face on it? I'm pretty sure that I'm the one who can't wear that. I don't think you could wear your own

face on your body. There's our control room. That's the crew behind the scenes that makes everything happen. By the way, you could also, part of this campaign is you could name the control room.

You could name the control room after yourself. That is pretty badass. That is bad ass. So, and I should clarify, too, as part of t.t.com slash Amplify. Anyone that gives 50 bucks or more, that's one membership basically, and you can choose any number of memberships up to the increment of $1,000. That goes to journalism students, influencing a whole new generation of media, and we've already

started giving those out based on what you guys have given yesterday, and we'll continue to do that as we go forward. And then for the big ticket items past 5,000, you can name things in the studio. For example, this desk is named a triptych desk after Adam Westbrook from a previous campaign, sitting in the Nick Wildchair, et cetera. But you guys were going to name new things. And for those, you can name the college of your choice, and we will send that amount of memberships that you purchased to that college for their students.

Okay, and then the right wing will cry and say we're indoctrinating them. So, t-y-t.com slash Amplify. In fact, last thing here, guys, before we get to the stories, let me read quickly all the folks that have given. Andy Williams from New Jersey, which is perfect for the Christmas spirit that Andy Williams gave. Anyway, 150 bucks you'll be getting a t-shirt. Jackie Collari from Massachusetts gave Kaj Rankin from California, Alex Schmidt, from Munich,

Germany. Okay. Fun. I was about to say a Viter saying, but that means bye, so that doesn't make sense. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Okay, there you go.

That means thank you. Those are the two words I remember from five years of German. Okay, Brian Dugan from Omaha. Sumas Nimisvirus from Indianapolis. What a fun name. You get a T-shirt. Anonymous gets a T-shirt. Jimmy R from Dublin T-shirt.

Chase Miller from Chicago. Lenny Moore from Santa Rosa, T-shirt, Bruce Martin from Tempe, T-shirt, Kristen Germoroth from Oakland. Whoa, honor wall, 500 bucks. 500 bucks gets you on the honor wall on TYT's website. Thank you, Kristen. Meg Perry from Smyrna, not Turkey, Smyrna, Georgia. And finally, of course, Vanessa Abreu, that just gave the $1,000 for Laura Ingram. That went literally before we got on air.

I was kidding around about this stuff. We put it up and it went immediately. So once you grab them, they're yours, man. You influence those people forever. And or at least for a year as long as a membership box and their teams. And it makes a giant difference. Thank you guys. All right.

Anna, what's the stories? All right. We're going to start off with something fun. There's a lot of serious news today. But I wanted to start off on a lighter note. I mean, we kind of already have. Yeah, my face is on your sweater. Yeah.

So we've started on a lighter note. And let's keep it real. I really don't want to do a serious story while wearing the story. sweater. So we're gonna do a fun story and then I'm gonna change. So let's move on. How dare you? How dare she?

All right. Casperian. A very provocative pro-Trump artist has put out his latest piece of art in case you're interested in purchasing either Prince or the original for a family member or loved one during the holidays. Now John McNaughton is the name of the artist and I want to show you what he has painted. Lots of symbolism here, there's Donald Trump, Mr. 45, with a red jersey, and he's playing football, I suppose, with bone spurs and everything, you know, running to make a touchdown and

he's, I don't know, what do you call it when you pass all the other people in the team, opposing team? That's not a tackle. That's like an interception? No, that's not an interception. No, none of those things. He's just scoring. That's all this happens.

Okay, so he's scoring. And all of those other guys, even though most of them seem unrecognizable, are democratic politicians. So let me give you the list of people included in this. There is Senator Cory Booker, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, former Vice President Joe Biden, former President Barack Obama, Bernie Sanders is in there, Senator Richard Blumenthal is in there, Chuck Schumer, Senator Dick Durbin. So basically all of the big name Democrats are involved in the painting.

I think I see Chuck Schumer, and I think Obama is the one lying on the ground. Yes, Obama is the one lying on the ground. Okay, yeah, that's not an accident as you'll find out more about this guy. Yes, so let me tell you more about this guy. His previous works include similar messaging, scotographic 18. His previous political works include a painting of Obama burning the U.S. Constitution, and one titled, Liberalism is a disease. Okay, let's stop for a second.

You're telling me that the guy who tried to prosecute his political opponents is the one upholding the U.S. Constitution? We reported on a story yesterday. It was a breaking story yesterday regarding how Donald Trump wants to literally prosecute Hillary Clinton and James Comey. But Obama's the one who's destroying the Constitution. Anyway, let's give you some more on this. This guy, he was quoted as saying, when they played football in the old days, they didn't

have face masks. It was a time of blood, guts, and glory. Today's politics are rough. You have to push hard for everything you get. The field is muddy and the players can get dirty. But we have a president that has risen above the rest. The other side hates him and will do anything to destroy him. Try to take him down.

Think again. He's going for the goal, another touchdown. Is this guy a European? What have you been going for the goal? Does John McNaughton live here? Okay. I mean, I guess you could call it a goal, but it's, so what does Marco Rubio say? Oh, yeah, we went for a three-point kick.

Yeah, that's called a field goal, Marco, okay? So, these guys, they all pretend to be tough guys. They don't know anything. The other day, Donald Trump misspelled Marine Corps in a tweet. It's embarrassing. You claim to be for the troops. And if a Democrat had done that, they'd be like, how dare he misspelling Marine Corps? They don't love our troops.

I mean, misspellings, that's one thing. But what Trump has actually done and the way that he's mocked military members who have voiced their concerns about him and his presidency, I would argue that's worse. I mean, he had the nerve to go after the admiral, the Navy admiral who had, he had. He was the one who oversaw the takedown of Osama bin Laden. Now, Admiral McRaven, I'm not judging, I'm not talking about anything else that he's done in his career. I'm specifically talking about what he did in taking down Osama bin Laden or at least overseeing the raid that took him down and to criticize him simply because he's not a fan of yours

is ridiculous, but that's who Trump is. One other quick thing I wanted to mention is, look, this artwork is, it's a political statement, but it's also a bit of a fantasy. Why do I say that? Well, it shows Donald Trump in this athletic moment. And fantasy is one thing, but I do want to give you a little taste of reality. So all right, so there's the fantasy, there's Trump in this painting looking like a real athlete. And then here's what he looks like when he tries to be an athlete in real life.

Let's go to graphic 19. Okay, so- Oh, well, we try. Okay, so now a couple of things I have to say here at the end. One, I like that he said, he's risen above the rest. What do you mean risen above the rest? He's the one in the dragged everybody down on the mud in the first place. I mean, they really live in an alternate universe where Trump's not dirty. The people that are opposed to him are dirty.

The guy who said she's bleeding from wherever, the guy who said, I prefer people who weren't captured about John McCain. And so another story from yesterday was inside source in the White House saying that he will not go to visit war zones, and he hasn't gone for two years now. And it's because he is literally afraid. He's afraid for his life, and he's afraid they're going to try to kill him and won't go. That's the tough guy who's beating all the other ones in football and is all heroic. No, the guy's a literal coward.

He ran from Vietnam because he claimed he had bone spurs. And so a lot of people criticize this painting. I don't actually have a problem with the painting. So look, we got paintings on our side. Jim Carrey does all these wonderful cartoons that the other side find offensive. I find greatly amusing and interesting and artistic. And some people said this looks like propaganda straight out of North Korea. No, he just likes the guy.

So he's a Trump sport. I don't care. I don't mind that at all. We're having fun. We're having fun. I don't care either. I mean, I'm amused by it. It's entertaining.

He entertained me. That was the picture that I was looking for. Yeah, okay, well, yeah, well, boy, he looks tough. He has risen above the rest. Yeah, sorry. Yeah, oh boy. The only thing that's risen in that picture is those tidy whitties up his ass. Okay, everyone, that's what happened.

So, look, so this guy, John McDonn't likes him, we don't like him, that's not important. I like though, somebody on Twitter said, is he grimacing in the picture? because of the bone spurs? Remember, he couldn't remember which foot he theoretically had them in. Okay, hilarious, hilarious. Anyway, but it does give you, a picture is worth a thousand words in that sense. It gives you a sense of the reality that Trump supporters live in. In their reality, Trump is heroic and courageous.

And while people are trying to drag him down in the mud, he just won't do it. Man, we live on totally different planets. It's amazing. Yeah, and to be fair, you know, it's interesting artwork. We have our own artwork here, and I'm not sure ours is any better. Yes, that is in fact me on Anna's sweatshirt, which you can get at shoptyt.com in time for the holidays. Yep.

Yep. You know what, as Santa there, I have risen above the rest in my sleigh led by a person with a red nose or creature with a red nose. Anyway, okay, we're done? We're done. We're gonna take a break. I'm gonna take this off. Yeah, and you know, I was wondering why we're going with the McNaughton story first.

Yeah, yeah. Now I totally yeah. I'm always thinking. I'm always thinking. I got you, Casper, I got you. All right, you know what? One of the things we'll do when we come back, there's the disaster stories about Saudi Arabia, but there's also a fun thing that a member wrote that is, you'll definitely enjoy it.

Just trust me, we'll come back and give it to you. All right, back on a Young Turks, TY.T.com slash Amplify Rolls-on. Austin Booth from Oklahoma City, the progressive Cajun, Kevin Griffin from Louisiana. You get a T-shirt. Thank you, Kevin. Appreciate it. And then this is the member comment that I promised you. Dylan is wise ass on TYT.com left a comment in the member section saying about our

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 UNFTR, the host delves into a different historical episode or topic that's generally misunderstood or purposely obfuscated by the the so-called powers that be, featuring in-depth research, razor-sharp commentary, and just the

right amount of vulgarity, the UNFTR podcast takes a sledgehammer to what you thought you knew about some of the nation's most sacred historical cows. But don't just take my word for it. The New York Times described UNFTR as consistently compelling and educational, aiming to challenge conventional wisdom and upend the historical narratives that were taught in school. For as the great philosopher Yoda once put it, you must unlearn what you have learned. And that's true whether you're in Jedi training or you're uprooting and exposing all the propaganda and disinformation you've been fed over the course of your lifetime. So search for UNFDR in your podcast app today and get ready to get informed, angered, and entertained

all at the same time. Program to name different things in the studio, if I had $20,000 just lying around to donate, I would totally rename Jenks' office because you can actually. You can name my office in that price stack I think is $20,000. It's of course to help the show and spread the message to college students, but we're also trying to do more for you guys. So renaming things in the studio and you get to rename my office. So he said, if I had it, I would totally rename Jenks' office to Anna's office. And then he added, L-O-L.

Dylan, does it look like, does it look like I'm L-O-L-L-L-L-Ling? Dylan, I hope one day you make a kill-in. Yes, yes, those horse always get me excited. That would be really funny, though. Who's like every day I would have to walk into my office, and it says something like, John I'd roll his office. No, no, forget John. He mentioned me.

Okay. No, no, but like, if my name is on it, then isn't it my office? Like, I would just take it. I agree to disagree, but that's going to be a fascinating fight. Okay, well, anyway, let's hope we have that problem. Okay, by the way, so since Laura Ingraham's gone, we filled her in, that fifth slot was someone else. Guess who's up next in T.O.T.com slash Amplify. The view.

Mm. Hmm. Mm. Well, they could use some Young Turks membership, get them caught up on what's going on in the progressive world. Look, they got a giant staff at the view, so that one's a little expensive, that was 5,000, but you also get to name one of the cameras or something along those lines and on the honor wall, etc.

All right, last couple of comments here. Matt's trackbine says, I can't say enough how impressive I think that t.yt.com slash Amplify is already this successful, and in the first 24 hours, just a brilliant idea. Thank you, Matt. on behalf for all of us. And Tannen Koso says on Twitter, if you look closely at McNaughton's painting, his red shirt teammates are way behind on the field. It's because 45 is scoring on the wrong side of the field.

Well, let's take a look at that again. That would be hilarious if that was the case, like if he'd screwed it up. I don't think so, but it's a really funny idea. If he accidentally went in the wrong direction, end of the day. Democrats would probably try to stop him, so that part would be accurate. No, please, please, let's help you go in the right direction. Anyway, and then Pepper Window also said Trump looks stupid as hell in that pick. He said, I didn't think it was meant to be pro-Trump.

I thought it was made to be sarcastic. Yeah, he looks like he just let one rip. Like, he's disgusted by it. But that kind of like weird, angry face is what turns on Republicans. So they probably can't wait to buy that. All right, Caspar, what's next? A day following Donald Trump's statement supporting Saudi Arabia and making it abundantly clear that the United States will remain an ally to Saudi Arabia, even after the murder of a

Washington Post journalist named Jamal Khashoggi, Donald Trump is now thanking Saudi Arabia specifically for lower oil prices. Now, he had tweeted about this, writing oil prices getting lower, great. Like a big tax cut for America and the world, enjoy, $54 was just $82. Thank you to Saudi Arabia, but let's go lower. Now let's do a little bit of fact checking before we get into the broader issue here, which is his undying support for Saudi Arabia. The national average price of gasoline was $2.62 per gallon Monday, and that's according

to AAA. That's actually the highest since 2014. Oops. Yeah. So not lower. Also, Trump's tweet actually compared two different oil price benchmarks. So West Texas intermediate crude oil, a United States benchmark, closed in trading at about $54. Brent crude, an international benchmark, was at $82.

As recent as October, Brent has recently traded at an about $11 premium to West Texas Intermediate. But I'm sure Trump knew all that. Yeah, doesn't know anything. And it's going to be even clear in the video that you're about to watch. It's all about, for me, very simple. It's America first. Saudi Arabia, if we broke with them, I think your oil prices would go through the roof. I've kept them down.

They've helped me keep them down. Right now we have low oil prices or relatively, I'd like to see it go down even lower. And I'm not going to tell a country that's spending hundreds of billions of dollars and has helped me do one thing very importantly, keep oil prices down so that they're not going to $100 and $150 a barrel. Right now, we have oil prices in great shape. I'm not going to destroy the world economy, and I'm not going to destroy the economy for our country by being foolish with Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia is probably the second biggest oil producer. They've worked with us very well. kept oil prices down. If you want to see oil prices go to $150 a barrel, like by the way, Russia would love to see that, all you have to do is break up our relationship with Saudi Arabia. So Saudi Arabia, contrary to what Trump said in that clip, is the third largest oil producer behind the United States and Russia. You would think that a guy who said America first would know that America is actually first

in that category. Right. We're not first in a lot of categories that they pretend we're first in, like health We're number, we vary between 27 and 37 in the world. But in production of oil, we're number one, but he doesn't know that. He thinks, oh, no, it's all the Saudis. Well, Rand Paul had some strong words for Trump, and I want to give you those words. He says, the president indicates that Saudi Arabia is the lesser of two evils compared

to Iran, and so the US won't punish Saudi Arabia for the brutal killing and dismemberment of a dissident journalist in their consulate. I disagree. I'm pretty sure this statement is Saudi Arabia first, not America first. Damn. Okay. Yeah, but Republicans are all talk. Ran Paul, for all of his strong language, especially in regard to his opposition to foreign

policy carried out by Republicans like Trump, he still goes ahead and votes with Trump, the vast majority of the time. Yeah. So a little bit more on their substance here. So for a little while, when Obama was president early on, they, Fox News went on a rant about how the gas prices were too high and it was Obama's fault. And then they dropped precipitously. And for a great number of reasons, some having to do with Obama, but a lot not having to do

with Obama. This is geopolitical circumstances and other factors that go into oil prices. And what's curious is that Fox News and the Republicans did not come back out and go, well, the gas prices are way lower now under Obama. So I guess it's because of him. Congratulations to Obama. No, it's preposterous. So the gas prices have been very high under Donald Trump.

So did Fox News and the Republicans go, hey man, man, Donald Trump is really screwing this up. Gas prices are way too high. No, the minute they drop a little bit and crude is different than gas prices that you're paying at the pump. So it might take a little while, et cetera. So crude prices drop a little bit while gas prices are still high. And when they do, they're like, aha, you see that, it was because of Trump.

Well, why didn't he do it two years earlier, a year and a half earlier, a year earlier? Why did he wait? Because it really doesn't have much to do with the president. So you can't give credit or fault much to Obama or Trump. And so it's, but the way that they use it politically is preposterous. And it's for people who don't know anything and then, and don't even think it through. They're like, wait, wait, didn't I pay really low gas prices under Obama? Like they just never think of anything.

And they just like, oh, okay, there was one moment on Obama when there was high gas prices, it's his fault, okay? Now, the gas rates have been way higher under Trump, generally speaking, but it's somehow not Donald Trump's fault. Well, you know, it's funny because I think that a lot of Americans, based on the way gas prices have been covered by the media, will blame the president, which is why Trump does care a lot about the gas prices. He also cares a lot about the Federal Reserve raising interest rates, because that does lower

the markets, the markets fluctuate a lot more when that happens. And so Trump doesn't want to be blamed for any of that. Now with that said though, I just want to make a point about how I don't want the United States to be, you know, dragged through the mud or I don't want to, look, for lack of a better word, I don't want to be any other country's bitch. And right now that is what we are in regard to Saudi Arabia because of this oil dependency. In fact, that's literally what Tulsa Gabbard just said in a speech today. Oh, wow.

Yeah, as she said, Trump has become Saudi Arabia's bitch. Now, that's a pretty strong statement from a United States congresswoman, but then Tulsa Gabbard's pretty strong. Absolutely. So wouldn't it be much better if we were self-reliant and we focused more on developing renewable energy sources as opposed to doing whatever the Saudi royals want us to do? So which leads me to my final point. They said that Obama went on an apology tour throughout the world. Here's this Obama, Trump now, after this fundamentalist government decapitates and dismembers,

journalists living in the U.S., thanks them. Thanks them. Point number two about that, isn't this in some sense negotiating with terrorists? Absolutely. He's saying, wait a minute, we'd have higher oil prices. We'd have to pay more, and I don't want to pay more, so I'll let these guys behead anyone they like. It's actually worse than that, because there was no negotiation.

He didn't even negotiate. It's immediate concession. It's immediate excuses for the Saudis after they've committed a horrible crime. Yeah, so this is the strong leader you like. So instead of protecting people who live here in America, he allows Muslim fundamentalist government that's dictatorial and has an insane, strict fundamentalist view of Islam to dismember people and then says to them, thank you, thank you for helping us with lower oil prices. And by the way, Saudi Arabia does affect oil prices to some degree.

But they're not the sole people who control oil prices. It's a giant worldwide market with a confluence of events that go into it. But they're simple to the things, oh yeah, that's okay. I let them dismember the guy. And it's why our prices are lower. It's both stupid and immoral. I just want to also quickly mention that there is a bipartisan effort in the Senate to get Donald Trump to admit that Jamal Khashoggi was murdered and that murder was ordered by the

Saudi crown prince. Now Bob Corker is one of the authors of that legislation and they're citing the Magnitsky Act in order to do this. So under the act, Trump can be required to make a determination about human rights. violations by global leaders, the law requires the president to do so within 120 days of the committee's request, as well as apply any sanctions. So this is the second time that senators have pushed for this. Because of the first time that they did it, or in response to the first time they did this,

the Trump administration imposed sanctions on 17 Saudis. Now that was before the CIA released their report indicating that the Saudi Crown Prince was likely the one who ordered this murder. Yeah, you know, Corkers on his way out. So these are, like you say all the time, Anna, nice, interesting shots that are verbal. But, you know, look, the Magnitsia could have real consequences, but the Republicans would have to follow through

and actually make him do it. And we'll see if they wind up doing that next year. Well, they still control the Senate. In fact, they control the Senate more now than they did before. So we'll see. All right, moving on. For the first time in decades, the White House Correspondents dinner will not feature a comedian. Maybe the Trump administration doesn't want to have a comedian because of what happened last

year. I actually really like Sarah, I think she's very resourceful. Like she burns facts and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smoky eye. Like, maybe she's born with it. Maybe it's lies. It's probably lies. And I'm never really sure what to call Sarah Huckabee Sanders. You know, is it Sarah Sanders?

Is it Sarah Huckabee Sanders? Is it Cousin Huckabee? Is it anti-Huckabee Sanders? Like, what's Uncle Tom but for white women who disappoint other white women? That one's going to leave a mark. And it did leave a mark as you were about to find. Yes, it left a mark. And so Trump had tweeted just recently about how the White House Correspondents Dinner will

have a historian and author as opposed to a comedian. Trump's saying that she bombed so badly last year, meaning Michelle Wolfe, and that the White House correspondent's decision to tap a biographer, Ron Cherno, author of biographies on Alexander Hamilton and George Washington, is a quote, good first step. So that's what Trump had tweeted about, and then Michelle Wolfe actually responded to it saying the following, I bet you'd be on my side if I had killed a journalist, hashtag be best. Damn, that one's also gonna leave a mark. Oof.

Because it's true. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't want to place all the blame on the Trump administration, although they are certainly special snowflakes. The media played a role in scrapping comedians as well. And I wanna give you examples of what some of these journalists had said. So let's go to Graphic 11. Several major news organizations, according to the Washington Post, including Politico and

the Washington Post, told White House Correspondents Association board members that they preferred to do away with the comedian as the evening's entertainer. So Fred Ryan, Washington Post publisher, said, the event should be about the journalist. It shouldn't be about cutting humor, but about journalism. Oh, they don't like that. So this is a little bit about Donald Trump, and it's giving in to his bullying tactics, so the press should be really proud about that. And he says, this time I might come.

You should rethink that. The guy that they invited is an expert on First Amendment. He's a historian about that. I'm going to give a speech about them. My guess is that's not going to turn out well for you. Again, you're not bright enough to realize that. But in terms of why they cut comedians in the first place, it's at least half because they're snowflakes too.

They didn't like being made fun of. And so it got awkward for them. And look, in a lot of ways Stephen Colbert started this and his brilliant, brilliant monologue at the White House correspondent's dinner a while back. So many great lines of that, but the one that's really stuck that I've heard over and over against us that is when he said, well, you know, reality has a well-known liberal bias. And boy, that proved to be true, certainly in the Trump years as well. And then Larry Wilmore cut him pretty deep, and they didn't like that.

And then Michelle Wolfe came in and finished them off. And so, and they pretty much admitted here in the quote that Anna read for you saying, like, it shouldn't be about cutting humor, but about journalism. In other words, don't hit us either. We don't like that. And that's the whole point of comics. And by the way, they wouldn't be as necessary if you guys did your jobs better. And if you were real watchdogs, well, then you would be the ones aggressively challenging

the government. The reason why the comedians stand out when they go to this thing is because they actually do truth telling more than the reporters do, and it makes the powerful in Washington uncomfortable. That's why the audience likes it and you hate it. Yeah, so if you feel insecure about the truth, then it's hard to have a sense of humor when someone's performing a stand-up and you're part of it. I just, look, and this is something that, this is an argument that applies to everyone, regardless of political affiliation, the, like the pressure to censor comedy is crazy.

We need to all calm down, okay, both on the left and the right. Comedy should not be censored, it is a form of expression, it's a form of speech. Is comedy sometimes offensive? Yes, does it make you uncomfortable? Yes. Now for me, good comedy is when the comedian punches up. If a comedian goes up there and they start attacking or making jokes about someone who's in a powerless position, vulnerable groups of people, if that's what the comedy is about,

then for me personally, I don't find that funny, but I don't want to go out there and and censor it or end it. You see what I'm saying? So look, everything has a line, right? You can draw the line, but you draw the line at different places for different things. So for comedy, the line is really far out there or should be really far out there. Can you still cross it? Yes, they're famously, Michael Richards, just yelling the N word for no reason, not remotely related

to humor, was weird and crossed the line. But you gotta go all the way out there to cross it. Otherwise, hey, and look, right wing, do they have bad humor that's offensive? Of course! Of course they do. But overall, I don't care about that. You do you, okay, and you know, get those people like, yeah, way to punch down on people who have no power.

That's really funny. That's your call, buddy. We're not going to get into judging comedy in that sense. Well, judge it, but I'm not interested in censoring it. Yeah, of course, and that's a giant, giant difference. I like judging. That's all different thing. But Michelle Wolf sent out one more tweet that I thought was exactly right here.

She said that the Correspondents Association are, quote, cowards saying the media is complicit and I couldn't be prouder. That's true. And a lot of folks basically accidentally confirmed it. Look, these are not bad people. Frank Cessna, it was on CNN, he's now George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs. He heads that program.

It's a good guy and he tries hard, but he said here, frankly, people don't want to put on a tux and come out on a Saturday night to get lectured to. In other words, we don't like it when you criticize us. If you kept it to light criticism of the government, then everybody's having fun, right? Keep it light. Wilmore was too tough, Wolf was too tough. We didn't like that. We don't want to put on a tux and then get made fun of.

So we're gonna have dry lectures going forward. Good luck with that. See if anybody watches too. Definition of first world problems. I don't want to put on a tucks and go to a fancy dinner and be lectured to. Oh, is your life tough? All right, anyway, let's take a break. When we come back, could Trump get indicted for attempting to prosecute Hillary Clinton,

James Comey, his political enemies? We'll see. That's a real question. So let's tackle it when we get back. 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 yt.com slash join today. In the meantime, enjoy this free second.

All right, back on the young Turks. Let's give you some names from the tyt.com slash dot com. Yeah, what's going on? I got all German there for a second. At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control. of our online lives, constantly monitoring us and storing our data. But that doesn't mean we have to let them. It's possible to stay anonymous online and hide your data from the prying eyes of big tech. And one of the best ways is with ExpressVPN. ExpressVPN hides your IP

address, making your active ID more difficult to trace and sell the advertisers. ExpressVPN also encrypts 100% of your network data to protect you from eavesdroppers and cybercriminals. And it's also easy to install. A single mouse click protects all your devices. But listen, guys, 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 TYT fans. That's EXP-R-E-S-S-V-N dot com slash T-YT. Check it out today. It's, by the way, if they want to pronounce it right, it's kashikshu.

Kishukshu. Okay. It means one who makes spoons. Really? Yeah. Okay. Anyway, t.t.com slash amplify. Dylan Thomas, the Welsh progressive from Wales, gets a t-shirt.

We actually talked to Dylan in that town hall we did the other night. To all of you who were looking forward to it, we're sorry. We had a technical issue. We wound up doing it just for the members like we normally do. But we will do a live one for everyone next week to make up for it. And we have figured out the technical issues. So we'll tell you about that one that's ready. Lars Nilsson, who I often see online from Gothenburg.

Also gets a t-shirt. Thank you, Lars. Robert Cantor from Vegas. Thank you for giving in as well, brother. And remember all the money for under $1,000 goes all to journalism students. who'll get free TYT membership, which is great. Now, just a couple of comments here. I AM SOC writes in on the member section.

Trump needs the ultimate safe space. And Suborto writes in, without the roasting, the White House Correspondents dinner is just a government slash media. I don't know if I can say this, we're also on TV, doing something circular with one another. It was sort of that already, but Trump, as usual, pulls back the veil and makes it that much more grotesque. And then finally, Julia Mahoney in YouTube Super Chat says, I'm grateful for this kind of progressive

coverage in 2018. Love all of you guys at TYT Studio. Have a very happy Thanksgiving. You as well. Thanksgiving, of course, is tomorrow, and we will be off. I'll probably be doing live videos to encourage you to become members under t.yt.com slash By the way, for those of you who are members and are participating in Amplify, that's wonderful.

And if you're not a member yet, you can of course always sign up through t.t.com slash jank. And there's a good time to give the gift of membership to someone in your life, t.yt.com slash gift to do that. Under Amplify, we are giving it to the media, The View, Tucker Carlson, Anderson Cooper, Pod Save America. are all available right now on tyt.com slash amplify. You could amplify that strong progressive message to all of them.

All right. Also, one quick thing, Dan Steele on Twitter, asked us a question that I'd like to answer during our members-only postgame. If you were a strain of cannabis, which strain would you be? No, interesting. Members asking a lot of questions, fascinating stuff. And then I want to tell you that controversial story about Al Jazeera in the post game, too. So we will do that for the members.

All right. Recently, news broke indicating that Michael Avanotti, Stormy Daniels attorney, had been arrested on possible domestic violence charges. Now, the following day, there were a number of corrections to that story. We actually corrected that story as well. The initial report indicated that his estranged wife had accused him of domestic abuse, but his estranged wife then came forward and said, No, he's never laid a hand on me. His first previous wife also said that she never had any issues with him, and so she backed him up

as well. Well, now we have more details on the story. We have more details on the woman who has accused him of assault. Her name is Morelli, Minnie Udi, and I will give you the details on what she's alleging in just a minute. But the most recent update comes from the Los Angeles prosecutor's office. They have declined to charge Avanotti with a felony. The Los Angeles District Attorney's Office referred the case to city prosecutors to consider

misdemeanor charges. Now, the accusations against him are serious, and if there were enough evidence to prosecute him criminally, prosecutors would do so. They would go after him with criminal charges, but it appears that they do not have enough evidence to do that. Now, I'm uncertain as to whether or not the city prosecutors are going to consider the misdemeanor charges, but that's when we're out at the moment. So look, when he, the first news item comes out, everybody's concerned, second day, we

realize that TMZ put it out. And TMZ is a friend of Donald Trump, Harvey Levin, who runs it as big buddies with Donald Trump. It's filled with inaccuracies, you go, wait, that's questionable. Then Jacob Wall, a right-wing troll jumps in and says, hey, you know, his group basically strikes again. So if that guy's involved, that's super questionable. We don't know exactly how he's involved, but he's bragging about getting Avanati. So that makes it a lot more suspicious. And remember that Jacob Wool is also a guy who tried to get Mueller on a fake sex scandal

regarding Robert Mueller. That's another perceived enemy of Donald Trump. So that fact pattern is really suspicious, now what we were waiting on was, well, other prosecutors are going to charge him? Because they said, no, it's not his wife, but there is an actual person, and we're looking into it. Now, the arrest, they have to do when someone complains, okay, when it brings forward the complaint, I should say, right? And so their hands are tied, and Avanotti says the same thing. He said the same thing. He said the police were very professional, respectful. They did their jobs, and they had to do what they had to do. The question is, is he going to get charged? Well, that got answered today. He did not get charged.

So the jury's pretty much in, there's a little bit left outstanding here, but that's the thing about charges like this if you make him, if you make him for political reasons. They linger forever, you know, because how do you disprove a charge? You know, the prosecutor says, no, I'm not gonna go forward, it's not a real case, but still people will say, well, maybe he did it, maybe he did it, and so that'll hang over him for the rest of his life, and that's how you do a political hit job. Maybe. I mean, see, I even have to say maybe, even though it has all the trappings of one.

So Avanotti responded to the Los Angeles prosecutor's office and how they've decided to, or how they've declined to press charges. He said the following via Twitter. I'm thankful that the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office has rejected filing any charges against me after a fair, careful, and thorough investigation, I have maintained my innocence since the moment of my arrest. Now, Avanotti maintains that this is political intimidation because he has aggressively gone after Donald Trump.

In fact, I would argue he's the only person who can beat Trump at his own cable news trolling game. And I think that that really gets under Trump's skin. So I think that there is some merit to that argument. He also says, full steam ahead, I'm immediately focusing on holding Donald Trump and his unethical cronies like Jacob Wall accountable for their cowardice. awkwardly acts in efforts to intimidate innocent people who believe in the rule of law, join me, and then he started something known as FightPack, the FightPack.org.

So I just got breaking news. So we do the show live every day, 6 to 8 p.m. Eastern on t.t.com slash live. So sometimes we'll get breaking news in the middle of the show. Avanotti has just also tweeted, I'm still waiting for apologies from TMZ for their demonstrably false article from last Wednesday, false on at least nine key quote unquote facts, including including that I beat a woman in her face. We're gonna get to that in a second. I'm also waiting on apologies from all the other news organizations that quoted from the story

because they are lazy. Now, Avanotti did tweet out our coverage when we corrected the story and said that in fact, you know, explained Jacob Walls, CD history, Harvey Levin's history with Donald Trump, and he made a positive reference to that because we actually do do our homework. Right, and I wanna also be clear. When we originally did the story, I wouldn't say that we were being lazy because that's literally the last thing that I would consider myself and you. But the reason why you have to make a split second decision when news breaks during our live

show. And I felt as though if we didn't cover that story, it would appear that we have a bias that would give someone on the left a pass if they're accused of a serious allegation. And so I probably should have waited in that case, but we did correct the story the next day. And I do apologize for unfortunately, you know, sharing what TMZ had reported initially. But you see, the fake news people, the right wingers who do actually spread fake news, real fake news, it's a funny phrase. But they, Donald Trump greatly benefited during the campaign. And he then ironically turned around and claimed the real news was fake.

Anyway, the people who spread the fake news, they know that journalists and even groups like us, we do the news and then we tell you our perspective on it. We're home of progressives, we don't hide that at all. But we're fair, and we gotta give you the news first before we give you our perspective. Exactly. And they know that we will hold our own to account. So they try to take advantage of that and from time to time create fake controversies. So the one about Sam Cedar, who's also part of the TYT network, is a good example of that.

They twisted a tweet that he had to mean the exact opposite. It worked. MSNBC fired him, but there was so much public pressure, they rehired him. So they do this all the time knowing, ha ha, these guys are going to be fair, let's take advantage of that. They actually care of women are abused. Let's take advantage of that and try to smear people on their side, and they will help us. And so, but it's, what Avedani is right about, I mean, we, we are going out of our way here

to make sure everybody knows the full story, all of it, right? Is everybody else doing that? Did everybody who ran giant headlines about how he must have, might have done domestic violence? Have they all gone back and now said that was wrong? TMZ was, I don't know, fabricating news? That should be a big headline. TMZ is a big TV show.

Apparently they fabricate news. Do they do that on a regular basis, et cetera. You know, I remember a famous case where somebody was defamed and he said, where do I go to get my reputation back? Yeah. And the reality is that's not how the media works and the right wing knows it. And so that's why a lot of times these smear jobs work. But now let's look at the case a little bit more. Right.

So the case or the documents were unsealed essentially this week. And so now we know some of the details of the allegations. So she, meaning Morelli Miniuti, claims the following, that she and Avanotti dated from October of 2017 until November 13th of this year, the night that she alleges that they began to argue about money and that Avanotti berated her using expletives. So that's how it started. Then she alleges that after the alleged verbal abuse, she went to a guest bedroom in the apartment that she said, says she shares with Avanotti to sleep alone. Avanotti allegedly followed her and eventually began forcefully hitting her in the face with pillows.

At that point, Avanotti then grabbed my right arm and dragged me out of the bed. He dragged me onto the floor of the apartment towards and out of the door into the public hallway. I was wearing only my underwear and T-shirt at the time and suffered scratches to. the bare skin on the side of my leg. Okay, so also the police department says that they have photo evidence, but Avanotti argues that the day after this alleged incident, she had posted a video on social media, that video was something that I looked at as well, and it appeared that she had no injuries.

Remember, the initial report said that she had bruising on her face. Yes, the bruising on the face is definitively false. That's now, you know, Al-Anadi claims there's nine facts that are wrong. But, you know, I don't know if it's nine or eight or ten. I do know there's massive inaccuracies and lies in TMZ's reporting. It was not the estranged wife, there was no bruise on the face. So that got headlines all across the world. Are they all taking back to the bruises on the face?

Because I saw the video, there's no bruises on the face. So now, whether you believe heard about the other stuff is the other details are right. Do you believe that she was in this horrible pillow fight and then the dragging, et cetera? And if you believe in the dragging, that could be really bad, right? But given that there was claims of bruises on the face and there are no bruises on the face, given the fact that some right-wing troll was taking credit for all this, I don't know what to believe about her and her story. Yeah, it's difficult.

And honestly, we can't judge definitively, we just can't. All we know is what's been reported accurately. All we know is what the prosecutor's office has decided. And if those photos provided enough evidence to prosecute, they would prosecute. One final part of this that I thought was fascinating, and this is based on the court documents. This is based on what she has said and what she swears by. Avanotti, she wrote, has a history of being very verbally abusive and financially controlling toward me, adding that he has, quote, made promises to take care of me financially and sometimes

fails to follow through. That's not a thing. That's not abuse. Okay, that's saying I want money and I want it now and I'm going to get you arrested if you don't give me money. That's, I mean, look, I'm not saying, she said, you could read the quote, you could interpret it any way you like, but first of all, verbally abusive. Look, that could be psychologically damaging and terrible and you shouldn't do that,

etc, et cetera, et cetera. But that is not something that gets people arrested. That's not a thing that it's not a crime to be quote unquote verbally abusive. And then what? I wanted money and he didn't give it to me and I'm not married to him. And why didn't he take me my sugar daddy more? She says, sometimes he doesn't follow through. Oftentimes he does.

But sometimes when I demand money, he doesn't give it to me. That is not domestic violence. Equating that to domestic violence is gross. And look, so this person is based on our own statements and on the track record we're seeing here, super questionable. Look, people have suffered terrible domestic violence in this country. And when you do this and then the right wing laughs and brags about how they're involved in this effort to get one of Trump's opponents, and your charge against Alvinati is partly,

Well, he was verbally abusive to me. He yelled at me once and he followed me into a room in his own house, yelled at me, and then wouldn't give me the money that I thought I was owed as his girlfriend. So those parts of her allegations are not crimes, we know that, but whether or not he put his hands on her, that is relevant, that is something that, you know, investigators should be looking into. But of course, but that's the thing, since they have no principles and no scruples and no ethics, they can do this all day long to their political opponents.

Hey, there's a charge, there's a charge, you have to take it seriously, and everybody has to say 50-50 chance that Avinati is this terrible person who commits domestic violence, right? Everybody has to say it. Now, is there any left-wingers going and paying people off or whatever is happening to smear right-wingers like that? No, there isn't. There's no equivalent. So it's an uneven playing field where they get to smear the people against Trump, Republicans, whatever, nonstop, nonstop, every single day, right? And there is no counterattack because we don't want to do that. I would never do that to a right winger. Because it's morally bankrupt to do that. It is a dishonest, indecent, et cetera.

That's not what we do. Am I willing to fight tough? Are you kidding me? We pummel conservatives in Donald Trump every single day, but we do it verbally. I don't know if they're going to sue us over that. And we do it based on substance, on accurate substance. We don't make things up about the other side in order to smear them, right? Like, let's have an actual debate about policy and the consequences of those policies. I mean, those are the days I miss. I feel like we're so far removed from that because now everything is about smear tactics,

everything is about slander, everything is about character assassination. And all it does is distract us from policy and the things that really matter. It's frustrating. Look, I don't know if he's ever going to be able to prove a negative that he didn't do anything wrong. But he's trying to let hell. He says, he's demanding the video evidence from the building. Now, do you think a guilty guy is going to say when no one else asked for it, hey, I want

the video camera, security cameras in the building to show the video because she says this happened in the hallway. Let's find out if it happened in the hallway. A guilty guy does not ask for video evidence of what happened, okay? So, but I guarantee you, almost outside of us, almost no one else will go to this length to actually give you the whole story. And they'll just let it sit there and fester against them, probably to the end of time. We gotta take a break.

When we come back, we will discuss the possibility of Donald Trump getting indicted for a attempting to prosecute Hillary Clinton and James Comey. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen ad-free, access members-only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.