The Young Turks - Trump Targets DeSantis

Episode Date: February 8, 2023

Not-so-shocking poll results show that most Americans feel that Joe Biden hasn’t completed much in his time as president. Kamala Harris is still trying to define her Vice Presidency. Donald Trump shares posts labeling Ron DeSantis a 'groomer.' Congress may be looking to make more regulations on marijuana. A reporter posts a private email between Candace Owens. Host: Ana Kasparian, Cenk Uygur 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. Woo! It's up! All right, welcome to the O'Turks, Janky O'Rexperin with you guys. of the union tonight. It is electrifying. Biden is going to light up the nation, and we're

going to be here to cover it. We're going to do play by play. We're going to do commentary before, after, during, every part of it, okay? Look, are we going to make the state of the union more interesting? Of course, not going to be any less interesting. Anyways. Dude, for real. Okay, so we'll get to it. And as usual, of course, it'll be honest, coverage that you won't see anywhere else. Everybody else in media that are all so objective, we'll take one side or the other. We'll show you what the reality is. Okay, now we got a lot of show for you guys. We sure do. Let's start with this. There have been so many accomplishments under this administration. It can be difficult to list them in a distilled way. There continue to be

a lot of issues that Americans are facing every day, even as we see extraordinary economic news, 500,000 jobs just created in the last month. Well, that's the thing. None of it seems to accrued his benefit. Well, people say that, but then, you know, this president has exceeded expectations again and again politically and functionally. Pete Buttigieg, President Joe Biden's transportation secretary, is providing a little bit of spin to the reality that most Americans do not, in fact, feel the positive impact of Joe Biden's policies.

And I think it's worth getting into, especially as Biden is. set to address the nation with the state of the union. Jank, before I get to the details on how Americans really feel about the Biden administration, you want to jump in? Yeah, I like how he's like, he's accomplished so much, it's difficult to list. Well, give it a shot, big guy. See how it turns out for you. So, well, actually, we do have that video where he attempts to list the accomplishments

of the Biden administration. Of course, void of any important caveats, which we will provide. But stay tuned for that. I think what's important is to kind of fill you in on what polling suggests in regard to the American people and how they feel about Biden's administration. So there was a poll done by the Washington Post and ABC News, and here's what they found. The poll finds that 62% of Americans think Biden has accomplished not very much or little or nothing during his presidency, while 36% say he has accomplished a great deal or a good amount.

on many of Biden's signature initiatives from improving the country's infrastructure to making electric vehicles more affordable to creating jobs, majorities of Americans say they do not believe he has made progress. And I'll explain why in just a moment, but unsurprisingly, if you break down this poll based on party lines, you will notice people, of course, go into their corners. But the important thing to focus on, in my opinion, is how independent voters feel. So if you take a look at this graph, it'll show you that the majority of Democrats, 77% do in fact feel that Biden has accomplished a great deal or a good amount. Unsurprisingly, only 7% of Republicans feel the same way.

But when you go to independence, only 32% feel that Biden has done a great deal or good amount. 66% do not feel that way. They feel not very much or little or nothing. Yeah. So let's start to bring you that. Look, there's two things that are at play here. One is marketing. Has Joe Biden pushed the things he has done strongly enough, loudly enough? So for example, the reality is often in the middle. And in this case, it's very much so because there are some things that Biden has done a very good job with. Over 500,000 new jobs added

was amazing. Unemployment is at a record low since 1969. So is he doing a good enough job of touting that? No, he's not. Something that the Biden administration is sorely lacking, and it's a democratic problem at large and has been for decades, is someone loud. They're constantly whispering. And Joe Biden will lean in and go, oh, he loves to whisper. No, seriously, this is not a joke. Well, of course it's not a joke. Why do you keep saying that after every sentence? Anyway, So they need someone to, like Trump, for all of his downsides, he would say, me get you more employment, more jobs, more jobs. And people heard, geez, I guess he got us more jobs. And the Democrats, okay, no, he didn't.

And then no one would get hurt. So it's definitely partly a marketing problem. The other problem, though, is, and I think the majority of it, is substance. So they didn't actually pass bills that help you. They passed bills that help corporations. We're going to do more of that in a second. But the third slight issue, kind of an asterisk, is timing. So this link to the substance.

So for example, on drugs, they say, well, it's weird. American people are saying that their drug prices are not lower. Well, that's not at all weird because their drug prices are not lower. They passed the law saying about 10 drugs or so can be, their price can be regulated. The great majority of which happens in 2026. Yes. That's three years from now. Only one, the insulin prices kicked in. And that was a month ago. So of course nobody thinks the drug prices are lower because almost none of the drug prices are lower. And in fact, they protected thousands of drugs from being challenged in terms of their price. So it actually is counterproductive. And then, but everybody in Washington is always flummoxed. They're always like, well, I don't I don't get it. Like, how come people don't love Biden? Look at the number. of independents that Anna pointed out, 32%, that's the most important number. Then look at people like Pete Buttigieg on television, and it's wall-to-wall bootages from the

Democratic side and the mainstream media side. And you'll see the biggest disparity of your life. Everybody, all the pundits will tell you, oh, Biden's great, oh, he's get accomplished, so it's historic, it's historic. But the independents show you, no, it hasn't affected our lives at all. Yeah, the thing with Buttigieg is he is part of the Biden administration. So of course, he's going to put a spin on the successes of the Biden administration or lack thereof. And I say lack thereof because at the end of the day, what they like to tout is their infrastructure bill, which is, again, we've talked about this a million times, a corporate handout because it relies on public, private partnerships. What does that mean? That means U.S. taxpayer money,

meaning our money will go toward corporations, will enrich corporations, which will, by the way, likely pad their pockets and inflate costs to do these infrastructure projects. Let's also keep in mind that let's say this was completely publicly funded, publicly built government jobs instead of relying on corporations. When it comes to infrastructure, clearly Americans are not going to feel the benefits of that right away because it takes time to build and improve the infrastructure. Okay, so to kind of hang your hat on that is ridiculous because Americans, base the, I guess the success of your policies by looking at their own lives to see whether

or not they've seen any material improvement. And for most Americans, they have not. The child tax credits, which Biden swore up and down. He was going to make it permanent. Those expired. Okay? Americans certainly felt that. So when you talk about, oh, the drug prices, you're so right, Jank. It's Medicare that would be able to negotiate the prices for 10 pharmaceutical drugs and it wouldn't go into effect until 2026. How are you going to tout that? Come on. But let's give you some more. By the way, the mainstream media figured out how to tout it.

When it passed, every single outlet called it historic reform. That's a joke, total and utter joke. It's meant to actually cover up the incredible abuses of the drug companies on all other drugs. Now, let's also talk a little bit about how Americans have little confidence in either Biden or the Republican Party. So if you think that this is just a damning indictment of the Democratic Party, you'd be mistaken because it turns out that most of them do not have much faith in Kevin McCarthy's leadership in the House either. So just under two in 10 Americans have a great deal or good amount of confidence in the speaker to make the right

decisions for the country. That's what the question was. 71% have just some or no confidence at all. Similarly, high 72% say they lack such confidence in congressional Republicans. Look, there is a clear breakdown in our political system. This isn't a, oh, turns out most voters prefer Democrats over Republicans or vice versa. No, they are upset with, and they should be upset with the lack of leadership that we've seen from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. on the looming fight over the debt limit. Most Americans are closer to Biden's position than the GOPs, and most dismiss Republican plans to investigate the government's weaponization as political.

Okay, so they look at the Republican plans to either cut or privatize social security, and they're like, we don't want that. It's almost as if Americans just want some financial stability in their lives. And if you give them that, they are far more likely to, to support you and your administration. They have not received that from the Biden administration, despite what you hear from Pete Buttigieg and other members of the administration.

Yeah, so the media can't figure out two phenomena here. They're like, number one, they don't seem to like Biden nor the Republicans. So which side are you guys on? No, no, it's super clear. Look at all the polling, okay? And this poll's not alone. You have about 36% that are against Biden,

no matter what, hardcore Republicans, You're never going to move them. And about 36% of Democrats who listen to NPR, read New York Times, watch CNN, MS, NBC. And you're never going to move them. They're going to think that Biden's a demigodon no matter what, okay? So that leaves about 30% of the country. That decides all of the elections, okay? Yep.

And so that 30% dislikes both sides. And the media scratches their head. Why? Well, I got news radio here's why. Because the middle is correct. And they're not at all moderate in the terms of what? what how Washington reporters label things. No, they're pissed because nothing ever gets done.

And so this also leads to the second mystery for the reporters. And you're welcome Washington reporters for deciphering these things that I think are relatively obvious. So why are even Democratic voters this satisfied with Joe Biden? Because in the Washington world, they're like, he passed all these bills. And they were all historic. I know because we did giant headlines calling them historic. So why are people satisfied?

Because look at the bills, your knuckleheads. All of the bills give everything to corporations first, and then if you're lucky, the voters come in dead last. Now, with Republicans, the corporations come in first and last. That's the only thing that the Republican bills serve. The voters are never considered in Republican bills. Only when it comes to culture war narrative. Yeah, culture war, sure, sure.

But on economic issues, right? So that's why you have 30% of the country that's in the middle. decides the last she's going, I don't like either side. And you keep telling me Biden did something, but it has not affected my life one inch. And you're right, you're absolutely right. And all these corporate media goons are totally wrong and trying to trick you by saying, oh, he did amazing things that you should like corporate Democrats and corporate Republicans. No, you're right to loat both.

Well, let's move on from the president of the United States to the vice president of the United States, because Kamala is certainly having a tough time. That is not a good sign. A quick excerpt from the piece, the painful reality for Harris is that in private conversations over the last few months, dozens of Democrats in the White House on Capitol Hill and around the nation, including some who helped put her on the party's 2020 ticket, said she had not risen to the challenge of proving herself as a future leader of the party, much less the country. Even some Democrats whom her own advisors referred reporters to for supportive quotes

confided privately that they had lost hope in her. And to be quite honest, I haven't really seen much of Kamala Harris during the administration. I will also say that in the beginning of Biden's term, he kind of gave her this impossible task of solving immigration, essentially setting her up to fail. So let's be fair about that. But Kamala Harris really does seem to struggle with everything right now, including public speaking engagements, explaining what the Biden administration stands for. I mean, you keep seeing these instances play out over and over again to the point where her closest allies are now pretty much abandoning her, especially in the context of this New York

Times story and the interviews they conducted with them. Yeah, so look, I don't know if she's nervous. I don't know what's going on, but she's clamped up. And she's not doing the Biden administration any favor. She's certainly not doing herself any favors. And I have suggestions on how she can turn it around. But I think that the number one issue is that we expect that our leader, our leaders, politicians, businessmen, people, cable news anchors are really smart.

And I got news for you, I don't think they are. Because I'm going to suggest some things that she could easily do, even with within the confines of her job, that I bet she's never even considered. I'm not sure anybody in Washington is considered. I bet her top allies haven't considered. So let me just note, Biden has an upcoming book titled The Fight of His Life, and Joe Biden refers to Kamala Harris as a work in progress. No, they have a bad relationship.

There's no question about that. And so that sets her up for failure. Let's get it real. It does. So there's that. And I think that there is some truth to the nervous. she appears nervous. Every time she has a speaking engagement, I'm like, are you okay? If it feels like she has a fear of public speaking, when we know that, especially as a former

prosecutor, I mean, we've seen her cross-examine people like Brett Kavanaugh during hearings. And so you can see the confidence in that context. But today, when you see her at public events, it's actually kind of shocking how she seems incredibly uncomfortable, nervous. Now, according to the New York Times, Harris chose to avoid. the media for an entire year after the disastrous interview you're about to watch in which she could not answer whether or not she had been to the border. So here's that moment. Do you have any plans to visit the border? I'm here in Guatemala today at some point. We are going to the border. We've been to the border.

So this whole this whole thing about the border, we've been to the border. We've been to the border. You haven't been to the border. And I haven't been to Europe. And I mean, I don't understand the point that you're making. Yeah, I mean, no, I haven't been to the border because guess what? Policymaking doesn't require you to be in the exact place. What's going to happen if I visit the border? What new information am I going to get out of that, right?

I mean, I would have been dismissive of the question. And I would have moved forward with what the Biden administration intends to do, what their ideology is when it comes to immigration, how it allegedly differs from the Trump administration, even though he extended a lot of the Trump era anti-immigration policies. But nonetheless, I mean, after that, she just decided I'm not going to do interviews for a full year. Now, last year, the Biden administration apparently tried to pull a similar move on Kamala Harris, similar to her basically being like the person to solve immigration. they had her or wanted to assign her as the person who deals with the baby formula shortage.

And she's like, no, she apparently declined. And I think that was the right move. Yeah. So that's actually a perfect case for what I'm going to say. So number one, just to again say, it's not like she's not in a difficult position. First of all, the vice president has no power. That makes it difficult to begin with. Number two, Biden picked her, but then weirdly decided to ambush her as his own.

vice president, it's almost Trumpian minus the violence, right? Go do the unsolvable immigration problem, baby formula, everybody hates that we're out of baby formula. You're a woman, go stand in front of some new shipments, okay? And that's, there's a little bit of sexism in there, plus you go handle another nuclear problem and make it seem like it's your problem, not my problem. And real quick, let me jump in. These are problems that require congressional legislation. When you talk about the baby formula shortage, that was a result of Abbott Industries, okay, the top producer of baby formula, not investing in its own company to basically improve or fix the machinery that they had there, which is why the baby formula ended up being tainted with bacteria.

And it killed literal babies in the country as a result. So it's to say, hey, Kamala Harris, or one person in the executive branch deal with this is ridiculous. Of course that sets someone up for failure. I hear you. And what's even harder is if Kamala Harris came up with a plan to blame Abbott Industries because it's correct, my guess is the Biden administration would have tackled her and said, that is a beloved corporation. We can never cross them. Remember, there are our bosses. So well, then now you're even further bound. Now, but at the same time, her supporters can't help themselves. They always make arguments about racism and sexism and historic this and history, whether it makes sense or not. Like one of her former staffers is

like, you know, she's five too. And all the chairs, they're made for white males. He didn't say white. He didn't say white. He didn't say white to be fair. But they're made, they're made for ex-vice presidents who are male and they're taller. Dude, don't complain about that. That's insane, okay? Then you look stupid and petty, okay? Who cares about the chairs? That's why she can't do her job because of the chairs. So look, we're the fair showing America. We're telling you what the issues are. So what, now to be further fair, let's be constructive. What could Kamala Harris do, but that she's choosing not to do. As always two things.

One is rhetoric, the other is substance. So for example, we're going to show you later in the show on a different topic. On the issue of immigration, Maxwell Frost, the youngest congressperson ever in America, in American history, did a great job of questioning people in his first hearings. And he said, hey, he asked the officials in charge, hey, has the border policy changed between Trump and Biden? Well, this is what we say on the young Turks all the time, right? And the answer is, no, of course it hasn't.

Can people just walk into the country? Do we have an open border? No, of course not. No, the enforcement is the same exact thing as it was under Trump. Oh, that wasn't hard, was it? Why didn't Kamala Harris do that? It's so simple. So immigration is a tough thing to solve, but you can go out there and be like, it's the same policy. Every Republican who says that it's an open border policy is lying. And Lester Holtz, you should check them and say this is totally unacceptable. Stop lying to the American people about what the actual policy is. By the way, also stop lying to the immigrants who are getting hope because they think that it's an open border because Republicans are lying to them, okay? And it's driving up illegal immigration because of Republicans.

Come on, guys. Just this is not hard. Maxwell Fress just showed it to you. What is he, 29, 13? If he can do it, Kamala Harris, you can do it. Okay? And then on the substance, come up with a plan. Okay, so you say, one thing I can't stand about this New York Times piece is normal mainstream media.

Like, oh my gosh, she is so animated about abortion. What does that mean? That doesn't mean anything. She really cares about that issue. And how does she show that? So here's how I would show it. I would come up with a proposal, right? And here's how we could fight for women's rights.

And I would go pitch that to the president. And then I'd pitch another proposal and another proposal until they said, Hey, good one, let's, and they say, hey, can I, Mr. President, can I please go campaign on your behalf in the Democratic Party in all these places? And if she had done that, when we won on a choice in places like Montana and Kansas and Kentucky, then she would have gotten credit for it, right or wrong, right? But if you sit on your ass on your chair that's too high and don't do anything, that's when people are going to say, I guess she's not cut out for the job because I haven't seen

her do a goddamn thing. And that part is totally correct. When we come back from the break, Ron DeSantis is getting a taste of his own medicine from Donald Trump. I don't want to give away too much, but the word groomer comes up. That and more next. Don't miss it. All right, back on TYT, Jank Ugrer, Anna Kasparian, and two American heroes. Lauren McCraig gifted five Young Turks memberships on YouTube. She gives an out to other members of the community. Lauren, you're amazing. And so did Stone Canuck, American hero, even though he's a Canuck.

Don't care giving you the American Hero title anyway. Everybody you can join by hitting the join button below the video on YouTube or t-y-t.com slash join. Casper. Well, let's talk a little bit about this ongoing war between DeSantis and Trump. After terrorizing teachers by implying that they might be groomers, Ron DeSantis now appears to be getting a taste of his own medicine because Donald Trump is accusing him of being a groomer. Love it. My God, this story.

Yes! Okay. The story is insane, but also chickens come home to roost. They do, sometimes they come home to roost, which is why it's really, really important to not normalize a political environment where you start accusing people of being groomers or pedophiles when there's absolutely no evidence of that whatsoever. No, I can't wait. Okay, I just have to say two words before you tell us that. Oh, you just have to say something. I just have to say it. One is cockadoodle do. There is a Jamaican word, agud.

Okay, that means I'm glad it happened to you. Ag good, all good, let's see. So I'm thinking about joining truth social just to follow Trump. Okay, because his posts are lit. All right, so let's go to the first post. He re-truthed someone who shared a photo of a very young Ron DeSantis, 23 years old when he used to teach at a high school, okay, this was at a boarding school. Apparently it shows him drinking with some high school girls.

We did fact check this to make sure it was in fact a picture of Ron DeSantis and that he did in fact party with girls in his teaching capacity at this school. And the New York Times had reported on it previously, so it is true. Anyway, so Trump says this, that's not Ron, is it? He would never do such a thing. Can't have that happen. I can't have that. Okay.

So the most shocking part of this whole story is that Ron DeSantis was a teacher? I mean, the guy who was declared war on teachers in a thousand different ways was a teacher apparently. For a brief period of time. From 2001 to 2002, that was the school year he taught at this particular school known as the Darlington School. It's in Georgia. As I mentioned earlier, it's a boarding school. He was 23 years old at the time. He had just graduated Yale and was about to go to Harvard,

which makes me really lose a lot of hope in any of these Ivy League schools. But nonetheless, that's what happened. So look, do we think that Rhonda Sanders was an actual groomer in the age of 20? No, the whole grooming thing. Look, is grooming a real thing? Yes. Is it political? No.

It has to do with actual sick people who do it. And it's a whatever percentage of the population that it is. But to say that Republicans or Democrats or certain politicians do it, no, it's just total, the worst kind of demagoguery, political hatchet jobs, et cetera. But now the hatchets are directed towards themselves. They're in a primary, kind of. Good luck. Start wielding those hatchets.

Have fun. Just choice entertainment, the 24 Republican primary. Okay? And make sure you tune in here. for all of that coverage. Now, that wasn't the only post. Trump later retruthed the same person, Dong Chan Lee, who said Ron DeSantis was having a drink party with his students when he was a high school teacher. Having drinks with underage girls and cuddling with them certainly look pretty gross. And then he used a word epiphobia. I don't know what, okay. So that basically means

having a primary sexual interest in mid to late adolescence. Okay, have you heard that word? Man, that is very specific. No, I have not. Listen, if you know what that word is, you're suss. Like most people don't know what that is, right? You'd almost have to be accused of it in court to know that word. Yeah, I can't even pronounce it.

Anyway, nonetheless, so Trump re-truthed that and said, no way, or no way? Or no way. I can't let that happen. I can't let that happen. So as we mentioned, the claims aren't 100%. Look, do I think he's a groomer based on what they've presented? No, there's no evidence that Ron DeSantis is a groomer, okay?

But he did teach at the school. We gave you the facts on that. But he was a teacher, and aren't they all? Huh? What was he doing with those underage girls? Teaching that? Okay, I love it, I love it. So, hey, Magga, guys, you tell me.

I mean is what is Trump lying or is there on to Santas a rumor not for me to decide it's for you guys to decide well I mean you're addressing the MAGA crowd yeah and we do have some sound coming from a MAGA pastor who is very much concerned about the lack of loyalty toward his preferred Republican presidential candidate let's watch there is no MAGA without Donald Trump It infuriates me to the core to see disloyalty. When you separate the man from a message, all of a sudden the message will die because the anointing is on the man. Donald Trump is the leader of the MAGA movement. You watched what happened to him two short years ago. You saw it with your eyes around midnight. Amen? For you to leave him now makes you a traitor of the MAGA movement. I don't care if you

like it or not. When you do not support the man that God has ordained for the job, you are a Judas? Rividing commentary there. Kind of was, though. Definitely compelling, yeah. No, can I just comment on his riveting commentary? Number one, I thought maybe he should, should have put on a shirt instead of the robe that he came out of the shower with, okay. But most importantly, that's actually, believe it or not, he's a lunatic. But remember, the base is not so mentally stable, okay? That's the kind of language they love. So when he starts putting it in religious terms, anyone who's disloyal to Trump is a judist,

oh, that's going to resonate. That's going to leave a mark, okay? But the most important thing he said was the anointing is around him. So if you're not religious, you're like, I don't know what you're talking about, right? But for religious folks, you'll know what that means. That means that God anointed him. So it's not about a movement even. It's not about a party.

It's about God chose him. He didn't pick the sanctimonious or Nikki Haley or whatever. That's going to resonate with the core of the base. Anna, like, although this is fun and I got my popcorn ready, this thing might be over before it even starts. I don't know that Ron DeSantis can take hatchets like this. Well, no, that's what I wanted to comment on. Look, Trump is so willing to hit below the belt and he'll stop at nothing. He wants to win.

And keep in mind, Ron DeSantis, for the most part, hasn't responded to Trump's insults. He did very briefly mention how he easily won his reelection. And that was a response to Donald Trump claiming, like, I made Ron DeSantis. He'd be nowhere without me. That was it, though. That was the only real response I saw for MondaSantis. And he wouldn't even name Trump in that response. So I don't know if DeSantis has a strategy here.

I don't know how he intends to essentially get through the primaries if he is, in fact, planning to run. But we've seen other Republican candidates up against Trump and they tried to take the high road and it didn't work out for them. No way. Not with that base. You crazy? That base loves groomer talk. And of all people, Ron DeSantis should know, because he based a lot of his campaigning in Florida about accusing Democrats and teachers and others of being groomers. Oh, yeah, you got to watch out for them, man. Don't say gay in school. You know, the groomers, etc. That's the monster that he was feeding. And now look, the monster has arisen yet again. And he's not going to know how to react. He's a standard politician. And so you're going to find out

who Ron DeSantis is. Because if he's a man, he'll get up and he'll punch back. And he'll go take the $500 million from the Koch brothers and kick Trump's ass. Okay. But if he's not a man, which I suspect I'd put a lot of money on him being soft and weak, he will cower under Trump's attack, tuck his tail between his legs and run away like a little boy. A few other things I want to just quickly mention. Other things that Trump posted about Ron DeSantis, I'm not even done yet. He also posted a meme from an account claiming that DeSantis was against the border wall, okay?

And he said, wow, if I knew that, I wouldn't have endorsed him. And he would have had to quit the race down 35 points. And then he also tries to claim that Ron DeSantis has. has a, you know, some affiliation with Black Lives Matter in Intifo, which is the most laughable thing I've ever heard in my life. Yeah, when I think Ronda Sandus, I think Black Lives Matter. Okay, but Trump, there is no bottom to that barrel. He will hit you in every way.

I mean, he's calling Desantis basically a pedophile. That's what a groomer grooms kids to have sex with them. He's, that, that was considered unthinkable pre-trial. Trump from any politician against anyone else. Now he's doing it to the second most popular Republican in his own party. Okay, so now let me just be a little bit of a downer because I know like we get giddy when we see this kind of infighting. It is entertaining, but just a little bit of mature commentary.

No, it's disastrous for what it means for the country, right? When politics becomes mud slinging and nothing more than that, because it's nothing more than that, they're not debating policy here, right? They don't have a real political disagreement here. It's just two individuals who are obsessed with power and want power. And while Ron DeSantis isn't punching back much yet, all Trump is doing is punching DeSantis specifically because he wants power. He wants to win and he doesn't want anyone to challenge him.

Okay? That doesn't give voters very many options. That's the issue, right? When we're not talking about policy, when we're not basically insisting that candidates talk about the issues that really matter to us and have an impact on our day to day lives. It's all just theater. It's all garbage. It's all about two powerful, wealthy individuals duking it out for their personal gain and enrichment. That's it. That's all it is. Well, that's 100% true. And guys, I'll add the second, don't get too giddy.

Because at the end of the day, Trump is the one guy who has shown a clear intent to destroy democracy. that when he didn't win an election, he was like, I don't care about democracy at all. I want to shred it. Give me some fake electors. Give me a riot. And let's try to end this goddamn thing so I could be dictator. And he has praised dictators over and over again when he was president. He's like, it's so great.

Everybody stands up and applauds and nobody criticizes. Yeah, because it's not a democracy. So the real problem here is that Trump is now back to above 50% easily, right? The mainstream media, if you ask them, they've got him at like 10% again because they're like, oh, he doesn't have enough money. Who cares? He has a connection with the base. He has infinite free media as he does these attacks.

No, he's now I got him at significantly about 50% again because all he ever does is roundhouses, honestly, below the belt. I mean, how much can these regular politicians stand getting hit below the belt? you know what I'm talking about, 2,000 times. I don't think any of them can stand it. That's why I keep saying, yeah, I know me using inflammatory language. But at some point, you need someone to man up. And I don't mean that in a gender way, right?

I mean, please get us a strong woman who will punch back at this son of a bitch, right? Somebody with strength, right? I would love for that to be on the Democratic side. Unfortunately, that side is filled with weaklings, right? But as Trump is showing, so is the Republican side. I mean, I believe Ronda Santos is strong when I see it. I haven't seen anything at all yet. All he's ever done is punch at teachers and people who have no power.

Let me see you up against Trump and see what you got, dog. My guess is nothing, nada. All right, we're going to take a break. When we come back, there was a hearing in the House regarding immigration. Two border patrol agents were involved, and they spoke truth about what's really transpiring in the southern border. That and more coming right up. All right. All right, back on CYT, Jank, Anna, and several American heroes with you guys. Michelle Eaton and Michael Norris just joined, and Jeanette Villanova became a member and then wrote in

love TYT, Jank, and Anna, at Power Team with a blue heart. Well, blue heart right back at you, okay? Great news is we're going to be covering the state of the union today, which will likely give you guys many opportunities to write in and lots of opportunities for Jank to read your comments. Oh, good. Okay, did you read between the lines of what she just said? Did you read between that? Oh, yeah, I think I did. Okay, let's keep going. Let's do it. Would you agree that the narrative being peddled right now that says that an insane amount of fentanyl is being brought into this country by illegal immigrants?

Freshman Democratic Representative Maxwell Frost did an excellent job breaking through some of the myths we've heard from the right wing when it comes to President Joe Biden's policies at our nation's southern border. Now, the answer from the Border Patrol agents is fascinating to say the least. But before we get to that, I just want to say, it is shocking that no other Democrat was as effective and concise in asking the kinds of questions that Representative Frost did in the context of this immigration-related hearing on the House floor. With that said, here's how the Border Patrol agents responded. An insane amount of fentanyl is being brought into this country by illegal immigrants, specifically. Would you say that is true?

Sir, again, we're here to report on the facts on border security. I probably differ from giving an opinion on anything in the news rate. With the data, right? Because that's probably doubtful. I can't provide a factual statement. I appreciate it. I agree, right? It has to be rooted in the data. You know, Akato Institute report and CBP data shows that more than 85% of the illicit fentanyl entering the United States is brought in by citizens of the United States of America. Mr. Chairman, I request unanimous consent to enter into the record, the 2022 Cato Institute report demonstrating that illicit fentanyl is primarily trafficked by U.S. citizens at lawful ports

of entry. So that was one myth that was debunked by Representative Frost and by Border Patrol agents who were part of this hearing. But that's not the best part, in my opinion. There was another question that he asked, which we're going to get to in just a moment. Before we do, Jank, why don't you jump in? Look, the guy's 26 years old. And I think that's a giant advantage.

And that's because he can Google things. And he's not ancient and he has energy and he's a progressive. He's not dead inside. Right. Yeah. And he can make simple points, which honestly, a giant number of Democrats can't even make this simplest point. They keep just letting the Republicans say that, oh, the illegal immigrants are bringing in

fentanyl. Well, it's just not true. Why don't you just tell them the fact? And he did. But wasn't that easy? And you know what Republicans have to say about that? Nothing because they're lying. And when he gives you the data, they run away.

It's not that hard. Wait till you see the second one. And by the way, just let me comment on the myth itself, because it shows the lack of seriousness coming from the Republican Party in regard to this very real crisis we're dealing with in this country right now with fentanyl overdoses, okay? Almost 100,000 people died of drug overdoses last year alone. and the majority of those overdoses were caused by synthetic opioids like fentanyl.

Okay, if you politicize it and just turn it into an anti-immigration issue, well, then you're not actually genuinely concerned about finding solutions. This is a very real problem. Now, with that said, this was my favorite part of Frost's line of questioning. Let's watch. For many folks around the country who might only watch far right media or just listen to even some of the folks on this committee, I'm curious, Chief Chavez, when President Biden took office, did your agent stop enforcing the border and just allow everybody to come in, thus creating what we hear here is an open border? Did that happen when the president took office?

Sure. Thank you for your question. The answer is no, sir. Okay, thank you. To enforce policy and laws. Thank you. I appreciate it. Chief Muldland, when President Biden took office, did the border just open and did you all stop enforcing your policies?

Also, thank you for your question, sir. I can tell you this, the fifth administration I've worked for starting with the Clinton administration and board of trial agents do their job every day. Thank you. I appreciate it. Look, I mean, look, as y'all probably realized by now, a lot of these hearings are not really about solutions. They're about politics.

And for me, I believe solutions must be rooted in facts. I loved that last statement. It's not rooted in facts. It's not rooted in policy solutions. it's just politics. And it's so important to drive that point home because the reason why we don't have solutions to the immigration issue is because Congress hasn't passed legislation to address it. So it's real easy for Republicans to complain about what's happening on the southern border.

But are they working on legislation to do anything about it? Is there any reform that they're willing to work on? No, they just want to politicize it for their own personal electoral gain. So I want to suggest what they can do in a second. But first, the most important thing here is look at how simple that was, guys. We've been waiting like 20, 40 years for a Democrat to make the most obvious points in the world. Guys, hey, custom border patrol. Is the border actually open?

No. It's just a total myth that they made up. How easy was that? That was so easy. And we say it on the young turks all the time. We give constructive solutions and we say, hey, why don't the Democrats say that there is no open border, that of course the law is still in effect, and that every Republican that says open border is a liar. Why don't they just say these obvious things? And then like reporters and pundits will be like, no, the sophisticated thing to do is to not fight back.

That's fourth dimensional chess. You just like lie down and let them run over you and that's super sophisticated. No, it's not sophisticated. You're supposed to actually say the truth. Ask them obvious, easy questions. So great job by Maxwell Frost. Please elect younger people. Like the older generation of Democrats don't know how to fight, don't want to fight,

love Republicans, don't like their base, get them out of the goddamn way, get some new blood in there, make sure they're progressive, and look at the difference that makes. Look, I don't know how much age really makes a difference, okay? Like, let's not be unfair to some of the great moments that older Democrats had during similar hearings, maybe not on immigration, but with members of the financial sector. Katie Porter does a great job in fighting back. Katie Porter's like 40 years younger than the average Democrat.

Okay, but yeah, okay, that's fair if you're going to put it in that context, but she's not considered a spring chicken. That's what I'm trying to say. Yeah, he's 26. That's incredibly young. I get it, right? And she's a normal mom, right? But number one, she's definitely on the younger side.

But guys, I mention age because I mainly, I think of like Diana. And Feinstein and Steny Hoyer and Schumer and Pelosi. No, they need to step aside. Yeah, I totally agree with you. I mean, they don't know, they don't know, again, they don't know how to fight. And most importantly, they don't want to fight. Even Bernie doesn't want to fight. I love Bernie.

But God, he would rather hide in shame than fight a corporate Democrat. He'll say general broad points. But he won't actually name names. To be fair, Maxwell Frost hasn't named names either on the corporate Democratic side. I'm sure that he's been told by everyone in that in Washington, you better not do that. That is very rude. That can get things done. We do not want actual change. But so far, fantastic for Maxwell Frost. And guys, what do you want to do about immigration? Well, why don't they debate it for once? Like many years ago, they tried now like probably over a decade ago.

It was in 2014. Yeah, about a decade ago where they got together in a back room. and try to negotiate a deal between Lindsey Graham and some Democrats, et cetera. And they came up with this awful proposal where it was 14 years as a pathway to citizenship. That's twice what indentured servants used to serve, right? It was a horrible bill, and even that didn't pass. So take it out in public. Democrats make your points. Republicans say, oh, we hate immigrants and we don't want any of them to ever come in this country.

And then debate it, right? No, nope. We're never going to have that. Instead, we're going to have nonsense politics that have nothing to do with policy filled with nothing but lies. Now, I had forgotten that Paul Gossar still exists. And unfortunately, he does in the context of Congress. And I just want to show you his part of this hearing. So you can juxtapose it with what we saw from Representative Frost.

Pay particular attention to the woman and her facial expressions, the woman behind Gossar as he goes on his weirdo unhinged rant. How would Biden do this? To create chaos, so discord, what is the answer to this mess for Biden and the Democrats? More big brother, more control, even changing our culture? I don't know who that woman is, but she's all of us at this moment. Anyway, change our culture.

We know what he's referring to there, right? It's more of the white replacement theory, gobbledy gook. And it's conspiratorial, ridiculous, and really offers no solutions to the border crisis that they love to fearmonger about so much. Okay, so look, he's alluding to the white great replacement theory, et cetera, it's not. And by the way, Maxwell for us, call that out too. So just a plus on that. But Paul Gosar, are we pretending he's not mentally ill? like if you put it in a movie of a guy going and they're trying to replace their culture

I would say that's over the top hey hey all overstone bring it down right I mean like the only thing that was missing was right like no no the guy's mentally ill there's no question about it none I'm not a trained therapist I can tell you that guy is massive mental problems he belongs in a clinic way more than in a Congress and we all have to treat him like we have to have a debate, oh, are we, are we, is Mexico trying to replace white people in cahoots with Joe Biden? Let's have a debate with the guy going, hey, I think they are. I think they are. Okay, well, Republicans, so proud, you must be so proud of your representative. All right, well, why don't we wrap up the first hour with this doozy of a story involving Candace Owens making insane accusations.

Stephen has a lot going on, I guess is the best way to say. He has a lot going on. And that should be clear because people don't do stuff like this if there's not a lot going on in their lives. You don't sell out your friend. You don't record conversations. These things are actions of individuals that are perhaps acting out of desperation. You have to dig deeper, you have to look deeper to fully understand the picture of why somebody might do that. We didn't know it at the time, but two weeks ago when Candace Owens tried to essentially threaten Stephen Crowder by outing him about some secret thing that he's hiding from everyone,

she was actually carrying out a tactic that she is quite familiar with because she tried carrying it out with other people, including a reporter or journalist by the name of Jesse Single. So Jesse Single had reached out to her because he was working on a story that she was part of. And she didn't like that he had reached out to her. And so she responded to the request for comment for his story with a threat. Now, before we get into those details, let's watch the rest of what she had threatened Crowder with. So you get a sense of what she's really about.

His actions are a symptom of something much larger. And I want to choose my words very carefully here because I'm not angry anymore. I would like to implore my audience and everybody that isn't paying attention to the situation, not to condemn him, but to pray for him. Sometimes people need a prayer. Sometimes people need a scripture. I am certain that in the near future, more information will come out. I do not think it is my place to say more than that. Well, probably what I should say is I am unsure at this moment if it is my place to say more than that. Yeah. So that threat is very clear. Now she hasn't come out with any specific accusation. But let's move on to Jesse Single and what happened here.

So in 2016, Jesse Single wrote a piece for the New York magazine about Candace Owens's Kickstarter project called Social Autopsy. We had actually talked about it on this show as well. Social autopsy was meant to essentially link anonymous social media profiles to the owner's identity, real name, and make that information publicly available to their employers. And the idea behind it was to squash cyberbullying and to reveal the identities of these individuals so they couldn't hide behind anonymity as they were bullying people online. That project got a negative response from everyone all around, right? Because even though, let's say the left, for instance, is not in favor of online bullying, there are legitimate reasons why people would want to protect their anonymity or their identity through anonymity online.

Anyway, now social autopsy, again, was widely criticized, and later she decided that Zoe Quinn and Randy Lee Harper, two anti-harassment activists and frequent targets of Gamergate, were the masterminds behind the hate that was directed toward social autopsy. Now, singles piece sought to debunk that, and he did. He debunked that theory that Candice Owens had. Now, in response to his email asking for her to comment on his piece, she threatened him. Before I get to the threat, Jank, any thoughts? Any initial thoughts? So look, if Candace Jones has an actual story of, let's say, sexual harassment that Stephen Crowder did, she should definitely say it, right? And so she shouldn't be embarrassed to say it. If it happened to her, it's not her fault, right? And so we on the left support any woman who's going to come out and say. Now, there's a giant butt in there.

Candace Owens is a giant liar. And so if she's making up cases of sexual harassment, that is doubly bad. Because number one, you're defaming people that might not have done it. And number two, you're using it as a political weapon and thereby making other people's claims less credible. Because people go, well, you remember when Candace Owens made it up, you remember when that person made it up, et cetera, et cetera. So the main question here is, does she actually have the goods? Or is she just making this up regularly just to smear whoever's her opponent? Well, let me read you her response to Jesse Single and then we'll go from there.

She writes, hi Jesse, I just want to officially put in writing that you are making me very uncomfortable. And I do not feel safe anymore. Mind you, he just emailed her asking her to comment on the story. Okay? She continues, I am asking for you to stop fault. following me and my every move on Twitter, I've had a few women reach out now and I know about your history with women going as far back as your college days. I also know that whatever transpired between you and Jamie Walton after she called you a predator, it was sick.

Now, mind you, she provides absolutely no evidence that anything had happened between Jesse single or any woman that he went to college with. But I'll continue, there was more. I do not have a prior relationship with you and because so many journalists and women find you to be a predator, I'm asking you to leave me alone. You need to draw a line with your obsession with me. Please let me know why slash if you feel you can't do that or if you feel I should join the other women before me who were forced to get the police involved. Now, if you're wondering who Jamie Walton is, Jamie Walton, of course, the woman that Candace Owens named and made an allegation against Jesse Single about, here's what we know about her. Okay, so he, so, so basically she had commented the following on a change.org petition that Owens made to discredit single. So he did the same thing to my org, conflated me with GamerGate because Allison Rap,

pounded me like with fake nice emails and tweets trying to get me on record, behaves like a predator rather than a journalist. So glad I ignored him entirely. Later, Walton deleted her comment after her claim of behaving like a predator was taken out of context and Walton was harassed. Beyond that, we were unable to find any evidence that Jesse single was any type of predator when he was in college. So a couple of things. So Jesse Singlin was the person who now made this public. You're not gonna make that public if you were an actual predator and those were real church. Second, well, you just saw the quote. It had nothing new with sex at all.

Hey, you're hounding me because, and by the way, I don't know the veracity of that original story. Mainstream media often slants things. So maybe he did slam, maybe he didn't slant. I don't know, it's not at all pertinent. What is pertinent is no one, alleged any kind of sexual harassment. He doesn't know Candace Owens at all. He just asked her questions about this policy issue that she's involved in. And she comes back with, maybe I'll have to out you as a predator and you're stalking me. That is Bad Faith 101.

They've never been together in a room. He never did anything sexual towards her or anyone else. That is someone who weaponizes me too for their own personal gain. That shows you, what a terrible. lack of character, right? She doesn't care about other women at all, just making up things left and right. And by the way, and this is really interesting. At that point, she was not yet a right winger.

She was doing anti-Trump commentary. Yes. So what Candace Owens is, is a grifter in search of a treasure chest. She's like, where's the money, where's the money, where's the left, I'll go left, I'll go left. Did you know earlier in her career, she sued for racial harassment? Yep. for racial harassment. She's charged that other people were sexually harassing her when they've

never even met her, right? And then she's like, oh, I'm not getting enough money from the left. I need to go find a grift, a better grift. Oh, it turns out the right wing are suckers. They'll give me tons and tons of money for saying things against women and black people. Perfect. And she found her a nice little groove there. And she's been doing that grift ever since. These are some of the worst people on earth. Yeah, defaming people as predators in order to one up them politically or just destroy their reputations because they're getting a little too close to the truth. It's too uncomfortable for you. We're just in such dangerous territory because these are serious allegations and you shouldn't accuse someone of something that you know they did not do or something

that you have absolutely no evidence of. Again, accusing someone of being a predator, can destroy their entire life, life. And Candice Owens knows that. She just doesn't care. She's willing to destroy anyone in her quest to both cover up her past and also make as much money as possible as a mouthpiece for the right wing. So if you're a right wing follower of Candace Owens, do you support what she did in the past weaponizing sexual harassment that didn't even happen?

Do you support her suing for racial discrimination? Or do you think, no, it's okay, she's found the light now. Now she knows that you smear the left, not the right, not this, not that. You just lie about everyone who's our opponents, and you smear your own race and your own gender. So we like her now. Is that your best case for her? You know she's a grifter. By now, if you haven't figured that out, man, I feel terrible for you.

Well, we come back for the second hour of the show. So, turns out Jibidor has a pretty anti-worker contractual situation set up at his company. There's a big story on that. And later we'll talk about the big concern over chat GPT, not engaging in racial slurs. It's a real big problem according to the right wing. So we've got that and more coming right up. 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 t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.