The Young Turks - Trump’s Royal LIE

Episode Date: June 4, 2019

Trump is taking his lies across the pond. Ana Kasparian, David Dayen, and Nando Vila, hosts of The Young Turks, break it down. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to the Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. Hey, guys, you've heard of the Young Turks podcast because you're listening to it right now. But make sure that you subscribe and give it a five star rating if you like it. Thank you for listening. Welcome to DYT. I'm Anna Casparian. I'm back from vacation. is not here. I don't think he's on vacation. And it's okay, because we have an awesome panel

ahead for you guys. Nando Villa joins us. You all know him. Yeah, he's awesome. Aw. And David Dayan, who I don't believe has been on TYT's main show yet. I don't think so. You're the executive editor of the American Prospect. You've written for The Intercept, various other publications. It's really nice having you. It's great to be here. Thank you. So later on in the show, we're going to talk a little bit about the California Democratic Convention. We have some exclusive video for you guys, and you wrote a piece on it, so I'm really looking forward to that conversation. Yeah, I was there all weekend in San Francisco, so yeah, plenty to talk about. Oh my gosh, yeah, a lot of people getting booed while they're giving their speeches.

We'll have that video for you as well. But without further ado, let me give you a few important announcements before we get to the stories. The rally that Jank is going to do, the Revolution rally in Des Moines, Iowa is only a few days away. You can join Jank this Saturday at Franklin Junior High, tentatively at 3 p.m. Local time, wear your TYT swag or anything black. And if you don't have any TYT swag, of course, you can go to shopTYT.com to get some. And then on Sunday, we're getting into our cars and driving to Cedar Rapids. Stay tuned for more details.

So I'm not included in the we part of that equation. I'll be here. But it's exciting, I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens. And for tonight, we are going to be covering Pete Buttigieg's town hall immediately after the main show. So he is having a town hall, please check it out tonight at 8.5 p.m. Eastern Time 5.5 p.m. Pacific. All right, let's get started. Donald Trump got confronted about calling Megan Markle nasty and then proceeded to pretend

as if he never called her nasty. The only thing is it was kind of recorded in an interview that he did. Take a look. Are you sorry not to see her because she wasn't so nice about you during the campaign? I don't if you saw that. I don't, I didn't know that, no, I didn't know that. No, I hope she's okay. I did not know that, no.

She said she moved to Canada if you got elected. Turned out she moved to Britain. Well, there are a lot of people moving here. So what can I say? No, I didn't know that she was nasty. All right, so he ends that with saying, I didn't know that she was nasty. That is his preferred word to describe women he disagrees with, or women who criticize him, rightfully so.

And so he got a little bit of backlash for it. And I don't know why he doesn't just own up to calling her nasty. It's not a big deal. Instead, he went in the other direction, and he tweeted, I never called Megan Markle nasty, made up by the fake news media, and they got caught cold. Will CNN, New York Times, and others apologize, doubt it? Well, they don't really have anything to apologize here for because you called her nasty. It's not only recorded, your own campaign tweeted the recording.

Okay, and like they tweeted the recording, and then they also had this contradictory text associated with it, calling fake news CNN out. falsely claiming President Trump called Megan Markle nasty, here is what he actually said, listen for yourself, and if you listen for yourself, you'll hear him call her nasty. And then in a subsequent tweet, they put out this, the actual transcript, where the reporter asks, she said she'd moved to Canada, if you got elected, it turned out that she moved to Britain. And then Trump responds, there are a lot of people moving here to the U.S., which by the way isn't true.

So what can I say? No, I didn't know that she was nasty. Okay, so this is like kind of a fun story, but there is a point to it. I want to open it up to you guys and get your thoughts. You know, this is one of those mind-numbing scandals of the Trump Barron that it really isn't a big deal, it shouldn't be a big deal, it's not anything of significant, I really couldn't care less, what he thinks about Megan Markle, a person who I don't think about ever. But, you know, people often ask me, like, you know, people that don't work in the media,

they always ask me, you know, how can he get away with just lying? like that, like just outright, you know, we have the evidence, it's clear in his day, how can you get away with just saying, no, I didn't, I didn't say that. And, you know, it really says a lot about our current media environment that the media does allow him to get away with it all the time, who cares about this specific incident, but I think it's indicative of, you know, broader things in which like, you know, they'll be like, they'll cover the sort of outrage over the, over the controversy of him denying it as if it were, you know.

Two sides are equal. Yeah, exactly, like, you know, people are mad at Trump for calling her nasty, he denies it. Okay, and there's a specific example that you actually shared with us. So let's go to Graphic 5. And this is really the reason why I want to discuss the story, because I mean, we have people living in a complete alternate universe right now. You have the president who is very clearly lying on multiple occasions on a daily basis, and

And the media refuses to call him a liar when he's a liar. So let's look at ABC's tweet. They tweet out the following. Ahead of an official visit to the UK, President Trump pushed back against media reports that he called Megan Markle, now the Duchess of Sussex, nasty in a recent interview. Who can know what the truth is? Yeah. It's impossible to know who can know what the truth is, David.

You're a respected journalist. How would you handle this controversy? Shape of earth, things differ. Yeah, this is actually kind of my nightmare, my social media nightmare, where I write a story and there's a link to it and nobody clicks the link and, you know, someone says, well, you didn't talk about Bernie Sanders in that story. And the first word in the story is Bernie Sanders, but they just don't click the link. He's banking on nobody clicking the video and actually hearing him be contradicted.

And so, yeah, I mean, this is about closure. This is about two different universes that don't talk to each other and have different realities. Yeah. But what I worry about is we have this guy who's consistently lying. People in the media, their main job, their only job is to spread information and the actual truth to the masses. And they do the exact opposite, right? And look, I'm generalizing.

There are of course some media outlets that are doing a great job in covering the Trump administration, even within the media outlets that we criticize. There are incredible journalists who are doing amazing reports. But I think when you look at a surface level of the way this administration is covered, and this is a silly issue, we all agree it's a silly issue. But the same thing happens when it comes to issues that aren't silly, issues that do matter. When it comes to questions about whether or not Iran went after oil tankers, attacked oil tankers, you have the Trump administration arguing, oh, Iran did it, Iran definitely

did it without providing any evidence. a way to persuade Americans to support an invasion of Iran, which is dangerous. And the only job of the media is to get to the bottom of the truth. Instead, they just regurgitate what the Trump administration says. Right. And this isn't limited to, you know, the Trump administration. Of course. We've seen this throughout, you know, the last 30, 40, 50 years, however long you want

to draw the line. I mean, Gulf of Tonkin incident is pretty much the same thing. It's about a particular type of sort of access journalism that regurgitates, what whatever comes out of a press office, and then does not, and then in this sort of seeming way of needing to be objective, does not take a stand on the side of the facts, but sort of teaches the controversy, and that's the problem. Yeah, there's a, you know, covering important issues and telling the truth and talking about policy and all that stuff is difficult, it's more difficult than just kind of, you know,

being the, you know, covering the kabuki theater of it all. Like, that's easy. That's like anyone could do that, as long as you just follow the news a little bit. So there's that, there's a huge bias in the media to try and avoid the difficult things because it does open you up for, you know, attacks from the right or from whoever. And when you just kind of cover the theater of it, it really is just much, the stakes are much lower and, you know, outlets just feel much more secure. Like right now, I saw that the New York Times has a new policy in which they won't let

their reporters go on like MSNBC or the Young Turks or anything like that to talk about their stories because of the- Oh, it's weird because they were all like rushing to- Right. Right. But it's about a fear of this backlash rather than a confidence in your own ability to tell the truth, right? They're more afraid of being criticized than of actually giving the public the information of the public needs.

I'll just say that we do not have such a policy. At the American prospect? Yeah, I mean, I think that's a ridiculous policy. And it, just to kind of buttress your point, I remember having a conversation in private and I'm not gonna name this person because it's unfair to him, it was in secret, in secret. It was a private conversation. But anyway, he works in journalism, in mainstream journalism, and he seems to be a fan of TYT.

He recognized me immediately. I had no idea who he was, but he started, owned. He started, well, yeah. He started opening up about how stories regarding conservatives are covered versus progressives. And so I straight up asked him, why is it that progressives only get negative coverage in mainstream media, but what's behind that? And why is it that conservatives get away with lying? They're not even called liars when they're lying openly.

And he said something about how well, conservatives are vicious when they feel like they've been wronged by the media. And so there is a certain level of fear in telling the truth about one side, but there's no fear when it comes to smearing the other side. I mean, if you are basing your coverage on how the syphorus, the reaction is going to be after you report it, find a new line of work. Yeah. Exactly.

Yeah. All right, moving on to an incredible story by TYT Investigates. A memo obtained by TYT investigates indicates that there have been multiple deaths of detainees in ICE custody that could have been prevented, but were not prevented due to neglect. Now this was reported by Ken Clippenstein. Please check out the full story because it has some incredible details. He did great work here. And what he found was that ICE's health service corps is severely dysfunctional and unfortunately

preventable harm and death to detainees has occurred. That's according to the document. This was a memo that was written by an ICE supervisor and it was given to his higher up, his or her. We don't know the identity of this person. They came forward anonymously. Anyway, the ICE supervisor who was notified about this was Matthew Albance. And apparently Matthew Albans didn't really care too much about the issues that were listed

in the memo. The memo obtained by TYT bearing the subject line, urgent matter, detailed. over a dozen cases in which ICE allegedly failed to provide its detainees with proper medical care, including two which resulted in fatalities. Now we've been covering the majority of fatalities that have occurred under the Trump administration, and it seems to be getting worse. Of course, the administration and border protection officials get very defensive. They say that they've done everything right.

But again, these documents indicate that that's not the case. And this isn't the first ICE employee who's come forward. There's also Ellen Gallagher who actually came forward and spoke to NBC about what she witnessed, including detainees being placed in solitary confinement. Take a look. We have created and continued to support a system that involves widespread abuse of human beings. ISIS policy states that detainees should be segregated only after character. considerable consideration of alternatives.

Solitary confinement was being used as the first resort, not the last resort. And sometimes it was the only approach. So we have some specific details of what happened to some of these detainees, but I want to get your thoughts on it. Well, this is one of those jaw-dropping stories that, you know, it's become kind of like ambient noise in a way that we're just, we've just kind of accepted it and have gotten used to it, but it's the kind of thing that if we, you know, if you saw this like reported in a foreign country, for example, we'd be like completely outraged and we want to do something

about it, you know, but because it's us and because we've just semi-accepted it, it just kind of, it feels like it's, it's so dispiriting because you don't feel that there's going to be the kind of reaction that, you know, an unbelievable story like this would require. I mean, there have been stories of minors in custody who have been sexually assaulted, who have been victimized. These stories aren't rare, right? Yeah, I saw a report that there was in El Paso detention center where they were holding 900 people in a space that should only hold like 125 people. Some of the inmates were climbing up onto the toilet just so that they could get a breath of air. You know, because it was so crowded in there that they literally couldn't breathe.

like it's, I mean, it's, I don't know, it's the gulags, it's, you know, it's like all that stuff that we find horrifying in other countries that's happening right here today. And, you know, it's absolutely horrifying. Well, first of all, congratulations to Ken Klippenstein for getting this story out. One thing that I would say is actually there are three detention centers that are mentioned in this piece, Eloy, Stewart Detention Center, and Florence, correctional center. Those are all private prison operated. Those are all operated by CoreC Civic, which is one of the two largest private prison companies in America.

And what we know is that something like two-thirds of all migrant detainees sleep in beds that are managed by the private prison system. And privatization, I think, is a core part of this story. because when you have this outsourcing to a private contractor, the way they make their money, they lower labor costs, they lower, you know, they cut medical costs, they cut whatever they can to get their layer of profit up. And that, you know, obviously has these tragic consequences. So ICE can't really function without these private companies. And to the extent there has been pushback, it's been from,

activists who have gone directly after these private corporations for collaborating with us. And these private prisons have been terrible when it comes to U.S. citizens who are detained in their prisons and facilities. And there's no doubt that they're going to be just as terrible, if not worse, when it comes to undocumented immigrants. I also want to just quickly note that these two major private prison companies, there's Geo Group and Core Civic, they donated a considerable amount of money to do.

Donald Trump because of his rhetoric on immigration. They knew that that was an opportunity to cash in, and as soon as he got elected, their stock value just skyrocketed. It soared. They hired former aides to Jeff Sessions to lobby for them. They funded the inauguration. That's right. At the end of 2016, the government, the Obama administration was actually pulling out, not

of immigration facilities, but federal prisons, they were trying to stop privatization of federal prisons. That policy was reversed. So this has been a real priority of the Trump administration to bring the private prison industry out of really a tailspin. There is great work, I have written about this in these times, great work being done by activists going after not just these private prison companies, but the kind of. companies who finance them, the banks.

Oh, I love that. Yes, because the way that these particular companies operate, there is no way for them to continue without consistent financing. They have to buy properties, they have to finance their ongoing operations. And after a hearing with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the Senate or the House Financial Services committee, J.P. Morgan said that they would no longer bank with the private prison industry, Wells Fargo is pulled out, U.S. Bank has pulled out. So there is some pressure being put, not just on these companies, but on the financial sort of backstory behind these companies.

It's incredible what can get accomplished when you have someone who's fighting for the right things. Yeah. You know, because, I mean, she didn't have to do too much when it came to fighting back against these prisons. But, you know, you mentioned the private financing, which of course does happen, but where do they get the majority of their profit from? Well, of course, it's the federal government. In this case, it's ICE. I mean, I don't remember the exact numbers, but it's in the billions of dollars what they've received from both ICE and DHS more generally.

Exactly. So I want to just quickly outline a few of these specific cases that Ken Clippenstein put in his piece, because it gives you a sense of just how bad the neglect. has been. So for instance, suicide victim Ephraim Della Rosa could be saved, the memo says of the victim. The document goes on to state that ICE received a total of 12 significant event notification reports prior to his death depicting suicidal ideation and psychosis. Moreover, Della Rosa was not being treated with psychotropic medication.

Instead, he was remanded, or I'm sorry, remanded in segregation or two sex. segregation, De La Rosa's suicide closely mirrors the previous suicide of Joseph Jimenez at Stewart Detention Center. So unfortunately, he did commit suicide and it could have been prevented. He wasn't given the drugs that he needed. There were warnings, but nothing was done. Another case reference in the documents involves a detainee identified as a suicide risk having prescribed, having been prescribed an antihistamine at the Stewart Detention Center,

because, you know, Benadry will help you out. Right. In yet another case, a detainee was removed from respiratory isolation despite having tuberculosis, potentially putting other detainees at risk for infection. Another part of this is that, you know, when you have a facility run by a Core Civic, they are not prescribing the medical services. They're subcontracting that out to another company who, and usually it's one of a few companies, Corizon is a big one, and there's another one, the name's escaping me.

But so you have contracts upon contracts upon contracts, and that does a couple things. Number one, obviously each layer of profit has to come in on each private company that's doing that. Number two, it really hurts transparency because the subcontracting relates to, does not have to be disclosed because that's not a direct contract with the federal government. So if CCA and Corizon have a relationship with one another, we can't see into that contract. And we can't see what's going on, sometimes we can't get this kind of information unless, you know, there's great journalism that actually pulls it out. Absolutely. And I think it's worth pointing out, like, you know, you talk about these companies and, you know, they sound like cartoon villains and they largely are.

But, you know, it's important to understand that it is basically fundamentally impossible for there to be like a good private prison company, like an ethical private prison company because the profit pressures are so great that if you try to be a good private prison company, imagine, you know, if you wanted to start one in your backyard, you would eventually – no, but you would eventually just – you would eventually find competition from some other private prison company that's willing to be more evil than you, and then they're going to get all the contracts. So the issue is privatization itself. You just cannot tolerate privatizations of things like prisons. Yes. Of things like healthcare. Exactly. Like, you know, fire departments

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And of course, the response to it has been incredibly lame, for lack of a better word, and just discouraging. Anyway, I leave you with that as we go to break, but when we come back, we have more news for you. I promise later on in the show we're going to have some fun. Brett's going to come in and we're going to dunk on. Jared Kushner, we have an interview on HBO. And we're going to also talk about the Democratic convention that took place in California.

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all at the same time. Right back. Hey guys, welcome back to TYT, Anna, Nando, and David with you. I want to read a few TYT lives. Alexis writes it and says, I feel like Anna Casparian is going lighter in the hair color, and I'm in love. Always love the blonde hair on Anna.

Thank you. Yeah, I did go a little lighter. Go on vacation, dye hair. I know. I'm gonna do that. Treat yourself. I'm gonna come back blonde after my vacation. Please don't do that.

No? No, you look good with the brown hair. Let's keep it that way. I mean, do you, boo? That's what you want to do. I don't want to boss you around. Yeshua says, gross negligence are two words that perfectly encapsulates the Trump administration. Incompetence is in there too, I think.

Cruelty. Cruelty. There's a lot of bad words. Many, many bad words. Tommy Too Strong from our members section says, I'm signed in and watching on the new TYT Apple TV app. Hello. Wait, hold on, we're on Apple TV.

That's cool. What? Oh, Brett's like you have a read for it. Hey guys, we're on Apple TV, check us out. Cool. All right, so that's awesome. And I also want to tell you guys about Squarespace, if you are looking to create a website, Squarespace is the place to go, because you're gonna save money by going to Squarespace.com

slash TYT. You'll get a 10% discount. And honestly, as someone who's used Squarespace myself, it's very easy. They have all these great templates you can use. You don't need to be some internet or tech genius. They make it a simple process. Okay, let's get to the rest of the news. The Democratic Convention happened over the weekend in California.

So this is specifically the California Democratic Convention, I should be clear. And there were a number of people who spoke, a number of people who were booed, a lot of crazy things happened. And David, you actually wrote a piece about it in The American Prospects. So before we go to video that we have, it's exclusive video, I want to get your thoughts on everything that occurred. Yeah, so I mean, I think that this weekend was the weekend that the Democratic primary actually started.

And I say that because there was a fair degree of, I guess, sub-tweeting, for lack of a better word, about the one candidate who wasn't there, and that's Joe Biden, who spent the weekend at a gala for the human rights campaign in Ohio. And that was talked about. He had no presence there whatsoever. There were some, a group called Roots Action that was handing out a two-page flyer with a bunch of quotes that he had said that were not very flattering towards him. And people like Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren really staked out the sort of argument

that I feel like they're going to make for the next several months about Biden, which is we can't have sort of a restoration kind of, you know, return to normalcy or whatever it is that Biden is sort of putting forward, and that it has to be about more than just beating Trump. And we saw that in particularly in Warren's speech, which was very well received, maybe the best reception of the entire weekend when she said that it was basically that when you think small, when you're told to wait, when you're told not to, you know, make waves or anything, what that politician is telling you is that they won't fight for you. Right, yeah.

And that's a paraphrase, that's essentially what she said. And that was sort of the most direct challenge to Bidenism or whatever you want to call it. And- She actually even tweeted about it, so I want to share that with you. When a candidate tells you about all the things that aren't possible, actually, I don't know if this is a tweet or if this was- This is from the speech. Oh, this is from your article, actually. You recognize it?

Yeah. I didn't write it. Her speech writers wrote it. Her speech writers wrote it. Yeah, right, yeah, right. Yeah, right. So when a candidate tells you about all the things that aren't possible, about how political calculations come first, about how you should settle for little bits and pieces instead of

real change, they're telling you something very important. They're telling you that they will not fight for you. Wow, I can see why her speech was well. And it fits into sort of her core message that there's this corruption that has rotted Washington, Washington's broken, that we can't get things done because there are these barriers to progress. I mean, I saw her the day, the night before the convention began, she was in Oakland. Kamala Harris's, you know, hometown, 6,500 people in Oakland, her largest event of the entire campaign. And it was all sort of wrapped in this message around corruption.

And this played very well with that. Interesting. So one of the criticisms that I see of Elizabeth Warren coming from progressives is that they have a tough time, and this is certainly not all progressives, but I hear it often, that they don't trust her, that they think that, you know, she has her roots in Republican, in the Republican party, in conservatism. I mean, I've seen her transformation and her explanations for her transformation. She was on this long interview called Conversations with History.

It's a show on the UC Berkeley campus that I love. But anyway, she explained why, why she changed. And so I understand it, but what do you think? Do you think that she's playing up the progressivism or do you think she's being sincere? I mean, I've written about Elizabeth Warren for a long, long time and this is someone who I think showed who she's willing to fight for the first time she came to Washington when she was trying to fight the bankruptcy bill that ended up making it harder for poor people who are down on their luck to file for bankruptcy.

She showed her who she was fighting for when she became the head of the congressional oversight program for TARP for the bank bailout, and she challenged Tim Geithner over and over again, willing to challenge her own party, right? Or at least it's her own party now. So I think she's, she has a fairly proven track record. Now, what I should say is that Senator Sanders, in his speech, which was the next day, it was on Sunday, had a similar kind of message. I guess there was a hashtag running around called no middle ground, right?

So that was sort of the theme of his speech, that there should be no middle ground. And of course, that's a reference to something Biden's campaign said about climate change, that they're looking for a middle ground policy on the destruction of the planet, right? So Sanders is very strong on that, said it should be no middle ground on climate change, no middle ground on abortion, no middle ground on inequality and things of that nature. So I think both of them are staking out a similar critique of Biden, and they weren't alone. I mean, Booker and Buttigieg, it seems like there was a real concerted effort here. And that's the way, you know, just say that it's just not enough to say, I'm not Donald Trump,

and here I am, vote for me. Absolutely. So I want to go to some video that we captured, specifically on the topic of getting money out of politics. Now the economic issues raised by Warren and Sanders are of course important, but at the root of those issues is the corruption that we're seeing in Washington. And so Michael Schurr, who went out there and interviewed several people, spoke to both Hickenlooper and Eric Swalwell about this issue.

Let's start off with Hickenlooper. What did he have to say about it? Do you support a constitutional amendment to get money out of politics? Yeah, if there's a way to do it for sure. And do you think that would be something you could pursue to get private dollars out of politics? Well, again, that's a longer conversation than just walking through a thing. But certainly there is too much money from self-interest in politics. I'm assuming that the woman ahead of them is the PR press person.

And she's just like, I couldn't stop looking at her face. looking at her face while that interaction was happening. But do we buy it? I mean. Well, it's interesting because there's with Hickenloop, a guy like Hickenlooper, there's a certain generation of Democratic Party politicians. And I don't mean that like in terms of age, just people who's like politics were formed around a very famous moment in the Bill Clinton campaign in 1992 called the Sista Soldier moment.

And this is something that only happens in a Democratic Party, it does not happen in the Republican Party in which, for some reason, they get points from, you know, very sober news media analysis for talking very sternly down to their base. Like, their base is telling them that they want something. They're like, you know what, I know you want that, but you can't have it. And an entire generation of Democratic Party politicians have been sort of raised on that. And we saw it time and time again in the Democratic convention this weekend, which candidate after candidate was like, you know, yeah, you know, Medicare.

for all sounds great, and I know you guys want it, but can't have it. And then they all got booed. So that's the big divide I see in the Democratic Party is like some candidates who are willing to do what politicians should be doing, which is working for their constituents, their voters, the people who get them into office and giving them the things that they want. That's how democracy works. And others who are still playing this kind of old, very 90s game of trying to score points with, you know, op-ed writers in the Washington Post and, you know, meet the press by saying,

you know, things like, you know, what you want. Sounds great, but it's unrealistic. Yeah, and he was in my, this is my view of the interaction that we just watched. He seemed dismissive. Yeah, sure. I mean, if there's a way to get there. Yeah. So. This crazy idea that you have, sure, sounds great. Whatever. Right. And if, first of all, there is a way to get there. There's a clear way to get there. That's not to say it's easy. It is challenging, but he's not really interested in the way to get there. From the way that he, first of all, by the way, he's been campaigning, it's abundantly clear. And more importantly, the way that he handled the questions from Michael there.

Yeah, I mean, John Hickelumper was there to deliver that sister soldier moment. He was there to troll the campaign. Even what's so classic about 90s politics is not even the first time that someone came to a California Democratic Party convention to do that. Diane Feinstein in 1990 talked about how she was supporting of the death penalty, and the crowd booed her, and she used that footage in an ad that year. Hickenlooper did fundraising over the weekend on the fact that he got booed for saying that the Democratic Party should move away from social. And by the way, much worse than the booing is that I was in the room when Hickenlooper

did that and when John Delaney did that, and nobody was paying attention to them before It was like an Alexa wake word, like socialism. Oh, what? And the problem is that Hickenlooper doesn't really know his history because, in fact, the sister soldier moment came after Bill Clinton had already pretty much tied up the nomination. It was like a safe time for him. They had nowhere else to go. Yeah, they'd nowhere else to go.

He was playing to the center. Like now Hickenlooper's like, oh, look, I did the same thing, but he's going to lose because no one wants him. So I wanted to just quickly juxtapose the way Hickenlooper responded to the way that Eric Swalwell responded. Now, putting aside any of the other political issues you may have with Eric Swalwell, I was actually impressed with the way he handled this question. So let's take a look.

As president, would you be pushing for a constitutional amendment to get money out of politics? Yes, I want two constitutional amendments. I want to say that money is not speech and to pass the equal rights amendment. I think we could do that in my presidency. I also want to challenge the country to go to publicly finance campaigns and believe that we can do that in our lifetime. Someone like me is not supposed to be in Congress. I wasn't related to anyone in politics. My parents didn't come from any money.

Good government reforms of independent redistricting and a top two primary gave me a chance. But too many voices are being silenced. The only way we're gonna get more regular people in Congress is to get the money and the dirty money and the dirty maps out. See, like he seemed eager to share his ideas, big ideas about getting money out of politics. He didn't try to run away from the interview. He didn't have a press person, you know, trying to cut it short. So I like that answer.

I thought that was a good answer. Why do you think Biden didn't show up? I mean, if you take his word for it, he was committed to this human rights campaign dinner. I think he probably didn't want the moment that John Hickenlooper and John Delaney, the other rich guy, a guy who got booed for like a full minute. Yeah. We're going to watch that soon. Yeah.

He didn't want that. And he's, you know, he's running like a front porch campaign, like from 1900. He doesn't want to sort of say anything to upset anybody. And he feels like riding on the coattails of Barack Obama, 12 years later, we'll still get him to the nominee. If that actually works out. Just make the exact same mistakes that occurred in 2016, right? If that campaign strategy for Biden, which I don't know, I can't predict the future, it seems wrongheaded to me. But if that works and he becomes a nominee doing that, I think I'll have to, I'll think I'll have to check out.

It does not seem terribly sustainable. And the party chair did announce that he would be, the Democrats have another convention and Dorson convention in November and they announced that Biden would be at that. So I mean, it's not sustainable for him to hide forever. He's doing it now to keep his poll numbers up maybe. But at some point he's going to have to face a voter or two. I can't wait till the debate start. I'm so eager to hear those debates.

He doesn't like to get challenged Biden. I have a feeling he's going to react poorly. He doesn't like it. He's not used to it. But more importantly, I mean, his answers for the very real issues, economic issues that Americans are dealing with right now, for healthcare, for climate change, for all these issues, I mean, you're gonna see how Biden responds to those questions versus how Sanders or Warren or whoever else responds to those questions.

And I think it's gonna be hopefully enlightening for some of the Americans who think that he's the right choice. Anyway, I don't wanna put any thoughts. in your heads. You should decide for your own. TYT would never do that. Yeah. Anyway, let's go on to my favorite part of this whole event that took place in California.

Over the weekend, California held its Democratic convention and there were some things that really stood out, particularly when candidate John Delaney talked about Medicare for all and the reaction that he got as a result of that. So let's take a look. But we need as Democrats to build an economy that works, but it's got to be with smart policies. Medicare for all may sound good, but it's actually not good policy, nor isn't good politics. I'm telling you, I'm telling you, 100. We should have universal health care.

We should have universal health care. We should have universal health care. We should have universal health care, but it shouldn't be a kind of health care that kicks 100, 50 million Americans off their health care. That's not smart policy. Oh, I love it.

You love it. You love it. It's so good. My favorite thing though, and I'm gonna do this ironically, like when I'm losing a debate with Jake or something. Just do this. Yeah. You would never lose a debate.

That's not an answer. You're failing miserably right now. And then at one point he kind of covers the mic. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. Anyway, thoughts. I got to admit, I am a seasoned politician.

politics watcher. I am obsessed with the news. I look at it closely every single day. I had no idea who this guy was until before this moment. This is my introduction to John Delaney, and I'm very happy that this was the first taste of John Delaney that I've ever gotten, because I hope to never see him again. So he's a former. He's a former congressman. He was a three-term guy who basically bought his seat. It's a safe seat in Maryland. Maryland, yeah. So I was in the room for this, a lot of us in the media were up waiting to hear from Julian Castro who went right before him. We're going to do a little gaggle with him. And Bernie was right before that. So, and this is Sunday. Party chair, there was an election that was over. The room at, by the time Delaney gets up

is like a third full. I mean, there wasn't really anybody there, right? He was the 14th of 14 candidates to speak. And as I said, they weren't really, nobody was really paying much attention until he said Medicare for All, people like, you know, Alexa turned on, Medicare for All. And you hear people go, woo, Medicare for All, like right before. And then he lays the hammer down. And, you know, it- You should have listened to that foreshadowing woo, but he just kept going with it, and it was a bad idea.

Now, AOC actually jumped into this and tweeted the following. Since there's so many people running for president and not enough for Senate, instead of obsessing over who's a frontrunner, maybe we can start with some general eliminations. This awful untrue line got booed for a full minute. John Delaney, thank you, but please sashay away. Beautiful dance reference there. And John Delaney didn't like it. Not sure Delaney can sashay, but- It takes some skill, and he doesn't seem to have much.

Now, he responded to AOC by saying, hey, AOC, we have the same goal, universal health care for everyone, no. We just have different ways of getting there. Health care is the number one issue for voters, so let's debate the way forward. Any show of your choosing, healthcare is too important for tweets. We need real discussion. He says any show, right here, right here, right here. So, Shank Yugar says, I'll be your Huckleberry.

And both of you have had very positive experiences on TYT. You know I'll be fair, so we'd love to host it, both sides agree, if both sides agree. I just love, I love the John Delaney guy, again, who I'd never heard of before. The extent of my knowledge of him is that he likes to get booed right to his face, and then he just turns into, like, you know, online, like, MRA guy who, like, is obsessed with, like, debate me, like, debate me right now. Like, how many times have you gotten that, like, I want to debate you, Anna? You know, like, it's just like- It's actually really funny because of course the whole debate

me, meme began with Shapiro challenging AOC to a debate and getting really aggressive with it. In the last Politicon, I was like begging him to debate and he wouldn't do it. So I actually don't get that too often. And if you're a conservative who wants to debate me, let's debate. I mean, I have no problem debating. But it is kind of like creepy how aggressive they get with it. Anyway, so I wanna just quickly make a point before we end this story about how it wasn't

just Medicare for all that got booed. The issue of socialism overall, right? The very issue that we hear the press fearmonger about consistently was brought up. And honestly, the reaction was surprising to me. I didn't expect this. So here is Hickenlooper, fearmongering about socialism. Just pay attention to the reaction from the crowd. We must address the divisions that are tearing us apart.

We must tackle the kitchen table challenges facing Americans. But let me be clear, if we want to beat Donald Trump and achieve big progressive goals, socialism is not the answer. I was re-elected. I was reelected in a purple state in 2014, one of the worst years for Democrats in a quarter century. I was, you know, if we're not careful, we're going to end up helping to reelect the worst president in American history. I was one of only two Democrats that year to win in a swing state. As governor, I worked with non-profits and business, with Democrats and Republicans. Amazing.

Yeah, it's great. You love to see it. I mean, and again, like I said, he did fundraising explicitly on this moment. There's a Washington Peace Post in which it was a conversation with Hickenlooper talking about his very own sister-s soldier moment. And it's just, it's bizarre to see it, you know, because it's such a politics of a different age. And there's no way that that's going to work today. And Hickenlooper, it has to be said, I think I'm contractually obligated to remind people

that Hickenlooper drank fracking juice to prove that it was safe. Yep. Indeed. Yeah, I mean, he, I think there is a difference between Delaney, who I think is just cloistered and clueless and Hickenlooper who was trying to do this. He was trying to get this rise out of the crowd. And, you know, the California Democratic Party, you're talking about the activists when you're talking about the people who are there, volunteers, people who stuff envelopes, those are the people

that you want to kick in the teeth, right? But they're famously pretty progressive group, although, I mean, these are also people who were appointed by elected officials, you know, there's a bit of a mix there. And so to see them, I think there's just a general antipathy to, you know, eating your Right. Right. Left punching. Yeah.

And I just, what was demonstrated in that clip was the old tactic that apparently some Democrats haven't realized as an old tactic that no one's buying anymore, which is you need to do what I think is right, because if you don't, well, then Trump is going to get reelected. Trump is going to get reelected. Like the fear mongering about Trump getting reelected, the big boogeyman is not going to play well with some portion of Democratic voters, and they just haven't caught on to that. Well, they tried that with every single election that I can remember. Right.

You know, they use the big, bad Republican, which they all are. Like, they're all big, bad Republican. I mean, Bush was awful. Bush was way worse than Trump, you know? In some place. Yeah, they use it as a cudgel to punch left, right? And, you know, the strategy, you know, it hasn't really worked out for Democrats. I see Republicans in power everywhere, all over the place.

All right, we gotta take a break. When we come back, an insane story about mismanagement of taxpayer money in Puerto Rico. And let me tell you something. It's the private companies that are mismanaging the money, not the Puerto Ricans. I want to give you the details on that and more. 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.

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Welcome back to TYT. I just want to note that Nando's mom is a TYT member, which I just found out of the TYT army. She's very proud. She loves the show. Well, if you're not a TYT member and you're kind of on the fence, you're like, I don't know, is it worth it? We have a trial, a one-week trial.

You can go to TYT.com slash trial and just check it out. See if you like it. There's all sorts of exclusive content specifically for our members. In fact, we're doing the Buttigieg town hall tonight and we will have, of course, a portion of it open to the public and then an exclusive member's only portion where we really let loose get that uncensored content, you know? Yeah, I love it. The real stuff.

Exactly. Well, I mean, look, we give you all real stuff, but the post game is a little different, you know? You just kind of let your guard down a little bit more. Ulysses Thompson says, this is my first time catching you guys live. Shout out to Jess Clementine for helping me out with my account. Yes, Jess, thank you. Gabby Marita says, I expect future generations will rightly call these so-called for-profit

detention centers what they really are, concentration camps. And they will condemn our generation for allowing it to happen. But as David had mentioned, there is some really great activism going on. I didn't know about the banks that have decided to refuse business with these private prison companies. And it's not like they did it the first time they were asked, right? I mean, it took months and months of really, really dedicated work by groups like in the public interest and Mihente and several others, which I, you know, I should name all 20, but I don't

have them all in my head. But it really was a dedicated grassroots. Actually, it's still happening, so check it out, you know, try to find it. I love it. So great. Okay, let's get to the final story for this hour. Executives at Textile Corporation of America scammed U.S. taxpayers out of millions of dollars after promising residents of Puerto Rico to deliver on some relief efforts and also promising

to create a thousand jobs in part of Tennessee. And then it turns out that they didn't do either one of those things. In fact, they pocketed money that they received from federal contracts. So this was a great story reported by The Daily Beast. Now they're facing a federal criminal investigation, alleging that the owners of the company simply pocketed the money that they received from these federal contracts. And I want to give you some of these specific details. According to affidavits filed by the FBI in a federal court in Tennessee, the textile

corporation of America fabricated evidence of work performed. at a Pikeville Tennessee textile plant in order to draw grants from the Tennessee Valley Authority, which is a federally owned corporation, and the state's Department of Economic and Community Development. The FBI also alleges that the company's owners pocketed much of the money for personal use. In fact, they're having a difficult time recouping the money. It's such a crazy story. And then finally, the TCA sister company, to which FEMA awarded a contract, Master Group

USA used more fraudulent paperwork, including fabricated copies of invoices and wire transfers to conceal the fact that it was purchasing tarps for the recovery effort from China in violation of federal sourcing laws. So there was all sorts of fabrication going on. There was all sorts of false documents, invoices that were completely fabricated. And the money was essentially allegedly stolen, according to this FBI affidavit. And I just want to note that when it came to the relief efforts toward Puerto Rico and those who suffered from Hurricane Maria, the Trump administration over and over again made this argument.

They have not come to $91 billion with all we've done in that country. They have had a systematic mismanagement of the goods and services we've sent to them. You've seen food just rotting in the ports. Their governor has done a horrible job. He's trying to make political hay in a political year. He gave them a lot of money. They have mismanaged and misused that money. It hurts their people.

That's what he's upset about. When there are food, goods, and services sitting in those ports and they're just rotting in the sun, that is a complete mismanagement at the government level. Why hasn't the U.S., why isn't the White House who disperse the money that Congress has allocated to help Puerto Rico? I'm sure we will. When? I'm not sure. I don't have a deadline for you.

But look, they can't even handle what we've given. They can't even handle what we've given them already. So that was an interview from April of this year, and the person making the allegations that Puerto Rico mishandles the money is principal deputy communication secretary, Hogan Gidley. That is his real name. And so, I don't believe it. So it turns out, no, a lot of money is actually being mismanaged by these private companies that are getting these massive federal contracts.

In fact, FEMA awarded MGUSA nearly $4 million before Kansas. canceling the contract after the TARPs failed to meet quality requirements. Yeah. You know, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico is the epicenter of basically everything that's wrong with the world. You know, it is the victim of American imperialism. It is the victim of climate change. It is the victim of financial capitalism.

It is the victim of political corruption. All of the things have, all of these bad things that are happening in the world have conspired to make you know life in Puerto Rico a living hell today and it's it's just it's an unbelievably sad you know you see the response like you know but these people are American citizens and like you know they don't really they they know like no one in this country actually cares and it's it's just unbelievably sad what we've done to them not just the Trump administration but for over 100 years now well they might not care now but you You might wanna care if they're going to become a significant voting block in the United States.

I mean, many of them have been displaced. They've moved to Florida. They can't vote for president in the general election if they're living in Puerto Rico, but they can if they're in mainland, you know, USA. And so I want, I mean, look, I want them to go to the red states and flip them. But a lot of Puerto Ricans right now are homeless in New York, in Florida. It is a tragic story and nothing's being done about it, especially when it comes to the federal government.

And with respect to this story, I mean, this is the Trump scheme, right? Pay somebody, say you're a painter or a builder, and then just not give them any money after they do the work. This is sort of the reverse of that, get money to do a job and then just sort of not do it, the fish rots from the head down. This is essentially what Trump used to do, or Versal, another version of what Trump used to do within his own business. Yeah, and while he has absolutely no problem demonizing Puerto Ricans who have suffered long

enough, he hasn't said anything about this. I mean, these are people who stole taxpayer money, right? But you're right, the fish does rot from the head down, he probably has an affinity for people who do things like this. It just seems like a lot of work, like you're fabricating. and affidavit. Just do the work. Just do the work.

Just do the work. I mean, I guess. But I think it's important to note, like for example, in Puerto Rico, like this isn't a problem that it was invented by Trump. Under the Obama administration, when the Puerto Rican debt crisis got really bad, Barack Obama passed something called the Promesa Act, which was basically a suppression of Puerto Rico's democratic rights and handing Puerto Rico's limited and feeble democracy over to basically a troika of bankers in the United States.

Unelected bureaucrats who are known within Puerto Rico as the junta. The junta, which is, yeah, apt. Try your own conclusions. Yeah, and look, I like that you brought that up because it's important to understand the origins or at least the historical context of current events and why things are the way they are today. I mean, Trump is a terrible person, but the doors were opened for him, you know what I'm saying? he's taken advantage and we're seeing it over and over again. Anyway, we have to go to break,

but thank you so much for joining us. We're going to have a different panel for the second hour. Nando Villa, David Dayan. Thank you. You guys are awesome. And stay tuned. We'll be right back. 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 slash t yt i'm your host jank huger and i'll see you soon