The Young Turks - Trump's Syria Crisis Spiraling Out Of Control

Episode Date: October 16, 2019

Trump's incompetence has left American troops stranded, and now the Kurds have turned to Assad for help. Ana Kasparian, Nando Vila, and Adrienne Lawrence, hosts of The Young Turks, break it down. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to the Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. If you like the Young Turks podcast, I think you'll love a lot of the podcasts on the TYT network. Old school, it's one of my favorites, one of the favorites for a lot of the listeners. Please check that out, subscribe, share it, that makes a big difference, and give it a five-star rating. Thank you.

Welcome to the Young Turks, I'm Anna Casparian, and Jake is not here because he's in Ohio for the debates, and he'll be checking in with us a little later in the show. But we have a wonderful panel, Nando Villa and Adrian Lawrence join us today. Hello. And we'll have a different panel, of course, for the second hour. I'm really looking forward to today's show. There's a lot to cover. Later on in the second hour, we're going to discuss LeBron James, weighing in on all of this China versus Hong Kong stuff happening with the NBA. It has to do with free speech, it has to do with whether or not players know enough about

the issue to share their opinions on social media, so we'll get into that discussion. And then, of course, we're gonna do a special debate coverage. Just wanna let you guys know as the debate takes place, we are going to be watching, not live with you, but we're gonna be watching, researching, fact checking. And then we will go live at 8 p.m. Pacific time, 11 p.m. Eastern, to give you our thoughts and some of the highlights from that debate. So with that said, let's go ahead and move on to our first story of the day, and it's Syria. Let's take a look.

Turkey seized control of a key highway near the border northeast Syria, meaning U.S. troops in the area may have to rely on airlifts to get out. Stateside President Trump's abrupt shift in policy has triggered a growing bipartisan backlash. So Turkey's latest move in northern Syria has complicated. the situation for U.S. troops who are attempting to leave, and this is, of course, following Donald Trump's abrupt decision to abandon our Kurdish allies in the region and allow for Turkey to move forward with its military operation. Now, there's other news, including the involvement of Russia.

But before we get to that, let me give you the details on what's going on in terms of Turkey's latest actions. Trump declared that Turkey's offensive undermines the campaign to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or ISIS endangers civilians and further threatens to undermine the peace, security and stability in the region. Now part of the reason why U.S. troops were in that region to begin with was to prevent all of these things from happening. Now that U.S. troops are leaving, there are ISIS prisoners who are escaping the very prisons

that our former Kurdish allies were keeping an eye on. Obviously their priority now is to save themselves and to save their own. lives as a result of this Turkish aggression. But the order that Donald Trump signed is in regard to sanctions. It's a $100 billion trade deal hammered out between Ankara and Washington, raises tariffs on Turkish steel to 50% and imposes sanctions on senior Turkish officials and the country's defense and energy ministries. So with that said, and before we move on to what Russia's doing, I wanted to kind of open

this up to the panel and get your thoughts on it? Well, I mean, it's a predictable consequence of Trump's decision to pull out of northern Syria. I mean, Turkey would not be doing any of this without the sort of tacit acquiescence of the United States. I think Erdogan himself was probably surprised that Trump agreed to do this move in the first place. You know, it's one of those things that's, you know, Trump himself is such an easy person to read in this sense because he's very obvious.

Like he just says the thing openly, the thing that past, you know, U.S. leaders would couch in sort of the humanitarian terms and sort of like slippery foreign policy speak. He just kind of outright says it, but this has been sort of a ongoing move the United States has done several times in the past. I mean, the Kurds are sort of a very easy pawn for the United States to sort of use in various different geopolitical chess matches. And the sort of playbook has always been the same exact thing. So this shouldn't come as too much of a surprise, but it's no less depressing and horrifying.

So can you elaborate a little bit on what you mean by that? Because I agree with you that Trump isn't subtle as previous presidents have been. He says the quiet parts out loud. But what do you mean when you say that similar things have happened in the past? Well, I mean, it's, you know, there's so many examples, it's almost impossible to go through them all right now. But I mean, you know, whether it was in the early 90s or in the 1980s or World War II, World War I, you know, like the Kurds are kind of this perfect pawn for the United States

interest because they're a sort of stateless people that exist across various states where the United States has geopolitical interests, some of them are our friends, some of them are our enemies. And at whatever point in time our enemies kind of need to be dealt with, we'll arm and support the Kurds, but then when our friends who also have to deal with Kurdish minorities within their own countries, whenever they get a little worried about, you know, sort of these uppity Kurds, then we'll abandon them. And it just, that just kind of, that same exact dynamic has happened over and over and

over again. Yeah, and in this case, you have Turkey and NATO ally wanting to to invade northern Syria, and then Donald Trump decides to abandon our Kurdish allies to make way for Turkey. Now, he has received so much backlash, and it's bipartisan backlash, that he's trying to make it appear as though he didn't intend for it to work out this way, that he didn't give a green light to this Turkish aggression. But he knew what was going on.

I mean, in one of the original statements released by the White House, they specifically said, you know, Trump told Erdogan, if you're gonna do like a lot of. a mild military operation, we're going to keep our troops there. But if you're going to do an aggressive military operation, we're going to pull our troops out. Yeah, that's letting Erdogan know, if you want to go, if you want to play, we'll play along with you and pull our troops out. I mean, anyway, Adrian.

Well, it's, this is very much on par for Donald Trump, essentially, you know, having him withdraw the troops from northern Syria, it really just undoes all the progress that's been done. And that's essentially what he's done here in the United States. This is his M.O. This is what he does. He rolls things back so that anything that's been good, progressive, moving in the direction of stability is now unfolded.

And we see how it plays out. And then pretending like, oop, I didn't know what was going to happen. It's just, this is how this man operates. Right. And it's, he doesn't really strike me as someone who really has a plan or strategy. It just really depends on the last person who spoke to him. And this is true of all of his policy, right? And so he has this conversation with Erdogan, and abruptly he decides, I'm going to go ahead and abandon our Kurdish allies after they helped us fight ISIS.

And keep in mind, those ISIS fighters were being watched by these Kurdish allies, now former Kurdish allies. And so, again, they're escaping some of these prisons, which poses a danger. Like, what was the point? What was the point of trying to fight ISIS? If you're going to have Donald Trump, you know, just undo, you're right, undo all of the progress. that was made there. Now, let's talk a little bit more about these sanctions because some of our other allies have gotten involved.

So NPR reports that US-NATO allies have halted weapons exports to Turkey. That includes France and Germany. And with the US withdrawing from the border area, Russia says its military is now acting as a buffer between Turkish and Syrian troops. Also, the Kurds have spoken, they've spoken to Assad, Bashar al-Assad, and he has agreed to offer some sort of protection. So we'll see how that plays out. But Syria, the civil war that was happening in Syria was very much a proxy war.

And with all of these updates, it's very clear that that proxy war continues. There are all these other world interests that are getting involved. You have Turkey involved, obviously, you have Russia, you have Iran. It's not a good situation at all, and it didn't have to go down this way. Trump just decided randomly after having a conversation to do this. Although I really do wonder kind of what's in it for him, because he doesn't do anything without having a motivation. So I don't know what that conversation necessarily entailed or what conversations he's having

with Putin or what other foreign leaders to essentially set himself up. So maybe there'll be a Trump hotel on a new island somewhere. Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised. You're right. I mean, everything that he does is based on self-interest. And also whether or not the person he's speaking to is complimentary toward him. So a few more pieces of info that you should be aware of. How disastrous has this been for civilians in the area?

Nearly 70,000 children have been displaced since hostilities escalated last week. And that's according to estimates by UNICEF, adding that 170,000 children may need humanitarian aid as a result of violence in the border region. But here's the issue, some of the organizations that have been offering humanitarian humanitarian aid in the area have left because they're worried about their own lives given this Turkish aggression. Also, Kurds have announced that deal with the Russian and Iranian-backed government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to back them against the Turkish onslaught.

And finally, I want to read this quote from Donald Trump. This is a tweet that he posted, let Syria and Assad protect the Kurds and fight Turkey for For their own land, anyone who wants to assist Syria and protecting the Kurds is good with me, whether it is Russia, China, or Napoleon, I hope they all do great. We are 7,000 miles away. But here's the thing. This is not an example of us doing an interventionist war. This was us working with the Kurds to defeat ISIS.

And what Donald Trump did is basically throw them aside as soon as he got what he wanted. Yeah, and it's, I mean, it bears repeating that in that war against ISIS, the Kurds are the ones who bore the brunt of it. I mean, I think they lost something like 11,000 fighters in the fight against ISIS, you know, obviously way less than the United States suffered. And they were the, they were really the troops that were at the front lines fighting ISIS day in and day out, while at the same time doing a sort of very inspiring experiment in radical democracy, radical gender equality in the, in the region. region, you know, they had women were, some of their top commanders in the militaries, also in the local governments and this sort of like, sort of radically democratic governments that they established, in the middle of this incredibly brutal and incredibly complex civil war, war against ISIS, Assad, the Turks, everything, they, despite that, they were able

to sort of build this kind of new type of society. And you know, you wonder if that is going to survive now that. They're forced to sort of throw themselves in the arms of Assad. It's just doubly, doubly heinous what the United States did. And just, it's one of the more depressing news developments that has happened all year. Absolutely. So anytime you hear someone on the right, but specifically members of Trump's administration claim that they're concerned about radical Islamic terrorism or they're worried about ISIS.

It's so disingenuous. They don't really care about that. Right. Radical Islamic terrorist is a net, terrorism is a net positive for the American right. Like it really is, they don't actually care about stopping it, they love to fight it forever. They love to cite it as a real, in their minds, a reason why they're better on national security and rooting out extremism compared to Democrats. But in reality, just based on Trump's actions alone, it's clear that they're disingenuous,

it's clear that they use this and exploit it for their own political gain here in the United States. They don't genuinely worry or care about these insurgent groups or terrorism abroad, period. And something else that really kind of just resonates with me as we saw those numbers of children's, hundreds of thousands of kids that are displaced or in need, essentially those kids are going to grow up knowing that they were victimized, violated, you know, essentially left and abandoned because of what the United States did. And so essentially, it's just creating more enemies. And that's something that Trump has continued to do, turn our allies into enemies and create

new enemies for the United States that could come back against us decades later. Yeah, look, I was in Vancouver, you know, on vacation, although that vacation was cut short yesterday. But nonetheless, I just want to note that, like, there was a big protest happening in front of a government building, and there were signs that specifically said America has blood on its hands. And it's embarrassing. It's embarrassing and it feels terrible to know that this man, Donald Trump, represents us.

And the cruelty, and you're right, Nando, I mean, America has a history of cruelty abroad. Don't get me wrong and doing things out of its own, you know, self-interest and business interests. But Donald Trump's brazen disregard for human lives is embarrassing and it makes it uncomfortable to be an American traveling abroad. And, you know, because we're full of jingoistic nonsense here. When you go abroad, you get a sense of what people really think about us, and I don't blame them. All right, I want to move on to a different angle to this story because Donald Trump and his family like to insult everyone's intelligence. So let's discuss that.

Donald Trump's daughter-in-law, Laura Trump, recently went on Fox News, to defend Donald Trump's decision to abandon our Kurdish allies in northern Syria. Now, before we go to the video, let me just explain why this is an issue. The Kurds in northern Syria were assisting us and helping us in defeating ISIS. And they had been keeping an eye on ISIS fighters who had been imprisoned, right? So these prisons have all these literally tens of thousands of ISIS fighters. The Kurds are guarding them for us. And then Donald Trump has a conversation with the leader of Turkey, Erdogan, and Erdogan wants U.S. troops out of that region.

And that paves the way for Turkish aggression toward the Kurds. So effectively, Donald Trump has abandoned our allies who have helped us fight extremism abroad. With that said, take a look at what his daughter-in-law, Laura Trump, has to say about it. President Trump's acquiescence to Turkey's move to send troops deep inside Syrian territory has only, in only one week's time, turned into a bloody carnage, forced the abandonment of a successful five-year-long American project to keep the peace on a volatile border. and given an unanticipated victory to four American adversaries, Russia, Iran, the Syrian government, and the Islamic State. Your response tonight. Well, Shannon, I think we should start with the fact that if you ask the average American out there,

I think they would have to Google who are the Kurds and why is America even over there fighting this war. If you saw him at the rally in Minneapolis the other night, you saw him tell a story about the hardest part of his job. And it's when our brave men and women are coming back home. in caskets, and he has to be there to comfort their families. He never wants to see that happen, and it certainly should not be happening in a space where, quite frankly, we don't even belong as Americans. A lot of people don't even really understand why we were there. So, like, I didn't know who the Kurds were, and since I didn't know who the Kurds were,

I'm just going to assume that all other Americans are idiots, and they have no idea what's going on abroad. That's what I think is going. First of all, like, what is she even talking about? Right? She offered nothing in that answer. And to be fair, I can't even believe I'm saying this, to Fox, they've done, not all of them, but some of the on-air commentators have done a decent job in calling Trump out on how much of a disaster this has been.

But no, there wasn't a war in northern Syria, right, until now. Like the troops were there as a deterrent when it came to Turkey's aggression. So they weren't like in harm's way. They were preventing an uptick in violence, right? And they were there to protect our Kurdish allies who helped us fight ISIS in Syria. Just want to give that context. Go ahead. Normally, I would support basically any troop withdrawal anywhere in the world that the United

States did. Like I would support troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, from Pakistan, from Iraq. I would oppose any intervention in Venezuela or North Korea or any other. of the other places, but like this is like kind of like the one, the one limited instance in which American true presence abroad was a positive force, right? I mean, with all the millions of caveats that you have to do, you know, when you're dealing with American Empire, you're always dealing with pretty nasty business. But in this one specific instance, it was kind of a net positive.

And this is the one that they focus on doing first. And it's just really depressing. And it fits a pattern. I mean, that's why he was able to do it, because it fits a pattern in ongoing sort of U.S. abandonment of the Kurds that has happened time and time and again. And frankly, this sort of strange capitulation to Turkish aggression, which is like, it's just, it just baffles the mind. But, you know, what can you say?

Yeah, and Lara Trump, these family members, Trumps, are just, they're gangsters at gaslighting. They do is kind of try to muddy the waters, pretend they don't know what's going on. So you should know what's going on. It's too much. And then try to simplify it in a false way. But essentially, it's unfortunate what is going on right now in northern Syria because it really just speaks to the fact that unfortunately America seems to be really selfish. They got what they wanted and now they left.

And that really feeds the narrative of who we are as a people. And as you see everything going down, it's so self-interested. Yes, you're absolutely right. But it goes even further than that, right? Because America might have gotten what it wanted in defeating ISIS, but that's not, it's not as if things can't go or things can't devolve or fall apart. And that's what's happening right now. You have ISIS fighters who are being guarded by the Kurds escaping those prisons right

now as we speak. Because now the priority for the Kurds, which is the most understandable thing, is to save their own lives as a result of this Turkish aggression. And so their priority isn't guarding the ISIS fighters anymore. their priority is to save their own lives. And so when you really think about it, America got what it wanted very temporarily until you had an idiot like Donald Trump make a decision based on one phone call he had with the leader of Turkey.

And we don't know exactly how that phone call played out. We don't know if there was any type of quid pro quo going on. I think the phone call was beautiful. It was a perfect phone call. It was a perfect, beautiful phone call. It was the best, it was strong, very strong phone call. Well, a strong phone call that has now led to a humanitarian crisis in that area, the death of civilians in that area, and also the escape of ISIS fighters in the area. So we all know how this is going to play out.

Don't allow members of Trump's administration to insult your intelligence on this. We got to take a break. When we come back, we're going to give you an update on impeachment-related news and other topics. We'll be back. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-Fitting the Republic or U.S. UNFTR. As a Young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations are constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the rich and powerful. But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the conventional wisdom. In each episode

of Un-B-the-Republic, or UNFTR, the host delves into a different historical episode or topic that's generally misunderstood or purposely obfuscated by the so-called powers that be, featuring in-depth research, razor-sharp commentary, and just the right amount of vulgarity, the UNFTR podcast takes a sledgehammer to what you thought you knew about some of the nation's most sacred historical cows. But don't just take my word for it. The New York Times described UNFTR as consistently compelling and educational, aiming to challenge conventional wisdom and upend the historical narratives that were taught in school. For as the great philosopher Yoda once put it,

You must have learned what you have learned. And that's true whether you're in Jedi training or you're uprooting and exposing all the propaganda and disinformation you've been fed over the course of your lifetime. So search for UNFDR in your podcast app today and get ready to get informed, angered, and entertained all at the same time. What's up everyone, welcome back to TYT. Nando and Adrian joined me for the first hour. And I want to read some of your comments.

So let's start with member comments. I'm gonna start with Chet's mom because I needed this comment today. So glad Anna's back. Yes. Love this panel. All right now. Thank you. I really appreciate that sweet comment.

Women's. Oh yeah, women's. But it's not spelled like women's. It's spelled differently with a why. I firmly believe that the terrorist enemy was intended to be the enemy we never defeat, ensuring the necessity of financing the war effort into perpetuity. Perpetuity, yeah. We'll always be at war with East Asia or whatever.

That's the classic thing. Be a great dad, great handle, writes in, and these are member comments, by the way. I think this was a gift to the military industrial complex. Our members are freaking smart, man. The destabilized Middle East is a profitable Middle East. It's also a huge distraction to the exposure of the Democrat and Republican corruption if you view Trump, Biden, and now Pelosi family antics profiting off their positions. The richest county in the United States per capita is where the Pentagon is.

Oh yeah, of course. Yeah. Sounds right. Good trivia for you, you know, for one of those bar night trivia nights at a bar. Thomas says, I love Nando's input on subjects. It's a shame that he can't get a word in edgewise, nor can anyone else. What does that mean? When Jank is on.

Oh. At first I was like, hey, wait a minute. When Jek is on. That's not true. I know I want to make sure that I give you guys as many opportunities to share your opinions. And then a few TYT lives on Twitter. A. Belzo writes in, everyone knew that Turkey would attack the Kurds. Why didn't Trump know?

I thought he was a super genius with unmatched wisdom. Well, Trump did know. The White House admitted that Trump knew, which is why he pulled the troops out. You know, it's incredible. Anyway, few other notices for you guys. So as you know, we have some partners and one of those partners happens to be a company called Doe. So look, investing is tricky, it's scary, I wasn't interested in it until fairly recently.

Wow, buy low, sell high, that's what you gotta do. I know, I know, easier said than done by the way, right? Like, if you're not an expert on investing, it's scary stuff. But Doe is a great partner for us to have because they make investing easy. So what they do is they'll ask you some questions about what your interests are. And then based on that survey, they will give you investing suggestions. So if you're interested, please check out the app. Go to Doe.com slash TYT and just go through the process.

It's awesome. And they have zero account minimums. That's pretty hard to find all days. Nice. Yep. I know like Charles Schwab has like a five grand one. They might have changed, I don't know. Those fancy lads over at Charles Schwab.

Go.com, the people's investment firm. Exactly. And then one other partner that I've talked about quite a bit on this show, you should be protecting your online activity with a VPN. NordVPN is one of the companies that we've partnered with and they're wonderful because they give you a giant discount in addition to being one of the top VPN companies. You get a 70% off deal for three years, by the way. And you get your first month free.

Go to NordvPN.com slash TYT. And then finally, some programming notes. Mary Ann Williamson will be joining the conversation soon. So check that out tomorrow at 8.30 p.m. Eastern Time, 5.30 Pacific. You can tune in live at t.com slash live. Oh, that's exciting. Yeah. Yeah, that'd be cool.

All righty. So let's get to the rest of the news. All right. It's just nonstop. Former White House aide Fiona Hill testified before Congress in a closed door deposition. And based on individuals who are in the room and who are familiar with how that deposition went, we have some idea of John Bolton's conversations within the White House when he was serving as the national security advisor.

Now, as we all know, he's no longer serving as a national security advisor or the national Security Advisor, but Bolton had some severe issues with the fact that Donald Trump and his cronies were attempting to dig up dirt on political rivals like Joe Biden using the help of foreign countries like Ukraine. So based on what Fiona Hill told Congress, at one point Bolton said the following about Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump's personal lawyer, quote, Giuliani's a hand grenade who's going to blow everybody up. It's kind of true.

It's very true. I got no love for Bolton, right? Lots of problems with Bolton, but he's right in this prediction. Oh, absolutely. There are CNN clips to establish that. Oh, he's so off. He's definitely awful. So Bolton was concerned about Trump's efforts to dig up dirt on his political rival, Joe Biden

and also his son, Hunter Biden. And this led to a conflict in the White House. So Bolton got into a tense exchange on July 10th. It was only 15 days before Trump had that phone call with Vladimir Zelensky of Ukraine. Now on July 10th, Bolton got into a tense exchange with Gordon Sunland, the Trump donor turned ambassador to the EU, who was working with Giuliani to press Ukraine to investigate Democrats. And that's according to three people who heard Hill's testimony yesterday. In fact, Fiona Hill testified that Bolton told her to notify the chief lawyer for the National

Security Council about a rogue effort by Sunnuch. Lund, Giuliani, and Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff. Oh, my, I think the person I want to see pay consequences, almost as much as I want to see Trump pay the consequences, Mick Mulvaney. Yeah. It'd be very nice. Yeah. So before I go on to the rest of the news on this, give you more details, what do you guys think?

Okay, I mean, I have no illusions that Bolton actually cares about any of this. I don't think he like, you know, on principle believes that Trump would be abusing his power by asking Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden. I really don't believe that he cares about that at all. I think that Bolton probably found himself ostracized within the administration because Trump wasn't sufficiently hawkish enough for him on Venezuela, on North Korea, on Iran, on a variety of things in which John Bolton is the most extreme hawkish version of whatever issue is on the table. And because Trump was not, you know, 100 on the zero to 100 scale of hawkishness, Bolton found

himself ostracized and is probably just doing this to, you know, blow up the administration in some way, which, you know, it's fun to watch. I'm loving it, I'm enjoying the, but I really don't want to be on the same team as John Bolton. No, I get it, I get it. One of the worst people in American history. I think you're right, intentions matter. And what drove, you know, the protests within the administration?

I mean, this is pretty late in the game. Bolton was obviously already having issues with Trump. So I think that your theory is, I think there's a lot of credibility to that theory. By the way, Hill said Bolton also said, in regard to the conversations with Ukraine, I'm not part of whatever drug deal, Sunlit and Mulvaney are cooking up. Bolton told Hill to tell White House lawyers. and that's according to two people who were at the deposition. Yeah, no, I actually think that Bolton, he was definitely okay with it,

but what he wasn't okay with was bringing in people who aren't as clean and getting it done. Because, you know, it's one of those things where these people don't mind necessarily criminality. It's just, are we going to bring on sloppy parties who are going to get us cotton in trouble? And as we see Giuliani out here on television, you know, breaking privilege, just talking all this nonsense, and essentially just being messy, you know, Bolton's a lot cleaner in his dirt, and he's not trying to get caught. And so I think he got scared, and he's like, I'm good. That's a good point.

Yeah, he's tough. So, like, he probably, you know, Bolton was at Yale, once at Yale Law School, like, he's, he's no dummy. He's a monster, but he's no dummy. And he probably thought, oh, this whole Ukraine thing is like super illegal, and I don't want any part of it, you know, and so he's probably saving his skin. Oh, I don't think the illegality bothered him. that you don't bring in a messy person. It's like if we were going to do a heist and you brought in, I don't know, Uncle Lou,

who doesn't really know anything or really care, I'm not trying to stick out my neck to bring on someone who's just going to end up dragging us down and getting us caught. So I think that was Bolton's idea. Well, speaking of messiness, let's hear from Rudy Giuliani. He spoke to The Daily Beast following news of what Bolton had said within the administration. And his quote is, I have not spoken to John about his comments as conveyed by Hill. John is a longtime friend. I have no idea why John is doing this.

My best guess is that he's confused. This is so funny. My best bet is that he, my best guess is that he's confused and bought into a false media narrative without bothering to call me about it. He's accusing others of being confused. And we've seen his interviews, which I personally enjoy watching. Yeah. And that's something that this administration loves to do.

They like to do this confusion. I don't know why. I have no idea. Everything's a shoulder shrugs. It's a playing dumb thing. So essentially it's saying, I don't recall, so you can't tie me to anything. And that's what they love to do. And it's amazing to think that like circa 2006 Giuliani was like maybe the most popular

politician in America. And had he just kind of like receded from the front lines and just kind of told stories He's about 9-11, he would have just had a nice career making billions of dollars and speaking fees and his reputation would be intact. Instead, he decided to come back into the fray and his reputation is in tatters. And you know what? You love to see it. I love, I definitely love to see it, but you know what?

He has this characteristic that a lot of criminals have. And that characteristic is greed, right? Like greed is usually what gets people caught in the end, right? When you've done things and gotten away with it, like move on with your life. But no, he's a questionable figure to say the least. Now, he is refusing to cooperate with this House investigation, even though he has been subpoenaed. So he is not going to cooperate, and really the ball is in the Democrats court in regard to what they're going to do if he refuses to cooperate with this investigation.

I mean, a subpoena is a subpoena, and there have been strong words by Democrats in regard to individuals who refuse to comply with those subpoenas. But we've seen Democrats, like talk is cheap, we need to see them actually hold individuals in contempt if they're not following through with what they're legally supposed to do. Also, Hill testified that she opposed the idea of Donald Trump having that call with Vladimir Zelensky on July 25th, because she did not understand its purpose. While it was described as a congratulatory call following parliamentary elections in Ukraine, Trump had already made a congratulatory call to Zelensky in April.

So she felt that things were strange. She had problems with what was going on. And it is important that people like her do comply with this investigation and speak to Congress. Now what can we look forward to? Who else will testify? There are members of Trump's administration who are not listening to the State Department. They are going to cooperate with the investigation. Gordon Sunland is one of those people, he's the EU ambassador.

Then you have George Kent, Deputy Secretary of State, and Laura Cooper, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia. So those are three individuals who are going to be testifying before Congress soon. And everything that's been going on has led Trump to be a little more insular. So he is very suspicious and paranoid. He doesn't trust anyone. He thinks that Bolton was one of the White House leakers, which could possibly be true, right? Why not?

And according to The Daily Beast, in the course of casual conversations with advisors and friends, Trump has privately raised suspicions that a spiteful John Bolton could be one of the sources behind the flood of leaks against him. At one point, one of those sources recalled Trump guessed that Bolton was behind one of the anonymous accounts that listed the former national security advisor as one of the top officials most disturbed by the Ukraine-related efforts of Trump and Rudy Giuliani. Yeah. I have a question.

You're a legal scholar, right? What happens if, like, you know, like Mike Pence, as is being reported, is refusing to comply with a subpoena? Can, like, Congress, like, order, like, you know, people with guns to arrest him? Like, what happens if these, like, no, no, no, and then they order, you know, like, what happens in that scenario? To my recollection, they can seek to enforce it. And it's kind of similar to a court subpoena where you can be held accountable for it.

So, but I don't necessarily know the lengths they would have to go to actually enforce it if they'd need to put in a vote of some kind of measure. But I think what we all kind of notice and know is that essentially Giuliani and the rest of the gang, they're just calling their bluff and saying you're not going to do anything because you've never done anything before. Yeah. And essentially too many people that we're in bed with put money in your pockets, so you ain't go and do nothing. We'll see how that goes. But if they show weakness on, on that issue,

it's just not going to look good. Because it gives you a sense of how the rest of this impeachment investigation is going to go. Things are moving quickly. We're learning more and more about what was going on within the White House. But that information means nothing if Democrats don't act on it. That's right. Right? So one other Giuliani-related story, and then we'll take a break. New reporting indicates that Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, was paid half a million dollars for the work that he did for a Ukrainian American businessman, Lev Parnas, who was one of the individuals arrested last week as part of this impeachment investigation. Now, Lev Parnas and his business associate, Igor Fruman, were arrested on campaign finance

charges. Real lookers. That is very unprogressive of you. Sorry. I agree. No, I don't mind at all. I'm just giving you a hard time. Now, let me give you more information on Lev Parnas.

He's a close associate of Giuliani and was involved in his effort to investigate Trump's political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden. Also, both Parnas and Fruman were arrested at Dulles Airport outside Washington last week. on charges that they funneled foreign money to unnamed U.S. politicians in a bid to influence U.S. Ukraine relations and violation of U.S. campaign finance laws. The men were preparing to board a plane to Europe. Now, half a million dollars is a lot of money. Giuliani's in bed with these guys. They've just been arrested. So the walls are closing in on Giuliani. But he has said that he will not comply or cooperate with any congressional subpoena. Yeah. And I, you know,

If they're not going to do anything and it's just for show, I understand why he's not going to do it. The thing I find to be extremely interesting is how his former office, the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York, how they're investigating him, and the thought that he could be hauled in, you know, as an office he used to lead, that really kind of, I think that that's when it might hit home for him, like it kind of did Michael Cohen. That's a really good point. I mean, look, there have been individuals who face the consequences for getting involved

than rolling around the dirt with Donald Trump. So I don't think it's far-fetched for him to deal with those consequences. And we all know how Donald Trump would deal with that situation. He'd abandon them immediately. He doesn't care about Giuliani. He doesn't care about anyone other than himself. Now let me give you more details on what was going on in terms of some of this funding. By May of 2018, pro-Trump super PAC, a pro-Trump super PAC reported receiving a $325,000 donation

from an energy company that these two individuals partners. and Fruman recently formed, where Parniss and Fruman got their money, though, remains a mystery. When they were arrested on charges of campaign finance violations, prosecutors alleged that they were both backed in part by an unnamed Russian national who used them to funnel donations to state and federal candidates. Yeah, such a great idea to, you know, past Citizens United and make it basically impossible to track where these political donations come from. You know, this kind of thing happens so much more than we realize, you know, whether it's

from the Gulf or from shady Ukrainian interests or from Chinese oligarchs or whatever. There is so much money sloshing around this American political system because of that. That it's just like, you know, you sort of see little bits and pieces every once in a while and it just boggles the mind, like the amount of money that's flowing through it and deals like this. Well, which is why, you know, the way, I mean, it's not just Citizens United, it's the protections that allow for dark money to fund candidates, right? And so whenever you hear the right lose it over someone like Joaquin Castro, disclosing who political donors are, just understand that they're not, they're not doing anything other than trying to protect this type of disgusting corruption that takes place. Yeah, these three goons are just like the dummies that got caught. Right.

Like, the real smart ones, they're getting away with it all the time. Absolutely. And then all of a sudden, you know, everything that we do in the United States is really governed by maybe some foreign power or foreign interest or corporate. And, hey, you know, all the decisions made for us, whether it's, you know, EPA regulations, everything. Yeah. We got to take a break.

When we come back, Hunter Biden speaks. He had a lengthy interview with ABC. We're going to show you some of those highlights and more when we return. At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control of our online lives, constantly monitoring us and storing and selling our data. But that doesn't mean we have to let them. It's possible to stay anonymous online and hide your data from the prying eyes of big tech. And one of the best ways is with ExpressVPN. ExpressVPN hides your IP address, making your active ID more difficult to trace and sell the advertisers.

ExpressVPN also encrypts 100% of your network data to protect you from eavesdroppers and cyber criminals. And it's also easy to install. A single mouse click protects all your devices. But listen, guys, this is important. ExpressVPN is rated number one by CNET and Wired magazine. So take back control of your life online and secure your data with a top VPN solution available, ExpressVPN. And if you go to ExpressVPN.com slash TYT, you can get three extra months for free with this

exclusive link just for TYT fans. That's EXPRE S-SvPN.com. TYT. Check it out today. We hope you're enjoying this free clip from the Young Turks. If you want to get the whole show and more exclusive content while supporting independent media, become a member at TYT.com slash join today. In the meantime, enjoy this free segment. Hey guys, welcome back to TYT, Anna, Nando, and Adrian with you.

Rafer Madness writes in at TYT live and says the bipartisan backlash and backlash is in quotes, to pulling out of Syria is the perfect example of U.S. empire. Rather than the discussion being about legal means to protect Kurds, such as the U.N., the discussion is simply about furthering the illegal actions of U.S. imperialism. So I agree and disagree. Look, I agree that American imperialism is really at the heart of a lot of the decisions we make abroad. I disagree when it comes to this specific example.

So I didn't, there were a thousand U.S. troops in that area and their only goal was to prevent Turkish aggression, right? And pulling those troops out has led to this crisis in that area where civilians, children, innocent people are losing their lives as a result. So I just think that you're right, there was supposed to be after a, after the correct planning, an apparatus put in place to create like a safe buffer zone. But before that could happen, Trump made this decision. I don't want the troops there forever, but they should remain there until there's a plan

in place to protect our Kurdish allies. That's what I'm saying. I mean, it is true that Turkey would not do anything without the United States approval. Like they would just, they just wouldn't. So like at the end of the day, like it's not like they were scared of the thousand U.S. troops in northern Syria. They were scared of getting the United States angry at them. Right.

So. But the U.S. troops being there is a symbol. It's a symbol. Yeah, it was a symbol of the United States saying, like, no, don't even think about it. Pulling the troops out gives them the green light. I do kind of wonder, because we don't know necessarily what happened on that phone call that Donald Trump had had. And, you know, well, if I were a criminal, the way I'd be doing it because I'd see things essentially coming down on me in my family and it's closing in, I'd be talking to these foreign leaders about how can I help you while I have this power if you will essentially not extradite me to the United States. So I'd be setting up my safe haven.

I'm just, hey, I'm just wondering there has to be something in it for him, as always. We'll find out. I have no doubt, we'll find out. But I think that that theory is right. I think that Trump operates based on his self-interest and that's it. All right, with that said, let's move on to Hunter Biden. So Hunter Biden is at the center of this impeachment investigation. Donald Trump urged the Ukrainian president to investigate Hunter Biden and his position

at an oil, or I should say gas company in Ukraine. And so that has led to a discussion about. everything from nepotism to government corruption, and Hunter Biden wanted to address some of those accusations during an interview with ABC. Now, this first clip that we're going to show you basically involves how Hunter Biden feels about this impeachment circus going on. Take a look. It's really hard for me to say anything snarky right now or combative because I'm was raised to respect that office. I don't know.

It's making me emotional. Why do you think you're getting emotional? Because I'm really proud of being in America. But I have to admit, I take no pleasure in this as watching this death spiral of this administration, this president, and the people that surround him. So he's concerned about the death spiral. What I'm curious about is, does he mean the death spiral for the Trump administration specifically

or the death spiral of America overall, right? Because what's happening to America, I think, is depressing. I don't, I personally enjoy what's happening to the Trump administration. I think it's a long time coming, whether or not they're actually, like Trump himself, whether he's going to actually face consequences, that remains to be seen. But what do you guys think? Oh, yeah, he's very concerned for the office of the presidency. I mean, this whole charade is kind of, it's one of these very frustrating 2019 stories

in which immediately both camps have to sort of retrench and, you know, double fortify their positions. Because, like, I've seen like this sort of, the mainstream sort of liberal narrative on this is that Hunter Biden and Joe Biden did nothing wrong, that there was nothing wrong with the arrangements. And then on the right, there's all kinds of crazy allegations that aren't true either. But what it is fundamentally true is that the Hunter Biden agreements with, you know, his position on the Ukrainian gas company was improper.

You know, like, it's not, it's not totally kosher. You know, whether it's illegal or not is different. I mean, it was, but it is fundamentally a corrupt arrangement. And for Democrats to pretend that there was nothing wrong with this, I think caused them to lose all kinds of credibility. Anyone could look at that and be like, oh, the vice president's son got a cushy gig at some Ukrainian gas company, even though he knows nothing about anything of Ukraine or energy or anything like that.

I totally agree with you. Look. It's just, it's wrong. It is, it is wrong. So it's not illegal, and I think it should be, right? I think it should be, and I think it should be prevented from happening in the future. I don't think that it's a good look for any child of any president to have this insane lucrative position on a board that they have no expertise on whatsoever.

50 grand a month, that is not a small amount of money, right? So is there an abuse of power there? Obviously not a criminal abuse of power, but yeah, of course there's an abuse of power. You get to cash in on your last name. At the same time though, and I'm gonna bring up something that might upset others, I think I think that you can be in favor of calling out both things, right? You can call, and I get frustrated with people on the left who think like, no, no, no, I'm gonna avoid, you know, mentioning the credibility of this impeachment investigation

and just hone in on the Bidens because that is my only goal. I'm gonna avoid criticizing Trump at any and all circumstances, but I am gonna go after by- that frustrates me too, because they're dishon- and I'm now talking about the media. The dishonesty in the media is driving me nuts, right? So I don't know what the intentions are for people who make those arguments, but there's actual criminality going on when it comes to the Trump administration. And we do need to do something about the abuse of power that happens in every administration. Yeah, I mean, it's the, yeah, go.

They're kind of almost setting it up by doing, you know, interviews like this in terms of making it seem like Hunter Biden has been victimized in some way. And it's, you know, we can't really do this. We can't be hypocritical and only call out one side and not, you know, really call out the improprieties on the other side. We have to hold everybody accountable, otherwise we're just as bad as everybody else. Yeah. It's ridiculous.

I mean, it's no different from, you know, I don't know, when Peter Orszag left the Office of Management and Budget and immediately took a job at Citigroup for $10 million a year. You know, it's the sort of day-to-day banal corruption that we've just kind of gotten used to. Yeah, we're numb to it. Yeah. It is a corrupt arrangement that is not illegal for Peter Orzai to take that job the city group.

And it should be. But it should be. Yeah. But it's still corrupt. It's like, you know, it's still wrong, improper, whatever you want to call it, unethical. And to sort of pretend that it's not is just, I mean, it causes you to lose so much credibility in front of regular people who see like this idiot kid get, you know, this cushy gig at some foreign giant Ukrainian gas company, whatever.

Like it's obvious to anyone who looks at that, that's wrong. Absolutely. Pretend otherwise is just, it's just, it's dumb. So there is obviously unethical behavior happening when it comes to Donald Trump and his own kids. Oh, my God. And so Hunter Biden addresses that in the next clip. Take a look. My dad has a job, but that does not mean that I had Edward had any plans to go do rallies

and, you know, talk about Donald Trump's kids. And I never will. You know, that's not what Biden's do. Unlike them, I don't spend a lot of time thinking about them. I really don't. It's all noise. And what they do is they create just an enormous amount of noise. I have to then answer questions about accusations made by probably the most unethical

group of people that we've ever seen in this republic. I've been through some stuff in my life. I've been through some real, real stuff. This isn't real stuff. It isn't. It truly isn't. That part of it, that Barnum and Bailey, you know, say anything, do anything you want. You know, I mean, like, you know, Donald Prince Humperdink Trump, Jr.

is not somebody that I really care about. What is he? You know, in all due respect, he really reminds me of kind of a Kendall Roy succession. Yeah. Yeah, he really gives that vibe. And it's just kind of a, you know, he's just, you know, all shocks, trying to be sweet and wholesome. And it's really, I don't know, I just, part of me is like, yeah, you kind of, are you getting

your hands dirty too, maybe? No, the, so we're not going to go after Trump's kids who are currently serving in the White House as senior advisors because that's not what the Bidens do. Okay, so just keep taking those punches. And then, by the way, he went after them anyway, right? Like, went after them ineffectively. Because the right way to do it is say, I mean, look, I think what he, we've already addressed this, I think that his position at that gas company was problematic.

So I'm not giving him a pass on that. But I'm just saying as someone, if I were his publicist and I somehow made the terrible decision of allowing him to do this interview. I would tell him, listen to me, okay? You go after his kids and you go after them hard. You also go after Andrew Giuliani, who's the public liaison assistant to Donald Trump. He's serving in the White House. You go after William Barr's son-in-law, Tyler, who works as White House counsel. You talk about that nepotism. You talk about those abuses of power, right? You punch them back two times hard. That is what I think a smart person would do, But instead, he's on there and he's crying and he's like, I don't, that's not what the Bidens do,

but I'm going to attack them in this weird way of calling them a circus, and that's it. That's not effective. That's not going to work. Anyway. Yeah, all-out offense is probably a wise PR strategy in this day and age. It's frustrating. Yeah, like, if I was a cynical, like, hack, you know, that was just like being paid a bunch of money to give advice to these people, I'd feel like, just attack, attack, attack, attack, do not give an inch,

never apologize, never, you know, like, I wouldn't agree. with it, but it's, that's current, that's exactly the right thing to do. I think for me, the reason why that clip frustrated me so much is because it was the perfect symbol of democratic weakness. Yes. Because we're not on even playing fields right now. Like we're dealing with an administration that has absolutely no limits, they will punch below the belt, they will do whatever it takes.

And then on the left, you just have this weird clown show of weakness. And it's, it's not necessarily about Hunter Biden. For me, the worry is congressional Democrats, Democratic leadership, and how easily they could ruin this, in my opinion, important investigation. Well, it's what we discussed it when I was on the show a couple weeks ago, whatever, when the impeachment thing started, which is like, I thought it was a tactical mistake to limit it to this Ukraine thing, because I don't think that this Ukraine, like, the Democrats are a little, they're a little dirty on this Ukraine thing, like the Bidens are a little dirty

on this, like expand the scope to everything, you know, get them for everything, but instead They're keeping it limited to this in which they don't have, to be honest, great standing, in my opinion. Well, I would focus on the financial crimes. That would be the number one thing because that's something that resonates with so many Americans, regardless of political ideology. Everyone is fed up with these people in positions of power using their positions of power to enrich themselves.

So let's talk about that. Let's talk about violations of the emoluments clause. But I think that they are afraid of touching that because- They are probably dirty too. They're gonna have, then all of a sudden, they're kids and where their kids work and all the things that were done to get them where they are. Yeah, they're worried about, you know, they're worried about facing their own consequences. Now, with that said, let's move on to one final clip from this interview. Here's Hunter Biden talking about his position at that gas company.

Why did you leave the board in April? It's a five-year term. And you chose not to continue. Why? I think it's pretty obvious why. This is your opportunity to say why. Well, because I think that it's become, this is what becomes a distraction, because I have to sit here and answer these questions. Do you regret being on the board to begin with?

No, I don't regret being on the board. What I regret is not taking into account that there would be a Rudy Giuliani and a president of the United States that would be listening to this ridiculous conspiracy idea, which has, again, been completely debunked by everyone. I think people at all who are thinking, how could that not have crossed your mind or you wouldn't have felt just a little bit in your gut? Like, maybe this isn't a good idea to go and sit on the board of this Ukrainian company.

I just said to you. In retrospect, I wished up my judgment. You never thought, this might not look right. You know what? I'm a human. You know what? Did I make a mistake? Well, maybe in the grand scheme of things, yeah. But did I make a mistake?

based upon some unethical lapse? Absolutely not. I know that if someone's offering me $50,000 to work on a board for a company that I know like nothing about, I have no expertise. I'd be like, this seems a little unethical, what's going on? So like if someone hired me and paid me 50 grand a month to, I don't know, be a calculus consultant, I'd be like, oh, there's something going on, this is unethical, I don't know calculus, right?

Especially if your old man was the vice president in the United States. Seriously, although I'd also be like, well, do you pay by Venmo? Like, how can we make this happen? Hey, might as well. Right, like the thought, anyway, we all know, we know, I mean, maybe they don't. I don't know, maybe they're in a completely different- I don't think they see anything wrong with it, like when, you know, like, I don't know, Chelsea Clinton didn't see anything wrong with, you know, getting a very highly paid gig at NBC News, even though she'd never done

any media before in her entire life, you know, like. Yeah, but it's, it's, it's, they don't see anything wrong. with it because they, that's just like their whole lives, they've been kind of gifted all kinds of things and they just, to them it's normal. But they just don't, they don't understand how it's seen by regular people that it's like. And I think if we look at a lot of boards, we'll probably see a lot of people who aren't really qualified, but they're friends of family members or they're, they've also risen up the ladder, up the chain and they enjoy their money and it's a way for the wealthy

to keep the other wealthy wealthy wealthy. I just thought that they really like latched onto those bootstraps and got themselves there. hard work and dedication. Obviously not. But yeah. Anyway, all right. Well, that does it for the first hour.

But you guys should stick around for hour too because not only are we going to have a new panel, we're going to listen to the ladies of the view weigh in on. Whoa. Oh, you guys get that fun one. They're going to talk about nepotism. What they say about that. Can't wait. Abby Huntsman and Megan McCain, they are there.

They wouldn't know anything about nepotence. Of course not. Um, Nando Vila, Adrienne Lawrence, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. We'll be right back after this break. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen ad-free, access members-only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Jan Yugar, and I'll see you soon.