The Young Turks - Tucker Rewrites History

Episode Date: March 8, 2023

McCarthy gave Tucker Carlson all this Jan 6 footage so Fox News can rewrite history and pretend like the rioters are the real victims. Countering GOP Attacks, Biden Proposes tax hike on the rich to strengthen Medicare. Four Americans kidnapped in Mexico. Newsom says California will cut ties with Walgreens over abortion pill access. Host: Ana Kasparian, Cenk Uygur Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Okay, and more will arrive today. All right, as well as the news. So let's arrive at the news right away. Right away. It's a day full of bangers stories, beginning with this. Three weeks ago, thanks to the new Republican Speaker's Office, we gained access to thousands of hours of surveillance video that help answer that question. The January 6th committee had access to this very same tape and watched much of it.

But as we're about to show you, committee members lied about what they saw. Several weeks ago, there was this big controversy over Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy handing over hours and hours and hours of January 6 footage to Tucker Carlson. Now, we didn't cover it. I didn't panic about it because quite honestly, I didn't care. But now we see the culmination of that effort, Tucker Carlson attempting to instill this. notion of questioning whether the January 6 riots really happened, if the narratives that we heard from the press are real. And let's just cut to the chase. He tried to lie, but he did so while showing footage that debunked his lies as he was telling it. Let me give you an example. Let's go to the first video. The protesters were angry. They believed that the election

they had just voted in had been unfairly conducted. They were right. In retrospect, it is clear the 2020 election was a grave betrayal of American democracy. Given the facts that have since emerged about that election, no honest person can deny it. No honest person can deny it, Jenk. So he starts off by perpetuating Donald Trump's big lie that the election was stolen, that there was some unfair behavior taking place, that there was fraud taking place. He doesn't get specific.

He doesn't actually provide a shred of evidence, of course, just like Donald Trump in his campaign when they were before 60 different judges and, again, fail to provide a shred of evidence of widespread voter fraud. But it is interesting that Tucker is spouting this when we all know that privately, he knew that the big lie was just that, a big lie. I'm going to give a few examples, Jane, then I'll go to you. For instance, on November 8th, 2020, Carlson privately texted his producer. that the allegations about Dominion were absurd according to the Dominion filing.

Also that day, Carlson's producer texted him about his own doubts. I don't think there's evidence of voter fraud that swung the election. His producer Alex Pfeiffer texted to Carlson per the lawsuit. The software stuff is absurd, Carlson allegedly responded. Now on November 13th, Carlson wrote privately that Trump needed to concede and agreed that there wasn't enough fraud to change the outcome of the election, according to the filing. On November 21st, Carlson privately texted that claims about Dominion were shockingly reckless, according to the filing. On November 22nd, Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingram privately discussed

Sidney Powell, according to the filing, with Tucker calling her, quote, a nut, end quote. I mean, there's more, there's more. You want more? I'll give you more. So here's a conclusion we reach from this. Tucker Carlson has himself concluded that truth is dead, that there is no such thing as the truth, that his audience watches nothing else, knows nothing else, so he can brazenly lie to them, full well knowing that he's, everyone has the quotes from the lawsuit, where we're positive that Tucker Carlson thinks the election was not stolen. clearly, clearly, clearly states that over and over again. And he goes on air and insinuates that the election was stolen, thereby proving himself beyond any shadow of a doubt to be a

monstrous liar. Now, he's not a dumb guy. You make that active decision when you think truth is dead. No one agrees to truth anymore. So I'm just going to spin this in a way that is most advantageous to me, my politics, my finances, et cetera. And I think the audience, This is just does not have enough information where they can ever get to the truth. It is a Fox News audience. They will never know what's true. That's his conclusion. It is fascinating that he comes out with this embarrassing monologue that has absolutely

no evidence to back it up. Right after Steve Bannon attacked Fox News, right after Steve Bannon argued at CPAC that Fox News wasn't sufficiently loyal to Daddy Trump. But let me continue. I love giving you guys more. So here's more. Tucker Carlson also said of Sidney Powell, Donald Trump's campaign lawyer, who was furthering nonsense about widespread voter fraud, quote, it totally wrecked my weekend, wow, I had to

try to make the White House disavow her, which they obviously should have done long ago. Carlson told Laura Ingram, per the filing. No serious lawyer could believe what they were saying, she allegedly replied, but they said nothing In public, replied Carlson, pretty disgusting. Okay, and then my favorite part, my favorite statement from Tucker Carlson. Carlson then called then President Donald Trump a demonic force and a destroyer in a text to his producer after thousands of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6th of 2021. Now keep that in mind as you watch the next video.

Taken as a whole, the video record does not support the claim that January 6th was an insurrection. In fact, it demolishes that claim. And that's exactly why the Democratic Party and its allies in the media prevented you from seeing it. The first thing you notice from viewing the full video record of January 6th is just how many people entered the Capitol building that day. Hundreds and hundreds of people, possibly thousands over the course of about two hours. The crowd was enormous. A small percentage of them were hooligans. They committed vandalism.

You've seen their pictures again and again. But the overwhelming majority weren't. They were peaceful. They were orderly and meek. These were not insurrectionists. They were sightseers. Footage from inside the Capitol overturns the story you've heard about January 6th. Protesters queue up in neat little lines.

They give each other tours outside the speaker's office. They take cheerful selfies and they smile. They're not destroying the capital. They obviously revere the capital. They're there because they believe the election was stolen from them. They believe in the system. Yeah, like the one who defecated on someone's desk. Orderly sightseer.

Super meek. Now, Jank, here are the facts, okay? Because he thinks the majority of them were totally fine. There was no issue whatsoever. Except over two years later, more than a lot of, 1,000 people have been charged. Now, just because your charge doesn't mean that you're guilty, it just means that you're facing charges, right? You'll have your day in court. So so far, what percentage of them have been convicted? Well, at least 476 people out of that 1,000 have pleaded

guilty in connection to the insurrection. And among those who pleaded guilty, well, let's get some, let's get some details. Who were they? Brian Ulrich entered his guilty plea at a virtual hearing Friday in U.S. District Court. This is an older article in NPR. In U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., the 44-year-old from Guyton, Georgia is the second oathkeeper to plead guilty to sedition charges in the highest profile case to emerge from the federal investigation into the Capitol riot. I mean, it was only two oathkeepers, right, that pleaded guilty to sedition, except no, they weren't the only two. Oh, wow, look at this headline from Associated Press, January 23rd, 23,

four oathkeepers convicted of January 6th seditious conspiracy. So sedition comes up quite a bit in not only the charges, but also the guilty police. Yeah. So a couple of different conclusions I reach from this. So number one is, look, there's a lot of different ways to look at everything, right? And so that's why his audience, which is predisposed

to believing what Tucker Carlson is saying, looking at those tiny snippets out of 40,000 hours of video where they're, okay, he shows you the one part where they're bashing in the door, the windows, et cetera. So there's a couple of hooligans. But then they shows them walking around in the times they weren't chanting hang Mike Pence, hang Mike Pence. And he shows them walking around and people go, oh, look, they're just walking. It doesn't seem like a mad crowd.

And look, there's a cop there. By the way, I also want to know why the cops weren't arresting everyone and didn't shoot into the crowd, which they most definitely would have if those protesters were Black Lives Matters or Muslim or whatever. You all know that, even if you're a right winger, you know that. Anyways, so he shows them what they want to see. And can you find that needle in that haystack? Yes, you can. You can find almost any needle in any haystack. By the way, that's an old mainstream media trick to find one little thing that someone has done.

wrong and then define them by it. In this case, he's finding one little thing that they did, well, I don't even know that it's okay. It's still breaking and entering, even if you're, you know, at some point walked while you were inside the building that you broke and entered into while you were chanting about murdering someone. Okay. Yeah.

I got more, but go ahead. Yeah, I mean, just to buttress your point on that, I mean, there's one other portion from his segment yesterday that I thought was telling, because listen to what he says, as you're watching footage of U.S. lawmakers running for their lives. Let's go. Let's watch it. The surveillance footage we reviewed shows that famous clip was a sham edited deceptively by the January 6th committee. The clip was propaganda, not evidence.

The actual videotape shows that Holly was one of many lawmakers being ushered out of the building by Capitol Hill police officers. And in fact, Holly was at the back of the pack. The coward tape was a lie, one of many from the January 6th committee. How exactly is it a lie as you're literally showing the audience that lawmakers are, they're not being ushered, they are running for their lives. You can see it with your own two eyes. It is insane that he literally shows the footage as he says that. And look, there's like a chorus of right wing media types who are like, oh yeah,

Should you see Tucker Carlson segment? Nailed it. Nailed it. No, no, guy. No, this, I'm not at exaggerating at all. And I'm not kidding when I say, this should be studied by science. Because he says the opposite of the tape. And I guarantee you 99.9% of the people that watch that tape believe him 100%. It's insane. And in fact, and it's 100% right. You go on social media right now.

Every right winger is saying, vindicated. The Democrats are so evil. the way they manipulated all those tapes. Oh my God, there's dark in your body. But the tape showed them running and Holly is Tucker's main defenses is that Holly was in the back of the pack of the people who were running for their lives. Tucker, I mean. How does that show that the video is altered?

It literally says the video was not altered. And they literally were afraid for their lives, including Holly. It proves the exact opposite of what he was saying on tape. But I guarantee you nearly 100% of the 3 million or so people that watched Tucker Carlson last night, they all believed what he said and not what their lying eyes were telling them. It's amazing, amazing. I swear to God, it should be studied by science. Okay, so now look, guys, in terms of the, and by the way, whenever you want to do lies like this,

you sprinkle in a couple of things that are true that everybody can say, well, I mean, that's definitely, That guy is walking, Holly is in the back. Well, I guess those things are true, right? And one of the things that are true is that a lot of the people in that building, if not most of them, if not almost all of them, truly believed that Trump had won the election and that Biden had stolen it. And so that's why in a lot of ways directing our anger and our wrath and our laws against these guys, while justified for the crimes that they committed, is misdirected because

it should be at the people who actually led the proceedings. The people who organized the actual coup. But the problem with legislators, including Democrats and most especially Democrats, is that they love the elites. And so they're never going to punish Bannon or Navarro or Trump. Never, ever, ever. They're just going to use it for political talking points. Instead, they're going to take it out on those schmucks who I think genuinely did believe

that Trump had won. But why did they believe Trump had won? Because guys like Tucker Carlson behind the scenes said Trump is a demonic force. and he will destroy everything in his path, and I don't want it to be us, that's the rest of that quote. I don't want it to be us. That was a super active conscious decision to lie to his audience because he was afraid of both his audience and Trump. So he makes that active decision, we're going to lie to all these people and tell them that Trump won the election. And then once they say that over and over again, January 6th was inevitable.

Of course you were going to get some percentage of right wingers who are going to say, oh, should we commit violence to take back the government that is ours? We've been told our entire lives is ours and ours only. Of course they were going to do that. Once Tucker and the rest of Fox News made the fateful decision that they would support Donald Trump's lies rather than show people what the actual reality is, actually do news. And so to this day, he's still not doing news. He's doing the exact opposite. I mean, he is terrified of the audience. And that is what has been made very clear through the text messages, the depositions,

all the information that we have learned so far through the Dominion defamation lawsuit against Fox News. It is a publicly traded company. They are concerned about the value of their shares. And they're terrified that their audience is going to abandon them for an outlet that's even further to the right. And so they are willing to not only engage in revisionist history, but honestly, anyone who has two brain cells to rub together would watch that segment and be deeply insulted by Tucker Carlson insulting their intelligence. I get confirmation bias. I get that we all want to believe things that we have preconceived notions about. But reality matters, living in reality matters, and for the Republicans out there who, for some reason,

and feel this, I don't know, it's almost like this knee-jerk reaction in providing cover for the Capitol rioters. Just don't, just don't, right? How does it help you? How does it help the Republican Party? How does it help conservatives and their ideology in any way to provide cover for folks who very clearly broke into the Capitol, chanted all sorts of violent things, and tried to reverse the results of our democratic process? Other than being terrified about his audience, of his audience, he also has no respect for No, he doesn't. He talks to them as if they're morons. Yeah, number one, he thinks he doesn't respect them enough to tell them the truth and then adjust their expectations, opinions, et cetera,

and his own to fit the facts rather than their preconceived opinions, right? But secondarily, even more devastatingly, he thinks these guys are a bunch of morons. They're never going to figure out the truth. They're never going to figure out that I'm brazenly lying to them, even though I'm on the record in a court case with definitive quotes where I know for fact that it was not stolen and that there are a bunch of schmucks. But I'm going to lie to them over and over and over again. Guys, every once in a while, people will criticize me saying, Jane, you're too tough on right-wing voters. You are, I think you are. Okay, I'm not anywhere near as tough on right-wing voters as Tucker Carlson is. Oh, that's a good point. Tucker Carlson thinks they are the dredges

of society, just the very bottom of the barrel, just the dumbest people. in the whole wide world who couldn't see the truth even if he puts it in video form right in front of them. I wouldn't be surprised if he mocked them after that segment. I guarantee you he had a belly laugh and then this morning when he sees all of those moron right-wing pundits online go oh yeah they were just tourists and sightseers man. Tucker proved it he must have had another round of laughs look at all these not only the my viewers but the so-called thought leaders on the right. All decrepately evil or think or just so painfully stupid that they can't

see straight. That's not my opinion. That's definitively Tucker Carlson's opinion. We know every intelligent person knows what he actually thinks. It's on the goddamn record. He thinks there's not a single person in his audience that's intelligent enough to actually look up the reality. Amazing. It is amazing. When we come back from the break, there's one other portion from his segment that I think is worth diving into and that's when he commented. It was very brief on Ashley Babbitt getting shot and killed during the riots. We've got that portion along with Republican lawmakers speaking out against Tucker Carlson when we return. All right, back on T.Y.T. Jank, Anna, and Piper Comics. They just became a member.

Piper Comics? Yeah. Nice. And Thoram 13 gifted a Youngtress membership. I love our community. Come join it. TYT.com slash join or hit the join button below the video on YouTube. Caspur. Well, we've got more from Tucker. Let's watch. There were many mysteries we could not solve. Among them, unfortunately, is the shooting of Ashley Babbitt. From the evidence we have, the publicly available evidence, it seems clear that Babbitt was murdered by a Capitol Hill police officer called Michael Byrd. Ashley Babbitt was unarmed.

She was shorter in stature than average. She posed no conceivable threat to anyone. But beyond that, we can only speculate about what happened. There were no security cameras near the Speaker's Lobby where Ashley Babbitt was killed. In an effort to rewrite what actually occurred on January 6th, Tucker Carlson paints Capitol rioter Ashley Babbitt as an innocent and petite woman who was unjustly shot and killed by a capital police officer, even as a violent riot was taking place right before the shooting. Now, why don't we actually take a look at what the scene look like?

And then I'm going to break apart Tucker Carlson's ridiculous, hypocritical. argument. Let's watch. Okay, so since Tucker Carlson had difficulty, you know, investigating what happened to Ashley Babbitt, I'll help him out. You see an individual holding a gun, you hear the rioters say repeatedly he's got a gun, he's got a gun, he's got a gun, and Ashley Babbitt decided to attempt to crawl through that, you know, broken glass in the door to get to, I'm guessing elected officials who they were targeting through this riot.

So that's what happened, Tucker, okay, I hope you understand now. since you can clearly see it with your own two eyes. Yeah, by the way, he has all the tapes. Of course. It's not like he didn't see that. He did see that and decided to lie about it anyway because that's what he does. So did they look like peaceful sightseers that Tucker Carlson described yesterday? So last night he said, oh yeah, they're just walking around.

They're just sightseeing there. And they're very orderly and calm and peaceful. Is that what that tape looked like to you guys? Now, why did those people think that the door was back? Why did they think that there was a policeman with a gun? Why did they think that all this was happening? Did it not occur to them that when they chanted hang Mike Pence, they hand Mike Pence and they were trying to break down the door very

violently to get to the politicians inside, that the police there might have perceived a threat? Okay, you know when I perceive a threat, when someone starts to chant about an execution of a guy they're trying to get to, if that's not a perceived threat, threat. Literally nothing is. Okay, so. And what happened to Ashley Babbitt is tragic because much like the other rioters who were there that day, much like the individuals who have been charged

and convicted for the crimes they committed that day, they were all lied to by the Republican party, by Donald Trump, by right wing media, including Fox News, in this allegation that the election was stolen from Donald Trump when there was no evidence of that whatsoever. When Donald Trump himself took that case to court 60 different times and lost every single time because they didn't have a shred of evidence indicating that there was widespread voter fraud that would overturn the results of the election. And it's also fascinating that in some states where Donald Trump lost and Joe Biden won, a lot of these battleground states, I mean, down to get a ton of Republicans won those races.

So what happened there? I mean, it's just laughable the kinds of lies he tells. And also the selective application of the self-defense argument, Jank. Because in that case, look, I would be terrified, right? You've got a violent mob coming after you. You're holding the gun for a while, indicating I will shoot if you're going to come for me. And it happened. Of course, he opened fire as Ashley Babble was trying to get through the door.

Now, with that said, Tucker Carlson had no problem defending others when it came to the notion of self-defense. Let me give you an example. The legal matter, all that matters here is whether Kyle Rittenhouse reasonably believed that his life was in danger. And of course he believed that. Why wouldn't he you would believe that too if you were him? Kyle Rittenhouse, self-defense, the Capitol officer who opened fire on Ashley Babbitt as she was part of a violent crowd of people trying to get to elected officials, not self-defense. And let me show you what happened when Kyle Rittenhouse fired the first shots.

Let's take a look. Rittenhouse walks towards a parking lot where cars are being vandalized. He passes Joseph Rosenbaum, who is fighting with the armed men at the gas station earlier. Rosenbaum now starts chasing Rittenhouse and throws a plastic bag that holds his belongings from the hospital. Close behind them, a man holds up a handgun and fires it. We don't know why. Then Rosenbaum lunges towards Rittenhouse. Rittenhouse fires four times.

Now, we've shown that video on the show before. I think the jury, obviously the jury did believe that Kyle Rittenhouse defended himself. Someone opens fire, Rittenhouse is running away. He doesn't know who's opening fire. He doesn't know if he's being targeted. So yeah, I think you could justly say that Rittenhouse acted in self-defense in that moment. But you can't then turn around and that what happened to Ashley Babbitt was not an instance of a capital police officer acting in self-defense.

There's a very, very violent crowd smashing the hell out of a barricaded door, chanting about how they're going to murder the people inside. To say that that was not a threat is beyond insanity. Again, it insults your audience. You think your audience can't figure out anything at all. Every one of them is the least rational person you've ever met in your real life. You can't tell that that is a violent mob looking to do harm to the people on the side. And remember, the cop isn't thinking, if you come for me, his, and the cops did not fire

when they broke down the initial barricades, when they entered the building. This is the very inner sanctum of Congress. There's nowhere left to run. And he's firing to protect the legislators that the mob is saying out loud that they are going to murder. I've never seen a more justifiable shooting in my life. But Kyle Rittenhouse had a plastic bag thrown at him, so he gets to murder someone and that's self-defense. And the cop protecting those people who are threatening, whose lives are threatened, didn't do it in self-defense.

Get out of him. No reasonable human being can believe that. But there is one thing that you guys should be super mad about. All those cowards who saw the cop had a gun, who saw the door was barricaded, and who knew that the cop had to shoot because they're almost there, right? and let the woman go first. Interesting. Oh, all these alpha males, they're so tough and they're so, they're so manly. And the minute there's actual danger, they're like, oh, send the woman first. Send the woman first.

Why didn't you want to you sick, sons of bitches, go first? No, because you're goddamn cowards. You're both thugs and cowards. It's a rare combination. Well done. Is Tucker going to tell us audience that? No, because they love those thugs and cowards. They are those thugs and cowards.

So, of course, Tucker's going to tell them pretty little lies about how Ashley Babbitt and all those people there were just sightseers and they were just killed for no reason by the cops, you'd have to be monstrously stupid to believe that. And here we are. Almost, I don't know, to my knowledge, every single right wing or online believes it with 100% certainty now. They've all lost their minds. They're in an absolute cult. I hope to God that the voters are not in the same camp, that they have just one scintilla of sense left if you're a Republican voter. But I'm not positive. Well, we're not the only ones who disagreed with Tucker's spin on what occurred on January 6th. In fact, some Republican lawmakers have spoken out, including Mitch McConnell,

who is the majority leader, well, the leader for the Republican Party in the Senate. Now, with that said, let's take a look. Was it a mistake by speaking by Speaker McCarthy to give access to touch and causing of this security? My concern is how it was depicted, which is a different issue. Clearly, the chief of the Capitol Police, in my view, correctly describes what most of us witness firsthand on January 6th. It's rare that we agree with Senator Mitch McConnell, but you just watched him speak out against Tucker Carlson's recent coverage and spin of January 6th, while declining to criticize Kevin

McCarthy, by the way, for giving Tucker Carlson the January 6th footage in the first place. But before we get to the rest of what Mitch McConnell had to say, context is important here because it's important to know what he was asked about. Now, Mitch McConnell, in that clip that you watch, was referring to an internal department memo that U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger, or Manger, released today. And here's what it said. Last night, an opinion program aired commentary that was filled with offensive and misleading conclusions about the January 6th attack, he wrote, adding that Carlson's show didn't reach

out to the police department to provide accurate context. The program conveniently cherry picked from the calmer moments of our 41,000 hours of footage or video. The commentary fails to provide context about the chaos and violence that happened before or during these less tense moments. The most disturbing accusation from last night was that our late friend and colleague Brian Sicknick's death had nothing to do with his heroic actions on January 6th. The department maintains, as anyone with common sense would, that had Officer Sicknick not fought valiantly valiantly for hours on the day he was violently assaulted, he would not have died the next day. Now, with that said, with that context, let's go to

Mitch McConnell and more of what he had to say in regard to Tucker Carlson. It was a mistake in my view for Fox News to depict this in a way that's completely had variance with what our chief law enforcement official here at Capitol thanks. for depicting it, but he's been forecasting this for months asking for this access to this footage to have a presentation just like this. What's it a mistake for the speaker to hand that? You guys know I have many faults, but one of them is not answering the question in a way that I don't want to answer it. I've given you the answer. Why do you think there are some within your party who don't want to acknowledge any races as an attempt for an interaction? Shall I give you the same answer again?

Anybody want to ask me something different? So we have some more video to get to in a moment. But, Jank, I mean, to be fair to Mitch McConnell, he has been willing to speak out against Donald Trump and what he did to incite the January 6th riots. He's been the most realistic in his response to it, whereas other Republicans, maybe in the beginning after they were terrified, condemned Trump, but then immediately walked it back, including Kevin McCarthy, by the way. Yeah, so look, all the rest of media, I think, or almost all of it, paints things in binary ways, good guys, bad guys. And if somebody's in the bad guy category, they're never right. If they're in the good guy category, they're never wrong. So, of course, the real world doesn't work that way.

Mitch McConnell is a terrible guy. He's a corporate goon, takes tons of corporate cash, delivers for his donors, screws over the voters. But his life was threatened here. And so he's being honest about it, and he's pissed about it. He's genuinely pissed about it. And so he almost never, ever talks ill of other Republicans. He's their leader in the Senate, and he organizes the money for them. He's basically the mob boss.

But other Republicans were also threatened here. So he is standing up for his colleagues. Now, it doesn't matter what Mitch McConnell thinks. We always ignore what the politicians say we look at what they do, right? In this case, he's actually taking an action. He's saying Tucker Carlson, the right wing talk show host on Fox News, and you see in the record, by the way, in the Dominion case that Murdoch pretty much admits they do propaganda for the Republican Party. Even so, McConnell says that outlet that does propaganda for us, he doesn't

say that part, but that outlet is wrong. It's absolutely wrong. And then so who's right? Well, the police record is super clear. The 40,000 hours of video is super clear. You know, every part of this is clear. We just showed you the video of, you know, when they were about to get past the barricades. and there was the shooting. We've shown you the hang Mike Pence videos. There is an actual reality. Two plus two does actually equal four. So in this case, McConnell says yes, it equals four. And then the reason it's a news event is because a guy who is this much of a notorious liar, Mitch McConnell, is actually telling the truth for her in a rare case. Right. And honestly, like we said, it's because it personally affected him. That's what I mean, look, that is a great point. And that's 100%

true. Mitch McConnell sat by as Donald Trump spewed lies about pretty much everything during his presidency. McConnell was unwilling to ever speak against him until Trump's lies put his life in danger. So that's a fair point. But with that said, there is another Republican senator, Tom Tillis, who spoke out against Tucker Carlson's spin on January 6th. Remember, Tucker Carlson made it seem like the capital rioters weren't rioters at all. There were a few hooligans, right? Just a few people who caused some vandalism, but the majority of the crowd was just peaceful, calm, total pacifists. Tom Tillis, though, not buying it. Let's watch.

I think it's bull. I was down there. And I saw maybe a few tourists, a few people who got caught up in things. But when you see police barricades breached, when you see police officers assaulted, all of that, or you had to be in close proximity to it, If you were just a tourist, you should have probably lined up at the visitor center and came in on an orderly basis. Now, Tom Tillis is a senator from North Carolina, but I'm sure he's nothing more than a rhino. Rhino, Republican in name only because he's not providing cover for rioters and Donald Trump. Yeah, and by the way, though, that they do think that way now.

Now, if you will not lie for Donald Trump, if you will not say things that are demonstrably false, You're a rhino. Real Republicans are unapologetic liars. They never tell the truth. They always say they should win no matter what happens. They don't believe in democracy. And they believe in violence. That's what they're saying are real Republicans.

And Tom Tillis here made a fatal mistake, saying something that's true. There's a good chance he will be primaried. And that might be the last term that Tom Tillis gets in office. because real Republicans don't ever tell the truth. So that's the state that we're in now. I wish it weren't the case. But the Republican Party is in an absolute trance. They can't see anything's right here.

I'll give you one last thing. Donald Trump raised hundreds of millions of dollars for defense of the stolen election of 2020. Well, and he now has all these statements about, oh, my God, those poor, they're not rioters. They're poor, innocent people, et cetera. Then why didn't you pay their legal defense? Yeah, why didn't you pardon them as they were getting arrested? I mean, he didn't. Over 400 of them are in prison right now.

And they had, you know, some of them could barely put together a defense because they weren't rich, right? Donald Trump had all of the money. He could have helped all of them. He didn't help one of them. Correct. Look, this is an obvious truth. You all know he raised hundreds of millions. If you're right, you gave him the hundreds of millions of dollars.

And you all know he didn't spend a dime of it to help those people who believed in him. who rushed that building because they thought that Donald Trump was telling the truth that the election was stolen. But more importantly, that Donald Trump, if they got in trouble with the law, that Donald Trump would save them. And he did no such thing. In fact, in his final hours as president of the United States, he did pardon someone. And that was Steve Bannon, who also defrauded Republican voters by claiming that through his crowdfunding effort, he was going to build the wall on our southern border. He did no such thing. the crowdfunding and put it in his pocket. So that's such a great point in it.

So absolute last thing, guys, again, if you're right wing, you look up any of this stuff, okay? And you actually already know it's true. So he didn't pardon any of those guys who he thinks were perfectly innocent defenders of democracy, the great patriots, didn't defend a single one of them. The one guy he pardoned was the guy who ripped those guys off. That's right. The guy who stole money from those guys. His co-conspirators admitted guilt.

They're going to prison. The one guy who robbed the Republican voters is the only guy he pardoned and didn't spend a dollar on anyone else. Well, that's Donald Trump. And if you like that kind of guy who takes advantage of you, first you should get psychological help. And then secondly, look, man, that's on you. You're a masochist. You want to keep punching yourself in the face. Have that it, hoss.

We're going to switch gears when we come back from the break and talk about the four Americans who were kidnapped in Mexico. It is a tragic story, but there's a lot to unpack there. So come right back. We'll share that and more. Four Americans kidnapped in a Mexican border city. And this morning, a law enforcement official tells NBC news, this video captures part of the horrifying attack. In it, you see a gunman dragging people to a white pickup truck in Matamoros, Mexico. After authorities say the van carrying four U.S. citizens was caught in the crossfire of a deadly shootout. Now, United States authorities believe that the four Americans from South Carolina were kidnapped by cartels.

in a case of mistaken identity, they believe the cartels believe that the Americans were drug smugglers. It's still being investigated, but there is an unfortunate update to the story. Apparently two of the four who were abducted have died, they were killed. One of them, one of the others is in critical condition from an injury and the other is alive. With those details in mind, we should go to the next video because it gives you some more context into the case prior to the individuals, the Americans being found. Let's watch. Family identified one of those victims as Latavia Washington McGee, sharing the group in a van to drive from South Carolina to Brownsville, Texas. The plan cross over for a cosmetic

surgery. Zalindria Brown told the Associated Press that her younger brother, Zendell Brown, is also one of the victims. Now the whereabouts of all four unknown. The U.S. State Department placing both the city of Matamoros and the Mexican state of Tomolipas under a level four travel warning since October, citing crime and kidnapping as reasons to avoid travel entirely. A U.S. official tells NBC authorities are concerned about the group's well-being, since videos appear to show some of them severely wounded. Now, the president of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has stated that one suspect is in custody, but violence, especially violence carried out by cartels, continues to plague Mexico, especially some of these border towns.

And there's good reason why the U.S. government is issuing these travel advisories and trying to discourage Americans from traveling to Mexico. I've got more details about this story and what's currently transpiring in the country in just a moment. But, Jank, what are your thoughts? Yeah, look, I don't know that I want to say something that is acceptable. So I've gone to Mexico plenty of times, but I've gone to the resort areas, to be honest, and it's been a long time since I've been to Tijuana, et cetera, but I wouldn't just randomly drive into Mexico. Yeah, neither would I. I don't think that's controversial at all.

I don't know if some people take offense at that, but there's way too many drug cartels, and so you're going to get caught in that crossword. Now, to be fair, guys, if I was Mexican, I don't know that I'd drive randomly into America with our nonstop mass shootings. So, I mean, our massacres versus their drug cartels, I don't know which one's worse, but I do know that this is a super unfortunate situation. And please, just like some people do like, this is not one of these cases, but like dangerous tourism, that kind of thing. And they'll go to North Korea and get kidnapped. Don't do that.

Don't do that. In this case, I know that they meant well and they did not, you know, and I feel awful for what happened to them. I'm just saying, please be careful, that's all. Well, look, I certainly don't want to blame the Americans for going there, right? They went there. It's reported for tummy tucks. I don't know for sure. That's what they're reporting.

But nonetheless, there are plenty of Americans who either go to Mexico or Canada in order to get affordable pharmaceutical drugs that they need, because as you know, here in the United States, we're constantly price gouged when it comes to these medications. So when you consider the threat of violence in Mexico and also the desperation that a lot of Americans feel in trying to obtain the medications they need to remain alive, this is just a dangerous combination, right? This isn't a story of Americans just willy-nilly. Yes, some do travel there for fun. In fact, I was on a cruise last year that stopped in Mexico, in three different parts of Mexico. No, but those are very safe areas. And it's important they be protected for tourism. some reasons keep it real, et cetera. But I just had a family member drive through Mexico for two weeks. And we're seeing this story, it's part of the reason why I said what I said, it makes me

think, like, I'm not sure he should have done that. So anyways, but let's get to the implications. So let's get back to the American victims here. So Matamoros is a city that's actually dominated by different factions of the same drug cartel. And so they fight amongst each other. And that's why the violence is high in that area. And that's why the United States has issued this warning. The FBI would like to find more information. They're still investigating this and they want to learn more about the suspects. So they had initially offered $50,000 for the safe return of the U.S. citizens.

It's unclear if they're still offering a reward for more information, especially since now we know where the four individuals are, right? Two of them tragically have turned up dead. and two of them are alive. Now, one of the victims was identified as Latavia, Washington, McGee, by her cousin, Alia. And Alia says that the group is from South Carolina, but had been traveling in a rental vehicle with North Carolina license plates when they entered Matamoros. And the FBI confirmed that the group was traveling in the white minivan with North

Carolina license plates. That's Latavia, Washington. So far, I haven't seen any confirmation in regards. to the identities of the two Americans who were killed. Now, Zalondria Brown of Florence, South Carolina, told the Associated Press that her younger brother, Zendell, was also among the four victims. She said she had been in contact with the FBI and local officials after learning her sibling had been kidnapped.

Now, implications are interesting here, right? Because what happened is tragic, but you can always rely on right-wing politicians in the United States to want to take things a little too far. And one of those right-wing politicians is a war hawk like Senator Lindsey Graham. So let's take a look at what he had to say during a recent interview about this matter. You just saw a report at the top about these hostages that have just been taken in Mexico. And it doesn't look like the Biden administration even really knows much about it or they don't really have a plan for it. What would Lindsay Graham do in this situation?

Well, I would follow Bill Barr's advice and get tough on Mexico. It's not just the hostages. Number one, I'd do everything I could to get them back. I'd do what Trump did. I put Mexico on notice. If you continue to give safe haven to fentanyl drug dealers, then you're an enemy of the United States. 70 to 100,000 people have died from fentanyl poisoning coming from Mexico and China, and this administration has done nothing about it. So Bill Barr's idea about, I'm going to introduce legislation, Jesse, to make certain Mexican drug cartels, foreign terrorist organizations under U.S. law, and set the stage to use military force if necessary to protect America from being poisoning.

by things coming out of Mexico. Ah, yes. Engaging in military activity against Mexico will certainly help with the fentanyl crisis here in the United States. Smart idea, great. I mean, Lindsay Graham, has there ever been a tragedy that Lindsay Graham did not exploit to push the idea of more war? Yeah. So, guys, there's two different issues here. When Americans get kidnapped like that, we've got to be able to show enough force to get them back, okay?

And force means police work, it means maybe like people that are from DEA or other branches of the government being on the ground with allies, Mexican authorities who are allied with us. And we can provide enough incentives and disincentives cash to make sure that we get our people back. back and that there are consequences for the drug cartels who specifically did this act, right? So that sends a message to cartels and other bad guys throughout the world. Do not mess with American citizens because they will come for you, right? But you've got to actually do it to the people who did it, not to random other Mexicans, because then that sends the wrong message, hey, if somebody does something,

they're going to get away with it and other people are going to be punished because America's dumb, right? Yeah, so I want to give you a little more context. into what Lindsey Graham was referencing when he brought up Bill Barr, right? Because, okay, what did Bill Barr, the former Attorney General under Trump, proposed when it comes to drug cartels? Well, he thinks that the United States government should designate drug cartels as terrorist organizations.

So the drug cartel issue would be the newest and latest, the modern version of America's War on Terror. And we know how that works out. It doesn't work out to anyone's benefit except for defense contracts. because it's not really about dealing with the issue at hand. I'm going to say something that's going to upset people, but I don't care. This is why I can't stand the narratives that are pushed by either the far right, in this case, the Warhawks like Lindsay Graham and Bill Barr, or the far left that has this like nonsensical

idea that we should just have an open border policy because that's the kind and generous thing to do. I know, but I don't want anybody getting misled. Hold on, though. So the people, there are people who believe in the open border policy, but there's like 12 of them. So no Democrat, including the most progressive Democrats, Bernie Sanders, AOC, et cetera, believe in an open border policy. We do not have an open border right now. No, we don't. No, we don't. There's no, I've never heard of an elected Democrats say that they're for open borders.

There's a couple of activists who think that, but that's not a real thing on the left. Whereas the right, you guys are conflicted. So now that's an interesting story too. That's not as simple as everybody else paints it to be. Because here's Lindsey Graham being the usual hawk that he is, warmonger, at every opportunity, oh, somebody dropped a handkerchief. Let's invade Canada, right? And so he gets tons of money from defense contractors.

He's one of the most corrupt politicians of my lifetime. So of course, the minute there's one crime committed. I mean, look, think about his logic. He said, because they're sheltering fentanyl drug dealers. First of all, are they? The Mexican government is in a lot of ways fighting those dealers. Some in the Mexican government might be corrupt and protect them, but it's not the overall Mexican government. But wait a minute, where is the great majority of fentanyl drug dealers here in America?

So are we sheltering them? Should someone invade us because we're sheltering fentanyl drug dealers? But if you're talking about drug dealers, we have way more of them. specifically about fentanyl, should Canada attack us? Should they show military force against the United States? It's an absurd idea, right? But he's just using any excuse to start a war and saying that Trump would have done it too. So is he anti-war or is he pro-war?

What I'm now talking about Trump? See, the reality is there's tons of right-wing voters. And you know me, anybody that watches this show knows there's no one that's more vicious the right-wing voters than I am, okay? But there is a streak of right-wing voters who are anti-war. That is an actual real thing, and you should give credit to those guys for being anti-war. So are you in favor of Lindsey Graham and Donald Trump, who have both threatened to invade Mexico? Because of one crime?

I mean, how many countries should invade us because of our mass shootings, right? Tons of foreign citizens have died in armed mass shootings that happened here on this soil. Should Norway have invaded us? Should the other Taiwan invaded? I mean, this is absurd. This is insanity. So Republicans, are you all going to call out Lindsey Graham and Donald Trump for being war mongers against Mexico? No, you're not.

So that's the hypocrisy. But again, it's a little bit complicated because there are a couple of people on the extreme left who say open borders. And there's a ton of, there's a bunch of people on the right who say no war, which is a good thing. And I will take that agreement. All right, we got to take a break. When we come back for the second hour of the show, we've got more to get to, including a Wall Street Journal column arguing that four-day work week actually makes American workers real sad. Is that true? We've got that and more coming up. Don't miss it.

Support our work, listen ad-free, access members-only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.