The Young Turks - TYT Extended Clip - April 15th, 2020

Episode Date: April 16, 2020

It wasn’t long until Republicans started advocating for money over human lives. Ana Kasparian and John Iadarola discuss on The Young Turks. 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. It's Wednesday, Wednesday, got to get down on Wednesday. Anna Kasperi. I feel better. John I don't know. I'm mad.

I'm mad. Don't be mad. John had problems with his, like, insanely perfect camera setup right before we went live. And so he unfortunately had to downgrade just a little bit to the camera he's using now. And he's in a bad mood about it. You look great, John. Yeah. Yeah, it makes total sense that after I've done a million videos today, I could see my image in Skype, but it doesn't transmit. So that makes, that makes sense. No, you sound like me on the very first day that we did the show remotely. I was so angry and, like, frustrated with technology

and didn't understand why, why are there so many different types of ports and cords? Like, that's the big thing. Oh, my God, yeah. And how do you keep track of the cords? Like, it's just a jumbled mess in here. But anyway, we're here. The content is what matters. I think you look great.

And we're going to put together a great show. In the post game, we will be talking about a number of stories and I'm really excited to, you know, take a little deep dive into, including Cardi B's interview with Bernie Sanders, which was just really great to watch. And we have other topics as well. But of course, lots of big updates on the coronavirus, including the direction that Trump is planning on going in when it comes to reopening the country and the economy.

There's actually some positive news to update you on. So we'll get to that. So without further ado, let's get started. There has been more and more pressure by Republican lawmakers toward Donald Trump in order to preemptively, prematurely, however you want to call it, open the country back up, even though we're in the middle of a pandemic with a virus that we still do not have widespread testing available for. And so one of the interviews that has caught many people's attention has to do with a GOP lawmaker out of the state of Indiana.

He's Representative Trey Hollingsworth, and he believes that it's imperative, incredibly important to open the economy back up immediately. And the way that he made his argument was not delicate to say the least and certainly not humane to say the least. But without further ado, let's hear what he has to say. The decision that needs to be made is to get Americans back to work, back to their jobs, back to their businesses, back to school, back to churches. That's the decision that needs to be made.

We have to recognize that no amount of money out of Washington, D.C., no amount of effort out of Washington, D.C. is going to solve this problem like Americans can solve this problem. That's the strength of this country. We've got to understand that and get Americans back to work, back to their businesses, back to school, and back to churches. That's where they want to be when I talk to them every single day. There is no zero harm choice here.

Both of these decisions will lead to harm for individuals, whether that's dramatic economic harm or whether that's the loss of life. but it is always the American government's position to say in the choice between the loss of our way of life as Americans and the loss of life of American lives, we have to always choose the latter. It is policymaker's decision to put on our big boy and big girl pants and say, this is the lesser of these two evils, and it is not zero evil, but it is the lesser of these evils, and we intend to move forward that direction. That is our responsibility, and to abdicate that is to insult the Americans that voted us. into office. So, John, I feel as though the candid nature of some of the responses coming from Republicans really does give us reinforcement for what we've been arguing for a long time. When it comes to a number of issues, including, by the way, climate change, right? So we think that

human lives are worth saving, even if it means that we need to sacrifice our way of life, whether it be temporarily or even permanently in the case of climate change. For Trey Hollingsworth, his lifestyle, his nice capitalist American lifestyle, you know, is way more important than saving as many lives as humanly possible. He thinks that it's the lesser of two evils to sacrifice human lives in order to maintain, you know, the economy, businesses, and his lifestyle. Yeah, it's not the lesser of two evils. There is one evil, and it's him telling other people to go die for his stock portfolio. That's literally the only evil.

What you saw there was profoundly corrupt, profoundly cowardly. He started off with a very Pete Buttigieg-esque sort of mishmash of words that don't really mean anything about this is for America to fix. Yeah, technically, the doctors to come up with a vaccine. Outside of that, no, it is not on regular workers to get out there to fix a pandemic. They're supposed to be protected during a pandemic. In the same way that we would expect people to put on their big boy pants and protect them if another country's army was storming our borders.

In the same way, I don't want you to die from a bullet from a foreign soldier. I don't want you to die from a disease either. And for him to say there that it's like cowardly to keep the economy shut down, that we should put our big boy pants on is really awesome to hear. I'm sure he'll be the first there. You know, people at like supermarkets have been dying in mass numbers recently. Transit workers, we're seeing a lot of that. So put on your damn big boy pants, Trey Hollingsworth, and go bag some groceries, okay?

If you believe that it's American like stictuitiveness that's going to get us through this, then go out there and expose yourself to the coronavirus as so many American workers are already having to do right now. Exactly. And when it comes to the people who are fighting this virus on the front lines, the CDC just reported that more than 9,000 healthcare workers have tested positive for the virus, have contracted the virus, but keep in mind that that is an underestimate. So the numbers are actually likely much higher than that. And so we're not only risking the lives of people who don't take this virus seriously in the first place when this type of talking point

or misinformation gets out there, we're also risking the lives of people who are sacrificing so much just to be on the front lines to keep people alive, right? The lack of, you know, concern for average Americans is incredible to me. And how candid some of these lawmakers are is just really disturbing. Political reported today that while some Republicans are still expressing caution and emphasizing that restrictions need to be lifted gradually, now Greg Abbott, for instance, is an example of that. He believes in a gradual, you know, lifting of some of these restrictions.

Others, though, are being more aggressive and calling for an off-ramp. For instance, Representative Andy Biggs from Arizona said, it should have happened yesterday, meaning we should have already opened the economy back up, even though, again, we do not have widespread testing available. It's incredibly difficult for most people to get tested. Even in Los Angeles, where testing is more available compared to other parts of the country, you have to show symptoms of the virus in order to qualify for the tests. The reason why this is an issue is because there are asymptomatic people carrying this

virus. And it's actually based on some of the studies that have come out recently, more easily, it's easier to spread the virus when you're in the early stages or when you're asymptomatic. And so like we're still learning quite a bit about this virus. We still don't have the proper infrastructure in place in order to appropriately respond to increasing numbers of people who contract this virus. And it's so unbelievably irresponsible and disgusting to hear lawmakers publicly make these statements and simultaneously pressure Donald Trump to open the economy back up. But the positive update is that Donald Trump had an hour long meeting with business leaders. And usually you don't start that off with. We have a positive update. But he met with

CEOs and business leaders from the banking industry, food, hospitality, retail. And to my surprise, these business leaders told him, we cannot open the economy back up until we have widespread testing available. And then after that, Trump was like, oh, we need, we need widespread testing. We need to wait until we have that testing available. So luckily, he is listening to those leaders, and luckily they have some morality when they give Trump this kind of advice and, you know, encourage him to hold before opening things back up. Yeah, and I hope that he's able to maintain that position mentally for maybe 36 hours, maybe 48.

He wanted to open things back up last Sunday, as of about a month ago. That would have been an absolute disaster. He was cautioned against doing that, backed off from the position, about a week went by, and then he started, like, saying, yeah, we probably need to open things back up. And so what would have happened? I mean, we know the numbers now, like we've experienced the past week. Andy Biggs said it should have happened yesterday. Andy Biggs, do you know what did happen yesterday?

I know what happened yesterday. 2,407 Americans died of coronavirus yesterday, close to double the amount that died the day before. And what's today going to look like? It's going to be higher than that. We're going to set another record for daily deaths, reported deaths, by the way. 2,400 didn't actually die. It's far more than that.

But that's the number that we actually have. So I'm going to go with it. And more are going to die today. Hopefully that number will eventually go down. It looked like it was a couple of days ago. and that didn't hold, the number went up, and that's with social distancing, that's with continued quarantines at their highest level that we've had. As soon as you start opening that up, unless you have the testing infrastructure in place, unless you have incredibly lenient

sick leave and personal quarantining without losing your job, those sorts of policies, those numbers are going to skyrocket. And unfortunately, well, I guess fortunately, it's unfortunate that we have politicians that are pushing for that. It is fortunate that they're being very open about it, that their desire to feed countless thousands of Americans into a wood chipper, if that's what it takes to improve the NASDAQ, they are being very, very obvious about that. And with an election on, hopefully we can use this information and replace some of these absolute ghouls. Yeah, I totally agree with you. I think that people need to be aware of how little these lawmakers value their lives. And

they're supposed to represent you. Keep in mind that the only agreed upon role for the federal government, this is what both Democrats and Republicans are supposed to agree on, right? is they're supposed to keep the public safe. And as we've seen from Trump's slow response to COVID-19, he failed in doing that. And to see some of these Republican lawmakers goading him into failing even harder is just devastating and depressing. One other thing I wanted to mention is, you know, when you look at the number of fatalities, you also have to keep in mind that a lot of these hospitals are already overwhelmed

with coronavirus patients. And so some of the other patients who needed medical attention, maybe some surgeries, haven't been able to access our health care system and they've been staying home. Some people have died from various illnesses because they haven't been able to get the adequate care that they need to survive. So while it's not a direct coronavirus death, you also have to think about all the indirect deaths that are happening because of how broken our health care. system is, how overwhelmed our healthcare system is, and how slow Donald Trump was to respond

to this very serious pandemic. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that doesn't stop Donald Trump from seeking brownie points. So let's talk about that in our next story. Donald Trump has delayed stimulus checks to millions of Americans in an effort to ensure that his signature is on those checks. Now, there are two ways in which Americans will.

receive the stimulus money that was granted to them by Congress. One way, of course, is through direct deposits. Some Americans have already seen that in their bank accounts today. The only way that you'll get the direct deposit is if you shared that type of information when you filed your taxes with the IRS. However, if you did not, you're likely going to have a check mailed to you. Some of them will be mailed to Americans as early as next week. But keep in mind that the checks were deletive.

They were delayed several days because Donald Trump insisted on having his signature on those checks. Now, I think that it's important to have a political strategy discussion about this. But before we do so, let me give you the details on what's happening. So the Washington Post reported that the unprecedented decision means that when recipients open the $1,200 paper checks, the IRS is scheduled to begin sending to 70 million Americans in coming days. days, President Donald J. Trump will appear on the left side of the payment.

This has never happened before. This is unprecedented. So there have been various examples of stimulus checks mailed to Americans, happened during the Bush administration, happened during the Obama administration. But they did not politicize it the way that Trump is. And obviously, Trump wants the brownie points because he wants to get reelected. When people see the stimulus money, they want to associate it with Trump. It'll be the first time a president's name appears on an IRS disbursement, whether a routine refund or one of a handful of checks the government has issued to taxpayers in recent decades, either to stimulate a down economy or share the dividends of a strong one.

So, John, I wanted to get your thoughts on this. You know, of course, this is a narcissistic move. Of course he's exploiting this for political gain. But do you think it'll work? Yeah, that's interesting. So I'll give you my thoughts. hearing my dog's thoughts. He's not happy about it. He's barking out. So he's trying to participate in the howl that people are doing, but he's not even doing it the right time. In terms of the

checks, what I think is pretty amazing, that's really getting annoying. What I think is amazing is, do you recall not too many years ago when the right wing position was that Obama was giving everyone phones to win their support, and every Democratic candidate was promising free stuff to get their support, just buying people off? So this is stimulus. that's much needed that has effectively nothing to do with Donald Trump, but he wants you to believe that he's the one that's providing it to you, which under one condition I would be perfectly happy with. He is, after all, a billionaire, feel free to shell out some of your own money to these people, many of whom are voters, devoted fans of yours that could desperately need

the help. Feel free to send Trump checks, cut $1,000 checks to people, and start sending them to random Americans if you want the support. Barring that, this isn't your goddamn money, so you don't get to put your name on it. Okay, it doesn't have anything to do with you. As I said earlier today on TDR, if it hadn't been in the stimulus bill that these checks were cut, do you think that Trump would have vetoed it and insisted that the American people get relief? Does anyone believe that that would have happened? Does anyone believe that he was pushing behind the scenes for the checks to be larger? Or maybe the fact that because they're just one-time payments, which are going to be wholly inadequate to deal with the shortfall that most people

are going to have economically, the millions that go unemployed literally every week this around now. Do does anyone think that he was pushing for them to be recurring, that every month we should get checks of this sort? No, he had nothing whatsoever to do with this, less than most politicians. Their names aren't on it. His name shouldn't be on it either. So I absolutely agree with you. And I totally forgot about the Obama phone. So I'm glad that you mention that because it's a perfect example of the type of hypocrisy that we see from the Republican Party. But it's what we've become used to. Of course they're hypocrites. Of course they're going to criticize Obama or the Democrats of one thing and then turn around and do something even

worse than what they're accusing the Democrats of. And so I think that a lot of this has to do with messaging. And I think it's really, really important for Democrats to drive home the point that their checks, Americans and the stimulus money that they desperately need was delayed because they had to put a system in place to ensure that Donald Trump's signature was on those checks for political purposes. But they're losing the messaging war as of today because I've been paying close attention to how the media has covered this story. And of course, what do you think the Trump administration is going to say? They're going to argue that no, actually, actually, you guys were expecting these checks to get to you five months from now. But you're going to start seeing them next week.

So we got them to you early. Right. And so instead of, you know, maybe digging into that argument and seeing whether or not there's some accuracy to it, what we're seeing from so-called journalists in the mainstream press is, oh, well, Democrats are saying this, the checks are delayed, but the Trump administration is saying that. Anyway, Trump's signature is going to be on those checks. Let's move on to our next story. And so I actually do think that this is going to end up being politically advantageous to Trump because there is an emotional connection to that money, right? People are desperate right now.

They need it. And if they see his name on there, they're going to associate that economic relief with Donald Trump, even though, as you mentioned and you're absolutely right, he and the Republicans fought tooth and nail to destroy any real economic relief for us. average Americans in that legislation, including trying to destroy what Democrats did luckily succeed in, which is providing a more robust unemployment insurance program. Yeah. Yeah.

And it's been a couple weeks since they passed that? What have they been doing lately? Is there anything about to be passed? Trump must be pushing for it because, again, he loves these stimulus checks. But I haven't seen it. Yeah, you're right. Republicans haven't proposed anything. In fact, Mitch McConnell has fought against a phase four stimulus, which was proposed by Nancy Pelosi.

One other thing that we're seeing from Congress right now, and I actually think this is a great solution, and I wish it would get more attention. Representative Roe Kana and Tim Ryan are proposing $2,000 per month for the next six months. So Americans can basically have some income to fall back on in the middle of this pandemic. And they want to continue providing this economic relief to Americans until our economy is back to where it was before the pandemic. So it could actually extend past six months. So we're seeing some proposals, some good proposals coming from Democrats in Congress.

They need to keep fighting for these proposals to pass. But they are being fought against by the Republicans. Yeah. Yeah. And we can disagree about the amount. I know Bernie was saying more than 2000 per month. I don't remember exactly how months it was going to be for. But yeah, and look, if your concern is that the economy is falling apart, people won't be buying.

That's what the Republicans are saying. They're willing to kill countless people because of that fear, okay, then put money in the hands of the people who are going to spend it to survive in the meantime. That seems like a great way to stimulate the economy without producing a massive pile of unnecessary corpses. Absolutely agree. We're going to take our first break. When we come back, though, we have more important updates on COVID-19, including what we're seeing

from the Trump administration when it comes to providing health care to deal with this pandemic and the unfortunate response by Democrats. So there's equal criticism to go around today. I'll give you the details on that and more when we come back. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-F-E-The Republic or UNFTR. As a Young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations are constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the rich and powerful. But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the conventional wisdom. In each episode of Un-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 not learn 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. Welcome back to the, to TYT, everybody. I was about to say the post game, but the post game is not happening yet. We will have one today, though, and we're going to discuss Cardi B's interview with Bernie Sanders, along with some other stories that we have prepared for you and some personal stories. So that's always fun. You can become a member by going to t.yt.com slash join.

Also a few other announcements. Something I actually announced yesterday, John, was the climate special that you will be hosting for Earth Day. So Earth Day is April 22nd, and John will be interviewing a number of climate experts and scientists in order to celebrate Earth Day. So again, that'll be on April 22nd at 7 p.m. Eastern time, 4 p.m. Pacific. Make sure you check that out. Also, if you want some additional content from TYT, our very own Malcolm Fleshner puts together these awesome newsletters that you guys should definitely sign up for.

I love them. His writing is excellent. He's funny. He's punchy. So just go to tyt.com where you can sign up for the newsletter and hear from Malcolm on a regular basis. Again, like he does such a great job in writing. He's really funny. So make sure you check that out. Okay. Well, let's talk a little bit about what's happening with health care, because that's a huge, huge issue right now in the middle of this pandemic. So Donald Trump has, believe it or not, overseen a pretty massive federal expansion of health care due to this coronavirus pandemic. And his actions have actually significantly outflank the mainstream Democrats, including Biden. And that's an issue. Because if our number one priority in the general election is to beat Donald Trump,

then we need to be clear on how to do that and we need to be strategic. And what we're seeing from this, you know, this cynical president who actually doesn't really care about the average American is a policy change when it comes to health care that can be considered way more effective and way more to the left compared to what we're seeing from Democrats. So let me give you the details, okay, because I think the details matter. I think the amount of money he's spending on this matters. And I think comparing it to what we're seeing from Democrats matters. So the Trump administration, according to Politico, is already pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into a key health sector that it previously

vowed to rein in, expanding Medicare benefits and boosting payments to state Medicaid programs by an estimated $50 billion, while promising to directly pay for coronavirus treatment for thousands of uninsured in what some experts say mirrors a single payer system. And by the way, some of those experts are actually on the left as well. So this isn't some rebranding that we're seeing from Republicans. And the numbers are there. Rather than going through Congress and making this more complicated, the federal government has decided, all right, these hospitals need help. We need to provide some relief to people who don't have the money for the COVID-19 treatment. So let's just immediately fund the hospitals and make this funding available to them.

So over the last few weeks, for instance, the Trump administration has greenlighted legislation that sends $100 billion in aid to frontline providers, including hospitals that administration officials have fought with for months over plans to tighten pay rates and require more financial transparency. The Trump administration also separately authorized billions more in loans to cash-strapped hospitals and doctors through the Medicare program. When it comes to Medicaid, the Medicaid spending is estimated to total $50 billion over the next couple years, a figure that could soon be dwarfed by Congress's next round of injections into the health care system, still scrambling

to catch up with the fast spreading virus. Again, look, I'm bringing this up not because I genuinely believe that Donald Trump is a warrior for reforming health care. No, Donald Trump is a goon. Donald Trump only cares about himself, he only cares about getting reelected. And this is the type of stuff that he will then cite on the campaign stage or the debate stage, if that ever happens at this point. I don't know. Everything is really up in the air. And what is the response going to be from Democrats and namely Joe Biden?

So far, what we've seen from Democrats is the proposal to reopen enrollment for the Affordable Care Act, which. doesn't go far enough, guys. Let's keep it real. It doesn't. And we don't want to be in a position where Donald Trump can position himself as more of a warrior for healthcare than the Democratic Party. So I know that there's a lot of focus right now on Bernie supporters and whether or not they're gonna turn around and vote for Biden. I get why there's concern about that, I guess. But we also need to apply pressure on the Democratic Party to really, you know, do something substantive and aggressive in expanding healthcare for people who are scared right now and

who don't have the means to pay for these treatments. Yeah. Yeah. This is good. So let's give him credit. You're doing the responsible thing because you have a commitment to ethics that most people in media don't these days. And you're giving him credit for this while also not being so uncritical that you'll pretend

that he's had a sudden change of heart or something like that, that he actually cares about it, that he won't potentially reverse these in the, in the future. So you're doing the responsible thing. And what we have to add, of course, is that let's see, why did he hate John McCain? Why does he still mock him to this day? Because John McCain stopped him from absolutely killing the ACA a couple of years ago. He wants people with pre-existing conditions to be thrown to the wolves, unable to get health care. If he had his way, he would press a button that makes that the case right now. Just in February, he proposed a budget that would cut a trillion dollars from Medicare and Medicaid. So we have to acknowledge both facts that he is in the short term adding

some money that will be very helpful and necessary, especially in a time of a pandemic. And as soon as he is not worried about getting reelected, he's going to go back to doing the sorts of cuts that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. On Biden, the reopening the enrollment in the ACA is virtually nothing, obviously. No credit for that. Now, that obviously is not everything that he has planned for health care in the future. What he has planned is also not enough, but we should acknowledge that that's not the entirety of it. That's what he wants to do right now to help with the coronavirus. And no, he doesn't deserve virtually any credit for that. Hopefully behind the scenes, both Bernie Sanders, who is going to be putting as much pressure

as he can bring to bear on Biden, hopefully he'll push him in the right direction. They seem to be trying as hard as they can to court AOC, who's obviously this is going to be one of her main concerns as well. But they need to demonstrate that they're that they're listening to that and they're going to actually do something. The onus is on them now. You're absolutely right. Look, we are in a, we're in a moment of crisis. And this is the exact opportunity to make your case for a robust health care reform proposal, right? And we aren't hearing anything from Biden. I mean, Biden's like hiding out somewhere. And again, look, if the Democratic Party's number one priority is to get rid of Trump, they really need to think

about their own actions right now, they're way too concerned about Bernie supporters. They're way too concerned about trashing them and, you know, preemptively assuming that they're going to do all these terrible things. Like, okay, how about focus a little bit on the things that you can control right now, which is providing real solutions for people who are experiencing this moment of crisis? And to your point about, you know, opening up enrollment for the ACA, There was an excellent piece in Jacobin that talked about how this really isn't much of a solution, and I want to give you the numbers. So for instance, a bronze plan with no premium still carries an average deductible of $6,506.

And doubling down on ACA isn't just bad policy, it's bad politics, providing Donald Trump with an opening to posture to Biden's left and repeat the same playbook Trump used against Hillary Clinton in 2016, when he cynically campaigned on a promise of universal health care. He is a schmuck and he is a liar and he will do anything and everything to lie to the American people to get reelected. That's where I'm coming from. Again, I want to be clear, I don't think that Trump is like some secret leftist who's looking to provide health care for all.

I mean, he has been brutal to our health care system. He's been brutal when it comes to government spending on our social safety net. But come election time, he will do what it takes to get reelected. And this is something that Democrats need to be hyper aware of. And it doesn't, their actions doesn't make it seem as though they are. I agree. So it's frustrating. We're in a frustrating situation.

And it's just like the messaging really does boggle my mind. Anyway, why don't we take another quick break? And then when we come back, a story that I have been attempting to avoid, but I have to do my job. Bernie Sanders has endorsed Joe Biden. He has done an interview with the Associated Press, which has been considered controversial. We'll talk about that and more when we come back. At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control of our online lives, constantly monitoring us and storing our data. But that doesn't mean we have to let them.

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I want to bank at a place that won't invest my money in dirty fossil fuel companies. Well, Aspiration Bank is the place to do it. You can learn more by going to Aspiration.com slash TYT. In fact, for every purchase you make, they will plant a tree, which is awesome because trees are great. John loves trees, right, John? In fact, did you tell me that in Lord of the Rings, that one scene where the trees come to life and they like save everything was like a scene

that made you emotional? Yeah, in private, I told you that. I love that about you. It's like the sweetest thing. They go to war. I know, they do, they do. Trees are awesome. They'll go to war.

So definitely. check them out, aspiration.com slash t-y-t. All right. So let's talk a little bit about, um, go ahead. Super, super fast. I want to take away some of the credit you just gave me. So I just saw on Twitter, Trump was asked about his name appearing on the checks. And he says, I don't know too much about it, but I understand my name is there. So he didn't have anything to do with it. He just found out that it was on there. He wasn't involved. It wasn't his idea. Nobody would have known my name would have been on those checks. He's just, he's so full of it.

It's incredible. He's a clown. Anyway, but some people believe that beating that clown should be the top priority. So let's discuss that. Bernie Sanders has not only officially dropped out of the Democratic primary. He has also officially endorsed Joe Biden. Now, he did so in a video that was. posted this week. Let's take a quick look at what he had to say.

So today I am asking all Americans. I'm asking every Democrat. I'm asking every independent. I'm asking a lot of Republicans to come together in this campaign to support your candidacy, which I endorse, to make certain that we defeat somebody who I believe, and I'm speaking just for myself now, is the most dangerous president in the modern history, of this country, a president, and you made this point who downplayed this pandemic, who ignored the advice that some of his people were giving him? So he went on and later he had an interview with the Associated Press where he had a pretty aggressive message for some of his supporters.

We'll get to that in just a second, but I wanted to get your reaction, John. To the endorsement in general? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Look, I, he said he was going to. He said over and over and over again because reporters would never accept that he had already made clear what he was going to do. So they kept asking at every debate and every interview, are you going to eventually endorse

the eventual candidate regardless of it is? And he said over and over that he would. And so he's consistent. That's one of the best characteristics of Bernie Sanders is that he is unlike other politicians, not a giant liar. And so honestly, if you're very surprised that he's doing this, you must have sort of assumed along the way that he had been lying or that he would find some way to weasel out of it, but Bernie Sanders is not a weasel. And so he is doing what he said he was going to do.

Yeah, I, yeah. I mean, I was not surprised. I knew it was eventually going to happen. You know, and I also had a feeling he was eventually going to drop out, but it didn't stop me from, you know, catching feelings on the day where he did drop out. In fact, that was last week and we did the show together. And it was, it was incredibly hard to stomach it. But that's where we're at. And so you're right, he did say repeatedly that he was going to not only endorse whoever the Democratic nominee would be, and in this case it's Biden, but that he would do everything in his power to help defeat Donald Trump.

So the one thing that I wanted to just comment on in that video was just like how ridiculous it is for Biden to pretend like he's surprised that Bernie's about to endorse that Bernie just endorse him? He's like, oh, oh. Never in my wildest fantasies. But like, oh, yeah, you guys were just chatting it up. It was just a random conversation. And he surprised you. I just thought you wanted to talk about the latest episode of Westworld, Bernie. I didn't know you were going to do this. That was so ridiculous. But following that endorsement, there were a number of people, including the Democratic Socialists of America and his national

press secretary or former national press secretary, Breonna Joy Gray, saying that they do not endorse Joe Biden. And so Bernie was asked about that in an interview with the Associated press. And he said the following. I want to give you his statements. He said, do we be as active as we can in electing Joe Biden and doing everything we can to move Joe and his campaign in a more progressive direction? Or do we choose to sit it out and allow the most dangerous president in modern American history to get reelected. I believe, and this is the controversial statement that was released ahead of the full article being published, I believe that it is irresponsible for anybody to say, well, I disagree with Joe Biden. I disagree with Joe Biden. And therefore, I'm not

going to be involved. And then Sanders said he would not actively campaign or spend money on advertising in the primary contest that are still on the calendar in the coming months, but he still encouraged Democrats in those states to vote for him, hoping to amass as many delegates as possible for leverage to shape the party platform and the direction of Biden's campaign. So he's hoping that he can, you know, have some leverage with the number of delegates he has so he can, you know, push Biden in a more progressive direction. I want to be quick, just quickly be clear about how I'm not ever going to buy that Biden's going to follow through on anything substantively progressive, right? I think that Biden is going to be

better than Trump on a lot of things, including maybe avoiding war with Iran. I think that Biden will be better when it comes to maybe re-implementing Obama-era environmental policies. But I don't think that he's actually going to take on the fight for Medicare for all. You know, so he might use that rhetoric during the election, I just don't trust that he's actually going to follow through on it once he does get elected. But, you know, a lot of Bernie's supporters are now angry with him on social media. And I'm not really sure that makes sense either. I think that there are things that you could critique Bernie on. He could have been a little more aggressive in fighting against the massive bailouts for these corporations and big banks, for instance. That's like a recent

example I can give you. But how are you going to be mad at him for doing what he literally said he was going to do over and over and over again? Yeah. Or, well, at least you should have been mad at him about it the whole time, I guess. Look, you can disagree with him. I think that a couple of his quotes there were probably oversimplifications of some people's position that he was setting up dichotomies that are actually sort of a spectrum of different activities that you can take part in. There's a number of different ways that you can work towards a goal, I think. And so look, and he'll expand on it, but those quotes are probably oversimplifications. But that said, look, if anyone gets to have a position to advocate for it based on the amount of work that they've done

to almost single-handedly push the country in the direction it needs to go, I think he's earned a lot of goodwill in that area. So I'm going to extend that to him. But, but, but, but, but, But yeah, look, in terms of the endorsement stuff, he was going to do it. We know that. He hypothetically could have waited a little while again as leverage, because he is interested in leverage. I mean, he said that in terms of getting the delegates. In terms of like, I hope that he doesn't take the bait on, like, people, like Brianna,

for instance, she's a private citizen, like she doesn't work from anymore. She's back in journalism. She gets to do or say or support or endorse or not, whoever she wants. And when statements from people like Breonna are brought up to him to try to get him to denounce her, it's not like there's anything he can say that's going to get these people to give him an ounce of credit. It is just used as a weapon to bludgeon him and people who are affiliated with him. So he should not take the bait on that.

100%. What is it? Like, not everybody is going to endorse him and don't have to. That doesn't mean that they're rooting for Trump. But as long as they're very clear, like, you know, what the worst case scenario is here. Yeah, a lot of these concerns are not honest that are going to be like handed to Bernie to answer for. Bernie is doing everything that he said he's going to do and he has been consistent.

He's been saying that Donald Trump is the most dangerous president in the history of the modern America. He said that a million times he is working to get him defeated, but that is never going to be enough for some people. And so I hope that he doesn't take the bait sometimes. You know why it's not going to be enough for some people? I think that there's this issue with lack of responsibility when it comes to Biden's campaign and his supporters. So let me just explain what I mean. Look, there's been all this emphasis on

shaming Bernie Sanders supporters who refuse to endorse Joe Biden. But I think some of that energy, a significant amount of that energy actually, needs to be applied to the Biden campaign to do better. Because right now, based on what we're seeing for, from Trump, including, you know, putting his name on those stimulus checks. I don't agree with it. I think it's narcissistic and I think that it's a political game he's playing. But unfortunately, it'll work, it'll work. He understands marketing and he understands how to pretend to come from the left, you know,

when he's criticizing his political opponents in a general election. He did that with Hillary. He's certainly going to do that with Biden. So what are Democrats doing right now to prepare for that? The onus can't 100% be on Bernie Sanders supporters. That's ridiculous, right? So there needs to be, you know, a moment of clarity for the Democratic Party because right now Donald Trump is approving billions, billions of dollars toward health care providers.

So he can literally like provide the funding necessary for people to get COVID-19 treatments paid for, right? That's the kind of stuff he's going to cite when he's on a debate statement. with Joe Biden. That's important to fight back against, like fight back against that messaging and provide something even more robust than what we're seeing from Donald Trump. So, like, my point is, like, I get that Democrats are, like, super concerned about getting Bernie Sanders supporters to, like, unify with the party. But they also need to have a moment of self-reflection and see where they're falling short because I think they're refusing to do that. And that's

That's a huge mistake. Yeah, and I'll try to be fast. So not endorsing someone is not the same thing as hoping that they lose or not voting for them or not working toward, whatever. I voted for hundreds of politicians through my life at various levels. How many have I endorsed? Like three? Like endorsing is a special thing that goes up above and beyond.

It's basically you saying, I want to use my influence in the most obvious way possible to push for this person. In fact, I want my like, who I am to be tied with. the possibility of them succeeding. But I've voted for tons of people that I've never endorsed and won't endorse. And so trying to conflate those two things as being the exact opposite just doesn't make any sense to me. And again, part of the pressure that you're talking about that's being put on Bernie

Sanders supporters, a little bit of it, I think, is genuine concern, are they going to support him? Is it going to be the thing that loses it? But a lot of it is just they have loved for years attacking Bernie Sanders supporters. And if they think they have a way to do it, they will continue to do so. So even though, I mean, what is going to end up happening? The vast, vast majority of the people that supported Bernie Sanders are going to end up supporting the Democratic nominee.

There are always going to be some people that don't. That's been the case with literally every nominee throughout history. They're just choosing to focus now on it to tar the entire movement, okay? And by the way, and if they're being honest, if they want to move those people, attacking them viciously, how is that possibly going to work? It's pointless. It's offensive and pointless. It's wrong in every way that it could be wrong.

And so either, like, you know, have your fun while you can if you're being fake. And if you're being honest, you really need to strategize because this is a horrible way to go about it. Yeah, I totally agree with you. It's just so counterproductive for what Biden supporters claim they want. But on the other side, I also just want to note, look, I think that people should vote their conscience. Okay. And so I've never been a huge fan of vote shaming, except I did, you know, take the bait on election night when I vote shamed white women who voted for Trump. But that wasn't the right way to go. I've admitted that. I just don't like it. I don't agree with it. And we should think about why are people voting this way. And I think that that same standard should apply for some of the Bernie supporters that I'm seeing on these social media outlets or social media platforms, I should say, who are. were like kind of viciously going after other Bernie supporters who have decided, okay, well, I'm going to vote for Biden, right?

Because look, your life might not be significantly negatively impacted by Trump. I mean, I can't imagine that a lot of those people exist. But there are people who have undocumented immigrants and their families. There are people who have seen a significant decline in their quality of life because of the Trump administration. I don't agree with vote shaming them if they've decided to support Biden. I think that it's important to, again, vote your conscience. And for the Democratic Party, if you guys really believe that beating Donald Trump is your top

priority, you need to act like it. And that doesn't mean you go around harassing Bernie supporters. It means that you have that moment of self-reflection, see where your flaws are, and think about what Donald Trump's marketing and messaging is going to be in this general election. because I don't think that there's been enough thought in that at all. And I haven't seen much from Biden at all, which is mind-blowing to me. Yeah, yeah. So, all right.

Well, we have one more story that we got to talk about. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is now the only member of Congress who has addressed the sexual assault allegations against Joe Biden. These allegations were brought forth by a former Senate staffer of his. Her name is Tara Reid, and we've covered her story pretty extensively. So she was working for him in Delaware, and no one in Congress has addressed it until someone finally asked Representative Ocasio-Cortez about it during an online conversation with the wing.

It's a networking and community space for women. So the questioner, according to CBS News, opposes President Trump's reelection, but also really resents the fact that the other choice. is someone who has a really long history of being creepy to women. And AOC responded with the type of response that I really do respect. She said this, what you're voicing is so legitimate and real. That's why I find this kind of silencing of all dissent to be a form of gaslighting. I think it's legitimate to talk about these things.

And if we want, if we, again, want to have integrity, we can't say, you know, both believe women, support all this, this until it inconveniences you, until it inconveniences us. And then she says, a lot of us survivors, and it's really, really hard. A lot of us are survivors, and it's really, really hard and uncomfortable. Not discussing allegations is the exact opposite of integrity. The Congresswoman said, adding that it's not okay to prioritize beating Trump over discussing sensitive Me Too issues like these because they are very legitimate things. And Tara Reid did see the statements and was happy to find that finally someone in Congress addressed them. And so she said to

CBS News, I'm very humbled and honored because she is literally the only politician that has spoken up on my behalf. So I think that AOC is absolutely right. We need to have integrity and we can't treat these claims differently based on what's convenient for us. Yeah, 100%. And what's interesting is that she's not in Democratic leadership. They're probably going to try to keep her out of it for as long as possible. And yet, despite not having the title, she is a leader on this. You know, bringing environmental protesters into the halls of Congress to start a movement for a Green New Deal, like consistently on the most important issues. She speaks out passionately, intelligently, and without requiring a crowd behind her to do what she thinks is right. It doesn't mean that she

She's perfect, no one is, but she is consistently on the right side of these issues. She's consistent and honest and I appreciate her. Hopefully for some of the politicians who aren't as comfortable as her to come out and talk about this sort of thing, these sorts of issues without knowing that it's safe to do that, maybe now with her being out there, others will follow. We'll see, hopefully, over the next week, maybe others will start to speak out about this. Yeah, I mean, it's been, it's been a disturbing experience to see just how differently Tara Reid has been treated by the very people who took Dr. Christine Blasey Ford's

allegations seriously. I took those allegations seriously. I take Tara Reid's allegation seriously because for me, sexual assault is not something that I care about based on, you know, political factors. It's something that's serious and should be addressed. And I'm glad that AOC did address it in the way that she did. That integrity and that consistency is so critical. And, you know, I'm just disturbed at the silence from people like Elizabeth Warren, for instance, who wrote a super lengthy piece in the New York Times about Brett Kavanaugh, but has not addressed Tara Reid's accusations. And she endorsed Biden today. And I would love to hear what she has to say about these allegations. Anyway, our postgame show is next. We're going to talk about

Cardi V's interview with Bernie Sanders and more. Become a member. Go to t-y-t.com slash join. For everyone else, we'll see you soon. 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. Dot co-slash TYT. I'm your host, Jank Huger, and I'll see you soon.