The Young Turks - TYT Extended Clip - April 29th, 2020

Episode Date: April 30, 2020

Stacey Abrams seems to have a very big double standard. 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. Welcome to the Young Turks. I'm Anna Kasparian. Joining us today is John Ida Roll up because it's Wednesday, something that I should have known before I posted all sorts of throwback Thursday things on my Instagram account. It is not Thursday. It's Wednesday. What's up, John? What you were looking for was a way back Wednesday, but you messed up.

You messed up good. I did. I did mess up good. I don't know why I thought it was Thursday. Maybe it's because we're optimistic from home. Yeah, that's true. Everything's kind of blending together. Most people don't know what day it is. But I'm happy it's Wednesday because that means I get to do the show with you, John.

Aw, thank you. It's always fun. I do want to start off with some good news right at the top. Okay. So we have been fundraising in an effort to keep TYT sustainable. And really, this is my favorite way to basically have the funds necessary to function as a news organization because we're accountable to you, the audience. You're the ones who fund us. And so through tyt.com slash go, many of you have contributed, you know, as much as you can. And I really do appreciate it. We wouldn't be able to do this without you. I do want to mention one person.

particular donor who contributed $10,000 recently. David from Chicago, you are incredible. This is an unbelievably generous donation. And there was a really sweet message about some of the content that's been produced by TYT. John, you're very much involved in that content. So I wanted to read from the email sent by David. He says, I watched last night True North Part 1 and enjoyed it very much.

It was a pleasant respite in the midst of stay-at-home orders and general craziness in the world at this moment in time. And kudos to the production team on that nicely done. I look forward to seeing more in that series. So, John, you starred in that series. You spent months of your life in not so great conditions in order to shoot that docu-series. And I'm really glad that people get to see it, that they're enjoying it. I'm so grateful to our members and our supporters who have contributed to keeping TYT sustainable.

Yeah. Yeah, that was super nice to him. And it's nice to be able to watch the show again as well after a couple of years of having it not be available. Yeah, definitely. So you guys can check that out on our YouTube channel. I saw part one was already posted. So definitely check it out. It's important content. It's very well produced. And again, just thank you to everyone who supported us, including David, with this insanely generous contribution. All right. Well, without further ado, let's move on to some of the news today. And I actually want to start off with something that happened yesterday because it's an important story and we need to analyze it. So, Don Lemon recently had Stacey Abrams on his CNN

show to talk about the sexual assault allegations against Joe Biden. Now, we've talked about these allegations in great detail. They were brought forth by a former Senate staffer of Joe Bidens, and she alleges, Tara Reader is her name. She alleges that she was sexually assaulted by Biden back in 1993. Now, the establishment overall has avoided this story. They've avoided commenting on it. So it is important to hear from someone like Stacey Abrams, who was mortified at the accusations against Brett Kavanaugh. Let's hear what she has to say. Claiming that she was delivering Biden a duffel bag and says that Biden had her up against the wall in a corridor on the hill and violated her with his.

fingers. Now, CNN has now spoken on the record with her former neighbor who says Reed told her about the allegation within a few years of the alleged incident. Biden's campaign says untrue, never happened. Is this a credible allegation? I believe that women deserve to be heard and I believe that they need to be listened to. But I also believe that those allegations have to be investigated by credible sources. The New York Times did a deep investigation. and they found that the accusation was not credible, I believe Joe Biden. I believe that he is a person who has demonstrated

that his love of family, his love of our community has been made perfectly clear through his work as a congressional leader and as an American leader. I know Joe Biden, and I think that he is telling the truth and that this did not happen.

So, John, I definitely want to get your thoughts. Before I do, though, I just want to note that the New York times does not consist of prosecutors or private detectives or detectives at all. They did not conduct a deep investigation. Investigations into sexual assault are conducted by investigators, by law enforcement. That was not the case when it came to Tara Reid's allegations. Exactly. And one newspaper looking into it can be useful, but it by itself is not a shield against which you no longer have to deal with any criticism for the way you or the candidate

that you were at least affiliated with, if not trying to run with, has responded to this. The entire thing has been, like, you don't get to be frustrated with the way people are responding to it now when Biden just avoided discussing it for a very long time. It wasn't an actual part of the primary when Bernie was running against him. And the way that the vast majority of figures who have responded very differently to other sexual cell allegations have responded to this, you should be frustrated about all of that, not frustrated that people are talking about it, personally. Yeah, I think you make a great point. In fact, in this next clip, and credit to Don Lemon,

because he did ask the appropriate follow-ups in this interview, in this next clip, he specifically asks about the double standard that we've been pointing to. Why is it that the allegations against Brett Kavanaugh should be taken seriously, but some of these Democratic politicians refused to take similar allegations against one of their own seriously, especially considering some of the evidence that's been brought forth in this case. Witnesses who said that they talked to Tara Reid at the time. She disclosed the details of what allegedly happened. Tara Reid also said that, hey, you know what?

I remember my mother called into Larry King's CNN show to ask what I should do since I was unwilling to go forward to law enforcement at the time. That video was uncovered and the mother is seen, you know, asking Larry King, hey, what should my daughter do here? To be fair, she didn't mention sexual assault or sexual harassment. But it did, you know, bolster what Tara Reid was saying in various interviews. So you see this pattern of Tara Reid saying something and then it's confirmed through actual evidence.

And so there's actually more corroborating evidence in this case, as opposed to what happened in the Brett Kavanaugh case. Why is this being treated differently? Well, Don Lemon is about to ask. Let's take a look. 2018, you tweeted it was shameful that Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination was being rushed forward and survivors of violence like Christine Blasey Ford deserve to have their voices heard. Are you applying a different standard now? Not at all. I believe then and I believe now that women deserve to be heard because too often and they are not. And Tara Reid deserved to have her story listen to and investigated. What was

happening to Christine Blasey Ford was that there was no investigation. There was a rush to move the conversation forward so that no investigation was conducted. And as I said, I believe that there was those allegations needed to be investigated. And I believe that the New York Times and subsequent reports support what the Biden campaign has said. And I believe Joe Biden. So you said you've heard her, you've heard enough, you don't believe her. you believe Joe Biden? No, what I'm saying is that the New York Times investigation of her allegations, the New York Times investigation does not support the accusations against the vice

president. I believe the Biden I know, and I think that he will make women proud, that he will make America proud. Again, the New York Times did not do an investigation. They wrote about the allegations. And the only two things that were brought up in their report. that go against what Tara Reid said is they asked some of the staffers who worked for Biden at the time whether Tara Reid had come forward to them because she had alleged that she

spoke to the higher ups about what she had allegedly experienced and they did nothing about it. Now, if I'm just, I'm just going to be honest, right? I think most humans in that situation, if they know that they didn't do anything about it, now these allegations are resurfacing, they have an incentive to lie about it, right? Like, so to say, like, it's a he said, she said thing, to say, oh, well, we talked to some of Biden staffers, some of whom are still very much in contact with him still, work with him still, probably hope to have jobs in his administration, should he get elected. They said that, no, they don't recall this at all.

Okay, well, is that enough evidence? Is that enough of an investigation to completely smear this woman as a liar? I don't think so. Well, look, or they could not remember because it was decades ago. That's also possible. And that's fundamentally what underlies all of this is it is virtually impossible for anyone who wasn't actually there to know for sure. And for one of the two to potentially not remember because he seems to have a lot of problems remembering a lot of things. And tied in with that, if this is going to be a question of who is more credible, who seems more trustworthy, there's been a lot

of analysis of a variety of things that Reid has said or whatever. We also know Biden has told a lot of demonstrable lies over just the past six months or so as he's been campaigning. Now, that does not mean that he's lying about this. But if it's going to be down to credibility, you know, just Google, you know, Biden arrest South Africa. There are reasons to be worried about his willingness to tell the truth as well. I think that some of what Stacey Abrams said there, I guess, you know, She's going to say what she's going to say. And just having been supportive of women in the past does not mean that you have to blanket accept every single claim that's made in the future.

But she should not be the one that is being put out on the news to talk about this. Biden should not be shielding himself behind other women, even if they're well respected women. He should be the one that's talking about that's being talked about this. And the thing is, he's been on the news recently and it was not asked of him. Now maybe his appearances were contingent on it. not being brought up. I don't know that for sure, but that seems like certainly a possibility. He is the one who should be talking about this. It also should have happened back when we still had, you know, a vigorously contested primary. Exactly. I think you bring up a lot of great points.

And I also think it's important to mention that Stacey Abrams has been floated as a possible VP pick for Joe Biden. So not only should Biden avoid using her as a shield when it comes to these allegations, I think that the press should consider the fact that she has an incentive to believe Biden, right? Like I think she genuinely in her head believes Biden and his denials of this. By the way, Biden himself hasn't actually addressed this. His campaign released a statement, but Biden hasn't at all said anything himself about this. And so, yeah, like I just think that the way that this has been handled in the media from the very

beginning has been disgusting and has shown that there's a double standard in the way. that they'll cover certain allegations versus other allegations. When it comes to Brett Kavanaugh, there was no question that they would cover it immediately. And they did. When it came to Tara Reid, they didn't cover it immediately. They waited until the primaries were over. And then after, you know, so much corroborating stuff started to surface, I feel like they had no choice but to cover it. And of course, they did so in a super skeptical way. And it's fine to be skeptical. I think that investigations make sense. It's not my job, it's not your job to investigate this.

It's the job of investigators to do so and to figure out whether or not there is enough corroborating evidence to, you know, make a judgment on this. But if you're going to look at the Brett Kavanaugh investigation and say that that's a sham, how are you going to look at what's happening to Tara Reid and say that, no, no, no, this is totally fine. There wasn't even an investigation at all. There wasn't even an opportunity for a sham investigation. It's incredible.

Give us a sham investigation, please. No, give us an investigation. This isn't a joke. I mean, we're trying to choose a leader, the next leader for this country. And this is what these are the options we're dealing with. Really? It didn't have to be this way. Yeah, or at the very least, give us him being asked point blank, detailed questions,

a number of questions so that we can at least evaluate his response. She has been willing to talk about it. Let's see him talk about it. And that won't be definitive either, but at least we'll be able to see, we'll be able to listen, will have a little bit more information to go on. That would be, at the very least, something. Well, let's talk a little bit about what workers are doing for some major corporations. These are essential workers who have been mistreated, and they're not going to take it

anymore, which I absolutely love. So workers from major corporations are planning a massive strike, a walkout on Friday for May 1st to protest the working conditions that they've been operating under. they would like to be paid, compensated fairly for the jobs they're doing. And we all know that they're putting their own lives and the lives of their families on the line by going to work every day in the middle of this pandemic. Now, the workers chose May 1st International Workers Day as a signal to workers everywhere that collectively they can take on these corporate powers. And so let me give you the details on which companies are involved in how they plan on doing

this protest. The Intercept reports that workers from Amazon, Instacar, Whole Foods, Walmart, Target, and FedEx are slated to walk out on work, citing that what they say is their employer's record profits at the expense of workers' health and safety during the coronavirus pandemic. And make no mistake about it. Some of these companies that are considered essential are certainly making more money as a result of this pandemic. Jeff Bezos, for instance, has personally become $24 billion richer during this pandemic. So you can certainly afford to pay your workers more. You can afford to give them hazard pay, which they deserve and should get.

And so the employees will call out sick or, you know, walk out on the job on May 1st. And according to the Intercept, the Workers' Coalition will unveil a set of demands. They're being very specific here. Among them are compensation for all unpaid time off used since the beginning of COVID-19, hazard pay or paid sick leave to be provided for the direct. of the pandemic, protective equipment, and all cleaning supplies to be provided at all times by the company and a demand for full corporate transparency on the number of cases in facilities. So there has been a lack of transparency. The workers are very much worried, concerned that

their colleagues have been getting sick and they haven't been told about it. And so they're just being very specific about what they need, what they want. And unfortunately, they've been getting pushback on these demands since the beginning of the pandemic. And it's disgusting when you consider how much money companies like Amazon have made as a result of the pandemic. 100%. Yeah. Yeah, very specific, very reasonable. And, you know, from the other side, what do we get in response? We get people like Stephen Moore who makes jokes about putting everyone in a spacesuit, spending $3 trillion and forcing people to stand in spacesuits to be able to work. And in terms of what isn't a joke, what will actually come, all that we're hearing really

is that Trump and McConnell, their priorities are shielding corporations from liability when their workers get sick and when they die. And so we talked about, JR and I talked about this on the damage report this morning. If we were going to race ahead to reopening the economy as soon as these right wingers want us to, it would almost even be possible to do that if they had been taking this. seriously from the very beginning. If we had, you know, PPE everywhere, if we had tests, like pervasive tests, it would still be dangerous, obviously, but it might be possible. But they weren't satisfied even with that. It has to be, no, we're not going to put the money

into the testing and all that. It's like an insult to them when you bring up further testing, but we are going to send the workers back. If they don't want to go, they're not going to get unemployment. They're going to be, it's a willful quit, you know, all that. I'm sure we're going to talk more about that too. And when they get sick, because we're not going to take it seriously, they're not going to be able to sue their employers. So like, really, it's you could go broke, you know, lose everything, or potentially get sick and die. You know, that's sort of always been the decision that's been put to workers under American

capitalism. It's just far more explicit these days. It's much more direct, much quicker. I think the silver lining in this pandemic has been the realization that workers can really get what they need, get what they want if they organize and apply pressure. Because having a massive walkout where all these workers, essential workers, decide, no, we're just not going to do it. Like all of these companies, by the way, have been doing these giant hiring sprees.

And that's not a mistake. I mean, part of the reason why they've done that is because there's increased demand for various products that are sold through Amazon, you know, delivered through Instacart and all that. But at the same time, these companies aren't dumb, like they know that the workers really do hold a lot of power here. And if they do these massive strikes, well, then the companies are going to suffer. But here's the thing. If everyone works together and collectively organizes like this, their power is unbeatable. And they can really make these companies, their employers bend to their will, which is important. It's about time. Now, there have already

been a few concessions, they don't go far enough. For instance, Amazon has begun paying their warehouse workers a little bit more. So according, again, to the Intercept, great reporting here. Amazon, Walmart, and Target did increase hourly pay by $2. Amazon now provides personal protective equipment at its facilities and more actively cleans work spaces, while Target has mandated its workers to wear masks after weeks of reports that they were reprimanded for doing so. So at first, they were told not to wear masks and they'd get in trouble if they did. But it's not like these companies did all this because they decided, hey, we want to do right by our workers. They did this because they were pressure to. People like Chris Smalls,

who was an Amazon warehouse worker before he was fired, was pushing for this. And unfortunately, he ended up getting terminated. His position got terminated as a result of him just demanding the basics. Hey, keep our workers safe. Here's a quick video of him explaining what the situation was like. What we asked for was a simple building closure and needed to be professionally sanitized. We had a confirmed case and people were afraid and that's all we were asking for. Nothing more, nothing less, people to return to work, they wouldn't give us that. And that's ridiculous to me.

You know, we had a building a week and a half ago in Queens, New York, had the same issue. I don't see what the discrepancy is with our building. that they couldn't do the same for us, you know, there's people that's been there since the building open. And we feel like we're not worth anything to the company. We feel like we're expendable. And it's sad to say that the company failed us. And, you know, that's all we really wanted was a building closure and to be sanitized. It was a simple request. He lost his job because he was organizing these workers. But he's undeterred because he continues to organize these workers and hopefully they will get the concessions they're demanding from their employers.

Yeah. I know really fast, I know that we're going to be talking about the meatpacking plants a little bit later on. I would love to see that included in this. If you're going to have big walkouts, big demonstrations, I think that some of the changes that have been made just in the past, you know, day or two in that area, it's the most, it's like the culmination of all of this, the opportunism of these companies that see this pandemic and the devastating that's caused as an opportunity to get rid of regulations that they've wanted to all along, a willingness to treat workers like an inconvenience, like that maintaining their health is some sort of unfortunate thing that they're going to sort of begrudgingly do.

And then governors giving the companies everything that they want, threatening workers with loss of their work, if they don't want to go back to places that are already epicenters for the spread of coronavirus, I think that that would be a powerful addition of this if they gotten involved as well. Well, we're not done with this topic. When we come back from the break, we're going to discuss the perspective of some of the wealthiest people in the country. And that means it's the return of one of my favorite segments when rich men cry. Don't miss it.

We'll be right back. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-Fing 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 step.

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 unlearn 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. Hey, everyone, welcome back to TYT, Anna Casparian, and John Iderola with you. Some quick housekeeping announcements, members' comments. Let me start off with an important programming announcement, actually, that will take place next week. So next Tuesday, TYT will be celebrating Giving Tuesday and will host a three-hour special. So you're going to get the live main show. And then immediately after that, I will be joined by both Jank and John for giving Tuesday.

You can watch live at ty.t.com slash live beginning at 7 p.m. Eastern time, 4 p.m. Pacific. And, you know, we want to not only give you guys some extra programming, but as you know, we're attempting to raise some money to keep TYT sustainable, something that you can certainly contribute to if you can by going to tyt.com slash go. A few comments, and then we'll move on to the rest of our news. So Travis wrote in, who I assume is watching. And here's the question. I get it time to time, and I think it's, it's an okay question, but I want to just clarify this for anyone who might be wondering.

Are you a Democrat? I'm a TYT subscriber, but it feels like you want Donald Trump reelected. There is no way Bernie Sanders is going to be president, so I don't see your point. Okay, Travis, if you are indeed a subscriber of TYT, it would be abundantly clear based on our nonstop negative Trump reporting that I do not want Trump elected. At the same time, showing that I don't support, like my support for Trump or lack of support for Trump is not in any way connected to how I feel about Joe Biden. I get what you're saying. If you criticize Joe Biden, he might not get elected. That's the DNC's problem. They have propped up an incredibly

flawed candidate who had these sexual assault allegations against him well before the primary ended, okay? And so I have a big problem with doing what I'm, what you're suggesting that I do, which is shield my audience from the truth. I'm not going to do that, okay? For me, this is not about politics. I need to do my job fairly. And if these allegations are out there, allegations that I do believe are credible, I'm going

to talk about it on the show. If you think that I'm just here as a political tool to help Democratic candidates, then you're watching the wrong show. I'm sorry. That's not my job. It's not, it shouldn't be anyone's job if they work in news. But unfortunately, you know, media outlets have become nothing more than extensions of political campaigns. I'm not, I'm not doing that. I'm not interested in that, period. Yeah. It's frustrating. And I don't mean to like, you know, get to, you know, get to, too sassy with my answer. But come on, guys, you need to think about this thing in a way more nuanced way and not just assume that everyone who works in news is just a political operative.

I'm not. I don't work for the Biden campaign. I'm not interested in the Biden campaign. What I am interested in is telling my audience the truth about what's going on in this country and all over the world. And really fast, even if you weren't trying to be ethical, let's say that you did have a political objective. It's not like if you don't talk about it, it's just gonna go away. And Trump, you know, in three months, will be like, well, it seems impolite to bring it up at this point.

It's going to be talked about maybe they should respond to it now rather than waiting until two weeks before the election or on the debate stage or something like that. Like if you didn't care just objectively about the truth, if you just cared about it through a pragmatic partisan lens, just waiting and seeing seems like a really, really, really risky strategy. Definitely. I 100% agree with you. And then one other update to a story that we just did in the last segment. So Stacey Abrams had said that the New York Times did a deep investigation into the sexual assault allegations and cleared Biden of wrongdoing. But the New York Times actually responded to that and said that these talking points inaccurately suggest a New York Times

investigation found that Tara Reid's allegations did not happen. Our investigation made no conclusion. So that's the statement from the New York Times. I don't know. Maybe I'm helping Donald Trump by sharing that tidbit as well. Whatever, whatever you think, I'm going to go ahead and tell the audience the truth. And if I'm found in the wrong, if I'm sharing anything that's inaccurate, please let me know. But don't tell me to like hide things from our viewers because it might help or hurt any particular politician you like or dislike. All right, well, let's move on to a story that I've been looking forward to covering, and it's my favorite segment.

So let's do it. A growing portion of the top 1% are worried about a social uprising, social unrest, due to the growing inequality in America, which is only exacerbated by this ongoing pandemic. And so this means that there are some men, some of whom are rich, and they might be crying. I care. That's it. My favorite bumper.

It's so good. It's so good. Actually, Leon Cooperman, who you just saw in that bumper, will make an appearance in the story. But I'm actually going to start off with Mark Cuban. Now, Mark Cuban has long regarded himself as a libertarian, someone who truly believes in the free markets, wants as little government as possible. But now it looks like more and more people are taken to the streets because they're unable

to provide for themselves and their families, right? So what is he proposing now? He's done a number of interviews where he's made similar statements recently. Let's take a quick look. Companies is great, but if nobody has any money to spend there, then that's a real challenge. So I personally think this is a chance, this reset is an opportunity for us to do a couple new things that four months ago I would have been totally against, but now in this new world, I think we need to increase the minimum wage to $15 because I think this is the time to do it.

You know, the hot job market before pushed a lot of wages up anyways, but for those people who are under getting paid or not getting paid enough and can't live on their wages, that needs to change. And I think we need a federal jobs program. We can't survive with 50 million people unemployed. And when we go back after this reset, companies are going to have learned that they can do just as much with a lot less. Again, Mark Cuban was not someone who would have advocated for these types of policies

before. There is one quick caveat that you should be aware of. He is flirting with the idea of running for president as a libertarian candidate, which, you know, libertarians don't believe any of the stuff that he just said right now or believe in any of the stuff he said right now. But either way, he's not the only wealthy person who's now softening on the idea of redistributing wealth to the people that money has been taken away from for decades now. As we know it, will likely be changed forever. When the government is called upon to

protect you on the downside, they have every right to regulate the upside. So capitalism has changed. Second, the country is moving slowly to the left. Taxes have to go up. Quickly, if Biden wins, slowly if Trump wins, but taxes have to go up. So things like carried interest, capital gains taxes, the billy to roll over real estate sales, tax free, all that stuff is they have to be eliminated for the good, by the way, okay? And that was Leon Cooperman, who just a few months ago was literally crying on cable news at the thought of a wealth tax. And now he's advocating for taxes, probably because he's scared that there will be significant

social unrest. And I've heard a lot of wealthy people, John, talk about their fear that the country will be a full-blown socialist society. And they don't want that. So it seems like they're willing to concede on a few things in order to prevent that from happening. Yeah, I would always love a follow up question when people on the news say something like that. What do you think the word socialism means because they don't seem to know or they're not able to agree? You know, I think it's a perfectly fine question to say to what extent Is Mark Cuban being honest in that previous video or how long will he maintain the position he expressed there?

If it's his honest opinion and if he stays consistent, I'm mostly fine with what he said. Obviously, we don't think it goes far enough, but I want to see more people, you know, moving to those positions. We've been saying since, you know, since the discussion around the stimulus and the, you know, what looks like it's going to be the one time UBI, that that might get people to be a little bit more open-minded about some of these sorts of things, some of them might be billionaires. I think that you're right that in the case of Cooperman, I think that some of those more minor sort of tinkering with taxes, bringing it a little bit back to what it was like just a few years

ago is certainly going to seem more appealing than instituting any kind of wealth tax, even a very minor one, more minor than what the Democratic candidates were talking about. And if they, look, if they're worried about a socialist utopia being created or dystopia from their point of view, it's not looking like that's likely to happen either way. If they're worried about lots of unrest, yeah, yeah, in no small part due to what they've been advocating for during the pandemic and decades of policies before it, they should be worried about that. I mean, you know, like take a look at the history of Latin and South America.

Like if you wanted to create violent revolution, the best documented academic work that you can look at says create ever increasing income inequality and wealth inequality, and then just wait. And eventually, that's what's going to happen. When people feel like there is no political recourse to their issues, that they have no stake in the game whatsoever, that the government has nothing to do with them, they're going to look to alternatives. And it's going to turn violent. And that should be what the government should have been working to avoid this whole time. And if some of them are finally waking up to it, then there are policies on offer that have been suggested by some good politicians recently that could go a long way to alleging those fears.

Yeah, absolutely. And I think that this is an opportunity. for all of these workers who have been organizing to do these strikes to really understand how much power they have. I mean, we're already seeing some of these incredibly wealthy men waiver on their long held free market beliefs, right? Free market. And I think what Mark Cuban touched on is important. Look, the Federal Reserve can go ahead and bail out these corporations all it wants to provide liquidity, right? And then the companies turn around and they buy shares of their own stocks, essentially creating these asset bubbles. But how long, that's not sustainable.

They can't do that forever. You need consumers, you need the middle class to be able to buy your products in order for your company, your business, to remain sustainable. And what we're dealing with right now is this unsustainable model, people are suffering. And yeah, eventually there will be widespread social unrest and they're terrified of it. So again, the workers do need to. to understand what their power is here, and it is significant. Finally, I want to go to Scott Minard, who is the CIO for Guggenheim, and he had some interesting statements. This was reported

in Barrens. He says, as the death toll mounts, it will be used as political fodder. Eventually, a populist revolt to address the current massive inequality of income and wealth will happen. Consider that roughly half of all Americans had less than $500 in savings before this crisis hit. Most of these people were not prepared to weather a storm like this. And the damage that is being done to household balance sheets, let alone the damage to their confidence, is going to have long-term negative repercussions on consumption. The U.S. government's coronavirus programs, our coronavirus relief programs, are insufficient, misdirected, and full of unintended consequences. The Fed and Treasury have essentially created a new moral hazard by socializing

credit risk. The U.S. will never be able to return to free market capitalism as we know it before these policies were put in place. Fed policy is treating symptoms, the symptoms of the problem, not the source. So, again, know the power that you have as a worker because CEOs are fully aware that they would not be as wealthy as they are if it weren't for their workforce. If it weren't for the employees who show up every day and do their jobs, these are people who should have been paid appropriately, compensated fairly from the beginning. They should have had the appropriate benefits. And they've been mistreated for decades now.

And so they're finally raising the alarm. They should have been raising the alarm. And I am not an idiot. Like I know that this isn't about them like, oh, out of the kindness of their own hearts, they want to do right by these workers. They want to make sure that the wealth stops being. redistributed to the very top. No, I mean, they've loved this system for a while now. They've enjoyed it. They've defended it. But now they're realizing that it's actually putting them at

risk. And that's why they're speaking the way that they are. Yeah. Yeah, I think, I agree with almost everything that you said. I do think some of the billionaires have just been, they've been working really hard in 2020. Jeff Bezos just worked $24 billion hard. And he has been appropriately paid for the great deal of effort he's put in so far this year. And that's $24 billion on top of what he was already making. The pandemic has increased the amount of money he's making personally, $24 billion additional dollars. Yeah, rise and grind.

That's what you got to do. The Ken Klippenstein philosophy, get that paper. That's what Jeff Bezos has been doing. He wakes up at 4.30 every morning, Anna, and he doesn't go to sleep until, well, like 10, but come on, he woke up early. Well, if he works really hard and makes a lot of money, he can certainly afford to pay his workers more because without them he wouldn't be able to earn a dime. We got to take a quick break. When we come back, Elon Musk says stupid things and we're going to dunk on him,

at least I am. And then later in the show, we will discuss other things that are going on the news, including Trump forcing meat packing plants to stay open. We'll be right 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 and selling our data. But that doesn't mean we have to let them. It's possible to stay anonymous online and hide your data from the prying eyes of big tech. And one of the best ways is with ExpressVPN. ExpressVPN hides your IP address, making your active ID more difficult to trace and sell the advertisers. ExpressVPN also encrypts 100% of your network data to protect you from eavesdroppers and cyber criminals. And it's also easy

to install. A single mouse click protects all your devices. But listen, guys, this is important. ExpressVPN is rated number one by CNET and Wired magazine. So take back control of your life online and secure your data with a top VPN solution available, ExpressVPN. And if you go to expressvpn.com slash TYT, you can get three extra months for free with this exclusive link just for TYT fans. That's EX, P-R-E-S-S-V-N dot com slash T-YT. Check it out today.

What's up, everyone? Welcome back to TYT, Anna and John with you. We have two more stories to get to. So let's get started. And Elon Musk is the first topic. So Elon Musk seems to be trying to out-trump Trump. Now, as we know, Trump would like to reopen the country as quickly as possible, get people back to work. So stock portfolios don't suffer. And of course, it's premature considering some parts of the country are still seeing an increase of new coronavirus cases. Well, Elon Musk wants in on the action. So he shared his views on Twitter, because that's how people live now, by saying free America

now. That was tweet number one, followed by a quote tweet where he included a link to an article about how Texas is opening restaurants, retailers, and other businesses this week. His comment on that was Bravo, Texas. Deep. And then, yeah, very deep. And then he also included a tweet saying give people their freedom back. And then he responded with true to this tweet by a pro-Trump person who said the scariest thing

about this pandemic is not the virus itself. It's seeing Americans so easily bow down and give up their blood-bought freedom to corrupt politicians who promise them safety. Now, as we know, we're dealing with a highly contagious virus. It's already killed tens of thousands of Americans. And unfortunately, there are more deaths to come. We have more than a million cases of coronavirus now in the country. So this is a dire situation and we need to keep people safe.

But that's not what individuals like Elon Musk or Donald Trump think. Now look, Elon Musk, of course, when it comes to some things, is an incredibly special. smart person. On other things, not so smart. Let's watch. Let's show the glass demo. So first, first this is regular glass. This is like normal glass car glass. We want to show you what happens with normal car glass. Now we'll show you Tesla armor glass. Yeah. Franz, could you try to break this glass? Glass, please. Yeah.

Sure? Yeah. Oh, my fucking God. Well, maybe that was a little too hard. Oops. So, John, give me your thoughts. And then I'll explain, with substance and evidence, why it's a bad idea to open prematurely.

Yeah, yeah, he's not actually Iron Man, everybody. I understand that like Brett and we were talking like during the break before this segment about it, that there's this trope. And yes, he's built stuff, okay, he's made some rockets, he made a car. It's great, very impressive, I would love to have a Tesla. But that doesn't mean that he knows about everything. No one is a universal genius. Nobody deserves your blanket faith that they know what they're talking about.

So when he has tweeted previously, as people have been pointing out, he tweeted, like four or five weeks ago, that by the end of April, there would be zero tests. I think a lot of people think that he goes home to his tech mansion, he turns on his AI butler, and then they run simulations or something like that. That's not happening. He's just guessing, he's not a doctor, there's no reason to believe that he knows anything more about medicine than Anna or me or anyone else. He's a guy who made some cars and a rocket, and it's cool, and it's very hard.

But that doesn't mean he's a genius, but while he's not a genius, what he is, is an attention seeker and a clout chaser, and I couldn't help but notice that that, you know, Free America Now tweet had 185,000 likes. That's why they tweet this stuff, okay? That's why lots of people say the crazy things that they say, because they are continually given the incentive to do so. Charlie Kirk doesn't tweet because he has all these thoughts and he just has to share them. It's because he knows that there's a lot of idiots that cheer for everything he says. Yeah, look, I think you make a great point.

And Elon Musk is also a well-to-do guy who, look, the stock markets are doing well because it's all based on like nonsense speculation, of course stock buybacks through these massive corporate bailouts. And so that's helping the market stay afloat. But I'm always super skeptical of anyone who's heavily invested in the stock market urging us to get back to work as soon as possible, right? You're right. I don't think he's a dumb person. Of course, he's smart in some ways, especially when it comes to, you know, the tech industry and what he's, you know, done with armored glass. I mean, excellent product there. But he's

not a health expert. He's not a doctor. The only thing that he can do if he wants to have an informed opinion on when to open is maybe look at some case studies around the world because the United States isn't the only country that's dealing with this pandemic. And so I want to give you all an example for why it's a terrible idea to prematurely open. In Hokkaido, Japan, they thought that they had effectively combated the virus, and they decided to open companies, open businesses back up. But unfortunately, they have suffered the consequences of that, and they had to go back to stay at home orders and social distancing. So again, the island of Hokka, Hokado is experiencing a second wave of coronavirus infections and

deaths that experts say could have been avoided if the state of emergency had not been lifted too early. Local authorities lifted the state of emergency on March 19th with schools and businesses reopening. With hindsight, experts agree it was too early. And just 26 days later, and after 135 new infections were reported in the space of a week, the lockdown was reimposed on 5.3 million residence. So look, I don't know what his motivations are for sure. We're obviously speculating. But if you care about doing this right, then we need to be careful. We need to rely on data. We need to rely on case studies. Because what we need to prioritize over anything else, including being able to go out there and have fun, is saving as many human lives as possible. That

should be the priority. And, you know, I think California's done a pretty good job and they've recently released, you know, kind of like a timeline of how they're going to open things up in, you know, staggered fashion. Let's just be responsible and do this right. So we don't have to go back to stay at home orders and, you know, drag this process out longer than it needs to. I agree. Yeah. All right. Now let's get to Donald Trump's executive order, which is horrifying, for a number of different reasons. So Donald Trump has ordered meat packing plants to remain open, declaring them critical infrastructure. Now the White House has decided to make this move amid estimates that as much as 80% of U.S.

meat production capacity could shut down. Now workers at these meat processing plants have been getting sick with coronavirus. And so a lot of these companies have decided, and when I say a lot of these companies, I mean a few of them, because only a few of them control the vast majority of meat Americans consume, they've decided to shut down, close shop, because of how rapidly this virus has been spreading amongst their workers. So meat processing plants around the United States have shut down because of the coronavirus, but Trump said in the order, the executive order, that such closures threatened the continued

functioning of the national meat and poultry supply chain undermining critical infrastructure during a national emergency. Using the Defense Production Act, Trump is ordering plants to stay open as part of the critical infrastructure needed to keep people fed amid growing supply disruptions from the coronavirus outbreak.

The government will provide additional protective gear for employees as well as guidance. So at least 20 workers in the meat and food processing business have died and 5,000 meat packing workers have either tested positive

for the virus or were forced to self-quarantine. And that's according to the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. So, John, what are your thoughts on this executive order? Because there are a lot of different elements to this story that I think are worth mentioning, something that you actually referenced earlier about how the Trump administration is trying to do away with any type of workplace liability. So the employers don't have to pay the consequences for forcing their employees to work in unsafe conditions.

Yeah, I mean, we can talk for a long time about this. But there are concerns about the safety for the employees, and then there's also concerns about the safety of the people who are going to consume what is created in these. We already going into this pandemic had the Trump administration doing literally anything these meatpacking companies asked them to do in terms of raising the line speed so that they could slaughter more animals every second, massively cutting down the number of inspectors to save money again and to stop slowdowns and things like that. And so actual oversight of what's going out, whether it could be contaminated, is at an all-time low, which is great during a pandemic. And then you also have the workers. And we've already seen that in some areas, the spread of coronavirus that they have is almost entirely due to its spreading inside of these meatpacking plants and then radiating outward. There are some areas where as many as 90% of the cases were traced back to meatpacking plants. They say there that they're going to provide additional protective equipment.

And we'll see. He's been really hesitant to do that in any case. They also provided no additional requirements in terms of safety for the companies to have to abide by. And at the same time, Trump said he's going to work to protect these companies from liability if their employees get sick or die. At the same time, Republican governors are saying that if you are called back to work in a case like this and you decline to, perhaps because you're terrified about what it could mean for the health of yourself and your family, they're going to consider you to have quit so you will not be eligible for unemployment. And so they're creating a like toxic like stew basically of a worst case scenario for the spread

of the disease, both inside of the facility and potentially radiating out across the country because as you said, they produce so much meat and they transferred all over the place, but also people are going to be forced to go because of the fear that they could not only lose their job if they don't, but lose access to unemployment as well. Yeah, I think this pandemic has also just highlighted all all of the different issues that we have with our supply chain. So, for instance, we heavily rely on other countries to manufacture the medical supplies that our doctors and nurses rely on.

And when that supply chain gets disrupted, well, we're stuck in an incredibly vulnerable situation, which we've been experiencing for months now. When it comes to our meat, it's a problem that there are a handful of corporations, essentially that produce the vast majority of meat that Americans consume. So we don't have as many, you know, small farms where maybe social distancing can actually be implemented in a way where the workers are safe, right? We just don't have a system like that because we've allowed, you know, meat processing companies to essentially create these monopolies.

So all of these problems, like whether it's health care and how devastating. our healthcare system is when we're dealing with a pandemic. How devastating pay is and how, you know, incredibly vulnerable Americans already were before this pandemic hit economically vulnerable. All of these things are being highlighted. The question is, who can we turn to to really provide leadership in reforming these components of our society? And that's where I get stuck, right?

That's where I get worried because we don't have many politics. We don't have any politicians at this point, with the exception of a few progressives in Congress who are fighting to change the system in a way that would actually protect us in the future. So that's what I worry about, because it's one thing for people to finally realize, oh, wow, the way we've been doing things has been pretty terrible and it puts us at a giant disadvantage. It's a completely different thing to actually do something about it and change it. Yeah. Yeah.

You do not talk as much as Jake does. and are always for a loop. It seems like we got like 30 seconds, I thought. I'm looking at the clock and I'm like, we're about to run up against it here. No, no, no, we are out of time. But we do have an awesome, awesome post game. Dave Rubin has come out with a book. There has been a scathing review.

We'll give you the details on that. And then we have some substance as well. Become a member at t.com slash join. 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.co slash t-y-T. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.