The Young Turks - TYT Extended Clip - August 19, 2020

Episode Date: August 20, 2020

Trump's Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced he'll "pause" the post office changes until after the election. 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. Oh, yeah, but I'm going to be. I'm Anna Kasparian and it's Wednesday, which means I'm co-hosting with John Iderola, host of damage report on TYT Network. Make sure you check out that show and all our other wonderful programming. You can find us everywhere. Xfinity, Zumo, Pluto. I don't even know if Zumo's a thing. I just, I just mentioned it. It is. It is. It's a thing. We're on Zumo.

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Well, turns out that Nome Chomsky was interviewed by our very own Jank Yugar. So definitely check out that interview on the conversation with Jank Yugar. You can watch that Thursday of this week at 5.30 p.m. Eastern Time, 2.30 p.m. Pacific. Go to t.yt.com slash live or on YouTube or on Twitch. Like I mentioned, we're on various places where you can get our programming. And speaking of Twitch, J.R. is going to be hosting a watch party. So we're doing these fun watch parties where various hosts on the network will watch a movie along with you on Twitch.

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Postmaster General Louis DeJoy claimed that he would halt all the operational changes changes that conveniently make it difficult for people to vote by mail at a time when people are more likely to want to vote by mail because of the pandemic. Now, as we've said before, Louis DeJoy is a huge Trump supporter, has donated millions of dollars to Donald Trump, and he immediately started to basically take certain mail sorting devices offline, which of course the post office would need in order to sort a huge influx of mail that's likely to come about as a result of mail in ballots. We saw some evidence of mail drop boxes being picked up in various cities across the country.

And so now he's saying, don't worry, don't worry, there's enough backlash. And so I'm going to stop. But he did not commit to undoing the damage that he's already done. So the Hill reports that the Postmaster General on Tuesday said that he would pause, just pause these changes to Postal service operations until after the election amid bipartisan outcry, a sharp reversal after Trump spent days defending DeJoy's actions. DeJoy said retail hours at post offices would remain unchanged. Mail processing equipment and collection boxes would not be removed and no mail processing facilities would be closed.

Now that's what DeJoy is saying. And even if he's being 100% honest there, there's still a huge problem with the fact that he has not committed to undoing some of the damage that's already been done. And so I'm much more trusting of the leadership for the Postal Union, and many of them have spoken out. And I want to share their perspective on this a little bit. So more than a dozen of these Postal Union leaders actually spoke to CNN and shared what they're experiencing behind the scenes. So first, let me just note that the original plan implemented by DeJoy would basically get rid of hundreds, literally hundreds of mail sorting machines. 671 machines used to organize letters or other pieces

of mail were slated for reduction in postal facilities this year. Now when it comes to the union leaders, Merriam Bell is one of them. And she's the general president of a local chapter of the American Postal Workers Union in North Carolina. And she said that seven sorting machines at a Charlotte postal facility have been either separated out, dismantled, or entirely removed in recent weeks. Bell says that she does not expect these dismantled mail sorting machines to be powered up in time for the election. So some damage is already done. Let me give you more. Roscoe Woods, president of APWU Local 480, 481, set a dozen machines at a distribution center in Pontiac, Michigan had been removed from service in recent weeks. And despite DeJoy's announcement,

he said he has heard from postal management that the machines are not supposed to be put back to work. And by the way, let me also just be clear about one other thing. It has been a long-time dream of conservative Republicans and even some conservative Democrats to essentially dismantle not just machines within the Postal Service, but to dismantle the Postal Service altogether, right, to essentially privatize it and do away with it. And it's not surprising that someone like Louis DeJoy would want to do that because he has a vested interest in companies that serve as a competition to the Postal Service, or I should say the Postal Service serves as a competition to them because of the fact that the Postal Service is much cheaper. And so DeJoy says, look,

I've already done some damage. I guess I'll stop for now. But I want to let you know what I plan on doing after the election. Here's a direct quote. I came to the Postal Service to make changes to secure the success of this organization and its long-term sustainability. I believe significant reforms are essential to that objective and work toward those reforms will commence after the election.

Well, you know, one of the best ways to ensure that the Postal Service will remain sustainable is to do away with a ridiculous rule that forces the post office to fund pensions 75 years in advance. Seventy five years in advance. That was a law, a rule implemented by the Bush administration for a very specific reason to ensure that the post office would have a difficult time being sustainable. DeJoy has private interests here. He wants to do away with the post office so he can see a little return on his investment. And it's absolutely pathetic and sad. that anyone would buy any of the arguments coming from these right wingers who do not have the best interests of Americans in mind. John?

Yeah, honestly, it feels like after all the outcry, all of what's come out that's been very obvious and thankfully people working at the post office have talked about their experience and made it very clear. It would be like if you were infected by the coronavirus and it was ravaging you and you made a big stink about it. So it was like, okay, I'll pause. I was just trying to make you sustainable. No, but you're still there. You've already done the damage. The organs are possibly irreparably harmed for the rest of my life. It just doesn't, it doesn't make any sense. And honestly, look, there's so many different ways to look at what he did in saying I'm pausing it. That is, I think, far more likely than, oh, sorry, that was my mistake and my bad.

You know, I didn't want to make you think that I was interfering with the election. So one is that it's simply a publicity move to help him get through the hearings that are about to come. And that there won't actually be a pause. Or it could be that there will be a pause, but it's a publicity move. And he realizes that even if the Democrats came into the House right now, guns blazing are like, we're gonna pass legislation. I don't know how they would fix all these problems in the small amount of time that we have. But even that amount of time is more than if he just waits two to three weeks and then starts doing it again. And I know that that sounds ridiculous, right? I mean, there was this big stink. The news was talking about it. Let's say

he stops for now, in three weeks he starts pulling sorting machines again, what's going to be done about it? Realistically, based on the experience we've had over the past few years, what would happen? Nothing. Nothing would happen. He'd be fine. Yeah, yeah. And when you- Well, really fast, one alternative is that he can afford deposit because he's done the damage that he intended to do, honestly. Yeah, you're absolutely right. I mean, I feel like both scenarios, of course are disastrous. So on one hand, you can have him, you know, announced that he's going to stop doing what he's doing, but he's probably going to continue because he's, I mean, he doesn't have to worry about real consequences. Sure, he's going to have to participate in this hearing.

And I'm glad that Democrats decided to get back to work at this moment of crisis, not simply because of what's happening with the post office, but I mean, we're still in the middle of this pandemic. Let me just remind all of you, I'm sure you already know, because many people are feeling it in their personal finances, still no new round of stimulus, right? And so I'm glad that they got back to work and I'm glad that they're going to, you know, at least attempt to hold him accountable. But they need to have the kind of attitude that Republicans had toward Hillary Clinton and Benghazi. There was nothing there, but they wouldn't let it go. It was clearly and obviously nothing more than political theater, but it was effective, right?

And so I think if Democrats don't drop this topic and refuse to allow themselves to get distracted, then they could maybe ensure that people who want to vote by mail have the ability to do so. But right now I'm terrified because if you look at some of the polling, including a recent poll by CNN, there's a huge portion of this country that has bought into the messaging by the Trump administration arguing that mail-in voting is not safe, that it's not a valid way to cast your vote. And so you need people to have faith in our electoral process in order to participate in that process. And so there's already all sorts of damage that's been done. And it is terrifying because, you know, we're in a situation where it's not about winning because you're the better

candidate that Americans prefer. It's about throwing the election and stealing it by playing all of these games with the post office. And by planting these seeds in people's minds that the outcome of the election is not going to be valid because mail in voting is, you know, it leads to a prevalence of fraud. And of course, we've shown various studies showing that That's not the case. But how much does that message get through? Exactly. Yeah.

Yeah. And if in the end, if this is successful, even if let's say he's done for now, he's not going to do any more damage, we don't know how much damage he's already done. If it's a close election, we'll never know, honestly, if it was what swung it. And even if someday we could find out in some way, which we won't, it wouldn't matter. It wouldn't reverse it. Like once the damage is done, once an election is swung, that's it. It's just, it's such a horrible situation.

So one of the reasons we talked to JR and I on the damage report this morning. about, you know, I sort of I get why people are saying things like if Trump wins, American democracy is over. I get the inclination and certainly there will be a lot of damage done. But it doesn't take his reelection for him to have done significant damage. That damage is already here. And I don't want to give people the idea that if we can just stop him, then we're good. No, things have been wrecked top to bottom. And we're seeing that DeJoy, the fact that he has no fear whatsoever that what, that he's going to be significantly harmed, but he's You're going to be locked up? No, there's going to be no consequences for him. There are no consequences

for anyone anymore. Even if somehow they found emails laying out in 100% detail what they're going to do and why they're going to do it. What's the best we could hope for? Trump pardoning him? Honestly, people still have this idea that we have the system we did 10 or 20 or 30 years ago. We don't. Nothing really counts anymore. Nothing really matters. This is one chance to potentially start to reverse a bit of it. Well, we have one other mail-in voting. story to get to. So let's talk about that. Again, I think if you can loot in person, you can vote in person. The Democrats seem fine with the looting in person part. Not so much the other way, because they want to be able to do it all by mail where they can manipulate it. Well, that was

Donald Trump Jr. thinking that he was making a logical statement by arguing that if people can go out there and loot. Of course, he's making a disgusting generalization about protesters, then they would have the ability to vote in person. Now, that's an interesting statement, especially considering his own father refuses to vote in person and is getting a mail-in ballot from the state of Florida. But the thing about that statement that actually gets under my skin the most is it's so typical of a right winger saying something dumb and thinking that they're quote unquote owning the libs. And in reality, I mean, if you look at the demonstrators, they're not representative of everyone who would want to vote by mail. So to argue that no, no, these protesters, if they can go

out there in protest, they can go out there and vote as well. I think that that's misleading and intentionally so. Now Donald Trump parroted his idiotic son on Twitter, writing if you can protest in person, you can vote in person. But again, Trump is voting by mail in Florida. So if he has the right to vote, then we should have the right to vote by mail. And so they want to draw this distinction, as we've talked about before, between mail-in voting and absentee voting. I've noticed that they've changed their messaging a little bit to refer to universal voting versus absentee voting. I want to talk about, you know, the, I guess, difference there, although there's still really no difference. But John, I wanted you to jump in and just quickly

comment on what the Trump's had to say about voting. Yeah, I mean, I think you laid it out really well. I would only add, are a lot of 75 year olds protesting in person? Are they looting in person? A lot of people with significant predispositions towards certain types of illnesses, are they protesting and looting in person? It's such a stupid, stupid point. Like the only way that as a right winger you can own someone is with an audience of people who are even less clever than you. That's it. If you think about it at all, if you scratch the surface at all, it doesn't make any sense. And it obviously doesn't make sense because he has literally never met anyone who has voted in person. Every single person top to bottom in the White House has all voted by mail. What a weird situation?

Yeah, you know, it is interesting to hear them like accuse others of being owned. Like I'm, I mean, I'm on the left, I'm not owned by anybody. I can say what I want to say on this show, I don't have any type of corporate interests in mind. No one is a paying me to say things, right? Whereas, you know, if you look at Donald Trump specifically, he's certainly owned. I mean, he, you know, he prostitutes himself as a politician, got millions of dollars from the NRA, you know, started off his presidency with all this tough talk about gun regulation. And what did the NRA do? Hey, you little bitch, here's some money, shut up. And that's what he did, he's owned. And I think he was also just owned, actually.

Yeah. So let's talk about the actual facts because, you know, knuckleheads are going to be knuckleheads. But, you know, is there a difference between universal voting and absentee voting? Well, it's interesting because not many states do what's referred to as universal voting, where people who are registered to vote will get a mail-in ballot. Now, California is one of the states that did not have that process in place before. But due to the pandemic, they are now sending ballots to every registered voter. But by the way, prior to getting your ballot, California actually sent, I know this because I live in California, sent me a form to confirm that I still live at that address. I had to verify that. So there are safeguards in place to ensure that fraud does not take place. So let me give you more of those details. Right now, only nine states and the District of Columbia so far, plan to hold universal mailing elections in which ballots are automatically mailed to all registered voters without needing to request one first. So California, as I mentioned, we'll start proactively mailing ballots to registered voters,

joining universal vote by male states such as Colorado. Many states will send every registered voter an absentee ballot application. So an absentee ballot application is essentially a form that you have to fill out to give a reason why you want to. to vote by mail, right? But at the end of the day, the situation is the same, right? There are safeguards in both instances to ensure that voter fraud doesn't take place. That's why we don't have a prevalence of voter fraud in this country. Various studies have shown that. And so other states that do this, the universal mail in, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Utah, and they've been doing this for years. It was never a problem until Trump realized that he was.

was trailing in the double digits in national polls. By the way, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, there's no evidence that mail balloting increases electoral fraud, as there are several anti-fraud protections built into the process designed to make it difficult to impersonate voters or steal ballots. Just to give you some examples, those provisions include requiring people requesting absentee ballots to be registered voters, mailing ballots to the official address listed on voter registration rules, meaning you have to be a registered voter to get the ballot in the first place. And it requires voter signatures on the external envelope and having election authorities make sure

the ballot came from the address of an actual voter. If a ballot appears questionable, some states use a signature matching technique to verify the signature of the voter. So oftentimes you'll hear right wingers make these stupid arguments about like, my dog got a ballot. Okay, well, then did you commit voter fraud? Did you register your dog to vote? Because that's the only way your dog could have gotten a ballot. And that voter registration was fraud. It would be very difficult for a dog to get through all of those protective measures. But I would say that if they could, let them vote. Honestly, that's a special dog. I mean, they're all special. He's a special dog.

Charlie. He's a good boy. He'll vote well. And look, and it's important. It's really important that people feel comfortable participating in this upcoming election. Many people, for good reason, are afraid to go vote in person because of this pandemic. I mean, Trump seems to have some favorability among older voters. And so he probably shouldn't be spreading this message that would make that

question the validity of voting by mail. I want to look at the most recent graph comparing the United States to Europe when it comes to this pandemic. Luckily lately, we've been seeing a little tiny bit of a dip in our COVID numbers, but we're still very far off in terms of the success that we're seeing with European countries. So it's just so depressing and embarrassing to see that. It is. And honestly, why we need to vote by mail. Yeah, and more power to you for reading that Brennan Center result for what? The 15th time? How many times have you read that at the show? 20 times? I don't know. And meanwhile, they have successfully, on the right, they've successfully gotten their voters to believe that universal mail-in ballots is, it's a way to steal the election,

it's obviously fraudulent, all of that. But universal absentee ballots, that's totally great. Republicans should do that at the very least. They believe those two things simultaneously. And they don't care about the Brennan Center study, any of this. The fact that multiple states, red and blue, have been doing this mail and voting for literally years, that not only is there no evidence that it's linked to fraud, but there's also no evidence that it's linked to any advantage for either party. It could in the end end up benefiting Republicans because it might make it easier for older people to vote and they tend to lean Republican. Just the whole thing, it is so frustrating. And I don't know, maybe you feel the same way to continually

go back to a topic where the people who believe misinformation about it have been inoculated against any new information, any new facts, and they honestly don't care. They just don't care. So you can try to do fact checks and everything, but it just feels so pointless sometimes. Well, let's take a break, get a little breather. And when we come back, Donald Trump decides to attack an American company that makes an American product and employs American people. We'll be right back.

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What's up, everyone. Welcome back to TYT and John with you. Just want to tell you a quick note about our partner aspiration. Aspiration in TYT has joined forces to do a sweepstakes on an e-s scooter. So you can definitely check that out for your chance to win. Just go to tyt.com slash green summer for all the details. And if you already have an aspiration account, there's still a way for you to enter for a chance to win. Again, all you need to do is go to t-y-t.com slash green summer to get all the details. All right. Well, you know what? I totally forgot to read member comments. And I'm going to do it right now. So progressive pirate says, I think DeJoy is worried about going to prison. I don't think so. I really don't. I mean. No. No.

I just don't. There's never any consequences. And so I'm not just saying that to be pessimistic. I mean, we've had so many different types of crimes happen on a higher level, right, by people in positions of power. And as soon as Democrats have any position of power themselves, they decide that they want to look forward, not backward. And let's say in like this imaginary fantasy world, Democrats do something strong and find a way to successfully prosecute and convict him of something. I think that John's right. I mean, someone like Trump is willing to pardon anyone and everyone. So he'd find a way to get them, you know, the freedom that they don't deserve. Yeah, I mean, he pardoned Roger Stone for protecting his interest during an election and then

not giving it up. This would be the exact same thing. So he would do the same thing. I don't see why he would, honestly. John writes in and says, every ballot that is mailed in can be contested for dozens of reasons. Millions were thrown out in 2018 in the 2018 election. You're right. I mean, we've seen that before. And that's why you need to not only vote early if you're voting by mail because of everything that's happening with the post office, but just be super careful and make sure that you fill it out correctly because any little mistake could lead to that ballot getting thrown out. So to, you know, honestly, it's so counter to the narrative that we're we're hearing from Republicans. Like, yeah. All right, and I don't want to ignore our super chats.

So let's read a few of those. Just finish listening to today's episode of TDR. John, your Shapiro impression is scary. Sorry, Anna, you lost the title. Thanks both for doing what you do. Thank you. No. And then there was one other comment. Yeah, I wanted to read a few Twitch comments. So, Erie Man 42 gifted a sub to the channel. And it's their 84th gifted sub to TYT so far. Nice. I think it's, is it Iri man, right? Yeah, my bad.

I know what that is. I know what that is. Okay. All right. Well, let's get to the news guys, because there's a lot to get to. Donald Trump has decided to attack an American company that makes an American product and also employs many American people. So why would he do that? Well, it's over an obscure local news story out of Louisville, Kentucky that showed a screenshot of, that was taken by a Goodyear employee. The employee

claimed that this screenshot was from some sort of racial discrimination training that they had to go through. And there was apparently zero tolerance for a certain type of apparel. So the slide shows that acceptable apparel includes Black Lives Matter gear or anything that talks about gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender pride. Unacceptable. On that list, you have Blue Lives Matter, all lives matter, maga attire, and political affiliated slogans and material. So, you know, this is something that of course upset Donald Trump because he wants to make sure that anyone who wants to wear his goofy hats, can wear their goofy hats. And so he tweeted about this saying the following, don't buy Goodyear tires. They announced a ban on mega hats. Get better tires

for far less. This is what the radical left Democrats do. Two can play the same game. And we have to start playing it now. So a few things I want to just quickly mention. Donald Trump recently went on a rant about cancel culture and then proceeded to cancel Goodyear. because of some policy that they have about certain political attire. And then, look, I, I personally don't care about whether or not someone wears a MAGA hat. I don't get triggered by it. I don't really, like, I judge them. There's no question about that. Like, if you want me to prejudge you, that's the best way to do it. And at first, I was like, yeah, I don't think Good Year should do this. I think Good Year should just let people wear what they want to wear,

as long as it's not like super inappropriate or could, you know, endanger someone as they're doing their job or something. You know, if you're making tires, I'm sure you have to wear certain safety equipment. But at the same time, I mean, we're in such a divisive, terrible environment right now as a country. And when you go to work, you have to be around people you work with. And so why needlessly do things that are going to antagonize your colleagues or your coworkers and make the work environment even more unbearable than it needs to be. But Kaylee McEnany was asked about Trump's boycott. And so I want to watch that video and get your thoughts, Sean. Let's take a look. So why is the president retaliating against a private company for their dress code and potentially

jeopardizing American jobs? So Goodyear needs to come out and clarify their policy. There was an image. They failed to clear. Yes, I did see their statements, which still failed to clarify their policy. Racial equality, racial justice, that is okay, but not political speech. That's pretty standard across the board right now. That's not that unusual. Did the president even reach out to good year before he tweeted? They came out and said equity issues. As far as I'm concerned, Blue Lives Matter is an equity issue.

There have been police officers across this country that have been targeted because they wear the badge. Yeah, except if you choose to be a cop, you have made a decision to be a cop. People don't get to choose what their race is. They don't get to choose what their sexual orientation is. And so to try to extend an argument regarding equality to people who make a decision to work in a certain field, I think is like absolutely ridiculous. But John, I wanted to get your take. Yeah, it's the whole thing is just so frustrating. It's, yes, choice versus, you know, being born into it is a great point.

The actual reality of who is being targeted and oppressed and who is pretending to try to draw the spotlight to themselves. the fact that one was an organic movement meant to draw attention to an injustice. The other was a direct response intended to take the spotlight back again. Like if I sit next to, well, when we sat in the studio, I sit next to Brett. Let's say hypothetically, we both had kids and I got a world's greatest dad mug and he got a no, no, I'm a better dad mug. Those are not equal. One is more aggressive, okay? And so it's just, yeah, it's like saying that you have LGBTQ pride is just a positive thing about a group. We know how many people have attacked others while wearing MAGA hats. We know that All Lives Matter is a direct response,

an aggressive response to this civil rights movement. There's no reason why they wouldn't want to limit that. To be safer, they're probably just going to end up banning literally everything. So because the right got triggered by this, everything's going to be canceled. That would be my prediction for good year. But I also love in his original tweet, the idea that the left does this all the time we have to start to. You guys boycott something like every week. What are you talking about to start doing something?

Fox News is all boycotts. Didn't they boycott curing and Nike and a million other products? It's not new. But I also love one other thing where he's like, you can get much better tires for lower prices. Does anyone think he did market research before he tweeted that? No, I mean, look, he won't even do market research for his own businesses. That's why he went bankrupt six times. I mean, the guy is lazy and incompetent as hell. So like, of course not. But no, but that's, look, this story, okay, forget the apparel part of it, right? I actually

think that's a very small part of this discussion. I know this is what triggered the discussion, but like at the heart of it is this characteristic of Donald Trump that's so damaging to the It's about how he always prioritizes himself, his own political agenda, and his own self-interest above anything else. And while being president of the United States is a position of power, right? And there are people out there who are lured, seduced by that power. In reality, what that position is supposed to represent is a service, is a public service, You are supposed to be willing to give up so much in order to represent this country,

to lead this country. But even when it comes to something on a very like granular, irrelevant level, something like as irrelevant as wearing a MAGA hat, Donald Trump is willing to see Americans lose their jobs, like assuming that this boycott is successful. And honestly, I don't think it will be. But assuming that it would be, right, that's his intention. boycott knowing that employees are going to lose their jobs if people follow through with this boycott because my feeties are hurt because people won't be able to wear my goofy

hats. Like just you're a grown man, he's in his 70s. He's in his 70s. Like imagine like Obama's like, I just heard that like, you know, Oscar Meyer weeners banning the hope shirt. Don't eat their weeners. There are better weeners. That would have never ever happen. God, I just want the world to be sane. And honestly, Trump is going to freak out. He's always going to freak out. He's going to pretend that he cares. But okay. I know, exactly. I think it worked best this way. And people pointed out that like the beast, the vehicle, the president uses his Goodyear tires all the time. But anyway, it was the response to the tweet that really got me most worked up. It was because you know, there are people with three times

as many Twitter followers as us who literally the only thing they do is respond to everything Trump tweets and say, yeah, you're the best. So I looked at his good year tweet replies, and it was all people saying, no more good year for me, like just agreeing with it, which fine, they're going to do whatever he says. But then there were all these replies saying, good year tires are second rate. Like, what, did you think that yesterday? I had no idea if it's better or worse than Firestone or literally any other type. The idea that, like, you can say I'm not going to purchase this product because of what they did. You could boycott something, fine. People boycotted Goya. But they did it because of the political thing. They didn't suddenly start saying Hormel has better beans,

unless they already believed it, okay? But you can't have like your factual statements about the world be entirely determined by day by day political calculations. That, and I know that this seems like a weird thing to focus on. And every time I talk about, you know, caring about the nature of reality or actually caring whether the things you believe are actually true. It seems like this weird, abstract, philosophical thing that we don't have to worry about. But there are like millions of QAnon people. And Trump was just talking about it. And Laura Lumer just got elected. And Marjorie, the QAnon woman, she just won a primary. Like, this is actually leading to something. This idea that facts are totally optional. You can just

make them up and live your life based on that. This isn't just a philosophical concern. This is having real world impact on our politics. And it's only going to get worse from here. Yeah, yeah. You're absolutely right with that. You know, when you get to a point in your life, when family members are sending you QAnon posts as evidence for the ridiculous arguments they're making, you know, you die inside a little bit. But God forbid you ever aggressively correct them because, you know, they'll come at you aggressively, but if you correct them, they'll whine and cry about it.

Anyway, I'll keep my personal issues out of this, I know, and we'll go ahead and take a break. But when we come back, we'll talk a little bit about AOC's DNC speech. There's been a lot of misrepresentation over the powerful speech that she's given. So we'll clear that up. And also, I do want to issue a correction over some of my comments about Michelle Obama's speech. I'll explain when we return. At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control of our online lives,

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I'm just going to read one quick super chat from Jared, who wrote in to say, I feel I literally got disowned because I would not back down when it came to the importance of Black Lives Matter and police accountability. Jared, I love you. I'm proud of you. And I absolutely feel you. I absolutely feel you. And you know, I don't know if you had the same or have had similar experiences, but it's amazing how many people feel confident in asserting whatever it is that they believe aggressively. And then when you bite back, all of a sudden, they're the victims. Anyway, let's get to the rest of the news. I hear by second the nomination of Senator Bernard Sanders of Vermont for President of the United States of America. For anyone who has

even a few brain cells, it was abundantly clear that Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez endorsed Joe Biden at the end of her speech. And it was a short speech, but it was a short speech because that was the time she was allotted. And it was powerful, even though it was a short speech. Unfortunately, the powerful message that she was trying to put out there was muddled by the nonsense over at NBC News, which shortly after her speech tweeted the following. In one of the shortest speeches of the DNC, Representative Ocasio-Cortez did not endorse Joe Biden. I hear by second the nomination, they quote, of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont for President of the United States of America. So everybody, you know, I know we all have short

attention spans. I know that we're all paying attention to multiple things at once, but let's let's just listen before we spout off. Because apparently the reporters at NBC News didn't do that. Let's read the statement again. I hear by second, second. the nomination of Bernie Sanders, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. When you second someone's nomination, it means that you are nominating or you are endorsing the person that was endorsed by the person you're seconding. That's what happens there, right? And NBC knows that. They know that unless they hire incompetent reporters, which based on what you see on MSNBC sometimes, that's not too far-fetched. So let's just keep it real. Now, after a little bit of backlash,

NBC tried to correct the record, tweeting editor's note and clarification, this tweet should have included more details on the nominating process. AOC didn't buy it. She's always quick to come at people who come at her. And so she said, so NBC News, how are you going to fix the incredible amount of damage and misinformation that you are now responsible for? Because at 1.15 a.m., because a tweet at 1.15 a.m. to slip under the radar after blowing up a totally false and divisive narrative across networks isn't it. And look, to be fair to AOC, because she deserves fairness in this story and more, NBC might have issued a little bit of a correction, but in reality, if you look at the way that they've covered her speech in headlines,

They haven't really. So take a look at this headline where they write, AOC symbolically nominates Bernie Sanders in 62nd DNC speech. No, she didn't. She nominated Joe Biden. And by the way, she clarified this on Twitter. She said, if you were confused, no worries. Convention rules require roll call and nominations for every candidate that passes the delegate threshold. I was asked to second the nomination for Senator Sanders for roll call. I extend my deepest congratulations to Joe Biden. Let's go win in November. And you know, I've seen some commentary about like, oh, well, you know, she could have said it in a way. Like, let's give you some examples of a way that she could do this where she mentions

Joe Biden by name. But look, let me just keep it real. You think the DNC has been respectful toward AOC, like, they have had this, like, rolladex of horrible Republicans. I mean, people who push this country into endless wars in Iraq, like Colin Powell is going to speak. And, you know, all of these right wingers, Bloomberg is going to, is allotted more time than AOC was, right? And so all of a sudden, like, we're talking about how AOC needs to be respectful and message it in a clearer way that's friendlier to Biden. Remember, they gave her one minute to speak and it had to be pre-recorded and approved before it could air at the DNC. Please, I'm just not buying any of this. It's so stupid. It's this nonstop finger pointing toward

progressives. These demands that progressives, you know, behave in a certain way, you know, that they fold, they know their role, all of that. But then establishment Democrats can do and say whatever they want. They can slap you in the face whenever they want, however they want. And you're not supposed to ever fight back or speak out against it. It's so frustrating. And even when you do what they ask you to do, they'll write these ridiculous, stupid misleading headlines about you. Anyway, those are my thoughts on it. Yeah, but how do you really feel? Yeah. So everybody at NBC knows exactly what was happening. They know this the tradition that if you got this many delegates, you're going to have your name placed and you're going to choose people who are going to speak in favor of you.

Doesn't mean that they think or want you to get it. Doesn't mean that they're not working to get the eventual nominee to win. And obviously she has and Bernie is. Bernie had already spoken the night before. Everybody at NBC News knows exactly how that works. And they chose to present aOC as if she had gone rogue and decided no. Screw Biden. I'm supporting. Bernie Sanders. And if you watch her speech, if you follow all this news coverage, you'll come away knowing that that's not the case. But if, as many people will, you just see that, you know, then you're going to come away with a false impression. And they know better and they decided to do this. You know, I looked just randomly. Hillary Clinton's name was

placed in nomination for president back in 2008. Jerry Brown, after losing to Bill Clinton in 92, Jesse Jackson and Gary Hart in 84. Ted Kennedy's name was placed in nomination after losing to Jimmy Carter. It happens all the time. It is the most standard thing. And to leave off, they said we need to add more details about the nomination process. No, you need to add one that this is a symbolic move that you were warned about. You had access to her speech beforehand. You were not suddenly like surprised by what she was saying. It's so dishonest. And coming from the same basic company that was smearing Bernie Sanders supporters online, It is digital brown shirts and talking about like the Nazis storming the Maginot Line.

That's basically what Bernie Sanders was on one of the primary nights. You have to put this in the context of how they've treated this movement throughout. And the fact that it's very likely, I don't think this is unfair to say that this is an early attempt to start to sideline AOC, who they probably fear someday will be a Bernie Sanders S candidate for president. Like early attempt, come on. I mean, I feel like this has been going on. I don't, I don't I don't know, I think I misinterpreted the end of her speech. I guess I did because when she said Bernie Sanders nominated Biden. So when she said I second Bernie Sanders' nomination,

I thought that she was just seconding what Bernie had said. But I guess not. And honestly, I don't care. I don't care. Who's the nominee? Who cares? Who cares? You know, it was way more powerful. And I think this is also part of the reason why they, you know, decided to cover the story using this angle as opposed to actually talking about her speech. Her speech was powerful. And it brought up, you know, colonization, which is unprecedented in these types of speeches. So let's actually focus on what matters, which is what her message was. Take a look. infidelity and gratitude to amass people's movement working to establish 21st century social, economic, and human rights, including guaranteed health care, higher education, living wages, and labor rights for all people in the United States,

a movement striving to recognize and repair the wounds of racial injustice, colonization, misogyny, and homophobia, and to propose and build reimagined systems of immigration and foreign policy that turn away from the violence and xenophobia of our past. A movement that realizes the unsustainable brutality of an economy that rewards explosive inequalities of wealth for the few at the expense of long-term stability for the many and who organized a historic grassroots campaign to reclaim our democracy.

In a time when millions of people in the United States are looking for deep, systemic solutions to our crises of mass evictions, unemployment, and lack of health care, in the spiritu del Pueblo, and out of a love for all people, I hereby second the nomination of Senator Bernard Sanders of Vermont

for president, of the United States of America. Yeah, I did originally misinterpret it. So apologies for that, but honestly, I kind of like what she did way more. Yeah, you didn't really get anything wrong because you did not come away thinking that she was trying to get Bernie Sanders to become the next president of the United States. Right, exactly, exactly. And honestly, after watching her speech, what I came away with was, wow, that was an incredibly

powerful speech, especially given the short amount of time she was given to make a message, to put out a message. And look, here's the reason why I think they're totally distracting from what her message actually is. Look, she mentioned labor rights, not real popular with establishment politicians these days. Yes, that includes Democrats. Democrats do not care about labor rights. Let's just keep it real. The only way that they will is if labor gets organized and does something about it. Let's just be honest. There's also the fact that she brought up colonization. Oof, that's a big no-no in American politics because we're such an angelic country.

You know, we don't have this dark, disgusting past. We're going to pretend like, you know, all of that stuff is wiped away. And we did these incredible things and founded this country and there was no one here. There was no colonization. I mean, obviously the truth, that couldn't be further from the truth. But it is unprecedented for a politician to make that kind of statement during a convention speech. And then she mentioned reimagined systems, including in regard to foreign policy. These are powerful, powerful statements. And so what does NBC do? They decide, yeah, yeah, we don't like

any of that. We don't like any of that. We know Biden isn't going to try to do any of that. So let's go ahead and try to misrepresent what AOC is doing here. And it's just so sad and pathetic and petty. All right. Well, we have four minutes left. So let's go to our- We were going to try to fit one more in. I was trying to constrain myself. We can keep going if you want. No, no. Yeah, let's actually, let's move. I'm going to fast forward to a different story because the next one, we don't have enough time for the next one. Let's do Pittsburgh next, if that's okay, guys. All right, so police in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania have apparently taken a page out of Portland's playbook and are now using unmarked vans to basically snatch protesters off

from the middle of the streets as they're demonstrating. Now, these are not federal agents, this is different from what we saw with the Trump administration, but it doesn't matter. We have police in unmarked cars snatching up protesters in broad daylight. So on Saturday, for For instance, Matthew Cartier, a protest marshal was snatched off the streets into a white van while directing traffic during a march against police violence. He was steering protesters through the streets for a weekly protest called Civil Saturdays, sounds dangerous, led by a youth organization Black Young and Educated. According to Cartier's Twitter account, that's when he was lured by men into an unmarked van by passengers who said they were looking for directions. So they lied to him.

The passengers were not wearing police uniforms and were heavily armed, Cartier said. Pittsburgh police claimed Cardier was blocking traffic and that organizers of the march did not communicate with them about their route. The organizers from the youth group have disputed this and held a press conference Monday to defend Cardier and call out the contentious police tactics. By the way, I totally believe the protesters here. Neither Paduto nor the police department responded to City Lab requests for comments. So that's the organization reporting on this story.

And, you know, this is something that we've been seeing. I mean, it's not surprising we saw it happen with the New York Police Department. We saw it happen with federal agents, and it is a form of intimidation. This is a way to discourage protesters from practicing their First Amendment right, from, you know, assembling and practicing their freedom of speech. Yeah, no, it's devastating to see it continuing to spread, I guess we shouldn't be surprised because again, how many consequences were there at police departments across the country for all of what we saw, the kidnappings, but

the brutality as well. There were a few people who were suspended, maybe a couple of firings, but the instances numbered in the dozens or hundreds. And so many cops who have wanted to go beyond what they've done in the past saw that and they learned the lesson that you can get away with it, especially if nobody films you. Once the news moves on and everything, it's going to be so safe to do that, it's going to start to become more common. The, you know, whisking people away, simpler, you know, and brutalizing people. I want to, I want to show an example that someone posted on Twitter of what the scene looked like. Let's go to the first video here. No, I mean, that's terrifying.

We need help. Who are here? That's, no, I mean, that's terrifying. You don't know who these people are. You don't know if you're being kidnapped. And, and, you know, again, unmarked, unidentified individuals snatching you up from the streets and putting you in this van. And it's specifically meant to intimidate.

Here's what the mayor said, just a quick reminder of our constitutional rights. They have restrictions. The right to assemble is a guaranteed right and the right to shut down public streets is a privilege. All right. We have our postgame next. Check us out there. TYT.com slash join to become a member. 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.com slash TYT. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon. Thank you.