The Young Turks - TYT Extended Clip - December 19th, 2019

Episode Date: December 20, 2019

Congress has impeached Trump, but Nancy Pelosi isn't sending it to the Senate for trial. Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian, hosts of The Young Turks, break it down. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to the Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. Hey, guys, you've heard of the Young Turks podcast because you're listening to it right now. But make sure that you subscribe and give it a five star rating if you like it. Thank you for listening. All right. Welcome to the Young Turks, Jake, you're Anna Kasparin with you guys.

Yes, in fact, I do have a different shirt. jacket combination. Everyone was wondering. Yes, it's true. It happened. It's a big day of news. So that's obviously number one. Number two is impeachment.

Number three is the Democratic debate. Everybody knows that's the order of priority for the whole country. Seriously, big news on a lot of different fronts. One of my favorite stories is the new poll out on Donald Trump. What do active duty service members in the military think of Donald Trump? You're gonna love that answer. And then what do they think of Bernie Sanders? You're gonna love the dancer.

I hear we do a show that's not serious enough. No, no, we're bearing the lead. I would argue one of the most important stories today is how Nancy Pelosi, the very person who claims that the Affordable Care Act is her greatest legislative achievement is actually dismantling the Affordable Care Act by. getting rid of taxes on the private health care industry. We're gonna talk about that later. There's a lot of things going on today.

We're paying attention. Okay, we got receipts. So let's do it. Let's start with impeachment. Speaking of bad Nancy Pelosi strategies, here we go. All right, oh, we might disagree on this little, but we'll see. Oh, okay. All right, so a day after Donald Trump was officially impeached in the House of Representatives,

it appears that Nancy Pelosi is using a strategy of holding up the articles of impeachment before they can go to the Senate for a trial. Now she's claiming that she is making this decision because she's concerned that there will not be a fair trial in the Senate. Now let me give you the details. The Hill reports that despite repeated attempts by reporters to press her on timing, Pelosi declined to commit to sending the two articles of impeachment, abuse of power and obstruction of Congress across the Capitol.

She was quoted as saying, we'll make that decision as a group. as we always have as we go along. And then she also cited, Pelosi cited a need to see what the process is on the Senate side before making any decisions about the timing of delivery or the naming of impeachment managers to prosecute the case. Now look, she does have a good reason to be concerned about an unfair trial in the Senate. I mean, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was very clear in saying that he doesn't plan on being fair at all.

Take a look. What is your message to Americans who might have concerns about your ability to be an impartial juror given your comments of your coordinator of the White House? We're working closely with them. What is your message? I'm not an impartial juror. This is a political process. There's not anything judicial about it. Impeachment is a political decision.

The House made a partisan political decision to impeach. I would anticipate we will have a largely partisan outcome. in the Senate. I'm not impartial about this at all. And no one's surprised that he's not impartial or that he has absolutely no, you know, willingness to hold a fair trial. We know that there are political careers on the line here, and Republican lawmakers are much more concerned with protecting their political careers as opposed to doing the right thing. But, Jake, what do you think about this strategy? You think it's a bad one?

I'm worried about it. I think that it's got a lot of problems. So let's give you one more Fact though, first. So once the House sends over the articles of impeachment to the Senate, they must act immediately. They must hold the trial immediately. So and all the senators must go to it. So there is a huge electoral part to this that almost no one is talking about right now, which is that if they go to the trial, let's say in the beginning of January, you'd have to pull the senators off the campaign trail.

Now, that doesn't hurt Buttigieg, that doesn't hurt Biden, but it does hurt Warner Sanders. Those are the top four right now. No, you're right. Okay, now what is another third rail that reporters would never even dare think about, let alone mention is, and I'm not saying that this is why she's doing it, I'm just giving you the lay of the land. This is why she's doing it. Okay, if she, if Nancy Pelosi holds a trial till the beginning of February, then they're off the

campaign trail right before they start voting in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada, Super Tuesday, etc. All of that happens between the beginning of February and the beginning of March. It's like an absolutely action-packed month. And the Republicans are saying, hey, we're going to get rid of this thing real quick. We're going to do it maybe in two weeks or so. If they do it in January, Warren and Sanders might be fine. If Pelosi holds it until February and then they drag it out, they're, I don't know what kind of damage it does to their campaigns, but significant damage. So I'm just putting that out there, I don't know if that's part of the consideration.

We do know Nancy Pelosi has gone to dinners with Democratic donors trying to figure out a way to damage Bernie Sanders campaign. The New York Times reported that, okay? So, all right, so that's one aspect of this. Now let's get to the main aspect of this, I hope, presumably, okay, which is the actually. political and strategy behind impeachment. There I also have concerns, significant concerns. So what is it that the Republicans are now getting to say?

They're getting to say, oh, number one, she's not sending the case because they know how weak it is. So they're all out all over TV going, it's weak, it's weak, it's weak. Lindsay Graham is saying that it is a breathtaking violation of the Constitution. Look, I know the Republicans are liars and hypocrites. I mean, look at what you just saw from Mitch McConnell. He says, oh, this isn't a criminal trial. I don't know what to do due process at all.

Don't you remember the Republicans saying for the last two months while it was in the house? There's no due process. There's no due process. How could they do this to poor President Trump? And now Mitch McConnell turns around and goes, who gives the damn about due process? They don't care. And in fact, it's an interesting thing about Mitch McConnell. And I think politically he's right, obviously policy-wise, in every other respects, he's monstrous.

He thinks it is more, it's a better political strategy to be absolutely brazen and over the top and fight as aggressively as possible. Whereas Pelosi, Hoyer, and Schumer think the better political strategy is to appear nice and civil and decent and fair. Now for a lot of Democrats that listen to NPR, they're like, yeah, oh, decency and civility, oh my God, way to go, guys. But who's winning and losing in that regard politically over the last decade or or longer.

Well, the jury's in on that, the Republicans have picked up a thousand seats in that time period. So the idea of civility is not one that is well suited for electoral politics. So the reason I tell you that is because McConnell was so over the top there. He said, I don't give a damn about being impartial. You saw the exact clip right there. You can see the, I'm paraphrasing it, but you saw for yourself. He, you know, said literally, I'm not impartial about this at all, okay? So that's him rubbing that in their face and going, I'm going over the top of you.

And guess what? Chuck and Nancy, there ain't anything you could do about it. This is how we've been kicking your ass for the last, actually two decades at least. And so- This is so devastating. Look, you made such a devastating point about the timing of the Senate trial and how it would really hurt Bernie Sanders campaign. I didn't even consider that, it didn't even cross my mind.

And so I think that is the, I think that is the main factor in her decision making here. She knew from the very beginning that Republicans were gonna play this the way that they're gonna play it. That they're not going to in any way cross Donald Trump and hurt their political careers. So whether they do this process today or if they do the process three months from now, the outcome is gonna be the same. We all know that. And so they keep talking about this as if they're trying to get concessions from Republicans. Since when has the Democratic establishment ever played hardball with Republicans?

They don't do that. They play hardball with progressives. Well, that's true, but even assuming, and I, to this late date, I'm still a little knife. I know the politics of it well enough to know that that could be a factor. But I'm still like, I have to confess, like in the back of my mind, I'm like, no, they're not that craven, are they? Yes, they are.

Yes, they are. Yes, they are. factor. That is what they're doing here. Okay, so that's, so that's Anna's, you know, hypothesis on that. Why are you going to learn? I know, I know. I keep assuming people are good people. Don't. Okay, how's that working out for me? Not in the democratic establishment. Okay, so anyway, but even if you just looked at, forget the Democratic primary angle for a second,

and look at the impeachment angle. And so what is Pelosi trying to do? She's trying to, She says trying to order her folks say to the media get concessions. So I looked, they said, okay, what concessions do they want? Additional witnesses and documents for the trial. Now, if they got that, if they had the ability to get that, I would actually agree. I would say, oh my God, John Bolton testifying and Mick Mulvaney testifying is so important. If we could get Donald Trump's tax returns in enough time, oh my God, that would be amazing. But there's almost no hope of getting the tax returns on time, so that doesn't make any sense.

I wish it were the case, but it isn't. So the documents are tied up in the courts. They have nothing new with Mitch McConnell, so it's not a concession McConnell could even give. And then in terms of the witnesses, like really at this late date, they think that Mitch McConnell will give them what they want? No, the minute Nancy Pelosi says, here's my wish list, McConnell goes, great, those are the things that I am now least likely to give you. I will give you over my dead political body, right?

And so, like, really does any way? Think that McConnell would ever give Chuck Schumer a concession on this? In fact, if I was the Democrats and I was strategizing on this, I would never ever tell them what my real priorities are. Because if I told him that, McConnell would say, under no circumstances, will I allow you to have that? So this is poorly played from every conceivable angle. You're right, and everything else I had prepared and produced for the story is irrelevant.

My question now is, Jesus. Okay, so my question now is, what if Bernie decides, no, I'm not going to stop campaigning to get wrapped up in the impeachment vote, I'm not going to be there for the trial. No, that I don't know. I'm not sure that he's allowed to do that, but we gotta look into that more. So, okay. We gotta pressure her. She needs to get the pressure from the right and the left, I guess.

She's impervious to pressure from the left. This is why I say that a lot of the progressives in Congress, I love them, but they have the wrong theory of change. They think that if we plead with Nancy Pelosi enough, she will not care about her corporate donors. Proposterous, preposterous, how long would that take? 80 years? No, it's not gonna happen, okay?

So- She cares about getting reelected though. Yeah, do you think anybody in Congress, look, I'm sorry guys, now I'm gonna- Okay, look, I'll just say this, as much as I love the folks in Congress, even the best of them, you think they're going to go out there and say Nancy Pelosi should be defeated? No, no, no, I'm not talking- Not one of them will say that. Of course. Not one, not one. Oh, that would be very rude.

I know, but I'm not relying on people in Congress. You know, we've learned that at least in the hard way. I think it's much more important to get people active. You want to play hardball. Look, I mean, it's funny thing we're discussing this live on air, it's like the potential strategies. But if you do a campaign to get Shahid Bhattar more money for every day that Nancy Pelosi delays, now we're having a conversation because Shahid's running against her, he appears

to be the top progressive candidate against her. And the only thing that Democratic establishment cares about is money. We need to get super organized guys, and we need to do it quick. quickly and we need to be aggressive. And as my good friend Michael Brooks said on his show recently, we're fighting against a monster in the establishment and it's time to get Machiavellian about it. All right, so let's move on. We have other news.

God. Tulsi Gabbard, a Democratic congresswoman, was willing to vote present during the House impeachment vote yes, she didn't vote yes, she didn't vote no, she decided to vote present. is now offering a censure resolution against Donald Trump instead. Now recently on the hills rising, she gave her reasoning behind her vote. Take a look. Throughout my life, whether it was through serving in the military and in the different decisions that I've made in Congress, I always think about what's in the best interests

of the country. People will agree sometimes with those decisions, may disagree with those decisions, but my motivation is always coming from a deep love of country. And that's where after doing my due diligence and going through the exhaustive report that was put out at the conclusion of the inquiry, I came to that conclusion that I could not in good conscience vote either yes or no. You know, a no vote was unacceptable to me because Donald Trump is absolutely guilty of wrongdoing.

A yes vote was unacceptable to me because impeachment should never come about as a, a a culmination of a highly partisan process. Look, I would have liked a follow-up question on what Tulsi Gabbard felt Donald Trump did wrong, right? So what is it that he did wrong? And if she clearly mentions or clearly answers and says, well, he coerced a foreign government to meddle in U.S. elections, and the follow-up question to that is, okay, well, if that's not an impeachable offense in your mind, then what is?

If violating our democratic process is not impeachable in your mind, then what is? Another question, which is, what part of the process was highly partisan? What? The Republicans didn't vote for? The Republicans wouldn't vote for anything that the Democrats proposed. Literally nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing. So if you're waiting for the Republicans, they agree, then you have to agree with the Republicans 100%, otherwise they won't agree.

So, I mean, you're not that naive about politics, right? So then what do you think was partisan about it? There wasn't anything partisan about it. Look, is there anyone on the air in the country that calls out the Democrats more than I do? I wouldn't play second fiddle to anyone on that. In terms of democratic leadership and their incompetence and their poor strategy and the corruption, I've said it a million times, right? But here, I think they could have been tougher on Donald Trump, I've talked about that a lot,

But could they have appeased Republicans more and made this less quote unquote partisan? No, not 1%. Well, in fact, they were too soft. They were too giving to the Republicans, too concerned about their issues. So for Tulsi Gabbard to say that the Democrats are too partisan on this, it's, look, putting aside motivation for a second, it's an absurd claim to make. It is an absolutely outrageously false claim to make. So it's interesting because you mentioned those things.

as if Tulsi Gabbard would agree with you. But we actually had a very different philosophical stance when it came to this impeachment investigation. Tulsi Gabbard actually wanted the scope of this investigation to be limited. Whereas you're right, I mean, you said, you've said it as recently as yesterday. They should not have limited the scope of the investigation. In fact, there should have been more emphasis placed on possible financial crimes, campaign finance crimes.

Those issues were not considered during this impeachment investigation. The articles of impeachment were vague, especially the abuse of power article. And so yeah, Democrats actually went soft on Trump and proceeded from a place of fear. And that's what they usually do. That's where our criticism comes from. But this weird thing about how, oh, I poured over all of this extensive research and the investigation and I found, you know, there was wrongdoing, which is why I couldn't vote, No, but I couldn't vote yes because what, there wasn't enough there to impeach him?

That makes no sense. Sorry, I don't believe that for one second, it doesn't make any sense. So here's what makes sense. I haven't yet decided whether I'm saying the Democratic Party or going over the Republican party. So that's why I don't want to vote yes and I don't want to vote no. I want to preserve my options in case Joe Biden picks me to be his VP or in his cabinet, I want to preserve that option.

But if he doesn't, and Trump wins, I want to preserve the option of being in his cabinet. And I'm getting ready to make that switch right now. And so that's a political reality. And so if you, but saying that the Democrats are too partisan on this is not supported by any fact at all. So yeah. You could read whatever intention you want into her decision, but you cannot read logic into it.

So there's one other component of this story I want to talk about because we're not the only once critical. There's a number of lawmakers who have been critical of her decision, including AOC. So after Tulsi Gabbard voted present during the House impeachment vote, there's been a flood of criticism toward her decision to do that. And one of the progressives in Congress, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, said that this wasn't a good idea. Here's her exact quote. Whenever we have a vote, we should vote yes and we should vote no. And voting present is a a very tough position to be in. To not take a stand in a moment that is so consequential, I think is quite difficult.

Yeah. Look, obviously I agree with AOC and there's a reason why Gabbard is not voting in either direction. It appears to me that she wants to preserve her optionality in which party to be in and which way to take her political career. But that seems brazen. So look, I'm done trying to figure out. Tulsi Gabbard. Yeah, I don't care about figuring her out.

Yeah, look, but to me, when she was in Congress and she voted with progressives 90% of the time, I was thrilled to take that vote and have her as an ally, 10% of the time when she would vote to keep out refugees, be okay with torture, and in about every single instance, if there was an issue regarding Muslims, she would vote against them, okay, I was not thrilled with those votes, we were honest about all of that, right? And overall, we were happy to have her as an ally. And now she's done this weird play where she's running for president with no chance at all.

And that's fine, we had her on several times. I gave everybody a chance, we gave her a chance, we open mind to everyone. And at that time, she's still 90% progressive. Now she's been turning and turning and turning. And now we've gotten to this weird place where she's defending Trump. Because think about this guys, this is so important. When a Democrat who's running for president comes out and says that, and she used this word a day or so ago, she said it was a hyper-partisan, okay?

Says the Democrats have been hyper-partisan, then the Republicans turn around and go, see, even a Democratic presidential candidate says that the Democrats were hyper-partisan. Now, totally anything said there was hyper-partisanship on both sides. Really? Both sides do it? After all this time, you're gonna come out with both sides do it? and accuse the Democrats of being hyperpartisan, that is a Republican talking point. So I don't know what the hell she's thinking.

I do know what she's doing. It is not remotely helpful. And most importantly, it's just not true. So one of the, look, Tulsi Gabbard supporters are now going after AOC and they think that her, by the way, I mean, she was right. I don't think that AOC was like, you know, angry or too aggressive in her comment. She made a point that I think is actually pretty legitimate, right? You're voting on something as important as this impeachment vote, and there's an abundance

of evidence showing that Donald Trump did exactly what he's been accused of doing by the initial whistleblower. You have all these ambassadors and Trump administration officials testifying against him. But some of Tulsi's most avid supporters are saying, well, AOC didn't take a stance when it came to Venezuela. She was asked about it, and she said that she deferred to leadership. Okay, well, she was asked by reporters what she thought about it, and I would have preferred that she had an answer to that question.

There's no question about that. But if she were on the floor of the house and she had to cast a vote on foreign policy related to Venezuela or any other country, and she took a cowardly position of present as opposed to voting yes or no, then she deserves that criticism. There's no question about it. But to compare this impeachment vote to a reporter asking AOC what she thinks about Venezuela, I think is a little ridiculous. And a bit of a stretch.

Look, I think Tulsi's lost a lot of progressive supporters. The jury's beginning to comment on that. For the folks who are still there, everybody's got a right to their opinion. And by the way, if you still agree with us on 90% of stuff, I love it and I'll take it. And I hope that you don't shut off your mind and go, okay, since you have criticized my dear leader, now no matter how much I agree with you on other things, I will oppose you. But that's your call to make, right? But I got to ask you, do you still think she's progressive? Now claiming that the Democrats are hyper-partisan and going after poor Donald Trump?

Okay, if you think that, it's a curious definition of progressive. But I think that most progressives, not most, 99% of progressives are on AOC's side, not Tulsi's. All right, we got to take a break. When we come back, Trump's unhinged rally, I mean, that's the norm, right? but he went after a dead congressman, and I think that he might have crossed the line even for conservatives. We'll be back.

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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. All right, back on the young Turks, time for just a couple of comments from the member section. I bathe in a billionaire banker's tears, right, said, if she held up the Senate vote until the Dems take the Senate in 2020, and if Trump is reelected, he could then be removed. hashtag insurance policy? No, you're way over thinking it.

You can't hold it until the next term. No, that's crazy talk. But thank you for participating. And I like your wild theory, though. Med Kitty says, does Mitch McConnell find it frustrating that someone would purposefully withhold something until their demands are met? The gun legislation, the House passed months ago called, it doesn't care. Gun legislation, $15 minimum wage.

Are we talking about holding things up? Merrick Garland. He held up Merrick Garland for a year. Now he's complaining about Pelosi holding up the impeachment articles, please. No, but he should keep complaining about it. Like, I want to help him. Let's help Mitch McConnell pressure Nancy Pelosi to do it. Right. So Zeke has a different theory. Zeke, the pickle hater. I don't know what that means. You can't hate pickles. They're delicious. I continue. Right. Says, I think I actually agree with Pelosi on the delay on this part of the process. as long as they wait until the campaigns are all over, but they're not going to do that.

Bernie and Liz keep campaigning. Senate will definitely not convict and remove Trump. The only likely way to get a just outcome is to wait. I honestly think she's more concerned about Trump winning the Senate conviction, helping him in the polls, even if I don't think it would have any real impact. I will be beyond furious if she does time into sandbag progressives, however. But I don't think that's the play this time. And that's why I want to share it, because everybody's got a different impact.

And I love that you guys participate, especially our members, tyt.com slash join to become a member. But we don't really know. We don't know what's in our head. Okay. A few announcements. As you know, we have a few partners and one of them is Doe. So Doe will actually pay for your first share of stock, which is pretty impressive.

And it is an unlimited commission-free stock trade platform that you should check out. So go to Doe.com to learn more. Also, Brett Ehrlich, going to the big leagues, he's going to be on ABC News the year. Oh, I was going to say, is he going to be on the main show? No, I know, okay, all right, we got it, Brett. He wants me to mention this is the 10th time he's done it. Okay, fancy schmance, pants, all right, so he's going to be on, let's put that graphic back up on Sunday, the Sunday, the, oh, 9, 9, 8 Central, so that's the time.

So Sunday at 9th Central, it's the year in review. And it's when Brett gets to do funny stuff. So check it out. Yeah, on ABC. Oh, it's awesome. And he obviously stole my jacket, no problem. Okay. Did he really?

No, it's just the same color. Are you kidding me? He would look like a child in my jacket. Okay, and then finally, LA debate, it's happening tonight and we will be providing special coverage, so make sure you tune in, go to TY.t.com slash live to do so. And it will start at 10 p.m. Eastern Time, 7 p.m. Pacific, and the panel is going to be awesome. Irola, Ida Rodriguez, Jank Yugar, and myself. John looks high in that picture.

He does, I like it. Yes, David Dayan is in the spin room for us, so it's a great lineup. All right, what's thanks? All right, so while the impeachment vote was happening in the House, Donald Trump was holding his own rally, and of course he was raging during this rally, especially when it came to Debbie Dingle. So Debbie Dingle actually voted in favor of impeaching Donald Trump, he wasn't happy about it, And so he decided to go after her husband who has passed away.

Take a look. I gave him everything. That's okay. I don't want anything for it. I don't need anything for anything. She calls me up. It's the nicest thing that's ever happened. Thank you so much.

John would be so thrilled. He's looking down. He'd be so thrilled. Thank you so much, sir. I said, that's okay. Don't worry about it. Maybe he's looking up, I don't know. No.

Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. But let's assume he's looking down. Okay, so I need to explain the first part of that. And then I want to look at the crowd reaction a little bit, and then we'll get to how pissed everybody is.

So John Dingell passed away recently. He served nearly 60 years in Congress, longest serving member of the House ever. Now, he had already given up his seat, and his wife Debbie Dingell had won. won it in 2014. So they've held that seat for over six decades in the Dingell family. And but he passed away in February. And since he was a legendary congressman, he would often win by over 70%. And like I said, longest serving one ever, right?

They lowered the flag to half staff. Debbie Dingell says Trump called her to say that. Trump in that story is saying she called him and was pleading with him. I wonder who's right. Who has a history of lying? Of course, Drum's lying. Anyway, that's not important. But he says, I did her a favor.

John Meachan made a great point about this on MSNBC. He said, it's not that you're doing her a favor, you're the president of the United States, you're doing what it, you're supposed to be serving the people, and that's a very normal thing to do no matter what. But he views himself as a king, so he's like, I give this lowly servant a gift, you know, I let him him have a nice memorial service and I don't spit on his grave and I lower the like the half staff. So she owes me, but she still votes for impeachment and she says, oh, he's looking down from heaven.

Well, maybe he's looking up, in other words, from hell. And you could tell from the crowd reaction, you know, his crowd is usually vicious and any time he does the vicious attacks, they like it. And half the crowd did laugh and stuff, but the other have appeared to even for the crowd to be like, oh, ooh. They looked uncomfortable, and it gave me a little bit of faith or hope, whatever you want to call it, that there's still some good people left in the world, at least somewhat decent, you know, because that, look, when I saw that, of course I was disgusted by it,

but at this point, nothing that comes out of Trump's mind surprises me. I mean, he has normalized cruelty and hatred to a level that I wouldn't have even predicted during the 2016 election when he was saying terrible things on the debate stage. But with that said, you know, at what point do his voters realize that he doesn't have any human decency, that he doesn't actually care about anyone, including them, that the only person he cares about is himself. He cares about his own profits, he cares about using the office of the presidency to enrich himself.

This whole impeachment investigation isn't about Donald Trump, co-worths. a foreign leader in order to do what's best for the United States. It was about coercing a foreign leader to do what was best for him and his reelection campaign. Everything always goes back to him. He doesn't care about anyone, he doesn't even see people as people. He dehumanizes people more than anyone we've ever seen in American politics. Yeah, so there's another potential reason why he makes that joke about hell, because he doesn't believe in the Bible, he doesn't believe in Christianity, and I can understand, I'm agnostic.

So if you said, and a lot of people fundamentalist Christians and Muslims have told me I'm going to hell, I'm like, okay, that's like your opinion, man. It doesn't bother me at all because I know it doesn't exist. But since he's not actually a Christian, it's certainly not a practicing one, he thinks, so what's the big deal? I made a joke about hell. But for a lot of devout Christians, they're like, whoa, whoa, what did you just say? That's crazy.

And so evangelicals so far in this country have said, I don't care if he's sleep. with adult movie stars, I don't care what, if he lies nonstop, cheats on his wife. I don't care about any, I don't care how terribly is, he's an imperfect vessel. But when you start kidding around about heaven and hell, it appears at least from the crowd reaction and then other Republican reaction that he might have crossed the line for them, which previously seemed uncrossable. So I want to go to Debbie Dingell, who did respond or react to this, and here's what she had to say.

You know, I think it's time to put politics aside on these kind of shots. I try to be respectful of everybody. I've never taken a personal shot at this president. I think his family is off limits. I was very grateful. By the way, he, I didn't call him. He called me to tell me he was lowering the flags. And that meant a lot.

But John Dingell earned his burial at Arlington Cemetery because he's a World War II veteran, Longest Serving member in the Congress. He loved our country. The president also said he was arranged for the rotunda. John Dingle wasn't in the rotunda, and my family's still hurting. I have a brother, he's John's brother. My brother-in-law is in hospice, went into hospice at Thanksgiving. And these kinds of things, we're family grieving.

So I think we should take a lesson from this and all respect each other. I don't want to politicize my husband. want to politicize his death. It is still something that I'm really grieving over. This Thanksgiving was really hard, and Christmas is harder, and I'm going to go back to doing my job. Yeah, you know, Anna just said something while we were watching that really strike home. So I'm not a religious person, obviously, we've talked about that many times, but, so I don't care about the heaven health thing, but if your loved one, your spouse just passed away and someone, says that about them, like, you know, basically something, you know, he's implying that he hopes

he's in hell. Wow, man. Yeah, just personalize it. Just think about it in your terms. Think about someone, your life partner, someone very close to you passing away, and then having the most powerful man in the world retaliate against you in a public forum by saying, essentially, that your loved one's in hell. It's, yeah, I mean, I think people need to take a moment.

I know that empathy isn't a thing in America among a lot of people, but just for a second, put yourself in the shoes of the people that Donald Trump goes after the hardest, including, by the way, children who are still locked up in cages at the border. Well, he also dehumanizes on a regular basis. If there is a hell, there is someone who might wind up seeing it and looking up at the rest of us. Yeah. Jay, I wonder who that is. So the ghouls and goblins who surround Donald Trump, of course, defended everything that he had to say. Let's take a look.

It's just always an interesting situation here in D.C. No matter what the president says, people are going to parse it apart, try and tear it apart and focus on the most negative aspects of it. But let's be clear, so many of these Democrats and hypocrisy in this town is staggering. When they come over here and try and have conversations with the president, work with the president, come to successful conclusions on bills, on executive orders. And then they turn around and slap him in the face. You know, it's just a tough thing. He's been under assault ever since he took the oath of office, even before, for the last several years.

And so, look, it's understandable that someone's frustrated by the fact you have 93% negative news coverage. He was at a political rally. He has been under attack and under impeachment attack for the last few months, and then just under attack politically for the last two and a half years. I think that as we all know, the president is a counterpuncher. It was a very, very supportive and wild crowd. And he was just riffing on some of the things that had been happening the past few days. So that was Stephanie Grisham and Hogan Gidley, his communications team.

And they, yeah, they're making him out to be the victim. Poor Donald Trump, he's the real victim here. Yeah, he's just counterpunching against Debbie Dingell, who, or maybe against her deceased husband, because that's a classy thing to do. And did you notice what Grisham said as well? The crowd made him do it. The Republican crowds are so vicious. They make Donald Trump insult people who have died and insult their family members who are still grieving.

The speed in which Donald Trump and the rest of those clowns throw their own supporters under the bus is incredible. And their unwillingness to acknowledge that these people don't care about you. They have been fighting against you. Two trillion dollars in tax cuts for the rich over the next 10 years. Who do you think that's gonna benefit? You think it's gonna benefit the people at those rallies? This is not the only time they've blamed the rallies.

Another time, remember when they chanted, send them back about the squad. And later the Trump team said, oh no, no, it wasn't Trump, it's his followers that are the problem, okay? I mean, that is the last thing Trump's gonna throw under the bus. Just Giuliani, not like his top closest aides and advisors, the last people who throws under the bus is his own fans and his own supporters. He gives Democrats so much material to use against him in political ads, and they never bite. They never bite.

I mean, would they ever go after Trump on the tax cuts for the rich? Unless you're Bernie Sanders, it wouldn't make sense, right? Because Bernie Sanders would never vote in favor of those types of tax cuts, but how many Democrats did, right? The Democratic leadership loves tax cuts. They just, Democratic leadership just granted a massive tax cut to the private health care industry. That's what they did. They voted along with Republicans in the spending bill to do that.

This is, look, I see this, of course, you want to have a long discussion about how immoral and indecent Donald Trump is. But in reality, the heart of this story is the failure of the Democratic establishment, because it takes a failing political party to make way for a monster like Donald Trump. for an incompetent loser like Donald Trump. Yeah, so by the way, this is not the first time he's attacked dead veterans. He, of course, famously attacked Kaiser Khan, whose son had passed away fighting for this country, but had been Muslim, so Donald Trump attacked him.

Who cares that he sacrificed his life for this country? He's a dirty Muslim. Trump is the worst person I've ever seen, and he's the president of the United States. He of course attacked John McCain after he died. So he has a history of not only attacking people who have passed away, but specifically veterans who have passed away. And now he's lost a ton of support from the military, gee, I wonder why. Yet he sits at a stunningly high approval rating among Republican voters.

That's the country we're in. Well, he might have gone a little too far for conservative members of the media, which is kind of shocking, so let's talk about that. Following Donald Trump's attack on Debbie and John Dingell, it turns out that he went a little far for even members of the conservative media. Now, John Dingell recently passed away, and during a rally, he made a comment about how he's probably looking up from hell, and I'm paraphrasing, but it was so atrocious, so disgusting, that it led to this type of media response.

The president stepped in it on this. He had largely a political positive. By saying what he said about Representative Dingell, he really possibly hurt himself. Congress, I'm sorry about this that happened last night. This was completely, I don't know why he, it was so unnecessary. It is cowardly. You attack someone who's dead because they can't fight back. And we've seen this from the president again and again. What was said last night in Michigan was beyond sick. President Trump, Donald Trump before that, attacks those things which he is not and which other people esteem. Why do you go out of your way to be so cruel? It was appalling and repugnant and it was wrong and small. I think he should apologize, not just as a matter of politics, but just as a

matter of decency. Humanity, right? And I wish as many, many Republicans, do, that he would stop these gratuitous, nasty, personal attacks. Senator, should he apologize? Yes, of course he should. I mean, that's just, that's beyond the pale. And I would hope he would. You know, I don't think any of us are particularly optimistic that he will, but he should. I think it was mean, cruel, disgusting, and I wish I could say it was surprising.

So, more than half of those folks are conservative commentators. conservative commentators, but not all of them. The last person you saw is Senator Debbie Stabenow from Michigan, who's a Democrat. You saw John Berman, Scarborough, John Meacham, that are not Trump supporters. John Meacham throughout this has made the best points. And that was another devastating one. Trump particularly attacks two types of people. Meacham didn't mention the other type, which is women.

There's nothing gets under Donald Trump's skin more than a woman attacking him or critiquing him in a legitimate way. And especially an African-American woman, like Maxine Waters and many other examples. But the other categories, people that others respect and Trump knows he can't measure up to. Oh, that drives him crazy. And so, look, this hits religious folks and many others that are conservative, not just liberals or moderates. So, I mean, that's about the harshest things I've seen, any of the conservative commentators or Fox people saying, Maria Bartaromo, I mean, she's in the top three of his defenders.

100%, yeah. For her to say that, wow, that was stunning. I'm looking forward to Lou Dobbs tonight, though, because the Sith Lord might still rally and be like, he will. Yeah, he was like, what he said about John Dingle was beautiful. It was moving. It was so strong. Okay, but I actually want to address what.

Santorum said in that video montage, because he made a point about how Trump should apologize, but essentially don't hold your breath. Like he's not expecting Trump to apologize. So what he did there, again, one of Trump's defenders is acknowledge that Trump is an indecent, terrible human being, right? Yeah, 100%. And it's like, but I'm going to keep supporting him and I'm still going to do these cable news hits where I defend him. In this case, I won't defend him. And I'll, accidentally admit to the public that I think he's a terrible human being, but it is what it is. Let's move on.

That's what the Republican Party is, because it's about money and it's about political careers. That's what it's about, guys. That's all it is. And so when you have someone like Tulsi Gabbard talk about partisanship, I think the most important component of hyper-partisanship is how both parties will vote together or will work together when it comes to securing their political careers and securing their donors. Other than that, everything else is just pocket change here and there. And this is the type of thing the Democratic Party jumps all over because it doesn't affect donor money at all.

Totally. And it offends so many people, rightfully so, that's a topic they're happy to press Trump on. Don't get me wrong, they should, right? He's a vile human being. I wish they would fight him as hard on other issues as well. But this is a rare issue that has united everyone across the political spectrum. But Anna's point is the most important, where basically Santorum and all the other conservatives say, yeah, we know we have a morally repugnant person as our leader, and we're totally

comfortable with it. Like it bothers us just a little bit, but I still got my tax cuts. Exactly. All right, well, we gotta take a break. When we come back, Donald Trump talks about Big Water. At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control of our online lives, constantly monitoring us, and storing our data. But that doesn't mean we have to let them.

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Okay, thank you for participating to everybody who did. So let me just quickly go through just a couple comments here. On Twitter, the math and magician says, there's just no bottom to these Trump rallies, is there? And to think he's going to be doing these for the rest of his life regardless of how impeachment goes. Totally true. Forget impeachment. It doesn't matter if he loses the election. He's going to want to keep doing the rallies because it's the only thing he likes.

He loves it. Yeah, because he's looking for validation. And that's there just, and he can't get it in other places because he sucks. So he keeps going to the rallies to get the validation. And Trent Sanamuarto writes in, I consider no man perfect, but John Dingle fought Nazi. helped in passing the Medicare Act, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Civil Rights Act, no wonder Trump hates them. So those are great points. Because the old-timers like John Dingell, they were around when we passed some of the greatest legislation in American history.

Andrew grew on YouTube Super Chat says, Jenk, hell is real. It's a township in Michigan. No joke. I looked it up. Yes, there is, in fact, a hell Michigan. Yes. Wow. Yeah, and so, by the way, Trump was speaking in Michigan. I-Core 3 says, imagine what Fox News would say if it was Hillary. Okay, but on the other hand, to be fair to Fox, they also criticized Trump. Okay, they would have gone way worse on Hillary, but still. And Ann Mold Gill says, we have to stop being naive. Say the same to them.

Oh, no, I'm not holding back anything. I don't know if you noticed during the clip. I mean, if there is a hell, Donald Trump's definitely going to it. I mean, I don't know anyone who's been more craven, immoral, more selfish, full vanity, I mean, he looks at the Ten Commandments as a to-do list of things to violate. Right. So sleeping with other, your neighbor's wife, I mean, he's done almost all of them. Jesus, yeah, gross.

So I don't hesitate in saying that at all. Okay. All right, well, let's move on and talk about big water. During Donald Trump's rally in Michigan, he talked about water conservation efforts in the only way he knows how by making himself look as stupid as humanly possible. Take a look. Sinks, showers, all of this stuff. I did a lot of it. No water comes out. You have areas where there's so much water you don't know what to do with it, you turn on the shower, you're not allowed to have any water anymore. I mean, we do a lot of it. Dishwashers. We did the dishwasher,

right? You press it. Remember the dishwasher, you'd press it, boom, they'd be like an explosion. Five minutes later, you open it up, the steam pours out, the dishes. Now you press it. It's 12 times, women tell me, again, you know, they give you four drops of water. Look, as a woman with a dishwasher, I have to say that I've never noticed any explosion of water within the dishwasher or a drip of water within the dishwasher. I don't know what's going on within the dishwasher because the whole point is to press a button and then move on with your life. So that was a weird rant.

But I actually think the messaging there is effective, and I'll explain later. Okay, a bunch of things before we get to why he's. obsessed with water. Okay, number one, the most damaging one, it was at the end. I mean, he's got this weird hypothesis about water and the dishwashers, and he's like, a lot of women have told me. Yeah, they can't help himself. They actually have conferences annually about dishwasher problems.

Because a man would never wash the dishes so that women had to tell him about washing the dishes. That's why he put that in there. Yeah. Okay, he's unreal. Anyway, now on to the weirdo obsession. I gotta ask you a question, do you ever load the dishwasher? Yes, Wendy and I have had a lot of conversations about this.

If she was here, she'd say, no. No, I do. I do, and lately I've been doing it a lot more, okay? But she would say not nearly enough, okay? Lately you're doing it more. Because lately you haven't been busier than usual. No, we're running out of money, that's a whole different story. Okay, but anyway, that's why I'm doing it more.

So, but, so then this obsession with water, like, first of all, who has to press the dishwasher button 12 times? I've never had to do that, I don't know what the hell he's talking about, okay, I literally did the dishes the other day to answer your question, you know, Wendy was like, congrats a couple of times, right? But I pressed it once and it worked. And I've done it before, back in the good old days when the dishwashers exploded. Did you, well, did you check on the dishwasher cam, you know, the internal cam?

to see if there was an explosion of water, big water. Steam comes out of the dishwasher. They did in the past it does today. I don't know what the hell he's talking about. Okay, but look, Brett made a devastating point, Brett supervising producer of the show. He was like, look, what he is saying actually does resonate with a lot of people. Now, I don't know about the dishwasher argument, but he talks about the showers. And so in an effort to conserve water, and this is important, a lot of showerheads, actually all showerheads, I believe, come with

this little plastic piece within it that restricts the water flow, right? So if you have like a high water pressure or if you love high water pressure showers, well, you kind of have to take that little plastic piece out. People are angry about it. I know that people are frustrated and I gotta be honest, I don't like that little plastic part, right? So his messaging to a lot of people might sound stupid, but remember, he speaks in a way that is accessible to a lot of people, and I think it resonates with a lot of people.

Well, I didn't resonate with that crowd, to be fair. That crowd was like, what? Why are dishwashers exploding? So maybe if he's stuck with a shower example, he would have been better off. I totally agree, I totally agree. But it is interesting to see how he communicates about environmental issues. And we have a JR-rated montage to share with you. Now, in it, there's actually going to be a comment that he made in regard to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.

So that was not about water conservation. but he does speak about water in funny ways. Check this out. Sinks, showers, all of this stuff. I did a lot of it. No water comes out. You have areas where there's so much water you don't know what to do with it. You turn on the shower, you're not allowed to have any water anymore. People are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times, as opposed to once. They end up using more water. So EPA is looking at that very strongly at my suggestion. This is an island surrounded by water, big water, ocean water. If you have a windmill anywhere near your house, congratulations.

Your house just went down 75% in value. And they say the noise causes cancer. You told me that one, okay? I believe that there's a change in weather, and I think it changes both ways. Dishwashers, did the dishwasher, right? You press it. Remember the dishwasher, you'd press it, boom, they'd be like an explosion. Five minutes later, you open it up, the steam pours out, the dishes.

Now you press it 12 times. Women tell me. Okay, I can't, I can't get over the toilet example. Yes, that's the real, I'm gonna get to, why? People are flushing the toilets 10 times, 15 times. No one's doing that, and if he's doing that, he needs to lay off the McDonald's. Okay, no, no, all of this obsession is around the toilet. It isn't about the showers.

It isn't about the dishwasher. The dishwasher doesn't get done in five minutes. He's never done a dishwasher in his life, okay? So, no, no, no. I mean, here's the president of the United States saying, you flushed the toilet ten times. It doesn't go down. Why?

Why are you talking about this? Are you insane? Weiger, the fact of the matter is that fecal matter matters. That's why they call it matter. Okay, anyway. No, he's having trouble with the toilet in the White House. It's so obvious. And he said, whenever he says people tell me, it's him, like about every topic, right?

He's like, oh, people tell me, I'm doing a great job, people tell me the crowd size is huge, right? People tell me they're having trouble with the toilet. You flush it 10 times and it won't go down. We gotta look into this. He said that he's gonna have his government look very strongly at toilet flushing. How do you look at it? Is he gonna, government officials might have been over though, looking at it.

very strongly. There's no, there is no difference between what toilets used to be like and low flow toilets, right? And yeah, there's no difference. Okay, please. Other than conserving water with the low flow toilets. Look, I get the people who are bitter about the shower heads. I understand.

I want that water battering my back, right? I like-battering. Yes, it's my favorite. But especially in a place like California that had dealt with an extreme drought. It's important to conserve water, right? So he doesn't care about the environment. He doesn't care about any of that, exactly. He loves overindulging, et cetera.

In fact, I'm gonna tie both of those topics together. So he's had like six major bankruptcies, but a lot of the companies that have been shut down or sold that are not technically bankruptcies, one of those is Trump airlines. He bought this airline that was a commuter route between New York, Boston, and Washington. And so, it's super important that it be cheap because people are using it daily, right? But he's an idiot, so he comes in and he's like, I know what they want, gold-plated toilets. Nobody wants gold-plated toilets, not a commuter line that's their plane and stuff. So he said, but he's obsessed with toilets, he's obsessed with extravagance.

He is, he is. And look, since I actually care about these things, because it has to do with interior design, I want to be fair. He didn't want gold toilets, but he wanted brass fixtures. along with marble, so like marble countertops in the bathroom, for instance. Yeah, yeah, no, no, no. And that's, yeah, it's disastrous. He didn't cover the toilet in gold, okay?

Even he didn't do that, but he wanted it to look like that, and hence the brass, okay? And so, but it doesn't matter, it was way too expensive, and guess what happened? Out of business. And funny enough, his business went down the toilet and fairly easily. He didn't even have to flush it 10 or 15 times. That's right. All right, well, we've got to take a break. When we come back, we will give you the latest poll showing that Donald Trump is actually losing support among the military and Bernie Sanders doing real well among the military.

Jeroms. We'll be right back. Water, big water, ocean water. 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. podcast at apple.com.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.