The Young Turks - TYT Extended Clip - February 10th, 2020

Episode Date: February 11, 2020

Trump's budget is a total nightmare. John Iadarola, Alonzo Bodden, and Francesca Fiorentini, 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

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Thank you for listening. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another. the week here at the Young Turks, Big New Hampshire Week, and I am joined to start off this week with some comedy gold. Back after a little bit of a gap, Alonza Bowden's back in studio. Yes, it's been a while, been a while, but it's good to be back. It's great to have you here, but in the weekend, you're going to be at the Brooktown Comedy Club in Oklahoma City.

Oklahoma City, my first time working OKC, and I'm looking forward to it. I'll say hi to Chris Paul. I'm a clipper fan. He laughed us, but I'm still cool with him. And Francesca Fierentini, always glad to have you here. Yeah, good to be here. What a week it's gonna be. Oh God, you know, it's like obviously it's gonna get really exciting tomorrow with New Hampshire

and we're gonna have live coverage. Are you involved in that? Yes. You were gonna be involved. I was supposed to, I'm not gonna be there and so you guys are gonna hold it down and then- You're not gonna be in your corner? No, no, it's my wife's B-day, we're going out for a B-day, which some would say more important than the New Hampshire primary.

She's one of those people and so no, it's gonna be awesome to have you guys in Very much. And Emma is going to be, you know, calling in from New Hampshire. And then, you know, later in the week we'll get the results. So it should be cool. Yeah, yeah. Well, just about, what do you think? Another week later, depends on where the, where the tortoise goes and the sort of temperature.

Yeah, you said later in the week, I would go it eventually. Yeah, I mean, we don't have Iowa. Eventually. Just give enough time for Clovet chart and clear victory. Come on. Clobe. Clove surge. Yeah.

Clove surge. I love it. I love it. I like that clovementum. So look, through the course of this hour, we're gonna talk about a lot of stuff. At the end, we're gonna be talking about some Fox News promotion for a right wing comedy special. And I don't know anything about comedy, but both of you do. So that should be really exciting.

Along the way, we've got discrimination. We've got Biden lashing out at Pete Buttigieg and Sanders and his circuits defending himself against some newfound attacks. But before we get to all that, why don't we start off the most exciting news of the day, the federal budget. Donald Trump has released the first details, his budget proposal for this year. Bear in mind before we get into the specifics that this is not the budget that is necessarily going to pass. It's almost certainly not the budget that will pass.

But here is what he wants. He is, especially because it's not going to necessarily become law, anything put in here is basically a symbol. It is Trump saying what he wants and what he does not want. So we've got a lot here. It's a $4.8 trillion proposal. That includes $2 billion to fund his enhancements to the border wall. So $2 billion additional dollars for this year.

So far, they have spent $18 billion on that wall between the US and Mexico. This time, the enhancement is just that the wall will stay up, right? It won't be blown over by, what's that thing? They're actually- Wind. Wind, yeah. They're going to the third little pig. And they're gonna see if they can build something to withstand the huff and puff.

The huff and puff was powerful against the wall. I mean, this is all, you know, the whole budget, it's all fantasy, right? It's like, we're gonna spend this much, and then he increases spending based on economic growth that's never happened, you know, and it's not gonna happen. But again, this is a political appeal to his base, that's all it is. Then he can say, hey, I put in this and I wanted to do that, and they stopped me from this. And it's all, you know, it's like you said, it's his dream, it's projection. And come on, how much of this did he write?

That's a good point. He liked some of it, but he didn't write it. And so again, like we've said multiple times, you can't necessarily be sure that any of these numbers are going to end up actually looking like this, but the Democrats gave him billions for his wall last year. And they supported the military budget just a few months ago. So, some of it could make it through all the way. I don't know why we're still paying taxes.

Like, you know, what, like for, I just, this is ridiculous. Like it is ridiculous. Like, can, will someone come after me? Like, listen, I'm not mafia. I'd like to think someone would come after me though, that I'd be important enough if I evaded my taxes, someone eventually would, you know, one can dream. But I honestly don't know why we are, I mean, again, you're saying the complicity, the Democrats and all this, you know, every time I think what happens with Democrats is

is that you say there's gonna be militarization, like border security. You're just gonna call it security. And then eventually that gets siphoned off into building more of this dumb wall. I mean, he's already siphoned off money from FEMA, he's siphoned off money from the military. Like, I don't understand why we are cooperating anymore. But of course I can't say that because I'll be called, you know, like uncivil and not bipartisan. No, if you were rich enough, you wouldn't have to pay taxes. So if you don't wanna pay taxes, step up your game.

If you could bring home a couple of billion a year, then you wouldn't be bothered paying taxes. You know, the thing about the military budget, there's two things I look at this, is one, like the veterans portion of the budget, I'm fine with that. The only problem is exactly what you said, it doesn't get to them. See, if it got to them, if it got to improving the veterans hospital budget, if it got to improving their other benefits and stuff like that, you know, they deserve it. And I'd be okay with that.

The problem with taxes and the budget is the money never gets to where they say it's going to go. If the money was actually used to rebuild infrastructure, for example, and you actually saw the roads were getting smoother or bridges weren't falling down, then people would be like, oh, okay, I don't mind paying taxes. Hey, wait, there's a new school that got built. So, you know, and the thing about the military money is it's political suicide to say no to the military budget.

That's the thing. Remember, everyone in Congress, everyone in the Senate, their only job is getting reelected, right? Once they're in, their whole thing is, I got to keep my job. And it's the first thing that will be used against you, and you talk, you know, you joke about being uncivil and un-American. If you're in Congress and you vote to cut one penny from the military budget, you are obviously in league with the terrorists.

Yeah, you're right. You have to be. You know, so that, it, I don't, listen, I don't know what the solution is. This can't keep going. It's impossible to sustain this. What happens is every 20 years, 30th, the economy crashes, right? Now, listen, I'll be honest. I'm an old guy.

I've had a good run. You, me, not so good. But me? Wow. Yeah, I figure about the next crash, I'm gone anyway. So, you know, what the hell? Just like, take advantage of it now. Yeah, yeah, no, you're in for a rough ride.

Yeah, and in this budget, the military is getting like $750 billion, you know, because we're fighting Mars or something. No, no, just a regular, like, run-of-the-mill budget, $750 billion, and that's not even the full budget. There's all sorts of contingencies and overseas, all that. And look, I think we could easily cut the budget in half, combined with some other changes to our foreign policy and be perfectly fine. And I know, like you say, they'll say you're not supportive of the military, that's BS, I'm

way more supportive. I want really well-paid soldiers with full benefits who are really far away from IEDs and bullets and bombs and rockets because they're here. And they're well paid, that's what I actually want. And I agree, people react negatively to any sort of talk about cutting the military budget. And that's why some people have been trying to shift the narrative about that for a very long time. But it's on us to do that. We have to redouble our efforts. In the same way that we've been trying to get people to pay attention to the climate crisis for years and years and years, sometimes for some people decades, we have to do the same thing because we are wasting so much money that could go to so many other things.

Absolutely, I mean, and I don't even know where the money for our allies who end up killing and disappearing journalists goes to, like is that in this military budget? Is that in the State Department budget? I'm not sure, I mean, you talk about terrorists, but it's like, as long as it's a state sanctioned, you know, act, there's no terrorism there, what Saudi Arabia does or what Israel does, that's totally fine, right? We can't call, we can't, you know, criticize that or else we're definitely un-American, et cetera. This budget, though, I think, is brilliant, because it really is the continuation of, like,

Bannon's, you know, fan fiction between Charles Dickens and Ayn Rand, you know, that it keeps on writing. And like, he said it, they're about destroying the state. They want to dismantle the state. And, you know, Alonzo's point with, like, you don't see the roads fixed, you know, we don't put money into infrastructure, it's this self-fulfilling prophecy, because if you don't see it being fixed, you're like, why do I pay taxes anyway? Oh, yeah, the state's just gouging me.

Everything's run down. It's like, it's all deliberate. And so, yeah, we are living in that nightmare fan fiction right now. And to address your point with the military budget, transparency is part of it, because within this budget is just like pay for the troops, for the soldiers and housing. Like, show us how much money is being spent on that. And we're okay with that. And then maybe we'll cut down on the budget to battle Mars.

Maybe that part, you know, maybe Space Force, they've got an emblem now. We'll get them T-shirts and then we'll just stop, you know. And even, you know, again, I used to work in this industry. And some of these technological advances made by the military do come back to civilian life. You know, everything in your car was developed in aircraft years ago. Some of it makes sense and some of it's ridiculous, but they won't break it down. The other thing is, and this is where Trump's base and what you talk about with Bannon is so amazing, they don't even try to lie anymore.

You know what I mean? It's just, they just say, we're not cutting Medicaid as they're cutting Medicaid. And their base is sitting there like, well, at least they're not cutting Medicaid. Stupid, it's in here, they're cutting Medicaid, you know, so they can't do any wrong getting back to what you were saying. They can't, with their base, no matter what they say, we'll play along. We'll believe it. Yeah, even when the claim that they're not going to cut it comes 48 hours before the budget

that cuts it. Like, it seems like that would be an easy connection to make. Really fast, I just want to run through a couple of the other big changes, mainly in the area of cuts, because you talked about what about our allies? Well, military allies, probably going to be fine. But if you don't have a good military, if you're in trouble, well, you're screwed. Because the Trump budget calls for a 22% cut to the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development's budget.

So effectively, overall, for foreign aid, it is a 21% cut. And generally, when you ask a lot of Americans about should foreign aid be cut, they say, yes. When you ask them what percentage of the federal budget goes to foreign aid, they say 20% to 30%. It's a tiny little fraction of that. But they think we're just handing hundreds of billions of dollars every single year. That's a national endowment for the arts. That's 50%, I think. That's really what's gouging on pockets.

This eats up most of the federal budget, I think. Can you imagine if they were publicly funded? We wouldn't have a country anymore. You'd think with that much money they could do the hands. So really fast, I wanna give you just a preview, an idea of what a 21% cut to our foreign aid might produce. So Trump last April froze $450 million in support to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. That took away needed direct support for people living in extreme poverty and danger in those nations, leading them to seek better opportunities in the United States. In 2018, for example, more than 116,000 Guatemalans crossed over the southern U.S. border

more than any nation except Mexico. Now the idea that you take away aid for these places that are in a really rough state, things get worse so they decide to come here. The connection between that and them coming here is not lost on the people who made this budget because they are putting more money into the wall, they are putting more money into the Department of Homeland Security. So they get what pain and suffering this is going to produce. They just don't care.

Yeah, it's the self-fulfilling prophecy you want. Once again, you cut off the aid to these countries in need, you force people to flee, and then you blame them for their own destitution. And listen, I think we don't talk about this enough, but I think that the refugee crisis and the migrant crisis, I'm gonna call it a crisis, is this hemisphere's version of the Syrian refugee crisis, and it's gonna require, like, I'm not saying it's gonna be a simple fix, But it's going to require a multinational solution that crosses borders, right? That has to do with both trade and safety, obviously it has a lot to do with us not, because

I'm sure we're not cutting, I don't know how much military aid we're cutting. We're cutting humanitarian aid, but our military aid might be continuing to funnel through there. But anyway, the point being is that we need to solve this, we need to fix this. I don't want, I think no American wants to say that Salvadorans or Guatemalans should should have to leave their country, should have to leave their country. If they need to, if they need to seek asylum, I believe that they should be able to seek asylum in the States.

But like, I don't want to create the conditions for them to have to leave in the first place, right? Yeah, exactly. But anyway, it's back to the cruelty. It's like if cruelty is your aim, if an ethno-nationalist, extremist agenda is your aim, this is how you go about doing it. Yeah. Absolutely.

Absolutely. Listen, we could get a lot of that humanitarian need. just cut out the golf trips to Miragos. You know, that's one-third of the money that we're spending on humanitarian aid around where, I mean, what you said about the self-fulfilling prophecy, sure, take away their money, take away their food, take away their housing, take away any incentive, and they're going to want to come to a country where they feel they have a better opportunity. Yeah.

But there's no, there's no profit in building opportunity in their country. That's not sexy. What sexy is, what gets you votes, is saying, oh, look, here's another march, we got to build the wall. You ever notice the refugee march, the caravans? The caravans only happen a month before an election. Yeah, that's weird. That's the only time there's a caravan. And then the day after an election, all right, break it up, go home.

It's like their Hollywood extras. It's like, we're going to, listen, we're going to need. It's Trump, they might be. We're going to need 50,000 extras to march toward the border. All right, that's a wrap. Everybody go home. pick up your voucher. It's the most see-through every single time.

Really fast, let's go through a couple more cuts just so you know. Now we pointed out, they say we're not cutting Social Security Medicare at Medicaid, even though he has already said that he will in an interview. Then he tweeted that he wouldn't. They're cutting $4.4 trillion over a decade, $130 billion effectively in cuts over prescription drug prices through Medicare, 292 through safety net cuts, including things having to do with work requirements for Medicaid and SNAP and also $70 billion cut through limiting eligibility for federal disability benefits.

So politicians are often really dishonest, they hide what they want to do. So I would like to give credit to Donald Trump of the Republicans heading into their elections saying, no, we're gonna cut trillions from the most popular programs in the history of American governance. So good job there. Really fast, let's also know I believe that Greta has had an effect. The EPA is gonna receive a 26% cut, so that's impressive. HUD is gonna have a 15% cut, and you know what, they're even cutting the Centers for Disease

Control by 9% as the coronavirus is all over the headlines. It isn't actually significant in that way in terms of setting the agenda for the CDC, but they don't care, no, all these things, the EPA, HUD, CDC, that doesn't benefit billionaires, it benefits dumb schmucks like us. Well, again, their base doesn't believe that. I mean, you have a base that votes against its own best interest, right? So when you have people who are voting for it to eliminate the EPA, when the mine is right next to them, when the toxic dump is right next to them or whatever, then why not do it?

You know, I mean, from the point of if you're the rich Republican businessman to whom these regulations cost money, are you kidding? Do you know how they're probably amazed? They're like, really? They're gonna just let us dump this sludge? Yeah. Well, I'll be damn. Well, let's get the sludge dumping.

Right? I mean, it's fascinating, but it's true. You have a, and this is a locked in base that don't bother us with the facts or anything else. Our kids getting sick, the hospitals now a hundred miles away, whatever. Any of that, all you do is say, well, that was a Democratic Congress. They're like, yeah, and they, so it's easy. It's too easy. And that's the thing is that this stuff gets lost in the budget.

Yes, this is arguably the most unsexy topic ever and no one's gonna go back and be like, I wonder why the coronavirus broke out in late 2020 throughout the country. Oh, it's because, you know, we gutted the CDC or, you know. So I think we need a plan to put very hot actors to work in explaining the national budget like a la Margo Roby in the bathtub in... the movie that I'm forgetting. About the housing crash. Yeah, I was gonna say money ball, but it's the same director as money ball.

The point is we need more, if the Oscars could just explain the budget as they're walking on the red carpet, is that too much to ask? Yeah, yeah, Joaquin did his part, I guess, on some of these, but we'll get to that in the second hour. Well, but I love him. He's great. Do you really think that any Trump supporter is going to be listening to one of you Hollywood liberals?

That's true. Yeah, yeah, I do know every right. wing personality was watching, because they were all live tweeting the entire thing, as they were saying they weren't watching. It's where they knew it was going on. And if you are, you know, if you're Trump supporter, maybe you're a conservative who doesn't love Trump, but you still think that the Republicans are the party that's going to keep you safe, just bear in mind that, like, yes, they will protect you from caravans that they hype

up the danger that are not actually dangerous to you and your family. But for things like, you know, infectious disease, the climate being destroyed, you know, more natural disasters in the future, massive cuts to that. They're not just not going to protect you. They're literally disarming the agencies that are set up right now to protect you and your family. So bear that in mind as we had a new election. Okay, with that, we're going to take a short break, but come back. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-F-The Republic or UNFTR.

As a Young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations are constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the rich and powerful. But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the convention. wisdom. In each episode of On The Republic, or UNFTR, the host delves into a different historical episode or topic that's generally misunderstood or purposely obfuscated by the so-called powers that be. Featuring in-depth research, razor sharp commentary, and just the right amount of vulgarity, the UNFTR podcast takes a sledgehammer to what you thought you knew about some of the nation's most sacred historical cows. But don't just take my word.

for it, the New York Times described UNFTR as consistently compelling and educational, aiming to challenge conventional wisdom and upend the historical narratives that were taught in school. For as the great philosopher Yoda once put it, you must unlearn what you have learned. And that's true whether you're in Jedi training or you're uprooting and exposing all the propaganda and disinformation you've been fed over the course of your lifetime. So search for UNFDR in your podcast app today and get ready to get informed, angered, and entertained

all at the same time. Lots more to get to. First hour, everybody, you know, I started the show by saying how excited I was to have both of you on, and apparently I was not the only one. Salty Sage wrote in a member's comment saying Alonzo and Francesca,

this feels like a power panel. And Liliana said, any day with Francesco on is an epic day, super stoked Alonzo is going to be in my neck of the woods, too, changing my plans this weekend. Step up, you're funny tonight, John. No, I'm trying to compete. I look like an idiot. And progressive in a moderate world said Trump watched Le Miz right before working on the budget and thought, hey, great idea. Exactly. Do they have a cartoon version of Likis?

I was going to say, there's no way Trump could sit through Le Miz. No. Maybe the first three minutes, five. Maybe. Something. That's about as good as he's going to get. And yeah, oh, by the way, if you would like to have your members' comments read, you're probably going to have to be a member, and if you want to be one of those, you go to t.t.com slash join

to become a member today, which is going to get you access not only to all the special member stuff, post games and all that and other shows, but also the exclusive content that comes at the end of our big election day. So tomorrow we're doing New Hampshire, almost all of that is for everyone, but there will be a little bit at the end, exclusive for members. So a little bit extra if you support the network. And with that, why don't we jump back into it? With Bernie Sanders now by virtually every metric, the frontrunner in this thing, he is accordingly

being attacked more and more. And those attacks are coming from people like James Carville, which we'll get to, but also of course Donald Trump. Here is Bernie responding to some of Trump's attacks against him. Well, I think he's a communist, I mean, you know, look, I think of communism when I think of Bernie. Now, you could say socialist, but did he get married in Moscow? We got a president who is a pathological liar, who lies, although I know, I did not get married

in Moscow. I participated in creating a sister city program with the city of Yaroslava when I was mayor in the city. We had Republicans with us, people, city officials. So that's a lie. And obviously, I am not a communist that I presume the president knows the difference. Maybe he doesn't. I would bet every dollar I have that he could not give a convincing definition of both separately.

Yes, he could. Yeah, I think he could. Putin has taught him. Putin, that's one he better not get wrong. Putin's like, all right, this question, you better know. We've been over this. You think with his history in Moscow, he wouldn't bring it up. Yeah, it seems odd to go.

Just, I'm just saying, there are certain towns I've been to that if you ask, the best I'll do is admit I've been there. Won't say there was anything that happened, no one else was involved. Yeah, it wasn't in a hotel room with, you know, sex workers doing their job that might have involved. You know, we don't have to talk about urine. Did I say urine? I did. Wasn't something R. Kelly would call a holiday weekend.

Exactly. Yeah. So we're really fast on that. I don't necessarily want to get so into it, but it is odd to pivot from years of people are being too critical on Russia and its government, you know, they work with us in some ways, strong leadership, gets lots done, like the obvious friendship between them, like, you know, trying to sort of normalize that relationship for several years and then turn back to, I mean, he was there. And that is by itself, and obviously he was wrong about the facts, but that seems like

a weird pivot. I mean, I have no doubt that a lot of Trump supporters will be able to do that. They follow his words. Well, they'll have to change their like, Russia is our friend T-shirt. So they have those like- Double-sided. What? Yes, they are double-sided, for sure.

Or what was that chant? What was the, Unite the Right had a chant. I'm really striking out today, you guys. It's Monday. Sorry, I don't know. I wasn't at that rally. I mean, what's interesting about Trump and Bernie that I've always found fascinating is that Trump actually understands that centrist Democrats and the establishment Democrats, corporate

Democrats really hate Bernie Sanders. And he utilizes that, he plays on that to actually, I would say pick off or try to pick off unsuccessfully some people on the left or more specifically like try to sort of get the independent voters, get even like the right wingers who might sort of like Bernie because they like his ideas. He's trying to, and he utilizes it, he does it so well. And now that Bernie is a frontrunner, he's pivoting to, okay, he's a communist, he's a socialist. Obviously, to me, I wish Bernie would just hit back a little harder

on this. Like, we're talking about a president who is a totally, he's just a walking corruption case. He runs his administration like a mafia. He's completely bludgeoned every Republican to fall in line with him politically. And, you know, he does go into the idea of socialism. And when comes to Trump's version of socialism, which is corporate handouts, which is overinflating the military, you know, that's taxpayer money too, you know, so somehow we have tons of money when it comes the military, and we're totally broke when it comes to health care. Yeah. You know, we actually have a little bit more of standards where he gets into a bit of that,

and it does go a little bit harder against Trump, so let's watch. In many respects, in many respects, we are a socialist society today. We have a huge budget, puts money into all areas. Now, Donald Trump, before he was president, as a private business person, he received $800 million in tax breaks and subsidies to build luxury housing in New York. Now, what does that mean when the government gives you $800 million in tax breaks and subsidies? The fossil fuel industry, whose product happens to be destroying our planet right now, were seen tens and tens of billions of dollars in tax breaks and subsidies.

So does the pharmaceutical industry. The difference between my socialism and Trump's socialism is, I believe, that government should help working families, not billionaires. So there was. There was. There was. There was. I absolutely agree with you that they need to hit back harder.

Yeah. And much harder. Now, you know, this is still, I think the Democrats are still too, too gentle in a fight. You know, this fight, and I think you give Trump too much credit to say he's aware of Bernie standing with centrist, Democrats, et cetera. He doesn't know. People tell him, but, you know, but he doesn't know.

And the other thing, John, when you talk about how he bounces around, like Bernie said, he's a pathological liar. There used to be a character that John Lovitz did on Saturday Night Live. It was called the liar. And I can't do it any justice, but what he would do? He'd get caught in a lie, and he would just keep going with, like, he'd find something you believe, and then he'd, so he, so it's literally like Trump is like doing the character, like, Bernie's a communist, yeah, yeah, that's it, he got a married in Moscow.

Yeah, yeah, that's the ticket. And this is, again, if it wasn't real, it would be hilarious. He's making up the lies as he goes, right? And, but you have an audience that's believing it, right? This goes back to Barack Obama, not being a, not being an American, right? The most ridiculous thing, you're like, well, who's going to believe that? Apparently millions, you know. There's no subtlety to what Trump does.

And I think the Democrats need to learn. I don't think that the Democratic Party, the candidates, it's still like, it's all over the place. You know what I mean? When they say there's this super hatred of Bernie, it's like there's no candidate that that everybody's getting behind at this point. You know, so they're choosing to hate whoever the frontrunner is going to be, right? If the frontrunner this week is Biden, then bring this up about we hate Biden. And if it's Bernie, bring this up, we hate Bernie and blah, blah, blah.

And I don't know how that's going to play out. But when you talk about the fight against Trump, this, you know, I love Michelle Obama, but when they go low, we go high, that ain't going to work. When they go low, go low. Go low. You know, that's the only thing because, unfortunately, it seems to be what works. Yeah. Yeah, and with Trump, like the media does like, at least somewhat recently, they like to fact-check Trump.

But I worry that in his attacks against Sanders, the zeal for it is not going to be there because a lot of the media either believes the same sorts of lies about Sanders or they find it convenient for them to be spread. as a tiny little example of that, in that clip that you saw where he says that Sanders got married in Moscow, I forget if it was Sanders or one of his surrogates, but they were on one of the cable news channels. And the way that was portrayed was Trump joked about him vacationing in Moscow. No, Trump did not joke about anything. He told a lie. He was corrected on the spot by Sean Hannity, a guy who came out looking like he had a connection to the truth. But the

media, even that was spun in a way that still sort of made Trump look better than Sanders. I think this, I think he had such a good response, though, and I am so sorry that I said I wanted him to be stronger. I think he was really strong, and I think Alonzo's right that other Democrats and the media have to not, like, actually be honest when we're having this discussion. What do you mean when you are saying, but you're a socialist? This country, you know, we shouldn't be socialist. Like, you should define what you mean by that because it shows that you're not actually listening

to what Bernie Sanders is saying. He's never said that he wants to implement socialism in this country. He said he wants democratic socialist reforms, and he's not even really said that. He's just mostly focused on things like health care, on a Green New Deal. He's mostly talking about moving the Democratic Party back to being the party of FDR, of the working class, right? And I think this goes to our discussion about the budget, absolutely it matters when, and And I think it's important for us to throw back in the faces of anyone who says, this

is socialism, that we do give billions and billions of dollars to the fossil fuel industry, to the pharmaceutical industry, to the private healthcare industry. That companies get tax breaks left and right to supposedly give us jobs. So that is absolutely matters when we're having this discussion. We should bring it up at every point in turn. The media should bring it up. That is, if we're gonna really have an honest conversation of socialism, let's have an honest conversation about where the money currently goes in our country.

Well, the big problem with me, I mean, there's a few big problems with the media, but it is another area where Trump's bullying techniques have worked masterfully. Because if you call him a liar, if you call him out on a lie, then you'll lose your White House credential. You know, it's like, oh, well, you're not allowed to ask questions anymore because you pointed out an obvious lie, he told, right? And the fact that the media is so owned by corporate companies now. It is such a for-profit industry, you know what I mean?

It's like, well, we don't want to offend the advertisers, you know, which is really bad when we get to the media level of that, right? But that is the big problem. It's such a simple thing, you know, to say, wait, wait, that's not true. Like you, I don't know about you. I watch these news conferences, I just want somebody to be like, hey, excuse me, yeah, that's not true. What you just said, you just made that up, you know, but they can't do it because they'll

lose their credential or they'll lose their turn asking questions, right? And their bosses at whatever network they're from are like, you can't do that. You can't blow our access to these White House confidence or whatever you want to. Yeah, it's, it's, it is increasingly difficult for the American public to get any sort of truth. Yeah. And that's what's, and again, we're in a situation here and the, the viewers of, um, of TYT are people who are engaged and who are involved. But that unfortunately is not the majority of America.

The majority of America might turn on the evening news for a little while or something like that and just unfortunately don't get informed. Yeah. I just want to read one of the members' comments because I love the name, co-host Jank Uger. I just think that's funny because he's not off here. That was beautiful, man, Bernie really has Trump on the socialism for the rich point. And look, with that, I do think we're gonna have to move on. There's some great Nina Turner footage out.

Nina Turner footage. Okay, well, okay, we're gonna play one. We can only comment from a minute after, because we've got a million things to get to. But look, you, you, Francesca, you wanted someone strong in defense of Bernie Sanders. I think I have someone strong. So Nina Turner was on the news and she was been asked about James Carville's wild attacks against Bernie Sanders and his movement and his supporters and what it would mean if he were the nominee.

And here's a bit of Nina Turner respond to those attacks. James Carville made the argument over the weekend that Senator Sanders isn't a Democrat. He's an ideologue, and we've got to get practical. If he is the candidate, he is not going to be able to help win over the Senate. Does practical mean that the 89 or so million people who are uninsured or underinsured in this country continue to suffer? Does being practical mean that we don't take steps in this country to deal with climate chaos and bring world leaders to bear? Does being practical mean that we continue to prop up a legal system? that is unjust in every stretch of imagination

that bears his weight down on black men and black women and then by extension, if you are Hispanic or indigenous or poor, does being practical mean that we don't say to the American people that you deserve better than what you are getting? That's not the kind of practicality we want. Does practical mean that you hold fundraisers and wine caves with Swarcky crystals with billionaires who want to control this system? Does practical mean we continue to go with the status quo

while 500,000 people sleep on the streets at night, that's not practicality. So with all due respect to Mr. Carver, what the American people in this country need, they need somebody that is unabashed and that has the courage and the conviction to stand up for them and to call out the rigging of this system. I mean, it doesn't get much stronger than that. So good. I mean, and this, I think, speaks to the heart of what is so horrible about the attacks on Bernie Sanders from being a Democratic socialist, which is that it completely bribes.

bypasses reality, that Nina Turner just mentioned, I think, seven different issues, everything from homelessness to incarceration, to climate change, to healthcare, in one long breath. And that was more coverage than most news outlets do in an entire day. So this is someone who's actually in touch with reality, it's someone who's in touch with real people struggling, and she's bringing that and saying, yeah, it's not that radical if you look at where people are at. It's not that radical if you look at where Trump has taken us, which was already bad, three more years down this hellhole, right? And so even just to get back to quote unquote normalcy will require a radical agenda.

But moving forward is going to require some actual vision and some plans. So hats off to Nina and that. Yeah, exactly. Well, we want an idea log. When a candidate's running, they're supposed to promise you the moon. They're supposed to aim high. I don't think a candidate is supposed to, you know, I'm going to go right about here. Right?

You know what I mean? You're gonna make promises and then when you get in office, you'd do the best, hopefully you would do the best you can to make these things happen. So, you know, this is the thing with the hatred toward Bernie. I think like if you're, if you're Carville, this statement gets you in the news. You know what I mean? Like that's part of his job. Yeah.

So maybe I'm wrong and maybe I'm underestimating this. But I don't think the Democrats who haven't decided yet, let's call them Democrats undis or whatever, I don't think they don't automatically hate Bernie. And the stuff Bernie is talking about is what people need and what people want. So people are gonna listen to it. So I think in this situation, you're giving too much credit to James Carville. Honestly, I think you're given too much credit to what, remember, he's a talking head. That's his job.

And if you're a talking head and you can't stir up enough controversy that somebody's mentioning you, then you're losing your job. You know what I mean? So, yeah. We're talking hearts here. Yeah. We're not talking heads. Okay.

Yeah. I'm done. It can be both. Yeah. Yeah. And his head is in now, but his perspective is maybe early 2000s at best, maybe the 90s. And I know that like what Nina Turner talked about there. And the way that they attacked Bernie at the debate where like the first 10 questions are,

Hey, all of you attack democratic socialism. Is it crazy? Aren't we gonna lose if we got that? Look, the term democratic socialism is new to a lot of people. The philosophy, the ideology is not. There's easily a hundred million democratic socialists in this country. They just don't know it yet, but they have been craving a candidate that expresses those values who champions that platform for a long, long time.

And it is just amazing the media figures. They just don't get it, so they have someone like Nina Turner and they don't know how to respond. Okay, with that, we do need to take a problem. We do need to take a break, but stick around because Joe Biden, he has decided to go low against Pete Buttigieg. It's going to be interesting after this. At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control of our online lives, constantly monitoring us and storing and selling our data.

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Biden versus Buttigieg in a new ad, but I did want to read a couple of comments. First from the super chat, which you can do on YouTube, Kevin says, it always been my belief that if you're blessed with excess, you have a moral responsibility to help those that don't. How can you claim to be Christian at the same time argue against social supports? I agree. On hashtag TYT live, Santos-Wante says, when they go low, meet them with their an elbow from the sky. And you can build up some more speed because they're low.

I like that. You can hit it, yeah, a little bit harder. What wrestling move is that? Elbow from the sky, I guess. Flying elbow. Flying elbow. And there was another member comment from Anji who says, Alonzo is my favorite comedian slash social commentator.

I really look forward to seeing him on the show and hearing him on wait, wait, don't tell me. Well, thank you, and I'll be on wait, wait, wait this weekend. Awesome. You don't have to wait long. No. Okay. And, okay, with that, why don't we jump back into the news?

Joe Biden was hurt by what happened in Iowa. I mean, we all were, our confidence in the system was and all that, but he in particular was hurt by the apparent rise of Pete Buttigieg, who has been rising the polls after Iowa. I can't say for sure that that's why Joe Biden has decided to go in this direction, but take a look at their most recent ad. Barack Obama called Joe Biden. Best Vice President America's ever had. But Pete Buttigieg doesn't think much of the vice president's record.

Let's compare. When President Obama called on him, Joe Biden had. helped lead the passage of the Affordable Care Act, which gave health care to 20 million people. And when parkgoers called on Pete Buttigieg, he installed decorative lights under bridges, giving citizens of South Bend colorfully illuminated rivers. Both Vice President Biden and former Mayor Buttigieg have taken on tough fights. Under threat of a nuclear Iran, Joe Biden helped to negotiate the Iran deal. And under threat of disappearing pets, Buttigieg negotiated lighter licensing regulations on petchip scanners.

Both Vice President Biden and former Mayor Pete have helped shape our economy. Joe Biden helped save the auto industry, which revitalized the economy of the Midwest, and led the passage and implementation of the Recovery Act, saving our economy from a depression. Pete Buttigieg revitalized the sidewalks of downtown South Bend by laying out decorative brick. And both Biden and Buttigieg have made hard decisions. Despite pressure from the NRA, Jill Biden passed the assault weapons ban through Congress. Then, he passed the violence against women act. And even when public pressure mounted against him, former mayor Pete fired the first

African American police chief of South Bend. And then he forced out the African American fire chief to, we're electing a president. What you've done matters. On the Democratic side, that's about as rough as I've seen so far this cycle. Oh yeah. Yeah, the Republicans, they pull out the knives, you know, in like second Zodis. But that, for a Democrat, that was pretty brutal. The music against Mayor P.

Although I don't know if the music were reversed, if I would have been like, yeah, but those lights under the bridges are important. Like, I think half of it was just music in my head. You know. Well, the music's part of the psychology of the good score. You know, like we were talking about off camera, John, the thing about being vice president when you take credit for these things, we don't know how involved the vice president is. You know, other than Cheney, that was the only time when we did.

knew the vice president was running things because, you know, Bush would be going for a bicycle ride. Cheney would handle it. But it's so, it's difficult to judge, you know what I mean, say how much of this he did. But it's a political ad. What's it's it supposed to, it's supposed to be this. It's supposed to be, this is my best and this is your worst. This is my best and this is your silliest.

Like, that's what political ads do. They always say, oh, we're not going to do that. Yes, you are. Yes, you are, because that's what politicians do, because it has been proven that it works. Yeah. I just like watching moderate candidates go after one another and just, you know, seeing, just like fighting over who has less effective ideas. Yeah. It's very cute.

It's been a rough week. And I think progressives win when moderates do that, so more of it. Definitely, definitely. We were talking to our production meeting, there's a meme of, like, all the Knights of the Roundtable putting their swords in the middle. And it was like Bernie bros, Warren Liberals, Klobuchar fans. And in the middle, it's just hating Mayor Pete. It has been a big week for down and on Mayor Pete. Yeah, nothing can heal the Warren-Burney divide like Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

Common enemy. And we're going to have his response to one second. Just on the Biden thing, I don't know how involved he was in any one of these things. But I've been following him for about a year. And man, he says he was behind all the passage of all those things. the ACA Iran nuclear deal, the Paris Accords, all that stuff. I gotta ask, what was Barack Obama doing during these eight years? Because apparently Joe Biden was holding down the house.

Yeah. He was going to the pancake breakfast and eating just a full stack and a grand slam. Taking hands, you know, kissing babies. Yeah, I wonder how Barack Obama feels about Joe Biden claiming credit for like everything that happened. But anyway, that is what you do. I get that. That is, you know, you're throwing that away, but that is a huge question.

It is. And because it would be, if Barack Obama said those things about Joe, that would be a whole different commercial, right? And that commercial would have much more impact if he was like, yeah, Joe helped me do A, B, C, and D. We don't know who he's going to endorse, if any. We don't know. He's got to endorse somebody, but we don't know who it's going to be, you know. And you keep going to- I know who it's not going to be. You keep going back to Pete and Iowa, you know, man, imagine if they knew he was gay. That would have been a hold, people would have been walking across gyms all over Iowa.

Exactly. He's what? I'm going to that side of the gym. So we have the response from Mayor Pete to this ad. Here you go. Your response? Well, you know, it's a typical political attack. And it's too bad because, you know, so many communities, communities like mine in South Bend, we know that we might look small from the person.

of Washington. But to us, it's what's going on in Washington that looks so small and small-minded. After CNN's Jeff Zellini pointed out that Biden made a similar inexperience attack on Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential race. Former Vice President Biden replied, quote, this guy's not a Barack Obama. What do you think of that? Well, he's right. I'm not. And neither is he. Neither is any of us running for president. And this isn't 2008. It's, it's 2020. It is. And so thus, he's had many years to master his Barack Obama impression, which he pulls out all the time. Way to say nothing. Yeah, that was a lot of nothing. Constantly, constantly, just, you know, it's just word salad. It's like, it's like inspirational word salad, and then Trump is like senile, xenophobic

world's word salad and they're very similar. I think a debate, I don't want to see a debate between the two of them, but it would just be kind of funny to see. To see three hours go by and that one thought is expressed, that would be entertaining. Like, defend yourself, dude. If you actually have something to say, if you think that ad is wrong, then talk about your legacy. If you have a legacy, but it feels like you don't have a legacy yet.

And what you do have is actually firing a black police chief and being like, like, like, Like having a letter written by a bunch of African American police officers about your tenure and about discrimination in your own police force. One of the like three or four different, anyway. Well, that is his legacy. Yeah. I think it would have been hilarious if right when he said that, just, you know, none of us of Barack Obama. A little Barack Obama head just popped up, damn right, you ain't.

And they just disappear. Just, damn right, you ain't. And there just disappear. There wouldn't it be great if Barack just finally reached a point, like stop being Barack, like there's nothing to lose anymore. Say what you really think, what you really, that would be awesome. But what does he really think? I don't think we know.

He's one thing, you can't read him. You can't read. And they said this to his whole presidency. And a lot of times people like, he doesn't know what he's talking about or whatever. And then they'd find out two years later, like, wow, he was right on top of that. Like he literally, you don't want to play poker against him. I'll tell you that, he doesn't give up anything. But just if that head would have popped up, can't we get Key & Peel to bring back angry

Barack who just pop up? Damn right, you ain't. That'd be just, oh man, that would have been perfect. Okay, we're gonna have to work on that. I think we have time for one more story. Let's do that. There's a promo recently on Fox Nation for a right wing or right leaning comedy tour that's going around.

Here's a bit of that promotional footage. liberty and the pursuit of laughter. Watch his comedian Michael Loftus gives his hilarious take on American history. I think England misses America every 4th of July. They're like, damn it, we lost them. We could have had it all. We could have had it all. American politics.

Everybody remembers the Bill Clinton when he first came in, when he was relaxed and laid back. And then we found out why. And American stereotypes. I'd like to get someone from Norland's against someone from Ro-R-R-R-W on the Wheel of Fortune on the same day. Ticket, yeah, I'd like to buy a

Plus, the musical comedy musings of Brian Hainer. Everything is extreme. Everything is a meme. And laugh out loud with Reno Collier. It's damn right you are. Freedom to laugh. Okay, so I, as we all know, am not a comedian, but both of you are. So, look, I've been curious for a long time about conservative comedy.

It doesn't often make a ton of sense to me. Now, from what I can see from that footage, we have a little bit more. This does not seem like hard right attacking liberal sort of comedy. No. But like you've both traveled, you've gone all over the place in some of these areas, and in fact you know some of the people involved in this. So tell me a little bit about this, about conservative companies. Well, let me say, Mike Loftus, I've known Mike a long time.

Mike is a, he's a great comic, look, he found a niche here. He found a bunch of people who are gonna pay good money to see him and he's gonna do his material. I don't think he's the extreme right wing, hateful kind of, you know what I mean? It's not a rally, it's, but whatever it is, I ain't mad at you. You found a niche, you're making money good for him, you know what I mean, this right wing thing. People always ask, what's it like right wing people? They don't come to comedy clubs.

They don't, they don't come to comedy, they're certainly not coming to see me. So they see a black comic up there, they're like, I wonder if this guy's with Trump. No, no, no, they pretty much know ahead of time, you know. So good for him. I mean, this is like diamond and silk, right? Look at them. Now that's one that really, you talk about we're in it for the money, you know? So good for Mike.

And if you, and let me tell you, as a comic, right? As a comic, if I could get a network to promote my tour, if I could get CNN to say go see Alonzo Bowden or MSNBC or anybody or the Young Turner. Can someone hear you say it, John? Hey, we promoted the start. But that's huge. It's about selling tickets, making money, man, putting asses in seats. Yeah, it's funny.

God bless it. No, I mean, listen, it's funny because that promo definitely didn't seem, again, like, super extreme, because usually when you see, like, right-wing comics are like, we don't give rats behind about the SJWs, you know, we're gonna punch down. We can make fun of everybody. Remember when we used to make fun of the poor and the disabled? Those are the good old days. Like, that's usually what, like, right-wing comedy kind of bills itself as.

which is just being mean-spirited. And listen, it gets laughs in certain, you know, 4chan circles. But what I will say is this, if you think that like comedians and comedy, like people are way too sensitive and no one's laughing anymore, go to an open mic. There is an open mic near you on any given night. It is at a dumpy bar. You can go there and you will see the most offensive, sexist, racist, homophobic material being tried out and just feel at ease and be like, yes, freedom.

of speech isn't dead. There are a lot of comics who bring their dogs inside the bar and, you know, maybe they live around the corner. We don't know, I'm not dumping on the porch. What I'm saying is, there's a lot of bad comedy out there. And I just don't find right-wing comedy funny because usually it's making fun of people who are actually in need. So that's my take on this.

But I think people still do that kind of comedy. I was gonna say, don't go see an open mic, come see us pros do it. Waste your time seeing unfunny people do it. Come see us funny people do it. I could spend hours on that argument about what you're not allowed to say in comedy. I stand behind this 100%. If it's funny, you can say it. I still see it said things that are so-called offensive to people.

You know, I could take this back. When I started in comedy in the 90s, Def Jam was the biggest comedy thing in America, biggest thing. Def Jam wasn't big on white people, you know? I, Jay Moore used to have a joke during Def Jam. He's like, I watch a Def Jam to see how white people are supposed to talk, right? Because a bunch of black comics were like, hey, white people do this, white people. There's no hate, it's different, and it's funny, and it is what it is.

So if he's doing a right-wing comedy show, it's probably not going to be funny to you if you're left-wing. Just like if you're a right-wing person and you go to the typical comedy show, because comics definitely tend to lean left. You're going to be like, this isn't funny. When they make fun of Trump, you're going to be like, oh, that's not right. As a president, we should respect the office, right? How many times have we heard that nonsense?

So I ain't mad at him, good for him. Go, Mike, make some money. Maybe you pay me back what he owes me. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm joking. I'm joking. That's funny.

Okay. Well, unfortunately, that's all the time we have, but thank you to both of you for joining. Francesco, it's good to have you here. Alonzo, I hear you're in Oklahoma City. I'm gonna be in Oklahoma City at Bricktown. And on wait, wait, wait, don't tell me. So you can get plenty of me this weekend if you're in okay. Do you know if there are seats awaiting asses at a...

Yes, yes, unfortunately. Butt's in seats. Okay, well, let's see if we can fill that up, okay? Thank you to both of you. Thank you, John. For everybody at home, we have another hour coming up, right for this. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen to ad-free, access members, only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.

At apple.com slash TYT. I'm your host, Jank Yugar, and I'll see you soon. Thank you.