The Young Turks - TYT Extended Clip - February 4th, 2020

Episode Date: February 5, 2020

The 2020 Iowa Caucus was a complete disaster! Ana Kasparian and John Iadarola, 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, we know you probably hit play to escape your business banking, not think about it. But what if we told you there was a way to skip over the pressures of banking? By matching with the TD Small Business Account Manager, you can get the proactive business banking advice and support your business needs. Ready to press play? Get up to $2,700 when you'll open select small business banking products. Yep, that's $2,700 to turn up your business.

Visit TD.com slash small business match to learn more. Conditions apply. If you like the Young Turks podcast, I think you'll love a lot of the podcasts on the TYT network. Old school, it's one of my favorites, one of the favorites for a lot of the listeners. Please check that out, subscribe, share it, that makes a big difference, and give it a five-star rating. Thank you. Welcome to the Young Turks, Anna Casparian and John Ida Rola with you. We are exhausted, but we have some important updates. Not all the updates, we have about 62% of the updates on the news today.

Enough really, I think we can call the show at this point. In fact, moving forward, I will only do research on 62% of the stories we have on the rundown, and the rest of the news stories I won't research at all, and I'll just go to air and share opinions on stories that I'm completely ignorant about. I think last night I got 62% of the sleep a healthy human would get, actually. I think far less. Anyway, some of you might be wondering what's up with this whole 62% thing? Well, 62% of the Iowa precincts have been reported and even though we don't have the full results,

we'll give you what everyone else in the media is sharing today. And then later in the show, we will give you some infuriating updates. on the impeachment of Donald Trump and how Republican senators have been reacting to the possibility of removing him. It's not gonna happen, obviously, but we'll give you their reasoning for it. And then we're gonna have a special guest in our two. Jackson White, who's actually been on this show before, we'll be joining us. He is the co-founder of Periscope.

It's a political app that you should check out. Politoscope. What did I say? Did I say Periscope? My bad. Periscope was that old streaming. Yeah, I know, I apologize. Politoscope, he's the co-founder of Politoscope.

It's not the app from last night, people, don't worry. No, he's excellent, he's actually going to join us and help us discuss what went wrong in Iowa yesterday with the app, that's a huge story as well. But without further ado, let me give you a few more programming notes that are exciting, and then we'll move on to the rundown. So the conversation today will feature Ezra Klein. I am interviewing Ezra Klein about his latest book. And it's called Why We're Polarized.

It was a fascinating discussion. We don't necessarily agree on everything, but I do think that he has some important points to make about just like the structure of how things are done under our democratic process and how it really needs to change in order to accomplish some of the progressive goals that we need accomplished. And then tomorrow, probably the peak of my career. I will interview Noam Chomsky, and I cannot wait. This is something that I didn't think I'd ever get an opportunity to do.

We're going to talk about manufacturing consent. We're going to talk about this current election, the possibility of Bernie Sanders winning. It's going to be a great discussion. So please tune in for that. That will be on the conversation tomorrow, as always, after the second hour of the show. All right, let's. And, oh, one other programming note, we will be covering the State of the Union immediately after the third hour of this show.

So starting at 6 p.m. Pacific time, 9 p.m. Eastern, we will be covering the State of the Union. and also the response to Trump's state of the union. You know, really fast, I did see that some people in Congress, including AOC, are boycotting it. And I think it would be, it would be a pretty, like solidarity. I think we should unilaterally just, we're not going to do it. It's a political statement, freedom of speech. Okay, we're gonna get in trouble. Yeah, right, can you imagine getting away with that?

Who knows? Anyway, all right, but we are, we're gonna cover it, okay? We're just joking around. Let's get to updates on Iowa. So today at 4 p.m. Central time, the Iowa Democratic Party chair, Troy Price, released 62% of the results from last night's caucuses. Now, no word when the other 38% will be released. And so I just want to really emphasize the fact that this is only 62% of the precincts

reported, right? That's important because it's incomplete. But based on what we know so far, the. The Iowa State Delegate results are as follows. Buttigieg received 26.9%, Sanders, 25.1%, Warren, 18.3%, and Biden, as we expected, doing very poorly at 15.6%, then you have Klobuchar at 12.6, Yang at 1.1, and Steyer at 0.3.3. Now what's fascinating is, again, even with the incomplete results, we see that Bernie Sanders has received the majority of voters.

So he has the popular vote, 28,220, Buttigieg is at 27,030, Warren at 22,254, Joe Biden at 14,176, and Amy Klobuchar at 13,357. Pretty close to Biden. Yeah, I mean. One of my favorite traditions in our democracy is that you- What democracy? Exactly. That's what I'm getting that. Ignore that.

You go through the graphics of the actual results that matter, and then, like, as sort of a goof, you show what people voted for. It doesn't matter, but it's kind of a cool tradition to, like, look at, like, who the people supported. I like that. So, I think what's what likely, like, okay, so why is there this weird difference between the delegates and the popular vote? Well, maybe in certain precincts, the disparity between the number of voters,

for Bernie Sanders versus Buttigieg was much higher, right? In other precincts, maybe it was closer. Yeah, it's also possible that based on rounding, that hypothetically, a small gap in the numbers that hypothetically gave someone a popular vote advantage doesn't actually translate to another delegate. Right, yeah. Which is frustrating when it happens, but it can happen in any direction. The only takeaway from this right now is that we don't have the complete results.

So I don't know what kind of commentary or analysis I'm supposed to give you guys, because anything is irrelevant because we don't have the full results yet. But I do want to go to some sound of the Iowa Democratic Party chair, Troy Price. And he was pretty appellate, well, I wouldn't say pretty apologetic, but he seemed a little apologetic about how everything has transpired. Take a look. The bottom line is that we hit a stumbling block on the back end of the reporting of the data. But the one thing I want you to know, we know this data is accurate.

And we also have a paper trail and documentation that will, that have been able to use to provide information to help verify the results. What's also interesting is how he predicted the Iowa caucuses to go. This is a video that was previously taken. This is him kind of, this is five months ago. This is five months ago featuring him bragging about how he thought the Iowa caucuses We're going to be great. Smooth. Take a look. Just know this. On February 3rd of 2020, caucuses will take place in this state.

We will be first. And they will be, without a doubt, the most successful caucuses in our party's history. Oops. Did we cut it before he said Bazinga or something? No, he really felt good. Yeah, five months ago, he thought smooth sailing from here, we're going to rock it. They did not rock it, as we all know. They relied on an app that was faulty to say the least, and we'll get into every little detail of that app later in the show.

But it's been a nightmare. And again, we didn't receive any type of results until today at 4 p.m. Central time. Well, we got 1.7% and that's pretty good. And I agree with you that it's hard to really say much without knowing what that last percent is going to be that last 38. I mean, we have an idea of what's going to happen. We don't know in the end if Bernie's going to continue his popular vote lead, perhaps extended, if that will be enough to counteract the Steede lead that Buttigieg has.

But it does look like we will end up with them relatively close to each other and them in first and second in some order with Biden not doing particularly well. So, I mean, there are definitely lessons that can be drawn from that. Definitely, definitely. And later in the show, we will get into a discussion about what this means for Biden. Biden and how this has really been bungled by the Democratic Party in Iowa. But one of the other things I do want to note is that, look, there's a lot of anger and frustration over this process.

The way the Iowa caucuses are run, does this make sense? Is it antiquated? I want to get into a discussion about that as well. But it's, again, really hard to tell you what we think when we don't have the full results. And I did expect Buttigieg to do relatively well in Iowa. He focused a lot of money and a lot of his attention in Iowa. And if you're that hyper focused on one particular state, it isn't surprising that you do well. But what was surprising is how everything was kind of carried out and how disappointing

last night really was. So. Yeah. For a process that is supposed to be, like fundamentally it's not going to be, it's going to be a primary, which is absolutely corrosive to your soul. But it's the beginning of a process that is supposed to get us to a point where we have some catharsis. We at least get rid of Trump if nothing else by November and hopefully far more than that.

I mean, I don't know about you, but I've on some level been looking forward to this for literally years. And it's not to say that New Hampshire might be great and Super Tuesday might be a fiesta. You don't know. But man, it really started off on the wrong foot. 100%. But- That's America. Look, I know, like, I have Ben's voice in my head and I need to get it out because, of course,

of course it went the way it did. I mean, Bernie Sanders did really well last night, so of course it went this way. Is anyone really shocked by it? I'm not shocked by it. Yeah, I mean, look, he's probably going to do even better in New Hampshire. Like the last poll I saw, he was ahead by 20 points. So he's going to have an even better night. It's not to say that it couldn't go this way.

I don't know what app they're using or whatever, but it hopefully will be a little bit cleaner. And I know that we're going to talk about, you know, who comes out of this with like the, you know, the wind in their sales or whatever. But the process is so bad that, yes, it would have been better if, if it turns out that Bernie one, and we don't know yet, that he would have had sort of a clean victory in all of that. But nothing ends up being clean. And it's possible the Buttigieg could still win in the delegates, if not in the popular vote. And he's not coming out of this clean either.

Right. Like he, I did see some questions about his premature declaration of victory. I think, perhaps I'm in a bubble. A lot of electile dysfunction here. There is, and I think it leaves sort of a bad taste in the mouth. So I don't think that this is necessarily, and especially if he ends up actually winning, then the process, the problems, and his premature claim of victory, Jesus, all make it less valuable for him if he ends up being the actual winner.

Well, let's talk about specific candidates in regard to what happened last. What? Yeah, I saw the face. Well, just a quick note for the control room. I'm gonna reverse the videos for this segment, so we're gonna do three first and then you get the point, two second, and then one third. All right, with that said, let's move on. Sorry, editing note I should have given to Brett before we went live, but we've all been

kind of crazy today. So one of the narratives that stood out. in the Iowa caucuses was how poorly Joe Biden performed. Now, as of this video, we only have 62% of the precincts reporting, and just based on that, Joe Biden is not doing well. He came in fourth at 15% of delegates, a little over 15% of delegates. And one person who called that out on CNN, luckily, was Alexandra Rojas. She is the executive chair of the Justice Democrats, and get a load of what she had to say

about Biden's performance. Rojas, they had said, oh boy, a problem in Iowa. Here comes the stink machine from Bernie Sanders. He was arguably the most gracious person when he had the most reason to be upset about this. I think that's absolutely right. I think you saw Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders last night lean into their integrity. They didn't take the results for granted and said, you know what? We're going to focus on the volunteers and the supporters that gave their blood, sweat, and tears to this moment.

And we're going to wait for the official party results. And I think it's interesting that, you know, going into this, Joe Biden is the one that is calling into question the results, even though they said Bernie was going to do that. Buttigieg is claiming victory, even though they said Bernie was going to do that. And I think that it speaks to the power of not just thinking about winning and losing campaigns, but really building a movement across, that cuts across generation, that cuts across ethnic racial lines. And, you know, what brings it to caucuses like this? It's a good point. We were sitting out here saying, listen, Bernie's got to be the bomb throw. But look, I think he handled it well. Bernie, Bernie handles, you know, his public-facing stuff is pretty good. It's rarely Bernie who raises these issues. It's Bernie supporters who raise these issues.

So, okay. I want to go to the next video, though, because I think that she has an interesting point to make about Joe Biden specifically. But I want you guys to pay close attention to how the rest of the panel reacts to it. Take a look. I think obviously, Iowa being such a debacle is a huge story. But I think the biggest story is actually that the Joe Biden is coming in fourth or fifth place, right? And that the entire argument about electability means that you have to win. And he's not going to have a strong performance.

And a lot of people will try to minimize. I think the result of that. But the reality is, is that the Democratic frontrunner, the former vice president of the United States. We don't know. Is not, yeah, we don't know, but he's- We don't know that. We don't know that.

We have some intimation that he did very, very poorly. Right. And anecdotally last night, that's a fair assessment. And anecdotally last night, as we were watching the results come in, I think Caucasite after caucusite, there was a dampening and enthusiasm. And I think the reality of what last night showed is that there are two progressives that have come out in the top two or three, and that it's incredibly huge for this moment that the United States wants big ideas.

No, no, no, no, stop talking about. We don't know that. We don't know that. We don't know that. We don't know that. We don't know. They're like so obsessed of protecting Biden. No, no, no, we don't know.

We don't know. I mean, Biden panicked and his campaign demanded that no one release anything until the results are complete. We don't know that. There's still 38% to go. He could get all 38%. By the way, that segment was last night. That segment was last night before anything was reported. Okay.

So, but- He could have gotten all 100% at that point. So that was this morning before anything was reported. Sorry, but my point is nothing was reported yet. However, the reaction, because remember, every campaign has its own way of measuring how the candidates are doing, right? And I think that's a smart thing to do. So Biden's campaign internally knew that he wasn't performing well in Iowa, which is why they

immediately demanded that the Iowa Democrats, you know, hold on to results until they can release the entirety of what happened last night, with all precincts reporting. And so there was that hint that Biden didn't do well. And then, of course, today, we don't have the full results. But with 62% of the precincts reporting, Biden's at 15.6% of delegates, right? So he's not doing well. He's in fourth place. But I just thought the reaction from the rest of the panel was hilarious because

since when does anyone panic at, I don't know, a contributor or a pundit mentioning something based on speculation, right? Like, one person says something speculative about Biden, everyone's like, we don't know that, we don't know. Yeah, and you could do the caveat, but there was like a sort of like a feeling to it. Right. And the overall point is undeniable. There are people who have tried to launch a presidential bid and had a strategy other than

the one that seems obvious, which is I'm going to try to win in all the states. They might say, okay, I need time to get my name recognition out, get some money, I'm gonna skip the first two, and then you know what, South Carolina here I come, like Giuliani sort of had that back in the day. Here's who doesn't get to have that strategy, is the former vice president who has been running for over a year, who still raised a bunch of money, not as much as some people. He doesn't get to just say Iowa doesn't count. He has to be competing in all the states, particularly because he keeps saying that it's

electability that's most important thing. Bingo. Bingo. So that's why this is such a big story, right? I mean, we suspected that Biden wasn't going to do as well as people were propping him up to be, you know, like this great candidate who's the most electable. I mean, his own wife said, look, I mean, I get it. His policies suck and they're not really inspiring, but he's the most electable. That was his whole thing. And this shows that he's not the most electable. He comes in at fourth. And I mean, when you compare his numbers to Sanders or even Buttigieg when it comes to delegates, he's way lower.

But there were some foreshadowing moments last night prior to us getting any results whatsoever. And one of those foreshadowing moments actually involved Jake Tapper. So here he is in Des Moines, Iowa, and he's talking to some Biden supporters who were caucusing on his behalf. Take a look. Biden, how are we doing over here? This does not look like 56 people. So the Biden group, so you're, you look like lovely, wonderful people, but it doesn't look like you made the viability threshold.

Not yet. Not, there's time. This year? I'm not trying to be funny, but I know, but where, what are you going to do? We're going to stand strong with our first choice. And when other candidates are not viable, we know that Joe is a lot of people's second choice and will become viable in the second alignment. Absolutely. So you think that people who, like for instance, the Yang people probably don't have 56? They don't. The Klobuchar people,

I don't think they do. So you think there's still a possibility that they will come here. Yep, absolutely, yep. Okay, so hope springs eternal. I'm amused at the idea of Yang supporters, you know, realigning with Biden supporters in the Iowa caucuses. I mean, with Klobuchar, I think that there is actually some you know, crossover for sure. But that, Jake Tapper, his style is interesting. Uh-huh. No, see, I'm glad that that happened, even though I don't like the individual event.

Like, that was sort of, I guess, a bit condescending. Like, he was trying to be sort of funny. He said he wasn't, but he was trying to be sort of funny. But the fact that they weren't receiving it, if you keep doing it, it becomes sort of kind of sending. But the reason that I like it is, like, I can totally see him doing that to Bernie Sanders supporters, but he's doing it to Biden. No, no. Credit what credit is due. He's rude to everybody. Yeah. Yeah. So look, with that said, I want to go to the final video, and this is Biden's campaign manager. She was on CNN to, let's keep a real, kind of complain about the

process of the Iowa caucuses. And also she made a comment about the demographics and the electorate in Iowa that I thought was fascinating. Take a look. We have real concerns about the integrity of the process. And I think there were some significant failures in the process last night that should give voters concern. You know, you obviously had the app failure. The app that precinct captains were using to report in their results failed. You had the phone system where, you know, precinct captains got, there were reports of them getting frustrated, being able to report out their results hanging up. And then you have the presidential preference cards, which are essentially the paper trail

for the app, which we already know failed. There will be critics who say that you don't like the results out of Iowa, or you don't like the results that you think are going to come from Iowa. So you are criticizing the process. What do you say to that? Not at all. I mean, you know, our internal data shows that we overperformed in parts of the states where we didn't expect to.

And during this time where we have no effect. official verified information from the Iowa Democratic Party. We have campaigns putting out incomplete data that doesn't paint a full picture. So there was this claim made that in the realignment process, it's likely that Biden's going to do better. And that's not true. So if you take a look at the graphic we're about to show you, it shows the first round where Biden had 16,179 votes.

And then you go to the final round and actually goes down. down to 14,176. Biden did not do well last night at all. It actually, he actually performed worse than people expected, which again, I believe is the reason why his campaign was so vociferous in preventing the release of the results until they had 100%, like, you know, a higher percentage of the precincts reporting. Yeah, even, even at the risk of potentially causing people to think, well, we won't be able to trust the final results, and there's no indication that you can't, but you saw a

All of the worst actors in American politics, all the Trump's, trying to get as many Democrats as possible to check out of the system and think that none of this matters, you can't trust it, so just don't even bother because that would benefit their father. To see the Biden camp doing anything even approaching that is, it's a scary precedent for later on in the race because he did terribly, if it was anyone else, they'd be saying drop out, but he's not going to drop out. He could do better in some of the other states, and he still could do really well on Super Tuesday. We can't write him off like the media would if it were Bernie.

But really fast, in terms of what I was saying about approaching the Trump sort of narrative, what the campaign manager said in that video, she was like, here's an issue, here's an issue. And then you have the presidential preference cards, which are like the paper backup for the app, which we know failed. And she used the intonation of voice to imply that what she was saying means you can't trust those cards, even though the words don't actually mean that. Yes, the app failed. That's why we have the paper backup.

The app failing doesn't actually have anything to do with the paper backup. So what are you talking about? Why are you implying that the paper trail isn't able to be trusted when you have no evidence to that effect? It seems like they want you to feel like you can't trust it. They just don't have anything to actually inspire that. So they're just gonna keep saying the words as if it was true. That's incredibly irresponsible.

It is incredibly irresponsible. It's a Don Jr. move that they're pulling. And they're using anything and everything as an excuse for why these results aren't legitimate or shouldn't be, you know, shouldn't be used to draw any type of conclusions about Biden's electability. So for instance, Kate Benningfield, that's the campaign manager, also said this. Benningfield also took a shot at Iowa's lack of diversity, where 91% of caucus goers were white, according to entry polls, telling Berman, we've always said that the nomination

runs through Nevada, South Carolina, Super Tuesday, places where the electorate is more diverse. So we're moving forward. Okay, so look, it's just interesting for Joe Biden of all people and his campaign manager to say like, oh, no, no, you don't get it. Like, look, to be fair, Joe Biden does have significant support among the African American community, but to blame his miserable performance in Iowa on the lack of diversity in the caucuses, I think is kind of crazy. I know, they're just kind of like reaching for anything to excuse his poor performance.

And like, by the way, so put Iowa aside for a second and think about Joe Biden as a candidate and how he campaigns and how he has encouraged people at any given moment to vote for someone else. If he doesn't like the framing of a question or he doesn't like the demeanor or the tone of someone asking him a question, that's not good campaigning. And he's, I think he's really failed to connect with voters. in the way that people thought he would connect. As someone who, you know, I think reminds a lot of Democratic voters of a better time under the Obama administration. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and I mean, look, nine out of 11 of the last candidates, supposedly,

win Iowa, become the candidate or whatever. There's a reason for that. Like, I don't disagree at all about the lack of diversity to Iowa. It shouldn't be the first. I totally agree with that. But it is the first. You knew it was the first. You've been running for a year.

Everyone else has made it through that. There are ways that a like 99% white electorate could be discriminatory against the candidate. Not Joe Biden though. Joe Biden was picked by Obama to reassure exactly those sorts of people. He's been known for literally decades. It's just like for all the people to complain about Iowa, he perhaps has the worst case to make against it. We're going to take a break, but when we come back, we'll move on to one of the other candidates. I'm sure a story that a lot of you've been waiting for.

Pete Buttigieg, his premature announcement of victory and what the media is likely to do once the entirety of the results are reported. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-F-Inging the Republic, or UNFTR. As a Young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations are constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the rich and powerful. But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the conventional wisdom. In each episode of Un-B-The-Republic, or UNFTR, the host delves into a different historical episode or topic that's generally misunderstood or purposely obfuscated by the so-called powers that be. Featuring in-depth research, razor-sharp commentary, and just the right amount of vulgarity, the UNFTR podcast takes a sledgehammer to what you thought you knew about some of the nation's most sacred historical cows.

But don't just take my word for it. The New York Times described UNFTR as consistently compelling and educational, aiming to challenge conventional wisdom and upend the historical narratives that were taught in school. For as the great philosopher Yoda once put it, You must 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. Great back. Welcome back to TYT, Anna Casparian, and John Ida Rola with you. If you are watching this right now and you're asking yourself, God, what can I do to help support this independent news program? Yeah, I'm looking at these tired faces and they need some help. Somebody tweeted me today and said something. along the lines of, you seem burnt out, you need a vacation.

And by the way, it was a nice person, okay, wasn't trying to like get at me. But yeah, I'm definitely burnt out. But what could help me with that is if you become a member, go to t-yt.com slash join. To become a member, you get all sorts of exclusive members-only content, and more importantly, you help to keep this company sustainable and independent. So please check it out, go to t-yt.com slash join. Also, the conversation is gonna be awesome tonight. I will be interviewing Ezra Klein on why we're polarized.

That's a new book that he's out with. And then on tomorrow's episode of the conversation, that's in the third hour of the show. I will interview the legendary Noam Chomsky. In fact, one of our viewers, a member actually asked if I plan on being stoned, pocket in a pocket. Is Anna going to be stoned when she interviews Chomsky or are they going to get stoned together? And the answer is no. I do not partake in such activities when I'm working. Just have it nearby.

I want to be clear-headed and sharp for you guys. If I didn't care about you guys, yeah, I'd be stoned the entire time. Okay. Yeah. So be on the lookout for that to eventually have that. One day when I just give up. She's burnt out, now she's burning one. And we will have State of the Union coverage tonight after the post game.

So that'll start at 6 p.m. Pacific time, 9 p.m. Eastern. A few more member comments. Casper the salty host writes in and says, I'm so pumped to hear from TYT today. Awesome. And Elise says, I didn't realize popular vote doesn't mean you win in caucuses too. I keep learning new things I hate about our system. Well, lucky for you, we will discuss all the things we hate about the system a little later in the show. But in the meantime, we're going to do a little deep dive into Pete Buttigieg's premature congratulations.

So I will try to keep that innuendo to myself throughout the rest of the segment. So last night during the Iowa caucuses, Pete Buttigieg appeared to announce his victory in the primary race. And that was strange because obviously there was a huge mishap with the app that was being used by the party. There was also a problem with whether the results that they did have were accurate. There were inconsistencies, there were even stories that have now been debunked about how they were possibly hacked. So everyone was wondering, like, what information does Pete Buttigieg have that the rest of us don't?

And why is he already making it appear as though he is victorious in the caucuses? He believes in the power of positive thinking. Yeah, well, look, I want to show you guys a little bit of what he had to say. And then I'll give you some of the results that we did get today, they're not the full results. We only have 62% of the precincts reporting. But here's what he said last night before there were 0% of the precincts reported. Tonight, an improbable hope became an undeniable reality. So we don't know all the results.

But we know by the time it's all said and done, Iowa you have shocked the nation. By all indications, we are going on to New Hampshire victorious. We are going on to New Hampshire victorious. That's the line. Could mean anything. Could mean literally anything. The way that he worded, you know, that paragraph, it could be left to interpretation because he does start it off with we don't know all the results.

And then later he says, you know. He said we're gonna go Victoria. He purposely worded it in a way where he can appear to be the winner and then later back pedal or scale it back to make it appear as though that's not what he was saying. He did that on purpose, which makes him a typical slimy politician that people can't stand. But there was the earlier part actually bothers me more. And I understand, I think we all get that this was written on a piece of paper for his victory speech if he won.

And he's not a natural enough person to come out and just talk honestly about what's going on and what he hopes will happen, instead he just reads that speech. He said one line that was not just like kind of ambiguous, it was exactly wrong. He said an improbable hope has become an undeniable reality. We literally don't know what the reality is yet. And so if you just come up with a hypothesis, I can deny it because we don't know yet. That sentence couldn't be more wrong. By the way, I do love like the idea of people at home thinking like, God, I just, I want Pete Buttigieg's

So bad, but it's so improbable, like there's people at home, like on their couches, hugging their kids, like, Timi, wouldn't it be great if Pete Buttigieg was president? I know, dad, but it's improbable. No one's having that conversation. No one has, like, this insane, like, love and affection for Pete Buttigieg. It's an Obama line. Yes, it is an Obama line. Pete Buttigieg did well in Iowa because he spent a lot of time and a lot of money in Iowa.

And mind you, senators, including senators. Senator Sanders, Warren, Klobuchar, they had to spend a lot of time in D.C. specifically for the impeachment trial. So he had a little bit of an advantage there too. But look, he did well based on what we know so far in Iowa. We don't have the full results though. He didn't have any results when he decided to give that speech. So there were a lot of people on social media who were frustrated by his attempts to kind

of hijack the race and make it seem like he was the victor here. But I do want to remind you all of what we know so far about the results, again, only 62% of precincts reporting. It does appear that Buttigieg is in the lead when it comes to delegate votes at 26.9%. And Sanders comes in second at 25.1%. However, as it stands right now at this very moment, and the results can change because we only have 62% reporting, Sanders has the popular vote at 28,220. is at 27,030, okay?

So it was risky for him to do what he did. And to be honest with you, even with the results that we have right now, I think it's still risky because I have a source. I would not be sharing this with you guys unless this is someone that I 100% trusted and found credible. And this source tells me, Bernie's internal numbers have him with popular vote, lead, and delegate lead. So we'll see what happens.

We'll see what happens. We'll see. But here's the thing, Bernie's campaign isn't going out there and declaring themselves the winners, right? The most he said was, we believe we did very, very well. That's, that's right. So there's a clear difference in how Sanders has decided to handle this and how Buttigieg has decided to handle this. Would you like one more? Because we have the quote from Sanders, we had the quote from Buttigieg.

I just saw this actually, Joe Biden speaking to, I believe it was firefighters for Biden, said, quote, we had a good night last night in Iowa. That's a little bit, like, he's not declaring victory, but he said it was a good night. Well, it wasn't a good night for Biden. Yeah, it's not as good as him saying good night to the campaign, but, you know, everybody, like nobody, who has ever come out and like, oh, that was rough? Oh my God, you guys ate me. Right.

No politicians ever going to say that, but I would say that Joe Biden is actually maybe being the most realistic because he's like, he's not like, it was great, you shocked the nation, improbable this, ethereal that. He's like, we had a good night. No, but that's the thing. He can't, that's all he can do. Yeah. You have to make your supporters feel good, optimistic moving forward. But you also can't brag because you came in fourth or it's very likely once all of the results are in that he's going to remain in fourth. Yes. So I think the way Biden handled it in terms of that statement is okay. It's okay.

I didn't like the campaign freaking out and like pressuring or bullying the media and the Iowa Democrats to avoid releasing anything last night because they knew, it was in the cars, they knew the results were gonna be bad. But I do want to show you one more video, again, Buttigieg makes it appear as though he won, it's premature, and reporters want to know like, yo, what's going on? Like, why, do you think this is a good idea? He gets that question in the next clip. Mayor Budi, he's wondering premature to declare a victory in Iowa last night.

How do you feel about Iowa last night? You said Victoria's last night, you feel like your numbers are going well? So he ignores the question, probably for good reason. And then when he was on MSNBC, he was asked about it. He did seem to kind of like backpedal a little bit. And so here's what he said. We were looking at the internal numbers that we had and beginning to realize that something extraordinary, I can't even handle reading his statement, extraordinary had happened last night.

Here you have a campaign that was really questioned when we got in for whether we even ought to be here, whether we belonged in this race. And to not only establish that, but to reach the position that we did was a clear victory for our campaign. That's actually not that bad. It's not that bad. Like, what he's trying to say there is, look, we, I mean, people didn't think that we were going to get much and we did better than anyone expected.

Like, but if he had said that, if he had said that in his victory speech, like last night. That would be, that would be fine with me. Yeah. The idea that this guy who's way younger than a lot of the other candidates, openly gay, small town mayor, nobody knew who he was, the fact that he could come in first or second in Iowa, that is impressive. And I think anyone in media needs to look at that and not just be like wowed by it and then move on, but actually think, so how did he do that?

And I think that's probably that next step. I don't think Buttigieg actually wants that because nobody's going to look back over the last year of his campaign and say that the way he did that was by, you know, inspiring the youths of America, a broad coalition, all that stuff. No, he pretty immediately rejected all the past comments he had in social media about progressive policies. He tried to go to all the richest donors in the country and say, look, Biden's going to fall apart. You need to go from me. They gave him tons of money, and he spent a ton of money exclusively in Iowa. It's not a difficult thing to figure out. It is still impressive because he was a nobody in all that just a year ago.

But the lessons that we can learn from that are fairly easy to figure out and don't necessarily reflect well on Pete Buttigieg or our current campaign finance system. Definitely. All right, well, I do want to move on to a broader discussion about the process of the Iowa caucuses and whether it makes sense to consider some reforms, because I think that there are undemocratic aspects of it that we should discuss, okay? So it seems like the one thing Democrats, both moderates or progressives agree on, is that the Iowa caucuses are problematic. And they're problematic because they discourage certain groups of people from even participating

or casting a vote. Now, it's not as if they go to the polls and they just vote within 10 minutes and leave. There's a whole process that takes a considerable amount of time. So they require people to show up at a gym, stay there for hours and hours, publicly argue and campaign for candidates, and eventually group up in a lightly regulated system to select a nominee. It's a system that inherently disfavors people with disabilities, people who work. night shifts, people who don't have a lot of free time, people who don't have consistent

transportation, and just about anyone who, for whatever reason, can't make it out to a school gym for hours on a Monday night. Unsurprisingly, turnout at the caucus is consistently much lower than it is in other types of elections. And I think that that's an important point to make. I think voting in America is needlessly difficult to do. It requires time, it requires resources, and I'm talking about normal voting. I'm not even talking about caucusing.

Caucusing is on a whole other level. And so how can you call this a democratic process if it, by its very nature, discourages people from participating? Well, I mean, if by democracy you mean that everyone has equal access to it, then it definitely does not. If you want a certain type of person to engage in a vigorous back and forth, then it might satisfy you. But yeah, for working class people who can't take that much time off, far more even than voting

for, you know, like if you can't put a kid in child care, that's gonna be a big issue if you're a parent. Right. A lot of people, older people, people with disabilities. I know we're gonna go through a lot of groups, but all sorts of groups are gonna be naturally discriminated by the very format that can only be exacerbated by things like last night, which dragged out the process even longer. Exactly.

Now some politicians and pundits are latching onto the mess to argue why Iowa shouldn't keep its status as the first state in the nation to select a presidential nominee, particularly if it's going to keep doing this all through the caucus system. In fact, Dick Durbin, a Democrat, made this point recently. Let's take a look. Do you think the Iowa caucus is a good way to elect a presidential nominee? I think the Democratic caucus in Iowa is a quirky, quaint tradition which should come to an end. As we try to make voting easier for people across America, The Iowa caucus is the most painful situation we currently face for voting. People who work all day, pick up the kids at daycare.

Do you think they're headed to the caucus next? Of course not. We've got to have a means for people to express themselves that is reliable. Unfortunately, the caucus system is not. I absolutely agree with Dick Durbin there. And look, I know that if you want to support your candidate, you're going to do it no matter what, right? You're going to overcome your fears. you're gonna maybe even do some canvassing, which is not an easy thing to do for a lot of people

because it requires face-to-face human contact with strangers. I find it repugnant. Me too, though. No, I'm just kidding. No, but I don't, okay, and maybe it's because I do this for a living and I'm so, like, burnt out from it, that the idea of me in my personal life, having to debate people in real time as we're caucusing, Like, it gives me anxiety just thinking about it. How many people out there are like extreme introverts who don't want to do stuff like

that, who are a little more private about their politics, and they want to remain private about their politics? Yeah. There's something way more inviting about going to a little private booth and casting your vote and not having to deal with any type of human confrontation, especially at a time when politics is incredibly polarized, but more importantly, the environment is combative and for a lot of people dangerous. I'm not saying that it got dangerous in Iowa, but we've seen cases of people, you know, getting up in one another's faces and getting really heated about things.

Yeah, it's super public. It conceivably might be neighbors of yours. It's, like, there are advantages to it. There are benefits, but that doesn't mean that it should continue. There's lots of different systems that we could come up with, which might have a few advantages. That doesn't mean it's actually best either for the people in that state or for the process as a whole. And also, like, they get, This is not the first time that people have talked about Iowa, New Hampshire having this special status and when you question the possibility of that changing like they get super sensitive like well, you know, come on, it's traditional, like considering how many times we've been through this process with them getting first every single time, they should be ashamed for implying that they're entitled to continue that system. No other state has had that and some of the states have far better call for it. They're far more diverse. They're far larger. Like, California is so big, they should just be able to muscle the whole, the rest of them out of the way and decide to go first. Yeah, Iowa is actually the 33rd most populous state in the U.S. And there's so much weight on Iowa when it comes to the election.

It's crazy. And it makes sense to have some rural states like that as part of perhaps six or eight that might vote on the same day. But to make sure that it's first, that second, you have a far more diverse state, New Hampshire. And then we'll wait a little bit more and then we'll have a state that looks a little bit more like America's whole. The people there, obviously we have as much respect for them as literally anyone else. They have had a sweet ride for decades and decades and decades. There is no reason that it has to continue.

So Julian Castro had his own thoughts on the Iowa caucuses. Let's take a look at what he had to say. Tonight it's become clear that this Iowa caucus has been a total mess. It's been a complete failure. The fact is that we still don't have any reliable final results. It's already knocking on the door of 11 o'clock central, midnight, eastern. It just demonstrates that it's a mess. And what we saw out there and heard about are consistently errors in the way that this process

was done, whether in the initial phase or in the realignment, inconsistencies and how it was done across precinct sites, caucus sites. It is a total mess. It really is a total mess. And we heard a little from Dick Durbin, we heard from Julian Castro, but I think it's also important to hear about how the process did change a little bit from last time around, okay? So Nathan Robinson wrote a great piece in The Guardian about what happened last night. And I want to just share three little excerpts with you.

So he writes, for Sanders supporters, being denied a rightful victory in Iowa gives feelings of deja vu. In 2016, Sanders may well have won Iowa, possibly by a lot, but the state party did not release the vote totals. Instead, it only released delegate numbers, which showed Bernie narrowly losing the state 701 to 697 to Hillary Clinton. The delegate numbers are calculated strangely, this time around in one precinct, Sanders beat Buttigieg 111 votes to 47 votes in the first alignment, but both ended up with two delegates. If the vote totals had been known in 2016, it might have been clear Bernie had won. So what he's pointing to there is the difference between the popular vote, which is the number of individuals who actually voted or caucused for Bernie Sanders, versus the delegate count.

In 2016, they only released the delegate count and did not release the popular vote. So Robinson also writes, with his New Hampshire victory shortly after, Clinton would have been seen as losing the race. and the whole election might have turned out differently. That's why this time around, the Sanders campaign ensured that the vote totals would be released and took a count of its own for good measure. This time, if he wins, everyone will know eventually. And as I've said a billion times on this show so far today, we don't have the full results yet. Only 62% of the precincts have been reported.

Yeah. Yeah, I think, look, it's definitely better. I hate that there are people in MSNBC sort of blaming Bernie for this. It shouldn't have had to have been a change. First of all, it's not responsible for the problems. But even if it was, it shouldn't have had to have been iterated on since the last time. We should have always known those numbers. But I think, and I brought this up on the coverage yesterday, part of the problem is that

we sort of understand that there's this momentum thing, but then we also just sort of surrender to it. And like with Hillary Clinton and Bernie back in 2016, it was like so close. It was a two delegate difference. It was meaningless, except for the meaning that we put on there. And all of the people putting that meaning onto it all know that it's meaningless, but we decide to do it anyways. We are doing a disservice to our audience.

And the reason is that we've been through this process now for, depending on the primary, six months to a year of going back and forth over the candidates, watching the debates, talking about their platforms. And so many people at this point would never admit it. But they're sick of doing that, and they wanna just see what the numbers say. They believe, okay, if Iowa comes out the right way that I don't need to make the case anymore, I can switch over to just saying, look, you won, this thing's done, or she won, this thing's done.

They don't want to have to continue through New Hampshire, in Nevada, and South Carolina, and Super Tuesday, still going over platforms and who's best and theories of change and all that stuff. But we still have to. You still have to make the case for your candidate. It's also just crazy how every state has its own rules and its own process for the primaries. You'll have open primaries in some states. In California, for instance, if you are registered independent, you are not allowed to vote in the Democratic primaries, which I think is unacceptable.

That's a rule that I would change. So it's not just Iowa that has an issue with its process. I think that there's a lack of uniformity when it comes to doing this in a way that's fair to all the candidates. And also, I don't know, it's just too complicated and discourages people from engaging. What happened last night, I think the biggest takeaway, aside from the candidates and what the results mean for the candidates is what this means for the electorate and how it discourages people from being politically active and being politically engaged. Because being politically engaged means that you become emotionally involved and connected to the process and to the candidate that you support. And when you see something go down the way that it did last night in Iowa, it's demoralizing.

It is, yeah. So it's just something to keep in mind. It's not just about the ramifications for the candidates, it's the ramifications for the democratic process as a whole. Yeah. We're going to take a break. When we come back, Jackson White will join us and we'll discuss all sorts of crazy news that's happening today. Actually, he won't join us for another segment, actually. We're going to just come back, okay?

at t yt we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control of our online lives constantly monitoring us and storing and selling our data but that doesn't mean we have to let them it's possible to stay anonymous online and hide your data from the prying eyes of big tech and one of the best ways is with express vpn express VPN hides your IP address making your active ID more difficult to trace and sell the advertisers express VPN also encrypts 100% of your network data to protect you from eavesdroppers and cyber criminals. And it's also easy to install. A single mouse click protects all your devices. But listen, guys, this is important. ExpressVPN is rated number one by CNET and Wired magazine. So take back control of your life online and secure your data with a top VPN solution available, ExpressVPN. And if you go to ExpressVPN.com slash TYT, you can get three extra months for free with this exclusive link just for TYT fans. That's EXP-R-E-S-V-P-N.com slash TYT. Check it out today. We hope you're enjoying this free clip from the Young Turks. If you want to get

the whole show and more exclusive content while supporting independent media, become a member at TYT.com slash join today. In the meantime, enjoy this free segment. Hey everyone, welcome back to TYT. Anna and John with you. I want to read a few comments and then we'll move on to the rest of the news. In fact, a story that broke after we went live. So Nick writes in and says, Mayo Pete is what happens when Rand Paul and Dr. Evil have a baby. I like that. Let's go to the TYT live section.

Like I feel like I ignore you guys, not ignore you purposely, but I read all these member comments and then the TYT live segment, you guys, you guys need some love too. No more, but class war says Pete sounds like a programmed robot. He is 2020's version of Marco Rubio. Yeah, except like I don't really know what he stands for. Like Marco Rubio stands for some stuff. I don't agree with him on it, but Mayor Pete is like he was born to be a politician. Like everything he's done his entire life was to be a politician.

And I think that there's something inherently wrong with people like that. Because you shouldn't ever want to be a politician. You should feel pressured to do it because you really want to like serve. Congress should be drafted. It should be like jury duty. You serve six months or a year. It rotates naturally. That's what it should be.

But yeah, he is consciously trying to appeal to some people. Like, I know we look at what do they say about climate change? What do they say about income? Like, what do they say about these? But a lot of people are like, I want someone who seems sort of presidential, like, you know, like that president from Independence Day. Like that's who you want when aliens are coming. Like some people actually, they don't think about independent state, but they just want someone

who seems to have gravitas and seem kind of. intelligent and a little bit worldly, and he's trying to check those boxes for people. It gives you, he's intentionally trying to give you some of the vibes of Barack Obama, except Barack Obama did also imply things about what he wanted to accomplish. Definitely. One more comment for you. Skeletor's Wine Cave of Doom says, I imagine Anna on vacation like one of those Hallmark movies where the protagonist goes to a small town and falls into a murder mystery.

I like your imagination, it's fun. All right, well, we have some breaking news for you, and I want to share it. So, Rush Limbaugh recently announced that he is battling stage for lung cancer. That is the most serious stage, and the survival rate is incredibly low once it gets to that point. Now, Trump has responded to the news by saying that he will award Rush Limbaugh with the Medal of Freedom. According to a person familiar with the discussion, Trump informed anchors, he will With stow Limbaugh with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in the coming months, Limbaugh has been a staunch ally of the presidents for years, which is the only reason why Trump would be interested in rewarding him or awarding him anything, and dined with him at his Palm Beach golf course or club over the holidays. Once during an event in the Rose Garden, Trump praised Limbaugh as someone who, quote, can speak for three hours without a phone call.

That is quite an accomplishment. That's the most important skill a person can have. Hold on, but we gotta tell people like the literal, like what they say the Medal of Freedom is for, like the description, because- How about it? Like, on its face, you don't need to know. Like if you're from anywhere in the world, you know, yeah, metal of freedom, it's something, right? But you don't know specifically what it is.

You know it's not intended for people like Rush Limbaugh. The Medal of Freedom is bestowed to quote, individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the U.S. to world peace or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors? Rush Limbaugh has been a huge factor in sowing division and hatred in this country. I'll give you specific examples in just a minute. He is someone who I do not have any type of admiration or respect for, and given the fact that he's battling stage four lung cancer, I am going to stop talking about him soon to

prevent saying something deeply offensive and inappropriate. But with that said, I'm going to go ahead and give you a sense of who Rush Limbaugh has been throughout his career to give you a sense of how he doesn't actually fit the description that John just read to you. So here are some actual statements from Rush Limbaugh. Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson? He also said, right, so you go into Darfur and you go into South Africa, you get rid of the white government there, you put sanctions on them, you stand behind Nelson Mandela, who was bankrolled by communists for a time, had the support of certain communist leaders, you go to Ethiopia, you do the same thing. So he had some pretty terrible things to say about the end of the apartheid in South Africa

because that's who Rush Limbaugh. It's all about freedom. You know, let's give this guy a freedom award. He also said once, look, let me put it to you this way. The NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it. It's a powerful metaphor that's deep. No, no, no, he's a racist, I forgot, it's not.

The thing is, so when he has that skill, if he can talk for three hours without like a phone, you also reveal who you are through those three hours. And he has been very clear over 31 years of who he is, who he likes, who he doesn't like. He also once said the NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies. Regarding African Americans in America, they're 12% of the population, who the hell cares? To the African-American female caller, he said, take that bone out of your nose and call me back. I mean, this is who he is, but he's all about freedom.

Racism does not exist in America, but that's it. You know, like, so I'm looking at a list of former, you know, people who've gotten it. And so like Obama, he gave it to, let's see, Tom Hanks, like you can go through the list. It's in a bunch of different categories. There's dance and art and literature and computing and, you know, engineering and medicine and all that stuff. Like, I would go so far as to say no one who does this sort of job necessarily deserves it. The contribution is just not significant enough.

But if you were going to choose someone from amongst this sort of thing, honestly, Rush Limbaugh, like, you don't think that like if he gets a second term, Ben Shapiro could get the Medal of Freedom in three years? Mark Levine. I just, I don't care. There I said it, I don't care. I don't care about the presidential medal of freedom. I don't care who's gotten it.

I don't care about Rush Limbaugh's diagnosis. I don't care about Rush Limbaugh, I don't care. He's a bad person, bad people get rewarded in America all the time. That's how it works. Yeah. Donald Trump was chosen to come in and to pee all over the things that we have in our government. Whatever you think has some sort of respect associated with it, he's there to pee on it. That's all it is.

Yep. He's there to make a joke out of whatever we have as a culture. Golden showers and golden towers. We'll be right back. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work. Listen ad-free. Access members, only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.

com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Jank Huger, and I'll see you soon.