The Young Turks - TYT Extended Clip - January 17th, 2020

Episode Date: January 18, 2020

Trump's legal dream team is a total disaster. John Iadarola, Mark Thompson, 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

You're listening to the Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. Hey, guys, you've heard of the Young Turks podcast because you're listening to it right now. But make sure that you subscribe and give it a five star rating if you like it. Thank you for listening. Drop it. Welcome back, everyone to another power panel with Mark Thompson, Francesca, Fiorentini, and myself.

And I'm going to use up the last of my voice for this show. And then we've got a three-day weekend, which is going to be really awesome. But it's been a week in the news, and I'm very glad that both of you're here with me to go through the stories. Oh, week of your voice. That's been the biggest news. There's been other news, too. You're playing hurt, and I appreciate that. I think it's a good example to us younger kids that a guy like you plays hurt.

He's playing dirty. I think he's just playing dirty. Obviously. I will say that coming to the show without a full voice is even more intimidating when you're on a panel with a guy who is known across the world for his voice. Thank you. Francesca's voice. Okay, so we've got awesome stories that we're going to get to.

Did you know that Bernie Sanders is a rat, okay? He's a dirty fighter is what he is. And we're going to break down the attacks against him recently. Really, really sad, scary story involving Andrew Yang's wife Evelyn. So we're going to be breaking down the details on that too. And then I'm going to keep it real. Partially because Mark is on the panel, we've got a story about animal cruelty in agriculture. And it's pretty devastating.

Okay, so we're going to give you a bunch of, you know, Animal print shirt. You did actually. Solidarity with all the koalas and pigs. It's been a rough time for animals. Okay, don't look at me. Yeah, there you go. Okay, but before we get into all of those stories, and there is also going to obviously

be an awesome second hour after that, I did want to give you just a couple of programming notes to lead off. First, on MLK Day, we are going to be dark, our studio. We're not going to have a live show on Monday, January 20th. We will have clips available on YouTube, and you can sign up at t.t.com slash join, obviously. to become a member, see those clips and everything, but we're not going to have a regularly scheduled live video because we're going to be observing the holiday. We also will be having, coming up on Friday, January 24th, just to show to our members

how much we appreciate them. We're going to have a members-only main show during our regularly scheduled hours. It's something we do pretty rarely, but we want to give something a little bit special to our members. And so we're going to be doing that. You keep us independent, honest, and objective, and we want to give something back to you. When is that? That's going to be on Friday, January 24th.

It's kind of a cool idea. It is, and you can become a member today at t-y-t.com slash join. So that should be a lot of fun. With that said, lots of stories to get to, so why don't we jump into it? Donald Trump has finally assembled his legal team, the best and brightest minds from around the country. He will be defending him during this Senate trial, and it's a doozy. So we've got Harvard Law, Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz, former independent council, the lawyers, Ken Starr and Robert Ray.

They're going to be joining his team, which also includes Jay Seckalo, Pat Cipollone, and Pam Bondi as well. It's just, I mean, the term murderer's row is thrown around. But in terms of the sorts of people you could get to represent you in a high-profile case, that is just, that is something. And so what's interesting is we're going to give our commentary and everything, and we're going to hear from some members of his team. but I saw that Jonathan Swad at Axios, some White House officials had reached out to him

saying that they hoped Trump wouldn't pick Dershowitz. They said it's an unforced error, given that the team was already strong, and perhaps more importantly because of the close publicly documented ties between him and Jeffrey Epstein, which could become a distraction. And so that makes two members of his defense team who also helped Jeffrey Epstein get a sort of easy-going sweetheart sort of deal and evade accountability for the horrific crimes that he's committed. That's the team that he has.

He got a sweetheart deal? A little bit. I mean, I think in the end. Not in the end so much. Although, is it ever really over with Epstein? I was going to talk like this whenever I talk about Epstein. I feel like I'm in an episode of Russian doll. No, it ended poorly, but he had a good run.

He did ever go. He skated for the first part, is what you're talking about. That's sweetheart deal. Like, his defense team, they've got a lot of stink on them. The Epstein stink is on Dershowitz. And, you know, we overlook Ken Starr, I think, too quickly when we talk about stink involving sexual harassment and sexual misconduct. At Baylor, he was forced to resign, as you are aware, because he covered up and didn't

handle the serious charges of sexual misconduct on the campus of Baylor by athletes in any kind of serious way. Ken Starr is a reprehensible, awful guy, and that's just one more way he's awful. So that whole sexual misconduct stink, though, that's Dershowitz, I think it's on Star as well. But I mean, aren't you kind of like, you know, Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, like, they're not on the other side of this. This is like the wrong dream team. This is like the sexual assaulters dream team. Don't we need like the corrupt, you know, I don't know, like whatever, foreign bribery dream team?

You need someone who's more in like the mafia angle rather than the like handsy angle. Yeah. I don't know who that would be. I don't know. I just feel like maybe Kevin Spacey in character as his character from time to kill could just like join in on this because that would be great, you know? Well, the other thing I just was going to say is I think that a lot of these decisions that are made as to who's going to be on Trump's team across the board, I mean this team

or other, they're decided upon based on who shows up well on television, who said the right thing on Fox News, these are the things that Trump cares about checking off. And I think these guys check those boxes. Yeah, and so, and there is some indication that the, like the TV presence as a part of it, we're going to get to that. But also the just fawning deference to Donald Trump, you just do that for a few months on Fox News and you eventually get hired. It has never failed.

Now, it's a mixed picture for some of these individuals, as we're going to go through historically, but we do have some examples of that sort of deference. So why don't we go first to Ken Starr? Here's a little mashup of him in advance of impeachment talking about Donald Trump and what he thinks about impeachment. What do you make of all this? It is a lesson and a nasty lesson in how not to do impeachment. The president may have covered himself by saying no quid pro quo, the record is muddled. There is no bipartisan support of this impeachment inquiry.

So that's a very important background fact. 31 Democrats during Clinton supported the impeachment inquiry and not a single. Republican did, and that tells you this is just the great partisan divide that is dividing the nation further. And that's a great, I'm not going to see it's a tragedy, but it's a darn shame. What we have not seen here is the suggestion that, or at least we have not seen proof, that a crime has been committed, and that seems to me to be a very relevant fact. What we're seeing ultimately here, which I think is so unfortunate for the country,

is impeachment simply being used as a political weapon of disqualification. It was inadequate to indict, so to speak, and I believe it's woefully inadequate to convict. There is no question that this president hated the idea of foreign aid to corrupt entities. Yeah, there's some question of that though. So look, Ken Starr, he feels no sort of internal requirement to be honest in any way. It makes him a perfect fit for this legal team, and he's been on television for for literally decades, that is how Donald Trump chooses people. It's the whole central casting thing.

And look, I think that Ken Starr, in terms of being like a TV presence, I think he comes across as a pretty weak, sort of slow speaking, weak force, but he's a name that Donald Trump has been familiar with for a very long time. And he probably likes the idea that Ken Starr is going to defend him. And yet what's so great about Ken Starr being on Trump's defense is that no matter whatever history shows about this time in American history, Trump will not ever be the president who was impeached over a blowjob. He's not going to be that guy.

And that's like, it's got to suck that he was impeached. He must be so mad, but it's not over a blowjob. And he's like, it could have been, but it's not. I'm going to get Ken Starr because it was, wasn't there a, didn't I get oral sex at some point? You didn't, buddy. You didn't. And I love that. Well, Ken Starr is a jihadist, you know, he went after Clinton on just that, on just that charge, right?

That he was lying about this dalliance or whatever you want to call it in the White House. And we know what you want to call it, and I think you're right. I mean, I think it's-a-dallion. Listen, I always thought dalliance, yeah. Quid pro-dallions. But I think so Trump looks at this and go, hey, that guy went on the jihad against Clinton, and I want him to now represent me as they come after me. I think the arithmetic's that simple.

As I said before, though, I think the arithmetic is really even simpler than that, which is guy on TV a lot, he was involved in another impeachment, he's been on Fox News a lot, he'll continue to go on Fox News as you saw. I think he's been an analyst on Fox News for some time now. And so that, again, is somebody that Trump wants on his team. Because again, this is not about proving his innocence or this is not about mounting any kind of defense based on any kind of fact, right? We've seen how Republicans have completely thrown that.

to the wind, this is about getting all of the blowhards in the same room so that it can just sear into the minds of Fox News viewers so that we are, again, we all know we're post-fact, and so that they will mob the streets if he is in fact impeached, which he's not, or he's been impeached, but like removed, he's not going to be removed, but maybe, you know, in rally after rally, and I think we're only, and I've said this before, and we have seen it, going to see things get more violent, more hostile, more divided. Yeah, well, all eyes are on Virginia, and we're going to have that in the second hour. He's not wrong.

I mean, Trump is not wrong when he looks to the messaging. That's what's scary. You know, he gets this team around him, even Dershowitz. Again, these guys who are damaged goods, if you actually look at the facts. But they speak well and they speak forcefully on television, and to that viewership that you're talking about. And I think you're exactly right. That is the only messaging he cares about. So to the extent that that's important, and it is, it's really the front and center aspect

of this entire thing, he's made choices that will serve that. This is not a trial. They call it a trial, but it's not. It's a political process. And so in that spirit, he's made these choices for those reasons. Well, and it's not a trial in the traditional sense. It's also not a trial in the sense that there is going to be a serious good faith effort to get to the truth.

So here's the thing. Let's say hypothetically, there was the TV, Fox News, crowd of lawyers you could get, or there's the, these guys could actually protect me lawyers. First of all, he's going to have trouble getting allowed those people to work for him because they don't want to anymore. But more importantly, he doesn't have to do that. He doesn't need a serious qualified legal team because his serious qualified legal team are the 53 Republican senators that we've got. They are not in any way going to be serious or honest about this entire thing. All of them lied under oath when they took the oath at the beginning of this thing

that they were going to seriously consider the evidence. They're not interested in that at all. Yeah, you don't have to persuade this jury. You're preaching to the converted. Exactly. Do you think that's still the case in light of all the Lev Parnas stuff? I think it shouldn't be, but I have not seen anything from any Republican centers that shows, or from Fox News that even up to the point of a U.S. ambassador being stalked,

spied on, and potentially life being threatened, none of them have expressed like a, this has gone too far vibe. I have not seen that. No, and especially since they're going to vote against actually entering in real evidence or bringing in witnesses, all the new stuff that's come to light that really should matter, that should weigh on this case, is pretty much going to be overridden. Yeah. Now, just really fast, because I implied that there was a little bit of ambiguity to the 100% deference

we saw, for instance, from Ken Starr in that mashup. So they have previously been willing to be critical of each other. And that, I mean Ken Starr, but also Donald Trump to Ken Starr. Take a look at this video from back in the Clinton years. I think Ken Starr is a lunatic. I really think that Ken Starr is a disaster. I hated the way the president handled it. It was a long and terrible process.

I really think that Ken Starr was terrible. It doesn't matter, though. It doesn't matter. Because if you follow Donald Trump, if you like Donald Trump, you don't want or need any consistency. It's just what's the latest thing? Is this person a traitor? Is this person awesome? Is this person the best?

is this person the worst. And you just, you update it every day. And you just, you flush your memory of everything else. He was a lunatic before, but now, oh, he's the best guy, central casting, come on. Footnote on those involved in this, and what we're talking about, the fact that this is not really a trial per se. I mean, this is about power. And so when you look at it that way, you see, that's why they're not going to vote for removal

of this president. It's about maintaining power. So as John said, unless they were to, you know, show you that there was an assassin, I just don't see any way they want to give up power regardless of the evidence. Yeah. But that's so, I mean, there essentially might have been, right? Like the text message is uncovered from this guy, was it Robert Hyde or something? Who's saying, I'm following her, I know where she is, like, again, we have to sort of bring

it back to shoe on the other foot, what would Republicans do with this information if there There was a Democratic operative working who was spying on an ambassador. Like insanity, there's no way that would hold. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, look, even with all this evidence, it doesn't break through at all, even though I bet there are Republicans who have seriously believed right now that not only would Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton have done something to this ambassador, but there are probably some who think that they did kill this ambassador.

Sure. And they, like, there are people spreading rumors that Ruth Bair Ginsburg died like a year ago. And they're just pretending she's still alive so they don't have to give up the seat. Yeah, that's the world existing. She's on vibranium from Wakanda. Exactly. But anyway, really fast, I want to run through one update to this story because early this morning, there was the announcement that Alan Dershowitz would be a part of this.

Now, he's ridiculous in his own way. I mean, he was tied in with Epstein. During that time, there were some appearances of his on Fox News where he was talking about his sex life that were just like shocking in all the wrong ways. Perfectly fine. Perfectly fine. Do we have that? No, I know.

People are eating dinner, some of them. But anyway. I'll send you links if you want to see it. So if the fear is that that would be a distraction to add him to the legal team, the news coming out, the reaction to it proved that that was the case, that it was a distraction. And so I can't say for sure, but there was an update to this story that I think was generated by the response to it. So I'm gonna jump ahead a little bit.

He said to, I believe this was on a podcast, he says, I think it overstates it to say I'm a member of the Trump team. I was asked to present the constitutional argument that I would have presented had Hillary Clinton been elected and had she been impeached. I will be there for one hour, basically, presenting my argument. But I'm not a full-fledged member of the defense team in any realistic sense of that term. I didn't attend any swearing-in ceremonies, as what I guess I Anders was to say. I didn't actually get a massage.

It was more of just a light pushing, you know, and like, I don't even like massages. I have a perfect sex life. All right. And it's, well, and he's fine. Dershowitz has been, I mean, he's not, he's no longer, but up until I think about a year ago when the Epstein stuff was really blowing up, he was a CNN commentator who was consistently sort of a, I'm a Democrat and I'm against impeachment, as if that was some admirable road he was hoeing.

Well, he's a provocateur, Dershowitz, and he is someone who has taken on tough cases. He is an expert in the Constitution, all these things sort of build his cred, and then he somehow got swallowed up in Team Trump, and then you just see him flogging for Trump time and time again. He becomes a fixture on Fox News Channel, which is that then puts him really on Team Trump, and then what happens? There is one other element of this I want to just briefly cover, because obviously like, you know, Ken Starr, that's the big name, Alan Dershowitz, obviously big name when all this news comes out.

But the fact that Pam Bondi is also involved in his legal defense, that is interesting. And it's partially because of a story from a few years back that didn't get a lot of attention, but I think it's worth mentioning that, let's see, three days after a spokesman for Bondi told the Orlando Sentinel that her office was indeed considering joining the Trump U investigation. So an investigation of Trump University back before he was president, a $25,000 check was cut by Trump's foundation and sent to a committee associated with Bondi's campaign. Now, she eventually sent the money back and understand that, again, that check was from the Trump Foundation, the charitable organization.

So she was considering possibly investigating his outfit, and then they gave her $25,000, and once it blew up, she gave the money back. From his other fake outlet, right? From his other fake outlet. Exactly. Because the foundation is no longer a foundation. Yeah, exactly. So it's just, the whole thing is so dirty.

And I get it, this is a story not a lot of people knew about. You might not even know exactly what she looks like. So we do have a picture of her, so you can see this. That's her pictured with Lev Barnus. What? The hamburger strikes again. Okay, okay, that's funny guys. Let's go to a different photo of her in a different situation.

She was with Lev Barnus. Is there anyone in America he hasn't grinned in a selfie with? Start the rumors now. Exactly. Anyway, that's Trump's legal defense team. Something, something, Mosesley, something, something, Den. I don't know. Anyway, we're going to take our first break.

We come back. Bernie Sanders, really exciting new survey results. National, where's he moving? How's he doing? But also some new attacks from a former Vermont politician. We're going to go over that. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-F-E-Bing 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, dead. 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 not learn 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. For this. Hey, everybody, welcome back to the Young Turks with Mark and Francesca and myself. Before we jump back into the stories, I did want to read some of the members' comments.

Rob sent in a comment saying, By the way, congrats to Francesca for a show on MSNBC, hope adding progressive voices to MSM becomes a trend. Thank you. Yeah, that is cool. And if there was going to be someone on the vanguard, it should be someone like you. On Vanguard now? Exactly, yeah. Cutting edge, baby.

I made it. Nice job, kid. Let's see, we got the liberal mom who sent in a comment saying, Mark and Franny is my absolute favorite, yay power panel. Wow. Yeah, there's a third person on the, anyway. Where'd he go? No. Let's see, rebel fish said, hey, my rebellious family, good as always to be here with you.

By the way, poor, still sick John, I want you to know that I just said you 10 bucks to make you feel better about the poultry 50 cents you got yesterday. Throwback to yesterday's show. I'm not feeling so great either if you've got money to throw around. You have to really hack something up if you want 10 bucks. You got 50 cents? It was a super chat, yeah. Not for me specifically, obviously. Do they get phlegm for it?

I mean, it might dry out on the way, but they'll get some of the joint. You know, I'm not feeling as nervous about showing the disgusting video now that this has been the intro. Do you do this on MSNBC? I'm asking. I hope to. I hope to really, you know, bring phlegm to the mainstream. And I almost don't want to read this to IT live now, but it says I love one for a FRIO is on TYT.

We've missed you. You didn't want to read that? Well, you've just been talking a lot about my Flemm. I got it, I got it. Anyway, with that, we do have a lot of other topics to get to, so why don't we jump back into the news? We are just weeks out from the Iowa caucus. We're about to actually have a primary here, and things are developing fast.

You've probably noticed over the past few days, not only has Bernie Sanders gotten a number of high-profile endorsements in some of the early states, he's been doing very well in the early state polls as well. And now a new Reuters Ipsos poll shows him moving into first place nationally within the margin of error, to be fair. So according to this new poll, 20% of registered Democrats and independents said they would back Sanders, another 19% supported Biden, 12% for Elizabeth Warren, 9% for Michael Bloomberg, and 6% for Pete Buttigieg.

Now, this good polling for Bernie Sanders is not without its negative, which we're going to turn to in just a moment. But if you're going to start doing even better in the national polls, right on the eve of the first primaries in caucus, it's probably a pretty good time for that to happen. I just want to talk about Buttigieg trailing Bloomberg. That's got to hurt, dude. All the wine in the world from all the caves of all the cave wine caves. That's not going to help you with that.

Oh, that sucks. I know, to see him come in. But also, like, stand for something, dude. Maybe that'll help you. That's good advice. You know, just a little, me to you. Yeah, by the way, just on that and then to the Sanders thing, because it's also about it. I mean, it shows you that fundraising alone won't get it done.

It shows you that money alone won't get it done. But obviously, Bernie's done an incredible job of fundraising, you know, through individual donors. But, you know, Francesco's point about, you know, you have these wine cellar meetings and you have these big, sort of big money donors. And that doesn't necessarily guarantee you much. It doesn't. Now, he's spent millions in Iowa. And over the past two months, people would have judged him saying, he did move up in the polls and he's doing very well. And he's still in Iowa, he is doing well.

He raised a lot of money, especially considering literally no one knew who he was a year ago. But that Mike Bloomberg thing, the most amazing number, and I just have to say this, Mike Bloomberg has now spent a quarter of a billion dollars in this race. And look at how little benefit he's gaining. I mean, he is at 9%. He's trying to stop climate change, guys. He's got to spend instead of, listen, he could cut out the middleman and just spend all that money on stopping climate change.

But instead of that, he's got to be president first. Then he can eventually stop climate change in 20 years. I mean, like, follow along, okay? It's a billionaire's logic here. He needs to factor in the emissions caused by burning a quarter of a billion dollars. That is just crazy. But anyway, at first is Bernie Sanders. And like I said, he's also gotten some big endorsements on Thursday.

The Clark County Black Caucus in Nevada officially endorsed him. You have Mark Pocan, Democrat from Wisconsin, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, also issued an endorsement. There's been a few others as well, make the road action, and a few other groups, too. But he is also now, I think, because of so much good news over the past couple weeks, there is this pushback from the people who are increasingly getting nervous about his chances. For a year, it was easy to be like, oh, whatever, Biden will put him away or someone else will take him out, but that's harder to imagine now when we're right about to hit Iowa.

So we have an example of some of these attacks, and they're coming in ridiculous form. In an interview with Politico, Peter Schumlin, who has endorsed a Joe Biden for president in 2020 and served as Vermont's governor from 2011 to 2017, while Sanders represented the state in the Senate, warned that Sanders, an independent and a self-described Democratic socialist, ultimately did not feel loyalty to Democrats. He said, quote, what I've seen in Bernie's politics is he and his team feel they're holier than the rest. In the end, they will play dirty because they think that they pass a purity test that Republicans and most Democrats won't pass. So when you think of Bernie Sanders, dirty, dirty politics, underhanded. He's pure and dirty at the same time, dirty, but it's a purist test.

Like, what is this, the purism is around not accepting corporate donations? I mean, he can pass a purity test that others can't pass. I mean, first of all, let me just say that. I mean, he is passing a purity test when it comes to fundraising that no one was passing prior to Bernie Sanders really entering the race and making it something that people realized, oh, this is a goal that we can actually achieve. Yeah. Yeah, I don't think.

This is what you're going to see, though. You're going to see him painted as a socialist. You're going to see him painted as a communist. You're going to see moneyed interests, Wall Street and corporate, big oil, fossil fuel businesses and interest. Private health care industry. Yeah, health care. Thank you. Very important.

The insurance, health insurance industry. They are going to go after them. And it's really going to be rough. I mean, I think what you're seeing is sort of everything happening in plain sight. The other stuff could happen in sort of the way that we saw sort of the Trump attack ads run on Facebook and in other forums that really could have a damaging effect on Bernie over time. And that's why this week, after everything that the progressive movement has been through in terms of the Warren camp instigated rift between Bernie and Warren, I think, was so hard

Because for me, I felt like not only were they, in my book, baseless and unsubstantiated claims about things that he had said, but that they also echoed a narrative from 2016 around the Sanders camp and Bernie Sanders specifically being divisive and not getting on board with the Clinton campaign. And it's like, was he not on board with Clinton because he was bringing up issues on which they differed? Was he not on board? Was he not loyal to Clinton because he was bringing up fracking or he was bringing up foreign policy

and her vote for the Iraq war? Like what are we actually talking about? This is the candidate who on stage in front of the entire world said, I'm tired of hearing about your damn emails. He deliberately did not attack her on anything that had to do with her personality or the email thing or her gender. None of the cheap stuff. None of the cheap stuff, when the media, when the right wing, when everyone was doing that.

In fact, Sanders was an ally on that. So again, I think the most hurtful thing about this last week and the most hurtful thing about the like, oh, his ego and his ego, my man's slogan is not me, us? Like, as someone who likes Senator Sanders, I kind of want him to make it a little bit more about him, you know? But actually his campaign does everything to not do that. So I'm not sure where the ego and the divisiveness, I'm not sure where all that's coming from.

Yeah, and in the same way that you say, I kind of wish he made it a little bit more about me. Like when I say he's the least dirty politician that's ever run for the presidency, I kind of wish he was like 4% dirtier. Right. Not like unfairly dirty, not say anything dishonest or anything, but he goes so out of his way to not attack people in an unfair fashion that he doesn't really attack people. Two runs for the presidency, he generally just makes it about himself, what he wants to accomplish, and his platform. And that's why these attacks are so sick, because it's not just that they're attacking him, it's that they are inverting reality to do so.

There's going to be a little bit more of that right here. So a bit more from Peter Schumlin. What you're seeing now is, in the end, even if he considers you a friend like Elizabeth Warren, Bernie will come first. That's the pattern we've seen over the years in Vermont, and that's what we're seeing now nationally. How much did you drink over the past week to think that this is an example of Bernie coming first? Bernie wanted none of any of that. Listen, he's leading in the polls and when Bernie Sanders leading the polls, it means he wants to be first and he's putting himself first.

Other people are putting himself, ergo he's putting himself above. It works out, it works out. And by the way, you know, whenever there's an article like this and there are many of them, John Kerry's done stuff like this. There's always going to be these. I'm so concerned about Bernie and what he's doing articles. They always have to have a line like this. We should be weakening Donald Trump, not each other. I'm concerned that we're seeing a replay of the kind of dynamics that didn't allow Hillary to win. You just did an interview, the entirety of which was attacking and tearing down Bernie Sanders. And you're like, and after all, can we focus on Donald Trump?

We wouldn't want a replay of 2016, you know, in which virtually everyone in the media and the political establishment spent the entire time attacking Bernie Sanders and his supporters relentlessly day after day after day. Yeah, we are seeing a replay of that. I think we're seeing a replay and we're going to see it even worse. And in fact, I feel like if anything in 2016, there was more ignoring of the Sanders campaign than there was attacking him over and over again. What there was was there was complete inflation of the Trump camp and an inflation of

Clinton, the scandal around Clinton's emails that absolutely all, you know, every media outlet participated in. Here's the thing about 2020. I mean, like it or not, Sanders is actually the most electable candidate in this race. Why? John just said it. The entire political establishment failed us in 2016. The Democratic political establishment failed us. They put up a candidate who was weak. They insisted on this weaker candidate who did not campaign in the states that we knew that she needed to campaign in. So what do you want us to do in 2020? Go back to that same establishment. Trust us, because we got it. You didn't got it, right? And so now it's actually time to have someone who has a vision, a vision that is in fact that diametrically opposed to

Donald Trump, and yet speaking to the same issues that Trump speaks to, which is around failed trade agreements and free trade policies, which is around actually health care. The guy won saying, I'm going to replace Obamacare with something better. Bernie Sanders is also going to replace Obamacare, but he actually means it. He's not a grifter, right? So this obsession with civility that the Democrats have, the obsession with bipartisanship, and an obsession with working with Republicans who have no interest in working with them at all, as we've seen.

It's like, I'm sorry, who's the candidate you want to put up again? Biden, Biden and Warren, which it kind of looks like she might not be denying that that could be in the cards for her. Do we want to lose again? I mean, that's the thing. He's the most electable, people know it, he's got the record and he's got the base, he's got the movement behind him. You can ignore all of that and just call him a Democratic Socialist.

And of course, as Mark pointed out, the lobbying interests and the moneyed interest will absolutely do that. But if you want to beat Trump, if you want to win, I think this is your guy. Well said, well, there's a lot there, and I sign on to all of it. I mean, I think it's exactly right. The other thing I would just say in relation to the attacks is, again, they're going to come in a lot of different ways, especially if Sanders maintains these leads. I mean, you're going to see just what we've seen there.

He's not a mainstream Democrat, exactly why so much of the Democratic Party, which reflects mainstream interests, they're all going to come after them. They're going to come after them in op-eds. You're going to come after him in ads. They're going to come after him with money. It's going to get dirty. And it's not going to be dirtiness from the Sanders side. No.

No. And if he, look, if he goes three out of four, the first four states, that's going to generate momentum. But not the only, it's not the only momentum that's going to be him electorally. It is going to be way more op-eds, way more media appearances. Just wait to see what happens after he wins Iowa in New Hampshire. Okay, with that, why don't we, we're going to switch things up. Very different sort of story, but an important one. The wife of presidential candidate Andrew Yang is now coming forward

with a scary, disgusting story of betrayal in the medical field against her. This is Evelyn Yang, and she revealed Thursday to CNN that while pregnant with her first child in 2012, she was sexually assaulted by her gynecologist at Columbia University. Now, we have, of some sections of her interview. We want her to describe it in her own words, so here is some of what she revealed. Started with inappropriate questions around how intimate I was with my husband, sexual activity. The examinations became longer, more frequent, and I learned that they were unnecessary Most of the time, most women don't know what you're supposed to get when you're pregnant.

I didn't know that you're not supposed to get an exam every time. Yang says the worst assault happened when she was seven months pregnant. I was in the exam room and I was dressed and ready to go. And then at the last minute, he kind of made him like an excuse. He said something about, I think you're, you might need a C-section. And he proceeded to grab me over to him and undress me and examine me and examine me internally ungloved. And at first, I was a little bit like, what's going on here? And there was no one else in the room?

No, no. In fact, when I think back to most of our exams, I don't think there was somebody in the room. Yeah. You thought to yourself, this isn't just inappropriate banter. This is much different. Oh, he, I mean, at that moment, I knew that was, I knew it was wrong. I mean, I knew, I said, I knew I was being assaulted. Oh man, that, that video is just devastating.

Yeah. And as we're going to reveal the like dereliction of duty of literally everyone who is supposed to hold them accountable and stop it from happening to an ever increasing number of women. And since that account from Evelyn Yang, I believe eight women have come forward and joined a large number of women who are making claims against the same doctor. But just devastating. Yeah, I think there are 31 total complaints. And they're trying to, Columbia is trying to skate on procedural grounds on the legal side of this. It's so disturbing in the extreme to hear an account like that. Yeah.

Men are creeps, man. Men, I'm sorry, I'm going to get backlash for that, but I'm going to say it. Y'all are creeps. It's disgusting. I had a urologist once. You know what those guys are? Anyway, you know who they are. And you have to have a woman present with you.

That's the one thing. I think this was in New York at the time. It was in New York. And I'm not sure if it's state law, but you have to have a female present if you. you have a pelvic exam and you're a woman and the pelvic exam is being done by a man. And that was fine. And then I remember I think later the guy was like, well how many, how often are you having sex?

Is it four times a week because your boyfriend's real lucky? I was like, no, dude. So it happens all the time on these like, on a lot of different levels. And I just want to say we can connect the assault that doctors get away with to Medicare for all. Because when you are able to see any doctor you want, you don't have to be beholden to a certain doctor who you are afraid might be assaulting you or is assaulting you because you're afraid you won't get care otherwise.

Under Medicare for All, if you're allowed to see a different doctor, you could just up and go to a different obstetrician, that's great, a different gynecologist. Don't worry about who's in your network or who's out of your network, it gives patients much more freedom and not put themselves back into the situation. Obviously, it's on him, but I'm just saying as a patient, you can also have a choice. Yeah. So, and we can't go through all the details. We had planned to, but effectively there was criminal action against him.

He got off incredibly easy, and that's now being pursued too, but also Columbia University, which appears to have not taken seriously a number of just incredibly serious and graphic complaints is also being looked into. But I want to show you one more section from Evelyn Yang's interview. I just needed to tell someone. You know, I needed to share it at that moment because it felt so big to me. I needed that support. And I told him.

And he cried. I mean, he wasn't bawling. there were tears and he said it's because he remembered when I told when I came home one day

ranting about pervy doctors I said something like why do they let men be gynecologist it makes no sense and he remembered that I had made this comment

and he felt so bad, he felt guilty that he didn't make the connection or ask me more. With every word, you can see how difficult it is for her to so publicly relate this story, but it is important that she's doing so. She is helping, you know, put a spotlight on this guy who got away with dozens and dozens and dozens of crimes. And perhaps now as a result of what she's doing, again, very bravely, perhaps there will be more justice. Yeah, and I think offering. To this point, but evaded.

Yes, and offering a model for maybe how, you know, we can all in our daily lives and the people in our lives, if someone says something like that, we can ask them, are you basing that on something that happened, are you okay, you know, and just checking in with people, because I think that oftentimes we will deal with, we might want to speak about something like I wanted to tell you all about the urologist, but. But, you know, we can speak about something and it's an offhanded comment or it's a joke or it's a whatever, but it would be great also to be followed up with. And this goes for all kinds of trauma or assaults and anything we're going through, right? No, I just can't, listening to victims of sexual assault is so disturbing in the extreme.

And it's, you just get, you realize the emotional damage and the ripple effects of that sort of incident and others that are even worse. You know, but it's a, it's chilling. I guess that's the word that comes to mind. Okay, we are going to take one more break. We come back, more stories you get to, including, you know, brace yourself, but we have a story about abusive animals that is quite graphic. So we'll be back up to this. At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control

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media, become a member at t-y-t.com slash join today. In the meantime, enjoy this free segment. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to what remains at the first hour with Mark Thompson, Francesca Fierantini, and myself. So thank you for sticking around with me. We do have a little bit more for you. Before we do that, did you know that not only in one fell swoop, you can not only do the right thing with your money, but you can also get a little bit closer to TYT? So we've been telling you for some time about aspiration, which is a financial institution that allows you to, you know, store and invest your money in a way that doesn't go towards fossil fuels and a number of other different industries that perhaps do not reflect your values as a lot of other financial institutions do. So look, that's all well and good. But what if you could do something with aspiration and then also get a little benefit when it comes to TYT? So we have a sweepstakes that's going to allow you to use your aspiration card and then have dinner with Jank and Anna.

And myself. So you can use that card for your chance to win a trip to LA. We're gonna fly you out, we're gonna put you up, and then we're gonna have a meal for you. So if you wanna do that, all you have to do is head to t.yt.com slash dinner in LA to register to win. You have to sign up for a free aspiration spend and save account, then register your eligibility for the sweepstakes. You do both those things that makes all a sense in the world.

And then every time you swipe your card, that is gonna be an entry into the sweepstakes to give you a chance. Oh, that's cool. entries. Wow. So, and it's a, as we say, it's a win-win because you're doing, you're politically and in terms of your values, you're doing better with your money, so you're going to be able to sleep comfortably, and then eventually perhaps sleep at a hotel in L.A. before going out to dinner with us. So it should be fun. Wow, I've, I've had dinner with John. It's kind of a snoozer to be. Well, no, it's really jank and Anna that people want to be there for. But to get all three

together and one. I think that goes without everyone saying repeatedly. That is the hat-trane. Can I go to dinner, too, people? I gotta eat, okay? I'm gonna die soon, can I have one more meal? No, you're not finishing your comment. I'm moving on to the comments. Okay, so, oh, great, lots of great comments about the panelists.

Brazilian caramel street dog says, I love Francesca. Is there any place online where I can get her special on MSNBC? No, you can't. It's canceled, okay? Why do you do your dinner with Francesca? Then you'll really get some aspiration action. Yeah, honestly. They can see the extended interview of you and Bernie Sanders, right?

Yes, you can see my interview with Bernie Sanders about Medicare for All on my Twitter at Frannie Fial, follow me or on Instagram, but the full thing is not yet available. Tweet at MSNBC, tell them to re-air it. You know, they'll listen. Do that. And let's see, Tad from Texas says Bauda Roku TV the other day and I'm finally able to watch TYT on it, Mark and Francesco looking great on the big screen. Also, John is there too.

Wow. No Texas Solidarity, Ted? That's the best thing I get. That's priceless. Why do I read these? I'm like a pickle. It says Bloomberg has spent five times as much money on ads as it would take to clean the water in Flint. Oh, that's a great way to put it.

Doing something good in the world. Geez. Yeah. Absolutely. Okay, so that was an experience. Let's move on now to our last story. Senator Martha McSally, Republican, made news in a very self-interested way when she had an unfortunate interaction with a CNN reporter, as you'll see here.

Senator McSally, should the Senate consider new evidence as part of the impeachment trial? Man, you're a liberal hack. I'm not talking to you. You're not going to comment. You're a liberal hack. We're going to break down this story, which I'm sure you're familiar with at this point. But in effect, what I believe that video represents is that Trump has sunk his tentative. into the entirety of our political process.

Everything is as bad and dirty as Donald Trump. Yes. Because she did the video and then tweeted it out. She had her guy filming it, in fact, and she did that for a reason. And it's because she wanted to use it in a callous way to make money. So almost instantly you had this, you could buy you're a liberal hack buddy t-shirt. If you really wanted to send a message and didn't care about font choice while doing it, because that just looks the worst. This looks the worst, but you can buy that if you want.

Looks like a cereal. Like I'd eat that as a cereal. Exactly. It would have been better if she'd said buddy, but she didn't say buddy. Anyway, she also registered, is it liberalhack.com, I believe you can see in this tweet. Within an hour, by the way. So many Grifters, just so many, just how many trademarks on Gryft, like, oh, sorry. I'm fine.

We're fine. Politics and most political commentary is just grift. That's all it is anymore. Well, now it is. Yeah, I don't have anything else to say, I just can't believe it. These are U.S. legislators. I mean, you know, it's, John is so right, and you really say it well, because it's as though it's penetrated every last corner of the American dialogue about everything going

I mean, these are really serious issues, and they're all reduced to lighting up the libs, liberal hack. I mean, it's a way not to address the real issues that confront the nation. Yeah. Can I just say, like, sorry, I do think that the one person who really got this right was Chris Cuomo. I know Anna will be on with him later, but Chris Cuomo going full Fredo on that dude who completely, why are you looking at me like that?

I didn't look at you. I looked at the camera. When that dude tried to punk him live, when he was like trying to like instigate stuff with him and then he just got up in his face and got mad, like I just kind of wish that the reporter, Manu Raju, like I wish Manu would have just been like, what'd you just call me? Like a little, just a little bit, you know? Yeah, although Martha McSally's fans, the people that this was planned for, they want

that. That's exactly right. And I understand that in some weird, ironic way, we're playing into that. But, like, this needs to be said that there's no bar. Like, if she had, like, she's very proud of herself, as you'll see in a minute, with the, you're a liberal hack, even though, like, is he liberal? He's a CNN reporter. I don't even know it was a liberal hack.

He's not a DSA member. Like, I don't even know what you're talking about. But she could have just sworn at him. And they, and Trump's Twitter tweeted it out, they're raising money off of it. They could do anything. It doesn't have to be clever. Like Bernie, they were memes, I wrote the damn bill. Right.

Because it was a good moment. It wasn't just giving the middle finger to someone, but the bar is buried. And you can see it across political commentators on the right, the daily wire, all that stuff. It doesn't have to be clever or smart. It doesn't have to deliver anything for the right. As long as you get in the face of the left or even like someone standing in for the face of the left. That's what they want.

That's what they want. while watching Fox News. Like, that's great. But here, I actually disagree. Like, I feel like, and I don't think we should throw civility out the window, but I do think back to the Cuomo moment where he stepped back to this guy who clearly thought that the guy, you know, that Cuomo was just going to be like, all right, don't, you know, don't talk to me anymore.

Instead, Chris gets in his face, and then what's the dude's reaction? It is, wow, I like you so much better now. I kind of respect you now. And you can hear him say that flip on a dime. So what do you do because these MAGA supporters respond to that agro nature that I do think liberals and people on the left actually have? We just rein it in because it's important to like, that's how we can have a conversation. We can't just be yelling at each other all the time.

But it's like if that's the language that certain folks speak in, and again, kind of back to this like what we're going to be facing come, you know, November, you need someone who isn't going to go the route of Hillary Clinton's civility, you're going to need someone who can fight on that level, with facts, obviously, and, you know, with a better plan for America. With facts, I think, is key. I mean, you have to be, that's one of the things I like about Bernie Sanders is that he is authentic, he hits with facts, and he hits hard to Francesca's point. But Francesca, I don't know that, you know, in that hallway or in any other situation,

you know necessarily what the right move is. So sometimes you go agro and it's, yeah, and you're only putting fuel on the fire. So it's tough to know. I, of course, agree. Bullies need to be hit back in the face, of course, and that's what a lot of this is all about. But I don't know, these situations that are just being enterprise for fundraising purposes or for a media moment, I mean, it really is just, these are choreographed and it's sickening. Yeah, and like, yeah, I won't bury a fight.

But if all Bernie did was like give good lines against like, you know, bank CEOs, like at some point, I like to think that his supporters would be like, yeah, but you got to deliver something for us. Like we want something. But that's not the same on the other side. One of the things that makes this, this makes me worried about the future of democracy is if she had thrown a slushy in his face right there and then spent the next two years of her term, I know it's, you know, let's say it was delivering nothing for her side, I think most on the right

would be satisfied with her, because they really, they can subsist on liberal tears, and that's it. Right. They're not seriously engaging with or having any expectations of American democracy. It's about triggering, dunking, anything. It's about identity politics. It really is. And that really is. And that's the way you started this.

And I think you're 100% right. It's a sad fact that this republic has sort of devolved to that point. So look, she went on Laura Ingraham to, both sort of be congratulated for this, but also to congratulate herself. So let's turn now to that. You said. No, Laura, I do not. And I said it again, actually, as I went in, I said, you're a liberal hack, buddy. As you know, I mean, these CNN reporters, but many of them around the Capitol, they are so biased. They are so in cahoots with the Democrats. They so can't stand the president. And they run around trying to chase, you know, Republicans and ask

trapping questions. I'm a fighter pilot. You know, I called like it is. Well, they've also said that it was unbecoming a senator and I lashed out at all sorts of- I have a question, what do they do on a daily basis? Right. What they call Trump a Russian asset, they call all of you hacks on a daily basis. She's talking about like people on the internet or something, this is senator. So I call it like it is, you know, he's a liberal hack, like maybe arguably he's a liberal. I've heard he's a very hardworking reporter.

And all he did was ask you a question that not only do the libs want to know the answer to, But I think a lot of conservatives, most of whom want witnesses they want to know. I just called it like that. And she's so, you can hear it in her voice. She's never been happy with herself for the thing that she said. The thing is, Trumpism doesn't look good on people who aren't Trump. Do you know what I mean? It's so interesting because it's like he's kind of the only dude who can really get away

with being just like that crass, that tacky, that idiotic, he's that good. He's always gonna be that guy, he's been that guy since like the 80s, right? I don't even think his son can get away with it. No. He's trying. Right. I mean, and so now the entire Republican Party is like latch their brand onto the one guy who can get away with that brand.

And well, we need to beat him in November, that's it. And it is, it's inspiring a lot of people to try to be copycats. Now here's the thing, she said that it's trapping questions just to ask, are you gonna support or not more evidence being shown? Well, let's see she's there on friendly territory, but Laura Ingram is also kind of curious, so now she's going to be asked, again, by liberal hack, Laura Ingram, the same sort of question. The Republican moderates want to have a vote on witnesses. Why do the Republicans always do this nonsense?

The Democrats always stay together. Everything Schumer's doing right now, it's not about President Trump, it's not about the Constitution, it's not about a fair trial. So why do you need witnesses? He just wants power. What about Manu Raj's question? Do you want witnesses? I want a fair trial.

Okay, you're not going to answer. I'm going to play the game with you. You can call me a conservative act. But do you want witnesses? Yes or no? Why don't you telling us? Because we're going to vote on Tuesday to start the trial and let them present the... Well, how are you going to vote on the motion for more witnesses?

We're going to get to that. I mean, I'm not going to tell everybody what all my votes are going to be. But obviously, my point... Pretty easy question. I think, Senator. I think we're going to proceed forward at that point, and I really... But you're not going to vote with Romney and the others. Are you?

You're going to vote. I think we'll proceed to a final vote. Yeah, the smile on her face the whole time. I mean, in part, I think she can't believe that Laura Ingrams ask you the same question. I'm here for a victory lap. I'm not here to actually answer any questions. Yeah, well, I'm not gonna give way all my votes. Do you want more evidence or not?

That's super simple. Everybody wants to know that. Your constituents want to know that. I love how she threw in senator. You remember, you're a senator, senator. I'm a conservative hack. You say it to my face. I say it to my face in the mirror every morning as I get up the gumption to do my job every day.

Conservative hack, conservative hack, conservative hack, hot, conservative hack. Not hot, she's cute. I didn't say that about Lori Akerman. I did see what you're, not what you're saying right now, but the thing you said before about some people can sell it and some people can't, like she needs to be on the friendliest territory possible or have the lowest bar possible. That's why the liberal hack thing worked is because the people who are cheering her on on Twitter don't know what humor or wit is, they'll accept anything.

And she expects not to be asked any difficult questions. So like when she's asked a follow-up, she just can't help but like smile because she's uncomfortable and she can't weasel out of it the way truly clever weasily politicians can. Yeah. I think she doesn't know. That's what's really interesting about this moment going into this weekend is I think a lot of these Republican senators don't know what the line is yet.

I mean, I- What they'll be allowed to vote for? Yeah, like what they'll be allowed to vote for, how they're gonna vote. I think they're just waiting for the bat signal from McConnell to tell them how to fall in line. I mean, and I do think some of this, the Lev Parnas stuff is really shocking and noteworthy. I don't think it's going to necessarily change anything. But again, I don't think any of these senators are individual thinkers at this point. We'd hope that they would be.

We're holding up for Romney, right? Totally agree. Quickly, I'll just say that's exactly right. She doesn't know which way the political wind is blowing, and she's waiting to find. I don't think the partner stuff lands for them at all. It's really a question of, that was so funny about that Ingram quote that she says, how come the Democrats all is hanging together and the Republicans, we're thinking, what? Yeah, what are you talking about?

We eat our own on the left. You guys all, you know, we fall in love, you fall in line. That's the way it works. So, yeah, I think you're right. She's waiting to know which way, you know, the bad signal is a great way to put her indeed. I can't wait to see her we need to have a trial or not. We're not.

Not at witnesses. Not gonna have a trial. Anyway, thank you so much. Great to have both of you on. Thanks, John. A lot of fun. Francesca, you're a big star. I love hanging out with you.

Where can we see the podcast? A podcast is called The Edge with Mark Thompson. You can find it at podcast places all around the internet and beyond. So please join us. And Francesca, where can people see more of your work? Follow me on Twitter at Franiefio. There you go. And after the way you treated me in the comments, don't follow me, okay?

But anyway, we're gonna take a short break and then we're gonna have an awesome second hour for you. and it's going to be here right for this. 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, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.