The Young Turks - TYT Extended Clip - July 27th, 2020

Episode Date: July 28, 2020

Trump is using protests for his own political gain. Emma Vigeland and Ana Kasparian discuss on The Young Turks. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. What's up, everyone, welcome to TYT, Anna Casparian, and Emma Viglin. Emma is joining us today because Shank will be off for the the next two weeks actually. So we're gonna have an awesome lineup of guests to help me do the show and I'm really happy to jumpstart the week with Emma Viglin. So Emma, thank you for joining us today. Thanks for having me. So later in the show we're gonna talk about, I'm just

gonna fast forward. If you're not a member, you should be a member. Not only do you help to keep this show sustainable, but one of my favorite stories is in the post game. Yes, we have lots the substantive serious stuff to get to, but we are also going to discuss baseball and pitching and how hot my husband is. So that'll be later, okay? The only context I can get you to talk about sports and is Christian and how he looks swinging bad or throwing a ball. That's awesome. But we're also going to talk about Dr. Anthony Fauci. Povercito, or am I being unfair? Okay, and again, this also has to do with baseball. But before we get It's all of that. We will talk about the federal agents causing all sorts of trouble across

the United States. We'll also talk about one of the latest victims of some of the violence that's been taking place. And Trump goes after American heroes, including mothers and veterans who are trying to protect protesters from the violence of these federal agents. So before I get to that, let me give you some programming notes, some info about our partners. First off, as you guys know, we have partnered up with aspiration. It's a financial institution that has some morals and some ethics in regard to where they invest their money and what they do with the environment. And as we've told you before, when you open one of their save and spend accounts, they plant

trees on your behalf, which is awesome. But now we're doing a new sweepstakes and it's referred to as green summer. And basically, the sweepstakes means that if you enter to win, you can win. Look at JR looking cool as hell. You can win one of these e- scooters. So they're the electronic scooters that are super hot right now. And in order to win, just go to TYT.com slash green summer. That's where you'll find all of the instructions on how to enter.

You must sign up for a free spend and save account and register your account. And if you already have an account, you can actually refer friends for chances to win. Again, go to t.com slash green summer for more information. Also some fun programming notes for you guys. We are going to do a special screening of a film called Parkland Rising. And this will take place on Monday, August 3rd, at 7 p.m. Eastern time, 4 p.m. Pacific. And this is in partnership with Abramorama. And the film follows the stories of these students who of course had to deal with that tragic

event, that mass shooting that took place on their campus and their national movement for gun control. So make sure you check that out again, August 3rd at 7 p.m. Eastern time, 4 p.m. Pacific. If you want to watch, go to YouTube.com slash the Young Turks or t.y.t.com slash live. All right, without further ado, let's get to the stories. All right, so state and local leaders throughout the United States had succeeded in easing some of the unrest in their states after the brutal murder of George Floyd. However, things have now become a little more escalated, a lot more escalated, since Donald Trump decided to exploit these protests for his own political motives, for his own political agenda. He has begun to send federal agents to various cities. We've covered Portland extensively, but now Trump is actually sending federal agents to more

cities and violence and outrage has followed. So according to the New York Times, the scenes on Saturday night, just this past weekend in places like Seattle, Oakland, California, and Los Angeles recalled the volatile early days of the protests after the death of George Floyd at the end of May. And let me be clear, as we experience with Portland, at least based on what the local politicians said there, they did not ask for federal agents to show up. Now there's been a little bit of inconsistency when it comes to Mayor Ted Wheeler, we've talked about that.

But for the most part, these elected officials are saying, no, we don't want these federal agents here because they're causing a lot of problems. So in Portland, there have been militarized efforts to squash the protesters, which helps the public visualize the exact type of excessive force they've been demonstrating against. The actions of federal agents in Portland also inspired demonstrations in other cities. So Mayor Jenny Durkin from Seattle just recently said, there is no question that the actions in Portland have escalated things, not just in Seattle, but nationwide. Also, over the weekend, dozens of people were arrested in Seattle.

Protesters in Los Angeles clashed with officers in front of the city's federal courthouse downtown. Police also made arrests at protests in smaller cities such as Omaha, Nebraska and Richmond, Virginia. So again, things are escalating specifically because of the actions that Donald Trump has taken. And what I want to show you next is an example of what people have been dealing with during these protests. This next video features a Vietnam veteran. His name is Mike Hastie, and he was serving as an army medic in Portland when he was treated like this. We murdered people. We did it every day.

And your generation doesn't know that. You don't know that. So that's why this Vietnam veteran combat medic who took injured and dead soldiers off a helicopter. This is why I did that. Well, I took an oath to defend my country. And then when I got to Vietnam, we committed atrocity. We committed atrocities every single day when I was in Vietnam. I took an halt to defend this government.

And when I got to Vietnam, we committed atrocities. I stood next to a ditch in Vietnam, and we murdered 170. So there you have a Vietnam vet who was sprayed in the face with pepper spray for doing nothing more than speaking his mind. He didn't do anything physical or threaten these federal agents, but they treated him the way that they did. And I just want to say Emma that, I mean, he displayed such courage there because even after they sprayed him, he wouldn't let up, he was still speaking his mind and speaking the truth. I love that. I mean, of course, it's difficult to watch as he gets sprayed in the face in

a nonchalant way in a way that the Fed probably thought wouldn't get caught on camera, but it certainly was. And it's just another display of patriotism that we're seeing with all these protests. And so if you were actually being logical about this, right? The logical solution would be that you can see the federal troops, the federal officers are only escalating things. The fact that they have a presence there is making things worse. People are retaliating because there is a federal presence there. And then it just keeps getting worse. But the Trump administration isn't thinking logically. They're thinking politically. They're thinking, how can I make this law and order narrative sell better? And that's to stick.

groups basically, federal officers onto protesting citizens. And I read this great article where they talked about why go to Portland first. And the author, or I think one of the people quoted, hypothesized that it's because it's a majority white city. And so you can more feasibly make the case that these are Antifa, pink-haired lefties. This isn't actually black people in the streets. And I mean, I think we're kind of seeing some of that in Seattle. as well and some of the smaller cities that they're targeting. They're not going first after

black people because they, this is a propaganda project. This doesn't have anything to do with law and order. And as I mentioned before, as you mentioned, it is the federal officers. It's their presence that is escalating everything. Here's a thought, maybe just let them peacefully protest, but that would be too logical. Right, exactly. And, you know, part of the reason why they're not allowing them to peacefully protest is because the local police in many of these cases had their unions reach out to the federal government and ask for this type of so-called assistance. But what we're seeing is not assistance. We're seeing an escalation of violence. We're seeing federal agents, you know, engage in behavior that should be deemed unconstitutional by federal judges at this point.

And I don't want to blame all of the brutality on federal agents, because in the case of Seattle, There were local police who also carried out acts of violence, which is the case in the next video we're about to show you. There is a registered nurse. She's wearing scrubs. She's not doing anything to provoke anyone. And unfortunately, she's met with violence at the hands of local police in Seattle. Take a look. And let me just know, And many of you already know since it's been talked about, even on this show, that in June the Seattle City Council banned the use of tear gas and other crowd control tactics, including pepper spray, the police chief objected and the DOJ intervened with a lawsuit. winning a temporary restraining order blocking implementation of that ban. Over the weekend, Seattle officers used pepper spray and flash grenades to disperse protesters.

And so a question I have for you, Emma, because I totally agree with you that Trump is doing this for political reasons. He thinks that it's somehow going to help him in his reelection campaign. But most people who see his campaign ads where he's saying that he's the law and order president. And if someone like Joe Biden gets elected, then this is the kind of civil unrest people are going to experience. But the imagery in those ads are from the Trump era. I mean, it's ridiculous. Like, we're experiencing that unrest right now. And Donald Trump's reactions to it have only further escalated brutality, violence, the very issues that these demonstrators have been protesting against. And if you look at polling in regard to Black Lives

Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter as a movement is more popular today than it was when it first began. And part of the reason why is because this imagery makes it abundantly clear that American citizens who are doing absolutely nothing but practicing their First Amendment right in many of these cases are being met with brutality at the hands of the government. Well, I think you're absolutely right. And that's part of the reason why Trump is failing so thoroughly in polling that the narrative doesn't pass the smell test. But what does he have anymore? can do is rile up his base with the law and order talk, the racist red meat, which goes hand in hand in this instance. Because the economy's in shambles. We have 30 million people

who are unemployed officially. It's higher than that. Evictions are about to go off. There's about to be a wave of evictions throughout the country. People have lost their health insurance. Unemployment's about to be reduced at the very least, if not completely eliminated if Congress doesn't get and it's act together by the end of the week, these are daily realities that people are dealing with. And they wake up and their grandmothers in the hospital with COVID-19, no amount of obfuscation, no amount of obfuscation changing the narrative is gonna change that for people. But Trump is trying because it's the only card that he has left. And this is just one of those instances of that. And I will point out too, we talk about how, oh, these cities are so liberal and stuff.

In Seattle, a judge recently just ruled against three Seattle papers, I believe, and they're forcing them to turn over images and video and audio that the reporters use at the Black Lives Matter protest in order to crack down on looting, rioting, whatever the government is saying. So we always have to be a check on government power, no matter if it's in a liberal city or a blue state or whatever, because when you're in power, you're going to abuse that if it's allowed. There are very, very few people elected officials who have the moral fortitude to never do something like that. So this is just, you know, an instance of in Portland, we saw there was some hypocrisy with the mayor there. And then also in Seattle, it doesn't matter how hippie-dippy and blue. the city or state is, you have to be a check on people in power. Well, let's talk about one person who lost his life as a result of this violence over the weekend. A young man by the name of Garrett Foster, who was part of the protest against police brutality in Austin, Texas over the weekend, was shot and killed by a driver who everyone agrees, including law enforcement, was driving in the direction of this. demonstrators posing a threat to their lives. So this protester, Garrett Foster, was shot

and killed in Austin, Texas by a motorist whose car, according to witnesses and the police had been aimed toward a group of demonstrators also protesting the federal presence in Portland. So the police and witnesses said that the man in the car turned it aggressively toward the marchers and Foster then approached it. The driver opened fire shooting Foster three times, He was rushed to a hospital and later pronounced dead. There are many important details to this story, which I want to fill you all in on in just a minute. But before we do, I think it's important for everyone to see what this scene look like. The video that we're about to show you is graphic, so I want to give you a proper warning.

But this was a video that was filmed by an independent journalist at the scene. Let's take a look. All right, everybody back up! Everybody back up! Get some of the top. You can't get some of the top? Someone got shot, guys. Someone got shot.

So I want to remind you all that this took place in Austin, Texas, where gun laws are much more lax. And that's important to know, as I give you more details about who Garrett Foster was, and the fact that he was carrying a weapon also. But the way he was carrying this weapon is completely legal in the state of Texas. So Foster, a 28 year old white man wearing a military green t-shirt, baseball cap, black bandana, and an AK-47-type assault rifle strapped across his chest approached the driver's side window. Seconds later, the driver fired five shots and sped off, leaving Foster to bleed out. Now, the driver turned himself in later and claimed that Foster had pointed his rifle at him, but witnesses who were there claimed that that was not true.

So Foster was there with his fiance, who was wheelchair bound and saw this man driving toward her as a threat to her life. So according to account witnesses, they were, or witness accounts, I should say, they saw him stand in front of her in an effort to protect her. And at that point, the driver who hasn't been identified yet opened fire. and then one of the other protesters returned fire. Both of those individuals spoke to the authorities. Their weapons have been taken away as evidence, but they were then released. So we'll give you more details on what happens to both of them, the driver and the other protester as we get those details.

Now Foster's family on Sunday said he served in the military and described him as a man committed to social justice, who had peacefully protested almost every night over the past 50 days with his fiance, an African-American woman who was a quadruple amputee. So that's part of the reason why she was in the wheelchair. Now, one of the other protesters who spoke to journalists on the scene, you know, right after the shooting shared her thoughts and what she saw. Let's take a quick look. A car drove up. We were taking the streets and he shot Garrett. Garrett is the husband a whitney, a quadriplegic in a wheelchair, and he is her caretaker and has been for like 10 years. So she, I think he bought his a gun out of her.

Sorry, yeah, they've been out here for like, oh, 50 days so far. Holy-oh. Yeah, I know who they are. Oh, no. Someone got shot, guys. So on the day that he was shot, Garrett was asked about his. decision to wear a rifle across his chest. And so Foster said he started to bring the weapon after his roommate was arrested for protesting. And here's an actual quote. He said, they don't

let us march in the streets anymore. So I got to practice some of our rights, he said. But Foster said he understood the limitations of having a weapon in these circumstances. If I use it against the cops, I'm dead, you know, implying that he has no intention of actually using it against anyone, including the police who were there. But you know, what's interesting is in this case, everyone, including the cops, admit that the driver was driving toward the demonstrators and posed a threat. We're in a state, Texas, that allows open carry, right? This is the right of people living in Texas. And so you hear some of the quotes from police officials, and they Place the blame squarely on Foster.

But what would anyone do if, I mean, the whole purpose of having weapons, right? I mean, this is the argument I hear over and over again, Emma, from gun rights activists, is that you need to be able to defend yourself. Except if defending yourself is in the context of spreading a message that people disagree with. In that case, defending yourself doesn't mean anything. And let me just remind everyone again that Garrett Foster is not the one who, who opened fire. The driver who was in, who was driving a car toward the protesters, something that's considered a deadly weapon, is the one who opened fire first, killing Garrett Foster.

Well, it's the argument that we hear from the NRA all the time. I mean, what, what about the federal officers that are going into Portland and Seattle and other cities where people are supposed to have guns to protect against the government uprisings? I'm hearing nothing from the NRA. I'm hearing nothing about Garrett from the NRA. I hear nothing when black men are shot by police and if they have a gun in their car and they identify that they have a gun in their car and the NRA is completely silent. So the idea that they're a gun rights organization is ridiculous. They're a political arm of the Republican Party that excuses away, right-wing violence and allows for guns and gun manufacturers to continue to get rich. But part of this

is why we do need no open carry laws. And, you know, Garrett was unable to defend himself, even though he did have an automatic weapon on him. And so that kind of pokes a hole in the argument that that kind of equipment is necessary. But he had it for the right reasons. He was the caretaker for his fiance, he obviously feels protective of her because she has physical limitations. And he was in the military. He has that past experience. So that kind of mentality makes sense. But it's the exception to the rule. A lot of times when people have guns and weaponry, they don't know what to do with it. And they don't have the good mentality that he had. And it didn't help him in the end. He died. And that was because it's presumably some right-wing,

moron, vicious person who wanted to take their anger out on these protesters and took it out on someone who obviously was a good-hearted person who was just fighting for everyone's rights. And this driver is just out free. I mean, he murdered someone. He tried to run protesters over. I mean, that's why he was driving toward the demonstrators. Then he opened fire and he's out there. He called the cops a few minutes after it happened, turned himself in. They took his weapon. They're like, all right, you're free to go. Go ahead. Yeah. Attempt to run over more protesters. And it's incredible. Sorry, Anna, I didn't need to interrupt you. No, no worries. No, it's just what I see implicit in the quotes from cops where they're like not necessarily

blaming him, blaming the victim, but they are. There's no connection. Police officers feel zero connection to activists. They think they're crazy, specifically left-wing activists. They think, why not just go along with things as they are? They can't put themselves in that mindset, because I've been around a lot of activists. They're very passionate and sometimes singularly focused, but that's also what makes activism so inspiring. It's because they have the ability to look at something and say, no, this is what's important. Now I'm going to dedicate my time to that. And that's huge. That's entirely what this country needs are people who are going to be that committed to justice in that way. And I think police officers, if you're kind of someone,

sorry to generalize, who thinks the authoritarian mindset is okay, and that's part of why you joined a system like that. I'm not saying all police officers are, but a lot of them are bullies who want to put on a badge and a gun and feel like they can lord over people. And you can't relate to that mindset and that there's something's broken there. When we come back from the break, we'll talk a little bit about how Donald Trump thinks it's a great idea to demonize veterans and mothers. We have that and more when we come. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-F-The Republic or UNFTR.

As a Young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations are constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the rich and powerful. But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the 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 UNFTRTR podcast takes a sledgehammer to what you thought you'd, 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

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to let you guys know a little bit of a inside baseball. Jank is texting me while I'm on air, and he knows I'm on air, and he's email texting me about nonsense, along with Ben. And it's just incredible because, anyway, all right. So let me go ahead and give you guys some info about the thermom. Okay, we got a thermom going. We've been talking about the thermom for a while. I'm just trying to save some time by not saying the full word. Okay, $163,717. That's where we're at. For this month, we're trying to get to $200,000 every little bit count. So if you can please help us fundraise to keep TYT sustainable, just go to tYT.com slash go. I want to read a few member comments and then we'll move on to the rest of the news.

Salman Grundy says, well, I thought it was Monday, but it must actually be Friday because Anna and Emma is a pow, pow power panel. I like that. liberal mathematician says, I love my aspiration account. I'm super happy that aspiration has planted a hundred trees on my behalf. Everyone join the green summer. By the way, like scooters are kind of cool. I like scooters. They scare me. I've been on one once, but I like the idea of a scooter, right? You can you can ride a scooter on the street. It's not like a sidewalk thing. loud in the United States. Don't those seem very Euro? They're allowed, they're allowed. But yes, they're definitely very Euro. I definitely want one.

I know. They're awesome. Like you don't, especially an electric one. It's awesome. Anyway, check that out. T.Y.T.com slash, no, aspiration.com slash green summer, right? Anyway, I'll look into that just a second. All right, I bathe in a very stable geniuses tier says, this is why stricter gun laws need to be implemented. Couldn't agree more. More guns do not mean less violence. It only increases the likelihood that violence will happen. Exactly. So if you're going to have open carry laws, you can't go ahead and demonize someone for open carrying their weapon after they've been shot by someone who actually wanted to hurt people with a lethal weapon like a car. But anyway, let's move on to the rest of the news. We have a lot to get to, including Trump, making enemies out of people like veterans and mothers. So veterans and moms have been showing up to protests in Portland in order to protect demonstrators against the violence and brutality demonstrated by federal agents. These are the federal agents who have been sent there by the Trump administration, and they have only escalated the violence in Portland and now unfortunately in other cities like Seattle. Now, Mike Baker, who's a correspondent

for the New York Times said that another huge crowd in Portland, including a new wall on the front lines, a wall of vets, here's a look at the line of military veterans getting set up here in front of the federal courthouse. Behind them, a wall of moms and the wall of dads are arriving. Now, it's important for you to know who consists of these walls that are trying to protect the demonstrators because Donald Trump thinks that they're very bad people. He has further demonized them, and I'll tell you how in just a minute. But, So first, I want to go to a video featuring Marine Corps veteran Dustin Obermeier, who actually spoke to Mike Baker from the New York Times and explained why he wanted to be part of this

wall of vets. Take a look. We decided that based on the requirements of the Constitution, the Constitution of those we all took. We needed to be out here to insure and be contacted other veterans to be out here to get to be insured. Our citizens did not have their right to free speech and their right to protest and their right to assemble, taken away from them by federal security cases later. Okay, and so you were in the Marines? Yes, I was.

I served in the Marines from 2001 to 2001 to 2000. Okay, so there's a lot of war time during that era where you deployed? Yes, I was deployed at the time. And, well, I mean, watching what has unfolded here, how are you feeling about, you know, the direction of things, the direction of the federal government and how the forces here are being deployed? Our veterans are here specifically to support the rights of the protesters to protest. That's the only thing we're good for. There you have a veteran explaining the importance of protecting people's rights.

I mean, we've heard over and over again that it's important to support our troops because they protect our rights. That was the exact argument that was used against Colin Kaepernick when he peacefully decided to kneel during the national anthem. People thought that it was incredibly disrespectful to veterans and to our troops. Well, now we know just how disingenuous they are, especially people like Donald Trump, because Lieutenant Bonespurs has some thoughts have some thoughts about these mothers and these veterans. He said via Twitter, of course, these protesters are actually anarchists who hate our country. The line of innocent mothers were a scam that lamestream media refuses to acknowledge, just like they don't report the violence

of these demonstrations. Now, we've shown you countless videos where both federal agents and local police have used violence against protesters who are doing absolutely nothing wrong. We showed you an example earlier today from the show where a Vietnam veteran was sprayed in the face by federal agents in Portland. But this is the kind of action or this is the kind of commentary you can expect from someone like Donald Trump. He doesn't care about or value anyone, including mothers, including veterans, including anyone who he believes stands in his way of getting reelected. But honestly, the person who's standing in his way when it comes to reelection the most is Donald Trump himself. because he's giving various organizations like the Lincoln Project, which is right wing, and Midas Touch, which is left wing, great material to put out ads like this.

We're going to build a wall. It's going to be built. most have come out to downtown Portland. Close to a thousand people out here. This crowd treaches about two blocks. You are putting yourself in between the protesters and those federal agents, the most dangerous place to be. Bombs along with everyone else that realize that's time, but we need to put our bodies on the line because the stakes are so high.

We are brothers, grandparents, aunts. We are a community that is going to stay united. We're going to build the wall. We have no choice. Mom are here, let's make clear. Mom are here. Let's make clear. And there was Midas touch doing some great work.

Emma, I wanted to get your thoughts on Trump's statements. Because in 2016, Trump said some pretty hideous things about veterans he disagreed with. He said terrible things about Senator John McCain, who was a prisoner of war. And it didn't seem to hurt him in any way when it came to his base. Do you think that we're dealing with something entirely different today? Unfortunately, I don't know if we can shake the age-old adage that basically Republicans are more in favor of veterans than Democrats, Republicans who more consistently in recent history have started offensive wars, even though many Democrats went along with it. I don't know if that narrative is going to end, unfortunately, but I wish it would. And I just want to go back to that Trump tweet for a second because he keeps saying the word anarchists.

I would love if some journalist asked him when they get the chance, what does anarchist mean? He has no idea what anarchist means. I don't think he knows the definition because he keeps repeating it to talk about these protesters. I just guarantee that's what he's heard in his briefing and he does this all the time. He latches onto one specific word and then keeps repeating it. But again, for most people, and I know that all of these protests to me and to people on the left, they're really important. And of course they are.

And the country was galvanized after the murder of George Floyd in a way that it hasn't been. It was one of the most important civil rights moments in the past hundred years. It was very significant what we saw. But for right now, as people are dealing. with coronavirus and the economic fallout from it, that's really at the forefront of people's minds, not anarchists. Yes, people are mostly behind the protests and are in favor of them. And I love what the protesters are doing on the front lines. I'm not trying to discredit that. But I'm trying to discredit Trump's attempts to deflect to only talk about the protests when people are racking

up massive amounts of credit card debt because they can't pay their bills. When in this month, about a third of the nation was behind on housing and rent payments or only paid partially or didn't pay at all. We have looming economic catastrophes even worse than what we're dealing with now. And what we're dealing with now is really bad. So Trump talks about anarchists when he doesn't even know what the word means. I guarantee it. It rings extremely hollow because- No, I mean, look, to be fair, Emma. No, but I mean, look, to be fair, I mean, anarchists would want to defund the police and then redirect that money to all sorts of programs that help people through the government. That's what anarchists are all about. Yeah. Great. And I thought Republican

Party hated the government. Wouldn't they want it to be dismantled altogether? But suddenly, suddenly states rights conservatives are in favor of federal officers against the states and cities and municipalities will gassing protesters who are exercising their First Amendment rights. That's suddenly what the state's rights conservatives are in favor of. Okay. Yeah, and I love that you brought it back to something that's so important, which is the economic destruction that many Americans are already feeling, but will feel to an even greater extent very soon now that the CARES Act, at least the most relevant portions of the CARES Act that actually helped the average American is about to expire. So the more robust unemployment

benefits, which were given by the federal government, $600 a week for those who filed for unemployment, that is coming to an end. It ends in late July. So we're there. And what we're hearing from the Trump administration and from the Senate GOP is that they refuse to sign on to extending that program because they think that people are earning too much through unemployment and as a result are deciding to stay home as opposed to go back to work. Look, that whole premise is complete and utter BS. We've explained it. I'll explain it again. If you are employed or were employed and were laid off or furloughed as a result of the pandemic and your boss hits you up and says, you need to come back to work, we're opening up again, you need to come back to

work. If you say no to your employer, you get reported and you lose your unemployment benefits. So all of these lawmakers using that argument are lying to you. And what we're hearing from the Trump administration is, oh, well, $600, that's just too much. Can you believe it? People actually had some money to save. People were able to pay down their debt. People were able to feed their children. We can't have that. So maybe we'll extend the program and only make it $200 a week So people can go back to remembering what it was like to starve because that's what the Republican Party is all about. And any time you hear that lie, I'm begging you as members of this audience, please use the rebuttal that I just shared with you right now. Because so many

Americans have fallen victim to that narrative. I mean, I've heard smart people in my personal life make that argument. And I'm just like, how do you not know how the law works? How do you not know that someone would get kicked off of unemployment if their employer wants them back at work and they refuse to go back at work? How do you not know that every time you receive an unemployment check, you have to prove to your state lawmakers that you're looking, you're actively looking for work. It's just this nonsense that I can't stand. Go ahead. To Anna, like they're trying to, the actually more sane GOP is trying to do $200 on employment. The thing that Mnuchin and Trump, and now the actual Republican Party is adopting, is 70% wage replacement,

which for some people would be even less than $200 because they're afraid that one or two percentage is a people, one or two percentage is great grammar, that they would get a little bit more. And so they're willing to be even more draconian and overhaul existing systems in the state governments, which would be devastating. They wouldn't, the systems would break down in order to do that 70% replacement. Not to get off on the tangent, but that's what's being debated right now, and it could be devastating. We're going to take a break. When we come back, we'll talk about Tom Cotton, getting real triggered at the thought of learning history.

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Hey guys, welcome back to TYT, Anna and Emma with you. I want to read a few awesome bits. from Twitch, that's what they're called. So socially distanced, I donated 4,500 bits. And that's a pretty big deal based on what Brett told me. Well, you mom Kenobi also gave out six gifted subs. And that is the 196 gifted subs so far. So yes, TYT is on Twitch. You should check us out there. We do a show called Common Room on Fridays. I was on last Friday show. It was awesome.

It's just a more light-hearted type of program to kind of get us through some of the devastation in political news these days. Emma, I'm sorry, were you saying something? No, I just want to know what the exchange rate is for bits. Like I need some context on what that means. So a thousand bits equals $1, I believe, right? No, okay, Brett is saying no, that is not what happens. But bits are great, we love bits.

The more bits, the better. Give us bits. So he's going to text me right now, probably. Okay, 100 bits equals $1. So that's even more impressive. Thank you so much, socially distanced, D.I appreciate it. I'm going to move over to the super chat comments. Sue M. says, can the state's national guard be used to protect the state's citizens from federal police? That's a good question, and I don't know the answer. So I'm going to look into it. Acosta says, so I'm confused, does the administration still support protests like the ones in Hong Kong or anti-lockdown protests? Well, Rudy, I think that at this point, it's become clear that there's really no guiding principle when it comes to people like Donald Trump or, you know,

the GOP, really. Everything changes depending on what's convenient in that moment. Support the troops unless troops are trying to protect the protesters, then pepper spray the hell out of them. I mean, that's been very clear in what we've been seeing in some of these protests across the country. And I did read a member comment that I wanted to share with you all. Eight Bean says, I always try to donate something when Anna is hosting just so she can show up, Jank. Come on, everybody, join in. And that's in regard to our fundraising effort. You can go to t-y-t.com slash go to donate and help keep us sustainable.

We'd much rather be accountable to you or audience than anyone else. And fundraising helps us do that. And let's move on. I want to make sure we get to more stories. So Tom Cotton, Tom Cotton is targeting school curriculum that emphasizes slavery in America and has threatened to cut school funding for schools who do teach that curriculum. Now the curriculum he's referring to is something that's been incredibly controversial for right-wingers for obvious reasons. It is the 1619 project that started last year by the New York Times. These essays have been published in New York Times Magazine.

I highly recommend people check it out. There's also a podcast accompanying this program. And so Cotton argues that the birth of the United States was actually in 1776 rather than 1619 because he doesn't want to take ownership of this country's history with slavery. So he told the Arkansas Democrat Gazette the following. We have to study the history of slavery and its role and impact on the development of our country because otherwise we can't understand our country. As the founding father said, it was the necessary evil upon which the union was built. But the nation was built in a way, as Lincoln said, to put slavery on the course to its ultimate extinction. So that's an incredibly interesting way of reframing this country's history and why slavery existed in the first

place. But before I give you more details on this story, Emma, I wanted to give you an opportunity to jump in. It's this facile, conservative perspective that everything has to have been right in its current context and nothing can evolve. Because if Cotton was to admit that some of the founding fathers were racist and wrong, then that might mean there might be some people. in this current historical context who are racist and wrong? And who would that logically be? Oh, the authoritarian serial killer Tom Cotton. Might have been him. I don't know. Yeah, I mean, is anyone really shocked that this would come from a man who published an op-ed in the New York Times calling for federal agents to crack skulls, you know, when it came to the

Black Lives Matter protests, right? He's the one who published that op-ed saying that federal agents should absolutely rain terror on these protesters. And so Black Lives Matter, that kind of messaging, that kind of protest obviously triggers him. So I wasn't shocked at all that he would have this kind of reaction and say something so incredibly twisted during this interview. But he was also interviewed with Fox and Friends and this topic came up. So let's just take a quick look at how he dealt with that, and we'll discuss. Some say that was insensitive. Well, that is fake news, Brian.

That's not what I said. What I said is that many founders believed that only with the union and the constitution could we put slavery on the path to its ultimate extinction. That's exactly what Lincoln said. Of course, slavery is a evil institution in all its forms at all times. in America's past or around the world today. But the fundamental moral principle of America is right there in the Declaration. All men are created equal.

And the history of America is the long and sometimes difficult struggle to live up to that principle. That's a history we ought to be proud of, not the historical revisionism of the 1619 project, which wants to indoctrinate America's kids and teach them to hate America, to believe that And America was founded not on human freedom, but on racism. To think that slavery was not an aberration, but the true heart of America. I don't know if you, maybe just could be both. There could be great principles in the Constitution. And then also, slaves, black people were two thirds of human beings.

I mean, or three-fifths, sorry. Like, come on, that's, that's, it can't, it's complex, it's complex and that's fine. And also he hates the New York Times and their liberal indoctrination so much that he decided to publish his opinion piece in the New York Times. Right, exactly. No, and this country's history was brutal. But one thing that's always missing from these discussions is the fact that what this country currently does is brutal, not just here in the United States, but abroad. I mean, we pretend as if like, oh my God, no, no, no, that's just a part of it. our history, that was the original sin. We've evolved, we're much better than that. I mean, never,

never mind the fact that, you know, we're brutalizing black and brown people out on the streets right now for practicing their constitutionally protected right, being out there protesting, making sure that their voices are heard. We're going to send federal agents and crack their skulls, but pretend like we got over our original sin. It's nonsense. And we're maiming and terrorizing black and brown people in other countries as we speak right now, right now. Our actions in Libya, what happened when we overthrew Omar Gaddafi? What happened? I believe there was a slave trade that followed that, correct? I mean, it's just, it's ridiculous because it's not just about the United States. If we focus solely on the United States, yes, there are still serious issues,

and we do have to take ownership of this country's history. The revisionists are people like cotton, are people like the conservatives who serve on the Texas school board who want to rewrite history books and take out people who have fought aggressively and won incredibly important battles in this country. People like Cesar Chavez. I remember years ago they wanted to take him out of the books and replace him with Phyllis Schlafly of all people, right? So that's the revisionism that I think we should be focused on while also simultaneously taking ownership of what we're currently doing to black and brown people, not only in the United States, but all over the world. Well, facts over feelings, Anna, right? So he wants us to feel a certain way about

America, which is patriotic, unabashedly, emotionally, all in with the spirit of the United States by disregarding everything that might have been bad. And just taking the Constitution on its only its good faces when there was the three-fifths aspect of it when it came to the American Constitution. That was in the text. So those are the facts. If you want to actually be your traditional conservative self, you might want to acknowledge that part. So just to give you some more information on what Cotton would like to do, his legislation labels the project a distortion of American history. If Cotton's legislation passes school districts that embrace the curriculum would no longer qualify for federal professional development funds, money that is intended to

improve teacher equality. Listen, I'm an Armenian. I know what it's like to live in a country that denies the Armenian genocide. This country is all about denial as long as it supports whatever political agenda America wants to carry out. And so they don't want to ruin their relationship with Turkey. They're going to keep denying the Armenian genocide. Every single presidential candidate in modern history has run on a platform claiming that they're going to acknowledge the Armenian genocide. Every single one of them, including Donald Trump, reneged on that promise. This country is all about denial. This doesn't surprise me, but it's really incumbent upon us, people who are truth tellers, to keep screaming the truth and making sure

that it's heard. The postgame is next. TYT.com slash join to become a member. We're going to talk about Chris Dodd versus Kamala Harris. 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 at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.