The Young Turks - TYT Extended Clip - July 31st, 2020

Episode Date: August 1, 2020

The federal government is targeting journalists. Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila 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

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On July 18th, get excited. This is big! For the summer's biggest adventure. I think I just smurf my pants. That's a little too excited. Sorry! Smurfs. Only dinner's July 18th.

Hey, everyone. Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Young Turks. Anna Casparian and Nando Vila with you. Nando, so good to have you on the show. How are you? Hey, thanks for having me. Of course, of course. You and I will be hosting a show together for Jacobin that I used to host with Michael Brooks, good friend of ours who tragically passed away. But you and I are going to be hosting. We're going to go dark for one week, but beginning the following weekend at 1030 Pacific 1 p.m. Eastern, we will be hosting an hour-long show.

Actually, it's longer than an hour. We usually go around two hours long. But I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be a fun project to work on with you. And please everyone check out Jacobin. They do have a YouTube channel. That's where you can watch it live, along with clips of the show and clips of other shows that they produce over at Jacobin. A few other programming notes for you. These are TYT related programming notes. So on Monday, we will be screening a great documentary that we want you to check out. You can check it out here on TYT, Monday at 4 p.m. Pacific Time. 7 p.m. Eastern, we will be screening Parkland Rising. This is a film about the tragic shooting that took place at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas

High School in Florida. And prior to screening this film, there will be. be a special conversation with Manuel Oliver, who tragically lost his son, Joaquin Oliver, in the shooting. It will be an important conversation. We want you guys to be part of it. So please check that out. Monday at 5.30 p.m. Eastern time, 2.30 p.m. Pacific. Also, not a big deal, but I was interviewed by our very own Brett Erlich yesterday on our Twitch channel, which has finally passed a thousand subscribers. You guys should check out that conversation and more. Please subscribe to our Twitch channel, which is awesome. It's twitch.tv.tv slash tyt. It's a lot easier when you just download the app. But if you don't download the app, you can always just use your

web browser. And tonight, there will be a panel for common room that includes John Iderola, Mike Shekels, Yasmin, Alia Khan, and Vivianna Vigil. So check it out. I'm sure you'll love it. All right, without further ado, let's get to the news. Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf is ordering the Office of Intelligence and Analysis. This is the Intel agency within DHS to stop collecting intel on journalists, which is something that they shouldn't have been doing in the first place. And luckily, even Chad Wolf, the very Chad Wolf, who thinks it's totally okay for federal

agents to crack skulls in Portland has realized that maybe we shouldn't be collecting intel on these journalists. So as the Washington Post reports, over the past week, the Department's Office of Intelligence and Analysis has disseminated three open source intelligence reports to federal law enforcement agencies and others, summarizing tweets written by two journalists, Mike Baker from the New York Times and Benjamin Witts, the editor-in-chief of the blog Lawfare, and noting they had published leaked, unclassified documents about DHS operations in Portland. The intelligence reports obtained by the Washington Post include written descriptions and images of tweets and the number of times they had been liked or retweeted by others. So Nando, the leaked documents seem to have

embarrassed these individuals. And to be fair, it's not just the journalists who are publishing information about them that makes them look embarrassing. They've also been clowned on by other intelligence agencies. So it really does show their shortcomings. And I think that's part of the reason why they decided to start tracking journalists the way that they have. So for instance, a memo by the department's top intelligence official, which was tweeted by the editor of lawfare, says personnel relied on Fintel, which is an acronym for financial intelligence as well as finished intelligence baseball cards of arrested protesters who try to understand their motivations and plans. Historically, military and intelligence officials have used such cards for biographical

dossiers of suspected terrorists, including those targeted in lethal drone strikes. Also what we learned through these leaks was that they had no idea what the protests were even about. They thought the protests were about like these anti-government anarchists, right? Which anyone paying even a little bit of attention knows what the protests are about. But if you're working in any intelligence agency and you don't know what the vast majority of Americans, plain old civilians know about the protests, pretty bad at your job. Yeah, it's funny, there was like a funny little anecdote of this overall horrifying story. But just because the definition of our time is horrifying stuff mixed with incompetence. And there was just this like anecdote that this intelligence agency is like laughed at by the FBI and the CIA.

And it's like, yeah, the FBI is like when we infiltrate protest movements back in the 60s and 70s, we were more sophisticated. We had agent provocateurs. We infiltrated these groups very effectively and so discord amongst them. and did all kinds of very sophisticated intelligence operations. You guys are monitoring retweets and likes. You know, come on, this is, this is kitty stuff. But yeah, I mean, the overall story is pretty, you know, it's pretty shocking that they would, that they would do this, even think to do this in the first place.

And then, of course, you know, when Chad Wolf decides distance himself from this, it just seems like it's a matter of time before he gets fired at this point. Oh, for sure. For sure. It's just so. And Chad Wolf, I mean, let me just remind everyone again. I mean, he has definitely played ball with Donald Trump's authoritarian tendencies and desires. He had no problem with what was going on in Portland.

In fact, when the governor of Oregon told the press that there had been an agreement with the Trump administration to pull these federal troops out of Portland, Chad Wolf, responded aggressively and said, oh, no, absolutely not. We plan on remaining in Portland. Now, luckily, and this is really good news, last night was the first night that the presence of federal authorities at least wasn't apparent. So I'm sure there were some federal authorities there, but they were certainly hands off. And guess what happened? The protesters protested, there were no issues, no clashes, no issues with violence. And it just goes to show you that it was the very presence of those federal agents that really led to an escalation of violence

and tensions. Yeah, I mean, and that seems like a deliberate tactic throughout all of these uprisings, whether it's by local cops. I mean, this is obviously the federal involvement is just a massive escalation that is completely just so unwarranted, like so obviously unwarranted that it, you know, it radicalized these kind of Portland craft beer moms. So it just seems like a, you know, it's, it's interesting to watch on some level. I mean, it's horrifying, but it's interesting to watch on some level how they're really kind of seeing the local populations as. as the way that the U.S. has seen kind of foreign populations for a long time, which is just

these dangerous people that need to be crushed. And they're kind of bringing the tactics of Iraq and Afghanistan and all over the other places we've been all over the world, home. And it's an inevitable kind of trend. If you look at past societies, when they do kind of like these imperial adventures abroad, they eventually kind of turn the war machine inward. And that's kind of what's happening here to the point where again, like I said, it's radicalizing craft beer moms in Portland. It's that much of an overreach. So, you know, it goes to show, like you said, that once they once, as soon as they step out and just let them protest in peace, the protests are peaceful. That the huge driving force of any kind of rioting or looting throughout all of these

uprisings has been the aggressive response from law enforcement. I mean, that that is just a just a huge driver of the violence. They are the instigators of the violence overall. So yeah, I mean, it just goes to show like once they do step down, tension step down, protest remain peaceful. Absolutely. And since I mentioned that Chad Wolf is pushing back against this, let me give you the official statement from the Department of Homeland Security. So they write that upon learning about the practice, meaning, you know, tracking journalists, Acting Secretary Wolf directed the Department of Homeland Security Intelligence and Analysis Directorate to immediately discontinue collecting information involving members of the press.

In no way does the acting secretary condone this practice, and he has immediately ordered an inquiry into the matter. The acting secretary is committed to ensuring that all DHS personnel uphold the practices of professionalism, impartiality, and respect for civil rights and civil liberties, particularly as it relates to the exercise of First Amendment rights. So that very last graphic that I read to you, that very last portion of the statement is just a flat lie. And we know that. So they might be pushing back against the idea of tracking journalists. And I think part of the reason why is because the federal government wants to ensure

that they have journalists in their back pocket, right? If you're tracking journalists, you're losing a potential ally when it comes to certain narratives that you want to put out there. As we learned from so many stories, but more recently with the coverage of Russia supposedly supplying aid to the Taliban to fight American soldiers, a lot of journalists can really serve as stenographers, right? You can just go to a journalist and be like, hey, yo, I got a leak for you. And they'll just repeat the leak as if they did some sort of investigative report. I believe that they want to keep that kind of tactic in their back pocket. But when it comes to actual civil liberties for the average American, the average

protester who's out there speaking out and speaking truth against power, well, you know, there are no protections of civil liberties. We've seen what the federal agents have done, what they're capable of, and how the federal government has completely supported those actions. Yeah, I mean, no one, no one should buy that statement for one second. It's a joke, you know, it's an absolute joke. I mean, I'm just, I'm just wondering what my baseball card says, you know, like, oh, that Nando, he's a rabble rouser, but he also weirdly tweets a lot about soccer. I don't know. Like, what's my information say?

Yeah, yeah. Well, we got to take a quick break. So let's do that. And when we come back, we will update you guys on what's currently happening with the economic stimulus bill in regard to and in response to the coronavirus. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-Fitting the Republic. or UNFTR. As a Young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations are constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the rich and powerful. But now there's

a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the conventional wisdom. In each episode of Un-B-The Republic, or UNFTR, the host delves into a different historical episode or topic that's generally misunderstood or purposely obfuscated by the so-called powers that be. featuring in-depth research, razor-sharp commentary, and just the right amount of vulgarity, the UNFTR podcast takes a sledgehammer to what you thought you knew about some of the nation's most sacred historical cows. But don't just take my word for it. The New York Times described UNFTR as consistently compelling and educational,

aiming to challenge conventional wisdom and upend the historical narratives that were taught in school. For as the great philosopher Yoda once put it, You must 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.

Right back. Hey everyone, welcome back to TYT, Anna Casparian, and Nando Vila with you. We had a few technical issues with some of the platforms we were on earlier. So Twitch and YouTube had some problems with the stream, but we're back up, ready to go. We apologize for those issues. And hopefully we don't have any moving forward. So just a quick note about one of our partners, aspiration, we're doing a sweepstakes with them. And you can get a chance to win an e-scooter.

And in order to get a chance to win, all you need to do is open up a save and spend account with Aspiration. And if you already have one of those accounts, don't you worry, you also have a chance to win. And you can do that by referring your friends to Aspiration. Learn more by going to t.wit.com slash green summer. Also, I wanted to get a little update on our thermometer to see if we met our goal for the month of July. We were far away from it.

Did we do it? We did it. We did it. Yeah, it's pretty impressive. We were far from our goal yesterday. I don't know how we did this. But you guys are awesome. You're rock stars.

Thank you for supporting TYT. For those of you who want to contribute and keep us afloat, please go to TYT.com slash go to do so. I'm going to read a few member comments, actually just one and we'll move on to the rest of the news. Mando Libre says, despite my issues with Obama and Clinton, it was refreshing to hear presidential voices at the John Lewis ceremony. You know, I agree with you. I mean, there's some comfort in hearing someone who doesn't sound like an absolute idiot, right? And Obama was a great speaker. He was definitely great at public speaking. He made a lot of very strong demands during his speech, like getting rid of the filibuster and all of that. You know, that strength is great. I would have loved

to see more of that when he was president. Anyway, so let's move on to the rest of the news. Yeah, it's not like he wasn't president for eight years. Yeah, I know, I know. All right, well, let's talk about the stimulus bill because this is pretty devastating. The Senate has gone on recess without reaching a deal on the next coronavirus stimulus bill. This is terrible news when you consider that the unemployment benefits, along with the eviction moratorium, has expired. Today is the last day, July 31st is the last day. And unfortunately, we have representatives, members of Congress who have decided,

eh, not a big deal, recess time, time to break. So let's talk a little bit about what happened and why this is so devastating. So as I mentioned, the end of the $600 per week federal benefit, when combined with the lapsing of an eviction moratorium, will likely lead to serious financial problems for those hit hardest by the pandemic and economic collapse. More than $1.4 million people filed initial unemployment claims last week, and that's according to the Department of Labor, while the U.S. economy, as we talked about yesterday, contracted by more than nine percentage points in the second quarter of 2020, that's the worst drop on record.

So what did they disagree about? What was going on? Well, I think you're going to be shocked to find that I disagree with some of what Democrats were demanding, because there was a real opportunity here to expand or extend the $600 a week unemployment benefit for four months. That was something that Republicans wanted, but they wanted that in a standalone bill. Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer essentially said, no, we're not into it. But they did play hardball in some regard. So I'll give you the details on where Republicans finally landed. But first, I want to go to the next video because it shows you the laughable proposal that they initially had. Leader McConnell yesterday put forth a one-week extension at the current levels for enhanced unemployment. And what did we see?

Senator Schumer objected to that. Democrats came up with a plan two months ago. The Republican plan was just presented on Monday. And in that time, the president has contradicted the Republican plan on the amount of stimulus checks, on student loans. Ms. McConnell threw you guys under the bus on funding for the FBI building. What do you say to the tens of millions of people who are going to lose their benefits when it appears that the real issue is that Republicans cannot agree among themselves, even though they've had months? That's not at all, in fact.

Democrats offered a $3 trillion plan. We have a very specific focus right now, and it's not this comprehensive plan. Why didn't you start negotiating earlier, and why only the offer of a $3 trillion? extension of one week. What I would say to them is that this is unacceptable, that the Democrats have been fundamentally unsurious. If Democrats were interested in extending unemployment insurance and helping the American people, they would have endorsed the Martha McSally bill and extended this by a week to give us time as we try to extend this in perpetuity while we also focus on evictions. Okay, Nando, the Martha McSally proposal of extending the unemployment benefits for one

week is just insulting, it's laughable. I'm glad that Democrats didn't sign on to that. But I wanted to get your thoughts so far because Republicans luckily did come back with a different proposal that I thought wasn't as, I mean, it wasn't as bad. But given the emergency that we're in right now, I think Democrats probably should have taken it. Anyway, I wanted to get your thoughts. Yeah, I mean, it's one of those, it's one of those things. where you're negotiating with a gun to your head, right? I mean, once these unemployment insurance benefits expire, something like 30 million Americans will see their incomes reduced by half to 75%, which would cause an amount of suffering that is just beyond our small little

brains to comprehend. I mean, it's just we haven't seen anything like this, certainly in our lifetimes, probably in a very, very long time. So in terms of like what the Democratic strategy should be to deal with Republicans. I don't know whether the ins and outs. I mean, I just know this is such a profound failure of leadership in this country during this absolute crisis. I mean, it's just, they can't even do that. They can't even extend the most basic kind of help to people during this unprecedented pandemic in which we need people to stay home, right? We need people to not work. And it's just something that you don't see in other countries and other more functioning democracies. They have their own little fights here and there. But something as basic as this

is something that would absolutely happen. This is just, it's such a basic thing that to watch our system just be unable to meet the basic demands is just, it feels like I'm like, it feels, it gives me vertigo, just watching it, you know, and the ins and outs, I mean, it's, it's again, it's the same, it's the same story as ever, you know, Democrats kind of put out a fine, okay proposal. It's not, you know, the greatest thing in the world, but it's totally fine and necessary. then Republicans kind of say we want to murder everyone and then what are you going to do about it. And yeah, I mean, they're going to have to do something. Like they're going to end up doing something

is what I ultimately think. I mean, this is like a self-destruct button. Like no one, you know, we think that's, you know, in the concept of mutually assured destruction, no one has pulled that, you know, pulled that nuclear trigger in the past. But so this would be like an absolute self-destruct button, like if the Republicans don't pass something, you know, I mean, they're gonna, they're gonna lose everything in November. It's just, it's, they can't do that. And it's, right. So, but I think, I think that Democrats are, are, they never play hardball, right? No. But they're playing hardball right now. And I, I don't think the timing is necessary, necessarily right. So first off, the Martha McSally proposal was garbage. And so I, I applaud them for

rejecting that, that was the right thing to do. However, after that, Republicans came back with something that I personally didn't expect. And that was the standalone bill to extend the unemployment benefits. And you would think, oh, they're going to extend the unemployment benefits, but they're going to lower the amount from 600 to like 100, because that's what they had floated earlier. But no, according to Politico, Meadows made an offer to extend enhanced unemployment benefits at $600 a week for four months as a standalone bill. That's pretty good. That's really good.

Okay, so let me keep going. This is a new offer from the White House and further than Republicans have gone thus far. We all know that. We've been covering it. Pelosi and Schumer rejected the offer and countered that extending enhanced unemployment insurance at the same rate, $600 per week through the first quarter of 2021. Listen, I hear you. I would love that.

That would be great. But time is of the essence. And right now, people are in a very desperate situation. I would have never guessed that Republicans would want to extend the unemployment benefits at $600 a week for four months. So if they want to do that as a standalone bill, I personally would say, all right, let's do it. And let's work out the rest because there certainly needs to be some relief to states. There needs to be funding for hospitals. There needs to be a plan for testing, funding for testing.

These bills aren't just about funding for corporations and average Americans. There's a bunch of other stuff involved that I think is actually valuable. But, you know, I wonder if there's a donor aspect to it. Because as a standalone bill that only focuses on extending the unemployment benefits, it wouldn't deal with certain bailouts for businesses or corporations. I don't know if that was something, you know, that Democrats were thinking about. I think what happened is what I think I'm not realizing what happened is that the Republicans want to hold the economy together through the election and then see what happens in the election.

And if the Democrats kind of win the presidency or win the Senate or whatever, they can then hold them hostage with the expiration of the unemployment insurance then. You know what I mean? Whereas Democrats want to extend it far beyond the election to give them like the first hundred days to be able to pass things and all that stuff without having to worry, without having that kind of gun to their head of the unemployment insurance. So that's what Republicans are doing. It's like they're holding the, they want to hold the economy so that they don't collapse in the election. Because again, that's what I'm saying. If they don't pass something, it's literally a self-immolation, like they'll, they're going to get crushed everywhere. So they want to hold it

through the election and then have the option to kill it once Democrats are in power. And so I can see why, I can see the argument as to why a Democrat would be like, we're just, we're committing suicide now or later. It's a sort of game is what is definitely true. I think that's going I get the political motivations, but people are desperate and they need help. So look, it's just, it's an interesting calculation. And I get, again, I get the political ramifications. My priority would be how do we prevent people from getting evicted? How do we prevent people from going hungry? What do we need to do at the bare minimum to make sure people don't suffer more than they've already suffered during this pandemic. I don't know. I guess it's a balancing

act. But if I were a Democrat, I would say, no, we need to provide relief to the average American immediately and not hold them hostage based on our political motivations. I think I'm with you. I mean, we're we're staring into the face of like, you know, 20 million homeless people and an increase in like literal starvation and mass death, you know, Because if they don't, if they don't pay people to stay home, people will go out and try to make money to survive. And then the pandemic will just get worse. Hundreds of thousands more will die. I'm with you. Yeah. Well, let's talk a little bit about someone who actually did die during this pandemic and see if Donald Trump feels any remorse about it. So as we reported earlier,

Herman Kane died from coronavirus. He was one of the individuals who attended Trump's Tulsa, Oklahoma rally, where he almost certainly contracted the virus since it was a large crowd. No one was wearing masks around him. He shared a photo indicating that he was having a great time, but no one with him was wearing a mask. And the big question is, does Donald Trump feel any remorse? Does the administration maybe regret some of the misinformation that they put out there in regard to social distancing guidelines and masks. And here's what Maggie Haberman had to say. I'm just wondering what happened in the White House, knowing that Herman Kane went to that Tulsa rally. Is there any feeling inside the White House of responsibility, of guilt,

of connection to this? This is not how the White House has handled it. In fact, you've seen the president say not that long ago, I think it was a few days ago, that he's known. Several friends who passed away from COVID and one who was close to the end. I have to assume he was talking about Herman Kane. The White House continues to have a very blindered view of all of this. They do not look at actions they have taken as having an impact on people getting sick, whether that's the Tulsa rally, whether it's a lack of sufficient testing across the country, whether it is the lack of a national plan to combat this.

And this incident with Harmon Kane, which is obviously tragic, is no different. Of course, they feel no responsibility or remorse or regret. In fact, Donald Trump is actually very transparent and tells us who he is on a regular basis. And so when he tells us who he is, we should believe him. We shouldn't be shocked, we shouldn't be surprised, we shouldn't expect a different reaction from Trump, especially something like remorse or regret or the feeling of responsibility. In fact, here's some evidence of him previously saying that he doesn't consider himself responsible anything. No, I don't take responsibility at all because we were given a set of circumstances

and we were given rules, regulations, and specifications from a different time. Now, Nando, here's what Trump had to say about Herman Kane's passing on Twitter. He said, my friend Herman Kane, a powerful voice of freedom, and all that is good, passed away this morning. Herman had an incredible career and was adored by everyone that ever met him, especially me. He was a very special man, an American patriot, and a great friend. I just got off the phone with his amazing wife, Gloria, daughter, Melanie, and son Vincent to express my deepest condolences to the entire family. Melania and I loved Herman Kane, a great man, Herman, rest in peace. I don't take any responsibility for your death. I certainly don't take responsibility for

holding that Tulsa rally that essentially put the lives of many at risk. But, you know, rest in peace. You know, you're a great man. You're a great man. Whatever. I don't take responsibility. Amazing. Two things here. Obviously, one is Trump is incapable of feeling remorse for anything. It's literally like he can't feel anything in any way. He can't feel joy. He can't feel sadness. He cannot feel remorse. That's obvious we shouldn't expect anything different. But the other thing I will say is that I kind of, I kind of of in a kind of clever way, think that Trump is sort of right in that if even if in an alternate universe where Hillary Clinton had won the presidency in 2016 and we were living under a Hillary Clinton presidency and the pandemic hit, you would see like Republicans refusing to

wear masks, holding kind of like anti-mask rallies and all this stuff. And Herman Kane, absolutely would have still gone to one of those and probably contracted coronavirus had probably died anyway. So like it's it's the, the rise. And the sense of entitlement from the American right is so profound these days that it's so beyond Trump, like it's so beyond his reaction to the pandemic. Like I am one million percent convinced that there would be anti-mask movements like on TV, on, you know, right wingers all over the place, just refusing to wear masks out of a sense of like, you can't tell me what to do or whatever, the things that they tell themselves under any other circumstances.

So yeah. Yeah, you know, you actually do make a really good point because during the pandemic in 1918, there absolutely was an anti-mask portion of the country, right? People who refuse to wear masks despite the flu, despite the numbers of people dying as a result of that pandemic. So this has been a very old problem in the United States. People who think that federal agents cracking skulls against protesters practicing their First Amendment rights, That's not considered any violation of our freedoms by right wingers. But when it comes to public safety concerns and just providing a guideline, encouraging

people to wear masks, oh my God, our freedoms are being violated. And, you know, the lack of remorse was also incredibly apparent during the line of questioning by Republicans when Anthony Fauci was testifying before Congress. So this just recently happened. they're still pushing hydroxychloroquine. In fact, one representative brought up a terrible study that was done by the Henry Ford Center, allegedly showing the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine. And the question here is whether Fauci agreed with the old doctors he had spoken to.

Let's take a quick look at how that conversation went down. And in talking with a lot of older doctors who have been around a while, and I trust their judgment and their use of hydroxychloricine. They say that the initial studies didn't really use zinc with it, and they say that zinc is an enabler, to be able to help hydroxychloricone actually do its job. Would you like to comment on that? The Henry Ford Hospital study that was published

was a non-controlled retrospective cohort study that was confounded by a number of issues, including the fact that many of the people who are receiving hydroxychloricine were also receiving corticosteroids, which we know from another study, gives a clear benefit in reducing deaths with advanced disease. So that study is a flawed study, and I think anyone who examines it carefully,

is that it is not a randomized placebo-controlled trial. It says it's pure-reviewed. It doesn't matter. You can peer-review something. That's a bad study. But the fact is, it is not a randomized. placebo-controlled trial. The point that I think is important, because we all want to keep an open mind, any and all of the randomized placebo-controlled trials, which is the gold standard

of determining if something is effective, none of them had shown any efficacy by hydroxychloroquine. Okay, so two questions for you, Nando, and two questions for the audience as well. Who do we trust here? Anthony Fauci, who brought up valid concern, regarding the methodology of this Henry Ford Center study, or do we trust the political party that has tried to validate the argument made by the demon semen doctor that we heard from earlier? And for all of you are like, oh, she's a doctor, she's licensed, how dare you? No, how dare you? How dare you? Listen to that ridiculous rant she gave while preaching to whomever and argue that she has any validity to tell American people to not wear masks and to

take a drug that has been disproven in multiple studies as a potential treatment or cured to hydroxychloroquine. Secondly, here's the second question. Do we trust Anthony Fauci or do we trust the line of questioning coming from this member of Congress who still doesn't know how to put a mask on properly. Come on. Oh, man. I mean, bless Anthony Fauci, honestly, I feel bad for that man. He's doing the Lord's work. He's doing his best. I mean, what can you do other than just be like, Fauci, you're a good man. You can tell in his face that he's a good man. And he's, you know what I mean? He's got a good man face. The patience is incredible. The patience is almost infinite. I mean, I think what's going on here

with all this hydrop hydro. I don't even know how the hell to say it. But it's, there's two things kind of converging. One is the sort of long time Republican and billionaire led kind of de-legitimization of scientific inquiry and all that stuff started off obviously with tobacco and climate change, which has, you know, it used to be that the sort of leadership of the Republican Party knew it was all kind of, it was all wrong and lies, but they, it was something that they fed the rubs, you know, but now the rubs are in power and, and they actually believe this stuff. So that's part of it. I mean, the other thing that's going on is that they need a silver bullet for the pandemic. They need to keep the wheels spinning. They cannot let this economy stop anymore.

Like they, America runs on shopping and all its stuff. And they can't comprehend anything but that. So anything that involves any sort of self-sacrifice, any sort of collective coming together to do something is just so far beyond their own mental plane that they need to worship to the god of shopping. So they need to find a silver bullet. So those are the two things that are happening right now. It's very obvious. It's very transparent. And poor Anthony Fauci is like the guy who's just standing there having to explain to these people that all this crank stuff is just going to get us all killed. And then one final part of this that I just had to share with the audience, you know,

there's pearl clutching on on both sides of the aisle. There's no question about that. And nothing made that clear than Steve Scalise pretending to be so offended at Anthony Fauci's suggestion that this country hasn't had a valid plan in response to the pandemic. Let's take a quick look at that. for anybody to suggest that there's not a plan in fact when you look at the title of today's hearing urgent need for a plan that's not the title of a hearing that's a political narrative and a false political narrative at that you wouldn't even be here today if there wasn't a plan because you are

the people tasked with carrying out the plan in fact if you were sidelined you wouldn't be here either and i know some people want to suggest that but maybe they haven't spent time reading different components of the plan. Let me thank you on behalf of the millions of American people who are alive today that wouldn't be alive if you weren't carrying out President Trump's effective plan. Again, going back to questions of validity, do we trust Anthony Fauci or do we trust a man who thought it was a great idea to call himself David Duke but without the baggage? And then later realized maybe that wasn't a good idea and then take it back. You know, the kind of guy who wouldn't really think ahead or think of plans when it comes to

dealing with anything. You know, he's just such a clown. It's unbelievable. Go ahead. Go ahead, no, go ahead, go ahead. I just want to say, if there actually were a plan, that plan pretty much sucks, because if you look at the numbers, the United States, for instance, is number one in the world when it comes to infections, number four per capita in infections behind Chile, Kuwait, and Peru. And we just passed 150,000 deaths, as I've been mentioning on this show repeatedly. And need I remind you, we've been sucking a lot more compared to pretty much every other country. This is one of Jenks' favorite graphs because it really helps you visualize how terrible

the United States has been in comparison to the European Union with coping with and dealing with coronavirus. I mean, just look at that graph. unbelievably embarrassing. And you have these ridiculous Republicans gaslighting every single American by telling them, no, no, we nailed it. We nailed it. We have a plan. I'm gonna go ahead and lift up a heavy, you know, stack of papers. Yeah, okay. All right, that's all the proof we need. Everything's working. Sure. I just love like he just like lifts up a stack of papers that like it just says on the cover like the plan. And it's just like, he's like, guys, got it.

right here. You know, like there's zero percent, like it's a lorum, Ipsum, you know, like over and over again. Those papers. It's just so obvious and transparent. I just love it. It's like a Looney Tunes thing or something. It's like, well, we have the plant right here, guys.

It's just, yeah, we're, I feel like we're living in a cartoon and it's pretty bad. Well, look, we got to take a break. When we come back, we'll talk a little bit about Trump's threats to delay the election. and where he stands on that today. And the military has been trying to recruit people on Twitch. That's an important story I also want to get to. So come back right after. At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control

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with this exclusive link just for T-Y-T fans. That's E-X-P-R-E-S-S-V-P-N dot com slash T-YT. Check it out today. What's up, everyone, Anna and Nando with you? I'm going to read two member comments that I really like. The first comes from Gabby Marita who says, Nando Vila is basically a human Charlie. I don't know if that's a reference to my dog, Charlie,

who's like super sweet. I don't know. But Gabby, let us know. And she also says, if I do suspect he might be a Barka fan? Barsa fan. No, I am not a Barza fan. I am a Ramatrid fan. Okay, all right.

I don't know what any of that means. Jonathan, I'm guessing it's football, right? Yes. Football. Jonathan writes in. and says professors in school wouldn't even give an extension for an assignment if you had ample time to complete it. So why should we give the GOP an extension deadline when they've had months to complete their proposal? Look, I totally agree with you. And the one week extension was ridiculous.

But look, again, you just got to focus on the basic material needs of people who are suffering right now. And if we can get unemployment extended for four months, I think that that's really important. So again, I get the political ramifications. I get the frustration. But right now, we've got nothing. And that unemployment program expires today. So I'm just worried about how people are going to suffer as a result of that. Well, let's also talk about the election because a lot of people have been concerned. I was concerned when Trump tweeted about possibly delaying the election. We have some updates on that. Trump recently floated the idea of delaying the presidential election, something that he actually even pinned at the very top of his Twitter account.

But the tweet did receive widespread condemnation, including by Republicans, which honestly shocked me. And now he's changing his tune a little bit. He's trying to twist it in a way that goes along with his so-called fraud narrative, which has been debunked and will debunk it yet again in the story. So he wrote, glad I was able to get the very dishonest lame stream media to finally start talking about the risks to our democracy from dangerous universal mail-in voting, not absentee voting, which I totally support. Now, he says he supports absentee voting because he has engaged in absentee voting. In fact, We found some old video from 2004 featuring Donald Trump, having some difficulty voting

in person, we're gonna get to that in just a second. But before I do, let me just remind you all that there's really no difference between mail-in voting and absentee voting. I'm gonna repeat that again, for those of you who disagree with me, you are wrong. There is essentially no difference between mail-in voting and absentee voting. If you don't believe me, I'll give you the facts, but I'll do that right after we watch this video. Oh, why? Do I have to go to a different place, actually? There's a little drama at the polling booth. We like that. Do me a fair. We double check. We have the paperwork. Double check.

Let me see what I'm calling my lawyer right now. Go ahead. Work on it. Wherever you want us to go. Where do we go? Five 20 Park Avenue. Okay, I like that location better. Hi, folks. How you doing? Make sure there's no cheating here, right? They don't have any evidence. Do you believe this? They don't have it in this book. He's not in my book, neither. So it's not here, right? Hi, fellas.

How are you? You have my name here? If his name is not on these rules, there will be a huge combustion in there. Well, I'm going to fill out the absentee bill. And I've just voted. At least you can say the Trumpster doesn't give up. So Nando, he's definitely appreciated voting by mail in the past. But when it comes to our ability to vote,

He says that it would lead to fraud, it would lead to all sorts of problems, and we should definitely delay the election. What do you think? You know, the Trumpster doesn't give up, I'll never forget that. Also, Billy Bush appearance, I'd forgotten about him, a great character from like five years ago. But yeah, I mean, you know, obviously like it's insane that Trump tweeted that, it's incredibly concerning.

I think at the end of the day, what he's really doing with all that stuff is I think he's looking at the polls. He's seeing he's probably going to lose and he wants to like do a pre-made excuse to like whine about it when he loses. It'd be like just live the rest of his day saying I got robbed, I got cheated, I got think. You know, and you know, the terrifying thing about that is that there will be a good chunk of the population, say, I don't know, 15, 20, 25% of the people would be like, yeah, no, and see that the entire election is illegitimate. But I do, I don't think that he has the will to power or the follow through to like actually do something as destabilizing as delaying the election. I mean, I think it's just more of like, you know, he's kind of working

the result in an advanced way, like so that he can just be like forever to the end of his days be like, no, that like, I didn't lose. It was just the annoying Dems who robbed it through this mail-by-vote thing. Yeah, look, I don't know. I, I, I, I don't know. I, I, I, I, I'm a little less optimistic than you because I think that he plans, I think he was planning a seat and testing the water because he genuinely would try to argue that the election is illegitimate. He would try to delay it at first. If that doesn't work, of course he's going to say it's an illegitimate election, that there was fraud. I don't think that he would step down easily. He's that kind of guy. And with 25% of the country supporting him no matter what, But it's a terrible and terrifying scenario. But I do want to just talk about this dumb narrative that we've seen online by conservatives who are trying to make a distinction between mail-in voting and absentee voting, as if the two are so different from one another, they're not.

In fact, the screening is very similar to both methods. It's voting by mail. It's voting by mail. Both options, absentee and voting by mail is essentially voting by mail. And factcheck.org looked into this themselves to make it abundantly clear that there's really no distinction between the two. They write that President Donald Trump continues to draw false distinctions between mail-in and absentee ballots, claiming the former are rife with voter fraud while the latter, which he has used as president, require a voter to go through a very

strict process. Now, here's what the truth is. Voting experts told us the verification process is the same for absentee and mail-in ballots, and many states consider them to be the same thing. Election officials say states use the same verification certification certification process for absentee or mail-in ballots. In fact, one of the election experts that fact-check.org spoke to, his name is Darren Hutchinson said, President Trump's comments regarding absentee and mail-in ballots are misleading. The differences between the two systems are trivial to vote by absentee ballot, a must provide a reason, usually travel or disability to excuse in-person voting. The absentee ballot label, however, is somewhat of a relic. Most states, including Florida, have actually

moved to no excuse mail-in ballots, meaning you don't even have to give an excuse. You want to vote that way? You can vote that way. It doesn't matter. In these states, individuals can submit a mail-in ballot without explaining their absence on election day. They simply need to submit an application, virtually identical to the one states used for absentee ballots. There is no rigid screening process that distinguishes the two methods of voting. So please, if you happen to hate watch this show, please don't send me your stupid comments about how there's a difference or some sort of distinction between the two. There isn't, you're a moron and you need to spend some time reading.

Just read, read, spend a minute to read something other than watch idiots on Fox News. I'm so sick of it. Bless your heart, and I love that you actually, like, you know, broke that down in a very diligent way, you know, rigorous. That's why, that's why we need you, you know, like, I, you know, you're like, in a way you're more like Dr. Fauci than you give yourself credit for that you actually went. There's no way. You actually went and did the research and the homework as to why all this is crap, you know.

The delivery is different. The delivery is definitely, like we were talking about this during the break. Anthony Fauci is, you know, he certainly practices stoicism, which he has to in the job that he's doing. I couldn't do that. I mean, can you imagine if I dealt with the same line of questioning that Fauci did during that testimony? I would tell Steve Scalise that he's a moron, like, nonstop. Like, I couldn't, I couldn't stop myself. Like, I can't keep a straight face when I'm dealing with idiots. It's just the truth. That's part of why we love you. I hope so. I hope you guys love me. All right, we do have a few minutes left, so I'm going to go ahead and read some member comments. By the way, Nando is going to stick around for the post game. We are going to talk about that story regarding Twitch and how the military is using that platform to recruit young people in incredibly disgusting and deceptive ways.

We're also going to talk about why Charlie Kirk is a dofus. And I do want to read this comment from Lou B, who disagrees with me. He argues that the four-month extension when it comes to the unemployment benefits only kicks the can down the road and that it's a band-aid over a missing limb, I hear you, but this is different from, you know, any other issue if you ask me. Again, it has to do with providing the immediate material needs that Americans need right now. There are tens of of millions of people who are unemployed. They have no source of income. There is no moratorium on evictions now. And so there's going to be a real problem with homelessness, with pain and suffering,

with hungry children. And I'm not saying this simply to like fearmonger about it. It's real. It's in the numbers. And I'm just really concerned about people dying and suffering needlessly because Democrats refuse to agree to this one standalone bill. But I hear that. you most of the time, everything Congress does is kicking the can down the road and it's super frustrating. So that's where I'm coming from. And if we disagree, that's totally fine. All right. Bart is also on happy half hour after the post game. So make sure you check that out. So we'll have happy half hour. And then after happy half hour, we'll have the post game. Make sure you check that out. And Nando, any final words for our main show audience before we go?

No, just everyone hang in there. I mean, if you're relying on those unemployment insurance, And if it's, you know, hang in there. I hope, you know, you can you can make it through. I mean, it's going to be, we're in for some very tough times for sure. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, it's crazy to compare how the United States has totally bungled this. And especially to compare us to countries that certainly don't have the wealth and resources that we have here.

I mean, it really shows you, you know, what happens when you value individualism and profits over human lives. Anyway, again, you guys can become members by going to t-y-t.com slash join. Nando will join me for today's episode. Don't miss it, and we'll see you soon. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen to ad-free, access members, only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.