The Young Turks - TYT Extended Clip - July 8th, 2020

Episode Date: July 9, 2020

Trump and the GOP don’t care about average people. John Iadarola 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, happy Wednesday, Anna Casparian and John Ida Rollo with you. We're going to have an awesome show. Lots of news to update you on, lots of hypocrisy to reveal, to uncovering. you know, doing the hard work here at TYT. John, how are you? I'm good. And, you know, because I wasn't on the show yesterday, I would like to take this opportunity to say, happy birthday. Thank you. Thank you. I mean, I feel so lucky for the audience that we have, for the people I get to work with, lots of

really sweet messages, and I'm genuinely grateful. Thank you so much, everyone. Also, all of those donations that were made yesterday as part of our fundraising effort to celebrate my birthday. You guys didn't have to do that. And it's definitely appreciated. Yeah, I don't know the exact amount, but I saw, you know, in our, in our sheet, that shares all your comments and your donations, that some people did it in honor of my birthday. So thank you. Just a few notes before we move on to our stories. We are, of course, partnered up with aspiration, a wonderful financial institution that keeps the environment in mind. They will not invest your money in the fossil fuel companies. And they plant trees every time you use their checkings account. You can sign up

for a free account by going to Aspiration.com slash TYT. They plant a tree with every purchase. And you can also save money by getting rewarded every time you shop at environmentally conscious places. Also, programming note that's super exciting. So if you have Samsung TV Plus, okay, we're on it. Not a big deal. We're everywhere. Mr. Worldwide. So if you have Samsung TV, you can find TiT on Samsung TV Plus channel 1032. Channel 1032. The Young Turks is on there. So is the damage report and all your other, many of your other favorite TYT show. So definitely check that out. Again, that's Channel 1032 on Samsung TV Plus. It's awesome. All right. Well, let's correct the top 1,000. That's awesome.

Getting it. Don't be a downer. It has nothing to do with that, I know. Anyway, all right. Well, let's get to the news because as always, we have multiple examples of Republicans showing us how little they value our lives. So, Donald Trump is urging state to reopen their schools in the fall, even though we're still dealing with a rapid surge in new coronavirus cases. So he tweeted, all schools must reopen on Twitter in all caps. And following that, it turned out that the state of Florida decided that they will, in fact, start opening schools back up for the fall. That story is actually a little more complicated. And there are caveats that I'll share with you in just a minute. But before I do, let's hear from Donald Trump.

Let's see if he makes a persuasive case to send our children to schools while the numbers of new coronavirus cases continue to increase. We hope that most schools are going to be open. We don't want people to make political statements or do it for political reasons. I think it's going to be good for them politically. So they keep the schools closed. No way. So we're very much going to put pressure on governors and everybody else to open the schools to get them open. And it's very important. It's very important for our country. It's very important for the well-being of the student and the parents. So we're going to be putting a lot of pressure on open your schools in the fall. Well, Trump made his remarks hours after education secretary, Betsy DeVos,

who hates public schools and wants to defund them, assailed plans by some local districts to offer in-person instruction only a few days a week and said schools must be, quote, fully operational, end quote. Anything less, she said, would fail students, and here's the magic word, everyone, taxpayers. Betsy DeVos and people like Betsy DeVos despise public schools because they hate that some of their tax money, you know, a relatively small portion of their tax money, local taxes, property taxes, go toward these public schools, which is why she's fought so aggressively to privatize them. So for her and for the Trump administration overall, this isn't about ensuring that students get the education they deserve the education they need. This isn't

about protecting their lives or protecting the lives of their family members. This is political, There's no question about it, and this also has to do with their disdain for public schools. Yeah, I took issue obviously with what Trump said. Rarely has projection been as projectee as what he said there, we're going to open the schools. We're not going to let them not open the schools for political reasons. They just want to do it for political reasons to not open it. No politics, but we're going to put big pressure on open the schools. Politics isn't on my mind. I mean, come on, it's the most obvious thing. in the world that he doesn't care, that he thinks it's an important part of making it look like the country has recovered from the pandemic. It's these big symbolic things. I mean, it's that, I mean, worst case, an even worse example of that I think would be sporting events. They just, they want to have these big gatherings so that people get the false impression that we're back to normal. And that is, that's the most important thing to them. Actually getting kids back to school

is very important, but it has to be done under the right circumstances. And both, both in terms of the politicians in his administration and the right wing media are showing that they don't give a damn about that part of it. They just want it to happen. They don't care if it happens safely. Exactly. Look, for Trump, this is all about appearances. And in his mind, like he has this crazy paranoid mind. He thinks that everyone is conspiring against him. And the decision to keep these schools closed isn't about keeping people healthy and safe. It's about making him look bad. It's the same line of things. he has when it comes to masks. He told the Wall Street Journal, he was very transparent,

that he believes that some people are wearing masks simply to make him look bad, when in reality it's about slowing the spread of this virus. And so, you know, and I look, I get it, you know, for anyone who's frustrated at the situation, you might have kids and you're hoping your kids could go back to school soon because you're worried about them not getting the education they need and deserve. I definitely hear that. And it goes beyond curriculum. It's also about socializing. It's about being with your friends. It's about, you know, these important life experiences that kids need in the years where they're rapidly developing. But at the same time, you're right, John, as much as I want kids to go back to school and have these experiences, we need to do it in a

smart way. We need to make sure it's staggered. So we minimize the danger. But more importantly, We need to consider that it's not just about kids because the overwhelming argument is, well, these kids are young, they're healthy and they're less likely to be symptomatic if they get COVID. But keep in mind that one in five Americans right now lives in a multi-generational home because of the economic inequality in this country. And so these kids don't live in a vacuum. So they could get elderly people in their household sick.

They could get their own parents sick, right? if they have some sort of health vulnerability that makes COVID much more disastrous for them than for young people, for instance. And so these are questions that I haven't really seen been answered by the Trump administration. And Trump has also distanced himself from the coronavirus task team. He hasn't worked with them or attended a single meeting since April, since April. And now the wedge between Trump and Fauci seems to be increasing. And I'm worried about that as well because Anthony Fauci is really the only person I trust in the federal government at this point to do the right thing and give us the right advice.

A hundred percent. He hasn't had a meeting with them for some time. He's pulling us out of the WHO. He spent the morning criticizing the CDC. All of the people who actually know what they're talking about are his worst enemies at this point. And I want to double down on what I was saying before because I don't think I made my point very clearly about what the objective is and how nakedly partisan it is. Getting kids back to school in a way that it's safe is an objective good. The issue for the right is that they really are more concerned about pretending that everything is okay. And getting kids to school with social distancing and wearing masks accomplishes the substantive goal of letting kids learn, but it doesn't accomplish the goal

of making it seem as if we're past the pandemic, which is why the right has been going to ridiculous lengths to attack that recently. I don't think we're using the Tucker Carlson video, so I'm okay to read this quote on this. I don't think we have it. So Tucker Carlson last night said many schools that do plan to reopen will do so under a series of restrictions that have no basis of any kind in science. It's kind of a bizarre health theater. Students will be kept six feet apart, everyone will have to wear a mask, class sizes will be limited. So he's acknowledging there that what he wants, which is school's reopening, is happening. But he doesn't want it to happen if in happening the kids have to acknowledge the pandemic. He'd previously said

on March 30th, of course masks work, everyone knows that. Now they're unscientific because he and the right have trained people to think of masks as a Bill Gates 5G conspiracy. And so this is the lengths that they've gone to now, where it's not enough to get what they want, a reopened economy and schools reopened. It has to be that plus no acknowledgement whatsoever of the pandemic, no matter how many people it kills. Yeah, because it's political. This is, this is all political. What we're hearing from the Republicans, what we're hearing from people like Tucker Carlson, it's not about, oh, we value education, it's not about keeping anyone safe. It's all about giving you this like false sense of security, of safety, and they're messing

with your lives. They're messing with your children's lives. And look, it's not, yes, it's rare for children to be symptomatic or to suffer grave consequences from this virus, but it's not unheard of. You know, what if there's a child with asthma? What if there's a child who has some sort of vulnerability that maybe even the parents don't know about yet? It's just not as safe as the right wing is making it out to be.

And by the way, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put out guidance for schools last month, guidance that Trump hates, including staggering schedules, spreading out desks for social distancing, having meals and classrooms instead of the cafeteria, adding physical barriers between bathroom sinks and cleaning and disinfecting surfaces. By the way, I also want you to hear the callous argument coming from people. like Brian Kilmead on Fox and Friends when it comes to the issue of opening up schools. Take a look. This is not Ebola. It's the coronavirus.

Mostly the kids, 99.9% of kids will not be affected by it at all. We know about the transference. We also know about the rarity. This is a risk that has to be taken. And I think kids get used to not taking things for granted. They got the message. They're starting to play sports now in my town. The kids with special needs are beginning summer school.

They're beginning to understand how to do it. For teachers, this is going to be a challenge. used to clearing challenges. They don't do it for the money. They are usually extraordinarily dedicated people who are used to finding a way to get things done. We got to adapt that military attitude. They don't complain. They find a way to do it. That's madness. That was such a disgusting, disgusting callous statement, especially in regard to teachers. They don't do it for the money. They'll find a way to get it done. They just don't care about these teachers at all, by the way. And that's one other part of the conversation that's important. It's these kids don't live

in a vacuum. They also don't learn in a vacuum, right? So teachers will be at risk. And they're already devastatingly underpaid. The way that our system is run is just abusive toward them, you know? And to hear that kind of statement from Brian Kilmead was just infuriating. By the way, so even though there's overwhelming pressure for these schools to open, Keep in mind that 90% of the funding for public schools, and I'm talking about grade schools, come from the local government. Essentially, the local government gets to decide whether or not these schools open. They get to decide how these schools open. And so Texas basically said, no, we're not. And I give them credit for that. Florida, on the other hand,

was like, yeah, yeah, we're going to totally open our schools. We're going to totally do it. In the fall, that's it. Brick and mortar schools will be open five days a week. Everything's good. And then like behind the scenes, local administrators and superintendents are like, so like, you guys, you guys can decide if it's right for you, okay? Because they don't want to upset Trump. It's like the best example of right wing weakness and just how pathetic they are when it comes to Trump being a bully. Yeah. All right. Well, go ahead. No, it's okay. I know we have a lot to get there. All right, so there is one other Trump school-related story I want to talk about and has to do with colleges.

So Harvard and MIT are suing ICE and the Department of Homeland Security over new immigration regulations that would negatively impact foreign students who are going to universities in the United States. The rule requires foreign students to either transfer to another college or leave the country entirely if the university, university they're attending is holding classes online entirely through the pandemic. So the argument here by the Trump administration is, well, if you can take these classes online, there's really no reason for you to be here in the United States. So Harvard and MIT have filed a lawsuit. The suit filed in the U.S. District Court in Boston is seeking a temporary restraining order against the new rule, citing the health and safety risks of the global pandemic, and claiming that ICE's decision aims to force universities to open in the fall. So the lawsuit specifically

states the ability to provide remote education during the pandemic is of paramount importance to universities across the country. For many students, returning to their home countries to participate in online instruction is impossible. Impractable, impracticable, prohibitively expensive, and or dangerous. Sorry, I have a hard time pronouncing that word. ICE's decision reflects an effort by the federal government to force universities to reopen in-person classes, which would require housing students in densely packed residential halls, which is a great point. The effect and perhaps even the goal is to create as much chaos for universities and international students as possible. And, you know, I agree with the language

and the lawsuit. I wanted to get your thoughts on it, John. Yeah, I, you know, I see. see all of these efforts to try to set up situations in grade schools and now also in universities to maximize the spread of coronavirus come fall. But I want to reassure Trump, you don't need to do this, buddy. Everything else socially that the Republicans are pushing is going to ensure that there's going to be a big wave right before the election. You don't need to go above and beyond activate challenge mode on this. Yeah, no, it's madness. It's one part, again, trying to pretend that we're not still in a pandemic. It's one part taking advantage of the pandemic to push a longstanding immigration agenda and also try to get people to focus on international

students as some sort of boogeyman. Necessitating more international travel than we're already going to have is obviously a terrible idea during an international pandemic. It's like every angle on this is disastrous and cruel and needless and chaotic. Yeah, absolutely. And it just goes back to what we were discussing earlier, just this need to make it appear as though everything in the country is normal. There's nothing to worry about in order to help Trump's chances of getting reelected. And there's the added layer, of course, when it comes to foreigners in the country or immigrants in the country, the right wing despises them, wants them out. And so this is a situation that I think ICE and the Department of Homeland Security

And the Trump administration overall can exploit for their own, you know, selfish purposes. And by the way, like we Americans have been banned from traveling to European countries because of how poorly our federal government has dealt with coronavirus. So we're seen as like a health risk, you know, across the country, certainly in the European Union. And yeah, I love that you brought up how it's dangerous to really do travel. at a time when this pandemic is worse in terms of the numbers today than it was in the very beginning. And I do want to go to this next video because this is Donald Trump and his, he's just trying to school these universities. Let's take a look.

I see while Harvard announced that they're closing for the season or for the year. I think it's ridiculous. I think it's an easy way out. And I think they ought to be ashamed of themselves. You want to know the truth. I noticed that today, and probably others are doing that. That's called the easy way out. Yeah, look, I can assure you as someone who has some experience teaching online as opposed to in front of a classroom, it's not the easy way out.

Shifting everything to online curriculum is incredibly difficult. And I'm pretty sure that university housing would like to be able. to have more than 40% of the housing, you know, rented by students. But they're not going to be able to do that. They're only going to allow 40% of the housing to be rented. And so it's just, he's, he's, he's just so frustrating. I mean, I don't, I don't know what else to say about it. I mean, one of my closest friends is a university professor and all throughout this summer term, he's had to take the easy way out, which is rather than give his lecture, he's, he's, He has to record it solo by himself to an empty room, edit it, upload it, and then answer

questions for the remainder of the week that come in via email. It's an easy way out. He loves it. Way more work. No, that's madness. And just think about the insult to injury that we have experienced two months of before the pandemic hit America where Trump refused to take it seriously, you know, a solid month of him doing absolutely nothing as it started to spread across the country. Then months of distracting us with

bleach and UV lights and all of that, providing very little aid to the American people, doing literally nothing to set us up in a better position for the second wave than we were for the first. All of that, wasting the time that we had, the resources that we had. And now places like Harvard University are being forced to try to just figure out what they're going to do with the situation he's given us. And their solutions are unacceptable. to Donald Trump, the guy who's had so much to do and hasn't done anything this entire way. He shouldn't, at this point, he shouldn't be commenting on any of this. He has opted out with months of lacking leadership. Yep. Hasn't attended a single coronavirus task force meeting

since April, since April. We're now in July. So he has no interest in doing the right thing. He has no intellectual curiosity or any initiative when it comes to combating this pandemic. And it really is shameful. We do have to take a break when we come back. I will give you multiple examples of Republicans telling you that everything's okay when it comes to coronavirus. But then their actions indicate that it is serious and they themselves are taking it seriously. We'll give you that and more when we return.

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-F-The-Republic, or UNFTR, the host delves into a different historical episode or topic that's just generally misunderstood or purposely obfuscated by the so-called powers that be. Featuring in-depth research, razor-sharp commentary, and just the right amount of vulgarity, the UNFTR podcast takes a sledgehammer to what you thought you knew about some of the nation's most sacred historical cows.

But don't just take my word for it. The New York Times described UNFTR as consistently compelling and educational, aiming to challenge conventional wisdom and upend the historical. narratives that were taught in school. For as the great philosopher Yoda once put it, you must unlearn what you have learned. And that's true whether you're in Jedi training or you're uprooting and exposing all the propaganda

and disinformation you've been fed over the course of your lifetime. So search for UNFDR in your podcast app today and get ready to get informed, angered, and entertained all at the same time. Hey everyone, welcome back to TYT. We're going to take a quick look at the thermometer. And by the way, based on what Brett told me, my birthday bonanza brought in $3,000, a little over $3,000 in donations yesterday. So thank you guys. Seriously, it means the world to me that you allow me to do what I love. And you keep this company afloat. So right now we're at $35,329. If you would

like to help us out, if you'd like to keep us sustainable, please go to TYT.com slash go to make that happen. I'm going to read this super chat comment and a few members comments. This is from George or Jorge. And he says, can we address the irony in people wanting to cancel the guy who said, quote, if we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in freedom at all, end quote. And that was Noam Chomsky. So I wanted to just let you guys know, I don't ever plug this on the show and I probably should do a better job. I do a show on Saturdays called Weekends with Michael Brooks. We do it for Jacobin. Please check it out. We air live every Saturday morning at 10 a.m. Pacific time, 1 p.m. Eastern. And it's on the Jacabin

YouTube channel. I want to address this in depth for my commentary segment. Please check it out. Please subscribe. It would mean the world to us. From the members comments, we have the math magician who says, God, I love Bart and his guys creating the hilarious opening medley every day. I totally agree. They do such a great job. It shouldn't be taken for granted. Thanks, guys. Absolutely. We have incredible, talented people and Bart, you know. By the way, Bart is an expert on music and movies. Like, incredible. Mickey C. says, will agree to schools opening when Barron Trump's grandchildren and the offspring of our leaders go to public school. Well, I'm glad that you brought that up, Mickey C., because the hypocrisy is real, and the next two stories really do

show that. So let's do it. The Republican governor of New Hampshire is encouraging Donald Trump to hold a campaign rally in his state, even though COVID-19 and new cases for COVID-19 continue to surge. Now, it seems like Governor Chris Sununu, though, does understand the severity of this virus based on the fact that he will, you know, not attend. He will not attend this rally. So here's what he said. I will not be in the crowd of thousands of people. I'm not going to put myself in the middle of a crowd of thousands of people. Unfortunately, I have to be extra cautious as the governor. I try to be extra cautious for myself, my family. Oh, that's interesting. But you're not urging the people that you represent.

You're not urging them to take care of themselves and their families, to be extra cautious. So Sununu will not be issuing a mask mandate. States like Texas have issued a mask mandate, which is important. So if you happen to be in New Hampshire, maybe even out of state, and you're considering going to this rally, in the very least, please wear a mask. But this is more of the disastrous and hypocritical nonsense that we're seeing from Republican lawmakers across the country. I think that this is just a commitment to maintaining the metaphor of 2020.

Because if you recall in Jaws, when the mayor insists that the beaches stay open, he doesn't go swimming after that. Like he's concerned about the economy, but he's not going to risk himself. And so, no, of course they're not going to. You know, Fox News has been saying everybody get back to work. We're gonna stay in our mansions though. That would be cool. Trump's like we don't need masks because he never comes within 100 feet of anyone who hasn't been tested in the last 24 hours. It's all very easy and very safe for them. That's what they've, that's the situation they've set up.

Exactly. So speaking of Trump, the Trump campaign said in its announcement of the rally that masks will be provided to attendees and that they're strongly encouraged to wear them. However, the campaign will not be requiring them to do so, which by the way, this was similar to the rally in Tulsa. Allegedly, masks were handed out. And if you look at video of that small crowd, you'll notice that most people were not wearing masks. And also Governor Sununu from New Hampshire told the Boston Globe the following, I'm pleased to see the campaign will be handing out face masks and hand sanitizer to all attendees, as has been true at all public gatherings in New Hampshire where social distancing is hard to maintain. It is imperative that

folks attending the rally wear masks. Now I agree with him, that's a good statement. A good way to ensure that people are wearing masks is to issue a mandate. But he is not interested in doing that because everything, everything coming from the right wing in this country right now in response to the pandemic is political. And it's political and it's cowardly and it's fake. you know, this morning, like look, any Republican politician or Fox News host that tells people you should wear a mask, good. I know Janine Piro has been posting photos of herself wearing one and getting attacked for it with conspiracy theories and all that. Hogan Gidley was on Fox and Friends this morning saying at all of Trump's rallies, we're handing out masks and all of that. Yeah,

how's that working in terms of people actually wearing them? We've seen the video. They don't. It would be very easy to get them to. Trump could go on the rally stage and say, you need to wear a mask, okay? If you're at all responsible, at all serious, if you get this whole thing I'm trying to do, you need to protect yourself and your families by wearing a mask, and they would put on a mask because that's how cults respond to dictates from their leader. He chooses not to do that. And then provides just enough one interview on the weekend where he says, I'm all for masks, but he would never ask his followers directly to do it. It's pathetic And cowardly.

Yeah, absolutely. And look, Trump told the Wall Street Journal, I know I keep repeating this, but it's important to understand what goes on in his head and why he does the things he does. He told the Wall Street Journal that he believes that people wear masks to make him look bad and hurt his chances of getting reelected. So if you are the type of person who is such a fan of Donald Trump that you're motivated to go to this rally, you're not going to wear a mask because you've already, your brain has been primed to think that wearing a mask is going to make the person you want to be president

for the next four years look bad. So, you know, look, Trump is not a leader in any way, shape, or form. A leader doesn't just think about himself, especially someone who is supposed to be, you know, a representative, someone who's serving the country. He's not serving the country at all, he's only thinking about how anything he does will impact him or impact his chances of getting reelected. And by the way, he just seems miserable all the time. I'm actually pretty shocked that he wants to get reelected so badly. I mean, I feel like he's in a constant state of panic and distress. And that's really, that's been the only thing that's given me solace throughout this last, you know, three and a half years. But that's what's going on through

his mind while people are suffering from all the bad decisions he's made. Well, let's move on to another case of a hypocritical politician. Texas is planning to hold its in-person convention despite the risks associated with the ongoing pandemic. Now, as we all know, Texas is one of the states that is experiencing a pretty devastating surge in new coronavirus cases. But it really stands out about this story is that while the Texas Republican Party insists on holding this event in person, state politicians will participate remotely. So elected officials, according to the Texas Tribune, including Governor Greg Abbott and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, will be giving their scheduled speeches virtually. In fact, the Texas GOP executive director, Kyle Watley,

says the following, all the elected officials are switching from a live in-person speech to videos. They're doing that for us in order to focus all the attention on the business of the meeting and to get everybody in and out of here as quickly and as safely as possible. That's a cute little excuse. No one's buying it. I'm especially not buying it, John, because if I can recall correctly, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick wanted every state to reopen immediately. He wanted the economy to reopen immediately and was very upset that as an older gentleman, he wasn't asked if he would be willing to put his life on the line to save the economy. I don't know. Do I remember that correctly? Let's watch the evidence. No one reached out

to me and said, as a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves for your children and grandchildren. And if that's the exchange, I'm all in. And that doesn't make me noble or brave or anything like that. I've talked to hundreds of people, Tucker, and it's just in the last week, and making calls all the time. And everyone says pretty much the same thing. My message is that let's get back to work. Let's get back to living. Let's be smart about it. And, those of us who are 70 plus, we'll take care of ourselves, but don't sacrifice the country. This disease could take your life, but that's not the scariest thing to you. There's something

that would be worse than dying. Yeah. Oh. What happened? What happened, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick? We're asking you, right? I mean, the state, the GOP's Republic, the state's GOP has decided they want to do this in-person convention. They think it's important. Isn't it Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick's job to address the people, to address his party? Lead by example. We're asking you to. But of course he won't because he knows. He knows just like every other Republican politician in this country that this virus is not a joke, that it could kill members of their families or kill them, you know, considering their age. And so they have no problem risking your life, risking the lives of their own constituents, voters in their own

party to give everyone this illusion that everything's normal and everything's okay. But when it comes to their own lives, oh, they won't take that risk. It's just pathetic. And I'm so glad as soon as it started to play, I remember that video. I had forgotten about it. You're right that he's very pathetic. The idea that he would sketch out a hypothetical that no one is asking him to do and then say, is my willingness to hypothetically do this brave? I'm not saying anything. That is very pathetic. But then for Tucker Carlson to say, you'd be willing to do that, but that's not actually as scary. You know, this thing that no one is asking you to do and you're not going to do, it's just hypothetically you just made up. That is so brave of you. The guy who just

last night was calling a woman who lost both of her legs in the U.S. military, a coward thinks Dan Patrick is brave for not doing a hypothetical. What a stupid country we live in. It's incredible. It really is. As many as 6,000 people are expected to go to this in-person convention in the state of Texas. The party's governing board met to consider moving the convention online, but it provided a resolution supporting an in-person gathering in a 40-20 vote. So 40 people voted in favor of having this in-person convention. 20 said no. After that vote, at least two groups, the Texas Medical Association and the Texas Craft Brewers Guild, interesting like difference there, by the way, the two groups, have withdrawn as sponsors for

the event, both cited safety concerns because Houston is one of the country's hotspots for the virus. So again, listen, if you're magically and miraculously on the right wing and you like to hate watch this show, even if we disagree politically, please, please, please, if you're going to go to this, don't. Just keep yourself safe, socially distance. We need to get a grasp, like a handle on this virus. And it's just devastating to see people in your party, leadership in your party, not care about your life. This is the reality you're dealing. with. Anyway, we do have to take a break when we come back, a pretty disastrous Supreme Court ruling that I'll share with you. And of course, more news. Come right back. What's up, everyone? Welcome back to TYT, Anna and John with you. Quick, I'm going to go through at TYT. At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control of our online lives, constantly monitoring us and storing our data. But that doesn't mean we have to let them. It's possible to stay anonymous online and hire your data from the

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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. For comments, Mondo Libre says, how quickly can Biden fire Betsy DeVos, that woman is so disgusting? I think immediately. I mean, didn't Trump fire a bunch of Obama-era, like, officials immediately? She wouldn't be, she wouldn't carry over. No, I don't think so.

Yeah. Dan, I am sock rights in and says, Dan Patrick says, probably she won't carry over. He could bring back some Republicans for his own administration. Oh, no. I don't want to be depressed. Okay, I am sock rights in and says, Dan Patrick says, let's get back to living as he calls for people to die to save the economy. Mm-hmm. And some super chat comments.

Michael says, how can Donald Trump justify opening the school? schools up in the fall, but where I live in Lindsay, Canada, we're still given the option to learn from home. Well, you live in Canada, and you guys are better than us. Jenna Foster says, was going to watch TDR from today, but then saw John was on and had to watch Main show on the way home instead. Okay, Jenna, I see you. I see you, girl. Do you know what my favorite word that is? Add. Add to watch, no. But watch this, then watch TDR. Okay. Lots of other news to get to. All right, I'm just kidding, Jenna. I'm super happy

that you love John's show more than the show that I pour my heart and soul into every day. All right, so the Supreme Court has made a ruling that we should all be aware of and it's infuriating. So, the Supreme Court has issued another blow to the Affordable Care Act. This is in regard to an Obamacare law regulation that would force employers to give their employees healthcare coverage that includes free contraception. Now this was a big controversial issue when there were debates about the Affordable Care Act, but it was an important part of the legislation because what it would do is it would lower health care costs, right? Unwanted pregnancies cost tens of billions of dollars in the

United States. And so it was, and by the way, I mean, your employer shouldn't have any say over how you spend your money or what goes on between you and your doctor. So things aren't looking good for the Affordable Care Act. Remember, the Trump administration is also challenging the entire law and trying to repeal it through the Supreme Court. So this is not. not looking good, but here's what we know so far. The Supreme Court on Wednesday voted seven to two to uphold rules established by the Trump administration that would allow employers with sincerely held moral or religious objections to deny their employees' access to free contraceptive coverage. According to government estimates, the religious exemption would lead to possibly as

many as 125,000 women losing their coverage. That number seems incredibly low to me, to be honest, with you. I think the number is actually higher than that. But I just think it's fascinating that at a time when there is overwhelming evidence indicating that Republicans, conservatives, they don't care about our lives because they would rather send us back to schools early or reopen the economy early in the middle of a pandemic. Like how are they making the argument that like, no, we're pro life and that's why we're fighting this. That's why we're fighting this. That's why we're doing, no, you're not pro-life. The Republican Party is not pro-life. This pandemic proves it. This pandemic proves it, period. But anyway, this just, it infuriated me because

we should not be insured through our employers anyway. And the fact that corporate Democrats have fought Medicare for All or single-payer health care so aggressively. And they kept like boasting about employer provided health care is infuriating because they helped to, you know, steer us in this direction. Even though they're in favor of free contraception, it doesn't matter when you get to the situation where employers are providing the health care. Yeah, it gets super messy. And of course they're going to pretend like they have religious beliefs, so they don't have to provide the free contraception. I mean, I guess I understand in terms of cover, but other than for cover, what is the purpose of the words sincerely held there?

How would you actually, how would you establish that? How would you, like maybe one-on-one talking to someone, you could get a sense of it? But how is the Supreme Court after, you know, multiple years of a case working its way up through the court? It's a person going through this whole legal process. Then they stand there. You're going to tell me whether it's sincerely held or not. It's BS. It's supposed to make it seem like more than what it is, which is your opinion that you have, except your opinion is sincerely held. It's a very deep thing. It's not like some other person who wants to discriminate against these people, but not for objectively religious reasons. It doesn't mean anything except to make it seem more impressive and sacred

than what it actually is, which is the stripping away of someone's rights. Yeah, there was a lower court ruling on this very issue. And obviously, it unfortunately worked its way up to this highly conservative Supreme Court. But one of my favorite rulings was by a federal judge who argued, listen, employers pay their employees and they don't get to decide how their employees spend their own money, right? So Jank can pay me and I can literally go spend it on cocaine and strippers like tonight. And he has no say and he should have no say, right? That's never stopped you before.

The benefits that come along with your place of work shouldn't be basically healthcare specifically. Your employer does not get to decide or should not be able to decide what goes on between you and your doctor, what you decide to do health-wise, what's best for you when it comes to contraceptives. And as we know, I mean, we've covered this before in the past. Birth control, yes, overwhelmingly is used for its on-label purpose, birth control. But there are plenty of people who rely on birth control for off-label uses. And the fact that these individuals will not have access to the contraceptions they need because all of these employers are going to pretend like they value lives and they think that

they have a moral objection to this is infuriating. But again, all of this could be solved if we didn't have this broken system where employers provide our health care. Yeah. Yeah. Let's move on, by the way, just real quick, I do want to note that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Justice Sonia Sotomayor were the two Supreme Court justices who voted, they were the ones who disagreed with this majority opinion. So just something to keep in mind as we make

some decisions for the upcoming general election, Ruth Bader Ginsburg is very old. And I'm terrified of her being replaced by another one of these Brett Kavanaugh types. Let's talk about mail-in voting. Donald Trump's campaign to undermine the credibility of mail-in voting has actually been sabotaged by members of his own family. And not only that, his family has been colluding with the Republican National Committee. It's the latest installment of as the White House turns. Made some very big mistakes.

I ask for his resignation. I'm disappointed in the attorney general. So we've all heard some of the nonsense coming from Donald Trump, the anti-mail-in voting conspiracy theories. Here's one example. He tweeted, rigged 2020 election, millions of mail-in ballots will be pretty by foreign countries and others, it will be the scandal of our times. But it turns out that Trump's own son, Don Jr. and his daughter-in-law, Laura Trump, have both recorded robocalls encouraging people to vote by mail. In fact, we have an example. Here's Laura Trump, Eric's painfully hosty wife.

Hi, this is Laura Trump calling from the Republican National Committee to remind you that you will soon be receiving a ballot for the congressional special election in your district taking place on Tuesday, May 12th. From my family to years, we hope that you're all safe and healthy during this time. Now more than ever, we need strong allies like Mike Garcia in Congress to keep America great. You can safely and securely vote for Mike Garcia by returning your mail-in ballot by May 12th. He's counting on you to return your ballot by Election Day Tuesday, May 12th. Don't let him down. Remember, your mail-in ballot is arriving soon. Make your vote count for Mike Garcia and get it in the mail by Tuesday, May 12th. This call was paid for by the Republican National Committee and authorized by Mike Garcia for Congress.

Does she just say safely and securely? You can vote by mail safely and securely. And John, as if that wasn't enough. Here comes Don Jr., Trump's own son, just twisting that knife. Take a look. This is Donald Trump, Jr., calling from the Republican National Committee to remind you to return your ballot for the congressional special election in your district by Tuesday, May 12th. We're counting on you to make your voice heard by returning your ballot by Tuesday, May 12th. Don't let us down. Remember, return your ballot now. Make your vote count for Republican Mike Garcia and get it in the mail by Tuesday, May 12th, paid for by the Republican National Committee and authorized by Mike Garcia for Congress.

You know, John, it's almost as if the Trump administration and the Trump campaign doesn't actually think that mail-in voting is an unsafe way to vote. It's almost as if they made up all that stuff about voter fraud to discourage Democrats from voting. Almost. It's almost like, yeah. It would be one thing if it was like, hey, you know, Mike Garcia's the best. Be sure that you vote for him. You can vote, you know, in person. Maybe you could do mail. They just like mentioned it once. But they kept saying mail in voting over and over and over again. And I have to wonder when Trump is going to realize that Don Jr. is trying to sabotage this whole thing. He's totally thrown the narrative against mail in ballots under the bus. Just in the last week, his girlfriend got coronavirus. which is supposed to be a fake disease. It's not a threat to anyone.

Why is he tearing apart all of Trump's dreams? He's never going to get that hug. These are all good questions. Exactly. All good questions. I'm worried. I'm worried about the relationship, the father-son relationship here. Who knew that Don Jr. would sabotage his own father like this?

It's just, now of course, in reality, the RNC, Don Jr., Laura, none of them actually think mail-in voting will lead to voter fraud. Donald Trump himself likely, very likely doesn't think that it will lead to voter fraud. What they want to do is suppress voters as much as possible to increase the likelihood that a failing president like Donald Trump would get reelected. By the way, the RNC and other groups sued California in May saying that an order from Gavin Newsom mailing absentee ballots to all voters ahead of the 2020 general election would lead to fraud because inactive voters automatically receive ballots, which invites fraud,

coercion, theft and otherwise illegitimate voting. So, you know, they've actually taken some action in trying to prevent people from getting their mail-in ballots while simultaneously recording these robocalls encouraging Republicans to go vote for that guy, Mike Garcia. So yeah, I mean, it's just, they're so transparent. And the real question is, does this type of hypocrisy and this type of voter suppression? and get covered effectively in the media. And I wouldn't be shocked if we were the only new show that's covering this. Yeah, it's just, it's such a see-through ploy. And it's really like,

it's the perfect test of the, does a politician being obviously hypocritical in a very easy to identify way actually matter in terms of proving a point? And it doesn't. I mean, literally every person Trump has ever met has voted by mail. The lists are so long, you can find them. And now they're actually promoting it. And at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. He's still going to say that it's fake and it's fraudulent and we should totally do it. And theoretically, if he loses, he's going to bring it up as a reason that it doesn't count and all that. It's just everything is so fake. And then one other point I want to make, you know, we've already said that voter fraud is not a thing. It's not a problem that we're having in this country.

And so there is an ultra-conservative group known as the Heritage Foundation, and there's no fraud. So the 1,071 cases of fraud flagged by the Heritage Foundation spans literally decades. But if there had been 1,071 fraudulent votes in the same election, in the same state, then that still would not have been enough to change the outcome of the closest state in 2016, in the 2016 presidential election, which was Michigan. Okay, so that analysis is important. And by the way, we've shared a few examples of voter fraud that has happened. Luckily, the individuals get caught. We don't want voter fraud of any kind, but the vast majority of cases have been Republicans committing the voter fraud. So look, I think mail-in voting is

incredibly important, especially right now when people are going to feel uncomfortable voting by mail. Voting in person, they want to vote by mail. Older people deserve that right. Everyone deserves that right, but particularly people who are more vulnerable to this virus, coronavirus. Yeah, I'm not, we have like 45 seconds left. Oh yeah, that's a good point. But no, I'll let you guys know that the post game is going to be bananas today. We are going to ask an important question about whether there are racists in California. I don't know, what do you guys think? We're going to cover that.

We'll cover lots of other stories, including Peter Navarro from the Trump administration. Is he drunk or is he just weird? We answer the important questions in the post game, become a member, go to t.yt.com slash join and make sure you subscribe to Damage Report. That's John Show. It's absolutely fantastic to the point that some of the members only want to watch that. We'll see you soon.

Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen ad-free, access members-only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.