The Young Turks - TYT Extended Clip - June 2nd, 2020

Episode Date: June 3, 2020

Eliot Engel had some outrageous comments caught on a hot mic. Cenk Uygur 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. All right, well, the Young Turks, Jake U Granite, Kusperian with you guys, in the middle of everything. So we told you 2020 would be everything. We didn't quite mean it like this, but as it has turned out, The worst pandemic of our lifetimes, the worst unemployment of our lifetimes, not 40 million people unemployed, and now arguably the worst civil unrest of our lifetimes, all in Donald

Trump's term. I'm sure it's a wild coincidence, but I also think he's in a massive political trouble. We'll talk about that in some of the stories that we have today. As we always do, let me update you on how we're doing. We're trying to keep healthy and sustainable for young Turks so we can give you an alternative vision of the country, one that is, I think, far more accurate. I'm proud that we put together a video of why we protest in the first place. That's up on our YouTube channel.

Check that out, YouTube.com slash TYT. And that's the context that other media does not give you. So, t-y-t.com slash go is where we're doing the audience fundraising drive throughout the year. Every month, we're trying to get the 200K to keep us in, well, to keep the lights on, realistically. And we carried over some from May. So we're at 33,472. We appreciate everyone who puts in at this time, especially during these tough times. Love you guys.

So let's give you the news, Anna, take it away. All right. Well, we're going to start off with something a little bit. different from what you're probably seeing on cable news, because this is the exact type of story that progressive should be amplifying. 16-term Congressman, Democratic Congressman, Elliot Engel, was caught admitting that he actually doesn't care too much about the civil unrest. Now, this was in a video where he was caught making these statements on a hot mic.

He was speaking to the president of the Bronx Bureau, borough, I should say. His name is Ruben Diaz Jr. And he was asking to be able to address the constituents during this gathering and then listen closely to what he says about how he really feels about addressing the civil unrest. Then go down the list and it's just too many folks here. Say that again? I didn't have a primary when you care. Don't do that to me.

We're not going to do this. We're not going to put it. So Engel says very clearly there. and he repeats himself, if I didn't have a primary, I wouldn't care. In fact, he hasn't spent much time in the borough he represents. He spends most of his time in Maryland, and he was asked about that recently by a reporter, and he was like, well, you know, I'm there, I'm there, you know, but he hasn't been there. Engle hasn't been in his district since at least the end of March, and that's according to his own communications director, Bryant Daniels. And his prime

primary challenger, a progressive who we're very supportive of, Jamal Bowman, tweeted in response to this. And he said, this is so incredibly painful to watch, Elliot Engel. It hurts. We need to be taking care of our communities right now, whether it's election season or not. It's clear that we need new leadership in New York's 16th district. Jenk. Okay, two huge parts of this story.

First of all, about Elliot Engel, this is what happens with incumbents. They get so comfortable in their office that unless you have a primary, they don't care. They're not going back there. The guy who did the story for the Atlantic was actually Edward Isaac Doverite. In getting him to write a piece that's critical of the establishment is a minor miracle. He's the one that goes off on progressives at the Trump hat. And so to get him to go, wow, that incumbent's really not doing his job, that's admit. You really have to work hard to get to that point.

And so, and to give Don't Very credit, he went through and he said, look, he just has not been in the district at all since coronavirus. And you could read this story for yourself and get all the details. And then they said, well, you know, none of the chairs of the committees are going back home because they got an important work. He's like, no, there's actually only been two votes. And again, giving Doe Berry credit here, not a thing I'm fond of doing, but he did do a good story on this and we're fair. He tracked all of the other congressmen, including the chairs of committees from that region, and they had all gone back except Elliot Engle. And Elliot Engel would say absurd things like, I was there.

And then nobody would ask him, what, were you there physically? And he'd say, no. It's just absurd. I was there in spirit. That's not a thing. And look, he's 73 years old. But by the way, a lot of the other committee chairs in Congress people are also in that age group. Okay. So, but to me, the more important part of the story is unless you challenge them in primaries,

they're not going to do anything. So it's one thing to say, hey, I get, Elliot Engel's defense is going to be, hey, I was looking for the photo op. I wanted to speak at the lectern. And normally I wouldn't ask to necessarily speak and try to get it from the cameras, but I have to because of my political career and we have a primary. But Elliot, you also wouldn't have been there if it wasn't for the primary. You wouldn't, and even with the primary, you didn't show up until a reporter showed up at your door and said, hey, have you ever got to your district? And so then you had to rush back, try to jump in front of the cameras belatedly. Otherwise, you think they're not going to let a U.S. Congressman speak of that, and he's got to ask two, three times, no way.

If he'd done it the proper way, they would have put him up on a pedestal, right? So he's obviously scrambling and only because a progressive has challenged him. Now look, even when progressives win, I'm sorry, even when progressives lose in primaries, they push that congressperson, even if it's for a brief period of time to the left. Adam Smith, who's a huge war hawk in the Democratic Party in the state of Washington, all the sudden became a peace nick when a Justice Democrat ran against him in the primary. Now, unfortunately, after the primary was over and he, or the general election was over and he won, he went back to his old policies.

But that gives you a sense of how corrupt the establishment is. And most importantly, when they win, they make all the difference, like AOC or Rashid Tili in Elhan Omar, Ina Pras, you guys know the story. Before we do anything else, I want to give you Jamal's website, because this is so important to support him, he's got him on the ropes. Bowmanfor Congress.com, donate, he does, he's a job. just Democrat. He does not take any corporate PAC money. He needs you. He needs you. He also needs volunteers and anything you can do to help. That's his information right there. Bowman for

Congress.com. We'll have the links down below. But look, Jamal's got him on the run, not just because of this, but there was another progressive in the race, and he dropped down and said, yeah, I'm supporting Jamal Bowman. I endorse him. He's going to win, okay? And then there was a poll a couple of months ago, and he did way better against Engel than anyone. thought and that's what sent Engel into his first round of panic. So Jamal's got him on the rope and Jamal's from the community and he built a school in the community and that school's won awards. He's exactly what a representative should be. And Elliot Engel, meanwhile, is like desperate for a camera. Oh, I wouldn't do anything if it wasn't for a primary, but I'm here

trying to pretend I represent the people. That's who these incumbents are. Yeah, exactly. the power structure that continues to support politicians like Elliot Engel, who clearly doesn't care about his own constituents at all. I mean, we're dealing with this pandemic, we're dealing with civil unrest, and he didn't feel the need to visit his own district and connect with his own constituents until it threatened his own political career, right? So you think we're the only ones who knew what he's about? The establishment also knows what he's about, but they want to maintain.

the power structure that they have in place right now. Elliot Engel is the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which is why Democratic leadership will defend him and support him and endorse him as much as humanly possible, even though it's clear that he has no interest in representing his own constituents. That seniority to them, that power is much more important than doing the right thing. And look, the thing that I don't understand, like psychologically, is you're 73 years old and And you're doing a job that you clearly do not care about. And that negatively impacts the very community that you're supposed to represent.

You're 73. Call it a day, right? Make way for some real leadership in that district, allows a politician to come in who actually wants to represent these people. And luckily, we do have a politician who's willing to do that. And it's Jamal Bowman. So he is doing well in the polls. I'm really excited about that.

This type of behavior from, you know, Elliott Engel, I think just further confirms and reinforces what you always say, Jenk. The reason why they're so vicious against you when you call for primarying Democrats is because these Democrats always show who they really are. Like they get caught all the time. And they want to, you know, they don't want to deal with that criticism. They don't want to deal with any type of challenges once they reveal who they really are. Yeah.

And look, now it's up on the, it's up to. to the press because you and I know this now, if everybody watching knows this now, but not everybody watches us, obviously. And so in that district, local press is super important. This is a huge gotcha moment. I mean, New York Times, after Alexandria and Costa Cortez one rung their hands, like, oh, how did we miss it? We had had 36 segments on AOC before her primary win.

New York Times had done one quasi story about it, right? not even about the race, but that Crowley had not shown up for a debate. So they were like, oh my God, how do we miss it? So, hey, New York Times, don't miss it. It's right here. And that's the thing, if Jamal wins, the New York Times afterwards was like, oh, my God, we miss it again, Dolly Gee, I wonder how that happened. It's because you always support the powerful.

But I love giving credit where creditors do. New York, one is the one that caught him on the hot mic. Great credit to them. And Atlantic, a wonderful piece, actually challenging Elliot Engel. and his absence in the district. So I wish I could give that credit more often to the mainstream media. But from here on out, that is a, I get that, hey, in the middle of the unrest, in the middle of the protests, in the middle of coronavirus, maybe they're not going to cover it in California and San Antonio. But if you're in the New York press, this is a giant story. A huge Democrat

might go down again in the state of New York, and it's for the same thing that Crowley did. indifference to his district. And Anna, finally, to answer your question, why is Engel even bothered doing it? Part of the reason is, of course, a huge part of the reason is they get addicted to power, right? And they can't let it go and they hold on for dear life. But the other part of the reason is him and Bowman have real differences. So Engel has largely been a hawk within the Democratic Party in his career. So, hey, you know what? He agitated against Iran for a long time. And guess what happened? As soon as Jamal started challenging him in the primaries, like, well, I, you know what,

maybe Iran is not as big as a threat. I'm not sure that Trump should have bombed the general. Before he was totally war mongering on Iran. And guess what? If he wins the primary, he's going to go right back to war mongering. And what's going to happen is the Republicans will turn around and go, even Elliot Engel thinks we have to do something about Iran and we have to do it right now. So they stay around so they could drive.

these old agendas, which are deeply unprogressive and don't even belong in the Democratic Party. And sorry, actually one more point about the hypocrisy of the Democratic Party, they claim when just Democrats and other progressive groups run primary challenges, some of the time it's against incumbents who are minorities, right? And then they'll go, oh my God, can you believe that if somebody who's part of the Congressional black caucus is being challenged. They don't point out that the challengers also black, remember the Morgan Harper race as

an example, right? In this case though, you have a white incumbent and an African American challenger, and all of a sudden the Democratic leadership doesn't have anything to say about race? No. Hell yeah, George Ford, yeah, et cetera, and oh my God, protect the power of the incumbents. Oh, we got an amazing African American leader in the community running. Nope, hate him, can't stand him. sure he loses, go incumbents. That's what Democratic Party leadership's like. No, when we

talk about revolution, this is it. When you win in primaries and you get wonderful fighters, if you thought AOC's a great fighter, she is, wait until you get a lot of Jamal Bowman. You're going to love him in Congress. Let's go do this. And even, look, outside of politics, but most of you don't live in that district. This is how you change the Democratic Party. And it needs to be changed because incumbents like Engel have blocked change for decade after decade. That's right. Angle, not an angel.

All right, let's move on to some other news. The police are moving. They're trying to disperse this crowd that has gathered at Lafayette Park. Clearly, they don't want these protesters to be there, even though they were peaceful. They were just screaming a little bit, but they were not endangering anyone. And all of a sudden, tear gas and these protesters now. They're gonna presumably run away and try to regroup elsewhere. Peaceful protesters near the White House were met with vicious brutality following Donald

Trump's Rose Garden address. And it was all so he can have a photo op in front of a church. He didn't go inside the church. He didn't pray inside the church. He didn't even open a Bible that he held for a photo op. But the religious community is outraged over what happened, especially since he was willing to use tear gas and rubber bullets against peaceful protesters just so he can do this photo op. So CNN reported that after using St. John's Church, the Church of the Presidents, which had

experienced a basement fire during Sunday's demonstrations, Trump drew immediate criticism from faith leaders, including Bishop Marianne Edgar Buddy of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington. She was quoted as saying he did not pray. He did not offer a word of balm or condolence to those who are grieving. He did not seek to unify the country, but rather he used our symbols and our sacred space as a way to reinforce a message that is antithetical to the, to everything, that the person of Jesus whom we follow and the gospel texts that we strive to emulate represent. And she also criticized Trump during an international.

interview with Anderson Cooper. Let's watch. Clear. The president just used a Bible, the most sacred text of the Deidio Christian tradition, and one of the churches of my diocese without permission, as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus and everything that our churches stand for. And to do so, as you just said, he sanctioned the use of tear gas by police officers in riot gear to clear the church guard. I am outraged. The president did not pray when he came to St. John's, nor, as you just articulated, did he acknowledge the agony of our country right now, and in particular that of the people of color in our nation, who wonder if anyone ever, anyone in

public power will ever acknowledge their sacred worth and who are rightfully demanding an end to 400 years of systemic racism and white supremacy in our country. And I just want the world to know that we in the Diocese of Washington, following Jesus and his way of love, do not. We distance ourselves from the incendiary language of this president. We follow someone who lived a life of nonviolence and sacrificial love. We align ourselves with those seeking justice for the death of George Floyd and countless others. And when it comes to that crowd, which was met with the vicious behavior by police and the National Guard, Jim Acosta found out that there were religious people in that crowd who

unfortunately got caught up in the violent reaction. So he tweets just spoke to Reverend Gina Grubasi of St. John's Episcopal Church in Georgetown, who was at St. John's across from the White House yesterday. She says she and others were driven from the area by force. She was quoted as saying it was completely unprovoked. I didn't hear bullhorn saying the president is coming. That's the kind of viciousness. Religious leaders were met with and peaceful protesters were met with.

Also Donald Trump can do a photo op to appeal to his dwindling religious base. He's not polling as well as he used to, even among evangelicals. Yeah. So, first of all, that Reverend explained that they were giving out food and consulting people at the church, at the patio of the church. And now the Laura Ingrams of the world, they're saying, hey, listen, you have to be more accurate. It wasn't tear gas. It was just smoke canisters and also, I think, concussion grenades. So that sounds really great. Sorry, stand corrected if that's the case. But we do know the Reverend said that. that she had tears in her eyes and it affected them. So that, you know, there's contradictory evidence there. But either way, you could see it with your own eyes. There's at least the crowd being cleared out with some smoke or cure gas, et cetera. And the reason for throwing that object that creates that smoke or gas is to clear the crowd.

That's the whole point of it. So it obviously is meant to, at a bearer, minimum greatly irritate the people that are there enough to drive them from the scene. And it worked in driving even the Reverend from the scene. She said the Medics for Black Lives Matter remained and she was so amazed by their bravery and their courage, but that the rest of them had to go because they couldn't take it anymore based on how uncomfortable the gas had made them. And so the image of a guy who drives out reverence with this kind of tactic.

off of the church properties, to go do a fake photo op in front of the church is exactly who Trump is. And it's the amazing times that we're in. And of course, there he is holding the Bible upside down in the most awkward way imaginable, as if it's a prop he was, you know, unfamiliar with. He's like, like, what is this? Here, I am holding this thing here. This apparently is important to the people who vote for me. Jank, but look, to be fair, I mean, I feel like he would hold any book that way. Like, it's a foreign object for him. Like, he just doesn't know, like, he's like, I, is this, I don't, is this how you hold it?

He's just, he's a mess. Like, does anyone, among his supporters who are religious, does anyone actually buy that he respects your religion or cares about your faith? He uses religion as a prop. Now, a lot of politicians do that. But Donald Trump is probably the most, not probably, definitely the most egregious example because of his lifestyle, because of all the scandals he's been caught in in the past, because of his relationship with disgusting people like Jeffrey Epstein. I mean, Donald Trump, really, you think he cares about your faith? Yeah, Anna, again, I don't, Laura Ingraham's probably right about this.

about the rumors that he might have brought one to three mistresses with him. You know, apparently that's not true. Those who were his previous mistresses, yes, who were adult stars, who did, he did cheat on his wife with as she was having their baby. But that's from the past, Anna, that's from the past. And now he's a new man, and he will tell you, okay, this is the right book, okay? Justice is Coming. Okay.

And pre-order at justicescoming book.com. Anyway, seriously, one last thing, you know he's in trouble because the rats are scurring from the ship. So early on in his term, Ben Sasse from Nebraska used to criticize him because he seemed genuinely aghast and thought like, well, his poll numbers can't last, but this guy's an idiot monster, et cetera, and we used to kid around and call him Classy Ben Sassy. Then, for the great majority of his term, Ben Sasse was like, oh, his poll numbers did go down. Okay, yeah, Donald Trump, I love Donald Trump!

And he voted with him all the time. And recently, we switched his name to Horses' ass Ben Sass. And now, guess what happened? All of a sudden, Ben Sass is back to criticizing Donald Trump. And in fact, he said that the word of God should not be used as a person. political prop, okay? That is, I'm paraphrasing the longer thing he did on that. And he said it was a peaceful protest and you shouldn't have used the Bible as a political prop, et cetera. So Ben Sass must have some new polling. And that poll numbers show Trump is in trouble. So all of a sudden, Ben Sass

going, oh, you know what? And that's a Republican senator from Nebraska. You know what? It turns out Donald Trump may be not as religious as we were all pretending he was. Of course, of course. No one in the right line believes that he was ever religious as ever read the Bible or two Corinthians. I mean, he gets everything wrong. You know he, you know he's never picked up the Bible. So now all of a sudden, ironically, Ben satisfies religion right before elections because

Trump's polling is bad. I mean, look, birds of a feather, I think Ben Sasse is no different from Donald Trump, right, pretending to care about religion, pretending to care about morality to help his political career. How sad is it that Bunker Boy, you know, you have to take Bunker Boy's lead, like how your political views and commentary is formed is completely dependent on where Bunker Boy is in the polls. How sad is that? So while Donald Trump is a coward and he's weak and he's pathetic and he just, you know, poses as some sort of strong man, in reality, he's not the worst.

He's not the weakest among them. The weakest are the Republicans who just follow his lead and get, you know, just get embarrassed and humiliated by the most pathetic president in U.S. history on a daily basis. That's what Ben Sasse is communicating to the world. I'm a giant loser who loves to get cucked by Donald Trump. It's my favorite thing to do. You want that leading you? I don't know.

People in Nebraska need to reconsider that. Yeah. Okay. But last thing, guys, it confirmed now that he did this stunt because he was embarrassed that they were people started calling him Bunker Boy. But and then Republicans and White Winger start celebrating, oh, there you go, Bunker Boy, way to get out there with the people. And actually that it shows that he's brave.

No, if he'd walk through the protesters who remember were peaceful, it actually wouldn't take much courage, they're peaceful protesters, that might have taken at least some degree of courage. No, he had his Gestapo clear out the peaceful protesters with, you know, the canisters that they threw and all the other things that they did, the roughing up reporters, all that stuff. He had to do all of that so that the coward could walk a blow. block in Washington, D.C. Ironically, he actually did prove he's bunker boy. When we come back from the break, I'm going to show you some footage regarding how journalists

were treated in that crowd. And later, we'll also discuss how even after everything that's happened in the country during the Trump administration, the New York Times still cannot get it right when it comes to putting together a decent headline. I'm going to go, I'm going to rage when it comes to that story. Don't miss it. We'll be back with that and more. 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-Boh-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 have learned 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. All right, back on the Young Church, Jake and Anna with you guys. We had a little technical difficulty there.

We're back on air, obviously. But we'll go a little longer to make up for the time. So let me read some tweets for you guys or some comments. First from our member section, t.yt.com slash join to become a member. I got my, Dr. Dennis Tope, writes in, got my government check recently, donating now, keeping going in these dark times. Amazing. Thank you. So that's, he's referring to TYT or Dennis could be mailer if you know, actually I don't know. TYT.com slash go. And thank you for doing that. Really appreciate it. Anna's Margarita Salt writes in, my God, I'm sitting at my computer

watching TYT live and I can barely hear the stream with all the helicopters flying overhead. here in Hollywood, hashtag I support the protests, Lord Wolf 91 says, being a representative should never be a job, but a responsibility. Remove those that have forgotten that. I'll tell you, in my brief congressional run, I felt an overwhelming responsibility. And then to the point where I was like, man, if I win, this is a, not only do you have to do all the things on the national level, because it's a federal job. It's a national level job. But you, I felt a tremendous responsibility to deliver for all the groups and all the different organizations within that district. But that's probably because I'm a naive dude. I mean, like, I think that most of the policies

are like responsibility to community. Hilarious. Where'd you get that one, Jank? But, but certainly Jamal feels that as to support Jamal Bowman. In fact, on YouTube Superjet, Jorge Fontan writes in, I live in New York 16th, Jack, promise me on election night, I get a down goes angle. Oh, that would be amazing. And of course, we're going to cover that that night. You and Jamal State and talk to every single person at the rally. Thank you. Well, thank you for you coming to that rally. Thank you for voting for Jamal and for using YouTube Super Chat, but also tell all your family and friends. It's so important. That's how you win

elections. And real quick, last couple of things here. Obie Mom Kenobi says, I live in the middle of Kansas, and sadly, Christians here are buying what he is selling. It is so disheartening. And Noel Cruz II writes in, I YouTube super chat. John called this on the damage report earlier. Anna's going to rage about the New York Times of misleading headline. You are right. I did as well. There's so many great ones here. We got so many good stories. I know.

Last one. Yeah, liberal snowflake, right said on Twitter, protested for the first time ever today. I've never felt such solidarity. Hashtag BLM protest, hashtag small town. I love it. Do it wherever you live. Keep it peaceful. But yes, let them know that you care about this issue.

And all Americans do. and make sure that we get reform. That's the whole point. All right, Anna, go ahead. It wasn't just peaceful protesters who were met with vicious violence following Donald Trump's Rose Garden address yesterday. This was the address where he threatened to use the military against Americans who are protesting police violence in the U.S.

But there were also some journalists who were met with brutality, and it was caught on tape. The video that you're about to watch features journalists working, Australian journalists who were covering Trump's Rose Garden address, but also the protests that were taking place around the White House and just take a look at the way they were treated as these cops and members of the National Guard were clearing the way so Donald Trump can do his Bible photo op. You're outside the White House where Donald Trump is about to speak. It's getting a bit tense. Yeah, absolutely, guys. We've just had to run about a block as police moved in. We've been fired with rubber bullets. My cameraman has been hit.

We've also seen tear gas being used. Here we go. They're moving through again. This is exactly what it looks like. Exactly what it looks like. Where the state is safely, there. Oh. Whoa!

Oh. Amelia, can you hear us? Amelia, are you okay? Or your cameraman? Hello, Amelia. The police just charged Amelia and our Seven News cameraman there and looks like a policeman just punched our cameraman.

Which is interesting because they're not discriminating between protesters and the media here. Amelia, can you hear us yet? Amelia, are you there? You're okay? Yes, I am. You heard us telling them that we were media, but they

don't care, they are being indiscriminate at the moment. They chased us down that street and as you see. They were firing these rubber bullets at everyone. There is tear gas and now we are really surrounded by the police and you really saw

the way that they dealt with my cameraman and Tim, they're quite violent, and they do not care. So the journalist you heard from there is a reporter out of Australia. Her name is Amelia Brace, and the cameraman who was with her, who was also, unfortunately, attacked as Tim Myers. I want to just go to one more video, Jank, and I want to get your thoughts. The ambassador should be certainly making representation on behalf of these Australians who effectively have been assaulted.

That's what it is, for doing their job. In a democratic society, the role of the media is critical, and it's important that the media are able to report on events, including crises such as we're seeing in the United States, free from harassment, and the violence that has occurred towards members of the media, Australian media and domestic media as well, with tear gas being fired, with media being. assaulted is completely unacceptable. It's just disgusting what we're seeing throughout the country right now, especially the attacks on journalists. Yeah. I think that maybe the rest of the world still has an old image of America, which I hope they can retain for as long as possible until we get new leadership.

But that's why they're shocked to see reporters being attacked like that. If you live here, you wouldn't be shocked at all. Unfortunately, a lot of reporters have been assaulted, hit with rubber bullets in these protests. But if you cover these protests, we all saw Oscar Jimenez, a CNN reporter being arrested live on air. And he was, you know, an African-American reporter. Our reporters got arrested covering St. Louis protests back in 2017, especially if you're independent media. Yeah, and it's not just during the Trump era, look, cops don't just don't have much regard for the press.

So it's not the America that you imagine. And there's a lot of hypocrisy here in the U.S. as we look at how China deals with Hong Kong and Iran deals with their protesters, and we rightfully call them out for those abuses. But here at home, our police do that on a regular basis. 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 did this July 18th. Now under Trump, of course, he's given them even more free reign to be even more brutal. And there, I want, you know, we repeated a couple times, but in case wasn't clear, not only did they charge right there with their shields, but they hit the female reporter with a baton because there are no rules left. And so this is how tyranny acts. Exactly.

And keep in mind, okay, while Trump is warranting this type of behavior, right, these types of violations against journalists when it comes to their constitutionally protected rights, freedom of press, freedom of speech, I thought conservatives really cared about it. But while Trump is doing this to journalists, keep in mind, it's with the backdrop of him crying and whining like a little child over Twitter's decision to add a fact-checking link to his misinformation about mail-in voting. He thinks that that is a free speech violation. He thinks he's a victim of free speech violations, when in reality he has absolutely no value

for our Constitution or our First Amendment rights whatsoever. Can you imagine if Twitter or anything did to Trump or Trump ordered the cops to do to reporters? If they came and charged at him with a shield and knocked him down, if they hit it with a rubber bullet, they hit him with a baton. Do you have any idea how much Bunker Boy would cry? In case you missed it, the whole reason why that incident occurred is because Because on Friday, Donald Trump was hiding in an underground bunker in the White House because there were some protesters and he got really, really scared. In fact, he put out tweets saying, I'm not scared, I'm totally fine.

Well, we have ominous weapons and vicious dogs. I'm not at all scared. In other words, he was frightened out of his mind hiding in a little bunker. That's why his new nickname is Bunker Boy. So he got really embarrassed about that. So he said, oh yeah, I'll show you all walk one block in Washington. But before that, make sure you kick the ass of all the reporters of the protesters, clear amount, even if they're being peaceful, I don't care. Do whatever you need to do, be vicious

to them so I could walk one block in peace and pretend to be a tough guy holding the Bible upside down. That's why all this happened, because bunker boy got his feelings hurt. By the way, I just want to read this tweet that I see Brett has ready because it's the type of commentary that people had online in response to what Trump did, you know, toward the journalist, toward the peaceful protesters, just so he can have his photo op. James Felton tweets, gassing people with their hands up so you can be photographed holding a Bible near a church is what Jesus would have wanted. What would Jesus do?

Beat the living crowd up out of Australian reporters, gas peaceful protesters, drive the reverend of that church away with tear gas so you could hold the Bible upside down and threaten to dominate everyone else. I'm pretty sure that's not what Jesus would have done. And if you're an evangelical and you support Donald Trump, you ought to be embarrassed. You don't believe a word of anything you've ever said. Fortunately, we have to take another break. Let's just do that quickly.

When we come back, the New York Times gets it wrong yet again when it comes to their headlines. 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 and selling our data. But that doesn't mean we have to let them. It's possible to stay anonymous online and hide your data from the prying eyes of big tech. And one of the best ways is with ExpressVPN. ExpressVPN hides your IP address, making your active ID more difficult to trace and sell the advertisers. ExpressVPN also encrypts 100% of your network data to protect you from eavesdroppers and cyber criminals. And it's also easy to install. A single mouse click protects all your devices. But listen, guys, this is important.

ExpressVPN is rated number one by CNET and Wired magazine. So take back control of your life online and secure your data with a top VPN solution available, ExpressVPN. And if you go to ExpressVPN.com slash TYT, you can get three extra months for free with this exclusive link just for TYT fans. That's EX, P-R-E-S-S-V-N dot com slash T-YT. Check it out today. Hi, back on Young Turks, Jank Uger and Anna Kasparian with you guys.

As usual, let's read some quick comments. And if you, these are just members, t.t.com slash join to become a member. I'm collecting Mr. Lanier says at this point, many war zone areas are safer for journalists to cover than the protests in the U.S. and proletarian rising says, hey guys, I've got a great idea. Let's respond to protests about police brutality with police brutality. That'll show them. And unfortunately, that's like literally what has happened here. So many other wonderful comments and thank you for using YouTube super chat.

But we got so much more news to give you guys. So let's keep going. Donald Trump gave a Rose Garden address where he threatened to use the military against US citizens who are part of the Black Lives Matter protests. These protests are taking place throughout the country. Unfortunately, there have been instances of looting and Trump purposely conflates the peaceful protesters with the looters. And that's not a mistake.

Now, that speech was horrifying. What he was suggesting with the military was disgusting and undemocratic. And to make matters worse, he met the peaceful protesters in the area with violence. He had the, you know, authorities basically viciously attack them and clear the area so he can do a ridiculous photo op to appeal to his evangelical base. Now with all that said, the takeaway from the New York Times was this unbelievable headline. As chaos spreads, Trump vows to end it now. Okay, so let's just discuss how grossly this misrepresents.

Donald Trump's intentions and what he was calling for. Someone who doesn't know much about politics, maybe someone who didn't watch that Rose Garden address, would read that headline and think, Donald Trump is a hero. Look at, he's going to stop the chaos. That's exactly what we need. He's a leader. When in reality, he's not a leader. He's bunker boy who hit out in an underground bunker when there were protests in front

of the White House. And then his thin skin was punctured by people calling him Bunker Boy. So he turned around and tried to play strongman by threatening to use the military against peaceful U.S. protesters. How are you going to watch that speech and then turn around and use that ridiculous headline? Like, it's the most infuriating thing I've ever seen. Not ever. I mean, this is how many times? How many times has the New York Times made this. mistake, right, done this, you know, disservice to their readers. I'll give you some more examples. Mediaite reported the journalistically dubious headline evoked a similarly administration friendly effort from last summer when the Times put out a grossly generous polish on a presidential

speech in the wake of two mass shootings that targeted minorities. Trump urges unity versus racism. That was the original headline. But that headline, which the executive director, I'm sorry, executive editor later acknowledged was bad, was subsequently changed for later print additions into assailing hate but not guns. Online, the Times ultimately went with a much more contextualized. Trump condemns white supremacy, but stop short of major gun controls. Yeah, I mean, those headlines, I guess, are like marginally better, but not by much. They still paint this very positive light of Donald Trump, when in reality, he himself is a white supremacist. He himself is a white supremacist.

It's just incredible that these are so-called journalists. They're pathetic. So I want to talk about the substance of this particular story. And then I want to move on to the larger context that Anna is referring to. So the takeaway from last night's speech were from a journalism point of view were two major It was one saying that the president will use the United States military inside the country. That's amazing, unprecedented. It's a giant story.

That's the headline. How do you watch that and think, oh, that's not the important part of the story. He's him bowing to end chaos is the important part of the story. No, that's a standard line that anyone would say, you know what, Obama as president could have had the same exact headline. Obama's speech and Trump's speech would have been massively different, and they were different. So the second newsworthy item was that Donald Trump mentioned the Second Amendment for no reason in the middle of the speech.

The speech had nothing to do with the Second Amendment. No Second Amendment rights have been challenged. So that is a potential call to arms and vigilante violence. So that's super newsworthy. So these are real headlines if you had mentioned those. I want to mention the Second Amendment one in the big case. headline, because, although it's super important, because using the military inside the country is so much bigger and unprecedented.

But, so why does the New York Times do this? This is not about Donald Trump. And so I appreciate all the folks who are now waking up and challenging the New York Times and saying, hey, wait a minute, that doesn't seem quite accurate. It seems like you're almost covering up for him. Yeah, that's what the New York Times does for the president. powerful as a regular course of business. But it's, to be fair to the New York Times, it's all of the mainstream media, that all they

ever do is give positive headlines for the people in power. It's not that they've forgotten that they're supposed to challenge the powerful, they're supposed to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, it's that they never believe in that in the first place. If you're in the government, well, I'm your stenographer. I will say the government said this, and it is a very credible sort. If you don't have power, not credible, not legitimate, we won't cover it. It is a matter of course.

So the mainstream media is fundamentally broken. Now, if you're saying, hey, Jake, have you really believed that all along? Well, I guess some proof for you. So this is exactly what the press was doing, during the Bush era, and it drove me crazy back then as well. And so in this case, it was a USA Today headline about the Iraq war effort and how George was doing. This was in the midst of the Iraq war being a complete disaster. It had devolved into massive civil war. We lost so many of our troops there, and already hundreds

of thousands of civilians had died. It was just a nightmare of epic proportions. And then this happened. Go the goddamn paper right here. Picture headline USA safer. Bush says, okay. USA today, you suck balls. You suck balls! That is a lie! They've done a terrible job! Every one of these editors, in every major newspaper, in every major magazine, in every major television, news organization should be fired today! So, look, that's a fun clip. It's fairly well-known, in Internet circles at least.

But the core, outside the yelling, the core of it is, Bush says he keeps USA safer. New York Times now says, is chaos spreads. Trump vows to end it now. It's always the same headline. Person empowered says he's doing something wonderful and says, I'm not a reporter or an editor. I just put it up on the paper and did propaganda on his behalf. And so the main difference in my point of view between then and now, and it's been a depressingly long time that they've been doing this and we've been doing this and covering it and pointing out their problems, is that I no longer think that the editors and the reporters are getting their job wrong. I just realized I was wrong about the job that they're supposed to be doing.

I thought they were in the news business. And it turns out in mainstream media, they're mainly in the compliance business. So if you're looking to get your readership to comply and you yourself view your main job as complying to the people in power, then Bravo, New York Times, USA Today, and the others, you've done a wonderful job. Yeah, look, just keep in mind. that any brainless twit can go ahead and just regurgitate what someone in power claims or says. Support independent media, please. Because if it weren't for independent media, there'd be no one challenging the narratives that you see in corporate-owned press. You just wouldn't ever see anyone challenging it.

And luckily now we do have independent media, you know, I hesitate to say thriving, but it exists. And it has a sizable audience. So please support independent media, especially during these tough times, because it's tough out there, you know, especially when you're not, when you don't have the corporate backing that these other legacy media outlets have. But I'll add one thing to that. Look, this story is about mainstream media overall. You know, I'm glad independent media is out there as an alternative, obviously.

Don't forget the heart of the story. Keep challenging the papers, the TV. stations, the radio stations that you see to do better, okay? I don't know that it'll ever change, but also support the independent media. It doesn't just have to be us. It could be democracy now. They intercept, the guardian, you name it, a lot of American prospect. A lot of people doing wonderful jobs, okay? But, you know, New York Times has done great propaganda for itself, as if they're like the guardians of things that are true. They're a paper of record. That's actually half true. The paper of record for the powerful, if you want something printed in the paper,

The New York Times, if you're powerful, we'll print it for you. And what have they done in the era of Trump? Things like the New York Times have sucked up all the subscription. So everybody subscribed thinking that they were part of the resistance. New York Times is a part of the resistance. If you ask them, they'll tell you, we're not part of the resistance. I mean, you know, in their ideal, they're like neutral. We're totally, utterly neutral.

Fascist, anti-fascist, I can't tell the difference at all. You know, a tyrannical government, a government that cares about the Marxist? I can't, what am I a reporter? I can't tell the difference. I'm neutral. So, and unfortunately, since they do such great marketing on their own behalf, a lot of people think, oh my God, I got to subscribe to the New York Times to find out what's in the news. No, support independent media.

You'll actually find out reality. If you want to support the powerful, yes, support mainstream media. All right, well, let's talk a little bit about the response from Democratic. following Donald Trump's horrific Rose Garden speech. So Joe Biden, who is the presumptive Democratic nominee, gave a speech to respond to Donald Trump's divisiveness. This was following Trump's Rose Garden speech, where he threatened to use the military against protesters.

He threatened to use the military within the United States, which is unprecedented. He also seemed to rile people up by randomly out of nowhere mentioning Second Amendment rights. which is, you know, something to be concerned about when there is civil unrest in the country. Now, Joe Biden's speech, I think, overall, was, it was different from what Donald Trump said. That's for sure. And I think that it was pretty good. But I want you guys to watch it. Judge for yourselves. And then I'll outline what Biden is proposing to, you know, change or reform how we do policing in this country.

Take a look. I can't breathe. George Floyd's last words, but they didn't die with him. They're still being heard, echoing all across this nation. They speak to a nation where, too often, just the color of your skin, put your life at risk. They speak to a nation where more than 100,000 people have lost their lives of the virus, and 40 million have filed for unemployment with a disproportionate. number of those deaths and job losses concentrated in black and brown communities.

And they speak to a nation where every day millions of people, millions, not at the moment of losing their life, but in the course of living their life, are saying to themselves, I can't breathe. It's a wake-up call to our nation, in my view. It's for all of us, and I mean all of us. It's not the first time we've heard those words. They're the same words we heard from Eric Garner when his life was taken away six years ago. But it's time to listen to those words, to try to understand them, to respond to them, respond with action. A country is crying out for leadership, leadership that can unite us, leadership that brings us together, leadership that can recognize pain and deep grief of communities that have had a knee on their neck for a long

time. So in the context of the speech, he urged Congress to pass some of the police reform proposals that we've seen, including banning chokeholds. He wants to stop sending, this is my personal favorite proposal, and this absolutely should be done, stop sending military weaponry and equipment to local police departments. That's really a product of our military industrial complex, just this nonstop weapons manufacturing machine that we have in this country, which ends up sending older military grade weaponry to our local police departments. He also proposed creating a model use of force standard, along with a National Police Oversight Commission and community policing.

Now, look, why was I hesitant earlier to say that it was a good speech? because honestly, I'm super jaded and I know too much. On its own, I think that speech was great. But when you look at his record, you know, of course you're going to have some hesitation and you're going to question, you know, some of what Biden says. But when you compare him to Trump, I mean, clearly this is the type of messaging that Americans need to hear. But more importantly, if he actually puts action behind those words, that's what America

actually needs. Yeah. I thought it was a good speech, too, both in terms of showing empathy and the contracts with Trump, but also in the policy proposals, not bad. You know, I would have gone a little further, but he at least talked about getting independent folks to check the police and involving the community more and ending the militarization. These are good steps forward. Of course, what Anna was referring to is a deep record of Joe Biden not doing that and doing

the opposite of doing the criminal- The crime bill. The crime bill, 94 crime bill is the best example. But he pushed many different crime bills. And he bragged about how much there was death penalty in there. He did the war on drugs. He pushed Reagan to do the war on drugs and go further right wing. So those things are true. At the same time, he's at least able to show empathy and respond to.

the situation as it is. If Donald Trump wins the election, you will have no police reform at all, no prayer of it, right? At least with Joe Biden, he's going to make some political moves in that direction. And if you're lucky, you get some progressors in the room. And Joe Biden is very empathetic to whoever's in the room. His problem is he's usually in the room with bankers and donors. But if you can get progressives in that room, there's some chance that he might even do half of that stuff. That's as good as it's going to get with any establishment politician, but it is leagues better, thousands of times better than Donald Trump. So nice job over. All right. Old school is next. Check it out and 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. t yt i'm your host shank huger and i'll see you soon