The Young Turks - TYT Extended Clip - March 10th, 2020

Episode Date: March 11, 2020

The Trump administration's response to the spread of COVID-19 is not encouraging. Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian, hosts of The Young Turks, break it down. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to the Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. Hey, guys, you've heard of the Young Turks podcast because you're listening to it right now. But make sure that you subscribe and give it a five star rating if you like it. Thank you for listening. All right, welcome to the Young Turks. Thank you, Grant, and it was made on an amazing night.

Amazing night. Guys, tonight might be it. We certainly have about eight days left. No question about that. So here's what's happening in the next eight days. Today we got a host of states, but most importantly, Michigan and the state of Washington. If Bernie loses those, let's keep it real. He's hurt, dog.

Don't ask him if he's all right. Chances are greatly diminished. And that is very, very possible tonight. So, but there's also a debate on Sunday. It's a two-hour debate, just Biden versus Sanders. That means Biden has to talk for about an hour. So hold, don't miss that debate. We're obviously gonna cover all of that here at TYT.com.

And then next Tuesday, Florida, Illinois, Ohio, so gigantic. At the end of those eight days, we very, very, very likely have a nominee. If Biden wins tonight and he survives the debate, it's over. On the other hand, if Bernie does the second Michigan miracle, the first one was one of the best nights of political coverage of my life that was four years ago, where we screamed all night, here comes Bernie. And he was set to lose by 18 and won by two instead. If we've got a second Michigan miracle tonight and a couple of other things fall into place and the debate goes well, all of a sudden we're right back in it. So that's the state of play.

You like do not miss a minute of these next eight days, including starting right now. And speaking of the minutes of this coverage, there will be many of them. We'll start obviously do our first two hour show here in the poll start closing at 8 o'clock Eastern and then we'll start giving you results as soon as we have them. And Michigan is among the first results to have and the Washington is among the last. And of course the folks that make that possible is you guys. So we are trying to keep TYT sustainable and throughout the night we'll be telling you about TYT.com slash go and that is that program so that we could bring you the progressive

message, progressive candidates, and try to bring you change and empower you as well. So let's take a quick look at where we are with t.wit.com slash go, 128,000, 225. We were trying to get the 130th at the end of last night. That apparently did not happen. But today, please, this is absolutely imperative. And we can't do these long coverages without your help on things like this. So lots of anchors to come, lots of states to come. And tonight, Michigan and Washington might be everything.

All right, Anna. All right. We will go back to election related news a little later in the rundown. But we're gonna start off with updates to COVID-19. Yes. So New York is responding to the outbreak of COVID-19 by creating a containment zone and limiting large gatherings. They're also deploying the National Guard in order to assist with the containment efforts.

And there are a number of colleges and universities that have decided to shut down cancel classes and in some cases only offer online options. So let me give you some of what New York is planning so far. New York's plan focuses on a containment area in New Rochelle, where it will deploy the National Guard to clean schools and deliver food to quarantined residents. The area is a one-mile radius centered around a synagogue in New Rochelle, believed to connect many of the cases in the cluster. So there was about a cluster of around 90 individuals who had tested positive for coronavirus. And so this is the reason why they're doing their best to try to contain that. Schools, houses of worship, and other large gathering spaces within the area will be closed

two weeks beginning on Thursday. Businesses such as grocery stores and delis would remain open. Now, just to give you a sense of which universities are shutting down for the time being, You have Columbia University, Fordham University, St. John's University, Yeshiva University, and New York University announced that classes would be canceled or offered online. And as for Rutgers, they are planning on resuming classes in person after April 3rd, but for the moment being they are offering classes online. Okay, so catch you up on international numbers and then tell you why this is different

than the flu, which does kill more people or has killed more people so far. But first of all, 116,000 cases throughout the world of COVID-19, 4,000 people have already died, 800 people in the US infected, and at least 27 people have died. So why are people more concerned about this than they would be about the flu that usually kills more people? Well, it's because this has a higher lethality rate, that's one of the issues. So the flu kills less than 1% of the people that it affects. It affects a lot of people, but it does not kill, obviously, a high percentage of them.

Thank God. Still, it affects so many people that a good number of folks die, unfortunately. But COVID-19 is a very wide range that scientists talk about. Down at 1.5% is still problematic because it's significantly higher than the flu, another disease that spread, but could be all the way up to 4%. So anything that gets to 2% and higher is a disastrous number. And so that's far too many people who contracted who then die, and it also spreads easier. And so obviously one of the big issues you've probably heard about already is the 14 days

that is an incubation period where you might not have it. Or you might have it, but you don't know it, so you're interacting with people and you're spreading the virus everywhere. That is why they're shutting down larger areas. That's why Bernie Sanders shut down a rally today, because somebody might seem perfectly fine, interact with 10 people, 20, 100 people, and all of a sudden they all have it, and then they interact with people, and it spreads and spreads and spreads, and hence the mild panic that we're seeing right now.

Right, so a few things. Both Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden canceled their rallies in Ohio as a result of what's going on with this virus. And when it comes to the number of people who have died as a result of COVID-19, keep in mind that for now at least, it appears that the people most vulnerable to this virus, you know, costing them their lives are people who have compromised immune systems, or maybe they have other health conditions that further complicate the consequences of the virus. So younger people, if they do, in fact, get this virus, they're more likely to beat it.

Not everyone is hospitalized once it's determined that they tested positive for it. The only people who tend to be hospitalized are older individuals and those who have compromised immune systems. Yeah, in fact, most people are not a hospitalist, 80% of folks are not hospitalized when they have it. And the good news is it's, it affects, it appears to affect children less. Senior citizens, unfortunately, are affected more. Look, when you're in a confined space and an outbreak happens, it's super scary.

That's part of the reason why it reminds us of the movies. The Grand Princess is about the dock in San Francisco where they have at least 21 cases on board. But then they worry because they got to keep them on board, but when you're on board, they're They're worried it spreads and spreads and spreads. Now one of the places they're concerned about is jails, because if you got an outbreak, it's very hard to contain within the jail. So they're now emphasizing cleanliness there, cleaning the showers three times a day.

And the list goes on for precautions. We do have to take these precautions because if it has a high lethality rate and it spreads uncontrollably because we don't know who has it, then we're gonna have massive problems. And so the quicker we act to contain the cases we already know about, the better off we are, because then you buy time. It doesn't mean that you solve it, but you buy time. Now right now, this is another reason why COVID-19 is so problematic is there is no cure, there's no treatment, whereas there are some forms of treatment for other viruses that spread.

So one of the things we're buying time for is for scientists to work around the clock to trying to find a vaccine, a cure, and or treatment. Right, and there's also a lot of pressure on the health industry, right? So we need to slow down the spread in the very least to kind of mitigate the, you know, mitigate some of the problems within the healthcare industry in our country, right? So that's one other issue. But I do want to bring up one other thing, because you mentioned prisons, and you're right, they're trying to prevent the spread of this virus in prisons.

But one other issue came up that is related to the prisons, and that is what Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York said about hand sanitizer. So let's go to that story. So Andrew Cuomo, governor of New York, made an announcement about everything they're doing to try to stop the spread of COVID-19 in New York. But one thing that came up that I thought was fascinating was the issue of hand sanitizer. And so New York is working with prisons to make its own hand sanitizer so they can give it out to various institutions like schools, for instance, for free.

Here he is making that announcement. We are introducing New York State Clean hand sanitizer made conveniently by the state of New York. This is a superior product to products now on the market. The World Health Organization, CDC, all those people suggest 60% alcohol content. Purell, competitor to New York State Clean, 70% alcohol. This is 75% to Purell and Mr. Amazon and Mr. eBay. If you continue the price gouging, we will introduce our product, which is superior to your product. And you don't even have the floral bouquet.

So stop price gouging. Just to give you an idea, a gallon bottle is $6.10. The 7 ounce bottle is $1.12 hour cost. And then there's a very small size. size, here it is, which is 84 cents. I just, I guess that's fine, it's just strange. No, that was really weird. It was like a weird about it.

It was like it turned into QVC at some point and he's like, and if you act now, we'll throw in the mini one for 84 cents. It was like almost Trumpian, I thought he was gonna bring out Cuomo stakes next. Yeah, it was weird, but they're giving this out to various, you know, institutions throughout the state of New York for free, which I think is a good thing, you know, anything that helps out, I guess, is a positive. But yeah, the way he was talking about it made it seem like, you know, he just started a new business venture.

Yeah, Anna, who's making it again? Prisoners. Prisoners are making it. Okay. Conveniently made in the state of New York. Yeah, and by the way, I hope the prisoners making it don't get COVID-19 because then it would spread throughout the prison. And then the hand sanitizers, I don't want to panic people.

It seems like it's a fine product. I don't know why we're talking about New York state products all of a sudden. But look, overall, Cuomo has been way more responsive than the federal government. He's been realistic about things. He's got, he's trying to contain the situation in New Rochelle. That was a weird press conference that I guess added levity to an otherwise disastrous situation accidentally. But so far I don't, I don't have a bone to pick with New York's reaction.

No, I don't either. I think that they're acting appropriately. When news broke today that they were going to, you know, use the National Guard to help contain it, that seemed a little strange, like, what does that mean? But all they're trying to do is use the National Guard in order to help with, like, you know, sanitation efforts, just they're not trying to keep people from traveling anywhere or going anywhere. That was one of the things that I was a little concerned about.

I didn't want things to get authoritarian, and it's not. Yeah, and look, things might get tough. I don't know what this comment means either. They said you're not containing people, you're containing facilities. That means that they're trying to persuade facilities that usually host large gatherings to avoid doing so for the time being. Okay, well let's see how it goes. And by the way, if at some point they do contain you, don't panic because we really do have

to spread the limit the spread of the disease. So if the government has to do emergency actions, they're not putting you in a FEMA camp. Just calm down for a second. Just sort things out. Why are you being contained on a ship? Well, that's because they don't want you to spread if you're sick to hundreds or thousands of other people. So look, I've seen now the panics and the fights at stores.

We're fighting over Kansas tuna. Hold on, nobody's in a bunker yet. Like, what are you nuts? You're going to cause more problems by fighting over tuna than the virus itself. So I don't know why we're playing prices right there with Governor Cuomo. This one you can get for, yes, more than 84 cents, right? But overall, like, they're doing the best they can. At the federal level, it's an absolute disaster.

They're totally unprepared. And so hope that you got a Democratic governor who believes in science and brings in doctors. And right or wrong in terms of that particular hand sanitizer, at least Cuomo's trying to do something and taking a lot of action to get ahead of it and actually relies on, on science. scientists rather than the voodoo that Trump does. We're gonna take a quick break. When we come back, we'll talk about Trump's own personal preparations when it comes to the COVID-19. And also we'll talk about what he's planning on doing to help the economy in response to COVID-19.

Yeah, yeah, you're underselling it. He's panicked and the virus might already be in the building in the White House. So, well, the virus has been in the building in the White House. So his, his comments are, I mean, stupid, they're stupid. They're funny. Yeah, let's be honest. They're be funny. They're funny.

They're funny. Okay, we hope no one gets it, but they're funny. We'll do that when we come back. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-Fing the Republic or UNFTR. As a young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations are constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the rich and powerful. But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the conventional wisdom. In each episode of Un-B-The-Republic or UNFTR, the host delves into a different historical episode or topic that's generally misunderstood or purposely obfuscated by the so-called powers that be.

Featuring in-depth research, razor-sharp commentary, and just the right amount of vulgarity, the UNFTRTR podcast takes a sledgehammer to what you thought you 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. All right, back on the Young Turks, lots of comments, including folks in some of the affected areas for COVID-19. But first, Sam Suu says,

okay, best lead in ever, Way to go, guys. Thank you. Appreciate it. Someone else pointed out that if we're just people watching right now live, I gave a couple bucks to TYT.com slash go, we might get to our goal of 200,000 pretty quickly, and that would be amazing. So we'll check back in on that in a second.

And smooth rights in, I'm accredited with the World Health Organization and attend the virtual journalist room during the daily COVID-19 press conferences, which I wish I had a larger platform to talk about the daily updates and stop the consistent misinformation. all over social media. By the way, one of the things we're trying to build right now is a larger platform for all of you guys to participate in. So not just to watch, but to participate in. So that's what I, part of what I'm referring to when I say change is coming, that's part

of the reason why we're doing the fundraising drive. We'll check the thermometer in a second. But no more trigonometry says, I'm in Maryland, my university has started spring break early because of COVID-19. On Twitter, the math magician says, here in New York City, people are panicked. And the new Rochelle News has my brother who lives two blocks from the containment zone. And it's fascinating, only expensive private universities here are closing. Cooney and SUNY are still open because Cuomo considers those kids expendable.

Now look, I'm not sure that that last sentence is fair. The public schools in New York are also still open and that's Bill de Blasio's decision. And what they don't want is panic, okay? And you'd be shocked, by the way, number of kids that go to school that are homeless. And so they have nowhere to go if there's no school either. Yes. So. Richest country in the world.

That's right. Now, last two things about, now a couple of things about Biden and Trump. I AM SOX's coronavirus is a godsend to Biden. He doesn't have to speak publicly and exhibit his obvious mental decline. So I don't know about that, but I do know over the weekend he did a seven-minute speech, get in, get out, and it had plenty of problems within that seven minutes. Yes, I do agree with you that he's probably relatively happy that his speech was canceled. I'm keeping it real.

Terry W. says, looking forward to the aides of March. I believe that two hours of Joe Biden struggling in prime time will wake up a lot of people to just how weak of a candidate against Trump. He would be, does a disastrous debate performance by Biden make people jump ship immediately? We don't know, and it depends on how disastrous it is. And how it gets covered. Yes, and how it gets covered is the most important thing. He's referring to the eyes of March, which is the 15th of March, which is when the

debate is, that's on Sunday, we're gonna cover it, don't miss it. Lastly, send it on YouTube Super Chat says all over the internet, Matt Gates' rumors of having the virus. Holds, we're gonna straighten that out in just a minute. So let's look at the thermometer before we do that. TOT.com slash go, 128, 868. Is that the same place? No, it's a little higher than where we were before. A little higher, yeah. Okay, that's all right. Let's keep it going, guys. Really, really appreciate it Absolutely necessary. And also a quick announcement. It's March 10th, which means that the primaries are taking place tonight.

We will be doing special primary coverage with a giant panel of all your favorite hosts. Jank Uger, myself, John Iderola, J.R. Jackson, Brett Erlick, and Nando Villa will be joining in. Ryan Grimm and Crystal Ball are also scheduled to join our coverage, so please tune in. We will begin coverage at 5 p.m. Pacific time, 8 p.m. Eastern. Just go to t-y-t.com slash live to watch live. All right. Well, let's continue with our updates on COVID-19.

It's worth reminding everyone that Donald Trump is a massive germaphobe, which means that this whole COVID-19 virus is certainly worrying him, even though he's trying to minimize it publicly. Now, what is he saying privately? According to Vanity Fair's Gabriel Sherman, he spoke to a few sources who were close. to Trump, who are now indicating that Trump is absolutely panicking. Donald is a famous germaphobe. He hates it if someone is eating nachos and dips a chip back in after taking a bite. He calls them double dippers. What is he, George Costanza?

I just love that quote because he calls them double dippers. He came up with it. Yeah. He once claimed that he invented the word fake. This guy, I mean, we're talking about Joe Biden having mental issues. And I hear you on that, and I've talked about it. But Donald Trump has a very, very long history of mental issues. Now that quote- Let's get into his psychology here a little bit.

Now, Sam Nunberg, who's a former Trump aide, was quoted as saying, when I worked for Trump, he was obsessed with Ebola. So he worries about these things, he's constantly concerned. And while he's telling everyone that, you know, this is all an overblown media hoax, no worries, He's go to work, you're gonna be fine. By the way, if you're feeling ill, do not go to work. It's a terrible idea. Turns out that last week, Trump told AIDS he's afraid journalists will try to purposefully contract COVID-19 to give it to him on Air Force One.

Trump has also asked Secret Service to set up a screening program and bar anyone who has a cough from the White House grounds. In fact, Gabriel Sherman reports that one source told him he's definitely melting down over. this. Also, pressure from the public health community is mounting on Trump to cancel his mass rallies, but Trump is pushing back saying, I'm not going to do it. Yeah, no, guys, like, we just gloss over things that are amazing because it's Trump and we're used to his madness, but we shouldn't be used to it. He thinks a reporter is purposely going to get COVID-19 and risk dying so that he could give it to Trump. That's, it insane conspiracy theory.

But remember, he's a longtime believer in conspiracy theories. He's the one that spread the conspiracy theory about Obama not being a citizen. He believes almost all those conspiracy theories. So he even makes up his own conspiracy theories. So the idea that a reporter would be like, oh, somebody get me some COVID-19, I'll spread it all over myself. And then maybe everyone in my family will also get it, include my kids and parents, and some people might die, but I'll bring it into the White House.

cuckoo for cocoa puffs. By the way, like, how does one get, like, find COVID-19 and acquire it for, you know, like, viral purposes, like to spread it to people that they don't like? I mean, how ridiculous. But let me give you more, because regardless of the conspiracy theories that Trump might believe when it comes to reporters aboard Air Force One, the truth is he attended CPAC where there absolutely was an individual who had the virus. had contacted and spoken to, had physical contact with various Republican politicians at

CPAC. And as a result, all these Republican politicians have self-quarantined. But it turns out that Trump, who also had some communication with this infected individual, did not self-quaranty, but more importantly, didn't even think it was important to get any testing done. So he shook hands, by the way, with Georgia Representative Doug Collins and shared an Air Force One flight on Monday with Florida Representative Matt Gates, both of whom are now self-quarantined because of their attendance at CPAC and their interaction with the individual who has the virus. Now, Trump is not getting tested for it, though. His White House press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, is like, no, he feels fine. He's not, he hasn't been tested, not planning

on doing it. I don't want anybody get any disease. I don't want anybody get sick. But there is a rich irony in the Republicans who basically declared a war on science now potentially getting sick because they didn't believe in science. So I mean, here's Donald Trump. At least Gates and Collins and Cruz have gone into self-quarantine. So when push comes to shove and it comes to their own health, they're like, yeah, maybe the science is all right, let's just be safe, right? By the way, you should think about that in regards to the planet as well.

But for Trump, he's like, nope, you know, dumb or die. So I hope that's not literal. So he's just going to ride it all the way. Like, no, I don't believe in science. I'm not going to test anything. I'm a tough guy. Meanwhile, he's in this double sweat panic at the White House. He's trying to ban anyone who coughs on the White House grounds.

Okay. Yeah, look, what I don't understand, and it's Trump, so maybe it's not meant to be understood. It's just his inconsistency. Because on one hand, he's panicking about reporters on Air Force One, people who might be coughing around him, double dippers. Then on the other hand, he's not getting testing. No, I know why. No, no, that's very understandable. In this case, it's not because he just actively hate scientists, to be clear and fair.

No, internally, he's a germaphobe. He's well known as a germaphobe. In fact, that's why I never believed the allegations of the Russian hotel room. and all that stuff. I'm like, that doesn't sound like something Trump would do. So, but the markets are going down because of the panic. So he's trying to stop the panic because for him, the most important thing in the world is the stock market because he believes as the market goes down, he's going to lose re-election

and he's going to lose his power. So that's why he's like, no, I'm fine. He's like, somebody, please help me, stop the double dippers. But he goes in front of cameras, I'm fine, I don't even need it, nobody needs it. Everything's fine. I get that. We're doing the rallies. I'm not testing.

You don't need to test. Don't worry about it. You're right, you know. But do you think maybe behind the scenes he's actually getting screened or tested? Maybe, I don't know that. I really don't. We don't have any information on that. But he should because his new chief of staff also quarantined.

Mark Meadows. That is his new chief of staff. He was also at CPAC. He also interacted with the individual who has COVID-19 and so he had to self-quarantine. But I do want to give you one other piece of this story that, Jank, you had mentioned to me during one of the breaks. And this is important, and it goes along with what you were just saying about Trump trying to minimize panic so it doesn't hurt the stock markets.

So according to time, an annual intelligence report that has been postponed without explanation by President Trump's administration warns that the U.S. remains unprepared for a global pandemic to senior government officials who have reviewed a draft of the report tell time. So a similar report came out the year before, and they said we were totally and utterly unprepared. You want to know why? In May 2018, Trump Aides dismissed the National Security Council's global health security staff and moved to cut its budget. The White House also cut the budgets of the Centers for Disease Control and Department of Health and Human Services and closed the federal government's $30 million complex crisis fund. This appears to be a complex crisis.

So they shut down everything that could possibly help. They had to do a $2 trillion tax cut for the rich. So then you don't have the money. And here were all the scientists, experts, doctors in the government warning in written reports. We're not ready if something hits, it's gonna spread like wildfire because we did not take any action. Right. And now, of course, Trump wants to bury that report.

It's too late, we already saw the report in 2019. We know what's in the report, and the report screams from the rooftops, we're not ready, And here we are, your own chief of staff is in a self-quaranty. So now, on top of all that, as it is abundantly clear that he's not ready, Trump says this. Again, I don't want to gloss over these, because these are amazing. If any other president or politician had said any of these things, we'd all be talking about removing them from office. He said about COVID-19 and handling of the crisis, I like this stuff, I really get it.

Oh my gosh. What is there to like, you moron? And okay, you really get it. gets way worse. He said, people are surprised that I understand it. You want to put some thought as to why they might be surprised? If they really did think you get it, they would be surprised because they think you're an idiot. No one thinks he gets it. No one. No one thinks he gets it. It's been such a complete and utter disaster that Fox News carried a Bernie Sanders town hall last night as opposed to Donald Trump's presser on COVID-19. No one thinks you get it. No one. Okay,

It always gets worse with Trump. So he said, every one of these doctors say, how do you know so much about this? Not a single doctor. Not a single doctor. No one in the history of doctors has ever said that to Donald Trump. He continues, maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president. Yeah, you know what?

Bingo, yes, yes, Trump, go for it. Go pursue that, full speed ahead, please. No, but what is that? What is that? I don't know. Curing COVID-19? Yeah, yeah, he should go do that. He should go do that.

But guys, think about it. I mean, we kid around about it. But what kind of a lunatic thinks like, I think I have a natural ability to cure COVID-19. That's what I should have done instead. Last thing, he says, the COVID-19 tests are all perfect. Like the letter was perfect, the transcription was perfect. What are you doing? Why?

What? Why are you comparing this to your corruption in Ukraine? Because it's kind of a smart person. Yeah. You know, people are saying he should have done that instead, be a smart person. But he chose not to. He chose to become president. Anyway, no, because why?

He perceives this, it's all about me, me, me, me, me. Is this gonna help me or is it gonna hurt me? You get sick, your family members die, who cares? No, my actions are perfect. No one knows about COVID-19 more than I do. The doctors are wowed by how amazing I am, saying maybe I should have cured it myself. These are the ravings of a lunatic mind. He's always been a lunatic.

We just go on our merry way, even though we all know that the president has no mind to begin with. When Trump's BFF, Muhammad bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, ordered the murder and dismemberment of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Trump's commentary on that was not to condemn MBS and what they had done in murdering Jamal Khashoggi. His commentary was to condemn how terrible the cover-up was. He said it was the worst cover-up ever, and he talked about how it was a bad deal. Yeah.

What? You know why? That cover-up wasn't perfect. It wasn't a perfect cover-up. So who cares about a life that was lost? Who cares about how brutal and gruesome that murder was? Who cares about any of that, right? Lives don't matter.

The only thing that matters for Trump is, hey, was that a good cover up? Because if it's not a good cover up, then people are gonna ask me for questions or answers to their questions. That's exactly right, and they connect to both those things now. The letter in his mind was perfect because it was a perfect cover up. Why else would a letter be perfect? I don't know, what does that even mean? The transcript of the call, why would that be perfect?

How is any call perfect? No, he means a perfect cover-up. But when he also says that about COVID-19, he doesn't mean fixing it. He means covering it up. That's right. And when you have a medical emergency, that is a prescription for disaster. All right, one more COVID-19 story before we go to break. The Trump administration is pitching tax cuts to ease the economic

damage caused by COVID-19. Now, the markets don't like uncertainty. Obviously, there has been limited travel as a result of COVID-19. All these things play into what we've been experiencing in the stock market, which is complete and utter volatility. Now, Trump wants to ease the economic burdens, not on average Americans, but more importantly to him on companies, corporations, and what he says, small businesses. But let's see if he's actually going to follow through on looking out for small businesses. Here is this presser where he talks about possible payroll tax cuts. We're going to be meeting with House Republicans, Mitch McConnell, everybody,

and discussing a possible payroll tax cut or relief, substantial relief, very substantial relief. That's a big number. We're also going to be talking about hourly wage earners getting help so that they can be in a position where they're not gonna ever miss a paycheck. We're gonna be working with companies and small companies, large companies, a lot of companies, so that they don't get penalized for something that's not their fault. It's not their fault. It's not our country's fault. Also, we're gonna be seeing small business administration and creating loans for small businesses. So the answer for Trump has been, in every economic issue, more loans, more loans, more loans.

More debt, more debt. Take on more debt. By the way, one of the biggest issues right now with corporations in America is that they lack liquidity, they've taken on way too much debt. This is something that the Federal Reserve is constantly warning about and then simultaneously cutting interest rates and encouraging people to take on more debt. So I don't really get what's going on with the Federal Reserve. It's been a disaster.

So two things about it. First on the debt, remember Trump thinks that answer to everything is debt, because that's all he's ever done in his life, hence the six bankruptcies, because what he does is he borrows a lot of money, and then he has a brilliant idea, how about I don't pay it back? So, and he, because he's a, he's spoiled, he's been able to get away with that for a long, long time. He was out of business until the Russians rescued him, and actually, there's a great question as to whether they co-signed his loans, the last set of loans he got a Deutsche Bank.

But until then, he basically, his business model was borrow money. money and just don't pay it back, okay? So when he looks at the U.S., he probably thinks, well, that's the only thing I know. The second thing is we used to joke around about how everything for the Republicans was tax cuts. Whatever you're in, problem was, oh, you twisted your ankle, don't worry, tax cuts, right? You lost a big football game, don't worry, tax cuts, right? Now it's not a joke anymore. This is like an onion article. So we've got COVID-19, a pandemic that's ripping through the world, and they're like, oh, we got a perfect solution. Tax cuts.

Okay, now look, I'm not saying that they shouldn't do a stimulus package. I understand why, and let me explain it to you. So if you're the airlines, people will stop flying. I stop flying, I get it, right? So at some point you're gonna need to figure out how to help those folks, the big stadiums. People will stop coming to the stadiums, they're starting to shut down the stadiums. So yes, you do need, I hope at some point a stimulus package to address this for big business businesses, small business, et cetera.

Now the reality is Anna's right, the Federal Reserve is out of bullets, we're gonna talk more about that later, and all these companies stacked up way too much debt to begin with, so they're in a precarious position, even though they just got $2 trillion in tax cuts, they blew it on what? Themselves, executive pay, stock buybacks, et cetera. But in the midst of a medical disaster, I'm not sure that the right priority is to come out to tell everyone, don't worry. I know you're worried about getting sick, but we got tax cuts for businesses. I know, it's incredible. It's incredible. Like, the messaging is off,

to say the least, but it also, again, provides more evidence of what Donald Trump's number one priority is. And it is himself. At the end of the day, it is himself. Because he knows that if the stock market suffers, he can't cite the stock market in trying to make this case that the U.S. economy is strong and that he's really helped it. And if he can't make that argument, he's less likely to get reelected. It all comes back to Donald Trump. He doesn't care about your life. He doesn't care about the farmers who are committing suicide right now, thanks to the ramifications of his drug war. I'm not drug war, his trade war. He doesn't care about any of that stuff. What he cares about is whether or not it's going to positively or negatively impact him.

That's it. 100%. That's why when he should be sounding the alarm in a measured way and telling people what they need to do and not do with the outbreak happening, instead he blithely tells people to go to work, which they should not do if they think they have the disease. He at least made it seem like it was no big deal if you went to work. Don't do that, that's not the right medical advice. And then he put out this tweet, he said the fake news media and their partner, the Democrat Party,

He's doing everything with his semi-considerable power. It used to be greater to inflame the COVID-19 situation, far beyond what the facts would warrant. So he's basically doing a conspiracy theory that the Democrats and the media have conspired to create this panic about this disease. And stock market, don't worry, they're lying to you, stay high so I could win re-election. Now, if you don't take precautions because I called it fake news and you get it. get sick, hey, that ain't me, brother, that's on you. If you're stupid enough to believe Donald Trump, he's thinking, well, then you had it coming.

If you're stupid enough to give to his charity, he stole from you. If you were stupid enough to attend his university, he robbed you. He had to pay settlements on both of those because he did rob people, okay? And now he thinks if you're stupid enough to vote for me and believe me, well, then you had COVID-19 coming for you. I just need my power to stay where it is. We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we'll give you the details on what's really happening with our economy. And then later in the show, we'll talk about one of Bernie Sanders' biggest flaws, and it is his unwillingness to attack his political opponents.

Okay? We're going to give you the latest example of that. Come right. 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 job. 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-P-N dot com slash T-YT. Check it out today. We hope you're enjoying this free clip from the Young Turks. If you want to get the whole show and more exclusive content while supporting independent media, become a member at t-y-t.com

slash join today. In the meantime, enjoy this free segment. All right, back of the young Turks. Lots of comments, as usual. Puck Nato says Trump probably is very worried about COVID-19, but he's only worried about himself catching it. He couldn't care less about the 350 million of us. Of course, of course.

I thought probably never occurred to him. I wonder if Maga guys really think, like, Oh, no, Trump's up at night worried about whether we're going to get COVID-19. They can't believe that, could they? No, not even them. Megan Lee won, writes in, I chipped in $15 tonight. I know it's not much, but I'll definitely keep giving. I believe in your cause, even when I feel hopeless for any political change,

especially when I live in a small town in Lancaster, County, Pennsylvania, where Trump supporters are everywhere. I'll do my small part to help you guys keep going, because without you guys, I don't think I would even care about politics. Thank you always. You always have an ally in me. Megan, you're the best. Thank you.

Don't worry about how small it is. We appreciate it. The thought counts, every dollar counts. And remember, there's a lot of you out there. So if everybody does the same, then we're in good shape. And I just love your sentiment. And there are others. I'm going to get to them too.

But let's take a look at the thermometer because she mentioned it right there. Look at that. We're past 130. So, t.com slash go to keep Young Turks sustainable throughout this election cycle. I absolutely needed to get the progressive message out. But we also want to create more change for you guys and empower you. We're also trying to do that here. We're trying to get to 200,000 certainly as soon as possible and 2 million for the whole year.

Okay, I'll give you more. Skelner says self-quarantine, easy to do when you get paid at your job, whether you work or not, congresspersons. So I read that because that's what I wanted to say yesterday. When I saw Ted Cruz self-quarantine and he's like, well, you know what? I'll just hang out at home for a couple of weeks. I was like, yeah, I know. These people in Congress barely work. They're like COVID-19, yes, self-quarantine, yes, at my mansion, okay?

So I don't know if we're great minds, we're at least thinking alike. So these are all members, by the way, t.y.com slash join to become a member. So, I collecting Ms. Chalini is the last one from the member section. Conservatives are finding out that the COVID-19 is like climate change. It doesn't give a damn whether you believe in it or not. That is certainly true as well. Anthony says in YouTube super chat just voted in Allen Park, Michigan. I have good feelings.

Megad Bramble says I chipped in $15 tonight online. I know it's not much, but I'll definitely keep going. I believe in your cause and I owe my passion to TYT. Thank you for your contribution as well and for using YouTube super chat. There's so many more, but we have a whole huge night ahead. Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, and North Dakota polls close in an hour and 10 minutes. We're gonna be covering it all. Yeah, I gotta read one other TYT live, even though I wanna move on quickly.

Unprecedented Madness asked about what I'm wearing and where I got it from. I get these types of questions a lot and I just wanna encourage all the women, ladies watching So IT, please check out like secondhand stores or secondhand clothing apps. I personally love Poshmart. It is not a sponsor of ours, but I like to buy clothing secondhand just to be a little more environmentally conscious, okay? So that's where I bought it. I think the brand of this dress is Yumi Kim, but buy secondhand stuff because it's cheaper,

more sustainable, better for the environment, and just all around better. All right, wonderful. Let's keep on. So, we need to talk about what's really going on with the economy, because as we all know, the stock market experienced a significant downturn in response to the COVID-19 virus. And the reason why I'm doing air quotes is because it's not just about the virus. If you really do a deep dive into our economy and what's been going on with the stock markets, you can tell that things are kind of built like a house of cards, right?

So, Axios, of all places, did a really good piece that gave us just a quick look at all the different problems at play right now. And I wanna read some of those issues for you and elaborate. So for instance, while the outbreak itself is unlikely to drive an economic collapse, the U.S. has been something of a ticking time bomb for some time. I've been yelling and screaming about this on the show. And I feel like no one's been paying attention. I'm glad that some people are catching on.

has declined over the last two years despite higher government spending and a $23.4 trillion national debt. Now here's what's really important to pay attention to. While Trump claims that the economy is doing well, the unemployment rate is incredibly low, the quality of those jobs, not so great. So while the labor market has boomed, many of the jobs added have been hourly service industry positions that offer limited scope for savings or health insurance. And 44% of all U.S. workers earn barely enough to live on, and that's according to a recent

Brookings Institution study in January. Okay, so the reason why the growth part is important is we did a giant tax cut $2 trillion and we're spending a lot of money in a situation like the, and the Fed is cut rates. In a situation like that, you should have massive growth because you're stimulating the economy I mean literally every way possible, but yet growth has slowed the last two years. That means tick, tick, tick, we're headed towards some sort of collapse in a recession. And so, and these things happen. They do happen in cycles, and we've actually had an extraordinary period of growth from Obama

now through to Trump. So, and over-stimulating economy doesn't help, it creates bubbles that blow up. But there are things that are far worse that you should be worried about. And again, I want to give it credit to Axios as well for a great job of covering it. They explain that basically the main thing that's been keeping the country or the economy afloat is consumer spending. Yes. But the problem is when you have a situation like COVID-19 and people are staying home, you might also pull the rung out from that because then you don't have less consumer spending. And it's worse than that. Because even without COVID-19, right, eventually the chickens would come home to Roos.

And the reason why I say that is because consumer spending isn't based on people making more money, having more cash. It's because they're going into more debt in order to afford just the household goods, the things that they need on a daily basis. So if you look at household debt today compared to what it was in the height of the economic collapse in 2008, households actually have more debt today than back then. And that is not a good sign. So we haven't even gotten to the main economic time bomb yet. So one more note before the big one, they also said, look, they got this giant tax cuts, the corporations, but they mainly did stock buybacks and hoarded the money. They did not use it for investments.

If they had used it for investments, it could have grown the economy, grown their businesses, and then you would be in a much more solid economic footing. Instead, we inflated the bubble further without any basis for it. Now here comes the disaster. Axios explains at the same time corporate America is more heavily indebted than ever before due to years of record low interest rates and increased borrowing. Interest rates stimulate the economy if they're lower, right? But what winds up happening is you take on a lot of debt because it's a good moment

to borrow because the interest rates are low. But you can take on too much debt. Now, what they started to do was later on derivatives, which is gambling on that corporate debt. Naomi Prince has described that on the show before. She used to work at Goldman Sachs, a wonderful progressive now that explains how things broke down. We've talked to you about it before.

Now details more from Axios, because we've been telling you about this time bomb before. Now they're saying it might go off. So they explained, the Federal Reserve has repeatedly warned that this spike in leverage lending, combined with loosening covenants, I'll explain both of what those mean in a second, has created risks not only to bond issuers, but also to the wide network of hedge funds and mutual funds that actually hold the debt. There are a number of important things there, and let me translate it for you, if you're not used to that kind of business lingo.

Leverage Lend, spike in leverage lending means I'm actually leveraging the lending, meaning I'm gambling on top of it. So it's not one to one, hey, I borrowed $100, so I owe $100. Leverage means, no, I borrowed $1,000 even though I only have $100. And now if that $100 has a problem, let's say that I've lost $50 of the 100, oh, now they're worried I can't pay the thousand back. Okay. Now they're worried about it.

Yeah, so that's why leverage creates more wealth if done very, very carefully, but But it's very dangerous, especially in situations like this. The main reason why the economy didn't love for so long is not because of America, but because Europe put caps on how much leverage the banks could do. Then America went along with that and thank God. But now those have been loosened. In fact, that's why they say the loosening covenants. Covenants are things that give you protection, go, well, all right, I'll let you borrow

that money, but I'm gonna put a covenant on it so it's less risky, so I feel safer that that I'm gonna get my money back. When you loosen those covenants and you've increased the leverage, that means there's less protection and more risk at the same time. Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. And finally, where is this time bomb? If you notice at the end of the sentence, they said in the mutual bonds, wait a minute, that's what you own.

So the guys who own the top hedge funds, et cetera, they're gonna flip, if they might have already flipped, where they then bet against the market, and they make money betting against the market. Okay, but you don't have the ability to do that. Your money's stuck in a mutual fund. You're the one that hits the iceberg. You know it would be a really good way of mitigating this to privatize all retirement and get rid of Social Security, right?

I mean, that's the real problem here, Social Security, that guaranteed safety net that you can rely on when you're ready to retire, or if something happens to you, God forbid, you have a disability. We should get rid of that. And we should put all of our future savings in a super risky market that's rigged against us. They do say it with a straight face because the money managers would then make more money from managing your Social Security accounts. But when you have an economic downturn, then you'd have nothing left.

So finally, they also explain something that Ray Dalio and I talked about. Right now, Ray Dalio runs the world's largest hedge fund. He came on the show to talk about it because he's a brilliant guy. A very, very savvy investor, incredibly logical. And we talked about the Federal Reserve and how they might be out of bullets. Because they've already done everything they can. They've lowered the interest rates. They've taken on toxic assets.

I can go through all the different exercises that they went through. And so Dahlio said, yeah, I think they're out of bullets. So I'm like the next time a crash happens, the Federal Reserve is your last backup. If you don't have that, you're in massive trouble. He's like, that's right. Now let me quote Axios for you today. The Federal Reserve, which helped rescue their economy after the 2008 crisis, is effectively out of ammunition.

Just like we told you, Dahlia was on the show, what, a couple of years ago, and he was already saying they're out of bullets, and here we are, the crisis might be imminent, and we're out of bullets. So one more thing, guys, the oil companies put aside COVID. 19, they, first of all, like the housing crisis, the trigger was the housing crisis, but the gun was the derivatives, was the out of control leveraged gambling. In this case, even if COVID-19 was the trigger, it's not the gun. The gun is the leveraged lending to companies, but it's not COVID-19.

A bigger problem or equally big problem that crashed the markets a couple of days ago was the price of oil. OPEC couldn't come to an agreement, price of oil went down. So why does that matter? Because they lent the oil companies so much money and they're now worried that the oil companies are over leveraged and can't pay the money back, which then drove down the price of the banks, which then created a panic. The gun this time is the money that the corporations have, I'm sorry, the trigger is what the

corporations have borrowed. The gun is the amount of bets that banks have put on top of those loans. So when both of those go off, we're off to another recession and God help us because this one, there's almost nothing left we can do to pull out of it. So I don't know how big it'll be, I don't know how deep it'll be. And last thing guys, the folks on the right and Trump go around saying, oh, the Democrats are rooting for it, hell no, because we're all gonna get hurt. We're gonna get hurt real bad, all of us.

Look, the elites will still have their billions. So what if Bloomberg goes down from 60 billion to 30 billion? What difference does it make? But if we hit a recession that hard, last one we lost eight million jobs. Bloomberg didn't lose his job, the bankers didn't lose their jobs, you lost your jobs. And most of you haven't recovered fully. Yeah, they recovered fully, but now if they sent us into another recession, we're all in a big, big trouble.

And then they will blame it on minorities and progressives. all this nonsense, the reality is, guess what? Once again, the real answer is the bankers. They're the ones who took the risk. They're the ones who already took home massive salaries and bonuses. And when the bill comes due, they're gonna stick you with it. All right, fun stuff to think about during the break. And when we come back, Biden got combative with more voters this time over the issue of gun control.

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