The Young Turks - TYT Extended Clip - March 18th, 2020

Episode Date: March 19, 2020

Trump has invoked the Defense Production Act. Ana Kasparian, Nando Vila, and Francesca Fiorentini, 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

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Welcome to the Young Turks. That's the show you're watching. This might be the last day that we do the show in studio. As I've been warning everyone, we've been working on the tech to be able to do this show and give you new content every day remotely. Nando Villa, Francesca Furentini. I really love you guys and respect you for being here today. You know, the people need to hear the real news.

The real news. Truth. Yes, and there's a lot of that today. So we did cover the elections yesterday. But we will talk about them a little more today, especially when it comes to Bernie Sanders and what the path will be moving forward. But as you could expect, the entire rundown is really dominated with coronavirus news. We have many updates, including updates on the economy and what Congress has accomplished

and is working on to provide some economic relief to Americans. But as always, use the hashtag TYT live to communicate with us during the show. And if you're a member, we do read your member comments. And please help support the show. I know it's a difficult time for everyone, but we wouldn't be able to give you the real news if it weren't for our members and for everyone who's supporting us, including those who contribute to t-y-t.com slash go. That's our fundraising effort in order to keep TYT sustainable for the upcoming year.

With that said, let's talk about what's happening with the economy and how politicians are trying to do their best to help us. The Trump administration has finally signed the Defense Protection Act, not signed it, but essentially decided to invoke it. And this is really a wartime act that gives the executive branch some power, some authority to pressure private industry, in some cases even coerce private industry, into producing products that are necessary to cope with a crisis. So right now, we're dealing with a serious shortage of certain medical supplies, including masks, ventilators, respirators. And so the Trump administration has decided to use this Defense Production Act in order to pressure private industry to produce more of these products.

Now, in this case, the DPA, as it's called, would allow the United States government to incentivize a company who already makes emergency medical supplies to make more of them. And this makes a lot of sense. This was something that Trump was resistant to for some reason in the beginning, but he did announce that he will invoke it today. Take a look. We'll be invoking the Defense Production Act just in case we need it. In other words, I think you all know what it is.

And it can do a lot of good things if we need it. And we will have it all completed, signing it in just a little while right there. After I'm finished with this conference, I'll be signing it, it's prepared to go. Okay, so I want to get into like the serious details about the shortages and how it's important that he invoked this. But I can't help but comment on like the way he delivers anything, right? It's so bizarre. You all know what that is.

No, but here's the issue. I'm sure some of the reporters in that, you know, press gaggle do know what it is. But he doesn't know what it is, right? Like, that's why he doesn't want to explain what it is. I think you're giving the White House Press Corps way too much credit. Maybe I am. Maybe I am. They do not have any idea until maybe like five minutes ago.

Sure. What that was. No, he clearly, he had like a little line, a description about like what the Defense Production Act was. And he was just like, I'm gonna skip over this too many words. And you all know what it is. And like he's basically, and this is the thing about Trump and media disinformation that I find really upsetting is that in the same breath that he can mock, you know, news for actually doing their job, he's not providing the information that a president needs to provide. So just in that

example, he's essentially saying, you know, I'm relying on you guys. Yeah, look, especially when it comes to this act, what it means, what it does, how it impacts not just private industry, but like how do you support those efforts, right, to produce more of the medical supplies that we need. But I think the issue with Trump is he's been so incredibly hostile toward the media. He's been so bad at communicating things, but in the last few days, and I'm, believe me, I'm not doing a Dana Bash thing here, right? I'm not giving him like a world of credence saying like, oh, he's so presidential. No.

What I am saying though is, oh wow, he's actually holding press conferences daily now, right? Right. Low bar, but at least there's some information coming through. And I'm more interested to hear what the professionals surrounding him have to say, right? they do luckily convey important information that we need to know. Now let me give you some of the numbers when it comes to what we're experiencing with shortages and what we might have to deal with very soon. So the number of cases in the United States when it comes to coronavirus is over 5,300 by Tuesday afternoon.

So that was yesterday. And it's on the same trajectory as in many other countries, including Italy, which now has more than 30,000 cases. And keep in mind that Italy was slow to respond and react to coronavirus, which is why their health care system is overwhelmed and overburdened. So this is something that he should have invoked much earlier. There were both Democrats and Republicans urging him to do it. For some reason, he was resistant to it, but luckily he did invoke it today.

Yeah, it's a no-brainer. I mean, it has to be done. I mean, this is, you know, this goes back to like the World War II example, like FDR famously basically just compelled, took over entire industries, compelled private companies to make tanks and planes and stuff. Like at one point he said, like, you know, we're gonna make 50,000 planes this year. And all his advisors were like, I don't know if we can do that. He's like, if they try hard enough, I'm sure they can.

You know? Like, and it's, it goes back to this, it's something that we haven't had in a long time in the United States, which is that the government actually has. the power to compel private corporations to do the things it needs to do to serve a public interest, right? A private corporation would never serve the public interest for any reason. I mean, the only thing they can do is make as much profit as possible. The only entity powerful enough to channel the production capabilities of a private corporation

towards some social benefit, like in this case, making masks, ventilators, all that stuff, is through pure coercion. And this is like the way to do it. And so it's a no-brainer. I mean, they haven't really like done anything with it yet, but they're gonna probably have to. I mean, it's- And this is really the only option at this point. I was reading about how, because Trump was so slow to take coronavirus seriously, he didn't

pursue some of the medical supplies that were already out on the market. And they were purchased by other countries, understandably so. And so we can't blame those other countries, they're trying to protect their public. the best they can. And so I'm glad that Trump did invoke the Defense Production Act because they need to produce more of these medical supplies to keep people alive. I just think it's great that for the first time in a very long time, our war effort isn't actually going to fight a war, which many of the past few wars have been based on utter

BS, but obviously not World War II. And like, it is kind of nice so that we can look back on our history. And I think it is right to look at coronavirus as an enemy, not a war. or a Chinese enemy, as Pompeo literally just said the other day, stoking xenophobia, but really looking at it as a national mobilization and a national effort. And like, oh my God, maybe we'll get a more comprehensive health care program when this is all done. And I would argue that it's progressives jobs at this moment to make that case for Medicare for all.

Yeah, I mean, for better or worse, we have this enormous military that has been used to murder people around the world for decades and decades for no reason. But, you know, in the short term, we can turn our tons of military bases into temporary hospitals, like, you know, use the Army Corps of Engineers to become health care workers, like all manner of stuff, like turn that capability into dealing with the immediate crisis because it's one of the largest parts of our federal government right now. And it can be mobilized at a moment's notice. Yeah, absolutely. And so one final statistic to share with you all just to show you how dire this situation is. I'm going to go jump ahead to the last graphic here. There are about 160,000 ventilators, which assist sick

patients with their breathing, but as many as 740,000 could be needed. So that's how dire the situation is. So this was the right call by Trump. I wish he made the call earlier. He was resistant to it before, and he was reported as saying, we'll make that decision pretty quickly if we need it. We We don't need it, it's a big step. Yeah. I mean, to be fair, it is a big step. I mean, the, we've, for so many decades, we've internalized the idea that the government has no control over corporations. And it does, it really does, I mean, it's the only entity that does.

So, you know, maybe silver lining when we get past this, this will be one of the small ways in which we get over that mentality for once and all, for once and for all. Also, put the Amish to work. Like, what are they doing? Like, are they still making quilts, really, in the middle of a pandemic? That sounds lovely. Make some masks. Quilt some masks, okay? If you're Amish and you're watching, which you're not, but spread the word.

Get it to them? Do they even know about coronavirus? I don't know how your mind went to the Amish. They've been practicing social distancing for way too long. They're going to be the healthiest people. They're going to inherit the earth. They're the only ones we're going to survive. They're going to be like, they're going to like wander into some city and it's going to be like,

You know, there's a couple of zombies like, you know, and they're like, what happened here? Amish come out with a bunch of quilts, like, what? If that's what it takes to survive, I will become Amish. Like, I don't know how I'm going to make money because everything I do goes against when you grow a beard, though? Can you churn butter? Can you churn butter? I'd like to try.

Yeah, exactly. Well, you'll have plenty of time at home to do that now. Listen to Weird Al-Yankovic. He knows how to become Amish. All right, well, let's move on to an important economic. economic update. So, new polling by NPR and PBS indicates that many Americans are already significantly impacted by the coronavirus, economically speaking. So this poll was taken between March 13th and 14th, and here are the results. The coronavirus pandemic has already started

to hit American pocketbooks with nearly one in five households experiencing a layoff or a reduction in work hours. Now, keep in mind that this point, was pretty much taken before the Trump administration started taking coronavirus seriously. So I'm sure that if these same individuals were pulled today, the results would be even worse. Now, lower income workers were the most affected. A quarter of households making less than $50,000 had experienced cut hours or a job loss. And that's not surprising. Usually low wage workers don't have the ability to do their jobs from home. They're usually blue collar workers who have to be at the workplace. And so if we're, you know, shutting everything down, practicing social distancing,

they don't have the ability to do their jobs. Right. It's just, it's such a devastating story. Also, Steve Mnuchin has been saying some promising things. I'm skeptical of anyone in government, to be honest with you. But here's what he said. Americans need cash now. And the president wants to give cash now. And I mean now in the next two weeks. But here's the thing, privately, With lawmakers, however, Mnuchin said checks might not be available until the end of April. Now, today, the Treasury Department did unveil what they're referring to as like phase three of economic relief for Americans. And so the Treasury Department unveiled to lawmakers a plan for $250 billion in direct payments to Americans beginning April 6th. So we'll see how that really plays out.

But it does seem like for the first time in a long time, there really is a bipartisan effort to offer relief to Americans, which it sucks that it takes a crisis for that to happen, but that's where we're at right now. Yeah, I mean, you know, the Mnuchin game is a very clever one in which, like, publicly, him and the Trump administration are taking the initiative, really, like saying these big things, like we're going to provide cash payments to Americans now and all that stuff. But then privately, they're kind of nickel and diming all these proposals, you know, even the first initial kind of paid sickly. thing was nickel and dime by the Republicans at the last second. But the, and this is what's so frustrating about our current democratic leaders, like Nancy Pelosi is the Speaker of the House. The Speaker of the House is an incredibly powerful person. The Speaker of the House can basically pass legislation because they have a majority

in the House. So why, I don't understand, well, I do understand it, but I'm going to play devil's advocate. Why don't they seize the initiative on these big transformational things now? They can pass these laws in the House and then dare Republicans to pass them. You mean beyond sort of the individual payments to Americans? Yes, but be like, be out there being like, we need, you know, massive relief for families right now. We're going to provide universal sick leave, regardless of employment status.

We're going to provide, you know, free healthcare right now, you know, like all these things can be, like these transformational things can be, you know, it's such a grave moment. It is. It's such a, it's such a large crisis that we can't even wrap our minds around it. The moral moment to seize right now is that. But instead, they're all doing this thing where they're like, you know what, we like this idea of the cash payments, but we're gonna limit it to people under $100,000 and that creates all kinds of problems.

I think we're gonna, you know, it's like, why are you doing that? I think part of the problem is they don't have to worry about not earning a salary, right? They're still collecting their salaries, they still have government issued healthcare. I think that, and Nancy Pelosi has been a politician for like 180 years, right? So, and it's not just about Pelosi, it's about all of those politicians who are doing the nickel and dimeing. I don't think, I think that they're completely disconnected from the average American worker

who's terrified for good reason right now. Who's out of work? Yeah. And by the way, I just want to, if this all sounds apocalyptic or maybe we're over exaggerating, no, this is really what we're dealing with right now. And Bill de Blasio gave an interview to MSNBC. People were alarmed by it, but I think he makes a good point here. Take a look.

$1,000 in people's pockets is not enough. It's not going to allow people to stay whole and be able to afford the basics in life. Washington has to get real. If we're going to have an unemployment level that looks like the Great Depression, we need a massive federal relief program that looks like the Great Depression. So people are kept whole economically or they will not have money for food or medicine. That's what I fear. So the fact that he mentioned Great Depression made people, I guess, alarmed, worried.

But they should be alarmed and worried because if you just take a good hard look at the direction we're going in, our entire economy, everything's shut down, right? The entire planet. Yes. Like the global economy is shutting down. Yes, I mean, and I think there's a lot of pieces to pick up on. But for me, the way that we are worse off than during the Great Depression is that our economies are vastly more integrated globally, right?

And of course, we know that environmental and labor organizations in the late 90s we're fighting against those policies in every country around the world. And many economists continue to say and said then that when you incorporate economies, you make everyone more vulnerable. It's essentially like the way that a ship, right, I remember this metaphor of like a ship and like if one part of the ship takes on water, they have it closed off so that the other parts of the ship will not sink and sort of like protects, you know, know, a ship from sinking, blah, blah.

Well, now, essentially, with a globalized economy, you remove all those barriers so that if one part of the ship goes down, the entire ship, or takes on water, the entire ship is going down. That is what is happening with our economy. The fact that we don't have respirators, ventilators, masks, face masks, we don't even produce those things in a non- xenophobic way, may I say, Americans should produce those things. You know, like, we can- Really good point, yeah. But you're absolutely right.

You know, we have outsourced so much of our production and manufacturing because these companies are looking for cheap labor, right? And they don't want to abide by the labor laws that we have in this country. But at the same time, one thing that I think is damaging about Trump and the messaging that we've heard from him since 2015 is this, like, nationalistic approach. Because globalization has happened already. And we're all very much, like, we're all connected. Our economies are intertwined.

and supply chains, like we depend on, you know, the supplies that are manufactured in other countries. So there is no America first, we're the greatest. We are not independent. We are very much reliant on other countries, which is why, you know, his approach has been damaging from the get-go, but it's especially damaging now when it's become abundantly clear that we need to work with other countries and make sure that we find a solution that makes the world whole. Well, that's why, like, more rational economic planning from governments is necessary.

Like, there are certain products that are vital to the health of a citizenry, and they can't be reliant on, like, it's fine if we make iPhones in China, you know, in, like, in theory, like, you know, in theory that, like, you know, they're not like, if the global supply chain kind of breaks down for iPhones, it's not the end of the world. They're not essential. Are you saying an iPhone is non-essential right now? Yeah. But like, I mean, aside from like slave labor and all this stuff, like, imagine there was like some sort of, you know, worker protection. And so that's no big deal. But like healthcare, like health materials, like those things are needed when they're needed in the place that they're needed. Like they can't be dependent on if some like natural catastrophe, which are going to start happening more and more with climate change happens in some part of the global supply chain all the other side of the world.

Yeah. You know, like these countries need to have the local capabilities to produce things when they need them. when they're essential. Yeah. With de Blasio mentioning the New Deal, I think, is really important. And obviously in a time when the Green New Deal, you know, is, you know, we're talking about the New Deal again, thanks to the Green New Deal and thanks to how we approach mitigating the impact of climate change.

But it's important. Yes, FDR mobilized and compelled a lot of private enterprises to, like, you know, produce things that the country needed. But also, there was tons of resistance in Congress. Oh, definitely. And I know you mentioned that. And the Supreme Court. And so the New Deal went through phases, and the first phase was definitely just about protecting

business. And then the second phase was like, okay, we need a national labor relations board and a fair labor practices act or whatever it was. Like we need to actually protect workers. And so this is going to be, I mean, I do think we're going to see more than a recession, far more than a recession. And so I think this is, this fight is for the long haul. Hopefully people, not the Pelosi's, right, but people like, you know, AOC, you know, AOC,

or the new class of progressive Congress people can put some pressure because apparently Pelosi's got a plan that is supposed to appeal to some of her Republican colleagues around health care. Of course, and I don't even want to say appeal to her Republican colleagues. To appeal to her donors. And her ideology. Yeah, and her ideology. And very deeply ingrained. Because she was willing.

Like she's gonna roll it out soon and it will be, once again, more money over to the private sector. Definitely. I mean, look, she was willing to hold up economic relief in order to do economic relief for Americans workers, right? In order to do means testing, right? Like, oh, I don't know if I want to do this. I don't think we should. No, no. Like, the moment is now. Like, the crisis is now. We can't play games and like dilly dally and do like means testing. First of all, universally everyone, regardless of how much money they make, the economy is like stopped. Stopped. No one's making money. Her defense was so infuriating, her defense was so infuriating and so telling. She said, I don't want to use U.S. taxpayer money to subsidize corporations to do sick, paid sick leave when they should be doing it themselves. And it's like, they need to step up to the plate and do it themselves. It's like, well, they're not going to do it. There's no liquidity.

They have no cash. And they have no incentive to. Like, why would they? Which on its face, I agree with, like, I agree with that. But it shouldn't be as an excuse to hold up funding. They're not, yeah, they're not going to do it on their own. That's not her long game isn't to then get Amazon to provide more sick leave or, you know, McDonald's or whomever.

Well, you can compel them, you can pass, you can write a law saying that if you are wanna do up business in the United States and you're a certain size or whatever, you need to provide this, like companies won't do that because they're good, they'll do it because they're forced to buy a more powerful entity and the only more powerful entity is the federal government. So I do wanna provide some more details into what has been accomplished and what people are eyeing, you know, moving forward with the economy. economy. So the IRS, the Internal Revenue Service, will postpone the April 15th tax payment deadline. Individuals have another 90 days to pay their 2019 income tax bills. By the way, for the first time ever, I regret not being a procrastinator because I've paid my taxes. You already did it? Yeah, of course I did. Like as soon as I turned that check in, right? Trump does the press conference where he's taking coronavirus seriously and I was like, oh my God, do I cancel it? What do I do now?

Yeah. Anyway, so some Democrats, including what we heard from de Blasio, want to do more than $1,000 a month for workers while this pandemic continues. So Cory Booker, for instance, and Michael Bennett and Sherrod Brown propose spending $2,000 or sending $2,000 to every adult and child below a set income. So that's the means testing we were talking about earlier with future payments in July. And then quarterly until unemployment levels drop off after an expected rise. So the thing that I like about that proposal is it's not a one-time thing because this,

we don't know how long this is gonna last. It's probably gonna last months. So one time, $1,000 check is gonna do very, it's gonna help a little bit, but it's not nearly enough. So. I wanted to just mention that I think, and I'm afraid that Republicans will capitalize on this moment more than Democrats. They have been.

They have been. Right. And they're already doing it, right? And I don't mean to say that people don't deserve money immediately and in their hands. And I know we talked about UBI and whether it's good. I think that, yes, divorced from that broader conversation, you need to get money into the hands of Americans. I just don't want to roll into November and have Trump and the Republicans be the party that

did that. And Democrats not able to mount any kind of opposition like, yes, we support this. To show that they're the ones that are looking out for the working. And they have not made that case, but there could be an arms race to help people, right? Like if the Republicans say, say we're going to give $1,000 or whatever they say, like a smart Democrat that was politically savvy would be like, well, I say, you know, $10,000. Like de Blasio did, right, yeah, totally. And I say, you know, a moratorium on rents, and I'm going to cancel student debt for the extent

of the crisis. Obviously, you risk not getting passed. Well, but you pass it yourself, you control the house. Sure, yeah, you pass it yourself, you say, look, I pass this law. The ball's in your court? The Republicans control the Senate and the presidency. Do you want to do this for the American worker or not? Like that's the thing.

And this obsession with means testing is so stupid. It's so counterproductive because what it does is it adds layers and layers of bureaucracy. It makes people like, oh, do I qualify for this or not? Like anyone who's dealt with like Medicaid, you know, that's near that, it's a goddamn nightmare. So what you do is you give it to everyone. And if you don't want to like subsidize billionaires or whatever, you say, then you recover that in taxes through progressive taxation. So you pay out the cash payment and then you're recovered in taxes.

That's how you do it in a smart way. You sign the check for everyone and then you're recovered in taxes later. It's just so simple. There's this scary window where you're seeing like if Republicans if Republicans don't see this opportunity Republicans are going to and they, Trump will forever tell us that he's the person who gave us $2,000 or $1,000, you know, out of the goodness of the goodness of his rotting heart. They understand politics and messaging, not a little better, I think a lot better.

And they've been dominating the conversation when it comes to providing. Here's an example, they just announced the stop on foreclosures. That's something that the Obama administration didn't even do in 2012 during the foreclosure crisis, which harmed millions of Americans, you know, and caused untold economic harm. You know, they just announced it today. Right, yeah. Yeah, so I was going to get to that, but I'm glad that you mentioned it. So the Trump administration has also put a halt on foreclosures.

So that's also a little bit of good news. But again, going to your point, this is something that should have been pushed for by Democrats. And, you know, they keep talking about electability when it comes to the candidate that they've propped up. But it's not just about their perspective on who's more electable. It's also about having a message that resonates with the working class that they can really, like, have some receipts to show for, right? And right now, I think that they are. They're failing miserably, to say the least. We've got to take a break, but you do not want to miss this next story.

My favorite Bernie is salty Bernie, and you're about to get a little taste of that when we return. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-F-Ing 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 On 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. New York Times described UNFTR as consistently compelling and educational, aiming to challenge conventional wisdom and upend the historical narratives that were taught in school. For as the great philosopher Yoda once put it, you must unlearn what you have learned.

And that's true whether you're in Jedi training or you're uprooting and exposing all the propaganda and disinformation you've been fed over the course of your lifetime. So search for UNFDR in your podcast app today. and get ready to get informed, angered, and entertained, all at the same time. Hey guys, welcome back to the show. Anna, Nando, and Francesca with you. So I want to read some TYT lives. Melissa writes in and says, that audible what?

Perfectly lined up with the what my brain was screaming at me. I don't remember which one. I don't remember who said the what. Are these older comments? No, these are new. Right back and tell us what you mean by that. By the way, from our members' comments, Pocket in a Pocket asked, is Jank okay?

Is he still in the TYT bunker from yesterday? Jank is okay. He had a tooth infection, which has been dealt with. But apparently it was so painful that he shouldn't have been on the show at all yesterday, but he couldn't help himself. And so talking as much as he did set him back. But he's fine, he's healthy, he's just recovering, and he'll be back on the show in no time. Pork Chop Express says a shortage of supplies, even though we knew about this how long ago,

more irresponsibility. I'm sure he'll also take credit for this act, even though he did nothing at the beginning. Yeah, that's how Trump does things. I mean, he thinks that the government's response to this pandemic has been a 10 out of 10. Like, he's ridiculous. Gabby Marita says, this point. might be the first time Trump's realized being president is an actual job. You're right, I've noticed that as well. It almost feels like- You gotta get out of bed at a certain time, can't watch TV all day. You know how we all have like, I don't know if we all have it, but there's usually like a defining moment or phase in everyone's life where they're forced to mature, right?

They have to really take responsibility or they're forced to mature. It's usually like when you're a teenager or something. I feel like it happened to Trump like yesterday. Three days ago, yeah. Yeah. No, he's like at like eight years old, he's finally object permanence is like setting in. The world doesn't stop when he leaves the room, et cetera. It's very, very scary.

I mean, that's why people are saying he looks presidential. It's like, obviously, because someone just briefed him on the fact that we could have 2.2 million cases in this country if we don't take precautions three weeks ago. Yeah. It's just anyway, all right, well, I wanted to make one other announcement before we move on to my favorite story of the day. So if you are subscribed to TYT on YouTube, did you know that you usually do not get any type of notification about our content unless you ring the bell? So there's like a little bell feature on YouTube that we want to show you. And really the only way for you to be updated about everything that we do here at TYT is for you to just click on that bell. And if you do so, you'll get those notifications. So let's take a look at that page, a little cursor, there it is. So you subscribe. And then after you subscribe, there's a little bell right there, right?

You gotta click on that bell, guys, click on it. And then you'll get notified every time we post a video or have an announcement for the show. And that also really helps the show, right? So do it. You can ring my bell, ring my bell. Do we have to pay royalty for this? I think we do. I think that was awesome.

Don't talk about our singing. Good harmonization over here between you, too. I'm a terrible singer, so I thank you for that compliment. All right, well, let's move on to Salty Bernie. Bernie Sanders had an interesting interaction with CNN's Manu Raju today. Now, this was during a press conference that Sanders was holding in an effort to, you know, inform the public on updates regarding COVID-19, the coronavirus. And so there's been a lot of pressure for Bernie Sanders to drop out of the race, especially after, you know, what happened on Super Tuesday. It was not a good day for him

yesterday during the primaries, also not a good day for him. And so, you know, the Democratic establishment, along with members of the media, are urging him, like, when are you going to drop out? When are you going to drop out? So during this very important critical press conference for a lot of people, right? They want to know what's going on with COVID-19. Apparently, Manu Raju asked about the election, and Bernie didn't like it. So the first I learned of this was through a tweet by Eric Brandner, who's a national political reporter for CNN. He tweeted, Bernie Sanders, when Manu Raju asked his time frame for a decision, and this is what he was quoted as saying, I'm dealing with an effing global crisis, and he actually said the word.

Right now, I'm trying to do my best to make sure that we don't have an economic meltdown and that people don't die. Is that enough for you to keep me busy for today? I personally love that response, right? But that's me. Madhu Raju shared his own tweets on this, so let me give you some more details. He says, the blowup occurred about halfway through a five-minute gaggle where Sanders talked about the unprecedented crisis of our lifetime. calling for a range of measures that the United States government should take in the midst

of the economic crisis. Then Lisa Muscaro asked what he's saying to his supporters and he sidestepped the question. So she's obviously asking about like, hey, what are you telling your supporters about this race? Noting he sent out a statement. Then I asked about his time frame and he was furious afterwards he melted, or I'm sorry, he mellowed out and answered questions about the crisis for about two more minutes. So I have some issues with Manu Raju, you know, nothing personal.

It just he's lied about things in the past, about interactions that he's had. So for instance, in a tweet earlier, he had said this, Representative Ilhan Omar in no mood to talk about her controversies this week. First she said, no thank you. When asked to comment on Trump saying she would resign, second time I saw her, she yelled. He used the word yelled. She yelled, are you serious when I asked or when I tried to question her? And then this video came up and it totally went against how he described the situation.

Omar has apologized, but our own Manu Raju found her quite unwilling to discuss the controversy when he asked her about it today. You're serious. I'm asking you a question about your tweet. You had a tweet. Yes, I tweeted. There's a response, you can run that, you have a mace day. It's kind of hard to argue that the politician was yelling at you when the very news outlet you work for had to use like subtitles for the audience to like hear, to read what she was

saying, she was smiling. So look, I don't know if Manu Raju's description of what happened is accurate. But to be honest with you, I don't even care because I think the way Bernie Sanders handled it was right. Like we're talking about COVID-19. And look, I'm not trying to make this election, you know, unimportant, but like, let's focus on what this press conference is about first and then we'll get to, you know, whether he's going to drop out later. I love Manu Raju's Twitter profile pig is him interviewing John McCain. You know, that's like- The Maverick himself.

Yeah, it's like reporters love John McCain. Anyway, yeah, this, I mean, it just, it shows like the absurdity of the obsession with, like, horse race coverage with like, you know, the, like, like, trying to figure out the controversy of the latest, like, gossip and all that stuff, when there's, like, a global crisis going on. It's just, it sort of crystallizes it perfectly, that this, the vast majority of the media is equipped to cover basically gossip, you know, like, when are you dropping out? When are you dropping out? Like, who cares? To be fair, they're treated more in the same way.

Of course, no, no, that's the whole media. Like, right? Oh, yeah, yeah. She doesn't owe anyone anything. No, I mean, that's the thing, like, all last night was the immediate conversation, obviously, was when is Bernie dropping out, you know, what does it mean to not drop out? And again, when there was not a clear path for Elizabeth Warren, no one in the news media even floated that question. She rolled in a Super Tuesday knowing that it would not go well and was never asked

when she would drop out leading up to that or really even after. There was some of that in independent media. There was some of that in independent media. I'm just like, at what point is it like sexists to treat her with that much kid glove behavior. Like, no, seriously, like, I'm never the one who's like, actually, you know, I think it's fine to be chivalrous and whatever, but like, you're running for president, you're a grown woman. Like, let's treat your candidacy like you're a grown woman, like everyone who supports you, you know, deserves also to understand whether you had a path or not. Now, I just want to say with Bernie and not dropping out, I think a lot of Democrats think, like,

well, you know, it'll be better if he does drop out for like our country as a whole. Not true. Not true at all. We need, I think, as many leaders as possible. And I think Sanders, both being a senator and actually running for president, helps this effort on multiple levels to combat Republican ineptitude. Yeah. So I think it's important to have him. And I think it's important to have him still in the race. Well, the other, the thing that a lot of mainstream Democrats say is they make the argument that criticizing Joe Biden is only going to give ammo to the Republicans in November. Oh, that's a great point.

As if they're like these blind people who need to have access to the secret Joe Biden files that Bernie has, you know, like the secret lines of criticism that they have not figured out already that are clean before anyone's eyes. Well, I have news for them also. Republicans are far more vicious than any of- Oh, they're going so much harder than Bernie. But then any of, you know, the left-wing critics could ever even imagine being, right? Yeah, it's like, you know, Bernie in 2016 was like, you know, I'm not too comfortable with Hillary giving $100,000 speeches to Wall Street. Republicans are like, she's a literal demon who came up from the ground.

It has horns. Yeah, totally. She's running a child sex trafficking. Yeah, Pizza Gate, you know, like, well, not that far off. Yeah, Pizza Gate, like, she has a terminal illness. Like, they go to places that. It's like, it's not, it doesn't compare. Well, and that's what's actually scary.

Like if you do believe that Biden is the best candidate to beat Trump, then show it now. Show it by being able to withstand the criticism, respond to the criticism, own up to the mistakes if there were mistakes made in the past. And that shows that you actually can withstand the Republicans come November. So Jake said something yesterday that was thought provoking for me. I'm trying to process it and decide how I feel about it because I think that there might be like a grain of truth to it, right? So the argument that he made, because I said during the member's only postgame show, and by the way, you should support the show, become a member, t-y-t.com slash Joe. Don't tell them the argument was.

All the good spicy takeoff. You're going to know about the argument. But I want to give you a sense of like the kind of things that we discuss. And so, Jank was Skyping in and he, I said, Bernie should stay in the race, right? Even knowing that it's not looking good for him, I recognize that. I don't think like, oh, he's got a great chance of winning. But because I agree with you in that the message that he carries is an important message. And it inspires people, it activates people.

And I don't, people dismiss that. But I think that's important. I didn't, by the way, I didn't make that case as eloquently last night. I was like not in a good place, like a good headspace. But anyway, Jake responded by saying, no, it's not good for progressives. And the argument that he was making was that the longer he stays in the race, right? worse progressives are going to look because he's going to appear to be, like, further dividing the party, like, because that's the way we know the establishment will play it, right?

And let's say Biden loses to Trump, which isn't impossible. I think that there's a pretty decent likelihood that that's going to happen, right? Then they'll blame Bernie for that. The only thing I'll say is that no matter what Bernie does, they're going to blame Bernie. Like, in 2016, he campaigned for Hillary Clinton. Like, I don't know, like, and look at how they thank them for. You know, like they still kept on with this fiction that, you know, he did some sort of untold damage to Hillary that wouldn't have been done by the Republicans anyway, you know,

like they're not gonna, they've shown what they're willing to do. They're willing to basically strong arm people in their quote unquote lane to drop out, even though like Pete Buttigieg did something that was completely unprecedented in which he came in first or second in Iowa, New Hampshire, and he dropped out before Super Tuesday. No one's ever done that in the history of American politics. They're willing to do that and they're willing to hold a primary in the middle of a global pandemic. Like they're willing to do things that are beyond the pale.

So this idea that we can kow to potential criticisms from them and that it will somehow, you know, eliminate those criticisms is ridiculous. Like they won't, they will not give us anything. Like they're- Yeah, I disagree that, that I agree with Nando and I do disagree with Jank. No matter what progressives are going to be blamed. And I actually do think it is important for Bernie to stay in the race because I do think it is important for his leadership and his voice to be there so that people are not as alienated going into the general.

That's a really good point. And I think that because if he drops out, suddenly it's like, well, why pay attention to politics? You know, I feel like I was, you know, not duped again, but like this election was, you know, stolen or why, you know, there's no progressives in the race anymore and da-da-da-da, versus being able to get to the convention, making demands on the Biden campaign, which is what happened after 2016 in the convention with the Clinton campaign, and giving progressives like a real, if you believe, if you do want to beat Trump, and I know Bernie has said he would support Biden, then say, this is how, Biden's going to be the candidate, but here are our demands.

Right. And we've had, because we're rolling into this convention with some support, you know, we have more grounds to make those demands as they did in 2016. And Clinton actually did take on some of the proposals that the Bernie team. Her rhetoric certainly moved further to the left. You're right on that. One thing that I did want to add to it though, I think that one other upside of Bernie staying in this race, and it really does have a lot to do with messaging and using what's happening

right now, and it's a tragedy what a lot of Americans are going, what people around the world are going through right now with this pandemic, it's a teachable moment. And I worry that without Bernie in the race, we're going to forget, not we, but the media cycle, average Americans are going to stop talking about the type of solutions that he's proposed and how they would be helpful in the middle of this crisis, right? If we had already implemented those policies, how much better off we would be as a country, how much better off workers would be, companies would be, and how we would feel a little less unstable.

Like, I feel so unstable right now. So the other thing is that Bernie is a genuine movement candidate. And the problem with being a movement candidate is that you kind of keep the movement going. And that's the only source of power that the movement has is if the movement kind of is activated and keeps going and keeps pressuring and keeps, you know, That was Obama's biggest quote unquote mistake in 2008 is that he built up this giant grassroots organization, Obama for America, and as soon as he became president, he shut it down.

Bernie shouldn't do that. He should keep his ability to rally millions of people to command the attention of millions of people, even if the media doesn't cover him. I mean, if Bernie does a Facebook live or whatever, hundreds of thousands of people watch it. That is political power, you know, that is a source of power. If he drops out of the race, it makes it harder for him to do that. And I will say it's not, like, it's not anti-democratic.

I think a lot of, again, sort of like centrist Democrats are like, no, no, no, but we're going to lose. It'll, it'll, like, ruin our chances. Not at all. I think it's anti-democratic to pressure someone to drop out. That's what, that is exactly right. It is more democratic to say, no, we're going to, like, actually come together with a lot of tension, with a lot of criticism, and actually forge a path forward in this big tent.

Like, that's more democratic than saying, no, no, no, you drop out, fall in line, end of story. I love your point about leadership. Bernie is a person who thinks differently from almost any other politician in American politics. And what you're talking about, I feel very unstable right now. This is a crisis beyond anything that we can imagine right now. This is a literal world historic event. And to have his voice providing solutions, providing comfort, providing all manner of things, like Joe Biden comes up and does a press conference on coronavirus, like does anyone

care about what this man has to say about it? Like literally does anyone care? Like even the people who voted for him like no one's trying to care. They're like, no one's going to tune into that. Maybe I'll be inspired. No. I mean, and what's he going to say that's not just some empty platitude, right? Like Bernie's going to propose concrete things. He's going to actually try to forge a way forward and at least put that idea in people's heads that a new way forward is possible. So like I think he's got to stay in. He's not going to get any, he's not going to get any kudos for dropping up. Yeah, I definitely agree with you on that.

So write in, let us know what you think. I'm really curious what our members think about that. And we're going to take a quick break. When we come back, though, we'll talk about Rand Paul. I disagree with him on a lot of things. But after this next story that we share with you, you can't deny that he seems to be a man of principle. Oh, he totally is.

Yeah. So we'll go to that story and more when we return. 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 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.

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today in the meantime enjoy this free segment welcome back to t yt a few member comments for you eclectic miscellaneous says wow bernie sander's getting salty with cnn it's about time he's obviously been watching t yt's coverage i think he's been busy but no he watches the show every every that's what i tell myself can you imagine it'd be amazing he's like you're like the fox and friends of Bernie. It would make everything worth it. Like, you know, we all have those moments, right? Like, I can't be the only one who's like, was it worth it?

Why didn't I become a hedge fund manager? And the Casparian, I like when she does the newsreads. That would make my life. The member comments are my favorite part of the show getting the people involved. There are no millionaires or billionaires in that audience. Yeah, yeah. I love it. There might be, I don't know.

Nick V says, Salty Bernie Forever. my way, Norway or the highway says... Wow, that's good. The name's always, I love the names. Me too. Me too. Except for that one about Jenks like nipple piercings or whatever. Like that one, I don't.

Yeah, exactly. Jake has a nipple piercing? No, he doesn't. Someone has a handle. How do you know? Actually, I don't know. You know, fan art is real. He doesn't seem to be a nipple pierced type.

If there's a picture of it, then I believe it, then it's real. It happens. The mathematician says, this is why we all love Bernie Sanders. If only he'd shown this level of vim and vinegar, when fighting Joe Biden and the establishment, the primary might have ended differently. We clearly need to pass the candidate mantle onto someone younger and armed with a flamethrower. I'd get Ilhan Omar to do it. I don't think she can run for president because she was born in Somalia.

Yeah, I mean, that's a very, that's a very loosey, goosey, because Ted Cruz was born in Canada and he ran for president. But it's a natural born citizen, which is a very vague term. Is that a movie? I don't know. Is he? I don't know. I don't know.

Yeah. American killer, same thing sometimes. By the way, Melissa wrote back to tell us what she was referring to, excuse my memory, all I know is Nando is the one who said what? Sorry Anna Casparian, I will try to reference what I'm talking about in my tweets. No, don't apologize. Never apologize. No.

No. Thank you for tweeting. Yeah, you don't need to apologize. You didn't do anything wrong. All right, well, let's move on to the rest of the news. the news. So, as Senate Republicans were deciding whether they were going to pass the House version of economic relief to Americans in the middle of this coronavirus pandemic, Rand Paul was

the one Republican senator who was holding out because he wanted some concessions, not just from Democrats, but from Republicans as well. So Senate leaders were scrambling Tuesday to pass coronavirus legislation as quickly as possible. But Senator Rand Paul put a damper on those plans. So this is the second coronavirus aid bill that they're talking about and debating, right? So the sources said Paul was forcing a vote on his amendment, which would require a social security number for purposes of the child tax credit and to provide the president the authority to transfer funds as necessary and to terminate United States military operations and

and reconstruction activities in Afghanistan. Yeah. So he's notorious in his opposition to these interventionist wars, regime change wars. It's one of the things that he's really well known for. And so it's interesting that he used this moment of crisis to tap into that and try to get some concessions from lawmakers. Now Chuck Schumer was not pleased by it. And so he said in a time of national emergency, this Republican amendment is ridiculous, a colossal

waste of time. We probably could have voted on this bill a day or two ago, if not for the need to schedule this amendment. And by the way, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was also displeased. He said, my counsel to them is to gag and vote for it. Hmm, sounds dirty. My council loves to gag and vote for us. Yeah, that's how I eat. It's a gaggle on it. My name's Mr. McConnell. I love to gag on the Senate bill. So let me just note that the bill did pass today. The bill did pass today. So it expands unemployment assistance.

It includes nutrition assistance. It increases resources for testing so people can get coronavirus testing for free. It also includes paid family leave up to 12 weeks, but it will now be offered to parents caring for children who are home from school because of the school closures. Small businesses with less than 50 employees, including health care firms, will now also be required to pay for sick leave or family leave at the discretion of the labor department, two weeks of paid sick leave capped at $511 per day will still be provided to some workers at companies with less than 500 employees.

So that loophole that we talked about, that concession that Nancy Pelosi provided to Republicans, that still stands. But lawmakers are still working on another version. Like they just passed this for now, they're working on an improved version moving forward. We'll see how that looks. Yeah, I mean, if I understood his amendment correctly, I think the social security number put in there was like a- For immigrants, right? That was basically targeting the undocumented population in this country.

So it was basically just a turd with like, you know, some frosting on top. Because like the frosting is, yeah, get out of Afghanistan, what are we doing still there? And then the turd being, you know, racism. Yeah, that, I mean, it's so clear that he just, he doesn't want to offer, look, Undocumented immigrants are people, too, right? So you might disagree with how our immigration system works, but you're a lawmaker. You guys should have passed comprehensive immigration reform, and then after that shut the F up. Exactly.

Well, not just that, but they also can contract and pass on coronavirus. COVID doesn't discriminate. That's a great point. That's such a good point. And they work a huge amount in what's called like this sort of unofficial economy, right? And in Trump properties and stuff like that. Yeah, too. But like, you know, domestic workers often are undocumented.

Like, they can't go, they can't go to work. Yeah, this is the type of public health issue that impacts everyone. And you can't, like, exempt certain groups of people because of your political agenda. Because, yeah, you guys are absolutely right. We want to stop the spread of COVID-19. And creating a situation that Rand Paul would want, right, does nothing to help halt the spread. Yeah, I mean, I was just going to say, I do think it is, like, it's heartening to me as much as I hate Mitch McConnell and I dislike Chuck Schumer. But it is nice to see, like, Congress doing something, like some kind of agreement.

Like, this is the moment where you need to be able to prove that as lawmakers, you can actually get stuff done. Well, look, if I were a lawmaker and I wanted to play the same games that have been played in Congress for years. now, for decades now, I'd be concerned about pitchforks, and I think that that might be part of it, really. Yeah, I mean, if people can't, like, buy bread in two weeks, which, like, there's going to be millions of Americans, like, if there's no relief that doesn't come immediately, like, people are going to be like, I can't eat, I literally cannot eat. Yeah.

There's not, no one has any savings, no one. No one, no, and by the way, I just want to note, if you look at case study after case study, When do countries, municipalities experience an uptick in violence? It's when people are economically desperate, right? Financially desperate. And if they didn't act quickly, this situation would be even worse and it would devolve at a rapid pace. So I think that's part of the reason why that they were willing to act in this bipartisan way. And I hope that they offer more relief moving forward because I don't agree with that.

loophole when it comes to sick, paid time off. It's woefully inadequate. I agree. Yeah. It's woefully inadequate. So the second half of this though is the Afghanistan part of the story. And so like I'm of two minds on that, right? Because on one hand, is this really the time to hold up incredibly important legislation to

make a point about wars? And by the way, I agree with him when it comes to Afghanistan. I agree with some of his foreign policy. At the same time though, when we're dealing with Congress that's full of like all these feckless, craven, you know, spineless politicians who have no principles or morals, it is kind of nice to see someone who has, you know, the Cajones, I guess, to stick to his principles even when he knows that it's going to be a super unpopular thing to do. Yeah, I mean, he is a legitimate libertarian ideologue, I mean, which libertarianism

is goofy and dumb, but he sticks to it and he's consistent with it. He's not like one of these people say, like, call themselves. libertarian and then are just basically Republicans. But he's, he, he is like a genuine libertarian ideal. I thought this, I like, it's, I feel like it's Christmas if you're a libertarian. Now you're like, yeah, you know, we could just like, everyone run amok and everyone on their own and there is no plan for the pandemic. Woo! Like, you know, like I've been meaning to build this moat around my house for months. Now I have time to do it to keep out all the illegals or whatever. Like, I don't know how libertarians talk, but the point is, is like, uh, I've been meaning to, uh, I'm

I don't know why he's not celebrating because the entire point of being government but also libertarian is ridiculous. I will say this about Afghanistan, they're straight up hospitals that the U.S. has built that are empty in Afghanistan. Like, what if we had invested those hospitals and that construction in the U.S.? We were spreading democracy, Francesca, come on. This is just another reminder that we're still in Afghanistan, which I forget about it. And then like some little news alert will come up like, oh, we say we're still in Afghanistan,

20 years later. And, you know, like, I mean, the U.S. did a nice little air strike in Iraq last week in the middle of this pandemic, too. They were like, oh, we're going to do a little air strike, you know? Like, we're just going to keep doing, we're just going to the empire rolls on, baby. You know, like the coronavirus is going to bring us all to our knees. But the cruise missiles, they got to keep going. Well, we have some more international news for you guys.

Unfortunately, it's not cheery news at all. It's pretty devastating. I want to give you an update on what's happening with Iran right after this break. Thank you. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen to ad-free, access members, only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.