The Young Turks - TYT Extended Clip - March 20th, 2020

Episode Date: March 21, 2020

Trump’s swamp is getting rich from the coronavirus outbreak. Ana Kasparian and John Iadarola, 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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I'm Anna Kasparian, joining me. As my co-host for the day is John Ida Rola, co-host for a lot of days, actually. What's up, John? Turns out. How's it going? Pretty good. Pretty good. Look at this.

Started off with a good camera, although my internet connection could be improved. I'll be working on that probably over the weekend, but lots of big stories to get to today. Yeah. Yeah. I want to. I know. I know. So I wanted to just remind everyone who may not know what our plan is as we're,

you know, practicing social distancing. We will be doing a live show every day, Monday through Friday. However, it will be a one-hour show as opposed to a two-hour show because of some of the tech issues. And, you know, we're all in our homes for good reason. And so in lieu of that second hour, we're providing live videos on our YouTube channel throughout the day. I actually did my first live video on YouTube today, and it was luckily a success.

I was nervous about it. It worked out. And so we're going to be doing more and more of that. So you guys are still going to get coverage of the big stories. You're still going to get a pretty lengthy live show, considering the situation we're in. And then we're still going to do our members-only content right after that one hour. So make sure you check that out. John and I did a great postgame show yesterday for our members.

And for anyone who's interested in becoming a member to watch that exclusive content, you can always become one by going to t-y-t.com slash join. So, John, I want to get started with what I think is the biggest story of the day. Obviously, there's a lot going on in the news, but there's criminal behavior happening in the Senate right before our very eyes. And I want to know what's going to happen, what the consequences are going to be. So let's get into the details. So there's insider trading happening within the Senate.

In fact, because of this whole coronavirus story, we're learning that as many as four U.S. senators, Three Republicans and one Democrat were briefed on the seriousness of coronavirus months ago. They knew about the seriousness of coronavirus and the severity of the situation months ago. And rather than really tell the American people about that severity, they decided to sell some stocks, maybe because they realized that this would be pretty painful for share prices. And they didn't want to take the hit. So they sold quite a bit of shock. Now, one of those individuals is a senator who wasn't elected, but rather appointed.

And so let's get to her. And before we do it, I want to make sure everyone is fully aware of what the law is. So let's get to that. It's illegal for members of Congress to trade on non-public information gleaned through their official duties. I mentioned that because I'm seeing a lot of nonsense online about like, no, well, they're U.S. Senators, so the law doesn't pertain to them, it certainly does apply to them. Okay? So let's get that out of the way. Now let's get to some of these offenders. One of them is Senator Kelly Loughler, who, again, was not elected. She was appointed. And she reported the first sale of stock

jointly owned by her and her husband on January 24th. The very day that her committee, the Senate Health Committee, hosted a private, all-senators briefing from administration officials, including the CDC director and Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

on the coronavirus. So just to give you a sense of how much she sold. Between January 24th and February 14th, Loeffler reported selling stock jointly owned with her husband worth over a million dollars, $1,275,000 and $3,100,000, according to transaction reports filed with Senate Ethics

officials. On February 14th, lovely Valentine's Day, she also purchased, I know, she also purchased the Citrix stock and another $100,000 to $250,000 in technology company Oracle, which has seen its share price decline by more than 18% since then. Now, I mentioned the two stocks that she did purchase because it's technology stock that is very much related to people who work from home, right? So lots of telecommunication stuff going on there. You would expect, based on the information that she was given during that briefing, that if people are going to be forced to work from home, then they're going to rely on some of that technology

and some of that, you know, share prices are going to go up. Some of those share prices are going to go up. So, John, there's a lot more to this. But I want to hear what you think so far about this criminal insider trading. Yeah. Yeah, obviously, I have a lot of thoughts. I agree, biggest story of the day. That last angle I'm not 100% sure on.

If it was, you know, a briefing back in January, did they, would they have known for sure that there would be this like nationwide lockdown? I don't know. I think that the sales probably say more in an obvious fashion than the purchases. It's definitely, it seems like a massive coincidence if she and other senators just like they decided to do all their trading right around then. And anyway, look, the whole point is to have an investigation. Like we have access to some amount of information from their required disclosures.

There is more information that could be gathered by some sort of commission that should look into her and Burr and a number of others. Because I doubt, I doubt dozens of senators left that room. two of them ran to log on to Fidelity, and the rest were like, so who wants a sandwich? Like, it was probably more widespread. And very importantly, I would see, did they communicate with other people and advise them? I mean, in the case of Burr, we know about that, like luncheon or whatever it was, the VIP group, did others communicate with people that they knew? Did they give them tips? I fear that this probably goes wider than just a handful of senators.

I absolutely agree. And I want to be clear about one other thing. I don't care about the political ideology of any of these people. Diane Feinstein is also implicated in all of this. And I agree there should be a full investigation. That's how our system is supposed to work. I'm not saying like consequences without an investigation. But this certainly looks to be insider trading. And I think that every single senator who is present for these types of briefings should, you know, should be looked into, right, just to see, like, what their financial reports indicate. So let me give you some more details. And maybe once I give a fuller picture, you'll understand why I feel so strongly about this possibly being criminal activity. So one of Loeffler's two purchases was stock worth between $100,000 and $250,000 in Citrix.

Again, that's a technology company that offers teleworking software and which has seen a small bump in its stock price since Loughler bought in as a result of coronavirus influenced market turmoil. Now, the 15 stocks that Lofler reported selling have lost more than a third of their value on average since she reported offloading them. She initially reported many of the transactions as sales of stock owned by her husband. Last week, she amended the filing to note that most of them were jointly owned. So I wonder why she was withholding that information initially.

Again, there's a lot of fishy stuff going on. Now, while it appears that she knew about the seriousness and the severity of coronavirus, because she wanted to protect her finances from the implications, publicly she was saying very different things. So she was not informing the public of that severity. In fact, she was in many occasions defending Donald Trump's handling of the situation. Let's go to this next video because it shows, you know, a statement that she made publicly on March 10th. Take a look. First of all, I want to commend this administration, the president, the vice president,

for leading such a strong response, everything from travel bans, travel advisories to screening that's underway that has really slowed this. spreading to America. We talked in the meeting today about some additional responses that the administration is looking to take to make sure that consumers are protected, that we have all the medical testing that we need, and that the economy stays strong. The good news is the consumer is strong, the economy is strong, jobs are growing. Our president has done a fantastic job, making sure that we're in the best position to manage through this situation. Yeah, the president's doing such a fantastic job.

I mean, he rejected testing kits that we desperately need. He downplayed coronavirus and how rapidly it spreads to the point where people were in, you know, just out and about not taking it seriously because the president wasn't taking it seriously. Yeah, I mean, great response. She's just- And also the difference between the public statements and what she's doing behind the scene. She's like, okay, we're live, okay, he's doing great job, everything's going to be fun.

I'm just looking forward to 2020. It's going to be great. Okay, dump the stocks, buy me property on top of a mountain, and get me the biggest gun you can. Like that's effectively what she was, as far as we know, was doing behind the scenes. And that's, part of my frustration is that like, like I've been saying, we've been talking about this for a very long time on the damage report, and we've been following the development of the way the media and the Trump administration has been talking about it since it started

to be an issue for the United States. And because he and all of these Republicans, like, were so actively dismissive, like, disdainful towards people who are who are pitching it as a potential problem. Sean Hannity now is like, he's like saying he wants to help out Cuomo. Like he has this massive guilty conscience for calling it over and over again a hoax. He must feel horrible about that now, justifiably so. We want some sort of consequences, I think. A lot of people who feel like they allowed this to develop to where it's at and they're

not going to suffer any consequences. And so I think one of the reasons that this insider trading story has taken off is because it feels like, oh, this is an inroads to something actually being done. Them simply not doing their job, they're legally allowed to do that. The Constitution has no problem with them allowing Americans to die because of their inaction. But if we can get them on the stock trading, then maybe that's something, which is why just briefly, I would say, how about we come up with like some sort of compromise? How about this? They don't go to jail. And And they pass a law banning all stock ownership from members of the House and the Senate forever. No exceptions, you can't own stock.

I want both. I want both. Yeah. After a full- Okay, that'll be the starting position. Yeah. And look, you get into the details and it's just so obvious. And this is based on the limited information that we have. By the way, she was supposed to provide like the full scope of her, you know, finances,

including her activity within the stock market. And she applied for an extension. So I'm also very curious about that. But just to give you another statement that she made publicly, she said, it's amazing. So right after that briefing in January, she went on Twitter and said the following, appreciate today's briefing from the president's top health

officials on the novel coronavirus outbreak. These men and women are working around the clock to keep our country safe and healthy. No, they're not. I mean, there might be some individuals. Trump was not working around the clock. Trump thought of this as a PR issue. Kushner thought of this as a PR issue.

They thought of it as a problem for Trump's image. They did not really think about the ramifications, the consequences, the lives that would be lost due to their inaction and their incompetence. And so that's, look, there's, yes, there's the health component of this. It didn't have to get as bad as it's become. if they had taken the... We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-F-The-Republic, or UNFTR.

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All of this like social distancing stuff, things shutting down, the supermarkets getting swamped. Like average Americans didn't get an opportunity to prepare. And these people knew for months about what would happen and how serious this was. And they were certainly able to take care of. themselves financially. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. As Trump's messaging around it was developing, we were pointing that out. Now lots of people are like trying to like putting together montages of what Trump said over the course of a couple months to like point out like, hey, we were saying this was wrong

at the time. He was ignoring it, trying to convince people of that. But honestly, we don't even have to look in the past. He just earlier today was saying in terms of the ability the federal government to purchase and distribute ventilators, masks and things like that, he said, yeah, we're not in supply chains, okay? We're not distributing that stuff. Governors really need to step up and do that. Like today, he still feels like, okay, I have to pretend like I care about this, but come on, we're not going to get into like, you know, sending supplies around so people don't die. That's a bridge too far. It's so frustrating. And by the way, governors are angry because they're being outbid by the federal government as they're trying to obtain some of these,

you know, medical devices, things that their state needs in order to treat people with coronavirus. And it's just, it's so infuriating. But let's talk a little bit about what her reaction has been to some of the backlash. And by the way, she's not the only one. I'm just, I'm focusing on her because she's the latest case and it's just so egregious. Like, she denies any wrongdoing. She offers no apologies. She should be gone by now. She should not be in Senate.

She should have stepped down. But instead, she remains defined and says, this is a ridiculous and baseless attack. I do not make investment decisions for my portfolio. Investment decisions are made by multiple third-party advisors without me or my husband's knowledge or involvement. Yeah, not buying it at all, because the timing is way too much of a coincidence, but more importantly, it's hard to make that argument when your

husband is literally the person who runs the New York Stock Exchange. I'm not even kidding. Okay, so the Atlanta businesswoman, according to the Daily Beast, whose husband is the chairman and CEO of the New York Stock Exchange, has a fortune estimated at $500 million. In fact, when she was appointed to the Senate, she automatically set the record for the richest lawmaker. Jesus. See, I actually didn't know that. Yeah. Disgusting. So I do want- Really fast. What additional thing there. So she says they made the decisions. I didn't say anything. Okay, but that's, that is what an investigation will uncover. We're going to look in. We're going to see. Were their phone calls? Were their messages? We have to look at a very narrow range of dates. Was there communication with these individuals? Put them under oath. You know, question them about it and find out because we are talking about serious crimes. It's not just, sort of political thing, this is 100% illegal. You can investigate to find out. And so far, I haven't seen, I've seen that, you know, like people saying, including AOC and even Carlson saying that like Burr should step down and Loeffler should as well. But let's get the

the wheels moving on an actual investigation. They can definitely start that. I totally agree. I definitely want to see that investigation. And, you know, we talked about Burr a little bit yesterday, but just for people who might have missed that story, the Center for responsive politics reported Thursday that Senator Richard Burr, a Republican, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, sold between $500,000 and $1.5 million in stock in February shortly before markets tanked and before Burr privately warned of the havoc that coronavirus posed, right? So he had that meeting with the wealthy donors, and that was when he warned his wealthy donors about it. But publicly, he did not warn average Americans about the seriousness or the severity.

And as I had mentioned earlier, these two are not the only senators who are suspected of insider trading. John is right. There should be a full investigation. Senator Dianne Feinstein is the only Democrat on the list so far. And then you have Senator Jim Inhoff and Senator Ron Johnson, who says that he has a good explanation for his sale of stocks. But I want to see an investigation to this. I want to see disclosures from every other senator that was involved in those briefings because any average American who did the same, who participated in insider trading, would be prosecuted immediately. No questions asked. For all of the people out there,

including, you know, left independent media outlets that are, you know, just urging them to resign, great, but we should demand more than that, right? Because far too often, if there's criminality here, people in positions of power get away with it. They don't get prosecuted. And I'm tired of it. This is unacceptable. Not only did they put the lives of Americans at risk. They also put the finances of Americans at risk and, you know, did all this criminal stuff behind the scenes to enrich themselves if it's proven after an investigation. So that's the bulk of the story. Can I just say, you know, we're all looking for things to like make a smile these days and waking up and seeing your response to her, like, her tweet, and your response was just prison.

I know, I know. No, she's just ridiculous. Like, oh, I don't know. I mean, I'm a really wealthy Georgia businesswoman, but, like, I'm dumb. I don't know what's happening with my stocks. You know, come on. I don't. Well, maybe I'm being unfair.

I don't think so. But let's just do the investigation and find out what's going on. We should demand more than just resign. All right. We got to take a break. When we come back, we have some more details on what the White House is attempting to pass in terms of a stimulus. And let me just say it is 100% garbage. We'll be right back. let's, Eddie O'Donnell writes in and says Anna and John is the, is all the power panel for this Friday afternoon slash evening. Yes, I think that we are going to do it this way on Fridays during the distancing for good reason, just to keep things as simple as possible for tech reasons. And by the way, speaking of tech comments, thank you to everyone who's been so kind to us

throughout this whole process. You guys have been so incredible and so sweet. Hungry now. Now. What about now? Whenever it hits you, wherever you are, grab an O. Henry bar to satisfy your hunger. With its delicious combination of big, crunchy, salty peanuts,

covered in creamy caramel, and chewy fudge with a chocolatey coating. Swing by a gas station. and get an O'Henry today. Oh, hungry, oh, Henry. As I mentioned yesterday, our team's been working so hard, and I'm really proud of everyone. And Blakely says, Anna, please stop apologizing for the quality of the show.

You guys are doing an incredible job and bringing us much-needed news. You don't get enough thanks for all you do, so thank you, thank you. I have canceled all non-essentials, but refuse to cancel my TYT membership. So I'm so grateful for you guys. it makes me like emotional. So thank you. All right. Well, let's move on to our next story,

because I want to keep an eye on what's really happening with the White House and Senate Republicans, what they're really proposing and trying to help Americans. And as we said yesterday, there's a lot of big talk publicly. But if you really get into the details of what they're proposing, it's not good. So we have some details on what the White House and Senate Republicans have been working on to provide relief to Americans who are suffering as a result of this economy coming to a screeching halt. Now, it's come to a screeching halt for good reason. People are practicing social distancing in response to the spread of COVID-19, and several

industries have taken a hit. And so publicly, Republicans make it seem like they're coming from the left, like they're out-lefting Democrats. But in reality, you look at what they're proposing, and it's garbage. So first of all, they certainly do prioritize businesses and industries before they even really consider what Americans need to get by and pay their bills through this process. For instance, restaurants, they say, restaurants are saying that they need $325 billion in federal assistance. Boeing wants $60 billion. The travel industry has requested $250 billion, and manufacturers are seeking $1.4 trillion in loans to deal with the economic devastation. Now, I mentioned what they're asking for because, as I said, from what we're seeing from Republicans, they're really prioritizing these businesses.

Senate Republicans unveiled legislation that included $58 billion in loans and loan guarantees for passenger airlines and cargo carriers, $150 billion for unspecified eligible businesses. And I wonder if Trump's going to get some of that money. I wouldn't be surprised. Mar-a-Lago just shut down. He might want some. I would not be surprised. And $300 billion for small business loans, as well as direct cash payments to Americans. Ooh, direct cash payments to Americans. Let's get into the details about that, right?

So we've already mentioned that they wanted to do means testing. Their means testing is as mean as it gets. So individuals making, it's terrible. Like individuals making $75,000 based on a 2018 tax return would be eligible for $1,000, $200 payments or $2,400 for couples filing jointly. No, this is where you should pay close attention because this is where the means testing comes in. And people making more start getting less, but people making far less get even less. So individuals, where is it?

Okay, so the payments would decrease for those making more than $75,000 with an income cap of 99,000. $99,000 per individual or $198,000 for couples. The payments would also increase $500 for each child a person or couple has. However, taxpayers with little or no income tax liability, meaning people who make so little money that they don't pay federal taxes, but at least $2,500 of qualifying income would be eligible for only $600 or $1,200 for couples. the direct deposits appear to be just a one-time payment rather than two payments as initially proposed by the White House. So the poor essentially gets screwed over by this proposal. They're not actually doing two payments. They're doing a one-time thing. And the means testing

is it's stupid. People are desperate right now. And they, first of all, should offer far more in relief and they shouldn't punish people living in poverty. And one other thing to keep in mind, you know, this doesn't offer any type of protection or any type of relief for the 11 million undocumented people in this country, right? Many of whom do work, many of whom do pay taxes, Social Security taxes, sales taxes, depending on which state they're in, but they don't get any relief at all. Zero. Yeah, it's problematic even for the people who are going to get money. Like, you know, some people are saying hypothetically something like the current situation could exist for a year and a half. So when you get that $1,000, you're going to want to pace

yourself with your spending on that $1,000 over the next year and a half. But you rightfully point out, like I look at the numbers, like, you know, $60 billion for this, $350 billion. Like a lot of Americans, I think. I look at that number. and I have no idea if that's actually what's needed. The restaurant industry needs $325 billion. I don't know. I react like, I think, a lot of people, maybe. I don't know.

But I am, but I can look at who's not getting anything. I can see that and be, I think, rightfully frustrated by that. So it's going to be based on your 2018 tax return. That's a good idea because everyone has one of those, right? No, not everyone has one of those. And not everyone's economic situation is the same as it was back when they filed their taxes for 2018. And so if you, you know, if you're undocumented, if you're homeless, if you haven't worked for literally years, you could end up being incredibly left behind in this.

And it's not coincidental, of course, that all of these people who are going to receive the least relief are the ones who need it the most desperately. Absolutely, absolutely. And one other thing that I have a problem with is they're arguing that they want to provide all of this money to industries that have been hurt from coronavirus because they want to have these companies pass over certain protections, like paid leave, for instance. First of all, I mean, I would be shocked if Republicans actually included any type of enforcement or safeguards to ensure that that happens with the money.

But secondly, this is for people who employees who have, I guess, wage jobs or are on on payroll. But what happens to freelancers? What kind of relief is offered for freelancers? And I don't see anything in their proposal to protect them and to help them out. So there are, you know, some real flaws, some real issues here. And one of the other issues that I have is that Trump just straight up lied about the type of protections that he would offer to people who could be unhoused as a result of this. So let's hear what he had to say. And then I'll give you the details on what he's actually doing. But I'm also announcing that the Department of Housing and Urban Development is providing

immediate relief to renters and homeowners by suspending all foreclosures and evictions until the end of April. So we're working very closely with Dr. Ben Carson and everybody from HUD. So the reality is under the Department of Housing and Urban Development's plan, which was released Wednesday, foreclosures and evictions would stop for 60 days on single-family homes with loans through the Federal Housing Administration. That would apply to roughly 8 million units, according to HUD. Only FHA homes lived in for at least a year can be rented out. And by the way, that's compared with roughly 43 million households who rented in 2019,

according to the U.S. census. So this is not anywhere near what we need to protect people during this time. Yeah, and it's consistent with our main criticism is even when they want you to believe that now they take it seriously, they appear to take it seriously enough to say the right things, but the reality never matches it. It's enough to reassure people to potentially get them to think that Donald Trump is a good leader in this crisis, but not necessarily enough to stop the bottom from drop. out for millions and millions of Americans. And it's incredibly short-sighted because, I mean, how long do they think they can keep all of these deceitful balls in the air? At some point,

they're going to come down. Like, those people who are going to end up being evicted because your statement doesn't actually protect them, that's going to be devastating. The economy is going to be hit. Like, your lies can fool people, like, on the surface, but they can't actually prop up an economy. They can't keep people from dying. They can't keep people from going bankrupt. Exactly. And I just think it's important to really be clear about, you know, Brett accurately called me out, specifically like during a break about how, yeah, look, Democrats aren't really offering as much as they should, but don't be mistaken about Republicans and what they're doing. Because, you know, at that moment, there was a lot of strong talk coming from

the likes of like Senator Mitt Romney, about how, like, let's get cash into the hands of Americans now. And it was, that was the message from Republicans. And at the time, we were hearing about means testing from Democrats. And that was irritating, right? But don't get a twisted. Republicans certainly want means testing as well. And the way that they would apply it is even more cruel. So I want to make sure that everyone's, like, fully aware of what's happening.

And what I would like to see from Democrats is some strength. Like, this is the perfect opportunity to really implement progressive policies that would help Americans. I mean, policies that they claim that they've been in favor of, right? But they can't do it because there's all this obstruction and they can't work with. This is the perfect time to really use your platform as a Democrat to push for things that could not just temporarily relieve what Americans are going through, but relieve what Americans have been going through economically for a while now. And they have all the leverage when you really think about it. All of the political leverage, they should be using this opportunity.

Yeah. Yeah. And if they had the right presidential candidate, I think the Democratic Party could, they could put forward that message if they supported that candidate and if they supported that platform. Definitely. All right. I'm going to take a quick break. I want to reset my internet connection and we'll go on with the rest of the

stories. We'll be right back. 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.com slash join today. In the meantime, enjoy this free segment. All right, welcome back to TYT, everyone. Anna Kasparian and John Ida Rolla with you. I'm going to jump into our next story. A new poll. unfortunately shows that, believe it or not, Donald Trump's approval rating has surged due to how he's currently handling the coronavirus pandemic.

So this was a poll done by ABC News and Ipsos, and it shows that 55% of Americans approve of the president's management of the crisis compared to 43% who disapprove. Now, if you want to compare his approval rating now to what it was before, you will see a little bit bit of a jump. So Trump's approval rating on the issue is up from last week when the numbers were nearly reversed. Only 43% approved of Trump's handling of the pandemic and 54% disapproved in last

week's poll. And if you take a look at Democrats versus Republicans here, 30% of Democrats approve, which is about double the number from last week's poll. So you're seeing some improvement among Democrats as well, and 69% disapprove, and that's down from 86%. Meanwhile, overwhelmingly, 92% of Republicans approve up from 86% last week, only 8% disapprove compared to 11% in last week's poll. So this is not good, not good. I like the movement on the Republicans as well. It was like before when he was doing absolutely nothing and actively calling it a hoax, 86% supported

it. Now he's doing like barely nothing. And they're like, okay, that reassured the rest of them. But the thing is, before, they didn't think he had any crisis to handle. So what did they think they were saying when they answered it? Listen, when I saw this in the rundown, like, I was just so angry, not even surprised, but angry. And they're, look, I know you got more details. I got a lot to say about this.

It's the most frustrating thing I've seen today. So, look, part of the problem is, and I didn't really realize it until recently. he's not doing his rallies right now for obvious reasons. No one's doing rallies right now. Everything is kind of at a halt. And he's been using these daily press briefings as his rallies. In lieu of going out there and saying the typical xenophobic stuff that he says out, you know, when he's out in the public, he's now doing these press conferences where he's still saying

racist things. But on top of that, he's like taking this more somber tone that totally fools people like Dana Bash. Yep. I was just thinking about that same exact thing. And he gets to also lie about all the wonderful things he's doing when in reality he's not doing the things that he claims. So I want to give you one example. Let's go to this next video. We have millions of masks which are coming and which will be distributed to the states. The states are having a hard time getting them. So we're using the act. The act is very good for things like this. We have millions. of masks that we've ordered. They will be here soon. We're having them shipped directly

to states. So you said you would only, you were signing this, but not invoking it. This is what you said yesterday, and you would only do so in a worst case scenario. So are we now a worst case scenario? We need, no, it's no different other than we need certain equipment that the states are unable to get by themselves. So we're invoking it to use the powers of the federal government to help the states get things that they need like the masks. So it turns out that he was lying there. Wow, big shocker. He makes it seem as though the masks are coming within like a week.

But the five million- She's so ridiculous. So Bloomberg actually looked into this. And based on their reporting, the 500 million N95 air filtering respirator masks, President Donald Trump said the federal government ordered, could take up to 18 months to be delivered. And that's according to the grant application. There has been a shortage of the masks, as we all know, and healthcare workers are being told

to reuse the masks that they do have. That's why you don't just click, like, to confirm the order. Make sure you have the expedited shipping. It's that it costs a little bit more, but hey, it could save lives. No, honestly, that's, this is, so there's two reasons why it's frustrating that his approval rating is as high as it is. The main one is that he is not doing what he should be doing, and so people should not approve of him.

He's continuing to pass the buck. He's putting as much of it as he possibly can onto the governors. And so that's a reason objectively to not support it. But the other is because he's being incredibly dishonest. And so far, a lot of people in the media, they seem to have gotten into that sort of like wartime mode of if the president seems like he's being presidential and people are scared, we should probably give him the benefit of the doubt and say that he looks like he's got some gravitas and some standing here.

that you gave a great example of that with Dana Bash. And so for both of those reasons, no, his numbers should not be remotely up. Like, you just pointed out the masks lies, so that's going to take 18 months. There are so many like that, he was talking about the malaria drug. And then almost in real time, the doctor with him had to say, no, this is not something that we're ready to start putting out, and we don't even know that it would help. This is again going to be a very long process. He kept telling people the vaccine's going to be here tomorrow.

He said that the hospital ship comfort is ready to go for New York. No, it actually needs to be activated and staffed, and that's going to take time. It's just lie after lie. The tests are going to be available any time now. No, that's going to take a long time to ramp up. He just keeps going up there lying. It's spread. Even if it's challenged, it doesn't seem to matter.

And it seems like it's filtering down to the American people. And they're largely accepting that, hey, at least he's there. He's talking. I don't see Joe Biden, the supposed presumptive nominee. So I guess I'll go with the guy who was at least in front of the camera. You're so right. And so, look, I have thoughts about how the media is doing its job, but I do want to focus a little bit on messaging by Democrats because I think that's so important, right?

And we haven't heard anything, really, from Joe Biden, a little here and there, but you don't hear this, like, strong message from Democrats where they're debunking his lies. And so let's talk a little bit about Joe Biden's excuses, because this is a story that broke relatively, you know, soon before we had to, like, go on air. So talk to me about what Joe Biden is saying to the public about his lack of communication at this time. So, I mean, not much. He had that call with reporters. And what they're saying is, man, they're really working behind the scenes and they're looking into some sort of tech. Like, I don't, there's one of, like, little computers or something. We're looking into these

and maybe there's a program and I hear Periscope is a thing. And maybe at some point we'll be able to take some questions and talk to people. Like, we, he said it's above his pay grade. He wants to be president, by the way. It's above his pay grade to figure out a way to speak to people. He has a staff of hundreds, thousands, presumably. Bernie is doing like holographic three-day, three-d virtual rallies, and he can't, like, FaceTime?

Like, he can't live stream to YouTube? I figured out, I'm a moron. I've been doing it for years at this point. And the presumptive nominee wants to be president of the United States, he can't figure it out. Yeah. And it's amazing because he's been sold as the most electable candidate, right? That was his whole selling point. And it's kind of hard to make that argument when you're making excuses about how this is supposedly above it. No, this is not above your pay grade. You're right. He wants to be president of the United States. You need to be able to make the case for why you are better suited to handle a worldwide. pandemic that obviously is really impacting our country right now and how you're better than Donald Trump. And he's not making that case, which is why we're seeing this surge in Donald Trump's approval rating. And you've got to provide an alternative. Exactly. And more importantly,

you have to debunk the lies because people who watch those press conferences, I'm sure, you look, Trump is telling people what they want to hear. People are scared. They're terrified. They don't know what the future holds. And I get it. You want to automatically believe the person who tells you what you want to hear, that everything's going to be okay. But if you actually look at what's coming from Republicans legislatively and what Trump wants to do, they're not looking out for us. They're really just looking out for these industries that have donated quite a bit of money to them. And we need reporters to do their jobs as well. It's so frustrating to see like the malpractice by journalists at a time like now.

Yeah. And look, if I could provide a little bit of advice, maybe to those journalists, but but to the audience as well. So Joe Biden's going to spend the weekend like downloading, I don't know, Discord onto his laptop or something. And he'll figure it out. They'll get to it. You know, his staff will eventually come up with something. Well, as soon as we're done filming, I believe that's how the time is going to work out. Bernie Sanders is going to go live with one of his addresses. And you're going to be able to see and hear him through the power of the internet. And he's going to lay out his vision for what needs to be done in this response. And I'm sure he's going to do that live fact checking of Donald Trump as well. So everybody,

when you're done with this stream, you should definitely check that out. And hey, reporters, if you want to see someone being presidential, I think you've got a pretty good bet that you're going to have that available very soon. You can go follow him on Twitch, actually. All right. I'm going to move on to our next story. Let's talk about what some states are doing when it comes to quarantine. So both California and New York have turned to necessary yet drastic measures to slow the spread of COVID-19. Now, Governor Gavin Newsome of California was the first to order California's 40 million residents to stay home. Do not go out unless you need to purchase essential. So at TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control

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That's EXPRE S-SVPN.com. H-T-Y-T. Check it out today. Items. Or if you want to go for a walk, which I actually took yesterday after the show, it's okay for you to go get some fresh air. Just stay away from people, clearly, so you don't spread the virus. Now, Newsom's order marks the first statewide, statewide, mandatory restrictions in the United States. Californians should not leave home except for essential things such as food, prescriptions, health care, and commuting to jobs considered crucial.

In fact, let's hear a little more from the guys. governor. There's a mutuality and there's a recognition of our interdependence that requires of this moment that we direct a statewide order for people to stay at home. That directive goes into force and effect this evening and we were confident. We are confident that the people of the state of California will abide by it. They'll do the right thing. They'll meet this moment. They'll step up as they have over the course of the last number of weeks to, to protect themselves, to protect their families, and to protect the broader community in this great state in the world that we reside in.

I have confidence in that. I have confidence because I've seen it every single day. We've seen it in cities large and small. People still doing essential work, people still providing essential services, people still going out to the grocery store to get food, walking their dogs, practicing social distancing. Nonetheless, when they're out in the streets, people still getting their medicine, people still going about doing the kind of essential work that is required to meet this moment. The order provides for all of that, just as these other orders that have been put into place

and cities large and small across the state have afforded. I don't believe the people of California need to be told through law enforcement that it's appropriate just to stay home, isolate, protect themselves. We're confident that people of the state of California. California will abide by it and do the right thing. And he is not the only one who took this measure. This morning we heard from Governor Cuomo of New York, and he is taking similar measures. And so let's hear from him.

On the businesses, on the valve, we reduced it to 50% of the workforce. We then reduced it to 75% of the workforce must stay home. And today we're bringing it to 100% of the workforce. must stay home. These are non-essential services. Essential services have to continue to function. Grocery stores need food, pharmacies need drugs. Your internet has to continue to work. The water has to turn on when you turn the faucet. So there are essential services that will continue to function. So essential services will continue to function. Look at that cute little picture of me. Anyway, essential services will continue to function.

So there were two questions, John, that people wanted to know about. In California, people were wondering if marijuana dispensaries would remain open. And in New York, people wanted to know if liquor stores would remain open. And I'm happy to report that in both cases, yes, you will still have access to marijuana in California, and you'll still have access to liquor. In New York, they're considered essential because liquor stores in New York, New York oftentimes do sell goods that people need other than liquor. And in California, if marijuana dispensary has a license for medicinal marijuana, they are able

to stay open. So they are doing like curbside pickup to do social distancing. Yeah. No, I'm glad that they do. I'm assuming that, I mean, it's not, I haven't been in many, but I'm assuming they can be run with very, relatively few personnel. And look, yes, it has a medicinal use. People need that.

And also, if people are going to be like cooped up and stressed out and scared and isolated and worried, maybe they need some marijuana. Maybe they need some liquor. You didn't clarify, by the way, if liquor was going to still be available in California. I'm assuming that it is. But they should set up that sort of delivery thing that I hear that they're doing in New York, actually. That would be convenient.

Well, okay, so today was the first day that this mandate went into effect in California. and my husband went to a grocery store and purchased beer. That wasn't the only reason why he went to the grocery store. There's tons of it, just as much as he could carry. He actually, but we were running out of tuna, and he really likes tuna. So he was able to purchase the tuna and the beer, which is why I think the liquor stores will be open in New York because they, again, sell other things.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yes, of course. Look, it's going to be much the same in many other states. Lots of states are going to have this start to happen, like in a day or in a week or whatever. Yeah, a lot of places will still continue to be open. It has to be. We have to eat, as they point out. And I like that the number of businesses that are considered essential is a little bit more expansive than it perhaps could have been.

But they're making sure that people are going to have access to, like, internet, you know, for both communication to be able to work, entertainment, all of that. That is incredibly crucial. Exactly. And by the way, I just want to note that not everyone is taking coronavirus seriously, even at this point. And so one of Trump's advisors actually questioned whether it was worth it to damage the economy by ordering a statewide mandate to stay home. How disgusting is that? Stephen Morris's name. He was on the Ingram angle last night making that point. It's just pathetic. We got to keep people safe. Look, this is a collective effort. some states aren't taking this seriously, then this is going to needlessly risk the lives of so many people. And it's also going to make this process a lot longer than it needs to be. So if he's really worried about the economy, then let's get everyone to take it seriously. Yeah, yeah, it's ridiculous, but not that surprising. And look, we should bear in mind that at some point we are going to be past this. At some point, we'll have a vaccine. You know, hopefully as little

damage as possible will be done between now and then, but at some point we will be able to resume our lives and hopefully we will have made some changes that make us more ready for if some other disease starts to spread in the same way. Definitely. All right, well, this has been a really fun show. Again, I do want to thank everyone for bearing with us, everyone who's supportive of TYT. John, you've been a trooper. Thanks for doing the show with me. Tiny little Anna image. I know, right? And it's my favorite picture that Cassie Hanks took of me.

So maybe we can blow it up for situations like this one. Anyway, thank you so much, everyone, for watching. I hope you enjoyed the show. Jank will be back next week. I spoke with him today. He is recovering and he sounds great. And have a great weekend. You can expect more live videos from us.

Thank you again. 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.