The Young Turks - TYT Extended Clip - March 23rd, 2020

Episode Date: March 24, 2020

The people of the United States are suffering and Republicans want to favor corporations over them! Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur, hosts of The Young Turks, breaks 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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All right, welcome to the Young Turks, Anna Casparian, and Jank Yugar with you. Okay, smooth intro by me. Okay. You're the one who wanted to bring us in, so congratulations. All right, welcome, everybody. As you can tell, we're in our home studios here, and we got a very important show for you guys today, filled with updates on what's happening with the coronavirus, the stuff. market, the dispute between Donald Trump and Dr. Fauci, should we go with science or voodoo?

It's a tough call. It's a tough call. And if you're not aware in the new schedule for the moment being, the show is an hour. And then we do do an extra half hour for the members, as always. And in that half hour, we'll be discussing Joe Biden's faux pa as he addressed the coronavirus situation and what went wrong with that address. So that's tyt.com slash join to become a member, get that last half hour. And look, I'm going to keep it real with you guys. So if you got financial troubles of your own, that is very, very, very understandable. And so be cool. But if you're doing okay, Certainly, every business needs it, and we're not immune from that at all. None of us are immune from anything these days.

So, t-y-t.com slash go to make sure that we can keep giving you these shows. And there's so much important information in here, but we want to be able to keep doing it, and it's been a Herculean task, and Brett and John and Johnny and Mike. You guys know half these folks and don't know the other half, and Anna, et cetera. have done such a great job of putting this on. So I'm so grateful to be able to talk to you guys today. And we'll also do more live videos on t.com and on YouTube.com slash t yt throughout the day, including one Anna did earlier.

So now having said all that, Anna, take it away. All right. Although the House of Representatives did manage to pass a stimulus bill that would help Americans out, unfortunately, there are some issues in the Senate. So Senate Republicans have been working with the White House to pass their own version of the next step for stimulus. And they've made it very clear that their top priority is to bail out the very industries who took Donald Trump's tax cuts and bought shares of their own stocks, right?

And so there was a lot of talk from Republicans about how, oh, we want to make sure that we help the average American worker out. There's going to be two stimulus checks. No. on what Republicans wanted, it would be one check and it would only be about $1,200. That's it. And they would also apply means testing to determine who should get it. And believe it or not, the people making the absolute least amount of money would get nearly

nothing in help. So let me tell you basically the biggest issue that Democrats had, and let me just be clear, Senate Democrats have blocked what Senate Republicans have wanted. And I think it's a good thing. I think Americans need help, but what this bill was did not include real help to people who are suffering right now. So a major sticking point, according to the Washington Post, is a $500 billion pool of money for loans and loan guarantees that Republicans want to create, which some Democrats are labeling

a slush fund because the Treasury Department would have broad discretion over who receives that money. There is little precedent for a program with a similar size and size. scope. And so Tammy Duckworth was interviewed on cable TV and she was pretty good in just describing how disastrous this proposal was. Take a look. Well, the package that the Republicans have drawn up does nothing to help struggling workers. You know, struggling workers need help today and they need their jobs safeguarded for tomorrow. It has no protections for them. You know, and instead it creates a $500 billion slush fund for Steve Mnuchin to, you know, hand out loans to corporations as he

please. I mean, do Americans think that this man, this man is going to look out for the well-being of working Americans over the well-being of corporations and corporate CEOs? I certainly don't trust him, not without oversight. And the slush fund that they proposed in their bill, which no Democrat had any chance to put any, you know, requirements into, does not provide any oversight for him. This bill is all skewed towards corporations. It's skewed towards a slush fund that Steve Mnuchin is going to be able to write checks

to whoever he wants with no oversight, even to Trump organizations. So, Jank, I wanted to get your thoughts on this because on one hand, you know, this has turned into a messaging war because Republicans are always going to be Democrats in messaging. And what they're saying is, hey, look, look at Democrats. They don't want to help the average American out. They blocked our attempts to provide. relief. But Democrats need to be better. And I think Tammy Duckworth did a great job there. But they need to be better in demonstrating and showing how, no, no, these Senate Republicans are not

looking out for you. They're looking out. They want to continue redistributing wealth from the bottom to the top. If only we had objective, something like a referee that could say, hey, you know, this person is right and that person is wrong or this party is right and that person is wrong. Maybe we could even call them reporters or journalists. And then they could tell us. So the reality is that's what the job of a journalist is supposed to be. So here, let's do it since the mainstream media is scared to death of Republicans. So anyone who watches the Young Turks knows, we got no problem calling out Senate Democrats. We borderline enjoy it. Okay. And we hold them accountable just much as we hold Senate Republicans accountable.

In this case, there is a couple of things that are very, very clear. Number one, yes, they're both trying to pass a stimulus bill. There isn't either side going, I don't really want to pass it. No, even the Republicans. Yes, they want to pass it because they're in charge. They're going to get blamed if the economy goes south. If you have massive unemployment, the stock market is crashing. So the Republicans who complained about stimulus bills when Obama was in charge, you're like,

do we need a stimulus bill? And we need to be three times larger than the one that we gave Obama. Obama. So you can call them hypocrites on that, but they certainly do want to pass it. So the Democrats, do they want to pass it? Absolutely. There's no question that they want to pass it. They got to get those workers help, but they also need to, let's keep it real, get their donors help. They have the same corporate donors as the Republicans, and they're all in a panic. They are all, all the Senate Democrats are also rich. They also have money in the stock market. So everybody's motivated to get a bill done. So then, they're not.

The next layer is who is right about the different provisions? In this case, it's definitely the Democrats. So is there a slush fund? Indisputably, I read the bill myself. There's no question it's a slush fund. The Treasury can give it to anyone they like if they want. They can take the $500 billion and give 400 of it to Mar-a-Lago. So there is no checks and balances later when that's abused.

People say, oh, can you believe they abuse that? Yes, yes, that's why they're objecting now. Because we know they're going to abuse it. We can believe it. There's no question about it. But that's not the only issue. There's so many other issues, but the second major one, which is so important, I need people to understand this is, look, a ton of people are about to get laid off.

That is not some sort of Republican trick. That's definitely true, okay? So we've got to try to find a way to protect those folks. So the Republican proposal to do that is give a blank check to the country. companies, and first to the largest companies, and eventually we'll figure out how to get to the small businesses, right? But they do have provisions for small businesses in here as well, but it's going to take longer to get to us, God help us, right?

But for the larger companies, it's just give a blank check. And the Democrats, led by Elizabeth Warren in this case, are saying, no, no, no, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. If you're going to take that check, you're not allowed to use it to buy back your own stock just to enrich your executives, and you've got to actually keep your employees. Now, if you care about the average American worker, that is very, very logical. If you do not have that protection, the executives can do whatever they want with the money. And then don't complain later, because there'll be no checks on the CEOs and no checks

on the executive branch. So in this case, the Senate Democrats are definitely right to hold it up to have better protections for the average American in this bill. Yeah, I agree with you. And I agree with the decisions that they made and the fact that they decided to block this legislation on a procedural vote. One other thing to mention is even though Senate Republicans eventually did concede to Democrats when it came to the corporate stock buybacks, there still weren't protections in place to ensure that companies that took this bailout money would not then go around firing their employees. So since those protections weren't there, clearly, Democrats had an issue with it. But one other thing I wanted to quickly mention is that Republicans are playing all sorts of games by trying to get other parts of their legislative agenda included in the stimulus bill. So for instance, one of the tricks they tried to play was include a provision that would shut down abortion clinics while the coronavirus pandemic continues and while people

are forced to stay at home. And so Democrats are like, no, that's not. an elective surgery. Time is of the essence if someone needs to have an abortion. So we're not playing ball with that. We're not playing games with that. But Republicans are trying to include all sorts of nonsense provisions. And that is exactly what's holding things back. That's the reason why they're not having any, any, you know, breakthrough with this legislation. And then look, if you think, oh, well, TYT, they come from like a left perspective. Let's go to concerns. Democrat, Joe Manchin, who even spoke out against this legislation. Take a look.

The proposal that Leader McConnell from the Republican side has put forth is absolutely, totally worried about Wall Street at this time. I'm worried about the people in Little Rural West Virginia and all over Main Street. That's the people we're worried about. Let's make sure that our workers and these health care providers don't go down because if that system, goes down, I can assure you, you can't print enough money for Wall Street to rebound if the health care of this country is not able to take care of the people of America. So Manchin brings up printing money there. And what he's referring to is some of the efforts by the Federal Reserve to save the stock markets. Nothing that they've done has worked so far

because they've exhausted everything. I mean, they've lowered interest rates to near zero. They keep buying treasury bonds. Like, they're doing everything they can. and it's not working. And so we're dealing with a real crisis here. You're right, Jank. A lot of people have already been laid off. The head of the Federal Reserve in St. Louis was just interviewed, and he says that he believes that the unemployment rate will eventually reach 30%,

which surpasses what the unemployment rate was during the Great Depression. And, you know, in the meantime, we have these Senate Republicans playing games with their bailouts for these companies. but also by including all these provisions that don't need to be included, that are needlessly drawing out this process much longer than it needs to. So let me just clarify a couple of things that are important, because this story is complicated. So first off, they do need to make sure that the banks don't call in the loans that businesses have, right?

So if a giant corporation has a big loan out, and they now have their business dried up, whether it's a restaurant chain, even a car company, et cetera, if the bank calls in the loan, that's it. They're screwed and they're out of business. So the Fed addressing that is important and relevant, okay? And then in terms of all the businesses, they will almost certainly be like if they already are layoffs. will continue to be more layoffs.

And even if they get money to the big size business and the small size businesses, there will still need to be some layoffs because revenue is so down for everyone. And just giving money to address the issue of employees still leaves about 40% of an average businesses cost unaddressed. So there are no simple answers that where we can plug and play. That's why these negotiations are taking longer, because they've got to say, okay, look, we've got to cover the, Democrats are saying we've got to cover the employees, great. That's super important because there's a lot of bad guy companies, you give them the money,

they're just going to take it and give it to the executives and fire people anyway. But you also got to address all the companies, including the good companies, who are saying, look, if we don't get the money in now, we're screwed. And we've got to lay off more and then more and then more people to try to stay. in business, otherwise or and or go out of business. So all those things need to be addressed as quickly as possible and in a rational manner. And when you've got, when it comes to Washington, we've got a couple of different problems. Number one, there aren't a lot of rational folks there. Number two, more importantly, they all have different interests. So, and their interests

vary greatly from us. We care about workers, which then affects companies, which then affects the economy, and that's a rational way of looking at it, and it affects the citizens, because that's the bottom line here, the most amount of people. But remember, especially for the Republican senators, their number one concern by a landslide is, how is this affecting my donors? I'll get to the employees later, I'll get to all the other complicated factors later, but my donors just lost 30% of their money in the last week. They're not going to have enough money to give to me.

I literally talked to somebody in Washington today who said one of the top concerns for politicians in Washington right now is, damn it, how am I going to raise money for my reelection? It's amazing. It's amazing. And I mean, you see it in the numbers, Jank, because they want to appropriate $500 billion toward these bailouts. But when it comes to the stimulus checks for average Americans, they only want to appropriate half that amount, $250 billion.

billion dollars. So, I mean, you see it in the numbers. You see it in what they're willing to, like, hold back relief for. And it's devastating. Because if you have lawmakers represent the best interests of their donors as opposed to the best interests of everyone they're representing, well, then you're not going to get good representation. You're going to get representation for the wealthy. And that's what we're dealing with right now. So last two things here in this case. I think, or a couple of things. I think that they will come to an agreement because they have to. It'll probably be tomorrow. I hope that the Republicans don't strong-armed Democrats too much.

I'm actually surprised the Democrats have lasted this long. The reason the Republicans are going with this strategy is because usually when they strong-armed Democrats, they yell at them, it works. And the reporters just call it even no matter how heinous the Republicans act, and they know that they have that built-in advantage. But I'm pleasantly surprised that the Senate Democrats have held strong. I hope that the Republicans find a way to get to sanity tomorrow. And I think, I know it's a funny thing.

I fear completing that sentence. I think they will. And only because they're afraid that the stock market is going to dip more, their donors are going to have less money, and they're not going to be able to have money to run their re-elections. But of all the proposals, I think that Sarah Nelson's is probably the best one. She's the head of the flight attendants union, talked with Bernie Sanders on his stream when he was discussing the coronavirus situation a couple of days ago. And she said, in essence, if companies have to furlough employees, which the airlines have

already begun to do, and that is an absolute necessity for almost all companies, then the government should say we are going to pay the salaries of those furloughed employees. That is, of all the different proposals, it's not, in of itself, it won't fix everything, but it is an essential component of what we need, both for the companies and for the average American worker. And finally, guys, from our perspective, that's why I started the show with t.yt.com slash go. This pandemic and the economic crash related to it is no joke. So most of you out there are having your own troubles, please, if you are, be smart and considerate and reserve your money for what you need and what your family needs. Okay. But if you can,

this is the time to help companies that you believe in. And that's why we do things like tyt.com go so that we could do as well as we can for everyone here and keep this thing up and running. All right. Well, we're going to take a break. But when we come back, I want to discuss a story regarding Trump and how he is willing to risk the lies of Americans in order to basically help save the economy. We'll be back. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-Fing the Republic or UNFTR.

As a young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations are constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the rich and powerful. But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the conventional wisdom. In each episode of Un-B-The Republic or UNFTR, the host delves into a different historical episode or topic that's generally misunderstood or purposely obfuscated by the so-called powers that be, featuring in-depth research, razor-sharp commentary, and just the right amount of vulgarity, the UNFTR podcast takes a sledgehammer to what you thought you knew about some of the nation's most sacred historical cows.

But don't just take my word for it. The New York Times described UNFTR as consistently compelling and educational, aiming to challenge conventional wisdom and upend the historical narratives that were taught in school. For as the great philosopher Yoda once put it, You must unlearn what you have learned. And that's true whether you're in Jedi training, or you're uprooting and exposing all the propaganda and disinformation you've been fed over the course of your lifetime. So search for you and FDR in your podcast app today and get ready to get informed, angered, and entertained all at the same time.

All right, welcome back to the Young Turks. I guess I'm seeing us later than you are, Anna. So I'll let you do the intros from now on. But guys, we are also taking your comments, as we always do. We are crack staff, if you will, sounds weird, has figured out a way to get us your comments as well. Is that a thing? Is it a crack staff a thing?

I think so, and I think it's supposed to be positive. But anyway, let me read a tweet first. Option 2, Bernie writes in. I'm a double member, YouTube also. I'm donating extra monthly now and couldn't live without TYT. You keep me sane. Anna's fire, your humor and logic, and John and Brett is so hilarious. J.R. Love. Please, please donate and don't make me go without. So that is wonderful of you to say. Thank you so much. It's t.com slash go, of course, to donate. We were doing a contribution drive because we needed it anyway. Now, oh boy, we needed more than ever. Eric Chi on YouTube Super Chat points out that the Iraq and Afghanistan wars cost about

$7 to $8 trillion. Last figure I saw was $6.4 trillion about two years ago. That's right. So when they say, well, you know, we're not sure that we have enough money for the American worker, they had trillions upon trillions of dollars to do nonsense wars. Now to our members, now to our Members, real quick, Ruth M says so happy to see you back, Jenk. Ruth, it's great to be back. In the, maybe the members only, we'll talk a little bit more about how bad my tooth infection was, so that's a pleasant topic. TYT.com slash join.

Karen Olis is so grateful to everyone at TYT. I'm right there with you. Trey Dora says, happy to see Senator Duckworth working hard. She's a great vet who's working for the people, unlike some surfing people. Mm-hmm. I like that salt. Yeah, a little bit of salt with the paprika there sprinkled in. And last one, Craig's for Bernie 2020, right?

It's $50.com.com slash go. If you need perspective and truth, stay well, TYT, or we need your perspective and truth. Stay well, TYT. We love you. Right back at you, Craig. Love you, too, brother. Thank you so much, guys. All right, a lot more show for you guys.

Anna, go for it. All right. Well, let's talk a little bit more about the economy because there are some other updates that I think are important to discuss. So it looks like some of the wealthy here in this country don't believe that lives should take priority over the state of the economy. Now, as we know, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a number of quarantines throughout the nation, a lot of blue states, including California and New York, have told their citizens,

hey, you know what, you need to stay home and we need to slow the spread of this virus in order to save lives. but wealthy people are like, I don't know. I don't know. This is really hurting our stock portfolios, and we need people to get back to work, even if it risks their lives. So the Wall Street Journal wrote this op-ed. Their editorial board wrote this op-ed that made my head explode. And the headline is rethinking the coronavirus shutdown, no society can safeguard public health for long at the cost of its economic health. And so I was like, okay, the headline is obviously, attention grabbing, but is the body of the piece as bad as I think it might be? And so it's

behind a paywall, but I'm going to give you a few interesting excerpts. They write, this won't be popular to read in some quarters. Gee, I wonder which quarters that'll be. But federal and state officials need to start adjusting their anti-virus strategy now to avoid an economic recession that will dwarf the harm from 2008 to 2009. Even cash-rich businesses operate on a thin margin and can believe lead through reserves in a month. First, they will lay off employees, and then out of necessity, they will shut down. Another month like this week, and the layoffs will be measured in millions of people. So the way that they frame it is, no, but we're just worried about people's jobs. We're just worried about people's jobs, you know? That's what we're really concerned about.

Maybe there's some degree of truth to that. But in reality, what they're concerned about is what we're seeing in the stock markets right now. The Dow dropped another 600 points before we went live today. And so they're panicking. And people staying home means that the economy is just completely halted. And so, look, this is literally what we have to do in order to stop the spread of this virus. And the unfortunate thing is we have blue states that are telling people to stay home. And then we have red states that refuse to do anything, including Ron DeSantis in Florida, who refuses to shut down the beaches. The beaches need to be shut down immediately. We have young people going over there, spreading the virus like crazy.

Yeah. So first of all, there's just a little bit of propaganda that's a side issue that's driving me crazy. Yeah, they're showing young people doing the stupid stuff on the beaches, but now conservatives have hung on to that as if it's progressive young people who are stupid that are causing the virus to spread. What are you guys talking about? We saw the video of the jam-pack Nashville bar and people writing, now.

Nashville undefeated. And you've got a Republican after Republican saying, ah, don't worry about it. Okay, we're too strong for this virus. They sound like the most ignorant people all across the world that say, oh, yeah, disease won't affect me. So now, the heart of this issue, look, it's not that the economic woes here are small or that you should not be concerned about them. You should be concerned. The stock market here dropped 30% quicker than it did during the Great Depression. So even worrying about the economy by itself, let alone that's affecting on the workers, is a legitimate concern, a very legitimate concern. Now, having said that, to then prioritize it over people's lives, not only is not the right thing to do an immoral,

But most importantly, it isn't going to work. It's going to make the situation worse. Yes. And the economic downturn even worse than it would be normally. So let me just quickly explain why. If you say quarantine long enough, you potentially could get rid of enough of the virus that when everybody goes back to work, things are relatively okay. There's still some cases, but it peters out, okay?

That's what's roughly called flattening the curve, right? But if you do it in waves, before it's peaked, you send people back into large gatherings, back into work. They then have new people contracted disease from those folks, and you start a whole other cycle. And then another cycle, and then you got to quarantine people again and again, and we never get rid of the damn thing, and then the economy craters in a way that makes this look like a picnic. Exactly.

Yeah, exactly. it's so counterproductive in so many different ways because more people are going to lose their lives if we don't slow the spread of this virus. And if we're not all on board, and if we don't all encourage people to stay home at the same time, then this is needlessly going to drag on. And, you know, it's the argument I've been making ever since people have been told to stay home, right? Like we don't live on an island here in California. They don't live on an island in New York. We're all one country. And so as long as, uh, we're not. We're all on different, you know, schedules with this.

This is just going to last longer. And the economy is going to suffer more while people are losing their lives. And then, of course, who doesn't want to hear from Lloyd Blankfine? He tweeted something pretty gross about this as well. He said, extreme measures to flatten the virus curve is sensible for a time to stretch out the strain on health infrastructure. But crushing the economy, jobs, and morale is also a health issue and beyond. within a very few weeks, let those with lower risk to the disease return to work.

So he wants more people to go back to work. Gee, I wonder why. And by the way, there's a lot that we don't really know about this virus, right? When we, oh, my God, that is a terrible screenshot. When we first, terrible, when we first learned about it, there was a lot of news that it mostly impacts older Americans, right? But now we're hearing about more and more young people who contracted the virus. They're actually generally healthy. They don't have any type of respiratory issues or any underlying health concerns. They get the virus and, you know, it impacts them

pretty aggressively. And I only say that because people might think, oh, young people can go back to work. I mean, they're low risk. But you don't really know. I think it impacts people differently, Right? So again, he's encouraging risking people's lives just to save the economy. And you're right, Jank, we should be concerned about the economy. But what's the priority here, right? Is it human lives or is it the stock market? And I would argue that human lives are a little more important. Well, no, look, as I said earlier, it's not an either or. The entire question, the framing is incorrect. Because if you send people back to work too early, you're not going to help the economy anyway. All it's going to do is create a vicious cycle. So, like, okay, let's take big picture

first and then a smaller picture. Big picture is the coast get hit first because that's where a lot of the international travelers come. That's where the virus comes in. So that's already happened. So that's why New York and California and the state of Washington are hit the hardest. Then the virus travels to inside the country gradually, and then if the blue states on the coast are maintaining their quarantines, but the red states in the middle are not, they will then export that back out to the coast and creating an endless cycle of disease that totally drags down the economy with it, because we're constantly going back into quarantines, right? So now to the small picture of sending people to work that are so-called health,

No, no, no. That also misunderstands the disease. Younger people have a better chance of surviving the disease, a substantially better chance of surviving the disease. That doesn't mean that they have a lower chance of carrying the disease. So you send them back in. It's not like they don't have it. So they could spread it to everyone at work, and then they go back home and then they spread

it to everyone, including older Americans, et cetera. And there we go again, another vicious cycle. Just because they're in a panic about their wealth, they're not going to help their wealth anyway by doing this panic strategy. And you're right that even in their version where they think they will help their money, man, that is a hell of a priority there. My wealth is down 30%. If you got to get like Lloyd Blankfine, what difference does it make?

You're never, ever, ever going to run out of money. But I'm going to send people back to work. And lastly on that, guys, think about what that means. Like, if they say to us, hey, you can send people back into the office. We're not going to anyway until we think it's safe. That's why we're doing the show from home. And all of our workers are now dispersed to their own homes. And we got editors and editing at home.

And we got a whole setup and we did this as quickly as humanly possible. But bad guy companies are going to be like, yeah, what do I care? Go make the cars, right? Or you're going to lose your job. Go risk your life or you're going to lose your job. And to what, what's the point anyway? Who's buying the cars? Nobody.

Nobody's out shopping. So order people to go work at the airlines? Nobody's flying. What's the point? Yeah. I don't know, Jank. I honestly would rather risk my life at this point than deal with this whole tech situation. Like it's stressing me out like crazy.

That might kill me before coronavirus does. It's just like unbearable. But I do want to note that all of these bad actors. who are encouraging Donald Trump to get people back to work might be unfortunately influencing him because recently he tweeted, in all caps, might I add, we cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself. At the end of the 15-day period, we will make decisions as to which way we want to go. So he's threatening to, I guess, force people to go to work, but I don't know how he would do that because right now, all of the mandates for people to stay at home are done on the state level.

And so Trump hasn't, he's not the one who encouraged people to stay home. It was Governor Cuomo. It was Gavin Newsom. So it's just interesting how he's like putting this threat out there. But keep in mind, fish rotts from the head down, there are still red states that refuse to tell their, you know, citizens, their residents, their employees to stay home. And so this kind of gives them a green light if Trump goes forward with encouraging them to keep things going business as usual. There are two giant problems with that tweet. One is grotesque incompetence.

Angela Merkel did a speech to the nation recently in Germany. It was clear. It was forceful. It got the message across. And what it did was it calm people down. It also calmed the markets down. And it gave clear instructions as to what to do. And it contained no factual errors.

Meanwhile, we have Bozo the clown over here going, go, I'm going to send everybody back in in 15 days. First of all, which 15 days? What are you talking about? You got to read deep into the narrow times Washington Post articles to find out that that means March 30th. If you're just reading that tweet, people don't even know what the hell you're talking about. Fifteen days from now, what is it that you're talking about? And then second of all, we'll make a decision as to which way we want to go. What are your two options? And what are you deciding over? Are you going to force people to go to work? Are you going to allow them to go to work? Are you going to overrule the governors. There's no clarity at all. All there is is panic and complete

lack of information or wrong information. So that doesn't help come the markets. It doesn't help come the citizens. It's just bozo through and through. Now, the second problem with this is the one we were talking about earlier. What does it mean? So are you going to make people go to work if they don't want to go to work, if their employers don't want them to come to work, if the governors don't want them to go to work. So you're going to force them to go back. You're going to force people to do what? And so the problem is that Trump has a cult and the cult believes he is more accurate

than scientists, professors, doctors, journalists, you name it. So they will believe them that it's safe 15 days from now. So they'll say, oh, no, no, I'm going back, whether it's work or partying or barbecues or whatever they're going to do. They're like, no, Trump said it was fine. Scientists are fake news. So once they do that, it's not just that they're screwed. They interact with the rest of us, so we're all screwed.

All right, well, we're going to go to break. Before we do, let me just let you guys know that we will discuss Rand Paul testing positive for COVID-19, which is a doozy of a story. And then we have lots of great stories for our post game as well. Become a member. Go to tytt.com slash join. We'll be right back. At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control of our online lives, constantly monitoring us and storing and selling our data. But that doesn't mean we have to let them. It's possible to stay anonymous online and hide your data from the prying eyes of big tech. And one of the best ways is with ExpressVPN. ExpressVPN hides your IP address, making your active ID more difficult to trace and sell the advertisers.

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Check it out today. We hope you're enjoying this free clip from the Young Turks. If you want to get the whole show and more exclusive content while supporting independent media, become a member at t-y-t.com slash join today. In the meantime, enjoy this free segment. Welcome back. All right. That one I saw, okay?

I saw when we were back. All right. So, guys, let me read some member comments as usual. Quickly. Very quickly. Gabby Marita says, I can hear Charlie barking in the background. I think that's a clear sign that we need to see him in the post game. Oh, you will see him in the post game.

I need to have them in here, like to keep me calm. TY.T.com slash join to become member. J.M. Fraser says, cash rich businesses can burn through reserves in a month. Oh, no. I wonder what that's like. Wait, T.F. up. Rich folks in Wall Street Journal, some of us have been living paycheck to paycheck and wondering how we'll make it to the end of the month for years. years now.

That's the point that I wanted to make. I made that point during the production meeting today, to be fair to me. To be fair to you. Yeah. Kendra with N.H. says, you know what's really bad for their economy? Everyone being dead. Stay home and any corporation that tries to force people back to work too early needs to be publicly shamed and boycotted.

And last one's also a great point. Dancing Crohn says, I hope this will bring us together, but I can't help a wonder if states will start closing their borders to other states, especially along a blue-red split. No, no. I hadn't thought of that. That's devastating and now on the board. So I mean, living in a blue state, maybe that's not such a bad idea.

Here we go. And now it's begun. No, but here's the thing. Here's the thing. We're suffering the consequences of staying home, right? Like I'm feeling it every day. And so we're taking the hit. And then in these red states, they're not doing the responsible thing to stop the spread

of this virus. Like, it's, it, anyway, they're not, we need to keep our state safe. That's all I'm saying. Okay? But Anna, you're not getting it. Nashville's undefeated. Yeah. Okay.

All right. Well, let's get on to our next story. All right. So, Senator Rand Paul is the first U.S. lawmaker for Senator, specifically to test positive for COVID-19. And this is a bit of a disaster considering the activities he was involved in. On the very day he announced that he tested positive for COVID-19. Now, via tweet, he wrote or someone from his team wrote,

Senator Rand Paul has tested positive for COVID-19. He's feeling fine and is in quarantine. He is asymptomatic and was tested out of an abundance of caution due to his extensive travel and events. He was not aware of any direct contact with any infected person. Now, here's where one of the bigger issues is, because when you talk about coronavirus. We talk about COVID-19. You've got to think about how it spreads. It's a very easy to spread virus, right? And we found out that on March 15th, Rand Paul learned that two individuals

at an event he attended in Kentucky, Speed Arts Museum's March 7th Speedball event, sounds fun, tested positive for coronavirus. Paul hadn't interacted with them, but he got the test six or seven days ago, a source said. And after thinking about the particular vulnerability of those with respiratory and lung issues. Okay. So Rand Paul became the first senator to announce that he tested positive for COVID-19 after working out with fellow lawmakers in the Senate gym only that morning. That's what the issue is. So you have a number of senators right now who are like in that gym with him. They're trying not to make it seem like they're panicking. But, just watch this video of Mitt Romney and let me know if it seems like he's panicking.

He's very, very unhappy to hear that Rand Paul has been diagnosed with COVID-19, wish him the very best. He's compromised given health conditions he's had in the past, and so we'll be praying for him and thinking about it. And of course, all the senators are going to seek medical advice as to what action we should take to make sure that we don't in any way spread this virus ourselves. You were all in lunch together on Friday. Yes, yes. We're in lunch together with Rand and hope he's doing very well, but we have to determine whether any of us should self-quarantine as a result of being in the same room. So a number of senators are going to self-quarantine

as a result of this, and I think that's the smart thing to do. GOP senators told CNN, Paul was in the gym with colleagues Sunday morning, and several pointed out how Paul had sat next to others during Senate luncheons in recent days. So there's Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas. said he saw Paul in the Senate swimming pool on Sunday. So who knows how many senators had contact with him or were near him, and many of them are either considering self-quarantining or have already done so. Okay, look, it's a serious story, and I don't just say this. I really do hope Rand Paul's okay and Mitt Romney's okay, et cetera.

But now we have to address the elephant in the room, if you will. There's actually several elephants. First, you're right. Romney looked more panicked than I've ever seen anyone look panicked. Definitely. I mean, that was amazing. He was like this, like, I mean, we were, we were having lunch together. I got to figure out what's going on. I got to figure out what's going on, okay?

Because we were in the same table. Right, all right, man, okay. Look, are you right to be concerned? Just like, your eyes are more open than I've ever seen anyone's eyes be open for. Look, I know Jay, and look, he did look panicked, right? which is why I chose that video for the show. But like, I can't blame him because even though he's, let's just keep it real, okay, politics aside,

he is a good looking older man, but you don't know that he's an older man. Like, he looks really good for his age. I think he's in like the danger zone, right, age-wise. Yeah, he's in his 70s. No, no, no, no, look, that's why I say, no joke on the substance of it, we hope he's okay and everybody's okay there, right?

As much as I disagree with all of them, for God's sake, this isn't about that at all. So now, but on Rand Paul and his hypocrisies. Well, dude, if you're worried enough to take a test, you should be worried enough not to go to the gym and the pool. Well, anyone who was in that pool, the same day that Rand Paul was in that pool,

good night and good luck, right? And again, not blithely, like really get tested immediately. And they tell all of us, rightfully so, don't go to the gym. Meanwhile, these knucklehead senators are, you know, sweating all over each other at the gym. the pool, the lunches, etc. I mean, they're taking no precautions at all. And then the last part of it is, look, it's near impossible in California to get tested. And the only way you can get tested

in California is if you're a Los Angeles Laker. Okay. And now, meanwhile, Rand Paul had no symptoms and said, I don't think I ran into anyone who actually had it. Now, I'll get tested anyway. And they're like, ah, sure. Boom. Here's a test. So these, the elites getting these tests. and people with significant fevers not being tested, that's going to come to a boiling point really, really soon. I feel like this virus has, like, the country's naked, right? Like everything that we suspected about the country, the inequality, the unfairness, just the double standard

between the rich and the poor. Like, all of it is just out in the open. And I think what we're noticing with the, like Harvey Weinstein's tested. Harvey Weinstein has been tested, right? I mean, and he tested positive. Anyway, it's just, it is interesting to see how easy it is for some to get those tests while others are having a difficult time doing so. And look, we're taking this seriously for obvious reasons. We don't wish ill upon anyone, even if we disagree with them politically. But one person who certainly does not rise above it is Donald Trump. And so when he heard about the possibility of Mitt Romney,

maybe in the future testing positive because of the contact he's had with Rand Paul. Here's how he reacted. On top of Senator Paul now, four senators are in isolation. And the rules say that in order to vote they have to be there. Who are there? Who are there? Senator Lee? Senator Gordon.

Senator Rick Scott. Senator Rick Scott. Romney is in isolation? Yes. Gee, that's too bad. Go ahead. Did you have sarcasm there? No.

No answer. Ah, it's such a bad person. Like, to his core, he's a bad person. How do people not see that he's the bad guy in the movie? I'm just, I'm stunned by that every single day. Was that sarcasm? Of course it was sarcasm. Gee, that's too bad, right?

Like, we make points, rhetorical points about Rand Paul and say, but we hope to God he's okay, right? He is literally, seems to be wishing that Mitt Romney get the coronavirus. He's such a terrible guy. But to the rhetorical point about Rand Paul, he is a libertarian, so I hope he's not using his government-issued health insurance. Look, I want him to be okay.

He's fabulously rich. He could just pay out of his pocket probably. But, I mean, this is the time for bootstraps because he has told every other person for his entire career, bootstraps for all of you. The government should never help you. And he voted against funding for coronavirus. So I hope he's not going to a government institution or using government paid insurance or any of those things because this is a perfect time for bootstraps.

Well, of course he's going to use those goodies that come along with his job, right? But earlier in the story, it was referenced that he has an underlying medical condition that puts him at grave danger with this virus. And it's because when he got into that physical altercation with his neighbor, part of his lung was removed. And remember, this is a virus that attacks your respiratory system aggressively. So this is pretty disastrous news for Rand Paul. Yeah.

Look, last thing on this, guys, when we try to get health care for everyone, we're not going to exclude Republicans. So I make that rhetorical point because I wish to God that people like Rand Paul would actually have empathy for other human beings for once in their life. Having said that, should Rand Paul use his government paid for health insurance because he's senator? Of course! Of course he should.

And of course he should use everything that the government has to offer for anyone who gets sick because we don't want him to die. And that's why there are no libertarians in pandemic foxholes. So when there's a pandemic, everybody becomes a socialist overnight. And so does Rand Paul, and that's okay, because we want them to be to be to be to be, to be safe. But when he comes out of it, we'll have any empathy for any other human being out there. I think we know how that's going to end up. All right. Well, let's go to our last story. So, while Donald Trump is considering forcing Americans to go back to work in order to so-called

save the economy, the fact of the matter is we don't even know the level of, or like the extent to which people have already contracted the coronavirus because testing isn't available. And so there's this great video that was put together by Bullwark Senior Video Editor Barry Rubin. And it really places the spotlight on the claims of available testing made by Donald Trump and what the reality is. Let's take a look. Well, we're testing everybody that we need to test. We're finding very little problem. And I'm very concerned because we don't have enough testing kits. It's very likely that there are a lot more people in the U.S. who have coronavirus, but we're just not testing for it.

We'll have over a million tests in the field today. About 1.5 million test kits going out as we speak. By the end of the week, they should be able to get out about 75,000 tests. You had mentioned four million tests before? By the end of the week, hopefully. Anybody that needs a test gets a test. They're there. They have the tests. The idea of anybody getting it. we're not set up for that people should not say if you want a test you go get a test right now we've got a long way to be able to go to be able to get rapid efficient testing one point four

million tests on board next week we expect at least two million next week when will every American who need to test get a test you're hearing very positive things about testing there are Americans though which doesn't surprise what do you say to the Americans I'm not hearing it I'm not hearing it yes that's a great video and great job there. Okay, guys, a buffoon, if you can't see that with your own eyes in the video we just showed you, there's something wrong with your cognitive abilities. He just makes up one number after another, after another.

One million, one and a half million, four million. I think it's four million. One point four million. Everybody can get a test. That's not true. So number one, you can tell it. He's not telling the truth because which Donald Trump do you believe? the one that said $1 million, $2 million or $4 million?

And how do we go backwards? He said $4 million, then he said $1.4 million. Did we lose $2.6 million in those couple of days? So the second part of it that's important is everything is a lie. There are no tests. The reason why the number of cases are going up now is finally the tests are trickling in. You know who you should believe out of all those videos? Dr. Fauci, because he's an actual doctor and he cares about facts.

In fact, we're going to talk about his disagreement with Trump in the postgame today for our members, t-y-t.com slash join. Don't miss that story because he's basically throwing up his hands and going, I don't know, the guy's a showman, right? So he just says numbers and then I have to try to correct it later. So none of those numbers are true. There are no tests because the buffoon didn't think to order them. I don't know if it's because he wanted Jared Kushner to make more money from his brother's

testing company, or more importantly or maybe more accurately based on the There seems to be very, very legitimate reporting, he's reporting on both, but more accurate reporting on, or detail reporting on him not wanting more tests so that people think there isn't that many cases so the stock market doesn't go down and his reelection chances are better off. That's why he makes up lie after lie after lie. This is not a leader. It's an orange buffoon used car salesman in above his head. Yeah, absolutely. And just to give everyone, you know, an accurate number in case. they come across this type of misinformation. In the future, the truth is, as the number of

tests promised increased upwards of 2 million, the tests administered across the country as of March 20th remained under 200,000. So we're still having issues with testing. And I also want to remind everyone that governors are having trouble obtaining the medical supplies that they need. And remember, Donald Trump is the one who told them in a call, you know, if you need to get these medical supplies, go out there, get them yourself. It's probably going to be easier and faster that way. And of course, that turned out to be a complete disaster, right? And look, guys, like, what is the point of having a federal government? Like, the federal government is meant for what we're experiencing right now. And unfortunately, it's being run by an incompetent buffoon

who only cares about himself. Everything he does is based on his own self-interest. and what he needs to do in order to get reelected. And what's really devastating, Jank, is that, you know, based on his approval rating from last week, he's at 55%. 55% of Americans are happy with the way that he's dealt with coronavirus, which is just mind-blowing to me. All right, our post game is next. You don't want to miss it. We're going to talk about Dr. Anthony Fauci and how he's been contradicting Trump. What does that mean? We have that story for you and more. For everyone else, have a great night. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks.

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