The Young Turks - TYT Extended Clip - March 6th, 2020

Episode Date: March 7, 2020

Trump could not stop lying during his recent town hall. John Iadarola, Mark Thompson, and Francesca Fiorentini, hosts of The Young Turks, break it down. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

We've got Mark Thompson, Francesca, Fierantini, and myself. Thank you for joining me. No problem. Excited. I'm hoping that we're going to have fun. These are serious times. Yeah, well, I just got done washing my hands, and I've got to wash my hands again at about 10 minutes. So if we can just get a moving.

I just got done licking mine. Can we have a basin here on the desk? You should not do that. Yes, so we're going to be talking about what you guys are hinting at, certainly. We've got the president's town hall. We've got some moments from major TV channels that are the most embarrassing bombat. They're the serious, reputable people. We are animal vermin scum compared to them.

Totally, totally. But I am going to question that hierarchy. see through this hour, since we rarely call for mass murder and we can do basic math. I won't go farther than basic. But anyway, we've got a lot of good stories. What a tease? What a tease? Don't you want to know what I'm talking about?

Don't go anywhere. I think that our audience watches enough news that they know what I'm talking about. So anyway, look, we've got a lot that we're going to get to. Anna Kasparian is going to be leading the second hour a little bit later on, but I'm very excited, so why don't we jump right into it? Last night, Donald Trump had a town hall with Fox News, and he let something pretty big slip. Watch. This would be a focus of a second term?

Oh, absolutely. But when the trade deals kick in, now, again, we were disturbed by what's going on with the virus, but that's going to be fine, and everybody, it's going to be fine. But, you know, that was a disturbance. But I will say this, we, when these trade deals kick in and when all, you know, the economy is the best economy we've ever had. It's nothing compared to what it's going to be when the trade deals kick in. But if you don't cut something in entitlements, you'll never really deal with the debt. But we're also going to have growth like you've never had before.

There he's talking about the national debt, which is grown by $3 trillion since he became president. And it's prompted by Martha McCollum. Well, if you don't start cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, how are you going to deal with it? And he's like, oh, no, we're going to be cutting. Now, they are back, back, back, back tracking today, but there, he appeared to admit that that is what's on offer for a second term. Cuts to the most popular programs America has ever come up with. Also, just like lightly skating over the virus that is, what are we calling it? COVID-19. COVID-19.

It's got a whole new name now, you guys. It stands for coronavirus, infection. I knew what it's true. There are many strains of it. This is a particular one, which is like specific. It's a classification of different. Cool. No, no, listen, I'm glad it's like moving on up, it deserves our respect.

COVID-19, taking the world by storm. But he just sort of glosses over it. Like, everyone's gonna get better. And honestly, when there's a third of the population wiped out, we'll have less people to cover in social security. So really, two birds, ones don't. Like, that's where he's going with this. The moment where he says, you know, it's gonna be fine, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, It's gonna be fine.

That is not, that does not project strength from the president for me. And also, by the way, really fast is a fact check there. He's asked a question about why the national debt has continued to go up when he said while he was campaigning to be president that it would be wiped out during his first or second term. I forget exactly which. And he said, well, you know, we've had this virus. No, no, no.

We here in America have been affected by it for a month, two months, maybe three, lightly. That is not why three trillion dollars was added to the national debt. That was pre-COVID-19. Of course. So he does a couple of things there. I think as Francesca rightly points out, he quickly skips over the coronavirus COVID-19, as though it was something that we had a wager as to who would first call it what I just did. That's the reason I paused. That's its street name. COVID-19. He skipped over it because clearly that's, A, he doesn't know anything about it. I mean, he really is someone who's short on details. He wants to message. Everything's going to be fine.

is going to be fine. From an economic standpoint, I get why. You need to build consumer confidence. You need to build investor confidence and all of those things. But the second thing he points to and it's just amazing to watch him do it is tomorrow is going to be better. You wait till the second term. Wow, we are really going to take off. He is still selling that bullshine that he was selling to get to office in the first place. I mean, the fact is the ongoing con that is this president. And people applaud it. I mean, of course, I understand that's sort of a paid-for crowd in that Fox News Town Hall. But nonetheless, they're all too anxious to believe it when the reality is that the numbers

just don't bear it out. Yeah. He's the sham wow of presidents. That's what I've called him. Like, you know, he is just like the home shopping network of politics. You know, you got to see it to believe it. Wait for it. Wait for, you know, he is the snake oil salesman.

And he always has been. And I think this absolutely speaks to what he is selling the American people and what he's selling the GOP, which is, I will be your Trojan horse for actually cutting entitlements. Things you wanted to do this entire time, but you couldn't get away with it. You needed a racist celebrity to sell it for you. And that's what he's delivering. Yeah, and I think he's worried that he revealed that. He tweeted this morning, I will protect your Social Security and Medicare just as I have for the past three years. We're going to fact check that.

But sleepy Joe Biden will destroy both in very short order, and he won't even know he's doing it. On the second hour, we are going to have a bit of a discussion about Joe Biden's position on Social Security and the unfortunate fact that Donald Trump, if Biden is the nominee, is going to be able to use this against him. But I do want you to bear in mind that that slip of the tongue is not the only reason people should be worried about what he plans to do with these programs if he gets a second term. In his last budget, they proposed over the next 10 years, spending $1.5 trillion less on Medicaid,

allocating $300 billion less to a block grant program to states, cutting $25 billion from Social Security, almost a trillion from Medicare. At one point, and this is separate, there were headlines about his budget proposal for Social Security shrinking disability insurance and extending wait times, that's $84 billion less right there. And also bear in mind that during the rush to repeal and replace the ACA, every bill proposed massive cuts to Medicaid in order to pay for tax cuts elsewhere. Trump supported every iteration of their repeal and replace bills.

He even held a party for House Republicans in the White House Rose Garden when the lower chamber of Congress narrowly passed a proposal that slashed more than $800 billion from Medicaid over 10 years. So as the House under Republicans were trying to slash these programs, he was cheering them on all the way. Now, thankfully, they were stopped, but the plan was to do that, and he was an enthusiastic participant. And I think that if you're Bloomberg and if you're Steyer, these are the ads that you have

to be running. I mean, truly, like, listen, you know, whether it was Russia or Ukraine, like, obviously those were important. I mean, impeachment, et cetera, but actually get him on the issues. These not cutting entitlements, not cutting Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security is what Trump ran on. People, I don't know how, I don't know how they were watching the same guy we all were, but But when Trump said, you're going to have something better than Obamacare, people believed him.

So if you've got money, if you actually want to help the Democratic Party and cause, you're going to run those ads that expose him on this particular issue. I think that's a great point Francesca's making. You know, you can really hold his feet to the fire on this issue, which is so important to so many Americans. And I would also hit, and you know, I've made this point before, because I think it's just so lying out there to be exploited. corruption. You have to hit the corruption of this administration. But just because we're talking about this, yeah, this is an exploitable, politically exploitable point for the Democrats or for whomever, as you say, for those who were jitting up ads against this guy. Yeah. I mean, I spoke with, you know, I did a health care special for MSNBC. Have I mentioned it? No, and speaking with

what I knew to be Trump voters, right? We didn't talk about national politics much, but they said if it weren't for Medicare, I would be dead. The best thing for my health care was getting to 65. That if I hadn't had a birthday, like, you know, I would, this woman had leukemia, and she couldn't afford her medicine, and she couldn't afford to go to the doctor. And those are the getable votes. And for me, those are the getable votes that I know you're going to talk more about this, but that Bernie Sanders will, if he's given the chance in the general, will bring over to

his side. And a lot of Democrats don't like that, but guess what? it works, right? And when you see and when you expose this president lying to the people for saying that he wouldn't cut these programs, guess what? He is, and that will bring Republicans who did vote for him over to the other side. I don't know. Now, having just agreed with you on something, I don't know that those people are so easily brought over to the other side. And this is part of a broader conversation we can have maybe over a few episodes. Obviously, there's going to be a ramp up to the general. But I think there is such strong identity politics.

Things have become so tribal in this country that even those people that Francesca is talking about, even those people that are being brutalized by this administration in terms of their benefits being eliminated, even they, because I've read a bunch of accounts too from people who go, yeah, you know, it's been tough, we've lost this, we've lost that, but Trump's our guy. I met someone like that when I was canvassing with Jank up in the high desert. So, I mean, she's losing people vote against their interests? She's losing her house. She was literally talking about losing her house the next month, but she said, this is a Trump household.

So there's some other part of identity that's wrapped up in this president. Whiteness. Yeah, that is certainly true. But we might be talking about a small percentage who can be brought over. And that might be all. And that might be enough. I'm not saying literally no one, but I don't know that people don't vote on facts always. Yeah.

Well, and how about after multiple presidential elections where we try to bring over 3% of Republicans by capitulating on all of our values. How about we switch to trying to get those people by actually standing by our values? I think that would be a novel approach that just might work. Yes. Okay, let's switch over to something a little bit fun for just a minute. Mike Bloomberg obviously spent a lot of money in his presidential run more than half a billion dollars. That sounds like a lot, but let's make a comparison.

What else is it like? Let's turn now to the news. But you see it as a possibility if he wants to spend a billion bucks beating this guy, he could do it. Absolutely. Somebody tweeted recently that actually with the money he spent, he could have given every American a million dollars. I've got it. Let's put it up on the screen. When I read it tonight on social media, it kind of all became clear.

Bloomberg spent 500 million on ads. U.S. population, 327 million. Don't tell us if you're ahead of us on the math. He could have given each American one million dollars and have had lunch money left over. It's an incredible way of putting it. It's an incredible way of putting it. It's true. It's disturbing.

It does suggest, you know, what we're talking about here, which is there's too much money in politics. There is too much money. There's not quite that much money. Well, if everybody got a million dollars, though, that Purole would really be expensive now. Let me just say, because they know we have money at that point. Tell me that someone in the studio was like, that's not the math, that's not the math. No, no, no, no, no, no, please take it back, take it back, come on Brian, come on, Brian. And you weren't in that helicopter.

I like the idea that all of them were thinking that. And as he's saying, oh, don't stop me if you're ahead of me on the math, and they're all like, no, we totally are, you don't know what you're talking about. It's a buck and a half almost, not quite, about a buck and a half, which is a lot in a country of hundreds of millions of people, but it's not a million dollars each. He didn't spend hundreds of trillions of dollars or whatever. But anyway, I feel a little bit bad for them because I've probably, you know, slip of the tongue, like that wasn't a slip of the tongue, but said something that could be interpreted as very

dumb. And we've all sent out tweets and possibly wondered, am I making the point that I think I'm making? Oh, all the times. I worry. No, I've- I'm not saying I would do any better than that. you, there'd be a cut to my face and I'd be like, yeah, he coulda. It would take me a while. Oh, that's cute, though.

If only, listen, $1.50 pretty soon. That's, that's cute. It will just be like, hey, $1.50, please go in there. So we do have updates from the two individuals that were on the air there. Nargay this morning had tweeted out buying a calculator, BRB, which is good. And then much later, the 11th hour tweeted out, please. He's by two. I'm away today, but luckily Steve Kornacki is filling in for me tonight, so our math game

will be strong. We all feel terrible and regret the error. Do you think he was scheduled to be out? I wonder. You never know with these sorts of things. I don't think, I think it's not a, yes, I think it's scheduled. Exactly. That's a great job.

Yang already got picked up by CNN. They could use them. They could use them. Seriously. And look, I said something to this effect on the damage report when we talk about it. I will say this again, I feel most bad for the person who tweeted that because they're We're trying to make a point that this billionaire has spent an ungodly sum. We're all trying to put it in context.

And their heart was probably in the right place, but they made a mistake. And now all their stuff is private. Like they're probably being hounded for making a small little math mistake. Someone's put it to me like this in terms of Bloomberg's money if he really cared about democratic values, et cetera, et cetera. He is worth $65 billion, something like this. News is worth 20, around 20 billion dollars. You could buy Fox News and even if you pivoted it a hair towards sanity, it would do more

for this country than you embarrassing yourself on a national stage. Let's be real. Oh my God. So just putting that in context, like, oh yeah, you could just buy Fox. You could have all of Fox, expand Bloomberg and make it minimally less hateful and you'd change the country. Because they were trying to do this, I want to give you a few other numbers of what you could do. That's a great suggestion.

But people have pointed out, this is perhaps the most popular one. Well, actually, hold on, we'll get to that. You could clear $50 billion in medical debt. Replacing all the lead pipes ten times over is what, when I tweeted about this, a lot of people responded. That's what they like him to do. The water pressure in Flint is going to be on point. It'll be its own problem. But pay off the student loan debt of 150,000 students or purchase homes for 2,200 of the homeless individuals in New York City.

all of that would have objectively been a better use of his money than this Vanity Project of running for president? I don't want to be in a position to defend Bloomberg on his money spend, but I kind of feel like there's another rich guy, and I mean, it's insane wealth, and it's out of control, oligarchical wealth, although the guy is, you know, self-made in that, in that way that he did become his own sort of media empire. But I think he feels as though, hey, I want to. to be in charge, I can run this better than anybody else, and so he throws his money at that.

Of course, there's an argument to also be made, which is we shouldn't need some super rich guy to come along and pay off student loan and get clean water in Flint, Michigan. It's outrageous. I mean, we have to turn to the ultra wealthy to bail us out of societal problems that we should be able to handle. I mean, it's outrageous. Of course. I mean, we have game shows that are paying off student loan debt.

Yeah. Because it's so fun. Look, the moment where you say that you deserve your $65 billion, which he did say that he deserves it, is like, you're gone. Like how many? No, seriously, like how many billion? Jenk and I disagree on this. About what?

How much money is enough? Like, he's- Far less than $65 billion. Right. Like, at what billion dollars if you're like, listen, I could have a billion? I don't think anyone needs anything like a billion. Even a billion is too much. Agreed.

That's, like, you don't need to be able to, like, terraform Mars single-handedly. I know it would cost a lot more than that. Don't get me starting. I don't know what that needs. But no, but it's a lot of money. That sounds expensive. It's way too much, but, yeah, it's way more money than anyone needs. I'm more concerned with what the money is used for than how much money someone has.

I don't hate rich people. I hate rich people who hoard their money, invested overseas, and never pay anything for the benefits that have accrued to them from the society that's made them wealthy. That bothers me. Yeah, yeah, it's the combination of the wealth, but much of it gotten by manipulating the system to produce billionaires like you and to make sure that if it takes a whole lot of broke people and ever increasing income inequality, then that's what they'll do. Okay, with that, we do have to take our first break, but we'll be back with more. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-F-The Republic or UNFTR. As a Young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations are constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the race.

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 and upend the historical narratives that were taught in school. For as the great philosopher Yoda

once put it, you must have learned what you have learned. And that's true whether you're in Jedi training or you're uprooting and exposing all the propaganda and disinformation you've been fed over the course of your lifetime. So search for UNFDR in your podcast app today and get ready to get informed, angered, and entertained all at the same time. After this. Hello and welcome back to the Power Panel with Mark and Francesca and my A lot of people were sending in both members' comments and super chat, so I wanted to read just a few of those.

First, in the super chat, Christian Castillo says, or Castillo, says, thank you, TYT for all your hard work. You are the reason I got interested in politics, especially because you give us the facts and do not spread lies. Thank you. I certainly try not to. Maybe about myself, but not about the country. And also in the members' comments, Gabby and Marita really hits the nail in the head.

So now both Biden and Trump are on the record that they want to cut Social Security and entitlement programs, guess there's only one alternative then, Bernie 2020. I hope so. And let's see, tough nuggies says, saw a video of a comedian describing Trump in terms of being a real estate salesman, and it really stuck with me, always talking up the U.S. like a property he knows has massive problems. Yep. Yes, if only he was just focused on fixing them.

That's great, I haven't, that's a terrific take on it. From that last video, it's like, well, you know, the kitchen's got problems, but it's going It's gonna be fine. It's gonna be fine. This family that's living here, they're gonna be gone soon, aren't you? I don't think he acknowledges problems. I don't think the guy acknowledges problems. I think, you know, it's, I love that take on it.

It's just the flim flam, yeah, exactly. But it absolutely works. Like we did a newsbroke video about like sort of studying, I think, it was sort of, it wasn't the book like how to like make friends and influence people, but something very, very similar, which was, it mirrors exactly how Trump speaks. He is the bigger, the biggest, the best, right? It's going to be amazing. Oh, you're missing out.

He's basically selling us a timeshare, this entire time. Yeah, but the time is the 1940s. Yes, indeed. Yeah. That worked out very well. Okay, so I did want to let you know of a few things before you jump back into the news. Did you know that that wasn't the last set of primaries? There's more.

And on March 10th, we're going to be doing coverage of it. We've got a great panel of progressive hosts joining our primary coverage on Tuesday. March 10th, coverage starts at 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 p.m. Pacific at t.t.com slash live. You can expect Jank Yugar, Anna Kasparian, myself, J.R. Jackson, Brett Erlerlick, and Nando is going to be here as well. Look at J.R. He's got that kind of leaning into the shot thing. Yeah, exactly. Brett's got that happy thing. He's got a, is that actually his body? I feel like he just photoshop. It does look Photoshop. I agree with that. I think that's a clean. We're going to look into that.

No. It's a possibility that's not. Yes. And also, by the way, On the conversation, coming up this Monday, March 9th, comedian and daily show co-creator Liz Winstead is going to be there. That's 8 p.m. Eastern Time, 5 p.m. Pacific, talking about a recent SCOT's hearing and its ramifications on Roe v. Wade. You can tune in at t.com slash live. That's Monday, March 9th. Should be a very exciting episode of the show. Might be one of you two that's talking to her, actually. Yeah, I don't know about that. We'll see. We'll see. And with that, why don't we jump back into the news? At an Arizona rally, Bernie Sanders was the target of a fairly horrific protest.

Let's take a look at some video of what happened. Now, you can see that there was a hateful protester unveiling a swastika flag. Now, we did not know for some time who exactly it was, but they have apparently been identified. White supremacist Robert Sterkisson has been identified as the man who briefly displayed a swastika flag at Bernie Sanders presidential campaign rally in Arizona. He's been known as an extremist for more than a decade. He operates an obscure anti-Muslim hate group. This is coming from right wing watch, which also identified, by the way, an extremely xenophobic, hateful, and violent YouTube channel that was shut down after this. Not, you know, during its entire run. It was allowed

to operate. It was only when he made news here that YouTube finally shut it down. But we do have a statement from Bernie Sanders about this. The man not only showed the swastika, but hurled, like, you know, racist, anti-Semitic epithets at Bernie Sanders. Senator Sanders said, I speak not only as a Jewish American, I think I can speak for the families of some 400,000 American troops who died fighting Nazism, fighting fascism, that it is horrific. It is beyond disgusting to see that in the United States of America, there are people who would show the emblem of Hitler and Nazism. But there are fine people on both sides? Has that come out yet? We'll see.

And I think that's actually, I mean, obviously he's correct, but I do feel like it was a little bit of a missed opportunity for Bernie Sanders, who I know doesn't like to make himself sort of the, even the center of his own movement, right? His whole slogan is not me, us. But Bernie, this was absolutely an attack on him being a Jewish president or Jewish candidate for president. And he needs to talk about that. And he needs to say that while the current president believes there are good people on both sides

of a right-wing Nazi rally and an anti-Nazi rally, I do not. I take this very seriously. And my campaign is about bringing people of all religious backgrounds, ethnicities and races, and classes and genders together. Like I think that was sort of the last piece of that, and I hope you will say that and say it strongly. And I think this is what bothers me the most about the fact that we are living in a time when right-wing hate spurred and inspired by this president is at an all-time high when

the FBI has said that right-wing extremism is more of a threat to the United States than, let's say, Islamic terrorism or extremism or Muslim extremism. It's like, we know that, we've seen that. It showed its face on the streets, and yet we still have people being like, but Bernie Sanders supporters are so mean with their emojis and you're like, it's dishonest. It's complete dishonesty. You're talking about hatred online. Talk about the right wingers who are absolutely attacking Bernie for being Jewish,

who are attacking women, attacking Muslims, attacking people of color. I just know that Benjamin Netanyahu is going to say something about this. He's going to come out and stand in solidarity with Bernie Sanders against anti-Semitism. Let's put some money down on his bat. And I'm going to hold my breath. Yeah. So, you mentioned dishonesty? Yeah.

I've got, I think, an example of some dishonesty. Before we get to that, I do want to remind you, obviously we have mentioned, and you probably knew that he is Jewish himself. He is, you know, the most high profile Jewish candidate for president ever. Additionally, members of his family were killed in the Holocaust. Despite that, opponents have repeatedly compared Sanders and his movement to the Nazi. party. At a CPAC, Glenn Beck claimed that Sanders and his supporters were seeking to enact another Holocaust. Chris Matthews apologized after comparing his primary win in Nevada to the

1940 fall of France to Nazi Germany. I can add that Mark Levin said that he's seeking a, what is it, a final solution in Israel and Palestine. So that's becoming common. So now we have this incident where he's the target of this hateful protest. And I can't peer into the hearts of social media managers when they choose how to present something. So it is possible that they just didn't think before they tweeted. But I want you to take a look at how that story has been presented by some of the media. So this was a tweet from Nathan Coleman Lamb pointing out USA Today's headline. Sanders campaign condemns swastika flag at Phoenix Rally.

As if Nina Turner was holding it up or something. Business Insider, Bernie Sanders condemns Nazi flag unfurled at his Arizona rally. as if, like, what, just prematurely, like they were supposed to hold it for the encore. And then the hill, watch, man waves swastika flag at Sanders' rally, with Sanders, like, happily holding up his arm as if he's greeting an old friend. He was the target of this. You should be fearful for his life if people like this are showing up at his rallies. If they could, in public, hold up a swastika, they could try to kill him.

He has been repeatedly the target of exactly this sort of hate. And it's being presented in the media as if this is something that he really needs to explain why he's the center of so much hatred and vitriol. Yeah, even if you don't interpret it that way, it's far too neutral and bizarre a presentation of the facts for me to just let it slide. I agree. I mean, it just doesn't, you realize how we talk about all the time, how the media is, leans against Sanders. It really does seem to be played out over and over. in just those headlines as a great representative sample. Yeah.

I mean, I think it's important to just stay focused. I think it's for people who do like Bernie Sanders, it's really easy to get upset and angry at like these portrayals. But we know that if he wins the nomination, they're going to continue. They're going to get worse. What's great for Bernie Sanders supporters is that they're not going to get worse based on any fact, meaning, you know, they could call him a communist. They could call him whatever.

Whatever, whatever they want to call him and they could hold him responsible for a swastika held at his own rally that was clearly against him, it doesn't matter because he's actually talking about real issues and he stays on message. And so I think if we do the same, we're going to get through this. If there is a virtue, a political virtue, I'm talking about to Bernie Sanders, there are many virtues, I suspect, but a political virtue, it's what Francesca is talking about, which is his ability to stay on message. He really is unshakable on this stuff. And that's something that shouldn't be underestimated. You know, Biden, there is no real message there. I mean, maybe it's honesty or integrity that he's going to try to, but there's no message that he's on.

But Bernie Sanders is unshakable with his message. So to that extent, yeah, I think he's just sort of, you know, unfazed by this stuff. Yeah. Yeah, but I will say, I mean, after like Simone Sanders had to tackle someone who rushed on to Biden stage, and now neo-Nazis are bringing. hate flags into these rallies, like maybe a little bit of security, like these people, one of these two people could be president in a little bit? Like, why don't we take it seriously at this point?

Can I just say one more thing about this? I think that Bernie Sanders is not only historic in terms of being, you know, one of the first front-running Jewish candidates for president ever, but he is also doing so while also criticizing the nation of Israel. And while also being embraced by so many progressive Jewish or people. American organizations that also have a criticism of Israel and also are saying, we want both the U.S. and Israel to be better. And I think that is what is so unprecedented and so wonderful.

I mean, we've had other Jewish politicians, and they always get praised, but only when they tack right, and only when they embrace the occupation of Palestinian territory, right? And only when they turn a blind eye to Israel and Israelis like human rights violations. And so we have to make it clear that it is also anti-Semitic to hold up certain Jews and denigrate others because of their political beliefs. There have been a lot of members' comments about the story that have been rolling in, including one from Mondo Libre, who says Francesca's comments, true and accurate, sad and funny all at the same time. That's how I've always described you. Yeah. You're all sad and when I do stand up, people are like, that's sad and funny.

A little accurate, a little sad. And blowed out your trumpet said, I would hope this is the kind of dramatic news the ladies of the view could talk about. It would be nice to see them defend Bernie for once. Yeah. And you know what? As of, I can't guarantee, but as of filming this, in terms of CNN and MSNBC, I did not see them mention this story once.

Yeah, I haven't seen it. The only response is to defend Bernie Sanders. Absolutely. They don't appear to have much interest in that. Okay, with that, why don't we transition to another story? Facebook, shockingly, is taking down some of Trump's ads for being misleading. And I want to give you the example of what these ads look like. One said, President Trump needs you to take the official 2020 congressional district census today.

We need to hear from you before the most important election in American history. The campaign asked their followers to respond now to help our campaign messaging strategy with an appeal to text Trump to 8022. And you can also see that once you get to the website, you'll see things like this. the certified website of President Donald J. Trump's official 2020 Congressional District Census. And then it starts to ask you some demographic questions, almost like what a dim-witted person would think the census was like. They put together that website to mimic it, perhaps hoping to fool people into thinking.

Wait, what are those boxes? Well, on the thing? Let's bring it back for a second. Okay, conservative Republican, moderate Republican, liberal Republican, in the Okay, I thought it said interdependent, never mind, I'm gonna- Intergalactic. Intergalactic Republican, Democratic Republican. They did have, they had a survey, they had a survey that someone said to be a few days ago that had, it was one of their email things, and it was, what do you identify as?

American Socialist, a bit on the nose. But anyway, those as far as I know aren't running on Facebook, but the census ones were. And it turned out that, I mean, we've been wondering for so long, what will it take? for a Trump lie in a paid ad that Facebook is spreading to his followers and beyond, what will it take for them to finally do something? And apparently, this has crossed the line. Facebook said on Thursday that the Trump campaign's message violated its policy against interference in the census, an important survey and population count used to draw

electoral maps. Facebook bars the misrepresentation of days, locations, times, and methods for census participation. Now, he has lied over and over and over again. And these are not matters of opinion, these are documented lies, and Facebook up until this point was not willing to take them down. They wanted to stay neutral while of course profiting mightily off of his advertising dollars. And finally, this has reached the line.

And by the way, the actual information about the census is going to start rolling out in just a matter of weeks. And so if they had not done this, it would have been concurrent with the letters people were getting. And it's not impossible to imagine that some of them would think, oh, I don't, I don't, I I already did it online. I don't need this. I don't need to take care of this. I just think it's ironic that the one issue that Facebook is like, it crosses the line

is when it comes to counting every single American and knowing where they are and what their race and ethnicity is and where they live and how many kids they have. Like, of course, Facebook's like, no, no, no, we got to know all that information and see if it checks out with our own, right? Which, again, is not, you should fill out the census. It's so important, and clearly what Trump is trying to do there, in my opinion, is say, hey, the census is Trumpism, MAGA census, which we know actually scares people of color, immigrants, undocumented immigrants, which is one of the biggest groups that everyone

concerned truly about the census, wants to be able to allow to report honestly that, yes, they are in this country and no, they should not fear any kind of retribution if they fill out a census form. But Trump is basically saying, I think it's a tactic to scare specifically immigrants into not reporting by linking his campaign with the census. And it's a brilliant strategy. Wow, that's clever. I hadn't thought of it. I thought of it a little bit with what Johnny said where, you know, you feel you've already done it because you were on this Facebook link. But that's an even more sort of devious thing. And of course, they're asking questions that would never appear on the census form to begin with. It's, and I have to say, Francesca,

another point about Facebook really knowing so much about us. I mean, more than any census form could possibly reveal about any of us, those who participate in any way on Facebook probably have revealed considerable information. As I say, it would be in excess of what you'd fill out on a census form. Yeah. Yeah, look, Facebook is not a positive player in the political process, and probably not in the societal, cultural process either. Yeah, I am worried that we're going have the same situation as 2016. They're just going to wipe their, wash their hands of the entire thing, which is a good idea. You should be washing your hands, but not if your Facebook and not a fake news can potentially swing an election. And they're just going to let him do

whatever he wants. He'll pay them. They'll spread his lies and people will believe crazy things. And make no mistake about it. That was the most effective means of communicating information and disinformation and propaganda in the last election in 2016. If you haven't, you ought to see the documentary, the great hack. The great hack is on Netflix, and I think it's everywhere now. It really speaks to that. It's an easy watch, and you'll get like, you'll get the whole thing, because you'll recall Hillary Clinton had more money than Donald Trump. Now Donald Trump will have more money than, you know, than God, you know, with all of the- But not as much as Bloomberg. With all the resources, yes, from Bloomberg's in a separate category.

Bloomberg is God. But anyway, I see Facebook and the internet world is particularly vulnerable yet again to whatever propaganda Trump and his cronies want to serve. I mean, and like, you know, kind of pouring one out for Elizabeth Warren, I do think that one of her most, her boldest campaign ideas was breaking up big tech, you know, and I think it's an idea that Bernie Sanders should absolutely adopt and or Warren should carry out if when she's, you know, when she's back in the Senate or if she's in whatever cabinet position, hopefully Bernie Sanders is a cabinet position, you know, that she would do that because we absolutely need to break up big tech. And I don't know what's changed since 2016. Like, has there been accountability for Cambridge Analytica, for our data being stolen? I think what has changed is Facebook has clarified their position, which is you guys figure it out. No one got fired. No one got fired.

Cheryl Sandberg's still in there. Yeah. Well, last thing, or super last thing, as Jenk would say, I would say that that's a function of this society, right? Big tech is not getting broken up because big media is not being broken up and big banks aren't being broken up. I mean, bigger and bigger and merrier and mergier is the way we go. And so until that is diffused, that process is going to continue. And as you suggest, I think the greatest threat is this growing and bigger tech.

And so it does need to be broken up, but it needs to be broken up as part of a sea change in the way we look at all these big companies. Yeah. But I will say again, watch The Great Hack. Yes. And then watch Game Changers. Oh, thank you. Game Changers are another.

Anyway, we're going to take a break, but there's much more. 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. VPN hides your IP address, making your active ID more difficult to trace and sell the advertisers. ExpressVPN also encrypts 100% of your network data to protect you from eavesdroppers and

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We've got Mark and Francesca, and we've got a couple of awesome stories which we're going to get to in just a minute. But first, I wanted to let you know about some of the comments that have been coming in, including one from on Super Chat, Anthony Whitmere, who said, have you guys covered the Nina Turner or Hillary Rosen story yet? That is going to be covered by Anna Kasparian on the second hour, so definitely look forward to that. By the way, reading that, I was reminded.

So, Chris Matthews has, he's moseyed on down that old dusty trail. And he had a bunch of things in those last couple weeks that were a little bit weird. But one was when during an interview he referred to Bernie surrogate Tina Turner. I was like, no, don't. That was the 10th weirdest, craziest thing he said during that time. But he did say it. Okay, you know what that? I need that.

That should be my ringtone now. of him saying he was in, and then looking around confused about what studio he was in. Oh, Chris Matthews, you damn fool. And now we have our own Chris Matthews running for president as a frontrunner. That's true. That's true. A few guests. Biden is just, yeah.

Basically, yeah, they're both enthusiastic and they both probably stand way too close to you. Okay, with that, why don't we jump back on the news? I turn to CNBC for business news, yes, but also news of importance on public health. And they managed to combine the two. Take a look at this. Think about how the world would be if you tried to quarantine everybody because of the generic type flu. Now, I'm not saying this is the generic type flu, but maybe we'd be just better off if we gave it to everybody. And then in a month it would be over because the mortality rate of this probably isn't going to be any different if we did it that way than the long-term picture.

But the differences were wreaking havoc on global and domestic economy. Okay, so that is an individual, Rick Centelli, that people turn to for financial advice, and they get a little on the side, a little bit of COVID-19 advice. So he believes that rather than like, you know, try to fight the spread of the disease, why don't we just give up, inject everyone with it, and that'll be better for the market. Well, it's so absurd. You see the panic, though, that's what Wall Street and the investor class. And honestly, it's not just the investor class, to be fair, and a lot of people's retirement

is wrapped up in the market. And all the way, you don't have to be just a private investor. But that's what panic is, is circling through those, through all of those different regions of the economy. He's saying, can't we just give it to everybody and then we can get, you know, somehow get through this and we'll just flush it in a year, I mean, or in a month. It's absurd on its face. And I think it only reflects the fear and the panic.

I mean, where he's blurting out what is obviously. an utter absurdity. Right. I don't know what kind of cocaine they snort on the floor of the stock market, but I feel like it is mixed in with the bones of poor people, and they just, you know, let it all rip. Because here's the thing, that attitude is exactly the attitude that stockbrokers and people on Wall Street have about Main Street.

They're like, listen, if a third of the population dies or 0.3%, like, it's fine. Look, they were a drain on society. Like, they do not care about human life. They don't care about your home. They don't care about your retirement. That's like the last thing that they care about. They care about making money, and he's there. And obviously, the idea that you would infect people with the COVID-19 virus, I got it right.

Just to get it over with, of course, that's any, that's just a normal day when they're like, how can we kill off more poor people, maybe a little bit fed? faster than we normally do. Yeah. Well, why don't we just clarify the cost of doing business in the way that he was implying there. The WHO currently estimates that the death rate for COVID-19 is 3.4%. Given our population of 328 million, that means that his proposal would kill, give or take, 11 million Americans.

I am not an expert on Wall Street, but I would guess that if 11 million Americans suddenly died because the government injected them with a virus, that too would be bad for the economy. Right. And America, probably. It'd be bad for the country. All that that guy's doing is, as I say, screaming from the rooftops, how panicked he is over what's going on. Can't we get through this?

Because they see an economy that will rebound, but it won't rebound as long as we don't know what's going on. You should look to the current administration to show more confidence in science, in technology, in research. Those are the things that the public can have confidence in. Those are the things that the public as played out by investors can have confidence in. You want your market back. You need to have better and real messaging from this administration on this issue.

Yeah, who's gonna buy all your goods if we're dead? For all dead in the streets? I mean, obviously everyone's investing in Purell and Lysol wipes. I couldn't find any at right aid. It was very upsetting. But yeah, like I will also just say that when it comes to this virus, I think one thing that we overlook. Yes, it's about healthcare and technology or finding a cure or finding the vaccine, but it's also about strong communities. It's about the fact that, you know, when you have

housing and healthcare and education as human rights, people don't, there's more, there's a stronger community that you can rely on one another. I mean, obviously, like, you know, wash your hands when you talk to each other, but actually isolating oneself, not knowing your name, not understanding your, whether it's evacuation plans or your local health plan, that is also a risk to the general well-being of society, that actually stronger communities will prevent this virus from spreading. And we don't talk about that. Yeah.

Well, why don't we talk briefly about his apology? Yeah. Because it was kind of needed, and it did come. Here's a bit of it. Yesterday during a segment on the exchange, I said maybe it would be a good idea to expose everybody to the coronavirus, to maybe it would be better off for the economy or the global economy or the markets in general. It was the dumbest, most ignorant, stupid thing anybody could have ever said. What was in my mind at the time, when I was young and if you got measles, chicken pox, mumps, my parents and other parents would not only put family together, sometimes they bring other students together to expediate the process.

It was just a stupid thing to say it's not appropriate in this instance. Okay, Boomer. Any instance ever to call for the killing of millions of people. Okay, Boomer, you know, my day, you got the last. measles, your mumps, just put them all together, and is that not like that? Is this wildly different in fundamental ways? Yeah, it is. Again, I think his panic over what's going on in the markets, he's watching the Dow slide,

a thousand points a day or whatever it is, and he's there on the floor, and that married to what he talked about, which is no knowledge of the actual situation, those two things together were a concoction that led to his comments. He also looks like Jennifer Lopez and Constance Wu took him out for a really late night. And he woke up and he had a very long bill from a strip club. And there were just a lot of vodka red bulls and bottles of Moet that he did not remember getting. And, you know, now he's sorry. He sees the air of his ways.

I just, I love it. Like, again. More people need to see it, basically. Hustlers. Oh, Hustlers was the best movie of 2019. Jennifer Lopez was completely robbed of not being nominated and then waiting for Best Supporting actress. That is true. That is true.

So you mentioned a combination of fear and lack of knowledge that Centelli was experiencing. He's not the only one. Just briefly, I want to let you know what our president has been saying about COVID-19 recently. So you might remember that in recent days, he said with Sean Hannity, they say the death rate is 3.4%. My hunch is much less than 1%. And you know what, a lot of people are just going to get it. They're going to be fine, you know, they're going to stay at home, they're going to go to work, whatever, they're going to be fine, it's going to be cool.

That's the advice that he gave to the nation. And today he had a press conference with the CDC. And I just wanted to mention a couple of the things that he said. Perhaps on Monday we can go into some of the specifics, but he said, by the way, that he he cited at one point what he thought the death count is from COVID-19 in America. And he said that he got that information from Fox News, not the CDC, which he was in the middle of having a meeting with, but Fox News. He once again said that he didn't know that the flu kills people normally.

Then after admitting both of those things, he said that doctors constantly tell him, how do you understand so much about this? You must have a natural talent. He said that during a briefing to reassure the nation that he knows what he's doing. He was gonna take a question from a reporter and then said, no, you're from CNN. I don't watch CNN, you're fake news. And so at this virus response press conference, he didn't take their thing. He said at one point, quote, the coronavirus tests are all perfect, like the letter was perfect,

the transcript was perfect. This was not as perfect as that, but pretty good. Yeah, he's talking about the Ukraine phone call transcript. They talked about the possibility that this is worse. The CDC apparently wants to take some of the people off the Grand Princess cruise ship where people are quarantined to save their lives potentially. And he said, I like the numbers being where they are. I don't need to have the numbers double because of one ship.

And he said at some point, it's not our fall. So we should leave them on there, even though the CDC says not to, because he thinks the numbers will be worse if instead of being on the water, they're in America. And hey, maybe you have to lose a few passengers, but it's not our fault. We don't need the numbers being worse. Yeah, for him, it's a public relations thing. It's all the message, the public relations associated with this. It really is that singularly one-dimensional for him.

Right. Everything is about him. did this to him. And I mean, like, in his mind, he was like, you know, the Chinese, they're trying to beat us on trade. So they gave me Corona, right? Like, it is, it is just, listen, he is an SOB. I'm sorry.

Like, he, of course, not I'm sorry. He is that SOB. We've all interacted with that SOB, and now we are being governed by him. And it's a problem. I would say one thing, though, on this COVID-19. this is not something that will cycle out in a month. And so if you see the U.S. markets continue to tumble, which I think you likely will, I mean, again, if history is a guide, recent history is a guide, and you have all this anxiety about the way the administration's handling it. Now let's talk about things that maybe the TYT audience also has an abiding interest in.

There'll be a political price to be paid. That's why Donald Trump is so concerned with the public relations side of this. So, again, this is going to be a huge issue and bigger and bigger as the months go on. Because this is not something that's going to wrap up in a couple of weeks, no matter what Donald Trump says. And he won't, I don't think, be able to message his way out of it. Yeah. Yeah. And the thing is, like, I've been saying from the very beginning, he is not responsible for the fact that COVID-19 might spread in the United States.

He's not. He's responsible for the things he's responsible for. And if his lack of interest or knowledge in this, if his desire to protect his reputation at the cost of American lives, if that is the way he goes, then he's responsible for the consequences. And it's one thing when we see him telling Fox News viewers, this is basically just the flu. In some ways worse, in some ways better, don't worry about it, you can go to work, where we can say, well, hypothetically, that might lead to some of his fans dying from coronavirus

if they get infected. But when he's potentially, like, let's say that this is a serious dispute between the CDC and Donald Trump. And they say, for public health reasons, people need to get off that cruise ship. And he says, no, I don't like how it'll make the numbers look. If people die so that he can, in his own mind, look a little bit better, then hopefully the last person in this country that thinks that presidential elections are games. And that's just, it's fun. It's like football. Like, I got my team and you got your team.

No, it's becoming very real for people. And if he is going to pay a price, it should be as a result of him making choices that are inherently selfish and damaging the American people. And I would just say, though, John, some of those details will escape people because there are really low information voters who are making up, I think, the majority of the electorate. But what's clear, and it can be done in various commercials, both on Facebook and in media, the incompetence of the president has to be pointed to an incompetent president facing a major health crisis, who doesn't know what he's doing. That is a simple message. And honestly,

it reflects precisely what is going on. So his incompetence and his ignorance on this issue will be weaponized. In addition to it being an ongoing tragedy, it will be weaponized politically. And it could make a big difference in the upcoming election. It's a, I mean, it's a socialist plot to violently take over the health care system in this country. Obviously, Corona is a raging communist originated in China, commie, and even though it's exposing the fact that we would do much better with a Medicare for all system, that proves that it does have a political agenda. So I'm just gonna tie it up in a right wing bow for you.

I love right wing bows, that's great. Yeah, yeah. I worry about the future with Donald Trump in charge of a serious national emergency. when he is himself a national emergency. But I want to thank both of you who are a national delight, a national treasure, for being with me, Mark Thompson and Francesca. As always, thank you so much for being here. That was just the first hour.

There's a whole other hour coming up, and Akesperian's going to be leading you through it after this. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen to ad-free, access members, only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.