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

Episode Date: May 21, 2020

Trump says having a lot of Coronavirus cases in the US is a badge of honor. John Iadarola and Ana Kasparian discuss on The Young Turks. 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. All right. Well, the Young Church, Jake, you Granite, Kusverin with you guys. As usual, big show, big news. We're doing it big lead today on the Young Turks. By the way, throughout the week, we are going to have some stellar guests.

I got a fun surprise guest for you guys later in the week. I'm not saying anything except the words that are coming out of my mouth. All right, fun for everybody, t-y-t.com slash go to keep us healthy and sustainable. We'll check in on that later. Let's get started. All right. Well, let's start off with probably the most lowbrow story of the day, but it is getting a lot of attention. So, Representative Nancy Pelosi was asked to comment on Trump's declaration that he is now taking

hydroxychloroquine, a scientifically unproven drug when it comes to treating the coronavirus. And her answer has gotten a lot of attention. Let's take a look. Madam Speaker, what's your reaction to the president saying that he's now taking hydroxychloroquine? Are you concerned? He's our president, and I would rather he not be taking something that has not been approved by the scientist, especially in his age group and in his, shall we say, weight group, what is morbidly obese, they say. So I think it's not a good idea. So there are two questions that need to be answered in this story.

Number one, is Donald Trump actually considered morbidly obese? that in just a minute. And the second question is, is it true that hydroxychloroquine is unsafe for people who are deemed morbidly obese? Let's start off with answering the first question. Honestly, to my surprise, Trump does not qualify as morbidly obese. According to the Guardian, Trump is 73 years old. At his last full checkup in February of 2019, he passed the official threshold for being considered obese with a body mass index of 30.4. Now, According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a BMI of 40 or above is considered severe obesity, which some also call morbid obesity.

So he is scientifically, medically considered obese, but not morbidly obese. Also, go ahead, Jane. I gotta jump in. Fact check there. That is based on Donald Trump's self-reported weight. I mean, he twists the arms of the doctors to say whatever he wants. One of his doctors admitted to completely lying and having Trump write the letter for him in an earlier instance.

And in fact, today there's a story in the rundown that we're to share with you later about a doctor from the White House putting out a questionable statement about Trump. But no one believes that that's his actual weight. But even based on that weight, the one that he fudged, he's obese. My guess is his real weight probably does get to morbid. obese, because it's pretty easy to get there, honestly. I should know. But the real question, the real question is, if you are morbidly obese, is it unsafe

to take hydroxychloroquine? First off, let me just reiterate something that we've said repeatedly on this show. Hydroxychloroquine has not done well in clinical trials as a treatment for coronavirus. There are way too many health risks and side effects, including negative impacts to the heart, which is why in some clinical trials, they actually stopped using hydroxychloroquine because of how dangerous it was for the study participants. With that said, though, hydroxychloroquine is a drug that is prescribed to many Americans for lupus, for instance, or rheumatoid issues.

And there are morbidly obese people who are perceived. describe this drug, it's just that doctors need to be careful in the dosage. So for instance, one study indicated that hydroxychloroquine is actually stored in lean tissues and is largely excluded from fat. Therefore, dosing for hydroxychloroquine should be based on lean body mass. So when doctors are deciding what the dosage should be for, let's say, a heavyset person, they will do the dosage based on their lean body mass as opposed to their actual body weight. That's the only clarification I wanted to make. Look, the reason why I'm saying

this is because it's abundantly clear that Nancy Pelosi just wanted to calm fat. That's it. That's all that was. Like, there's nothing else to it. Okay, of course, that's what this is about. Gee, I want to, we don't need to do a poll on this one. Was Nancy Pelosi actually concerned about Donald Trump's help? Okay. So, no, she was not. Now, the real question at hand, is, was that acceptable or unacceptable to call him morbidly a beast on television? Well, this falls into a lot of different camps. This one crosses political boundaries, because the resistance folks, the establishment people love little shows of resistance by Nancy Pelosi that are completely substance-free.

So she claps like this, or like this, or however she claps, right? Rips up papers. They're like, oh, yeah, it's brilliant, brilliant. It's like the greatest thing that ever happened. She rips up paper. They're like, brilliant. Why? Because it doesn't affect anything.

So Pelosi can do that all day long, and her donors are still thrilled with her because she's still helping Republicans pass bills, helping all the corporations, et cetera. So this is another one of those. So my guess is that the establishment folks thought this was just the best thing they've ever seen, right? And then there's the very sensitive left, I'm just keeping it real and I'll put it like that, who are like, oh, Michael, what have you done? What have you done? It's fat shaming.

Oh, it's like one of the worst things that it's ever happened. It's a debacle of epic proportions. Okay, I'm in neither one of those camps, as usual. So I like that she took a little jab at him. I like any jab at Trump. You know, would it matter a thousand times more if she actually blocked. his Pentagon defense bill that was so overly bloated, etc. Of course, that would be a thousand is it better if she has a better stimulus bill? Of course, right? But I'll take the jab

where I can get it. And of course, since I said that already online, I have been accused of fat-shaming because I backed up Nancy Pelosi's insult to Donald Trump. I don't know if an overweight person can also be guilty of fat-shaming. The rules are very complicated. I'm a I'm going to have to consult with a cancelologist or something along those lines to figure it out. Yeah, look, I have no leg to stand on. I have fat shame myself, specifically one person who I don't really respect as a human being. So I don't consider it fat shaming a human.

But it was when I called Alex Jones a fat F, okay? But anyway, I don't even want to get into that discussion because, look, for me, I don't know For me, I get it. Like it's nice to watch, especially female politicians get under Donald Trump's skin. But I feel like at this moment in time when hundreds of thousands of Americans are expected to lose their lives because of the incompetence in the response of this pandemic, I don't really want, I just desperately want to see some leadership anywhere, right? And we haven't seen that.

Instead, this is kind of devolved into childish name calling and insult. on television. And the latest example is Donald Trump's response to Nancy Pelosi. And here it is. Last night, Nancy, his speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, called you morbidly obese. I just wanted to know what you have to say in response. Oh, I don't respond to her. I think she's a waste of time. And then after calling her a waste of time, he said that he thinks that she has some mental health problems. Yeah. No, he can't help himself. I won't respond. Later, he couldn't help but go back. And it wasn't just once. He said like two, three times. She's sick. She's mental

health problems. He always does projection. He has mental health problems. They should have used a 25th Amendment a long time ago. Anna, the reason that I like what Pelosi did, even though it's substance-free and I would greatly prefer a substantive response, especially in terms of legislation, is that at least we're getting a tiny bit past when they go low. We go so high we float away in a cloud and are completely and utterly ineffectual. Maybe calling a fat will lead to calling him things that actually do matter and that they should call him, like weak, insecure, loser, pathetic, baby. I like that. I like, I really do think it would be effective in pointing out the ways in which

He is just this sensitive, weak, pathetic person, right? Because he positions himself toward his base specifically as like this strong and nationalistic America first type guy. But instead of constantly being outraged by him, and to be fair, he does outrageous things, he says outrageous things, that outrage, only helps solidify the support he has among Republican voters, I think if you start dismantling this facade of strength and really show him for who he is, which is this weak little boy, that's more likely to be effective than constantly talking about how outraged you are, how aggrieved you are at his insensitive or offensive statements.

Those statements only help to emboldened and empower him. Yeah. So if we're on the road to using effective strategy against him, which is undercutting his strengths. I mean, shockingly enough, still a huge percentage of this country thinks that he's smart, which is unbelievable, unbelievable. By now, 98% of the country should realize he's one of the three dumbest people in the country. So, and the fact that they don't recognize that is a great failure of the Democrats, because they let him set the agenda and set the framing. We should be having a debate about whether it's his top three dumbest guys, in the country or top five dumb skies in the country. And that has tremendous effect as it has

because it's real. And so that's among the reasons why he could not manage this coronavirus pandemic and why we've lost so many more lives than we needed to. Because our president is deeply, deeply unintelligent. Well, Trump is also sparring with Neil Cavuto. So let's talk a little bit about that. Donald Trump is not happy with recent comments that Neil Cavuto made on Fox business regarding the promotion of hydroxychloroquine as a possible treatment for coronavirus. Now Trump recently revealed to reporters that he is allegedly taking hydroxychloroquine in addition to the ZPAC in order to ward off the coronavirus.

Here's what he said just recently. Did the White House doctor recommend that you take that? Is that why you're telling you? Yeah, White House doctor. I didn't recommend. No, I asked him, what do you think? You said, well, if you'd like it, I said, yeah, I'd like it. I'd like to take it. A lot of people have taken. A lot of frontline workers are taking hydroxychloroquine.

Now, many have responded to that by criticizing Trump for being irresponsible for promoting something that has serious side effects and health ramifications for people, including heart problems. And so Neil Cavuto on Fox Business was one of those people. And he's basically telling his audience, hey, if you take this very long, likely you could die. Take a look. A study showed that among a population of veterans in a hospital receiving this treatment, those with vulnerable conditions, respiratory conditions, heart ailments, they died. There are also a number of other studies out, including the Journal of the American Medical

Association, which examined some 1438 individuals in the New York area across 25 hospitals from the middle of March to the end of March. The study was a real chance to look at the benefits that the president insisted were hydroxychloroquine. They concluded that among residents hospitalized in Metropolitan New York with COVID-19, the treatment or both compared with neither treatment, no statistical differences. A second study done by Justin Gillaris and colleagues at the New York Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia University Irving Medical Center in northern Manhattan, from March 7 to April, also showed there were no visible differences. Again, he went on to warn his audience that it's not that you would have nothing to lose by taking this drug.

You could lose your life. And there are other studies that show how damaging this can be to people's health just due to the side effects, including the heart problems. And by the way, just to buttress Neil Cavuto's point, the FDA has warned the general public against using hydroxychloroquine unless it's under very specific standards, right? So Trump is going against his own guidelines, his own FDA in allegedly taking this drug. And look, in response to what Kavuto said, Trump retweeted a bunch of morons on Twitter, I'm not going to regurgitate those tweets.

I'm not going to read them to you because it's just irresponsible propaganda and nonsense. But I am going to read to you what the FDA has put out in terms of warning about hydroxychloroquine. They say that hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine have not been shown to be safe and effective for treating or preventing COVID-19. They are being studied in clinical trials for COVID-19 and we authorize their temporary use during the COVID-19 pandemic for treatment of the virus in hospitalized patients when clinical trials are not available or participation is not feasible through an emergency use authorization. And then they write that hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine can cause abnormal heart.

heart rhythms and a dangerously rapid heart rate. That's what you should be reading, not these nonsense tweets that spread all sorts of misinformation about this drug. So I was amused by the tweets because the conservatives were like, can you believe Neil Cabuto believes in facts? Ridiculous. He believes that every study is true. We believe none of the studies are true.

And they really believe it. They built this like bubble in which. Anyone who believes scientists is a moron, they like, it's not just that they don't believe. They think the other's, that guy believes in scientists. What an idiot. It's amazing. It's amazing the world that they live in. So, and if you said to them, well, how about Trump's own government, the FDA of deep states, but I got a new term, Anna. I think that these guys might believe in hashtag deep science. Like, yeah, I don't know about science, a deep science there, okay?

So, you know, if this didn't, if this didn't deprive patients who desperately need this drug for lupus or malaria or rheumatoid arthritis issues, then honestly, like, I don't, okay, I don't care. Like if there was an abundance of this drug and we didn't have shortages because of this incompetence, All you write wingers, if you refuse to read the data, believe the data, believe the science, and you want to take this drug and risk your own life, I mean, have at it. Like, I believe in liberty, right? So if I think that we should legalize, you know, all drugs, I think you should have the personal

liberty to go ahead and take hydroxychloroquine if you are persuaded by literally the most incompetent and stupid president this country has ever had. But this is actually causing a lot of damage to people who do need this drug for its actual labeled purpose. So encouraging the off label purpose is just so irresponsible, so stupid. And look, there are Americans out there who don't get factual news. Like they don't read or watch outlets that tell them the truth about what's going on. And they might be unwittingly persuaded by this nonsense propaganda.

that Trump's putting out there. And even though I might not agree with them politically, I don't want them to get hurt. But all of these like public figures who are, you know, dishonest actors, okay, go ahead. Take hydroxychloroquine, right? And prove that you're taking it. You know, don't send out some ridiculous like letter that Trump did recently that doesn't really say much about proving that he's taking it. And we'll get to that in just a minute.

But, Jank, I'm rambling. Sorry. Go ahead. No, no, it's okay. So, look, I agree with you, because this one does not affect other people. So when you don't wear a mask, you endanger other people. When you don't social distance, you endanger other people. But if you're taking the hydroxy on your own, I don't think that endangers anyone else.

It just increases your chance of having hard problems. And ironically, according to some of the studies, it increases your chances of dying if you already have coronavirus. virus, but it doesn't spread the virus. So, you know, look, if you want to inject yourself with bleach or take hydroxy when every doctor and scientist says, don't do it, that's on you, brothers and sisters. I hope you don't do it because I don't want you to die. But if you want to show that facts are stupid and anybody who believes in science is unintelligent, have at it, Ha, ha, ha, it's nothing I can do to help you. If you want to disprove gravity, go for that too. And lastly, this is, their attacks on science have gotten so comical that they started

doing a war on math at one point. We started telling you about that. And in a sense, they're doing it now. Later on the show, we're going to show you Florida and Georgia are hiding the real numbers because they don't want you to see the cases piling up, et cetera. So I guess that's part of their war on math. But it might get to a point where they just start a war on numbers. Like, words they can manipulate. Numbers are harder to manipulate. Like, that's it. You know what? We're not taking it anymore with three. Three is full of crap. Anyone who believes the number three is stupid. Yeah, I got you, no, Cabuto. No, but I mean, we've been living in this environment for a while now where facts are not only up for debate, but they're constantly

rejected, right? People live in their own realities, and it's hard to get through. It's just, it's, it's pretty devastating because it has real consequences for everyday Americans who buy into this nonsense. But one final aspect of this has to do with whether Trump is even telling the truth about taking this drug. So, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer recently questioned whether Donald Trump is being truthful in stating that he's taking hydroxychloroquine as a preventative treatment for coronavirus. Take a look.

You have to ask yourself, Steve, why did he say it? Does he have a friend or a member of the family who might be benefiting? Is he trying to divert attention from his failure at COVID? Maybe he just likes to make a splash regardless of the consequences. But as I mentioned, one thing you don't know, maybe he's really not taking it because the president lies about things characteristically like, and when he hears the truth, like with the inspector general, he runs away from it.

He fires it. He pushes it aside. That's happened throughout COVID, most recently with the head of barter. When you're saying maybe the president's not taking it, do you have any information there? Have you heard something? No, I don't. I just know that he seems at these press conferences oftentimes to go into flights of fancy and make things up.

I don't know whether he's taking it or not. I know him saying he's taking it, whether he is or not, is reckless, reckless, reckless. Gives people false hope, has people avoid real medical attention, and can actually cause them trouble. Just one quick comment about his statement there. I don't know why, but like I like the way he delivered the line. Maybe he just likes to make a splash. Like that's the most animated I've seen him in a while.

But Trump has released a letter from the White House doctor. And he framed it as if it's evidence from the doctor that he is in fact taking hydroxychloroquine. But nowhere in that doctor's letter does it indicate that Trump is in fact taking hydroxychloroquine. The letter from physician to president, Sean P. Conley, does not actually say Trump is taking the drug. And here is the only, I guess, relevant part of the letter that might imply the use of the drug. But again, it doesn't confirm that Trump is taking it. Conley writes, after numerous discussions he and I had regarding the evidence for and against

the use of hydroxychloroquine, we concluded the potential benefit from treatment outweighed the relative risks. But he does not go on to say that Trump was prescribed hydroxychloroquine or is taking hydroxychloroquine. Yeah, he said, we concluded that. He didn't say we then had him take that medicine, and he didn't say I concluded that. He's very careful to not say, hey, I told him to take hydroxy because he knows it's a bad idea. He keeps saying we, we. In another part of it, he said, I anticipate employing the same shared medical decision

making based on the evidence at hand in the future. In other words, he's making me say this, okay? It's not me, I'm not saying he should take it. It's our shared opinion, not me, hostage video, not me, okay? Right, right, no, I love it. He's like, I'm not trying to make a splash here, okay? I am not making a splash. But like, yeah, the wording was very careful and again, just did not confirm what Trump

framed it as confirming. Yeah. I wonder Pelosi and Schumer coordinated. I'll call him morbidly obese and you say he's making a big splash. I don't know. I wouldn't be surprised, but they should coordinate. I mean, that's, you should have strategy. But the strategy should go further than the aesthetics of resistance, because I think that's

what, you know, the Democratic establishment has been doing from day one. The aesthetics do nothing to actually resist Trump and his disastrous policies. You need to actually have a strategy in place to fight them substantively. But anyway, we- Yeah, I just hope Schumer wasn't splash shaming. That's, you know, that's all. All right, we should take a break. So let's do that.

And when we come back, we have Trump threatening the World Health Organization, but I think it's important to do an in-depth discussion on all the different ways Trump basically did exactly what he's accusing other agencies of doing. doing. We'll be right back. All right. Back on Young Turks, Jan Canana with you guys. So first note about our sponsor, NodeVPN, perfect time to protect all of your computers. So right now they're giving you absurd offers, 70% off of three-year deal, extra month off. But you got to use the code T-Y-T and it winds up being less than $3.50 a month to protect six different devices.

In my experience, because I use it, definitely worth it, NordVPN.com slash T-Y-T. Now, in terms of the fundraising we're doing, I want to remind you guys, if you give $127 to keep Young Turks sustainable so we can press on, you're going to get the press-on t-shirt. It's awesome. It's really cool. and so far everybody who's gotten and loves it, $1,000 gets you on the donor wall here and gets you a hoodie as well. And when I say here, I mean, literally in my house, I have a donor wall.

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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 rich and powerful. But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the conventional wisdom. In each episode of Un-Fleash the Republic, or U.S. 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 UNFDR in your podcast app today. and get ready to get informed, angered, and entertained, all at the same time.

36,279. We've got to try to get the 200 by the end of the month. Just get us at 2021, guys. So, can I see 140? It's bold. It's bold. But I'm asking for 140 by the end of the day. Let's see if we can do that.

Thank you, guys. Appreciate every dollar. All right, real quick, some comments. from the members. Occam's Taser, which is an awesome name, in the member section says, we elected Pelosi to call Trump names and write him scathing letters, not to govern. So mission accomplished, apparently. Sexy Speed Racer, another good name, writes in, if private businesses can demand their employees

take drug tests as a condition of employment, why can't we, the American public, demand that the chief executive of our nation be required to take a drug screening and that the results be made public? It's a good point. I mean, Trump's in favor of drug testing under certain conditions. So let's test to see if he's taking hydroxy or whatever the hell else he's taking acutton. I actually have no idea, but I would love to know. And there's no way he's going to agree to that. Ruth M. says, do any of you think that Trump would have hesitated to call another political rival morbidly obese? And of course he wouldn't have. Scott Rogers makes a good

point. He says, in Canada, we're getting $2,000 if our job is lost. Why not talk per month for four months. Trudeau's a real leader. USA's a Joe Kennedy gets $2,000 a month per person for four months. Why is this not being talked about? Well, we do talk about that issue from time to time, and we are pushing the Democrats to go in that direction. You're going to be shocked to find out who's resisting it.

Nancy Pelosi. Of course! And the last one is just Gregory Jones using YouTube Super Chat to say, Anna's brilliant. Brilliant, really. Aw, thank you. That's really sweet. I like that. Okay. Thank you for using YouTube super chat too. That helps the show. All right. What's next? All right. Well, Donald Trump has, again, threatened to permanently cut U.S. funding to the World Health Organization, the only international agency that is working to help countries battle this coronavirus pandemic.

Now, he says that the World Health Organization needs to commit to major substantive improvements in the next 30 days in order to prevent the U.S. from pulling funding from the agency. But he isn't very clear on what he means by that. So here's what he says. It is clear, he sent a letter to the World Health Organization, it is clear the repeated missteps by you and your organization in responding to the pandemic have been extremely costly for the world. the only way forward for the World Health Organization is if it can actually demonstrate

independence from China. My administration has already started discussions with you on how to reform the organization, but action is needed quickly. We do not have time to waste, Trump concluded, adding that the United States will, quote, reconsider our membership unless unspecified improvements are made. And by the way, Trump in particular assailed the World Health Organization stand toward China and lists a series of allegations that the organization overlooked warning signs. The president also accused the World Health Organization of ignoring credible reports of the virus spreading in Wuhan in early December of 2019, or even earlier, including reports from the Lancet Medical Journal.

But the Lancet actually responded to this and corrected Trump. It said that it published no report in December of 2019, referring to a virus or outbreak in Wuhan or anywhere else in China. The first reports the journal published were actually on January 24th, 2020. And actually, January 24th, 2020 is an important day to remember. Because that was the day that U.S. senators were briefed on the severity of coronavirus and how rapidly it was spreading. It was also the day that Donald Trump said all these wonderful things about China and the

way that it responded to the virus in its own country. In a tweet, he wrote, China has been working very hard to contain the coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well, in particular, on behalf of the American people. I want to thank President Xi. And then real quick, Jenk, I just want to show the audience this compilation video of Trump, showing China just how fascinated and proud he was of their response to coronavirus. President Xi, and they're working very, very hard.

And I think it's going to all work out fine. I spoke with President Xi of China, and he's working very hard on this. It's a tremendous problem, but they're very capable, and they'll get to it. I think he's doing it very professionally. I know this. President Xi loves the people of China. He loves his country, and he's doing a very good job with a very, very tough situation. Huh. Now, if our standard for cutting off funding to an organization is if they were complementary,

of China early on in the coronavirus pandemic, well, then I guess we're going to have to cut off funding to our own government. All right, whatever Donald Trump wants funded from now on, sorry, can't do it. Using the Trump standard, you know, you praise China when they did not deserve that praise. So to give you a clearer sense of the timeline here, so the World Health Organization was to deferential to China in the beginning, that part is true. And that lasts until about January 14th. If you're thinking, wait, that's really early up.

That's right, it is really early on. So afterwards, they were, had the latest science and accurate all throughout, meaning we don't, all of us don't have perfect science on this and perfect information on this new virus, but the World Health Organization did the best they could. So, Trump, on the other hand, 10 days later, and well beyond that, continues to say, oh my God, the Chinese government is so great. Their transparency is wonderful. And by the way, if you're wondering why, it's because he was in the middle of doing a trade deal

with them. And if that deal had come to fruition, he was going to brag that he's the best deal maker and that, yeah, he was tough on China, and that's what led to a great deal. That's why he kept talking up the Chinese. Oh, yeah, I get to try to encourage them. Oh, yeah, they're great. They're one of the rows. The people are like, hey, dude, they're not reporting real numbers out of China.

It's a real, real problem. And this virus is coming. Ah, who cares, man? I'm going to brag about the trade deal I did. President Xi is great. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So by his own standard, way after the World Health Organization stopped doing it, he himself continued to praise China without any justification based on health grounds.

So, the guy's a total con man, everybody knows it. He doesn't, in fact, the World Health Organization offered us a test we should have taken on coronavirus and we didn't because he's a buffoon. And so, bear me your crocodile tears on how you're concerned as someone else got the health information wrong during this scandal. You just despise working with anyone outside of the United States because you're a xenophon and your followers are even worse than you, and you appeal to them by saying things that are, you know, demagoguing and racist, including against China.

And make no mistake, I mean, this is all about distracting the public from his own mistakes, not only early on during the pandemic, but his continuing like series of terrible decisions and mistakes, which I want to just go through right now, real quick. give you a list of all of Trump's foibles, all of his incompetent moves in response to the pandemic. And let's start off at the very beginning before the pandemic even started. So back in 2018, the Trump administration made the decision to reorganize the National Security Council, which actually included the global health security and biodefense unit. This was a unit that was basically put together by the Obama administration back in 2015 in order to ensure that

our government, our country would be ready for a pandemic. This was essentially in response to the Ebola outbreak. And in May of 2018, the global health security and biodefense unit was disbanded. And its head, Timothy Zimmer, top White House official in the NSC for leading U.S. response against a pandemic, left the Trump administration. Now, Some members of the global health and security team were merged into other units within the National Security Council. But understand that that agency, that group that was meant to respond to pandemics was in fact disbanded back in 2018.

Also, Trump claimed that he had essentially conquered the coronavirus as early as February 28th. As we all know, the situation only got worse from there, but here he is commenting on the the coronavirus in the United States. My people came up to me and said, Mr. President, they tried to beat you on Russia, Russia, Russia, that didn't work out too well. They couldn't do it. They tried the impeachment hoax. That was on a perfect conversation.

They tried anything. They tried it over and over. They've been doing it since you got in. It's all turning. They lost. It's all turning. Think of it. Think of it.

This is their new hoax. But, you know, we did something that's been pretty amazing. We're 15 people in this massive country. And because of the fact that we weren't... 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.

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Our country is doing so great. Now, that was his comment on February 28th. As of today, over 90,000 people have already contracted the coronavirus and more than 1.5 million, I'm sorry, have died from the coronavirus. And more than 1.5 million have contracted the virus. So the situation was not conquered in February. It's absolutely ridiculous. He totally downplayed the severity of the pandemic. Trump also opted for the United States to develop and use its own coronavirus testing as opposed to talking to the World Health Organization and using the testing that they already had for the virus. I want to be clear on one thing. The

World Health Organization doesn't go country to country offering tests. But the tests were available and countries could request them or ask for them. Trump opted not to do that. The U.S. did not use COVID-19 diagnostic tests produced by the World Health Organization in favor of producing its own. And we all know how that worked out. We still have a lack of widespread testing throughout this country. Now, Jake, we have more. That was only the third thing that Trump did wrong. I have nine things on this list, but I want to give you an opportunity to jump in real quick.

Yeah, look, he is completely unprepared. He only cares about himself and his politics. So one example is this letter that we started with. He said in the letter the wrong date about the Lancet study. So why would you do that? Why, like, it's not, he's not speaking off the cuff. They wrote it down. It's because there's a culture of incompetence and laziness at the White House.

President doesn't write his own letters. His staff wrote that letter. They put an obvious, massive mistake in the letter that would be caught in the first second, and no one bothered to double check, because they don't give a damn about the facts. They don't care about being prepared. They think being prepared is for betas. They think people who care about facts and getting things right. Those guys are losers, man.

We just write down stupid stuff. And then we just get caught. It doesn't matter. We just blame other people. So as Anna is reading this exhaustive list, I don't know if we have time to read it all for you guys. Meanwhile, they're blaming the World Health Organization for not being accurate enough. That's an obvious joke.

And if you don't understand that that's just political propaganda, I feel sad. sad for you because you've been totally brainwashed and you believe things that aren't remotely true. Exactly. And, you know, one of the biggest issues in response to this pandemic has been our lack of medical supplies. And Trump was actually shipping out desperately needed medical supplies, including respirator masks and other masks to China around February 7th.

In fact, Mike Pompeo, Secretary of State bragged about it on Twitter, writing, we have coordinated with U.S. organizations to transport more humanitarian relief to people in Wuhan. Personal protective equipment and other medical supplies donated by these organizations can help save lives in China and help protect people from the coronavirus. Now later, when it became clear that we had devastating shortages of these respirator masks and other medical supplies, the Trump administration decided to basically stop shipments of these supplies to other countries, like they would intercept the shipments and have the supplies sent back to the United States or just completely like sent from wherever they were supposed

to go to the United States, which of course angered countries that have ordered these supplies and they were a little more prepared and a little more ready for this pandemic than Trump was. By the way, Trump did not replenish the national stockpile of medical supplies. And Jared Kushner went up on stage during a press conference and told governors that the federal government is not responsible for supporting them with these stockpiles. So that was another mistake that was made. Trump also lagged on invoking the Defense Production Act to produce desperately needed medical supplies. On April 2nd, he finally did do it. There was a lot of pressure for him to invoke the Defense Production Act to aid companies building ventilators for

coronavirus patients to receive the supply of materials they need. Trump directed the U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary to use his authority to help facilitate the supply of ventilators or ventilator materials. And then there was the fact that he promoted and continues to promote the unproven and dangerous drug hydroxychloroquine as treatment for coronavirus. He also fired a health and human services official, Dr. Rick Bright, who refused to promote the use of hydroxychloroquine. And he also egged on anti-stay-at-home protesters who went against his own administration guidelines on how to safely reopen states. Look, this isn't the most exhaustive list. There were other mistakes made that I haven't even included in this list. But for him to turn

around and accuse the World Health Organization of incompetence or not getting all the facts right from the very beginning is rich, considering his endless stream of mistakes in response to this pandemic. Yeah, look, we bring you as many facts as we can possibly bring you. And And we give you context for it. So when he finally got to the Defense Production Act, it was months too late. That's why they are turning the ships around with the masks on them because they thought, oh, we don't have to prepare and this is not going to hit us that hard. He was 100% wrong on all of that.

But we could have made the story shorter and easier. The guy said maybe we should inject ourselves with disinfectant to cure the disease. Really, you're criticizing anyone else's facts on coronavirus? No, just be honest. Say, I don't like the World Health Organization anyway, because that means I cooperate with other people in the world, and I hate that. I'm a xenophobe. Plus, I want to blame my problems on them and China, so I'm doing this to demagogue.

At least I respect you for the honesty. But to try to pretend that you were right on the facts of coronavirus more than the World Health organization is a sick, sick joke. And by the way, you cure yourself of that. No problem. Just inject some disinfected into your lungs. Okay, by the way, don't do that. Okay, it's a joke about Trump and how stupid it is. All right. Well, when we come back from the break, I'll talk about how Trump is basically preventing members of the National Guard from getting benefits that they are definitely worthy of receiving. We have that story. more when we come back.

All right, back on a young terms, Jake and Anna with you guys. So time for only a couple of comments here. I'll go to Casper, the Salty Host, in our member section, Trump conquered the virus like George Bush Jr. ended as Iraq War. Yeah, agreed. Neither one of them unfortunately ended anything. By the way, we've got a lot more stories in the post came from. for members like Cats for the Salty Host, including very likely an amazing story about

the woman behind Roe versus Wade. And Megan McCain says that Obama is the one that started the culture wars, insanity. And I'll tell a cutie story about my daughter as well. TYT.com slash join to become a member. And we've got a lot more content for you there. And last thing here is from YouTube super chat, Ian Sutherland says, another day with a Titanic's worth of deaths, 1,517. It is amazing.

We've gotten used to mass casualties every single day in the middle of the country. And now we've got, as you'll see later in the program, maybe in the post game, states, definitely in the post game, states like Florida and Georgia totally covering up and not giving you the real numbers. So t.yt.com slash joining get the whole show. All right, Anna, go ahead. All right. More than 40,000 members of the National Guard have been deployed throughout the country

in order to assist with the pandemic response efforts. And unfortunately, these individuals would qualify for special benefits, including early retirement, if they work in response to this pandemic for a certain amount of days, 90 days to be specific. Well, Trump has actually ended their deployment one day before the benefits would kick in because, let's keep it real. He's a giant, he's a bad person. So more than 40,000 National Guard members currently helping states test residents for the coronavirus and trace the spread of infections will face a hard stop on their deployments on June 24th. And again, that's just one day shy of many members becoming eligible for these key federal

benefits. So the June 24th deadline means that thousands of members who first deployed in late March will find themselves with only 89 days of duty credit, one short of the 90-day threshold for qualifying for early retirement and education benefits under the post-911 GI Bill. So guard members must serve for 20 years to qualify for a pension at age 60. But for every 90 days serving during a federal emergency, Guard members can move up that retirement by three months. 90 days of service also qualifies members. And this is huge for 30% off the tuition at a public college or university. Yeah. So this is what these guys do every time. So you remember the Republican Party blocked health care for 9-11 responders.

And now they call up the National Guard and then go, psych, well, we're going to pull you back on the 80-night day. In case you're wondering, wait, maybe that's the end of a week. Maybe it's just a coincidence. Nope. It's on a Wednesday. It makes no sense. All the governors extended the, wanted the National Guard extended for a lot. longer period of time. And so they said, give us at least another month. The Trump administration

gave them 24 days. Hmm, gee, I wonder why it's 24 days and not 30 days. Oh, right, because that gets you to 89 days so they don't have to give more to the people actually serving. In a second, we can tell you more about what the National Guard is doing during this emergency, which is amazing and wonderful. But these guys don't respect the troops at all. For them, it's just a political gimmick. Yeah, that's exactly right. They don't respect the troops when they risk their lives and, you know, going to these endless wars. And they certainly don't respect their lives when, you know, they're, again, risking their lives to do important testing and contact tracing to help combat this pandemic. So, Jake, I just want to give you a quick list. And there are other

things included here that they do on a daily basis just to get us through this disastrous pandemic. For instance, they decontaminate nursing homes. They deep clean public facilities. They set up field hospitals. They perform COVID tests. And they also deliver food to struggling families. And there are a bunch of other things that I haven't even listed that they get involved in in order to help these relief efforts. And for them to just totally get, you know, screwed over like this is just so pathetic and so sad. But this is exactly what I would expect from the Trump administration. Yeah, I remember all those bumper stickers. Support the troops. Support the troops. Remember the yellow ribbons? And they never meant it. And it is an amazing

stat for folks who don't know it. So I'll tell it every time. You know, all the money goes to the defense contractors, the Lockheed Martins of the world, when the defense budget goes up, as Trump did. service members get a little over $19,000 a year in salary. So they get paid almost nothing. Then you got the National Guard that gets put in harm's way, including scrubbing the nursing homes, which is honestly one of the most dangerous things you could do these days, because that's where the virus, unfortunately, has taken hold and festered. And I hate to say that, but it's true. So you throw them in harm's way and then go, oh, but actually help you? Oh, hell no. Let's pull every dirty trick in the book to make sure that we screw over the National Guard. And so if you ever stepped up and served,

understand that the Republicans just use you as a shield, basically, so you can get hit first, and then they could funnel all the money to their corporate donors like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. That's how this sick, sick game is played. The Republicans do not support the troops at all, at all. And Trump is the worst of the worst. Yeah. And I mean, when you further contextualize it and think about how the stimulus bills offer trillions of dollars and bailouts for corporations, I mean, who's really doing like the life-saving work here? It's members of the National Guard to completely screw them over so they don't get to retire three months early. I mean, it's not like some giant thing.

And to create a situation where they can actually afford an education if they want to go to college. It's just, this is who Trump is. This is what the Republican Party is. But we have more of what the Republican Party is in the postgame today. Become a member. Go to t.y.com slash join. An incredible update on the woman behind Roe v. Wade. You don't want to miss it.

everyone else have an awesome night we'll see you soon 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 dot co slash t yt i'm your host jank huger and i'll see you soon