The Young Turks - TYT Extended Clip - May 22nd, 2020

Episode Date: May 23, 2020

The U.S. government has granted AstraZeneca 1.2 billion for a COVID-19 vaccine. 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. Dropping. Power panel of two. Jake, Eugger. And more importantly, I had a Kusferian, making up for three or four panelists at once.

It's not like she hasn't battled three or four establishment folks at once before. Yeah. Okay. All right. We have a very powerful show for you guys. It's super obvious, not just the host of the topics. In fact, the members and the audience make it so strong, too. In fact, that's exactly what we're trying to do, guys.

Keep Young Turks too strong. So we're doing audience funding to get us to a healthy state. Can I just say, guys, a lot of the news companies are in a lot of trouble. And so we're rocked by some of the same phenomenon, obviously. And I was talking about this on Twitch last night, my first Twitch show, between me and Yugar, not a big deal. Mark Thompson was my first guest. John Sally, Lance Reddick are coming next.

Check that out Thursdays at 8.80 o'clock on Twitch.tv. Slash, TY.T. Anyways, look, as we are, as the entire industry is being rocked by these problems related to coronavirus, et cetera, we're hanging in there a little bit better than other folks. A lot of folks have let go of a ton of their standards. have, and we have not. You want to know why? Because of you guys. Their audience is not as real, so they need advertisers to pull shenanigans for them. For us, you guys are real. So when you, you know, give us money, we can stay on the air and we can keep doing the great programming

that you guys are, I hope, accustomed to. So I'm really proud of that. I'm really proud of you guys, and thank you for helping us do that. It said, t.t.com slash go that you help. And we check the thermometer every day. Let's check it today. So it's 144,931. So close to 145. Can I see 145? By the next break, can we see that? Let's give it a shot. tyt.com slash go. You guys are the best. So much news to get to. Casper, go. All right. Well, let's start off with some vaccine news. Sounds promising, but there could some hiccups here. So the Trump administration has agreed to provide pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca with a whopping $1.2 billion in federal grants to continue pursuing a coronavirus

vaccine. Now the company already has a potential virus in trials at Oxford University, and the deal with AstraZeneca is the fourth and by far the largest vaccine research agreement that the department has disclosed, the money will pay for a phase three clinical trial of a potential vaccine in the United States this summer with about 30,000 volunteers. So based on what we're seeing from trials, this vaccine does seem promising, clearly it needs to understatement saying that the agency and AstraZeneca are collaborating to make available at least 300 doses and projected that the first doses could be available as early as October.

So the CEO of AstraZeneca had an interview on cable news just recently. And there were some important questions asked, namely, hey, is it realistic to produce that many doses of this vaccine by October? Take a look. With the Oxford group, which is a very well-known group on this vaccine for quite some time. And this amount of money helps us to deliver 100 million doses to American citizens. It's in October and another $200 million at the end of 2020, beginning of 2021. So it's a massive effort in order to make that happen, but we are very committed in order to do that.

Are you saying you think you're going to have a workable vaccine in six months and that 100 million doses are going to be available to United States citizens? That's a realistic timetable? We are doing everything. Of course, we are in unprecedented times, I think. We all agree with that. There's a tragedy ongoing in the world, both from a personal perspective as well as from an economic perspective.

And we have a huge commitment as an organization in order to make that available. First of all, of course, the vaccine needs to work. As we speak, and you mentioned that we have currently vaccinated 1,000 volunteers in the United Kingdom. We hope to see the results relatively soon, Assuming that the vaccine shows safety, and to a certain extent, figacy, we will start large clinical trials in the United States, as well as in other parts of the world over the summer period in June-July. So there's good reason for skepticism regarding that timeline, Jank, because most public health

experts say that it would take much longer to produce that type of vaccine. So both health experts and scientists cautioned that a viable, mass-produced vaccine, would probably not be available until sometime next year at the earliest. Infectious disease experts also warn that many vaccine candidates take years to perfect. Some fail or cause such severe side effects that human trials are halted. But with that said, so far, based on what we're seeing from AstraZeneca's vaccine, it does look good and will undergo additional trials. I think this is nothing but good news.

So, yeah, it might not get to 100 million deliberate. by September, October, etc. That's, of course, that something could go wrong. Of course, those numbers could be wrong overall. But we've got four solid different entities working on vaccines. And AstraZeneca and Moderna have both passed phase one and are showing a lot of promise. Now, don't go pull to Trump and start trying to inject yourself with anything before anything passes all of the phases, and they're both in phase two and phase three. And normally this thing's a lot longer because you do phase two first, then phase three, and phase two is to determine safety more, and then phase three is efficacy.

And look, I'm not the top expert in the world on it, but I do know roughly how it works. And they're in this case doing phase two and three at the same time, which costs a lot more money, And hence the grants, because we got to get it right away. There's no time to waste at all, both in terms of health, because the quicker it is, the more lives are going to save. We'll save thousands more lives if it gets the market quicker, but also realistically for the economy. Because whatever money you spend on these drugs, these vaccines, is nothing compared to how

much the economy is losing every single day. And that's not just big businesses. That's also the 38 million people who are unemployed right now. So, but I will say this, I'm totally in favor of these grants. I'm totally in favor of them pushing super hard and fast towards vaccines with the obvious caveat of keeping safety first and foremost, which they say all the time. So they've done nothing wrong, they've done things as right as it can be. But if we are going to put money as American taxpayers into these companies, we should definitely

get some equity back. I don't know. Grants means you're not getting equity. It's not an investment. It's a grant. As much as I wanted to go as quickly as possible, I don't know. Like, if they then turn around and charge us a gazillion dollars to the vaccines after we paid to help develop them, that part doesn't make as much sense. Right. I mean, that's common practice in American society. I mean, we've paid for the development of research of all of these different types of pharmaceutical drugs, and then these companies turn around and they price gouge us. In this case, I 100% agree with you. I care less about equity. I care more about ensuring that this vaccine is free for people. So we don't actually have to continue with this coronavirus pandemic.

Really, when you consider all the people who are unemployed right now, all the people who couldn't afford pharmaceutical drugs to begin with or vaccinations to begin with, that's something that needs to be factored into this equation, especially when you consider that taxpayers are helping pay for the research and development of this vaccine. But look, there's one other hurdle that we need to just quickly talk about because Donald Trump's messaging has been so disastrous during the pandemic. For instance, pushing hydroxychloroquine as a possible treatment for coronavirus and study after study. In fact, one giant study that was just published in The Lancet indicates that it's

harmful to you if you try to use it as a treatment for coronavirus. And as a result, people are just not very trusting toward Donald Trump. And one recent poll indicates that some 36 percent of respondents said that they would be less willing to take a vaccine if Trump said it was safe compared to only 14% who said they'd be more interested. Nearly one in five Republicans say they have no interest in a vaccine at all, more than twice the proportion of Democrats who said the same. And that's according to a Reuters-Ipsos poll. So that's a hurdle that we're probably going to have to deal with somewhere down the line. Okay. So there's two different issues there. One, if Trump tells me to take it, do I take it? Well, this is a giant depends. If it's just

And I mean that literally, not in relation to Donald Trump. Okay, anyways, so if it's just Donald Trump, yeah, of course I'm in the 36% who doesn't trust him. I'm not taking Clorox or anything else he says based on his word. But if he says it and the FDA says it and scientists say it, I'm not going to not take the vaccine because Trump agreed with scientists. I'd be thrilled if Trump agreed with scientists. That wouldn't affect my opinion at all.

The only thing I care about is a scientist, not Trump, whether he's pro or against it. It would be Trump derangement syndrome if the scientists say take it and you won't because Trump agreed. That would be mental. Now, the vaccine issue, look, I know they're good people who really believe that vaccines are bad for you. To those folks, I say, you want me to believe you over 99% of the world scientists. So it feels like climate change in the iris. Yeah, I guess 99% of the world scientists could be wrong, but it's not likely. Okay.

So I'd much rather take my chance with 99% of the scientists. If there's a vaccine and they say that it's safe, I jump being it. I'm going to do it instantly. All right. Well, one thing that Trump is jumping into is whining about Fox News again. Donald Trump is feuding with Fox News yet again and has accused the cable news network of not doing enough to help him get reelected, as if it's his personal PR arm, which makes a little bit of sense because so far Fox News has done Donald Trump's bidding for him. But every once in a while, when they decide to criticize him or maybe critique him,

mildly, he loses it. So what they recently did was cover a Fox News poll that shows that Donald Trump's approval rating has been in decline. So Trump's approval rating was minus 10 points with 45%, I'm sorry, 44% approving of Trump's overall job and 54% disapproving. That's a steep drop from the last Fox poll when Trump was even at 49% approval rating and 49% disapproval. So Joe Biden also leads Trump by eight points, 48% to Trump's 40% in a head-to-head presidential

match. That's up eight points from April when Biden and Trump were tied at 42%. So look, this is the kind of stuff that really irritates Trump. He can't stand any type of negative news coverage. And this Fox News poll even talked about what Obama's current approval rating is, which is kind of incredible. So according to Mediite, President Barack Obama enjoys a 63% favorable rating versus just 35% unfavorable, a five point upward swing from last month, and his highest ever rating in the

poll since his inauguration in 2009. As you can imagine, Jank, Trump is not happy about that, and I'll give you his reaction just a minute. All right. So this is what I talk about when I say that Trump is deeply unintelligent. Because even if you think that Fox News is working for you or should be working for you, you wouldn't say that out loud because then you're revealing the secret game. Like Fox News is pretending to be unbiased.

They're pretending to do the news. Meanwhile, during 2016, when Roger Ailes was around, they were obviously helping you and not being fair. They weren't even being fair to the rest of the Republican candidates, let alone doing the actual news. They were doing propaganda, and they had rigged it in your favor. Now, what helps them is the facade of being fair, the facade of doing news. If you take that away and you reveal to people, no, they're just shilling for me, so they're not really news. Well, that destroys the game that they're playing. That hurts their cause, and your cause. But you are just too stupid to realize that. So he just goes out. He's like,

they were great when they were just working for me. But now they're not trying to help me get elected like they were in the past as much as I want them to be. So I don't like Fox News anymore. If you can't see how stupid that is, then I can't help you because you're, because you're not that bright. Like, why would you reveal that? Why would you reveal that? You idiot. If you're a conservative, you should be more mad at Trump than I am. I'm not mad. I'm amused, right? But conservatives, you should be like, no, no, no, no, no, no. We have to pretend Fox News is real. So everybody else will take it as something that's important and newsworthy, etc. God, you're dumb. He's in his 70s. Like, the thing that I just can't get past is,

how sensitive he is and how he can't, he can't handle even the mildest criticism. It's like he's like up at night, like shaking, like thinking about it, can't wait until he can like go off on whoever he feels has slighted him on cable news, on, on, you know, mainstream media, whatever it is. Like you're, again, the most powerful person in the world. And he plays victim all the time. Recently, Brett Bear was, well, didn't name. Trump, but was clearly talking about Trump, especially when it came to the topic of wearing

masks. So let's take a quick look at that. About masks for him. I mean, I know he has chastised reporters. He can't hear because they're wearing a mask. Take it off. So I can hear you. There might be pictures of him wearing a mask. I've not seen them yet. But is it just viscerally he doesn't like him or what? I don't know. I mean, I can't get in his head on that. He hasn't worn it. He said he wore it back backstage once, but nobody got a picture of him wearing it. There was the whole Vice President Pence, back and forth, he wore it, he didn't wear it. So it seems like this president has decided not to.

We will see, again, I take the under. You know, we were once great, Neil, and we'll see if we get this one right. So when he's saying we were once great, what he's doing there is responding to Donald Trump accusing Fox of no longer being great, which is just hilarious, because again, like, the The mildest criticism and Trump goes off, I'm not going to read you all of his tweets because honestly, who cares? But here's one of them that just shows you the rage he feels toward Fox for, you know, in honestly, the minimal amount of cases doing some decent. I mean, decent is too strong a word. Negative reporting on him. I don't even know. So he writes,

many will disagree, but Fox News is doing nothing to help Republicans and me get reelected on November 3rd. Sure, there are some truly great people on Fox, but you also have some real garbage littered all over the network. This is the president of the United States. Amazing. Yeah, and then he went on to misspell Neil Caboodo's name. Dude, just take a second, man. Just breathe. Just in, out, in, out, okay, breathe. Like he's so hyperventilating over how weak he is. So sad, so weak. So he just, he's like, a guy hate you, get me, you know,

but you don't help your cause when you misspell the guy's name. Like, when I misspell, it happens. It's normal, right? I misspelled things from time to time on Twitter. And then somebody points to that out, I get a little embarrassed. I take it down and I put it back up

with the correct spelling. Totally normal. Not Trump. Trump doesn't care. He's like, ah, and he's just like so full of his own internal rage. And nobody can tell him By the way, you misspelled Neil Cabuto.

He'd be like, fake news. That's the real spelling. No, of course. Of course. And then, look, the Roger Ailes tweet. He then said that, you know, Roger A is looking down, shaking his head and stuff. Looking down? Roger Ailes?

Man, if Roger Ailes is getting into heaven, then take a load off. Don't worry about a thing, guys. You don't have to be good. It turns out anybody can get it. Yeah. Exactly. All right, well, we got to take a break. When we come back, we have one of Biden's latest foibles, but he did apologize for it. So we'll give you that as well. And Biden's tax proposal, we'll break that down for you. Come right back. 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 kind of. constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the rich and powerful. But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the conventional wisdom. In each episode of Un-B-the-Republic or UNFTR, the host delves into a different historical episode or topic that's generally misunderstood or purposely obfuscated by the so-called powers that be, featuring in-depth research, razor-sharp commentary, and just the right amount of vulgarity, the UNFTR podcast takes a sledgehammer to what you thought you knew about some of the nation's most sacred historical cows. But don't just take my word for it.

The New York Times described UNFTR as consistently compelling and educational, aiming to challenge conventional wisdom and upend the historical narratives that were taught in school. For as the great philosopher Yoda once put it, you must 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 you and FDR in your podcast app today and get ready to get informed, angered, and entertained all at the same time.

All right. Back on Young Turks, JQ Granik, Sparing with you guys, the folks at ShopT.Y.com. have lost their minds. They're going 15% off sitewide. Hungry now. Now. What about now? Whenever it hits you, wherever you are, grab an O. Henry bar to satisfy your hunger.

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ShopT.com. Okay, Aspiration has got nuts in planting 28,000 trees because of people who sign up through TYT. Let's keep that going. 10 trees for every signup, Aspiration.com slash TYT. They're awesome. We're taking Memorial Day off, but we will try to get you guys more and more. In fact, we're going to shoot a lot today to get you some material. Check out t.com for that, but we won't be having a live show. The Math and Magician writes in, we all are the Young Turks. Times like this is when we realize that. I love that. Thank you, Matha Magician. Really appreciate that. And you guys are delivering an amazing way. In fact, let's take a look at the thermometer. We're trying to get to 145 at t.com slash go. And we're wrong, 146.

Damn. God, I love you guys. All right, let's see if we can get to 147 before the next break, because we're trying to get the 200 by the end of the month. And now it is going to be very, very challenging to do that. Okay, English teacher 1984 writes, and these are all members. Since we're paying for the test, we'll get the drug for free practically, right? Well, Biden does want to give you the drug for free.

Trump, of course. we're not sure about slash never happened. And being free doesn't mean that AstraZeneca or Moderna doesn't make money. It just means the government pays for it. And Wicked has a out-of-the-box one that I like. Hi, everyone, Hope All or Well, that was a powerful drop-a-jank. As you said it, a box dropped off my table, L-O-L. I mean, look, are we that powerful?

That's what people are saying. That's what they're saying. It's not me. It's them. So thank you, Wicked. So real quick, and take this for what it's worth, but I love that you guys chip in. Grigarious Loner says, just to clarify that what they're doing at Oxford University is that they're using pre-existing drugs in these tests, not creating a new vaccine, these take years

to produce and test, hence the timeline that they are using. So I don't know those details, perhaps as well as he does, but it's also just one viewer. You can read the articles for yourself, et cetera. So, last couple here are from YouTube Super Chat, Midwest misfit, right, since sending a lot from Midwest misfits, keep on, keeping on. We progressives couldn't do it without you. And Sarah from 2K21 says, Trump will be bashing his own Trump 2020 supporters next. Oh, that's a guarantee.

I mean, let me just say it now, especially if Trump loses the election. Are his own voters part of the people that he will definitely bank on it. There's no question about it. Anna's Margarita Salt, also on YouTube Super Chats says, today five corporations own the vast majority of the US media. The concentration of messaging is one of the early stages of fascism. Be aware of who's filtering your news. Thank you, TYT, for being a light in the darkness.

And by the way, guys, you are our light in the darkness. So thank you for participating in t.y.t.com slash go for using YouTube super chat for being a member, t.yt.com slash join. We have so much more for members today. Thank you all. All right, Anna. What's next? All right. Joe Biden had an unfortunately awkward moment in the end portion of his interview with Charlemagne the God. Without further ado, let's see how it went down. I'm figuring out what you're for me or Trump and you ain't black. It don't have nothing to do with Trump. It has to do with the fact I want something. something for my community. I would love to see me.

Take a look at my record, man. I extended the Voting Racks 25 years. I have a record that is second to none. The NAACPs endorse me every time I've run. I mean, come on. Take a look of the record. All right. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Anyway, thanks. I will come back. Now, following that interview, Charlemagne de God did release a statement to Mediite saying, quote, we have been loyal to Democrats for a long time. Black people have invested a lot into that party. And the return on investment has not been great. As Biden said in our brief interview, when I asked him, if Dems owe the black community absolutely was his answer. So let's see what you got. Votes are quid pro quo. You can't possibly want me to fear Trump more

than I want something for my people. Now, there was a lot of backlash to what Biden had to say. and hashtags like, you ain't black and Joe Biden is racist started trending on Twitter. But he did apologize and he said, quote, I shouldn't have been such a wise guy. I should have, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have been such a wise guy. I shouldn't have been so cavalier. No one should have to vote for any party based on their race, their religion, or their background. Yeah. So first comment is that Joe Biden is so awkward.

When he tries to relate to minorities, it's just a train wreck. And as liberals usually are. What's that? Keeping it real. As a lot of liberals are. Yeah. Yeah. When he says things like, come on, man.

Like, don't do that. What are you doing, Joe? Please, for God's sake, don't do that, right? And so, and look, you can't speak for African-Americans if you're not African-American. And that's obvious. Of course, people were all over for that, and that makes sense. And all that was wrong. And I also want to make comment about Charlebein-the-God.

So two things I strongly agree with him on. Number one, you got leverage, you use it. That's called politics. So Charlema and the God understands politics a lot better than a lot of other establishment Democrats. And so I'm not saying he's one. So he's right about that, absolutely. And he's right that just not being Trump is not good enough.

You know, it might be good enough for a regular voter who's going to vote no matter what and they're going to pick, but you've got to excite people to show up to the polls. And people have to expect better than that. Yes, you're running against the world's worst boogeyman. And so yes, a lot of people are going to vote based on that. But that shouldn't be good enough. You should have an affirmative policy that excites people, including African Americans and all minorities. The part I appear to disagree with Charlemagne the God, but it would need more context

on a conversation with him is that he seems to be saying in quid pro quo, you have to pick an African American to be your VP. If he is saying that, then I disagree with that. Because that's a distraction. The question is, how good is the VP candidate on African American policies and issues? So if you pick Candace Owens, that didn't do the job. I know that Charlemagne the God doesn't think that, right? But the policies towards African Americans are so much more important than just picking an

African American because that allows the establishment to distract you from the issues and the policies. And then they say, oh, no, it's okay, mission accomplished, because I picked someone African American, then I don't have to bother giving you the policies that you want and need. Yeah, look, I don't know, I didn't read his comment that way. But if he does mean that, I think I definitely agree with you. I think that just simply naming someone based on their race to kind of appease a group of people doesn't go far enough.

And I think what Charlemagne the God wants, and I think this makes a lot of sense, is for the Democratic Party to not take the black vote for granted, to not think that they're entitled to it, because they're not. Now, the Republican Party has been so disastrous toward minority groups that by default, Democrats have overwhelmingly won the African American vote in this country for a long time. But that doesn't mean that it'll be the case forever. And I think that you can't just assume that you have that vote. You have that demographic in the bag.

You need to show how your policies are going to fundamentally improve their lives. And I think that that is a relevant and important conversation to have. And I know that we're tough on Biden, but he did the right thing in apologizing. He should have apologized and he should realize that he's not the arbiter of how black voters should cast their ballot come November. So I agree with that completely. And I thought he had a good apology in saying that he was being cavalier. And he was.

That's a good description of it. Now, I do want to say, though, that all. A lot of people who are defending Joe Biden today go, oh, come on, what's the big deal? He didn't mean it, et cetera, are exactly the same people who would have weaponized that if Bernie Sanders had said it, Donald Trump had said it, anybody, especially a progressive. They would have weaponized it to the nth degree. It would have made it nuclear. They would have said it eliminates them, et cetera.

And going along with that, Charlotte and the God is asking, hey, you can't, you got to deliver for us in terms of policies. Well, I love that, as I said. But the most important place to do that was in the primaries, where we could have picked among the different Democrats. Once you're up against Trump and you're the only, basically the only person up against Trump, yeah, then we are put in a corner. And so I wish the more thoughtful people in the needs.

media like Charlamy and the God would have insisted on that much more vociferously during the primaries. And he and I might not have agreed on the same candidate. But I wish they would have been a bigger examination of their record. Because the reality is we know, we've covered on the show. Joe Biden's record on civil rights is actually not that good. Yeah, I'm glad that you brought that up? Because when he said, look at my record, I was like, really, don't tell them, don't tell them to do that. If you want to appeal to black voters, that's the last thing you want to do. I mean, he helped Republicans against busing, his crime bill, criminalized, you know, black people in this country and imprison them at disproportional rates. Not good. Don't do that.

He lied about his civil rights record dozens of times. I mean, he goes on and on. Now, is he better than Trump? I mean, my cat's better than Trump. Everybody's better than Trump. But yes, he's way, way, way better than Trump. And along with the negative things he did, he actually did some positive things as well, which Trump has not done at all.

But among the different Democratic candidates, he might have actually literally been the worst in terms of the civil rights record. The only thing he had going for him, and this is not just a matter of optics, was being Obama's vice president. And so the reason why there's substance to that is a lot of African Americans in this country appreciated that here was a senior statesman, a white, powerful Democratic senator who's willing to take orders from a black man. And very publicly so for eight years, and happy to do it, and happy to serve an African-American

president. That's a pretty good point. So score one for Biden on that, right? And yeah, it helped him, et cetera. But great. And he did a good job of that. And so God bless. But his civil rights record, yeah. Well, he did have a decent moment on CNBC recently. So let's talk a little bit about that. Joe Biden is proposing a tax hike for the wealthy. And some of the people over at CNBC are concerned about that. Andrew Ross Sorkin is one of them. Let's take a look at how this conversation went down. Tax policy is based on a simple proposition.

We should stop rewarding wealth and start rewarding work a little bit. Let's raise the capital gains tax for people making over a million bucks a year to ordinary income. Let's reverse the trump tracts cut. Imagine we have that, if we had that $2 trillion now as we go into God-willing recovery. Let's use the money to invest in the middle class. You know, almost 40 million Americans have filed for unemployment, and you know what the White House is proposing, more tax cuts for corporate America. I've got a novel idea. How about some relief for Main Street?

What we're doing now is upside down. The bigger you are, the faster you get the money. The smaller you are you, you don't get the money. Just on the tax front first, and I understand that you want to raise taxes. The question is how quickly you do that in the midst of this pandemic and in the midst of trying to raise taxes. The question is how quickly you do that in the midst of a, in the midst of this pandemic and in the midst of trying to raise taxes. to get the economy to recover? Nobody making under $400,000 would have their taxes raised, period. Bingo.

See, that Joe Biden wins the election. That was really nicely done. We're going to break down this tax plan, and you'll see it's got issues. It's way better than Trump's. And it actually has some really positive things in it. It's nowhere near perfect. But that performance was rock solid. I liked the way that he came back at Sorkin, and the messaging was great.

Hey, we've done enough for the richest people in the country. We should be looking around for the average worker. That's going to win the election. So super happy to see that strong performance by Biden there. We'll get into his tax plan and tell you the upsides and downsides. Yeah, exactly. I want to just quickly comment on CNBC overall. And especially Andrew Ross Sorkin, and the way he usually handles interviews.

CNBC is honestly nothing more. It just feels like I'm watching like nonstop compilations of anti-tax lobbyists. Like the nonstop fearmongering about taxes going up, like drives me nuts. And even Andrew Ross Sork in there, like, are you talking about raising taxes? I mean, just relax, okay? Relax, home boy. All right. Like, what we're seeing right now in America is like record, like a record gap between the rich

and the poor. We're seeing like literally nearly 40 million Americans filing for unemployment while the stock market soars. Later on in the show, we're going to talk about how some of the wealthiest people in the country, multi-billionaires, have made a killing during this pandemic, again, while 40 million Americans have filed for unemployment. And it's amazing to me how, like, the victims, the potential victims in every single news story they cover are the richest people in the country. Like, relax. And by the way, go ahead.

Sorry, Anna. Just to buttress your point, if you were a punk, if you were going to create a sophisticated PR effort where you would have lobbyists for multinational corporations, posing as reporters, you would create CNBC. I mean, it's nearly perfect. Pretending to be news, looking like news anchors, but doing nonstop propaganda for the top corporations in the world. Are you saying that corporations paying taxes might happen? Well, then how would they ever create jobs?

Well, how did they create jobs when they were paying 35% rate and all the other rates that we've had throughout history? But no, they're not doing news. They're doing propaganda. When it comes to protecting corporate interests, CNBC is more conservative than Fox News. So let's talk a little bit about what Biden's tax proposal actually entails, because while he keeps branding it as a reversal of the Trump-era tax cuts, that's not necessarily the case. So here are the specifics.

So his proposals include rolling back President Trump's 2017 tax cuts for people with income over $400,000, capping the value of itemized deductions for people in tax brackets above 28%. Taxing capital gains at the same rate as ordinary income for those making more than $1 million. I think that capital gain should be taxed as regular income, there shouldn't be any type of cap, period. And also raising the corporate tax rate, and this is the part that really irritates me, raising the corporate tax rate from 21 to 28%.

Okay, let's stop for a second. I'll read the rest in a minute. The corporate tax rate before the Trump era tax cuts kicked in was 35%. Why are you going from 21% to 28%? Why don't you take it back to at least 35% closed corporate tax loopholes? all capital gains, all of it, all of it, at the regular income tax rate that people have to pay. Like, I don't understand why this is an issue. Like, do, does anyone actually buy the argument that people aren't going to invest if they'll get taxed at a normal income tax rate?

Like, does anyone actually believe that? Like, you think that wealthy people aren't going to park their money in the stock market if, if you have like a normal tax rate for it? It's so stupid. I don't understand what. And it's, look, part of the problem is our politicians are making a killing in capital gains. They don't want to pay those kinds of taxes. So income is when you have a salary to oversimplify. You work for a living, you got a salary.

When you work. Right. When you work. And you have to remember the highest brackets are also business people, doctors, lawyers, etc. So let's say a doctor is an example. If they're in the highest bracket, you're asking them. to pay around a 39% rate. But if you're a banker or anyone else doing just investments, you're, that's capital gains.

So it's not working, it's a work of a sense, right? But it's not your job. You're making money off your money. They say, well, then you should pay a lower tax rate than the doctor. Why? No. It doesn't make any sense at all. And it's not just us progressive saying, even people like Warren Buffett say, say,

Well, that's, of course, that's mental. Like, which investor in their right mind goes, oh, no, tax are a little high. So I'm not going to invest at all. So I'll make zero dollars instead. No one. Absolutely no one. It's always been an outrageous lie. And any politician who goes along with that lie is lying on purpose.

Capital gains should be at the same rate as the income tax. Everybody knows it. And for the corporations, Anna, you're a million percent right. is exactly what's wrong with corporate Democrats. So they also serve corporations. They're just more subtle than Republicans. So Republicans are too greedy. They go, oh, just give a 21% tax rate and not take away a single loophole.

Just give everything to multinational corporations, right? Democrats go, no, no, no, no, you guys, let's be more subtle. Let's do a giant tax rate from 35 to 28 and make it seem like we're fighting Trump. Make it seem like we're fighting corporations and corporate donors while we're doing it. it while we're giving them a giant permanent gift. That's exactly, by the way, what the Obama Biden administration did before. So as I'm telling you that he's looking tougher and he's way better than Trump in that CNBC interview, understand the game that's being played behind the scenes. Yeah, and Trump would actually go further in cutting taxes. Like, one of the things he wants

to do is cut back on the payroll tax, which helps to fund Medicare and Social Security. So if you're worried about these social safety net programs being cut in the future, understand that Donald Trump will make that happen. All right, we gotta take a break. Sorry, he wants to cut corporate taxes as well. So look, the time to fight on this was the primaries. Now you've got somebody who's secretly helping the corporations versus someone who's brazenly over the top helping the corporations as opposed to the American citizens.

So those are your two choices. But the reason we have that, by the way, is because of the corporate media and who told you those are your only choices. And unfortunately, older voters believe them. When we come back from the break, we'll talk about how much money multibillionaires in America have made during the pandemic. Come right back. At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control of our online lives, constantly monitoring us and storing 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

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with this exclusive link just for TYT fans. That's EX, P-R-E-S-S-V-P-N dot com slash T-YT. Check it out today. All right, back on a Young Turk's, young Turks. So let me read a couple of comments. Melissa Matrice says, I'd really love it if maybe Anna or Br. Brett gave me a shout out considering this TYT member might have COVID. I'm scared. The fear in this hospital is palpable. Melissa, you've written in a lot. We've read a lot of your comments.

We appreciate everything that you've done to participate in the show. And obviously, we hope you're okay. There's a ton of fear in the hospitals. And it's actually not getting covered very well at all. Yeah, it's terrible. And I know what you're going through, because when you're in that type of situation, you're not able to see your friends, your family, and that type of comfort and affection helps you get through it. But just know that while we might not be with you physically, we're thinking about you. We're sending you our well wishes and just fight, fight like hell. You're going to get through it. All right. The mathematician, mathematician writes, and Charlemagne is today's media hero, screw by, and we need to use him to get rid of Trump.

And then the movement Bernie starters, his first two major tasks has to be to make Biden a one-term president and more importantly to load up Congress with real progressives. I think almost all of that is true. And Charlemagne did a pretty good job. But Tucci, which disagrees, he says, or this person says, why the hell didn't Charlemagne come back with a claim about Biden's record with that notorious crime bill? He didn't do his job, in my opinion. So two things about that. One, he was running low on time, so to be fair to him, he didn't really have much of an opportunity for a follow. Second of all, Charlemagne de Gaude is not primarily a news person. He does a fun

show. It just so happens that the rest of the media sucks so hard that Charlemagne and the guy winds up asking some of the toughest and best questions, because the rest of the media is scared out of their mind at hold Estabastering Democrats accountable. So, So I wouldn't put it on him. And the other thing about him is he's great at marketing. He chose that name where we call him the God every time. That's true. The Democrats can learn a thing or two from him in terms of marketing and winning elections.

So unfortunately, there's so many of you guys who have written all these wonderful things. Thank you for everybody who use YouTube super chat, Norman Hilbush, Charles Maughn, Chris Robinson, referring to soft hands, it's hilarious, Carol Fun. Thank you, Jay and TIOT. Stay too strong. You two guys. So one last check of the thermometer real quick. Did we get to 147? Oh, hear that. 147, 64. Look, obviously, before the days up, 150 would be amazing. I don't know how we're going to make it in time by the end of May, which is almost here to 200. But t.com slash go. We appreciate every single dollar. We do this show together. Anna.

Well, as soon as the coronavirus pandemic happened, the stock market crashed and it crashed badly. But following that crash, analysts looked at how much money billionaires in America made and whether their wealth increased. And we have some of those numbers for you now. Now, I want to give you a quick disclaimer. The first part of the story focuses on how much money these billionaires earned following that stock market crash, then I'm going to give you the numbers that take into account the stock market crash as well. So Amazon's Jeff Bezos, very wealthy guy, and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg,

had the biggest gains with Bezos adding $34.6 billion to his wealth, and Zuckerberg adding $25 billion, according to the report from Americans for Tax Fairness and the Institute for Policy studies program for inequality. So according to the report, the net worth of America's billionaires grew 15% during the two-month period to $3.382 trillion from $2.948 trillion. The biggest gains were at the top of the billionaire pyramid with the richest five billionaires, Bezos, Bill Gates, Zuckerberg, Warren Buffett, and Larry Ellison seeing combined wealth gains of $76 billion. In total, fortunes soared by a whopping $434 billion. Now, again, this was right after the stock market crashed, and clearly they lost a lot of money

then. But when you take that into account, have their fortunes increase, decrease, where are they at? And a lot of them have still made a lot of money. Buffett, for instance, his wealth has, well, his wealth has declined by $20 billion, according to Bloomberg billionaires index, while Gates is down 4.3 billion. billion. For the year, Jeff Bezos, though, has gained money, $35.5 billion, while Zuckerberg is also up with $9 billion. Among those who also lost some of their fortune, and you can

kind of understand why, considering how their industries have been hit, Ralph Lauren, or Ralph Loren, saw his wealth drop by $100 million to, poor guy, $5.6 billion, while the hotel tell guy, John Pritzker, saw his wealth drop by $34 million to $2.56 billion. Yeah, you know, it's hard not to lose track of the billions. Somebody's down, but they all have so many billions. Why would it ever matter? Look, guys, you know, it's, I don't know if you've all done the math on a billion dollars, and I know you think you can spend it, and probably some of you can by just burning it

and just buying, you know, 2,000 Ferraris or something, but really a billion dollars is not spendable on things outside of sports teams, right, buying a sports team, right? It's just not spendable. It's, who cares? There isn't anything you couldn't buy to your heart's desire with a billion dollars. So what difference does it make if it drop by $34 million and you're at $2.56? Okay, let alone the guys who are in the $50, $60 billion range. And so my main point is I don't begrudge Bezos and Zuckerberg as examples their wealth

going up during this time because people are using Facebook and Amazon more now that we're stuck at home and they've got the right business lines. A lot of other business are hurting. I don't mind that. It is what it is. But what I don't want is them to then turn around and say that's why we shouldn't be taxed. No, no, wait a minute, wait a minute, you made money during this time. Don't give me any arguments as Andrew Ross Sorkin was doing in his interview with Joe Biden

about, oh my God, the poor corporations, are you thinking of raising their taxes in this time? No, are you kidding me? Their money is, for at least some of them, their money is skyrocketing. Yes, we should definitely raise their taxes. No, it's incredible. You know, in the same Andrew Ross Sorkin interview, Biden mentioned how we need to raise taxes on companies like Amazon, for instance, because as we all know, we're all familiar with this story, Amazon paid nothing in federal taxes last year, thanks to Trump's tax cuts for the rich. And they released this statement. This is something that they recycle all the time. I saw it in multiple articles over the last year. They argue, no, we've actually paid $2.5 billion in corporate taxes since 20, 2016, since 2016. Yeah, they also forget to mention that the company's gross income since 2016 was more than $323.3 billion. Oh, let's give you some more tax cuts. Poor thing.

By the way, in the meantime, they're about to end hazard pay for their workers, which is a measly $2 an hour, okay? And they've treated their workers very poorly, as we all know. So please, It's Crimea River not buying it at all. So if you do the math on the numbers, Anna just gave you, that's a tax rate of less than 1%. So it's a little bit more complicated than that. But that does give you a big picture look at it. It's outrageous how little taxes they pay.

And I will give them credit for one thing, Amazon said in that statement, hey, you don't have an argument with Amazon, you have an argument with the tax code. Well, that's true. That's why we should fix the tax code so that Amazon and all the other companies actually pay their taxes. And to be fair to Joe Biden, he is saying for companies like that, there should be no situation where they pay no taxes. They should pay at least 15% no matter what. Totally agree with that. Nice work on Biden on that. All right, guys, we've got the post game coming up for the members. You got to check that out. We have amazing stories

there, including Trump praising Henry Ford's bloodline when Henry Ford made arguments about bloodlines and anti-Semitism that are outrageous. So t-y-t.com slash join. We'll see you there. 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.