The Young Turks - TYT Extended Clip - October 15, 2020

Episode Date: October 16, 2020

Senator Bernie Sanders joins The Young Turks to discuss the fight for another Covid relief bill. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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See my team! Come. All right. Welcome to the Young Turks. Jane Cooper Anna Kusperi and back in the studio. Together for the first time in seven months. Kind of together, she's over there. And your screen, she's over there.

Anyways, so excited to be back in the studio. in the studio, and boy, do we have a wonderful special guest for you guys to mark the occasion. So tonight we got a triple header. Joe Biden later tonight is on CNN. Donald Trump is on NBC. Bernie Sanders on TYT. So Senator Bernie Sanders, welcome back to the Young Turks. Great to be with you, and it's wonderful to see you and Anna together. Congratulations. It's good to see all of us back together again. So Senator, Senator, Sanders, let me get started because obviously we've got weighty issues here less than three weeks before the election and with coronavirus raging. So in fact, the most pressing issue is the bill that is now being considered the stimulus bill.

Some disagreements obviously in Washington about not only what should be in the bill, but Nancy Pelosi's stance to negotiate for a better deal and not yet sign the deal that some folks in Washington are pushing. What's your take on that? Do you think she should hold the line and have you advised from the Senate side on what you think is the right way to go? Well, Chang, as you know, Nancy and Schumer have already made major, major concessions. They have gotten virtually nothing from the Republicans. At a time when millions of people have lost their jobs, people are worried about being evicted, people are having trouble feeding their kids. We need to make sure that every unemployed worker continues to receive that $600 check as a supplement to his or her unemployment. People need that $1,200 check per month. People need health care.

We need to adequately fund cities and states who are in the process of laying off hundreds of thousands of workers. So the devil is in the details. But we need a very robust package to protect working. people today who are really struggling. So Senator Sanders, you're absolutely right about the devil being in the details. So given what you just stated, Trump is not there yet. McConnell's not anywhere near there yet in terms of the numbers that you just gave. So does that mean that you think Pelosi should hold the line, even if it means going past

the election to try to get a better deal? Well, sure. One of the problems that Pelosi has is you're dealing with an erratic and irrational president who says something different every single day. He wanted to go small, he wanted to go big, he wanted to go not at all. But here is a point that is not discussed very much. The Republican caucus has approximately 20 members in the Senate who really don't want to do anything. So McConnell's problem is that if he went big, which he, I think, is not inclined to do,

it would become a Democratic bill because almost half of his caucus really wanted. to do nothing. But the bottom line is we have got to be as strong as we can in standing up for working families who are probably today, the working class in America, probably in worse shape than any time since the Great Depression. And in the midst of all of that, obviously in the next three weeks, we have to do everything that we can to defeat the most dangerous president in the modern history of this country. And then after Biden is elected, we have to regroup and continue our fight for a progressive agenda that works for working families. Senator Sanders, one more thing about the bill for me.

Do you know why McConnell has a position that he has? I understand Pelosi holding out because the Democrats have a tremendous amount of leverage at this point, and they can really demand what they want in the bill. Donald Trump has a tremendous incentive to pass the bill right before the election. But the Republican senators are in a world of trouble, according to the polling. So why in the world isn't McConnell agreeing to stimulus? Because he would look like a fool if 20 of his own members voted against them. And then it becomes a democratic bill.

That's the simple truth. He has a number of right-wing folks who believe they have already done too much for the working families of this country. They're busy thinking about how they can give more tax breaks to the rich, how they can end the Affordable Care Act, throw 20 million people off of health care, how they can ignore climate change, how they can refuse to raise the minimum wage. They are not thinking about how they can help working families. Senator Sanders, I have one question on Trump's version of the stimulus plan. And one thing that has been frustrating as someone in the media was just trying to get some

straight answers on what the spending is actually going towards. I mean, the media keeps talking about, well, Pelosi wants $2.2 trillion and Trump is offering 1.8 trillion, close enough. But there is concern that Trump could use that appropriated money. Let's say in a, you know, incredible situation where McConnell actually does successfully pass Trump's version, there's some concern that that money could be used as Trump's personal slush fund. Do you have any details on that? Well, Anna, I think your point is well taken. You know, people say 2.2, 1.8, what's the difference? The difference is, in fact, in the details. And I think one of the things,

that Trump wants, and I have zero doubt, would use is a slush fund to suddenly go out to all of the battleground states already is using a lot of money in agriculture to be spending money on farmers around the country whose votes he desperately needs. So you're right, as I understand it, although it's always very unclear when you deal with Trump, because I'm not sure that he knows what he is talking about. So it's hard to know what the White House is referring to. Do you feel that the Democratic Party has done a good job in messaging how Republicans in Congress have basically fought tooth and nail against providing any real economic relief to ordinary Americans? Probably we could have done a better job. The difficulty that I think

any senator or congressperson has right now is every day there's so much that is going on, whether it is covert, whether it's some other crazy thing that Trump says, it's hard to get the word out. But I do want, apropos your question, to just make a simple point. And that is five months ago, that's a long time. Five months ago, the House of Representatives passed the Heroes Act. It's over $3 trillion. I have some disagreements with that bill, but there is no question, but that it is a very strong piece of legislation. And all that Mitch McConnell would have had to do, five months ago was say, thank you, Nancy, we're going to discuss it, we're going to debate it here, let's pass something, he chose to do nothing. And I think

what is not clear to the American people is that we have in the Senate the most do nothing Senate in the modern history of this country. They do nothing but pass nominations for right-wing judges. We do virtually nothing. Nothing on the economy, nothing on COVID, nothing on climate change, nothing on the needs of working families. So Senator Sanders, clearly Joe Biden's going in the right direction on some of these issues, especially regarding COVID. He says he's going to put together a pandemic testing board, something that should have been done a long time ago. And he says, I'm kind of in a position that FDR was. That's a direct quote from him, I'm sure that's music to your ears.

If you think about it, what in fact FDR did was not ideological, it was completely practical, he said, and he wants to put in a national supply chain commander. So is there anything in his plans that you say, that you would encourage him to do more about or looking at these plans for what he would do as soon as he got in? Are you satisfied that that's completely the right direction? Well, I think, you know, I have talked to Joe on a number of occasions. refers to FDR. And I think he perceives that he is coming into office in a moment not radically dissimilar to when Roosevelt came into office in 1933. And that is, Roosevelt came in the midst

of a terrible depression. Biden will come into office in the midst of a pandemic and the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, not to mention climate change and systemic racism and all of the other major issues that we are dealing with. But I hope and believe that whether it's COVID or those other issues, that Biden understands that the American people now desperately need a government which works for them and not just the people on top. Because the crises that we face are so profound, so profound. We've got to raise that minimum wage to a living wage.

We need equal pay for equal work. We need to create millions of good paying jobs by rebuilding our infrastructure and combating climate change and putting people to work, retrofitting homes and moving to wind and to solar, and transportation, agriculture, et cetera, et cetera. So the task in front of Biden, should he win the presidency, is enormous. I believe that he does understand that in this moment, there's an unprecedented moment in American history, he's got to. have to be bold. You know, Senator Sanders, to your point, when you look at the personal finances of Americans who had to rely on the more robust version of unemployment insurance, it's kind of incredible that so many Americans were able to save for the first time in decades. So I think that you make a really great point there. One other thing I wanted to ask related to the election

and the possibility of Biden becoming president, you know, understandably people are concerned that Trump would not engage in a peaceful transition of power should he lose the general election. What do you believe Democrats should do if he refuses a peaceful transition of power? Well, I gave a speech on that about a month ago, and we are working on this very, very hard. And, you know, we are sitting here in the year 2020 talking about something that nobody has ever had to talk about in American history. What we're talking about is a president of the United States who, when asked if he will leave office peaceably, if he loses, he doesn't say yes. He doesn't say yes. So what we have got to do is prepare for all contingencies.

And I just want to make a few points on that issue, if I can, Anna. Sure. And that is, I want everybody to understand that when Trump talks about the only way that I can lose this election is if it's rich. He is absolutely lying because even the strongest Republican experts, the people who know the most about this, people like Benjamin Ginsburg, a long-time Republican lawyer who works on this issue, has acknowledged quite correctly that there is virtually no voter fraud in the United States of America. So when you hear Trump talking about massive voter fraud, he is lying. Second of all, Sadly, in a number of states, what Republicans have done is made it very difficult for the vote to be counted on election night. Pennsylvania is maybe the major example. The truth is what a number of studies have told us is Democrats are much more likely to vote by mail-in ballots than will Republicans will more likely to walk in and vote on election day. So what does that mean?

It means that if you are in Pennsylvania and you're sitting on a pile of hundreds and hundreds of thousands of envelopes of mail-in ballots that have not yet been open, and most of those may be Democratic ballots, you know what, on election night at 9 o'clock in the evening, it may well be that Trump is ahead in Pennsylvania. But that may not be the case the next day. So what we believe and will fight for, every vote must be. counted. Every vote must be counted. And we are going to work as hard as we can to make sure that happens. We are talking to governors all over this country to prevent voter intimidation. You know, there have been some stories about people coming out with AR-15s, you know, semi-automatic rifles trying to intimidate people going in to vote. Governors cannot allow that to happen. Voter intimidation is a crime. We cannot allow that to happen. You know, So there's a lot that has to be done. So Senator Sanders, the right wing uses hyperbole all the time.

So Donald Trump says that Joe Biden is a socialist, and he even called Kamala Harris a communist. It's preposterous. But on the other hand, Donald Trump has, in fact, five different times not answered whether he would do a peaceful transfer of power. He today called Gretchen Whitmer, who the militia threatened to kidnap and murder, the governor of Michigan. He called her a dictator, which is not a subtle code word for a tyrant, and that is a dog whistle to the militia. Hey, she's still a problem. He's an incredibly dangerous person who has called for violence from his supporters on a number of occasions. And we're worried, might not believe in democracy, and might try to hold on a power,

even if he loses. So is it fair to call him a fascist and to ask other Republicans, including Republicans, I mean, we had Diane Feinstein hugging Lindsey Graham today. I'd want to do the opposite and ask Lindsay Graham, you're running against Jamie Harrison and Democrat. That's a perfectly normal, rational human being. But do you believe in the fascist inclinations of Donald Trump? Is that a fair question? I'm not going to throw out labels. We've got two and a half weeks to go in an election. Clearly, this is an authoritarian type person who does not believe in the rule of law. I mean, now we take it for granted that a president of the United States a week ago

who held a political rally in the White House. You know what? That's against the law. This is a guy who does not believe in the separation of powers, does not believe in the Constitution lies every single day. And what I have said over and over again, I don't care what your political views are out there. You're a conservative. You're a moderate. You're progressive. That's great. But you've got to get rid of this guy as president of the United States because he is undermining American democracy and is insulting the men and women over the years who have put their lives on the line to defend our constitution and our democracy. That's what we have to focus on in the next two and a half weeks defeating Donald Trump.

So Senator Sanders, that's clearly the goal here now and you've helped in every way you can. to try to make sure that Trump is defeated and Biden is elected in this context. And Biden does sit on a gigantic lead at this point, if we're being honest about the polling. So if Biden does win, he's going to push for a public option. Obviously, you're in favor of Medicare for all. Where does that leave you? Do you support him in pushing forward the public option? Is there a progressive pushback and fight for Medicare for all in a Biden administration?

Well, I will tell you where it leaves me, everything being equal, if the Democrats gain control over the Senate, I want to remind all of the viewers, of course, the presidential election is enormously important. Do not forget about the Senate. Democrats stand a reasonable chance of gaining control of the Senate. If they do, Chank, I will be the chairman of the Subcommittee on Health. And let me tell my good friends in the health care industry and the pharmaceutical industry, but if I get that position, and I believe I will, your world is going to change. So, of course, we're going to continue the push for Medicare for All. Now, the bill that I presented was a four-year transition. I didn't go to Medicare for All in one day because I don't think you can do that. In the first year, Biden, you know, Biden now wants to see the eligibility age for Medicare go from 65 down to 60. There hasn't been enough discussion on that. That's important.

The first year of my bill, four-year transition, has it go down to 55. So in the first year, what I would like to see is thus lower that age to 55 and cover all of the kids in America on year one. That is something I certainly will be pushing on. I will also be pushing to make absolutely clear that we end the outrageous of collusion and price fixing of the pharmaceutical industry. and that the people of our country do not pay higher prices for prescription drugs than the people of any other country on earth. Also on that committee, which I will be number two, the Health Education Labor Committee, Pension Committee, we will pass a $15 an hour minimum wage. And what I'm working on, Schenk and Anna, right now is what I call a 100-day proposal.

I want Democrats to come out of that gate very, very rapidly. It is not business as usual. We don't have six months to study an issue. We know what we have to do for the American people in education, in climate change, in the economy, in health care. Let's do it. Let us try to restore the confidence of the American people in the political process. Let them know that there are some of us who are fighting for the working class of this country. and we are going to deliver.

That was music to my ears. Thank you for that answer, Senator Sanders. Final question for you related to Joe Biden. There is a little bit of a divide among progressive voters as to whether they begin pressuring Joe Biden to move further to the left now or if they should wait until the election happens and he gets elected. Already there are some articles being written about potential cabinet picks, including for his treasury secretary, the name Lael Bernard came up, and she's actually a governor

with the Federal Reserve. And her history isn't so great for progressives who are concerned about the fossil fuel companies. She was very much in favor of the Federal Reserve buying the corporate debt of these fossil fuel companies, including companies involved in the Keystone XL pipeline. And so I wanted to get your thoughts on that, because already, I mean, you see names like that and you start to get a little worked up and you want to start applying pressure. Do you believe that's the right way to go? Or would you argue that Progressive should hold their fire until after he gets elected? This is what I think. I think we have got to do everything. You know, you have all of two

and a half weeks. That's not a long time. Let us do everything that we can to make sure that everybody we know comes out to vote. Chank, you mentioned that the polls look good. They do. They look good for Hillary Clinton as well. So anyone who thinks that Biden is a shoe and is dead wrong, because it's going to be a tough race. And we've got to do everything we can in the next two and a half weeks to win it. Day after Biden wins, let us rally the American people, working class people, people of color, young people, all people who believe in justice around a progressive agenda. And remember, you know, Biden campaigns on here. his proposals, that's fine. But it is the United States Congress that makes the laws of this country. And what we have got to do after the election, after the election, is to make sure that we put as much pressure as we can on the elected officials in the House and the Senate to go forward with an agenda that has the guts to stand up to the ruling elite that deals with income and wealth inequality. And that finally has a government that works for all of us

and not just the few. So to answer your question, I would hold my fire for the next two and a half weeks. And after that, let's rally the American people around the progressive agenda. Senator Bernie Sanders, thank you so much for joining us on the Young Turks. We really appreciate it. Well, thank you for having you. Keep up the great work, guys. Thank you. All right, we're going to take a quick break, of course. When we come back, we have so many more stories for you guys, including obviously the news of the day, including the story that Anna just mentioned during the interview, where apparently the Trump administration told some of their donors,

the stock market might not do as well as we're letting on publicly. That was all the way back in February. The corruption in this country is unreal. We'll be right back and tell you all about. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-F-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-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

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 All right on the young church, Shank and Anna with you guys.

And as I always tell you guys, we do this show together with all of you. TYT.com slash go is our effort to raise money through tough times this year to get us of sustainability and to be able to get out the strong progressive message so we can do the kind of programming that you see. I want to say a little bit more about that in a second, but let's look at the thermometer real quick. Every month this year, we're trying to reach $200,000. And right now we're at 46, 724 halfway through the month. So we are significantly behind. But every dollar counts, and you guys are amazing for helping in the ways that you can't, you could. And obviously you guys are going through tough times as well. So let me read

some comments and then I want to come back to that in a second based on what one of you said. First of all, Charlie Casparian Home Alone and Skinny Jean said, yes Bernie. That's from the member section. Lady in Redlands, California writes in today I got interviewed for mail-in ballot

voting as I was dropping off my ballot. Hey guys, look for the damage report T-shirt front and center, Diane M. Clark. That's awesome. More Dragon Squad apparently. All right, shop t-y-t. Those shirts are selling like hotcakes and apparently you're going to see it on TV soon. Mondo Libre says, how nice to see Senator back on TYT.

I really needed this, thank you. We appreciate it. And on YouTube super chat, Trill South Digipimp writes in, excellent interview and question him hard to hold them accountable. TYT is staying a member now, fight the power. Appreciate it. Vicious C says, Bernie Sanders, legend, you and the upcoming progressive leaders that you've inspired, give us hope for the future of our democracy. Thank you. I want to tell you a quick story about that. My son got assigned a homework assignment yesterday. It was to write a report on AOC. Guys, that was just three years

ago that you made that happen. Isn't that amazing? We told you about a woman that nobody had ever heard of in the country, Alexandria Ocasor-Cortez, and some of you guys donated to her, Some of you volunteered for her. We showed you her 34 times before her. She won more than the rest of the media combined. And now kids are being assigned homework assignments to write about her. Just three years ago, we started on that journey together. So that's why we do stuff like t.yt.com slash go,

because this is the progressive lighthouse and all of us working together make it happen. Speaking of which, last one is from Twitch, we're on all these different platforms. Hottie Meter just gifted 70 subs. I love the community on Twitch, so keep it going. Thank you guys. All right, Anna's up next. All right, well, there's a huge controversial story involving the New York Post, so let's discuss it. There's a big debate about what is and is not acceptable censorship on social media giants like Twitter and Facebook. And at the heart of this story is an article that was written by the New York Post. Now, to be clear, the article is sketchy. I certainly agree with that.

But I'm going to preface this story by saying that I don't believe that the social media giants should have censored this story. I think it's actually created a lot more attention toward the story. And it has to do with Joe Biden. So Facebook and Twitter took unusual steps to limit readership of an article by the New York Post about alleged emails from Joe Biden's son. The social media giants took that action before verifying the contents of the article in which President Trump's personal attorney, Giuliani and his former top advisor, Stephen Bannon, claimed to have obtained and leaked a trove of private materials from Hunter Biden. The leaked document suggested at one point he gave a Ukrainian executive the opportunity

to meet with former Vice President Joe Biden. The Biden campaign said his schedule indicated no such meeting took place. Now at the heart of this story is basically the New York Post regurgitating the same narrative that we heard from Donald Trump during the time he was being investigated for impeachment. During that time, he claimed that Joe Biden worked unilaterally to fire a Ukrainian prosecutor who was investigating Burisma, which was a fossil fuel company in Ukraine. Apparently, they were accused of wrongdoing, and Victor Shokin was the prosecutor who was allegedly doing this investigation. The issue is that story is not true. It's just,

fundamentally false because the international community wanted Victor Shokin out. It turned out that he was corrupt and was not doing the proper investigation of Burisma. However, I also want to note that, yeah, it looks pretty bad when you have Hunter Biden serving on the board of Burisma while Joe Biden is the vice president. Now, Jank, I want to open this up to you and then I'll give the audience some more details about who Victor Shoken is and what conservatives have said about him in the media. Yeah. So guys, there's two completely different things to be concerned about here. What is the substance of the article? Just right before we went on there, two news stories broke. One is on a far right message board. Apparently the same story was going around a couple of days before the New York Post published it. So somehow these far right folks on the internet knew about this story before a so-called mainstream media outlet like the New York Post.

got it. So when you see it on those message boards, that is a huge red flag that it might not be real. Now, the second thing that broke is that they said originally in the New York Post story. And their sources are Giuliani and Steve Bannon. It almost can't get worse in terms of lack of credibility. Rudy Giuliani, I believe, belongs in a literal insane asylum at this point. And so if he said to me, the grass is green in the sky is blue, I'd go double check. So I don't blame the social media that works for wanting to check, and I'll get to that in a second. But they said, oh, the laptop was dropped off by someone else, and they just happened to know

that it was Hunter Biden's. Now they have officially changed the story, and Giuliani comes out and goes, yeah, yeah, it was yeah, yeah, it was Hunter Biden who dropped it off. Wait, so wait a minute, so you were lying in the beginning. So apparently, there was good reason to believe that you should urge caution to folks about this story. But at the same time, I understand what Anna is saying, because once you start blocking stories based on, you know, things that are not legitimate, and that's the thing we don't know, right, we got to be fair, we're going to cover all angles. Twitter says, hey, look, we have a policy

against publishing anything that was hacked. And it's clearly not their computer. And they retrieved pictures and memorandum from the computer, that looks like a hack. That's why we paused it. And Facebook says we paused it to verify the facts. If it's just a pause, I think I agree. I think these guys are not credible. I don't care that it's in the New York Post. I have no respect for the New York Post, nor should anyone else.

On the other hand, if these guys are having to give off the appearance of working for the Democratic Party, that is toxic. And obviously none of us here are fans of the Republican Party. But be careful who you give power to and who they're going to ban and censor next. I just think that both companies made a mistake and beyond a mistake because they have now created a situation in which the Republican Party and their professionals at this can pretend like they're aggrieved, that they're true victims. You have people like Senator Ted Cruz talking about, oh, poor us, we're constantly censored on social media. Of course, there's never any media attention toward all of the anti-fascist accounts that get shut down on Twitter on a regular basis every time they do a sweep of Q&N conspiracy theorists. And it's because, you know, people on the left are not professional victims. Republicans love to play professional victims. But I will say, I mean, look, how are we going to allow these corporations, essentially, to be the arbiters of,

of what is and is not acceptable content on their platforms. These platforms are incredibly powerful. People rely on these platforms, unfortunately, to get their news. And we can't have, you know, members of a corporate board or a CEO decide unilaterally what is and is not acceptable on their platform, right? I mean, this is part of the reason why you have Democrats who want to break up these companies or find a solution to this, because again, they are. too powerful and people do rely on them for news. At the same time, you know, the fact

checking is an interesting approach, but remember Facebook's independent fact checkers includes people from the daily caller. I know that that's not going to make me feel comfortable. So it really is a difficult situation, but I think in this case, they made a giant mistake by preventing this article from being tweeted about or posted on Facebook. I didn't care about the story. I didn't care to read about. it until they banned it, and then I read it. And as you read it and you investigate it further, you know it's nonsense. Of course, idiots like Rudy Giuliani can't keep his story straight. And so how about we fight back with facts and evidence rather than try to censor it, which

again draws more attention to it? Yeah, look, I think the main problem here is that Democrats put so much pressure on the social media outlets. And so that's why when a story like this breaks, the perception immediately, and the Republican whining, as Anna's pointing out. The perception then becomes, oh, the social media outlets are banning things based on what the Democratic Party wants. And that's what I'm calling toxic. But the reality is they probably could have handled this better if they were just clearer about it. Jack Dorsey, who started Twitter, said something similar on Twitter, of course, where he said,

look, guys, at least we should have put out a better statement explaining why we're doing it. If the first thing I read about it is because Twitter's worried about a hack, I would have thought, Well, that makes sense, right? If the first thing I had read about it is Facebook is taking 24 hours to verify the story because of concerns about the sources, that would make sense. By the way, why are people flipping out about this and not just the Republicans? Because New York Post is considered part of the mainstream media. So the rest of the mainstream media goes, hey, we were telling you to ban Trump supporters

and progressives later, okay, but we weren't telling you to ban us. So that's why people got touchy about it. And finally, look, to be fair to the social media platforms, it is a super tough balancing act because people are legitimately worried about fake news and it spreads like wildfire on Facebook. That's true, it is, right? And the Russians and all the things that happen in the election. I think the Russians are a really minor part of the story in 2016, but the fake news is a giant part of the story, and that does happen.

So people ask them to regulate on that, and there was some logic on that. they did. Now people are concerned they overregulated a little bit, but they are stuck in the middle. And so there's constantly people yelling at them from all directions saying regulate, don't regulate, regulate, don't regulate. So if they made an error here in degree, I'm more understanding of that. As long as going forward, when they do something like this, they have a very clear standard and then they apply it evenly. Now? What about now?

Whenever it hits you, wherever you are, grab an O'Henry bar to satisfy your hunger. With its delicious combination of big, crunchy, salty peanuts covered in creamy caramel and chewy fudge with a chocolatey coating. Swing by a gas station and get an O'Henry today. Oh hungry, oh Henry. Whether it's a mainstream media outlet or not, it's Democrats or Republicans or people challenging both of those parties from the outside.

And final thing, because I promise, I do want to give you the details and the reminder of who Victor Shokin from Ukraine actually is and how I knew this story was nonsense from the second I started reading the details of it, which is why, again, if Democrats were good at messaging, they would fight back against this ridiculous narrative, especially when you had conservatives at the time that Donald Trump was being investigated for impeachment, speaking out and writing against Victor Schokin. I'm going to give you a few examples. This is from Tom Rogan, who is not related to Joe Rogan,

but does write for Washington Examiner, a conservative outlet. He wrote, Shokin was a true Ukrainian swamp creature, corrupt as all get out. I've never heard that phrase before, but it's fun. If he was right in investigating Hunter Biden, then it was only by accident. While Republicans say that Biden's 2015 to 2016 pressure to fire Shokin was about protecting Hunter, there is no substantial evidence for that accusation, and there is significant evidence for an alternative excusable explanation. Biden threatened to withhold up to $1 billion in aid from Ukraine unless Shokin was fired because of Shokin's deep corruption. Again, this is

a conservative writing this for a conservative outlet last year as the impeachment investigation was ongoing. Acting to protect his allies financial interests, Shokin prevented effective investigation of corrupt figures. Street protests against the prosecutor were regular, and in February of 2016, Shokin's direct deputy resigned in protest at the prosecutor's office becoming a hotbed of corruption. Biden was right to push him out. It wouldn't have happened otherwise. Ukrainian corruption is a big problem. And so just, I mean, the Biden, campaign can easily cite all of this evidence, right? And look, I think it's rich for Donald Trump and his campaign to use conservative media like the New York Post to accuse Biden of corruption.

And again, I do admit that Hunter Biden working on the board of Burisma was awful and it does not look good and stuff like that shouldn't be happening. However, at the same time, we're talking about a president, Donald Trump, who has literally and transparently fired prosecutors here in the United States, law enforcement officials here in the United States who were investigating him. So he has no leg to stand on. The problem here is that Democrats are too afraid to fight. If they were good at fighting, then they wouldn't need to rely on, you know, any type of censorship in order to prevent these types of stories from coming out. Yeah. So this is an attempt by the Republicans to do what about isms.

Oh, Trump might have broken dozens of laws, including ones we just found out about in terms of the taxes and campaign finance violations from back in 2016 in lending his own campaign $30 million, but not from him, but from his partner. I mean, he goes on and on dozens of legal violations and lawbreaking by Donald Trump. They go, squirrel, Hunter Biden, son of Joe Biden,

might have done something in a laptop we might or might not have found from him or not, this is not anywhere near equivalent. And I want to give the last word to one of our members, because I love doing the show with you guys, and it's a great point. Ecclectic miscellaneous says, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have so much wrong with them. But they're essential now to make sure that voices like TYT are heard. When corporations are deciding what is or isn't truth should or shouldn't be published, everyone except corporations and the establishment will lose in the long term.

Look, I want you guys to remember that, and that's a great point, because before these platforms are around, all we had was the gatekeepers. So NBC, CBS, Fox News, ABC, you name it. And those gatekeepers never, ever let progressives on. So you got to remember that as well. So I don't want to go back to the battle days where the elites and the establishment decided who had a voice and who didn't. Now, because of those platforms, you guys get to decide who has a voice and not. That's why I love doing it with the members. If you're on YouTube, you could hit the join button below to become a member. Everyone else, you could go to t.wit.com slash join. And as you can tell, you make this show happen. All right, we've got to take quick break when we come back. We've got so

much more news for you guys, including the story we promised to about yet another problem of corruption in the Trump administration where they told their donors something they never told you. We'll be right back. At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control of our online lives, constantly monitoring us and storing and selling our data. But that doesn't mean we have to let them. It's possible to stay anonymous online and hide your data from the prying eyes of big tech. And one of the best ways is with ExpressVPN. ExpressVPN hides your IP address, making your active ID more difficult to trace and sell the advertisers. ExpressVPN also encrypts 100% of your network data to protect you from eavesdroppers and cybercriminals.

And it's also easy to install. A single mouse click protects all your devices. But let's guys this is important express vpn is rated number one by cnett and wired magazine so take back control of your life online and secure your data with a top vpn solution available express vpn and if you go to expressvpn.com slash t yt you can get three extra months for free with this exclusive link just for t yt fans that's e x p r e svpn dot com slash t yt check it out today All right, back on the Young Turks. Actually, let me start with member comments and then I'm going to work backwards. Pocket in a pocket rights in.

Voting and volunteering for AOC is the most important thing I've ever done in my life. Thank you guys for her coverage back then. I'm proud to have it represent me. Well, look, we're super proud of not just AOC, but all the just Democrats and all the recent wins like Jamal Bowman and Corey Bush. And I'm really hoping Cara Eastman in Nebraska's second district. And guys, when I see you at the rallies there and then I see you volunteering for Jamal as that happened recently. And as it happened, obviously, a couple years back with AOC, I'm so proud of you guys. And you're literally making change happen.

So thank you for doing that. And Meg says, I was all in on the AOC train a few minutes into her first interview with Jank. That's awesome. So by the way, when we bring you other candidates, remember that, okay, because what we're trying to do is effectuate change here. Now, one of the ways that we do that is by staying on air and being sustainable. So I forgot to tell you guys, I haven't told you in a long time, I know a lot of you know, but if you give $127 at t-y-t.com slash go, you get that awesome we press on T-shirt with the big T-YT mic on it. And at $1,000 you go on the donor wall in my house, and we'll move it here eventually to the studio. and you get a hoodie with a press on t-shirt.

But if you want to, at 2,500, this is the thing I haven't told you in forever, you can name stuff in the studio. So folks have started naming things around here all the time. If you want to find out what you can name, you go to t-y-t.com slash press-on, and that'll give you a list of things that you could name. Obviously, $2,500 is a huge number, but you guys have been incredibly generous with us, and that's why we keep saying we do the show together. And a shout-out to two of our sponsors as well, aspiration.com slash t-y-t.

keep your money in a place where it works for you, plus it doesn't work for big oil companies. So it's a win-win in that sense. That's why I tell you that, Aspiration.com slash D-YT. And we love progressive sponsors. So too strong coffee.com slash ty-T. If you buy two bags or more proceeds, go to Justice Democrats, rebellion, a wolf pack, and yes, the young Turks as well. And it's great, delicious, et cetera.

And then final programming note for you guys is that tonight after the Biden and Trump town halls, John Adrola and Adrian Bell are going to analyze both of those. So make sure you stay on YouTube.com slash TYT and look out for those, that live analysis we're going to give you right afterwards. Okay, there's so many more comments, but we got to go, guys. We've got to do the news. Thank you for everybody for participating. Anna. Well, we already know that Donald Trump was intentionally downplaying.

coronavirus while privately telling journalist Bob Woodward that it was a serious and severe virus that is airborne. Now we've learned through new reporting at the New York Times that on February 24th, February 24th, members of Trump's economic team were privately addressing the conservative Hoover Institution and warned about the implications of COVID-19 on the U.S. economy. We're talking about the Trump administration essentially warning Wall Street investors about how serious the pandemic could be. So this happened on February 24th. On that same day, Donald Trump tweeted this, the coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We're in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC and World Health have been working hard and very

smart, stock market starting to look very good to me. Now the next day, literally the next day, board members, many of them, Republican donors, got another taste of government uncertainty from Larry Cudlow, the director of the National Economic Council. Hours after he had boasted on CNBC, meaning publicly, that the virus was contained in the United States and it's pretty close to all airtight, Cudlow asserted that the virus was contained in the U.S. to date, but now we just don't know. So again, on cable television, Cudlow's telling the American people, airtight. You guys have nothing to worry about.

Privately, when speaking to investors, he shares uncertainty, worry, and of course, that influences the way these money managers invest in the stock market. I mean, it's incredible that this kind of stuff is happening. We know about it, and this is barely even a big news story today. It's absolutely insane. Yeah, so he was talking to folks from the Hoover Institution as a conservative think tank at Stanford, Connoisse-Rice, the head of it. So the establishment Republicans are still, in a lot of ways, backing Trump behind the scenes.

And their board is filled with Republican donors. So they go to their donors and they tell them, the stuff we told on there, don't listen to that, okay, time to panic. And guess what? They did panic. And that caused, meanwhile, Trump's saying, I'm not telling the American people because I don't want them to panic. And he's telling his donors, go ahead, go ahead, sell, sell, sell. In fact, let me give you some quotes here. So a hedge fund consultant was at the gathering.

He writes a memo afterwards and he said, what struck me was the virus as a quote point of concern was brought up, quote, totally unprovoked. So he writes a memo saying to everybody, hey, they just said on CNBC, nothing to worry about. They kept bringing up to us. You should worry about it. And it wasn't because we asked, it's because they were telling us unprompted.

And then there were other folks as well, including get a load of this, Scott Atlas. Now, Dr. Atlas is the guy who is the biggest kook inside the Trump administration now. And he's the one going for a herd immunity. Let's just, you know, make sure as many people as possibly get coronavirus. And then, you know, when enough people die off, we'll be fine. Meanwhile, back then, he's a Hoover fellow and a Stanford professor.

And he's telling folks, and including the guy, one of the guys who wrote the memo, was his source that the government foresaw a serious crisis. So back then he's selling donors, serious crisis. Make money off it. Because you got to understand something. It's not just about selling your stocks before they go down. They then make a short bet and that means you bet against the market so you make money while everybody else loses money. And under normal circumstances, there's nothing wrong with a short bet. But if you got private information from the government, because you gave them money, first of all, that's a bribe, okay, that's how that works. And then you make a ton more money by betting.

against the American people. And can I also share some more details because it's just absolutely gross how everything went down. So this meeting happens. The Hoover Institution is warned about the uncertainty related to coronavirus. And then following that, a memo was written by a veteran hedge fund manager named William Kalanan. And he apparently emailed money manager David Tepper to say that numerous Trump administration

officials, Cudlow, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, an economist at the Council of Economic Advisers, had given the presentation at the White House on February 24th, expressed a greater degree of alarm about the coronavirus than the administration was saying publicly. On February 23rd, by the way, Peter Navarro, one of Trump's economic advisors, also distributed a memorandum predicting that the virus could affect as many as 100. million Americans and kill up to two million of them. And that two million figure is really fascinating because two million is what is expected if the Trump administration tries to do this so-called herd immunity approach, which is disastrous because a ton of people who don't need to die

would die as a result. But the point here is you have all of these different players within the Trump administration fully aware of how the potential severity of, you know, the potential severity of this pandemic. And while they're telling us, oh, it's totally fine, don't worry, it's just a hoax. Behind the scenes, you know, they're taking care of their donors, they're taking care of Wall Street. And the most infuriating thing is exactly what Jank mentioned right now, that they short the market and they literally make money off of this information.

Yeah, I'm going to give you one more set of quotes here. The first one's from Trump, what Anna told you, he said on February 24th, stock market is starting to look very good to me. Meanwhile, they write the memo after listening to two different Trump administration officials. One of the investors that gets the memo, his reaction is, quote, short everything. So while Trump's telling you, keep your money in the markets, don't worry. He's telling his buddies who funded his campaign, hey, make sure you get out there and make a lot of money off of these suckers and losers, who I'm telling to keep their money in the markets and not worry about their health care and

their well-being. And the investors got that message loud and clear when they write short everything, bet for the market to go down. Look, the whole system is sick because we have donors who have this access that you guys never have and they make tons of money off of it. In fact, they'd be irrational not to bribe politicians. Because who wouldn't want a tip like that? They could make millions of dollars off of them. You see the dinner the Trump went to when he was, as turns out positive for COVID, the one in New Jersey. And some of the folks gave $250,000 to be at that dinner and take a picture with Donald Trump. They probably regretted that later because that means they were closer to him.

But you think like $250,000 is an unbelievable amount of money. Hell no, you could easily make a couple of million dollars off a tip like this. So all it is is an investment, and it's an investment in corruption. And this, ironically, I'm the guy who said that he was going to drain the swamp. So that's the thing. Even if you're a Trump fan who wanted to drain the swamp and bleed in what he said, it was always a lie. And this is an excellent example of that.

All right, guys, we got only a little bit of time left. When we come back in the post game, though, for the members, it was a great story of Donald Trump humiliating Bill Barr. As the White House turns. After all of that ass kissy, a bootlicking that bar did. Trump goes after him anyway. If you're watching on YouTube, hit the join button below and you can become a member at 499 level. In fact, Ken Tucker, Ella Nelson, and his shells all just upgraded.

I love to see your guys' names again when you upgrade. And if you upgrade, you can get all of our videos, including the postgame we're about to do. If you're watching anywhere else, t.yt.com slash join to become a member and get all the postgames. We have many more stories as well, and we'll be right back with those stories for the members. You know, it's a very tricky situation. 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.com at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Jank Huger, and I'll see you soon.