The Young Turks - TYT Extended Clip - September 17, 2020

Episode Date: September 18, 2020

The Trump administration is spreading misinformation about COVID-19. Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur discuss on The Young Turks. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. You're going to be able to be. All right, well, the young church, Jake, you're out and despair with you. What is this? It's a new set that blends in with this shirt. Should have worn a different shirt. Okay, how are you doing, Kasser? I'm doing better than the way your shot's looking, keeping it real.

Because of my, because of the color, I picked the wrong shirt. I picked the wrong shirt. All right, anyways, so guys, lots of programming notes for you guys, including fun and rage in in this program, so share the stream, share the rage. So tonight, no dem left behind. As a town hall that I'm hosting at 8 o'clock Eastern, it's got a number of great Democratic candidates that you should meet. Is Richard Ojetta's organization meant to help Democrats that you might not have heard of that are important and that could win? If you want to find out more info on at t.com slash jank town hall. Okay, that's not the official name, but it's easier to remember, t-y-t.com jank slash jank town hall.

Okay, and now the last programming note is Tuesday, we gotta get out the vote special. So make sure you check that out. Me, John Ida Rodriguez, Benjamin Dixon, it's on all the places that I'm at. Or the term, September 22nd, is that 7.30 p.m. Eastern. You're getting the pattern here. We do the show, then we do our specials. You got it. Okay, so lots to get to in today's program. And by the way, you guys power us. T.yT.com slash go. Let's go get some change. Let's go get some change in the world.

Casper, forward. All right. Donald Trump is in the middle of feuding with the director of the CDC, Dr. Robert Redfield, who made the mistake of giving people accurate information about the efficacy of wearing a mask. So what were Dr. Redfield's statements? What made Donald Trump so upset? Well, let's take a quick look. Dr. Kalak said, I think there will be vaccine that initially be available sometime between November and December, but very limited supply and will have to be prioritized.

If you're asking me, when is it going to be generally available to the American public so we can begin to take advantage of vaccine to get back to our regular life? I think we're probably looking at late second quarter, third quarter, 2021. That's something that is demonstrably true based on scientific evidence. A mask will keep you safe during this pandemic. Of course, depending on what kind of mask you're using. And we shouldn't wait on a vaccine, especially when it comes to widespread distribution of a vaccine. Now, Donald Trump knows that he's really relying on the release of a vaccine, or at least the promise of a vaccine to get reelected, and so Dr. Redfield's statements did not sit well

with him. Are you comfortable with that time? No, I think he made a mistake when he said that. It's just incorrect information. And I called him, and he didn't tell me that. And I think he got the message maybe confused. Maybe it was stated incorrectly. No, we're ready to go immediately.

The core of Vice President Biden's argument is that you don't trust the scientists, you don't listen to them. And here up on the podium today, you're twice contradicting the director of your own CDC on the science who testified before Congress today. No, he's contradicting itself. I think he misunderstood the questions. Well, he was testifying. You know what I think? I think he misunderstood. I told you, I don't have to go through this.

I think he misunderstood the questions. But I'm telling you, here's the bottom line. And distribution is going to be very rapid. He may not know that. Maybe he's not aware of that. And maybe he's not dealing with the military, et cetera, like I do. I don't really understand why he brought the military into this at the very end of that answer. But I will mention that Donald Trump seems to be very confident that there will be a vaccine ready for the vulnerable population in the United States by late October.

October. Just think about that timing. So one of two things are possible here. Possibility number one is that Donald Trump does not actually think that there will be a vaccine ready for the elderly, for instance, by late October. And he's still just saying it because he lies all the time. That's certainly a possibility. Possibility number two is there's some sort of vaccine in their back pocket and they're waiting to release it on a strategic date that's closer to the general election. I don't know if I buy that. I think it's possibly or most likely the possibility of him just flat out lying about it. But nonetheless, Jank, Redfield kind of he didn't backpedal, but he did clarify his statement on Twitter, basically saying that

a vaccine would be effective. He does believe in the importance of a vaccine. I 100% believe in the importance of vaccines and the importance in particular of a COVID-19 vaccine. A COVID-19 vaccine is the thing that will get Americans back to normal everyday life, Jenk. Okay, so two separate issues here, obviously. One is the issue of the timing. No, they don't have a vaccine in their back pockets. It's not how it works. The private companies are working on the vaccine. Two of them look like they were making good progress but are now struggling. A third one is doing really well. And so that one could come, according to the scientists and and according to Redfield as early as between November and December.

But that would just mean, hey, ta-da, we have a vaccine. We then have to produce and distribute it. That's why when Redfield says, yes, but you won't be able to take it until basically late Q2, meaning around June or early Q3 in the summer of 2021. So that's nearly indisputable. Now, why is Trump saying that it's going to come at the very end of October, beginning of November. Well, the election is November 3rd. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out. It does take the head of the CDC to figure out why Trump is saying that. Now, of course,

one thing about Trump is that he hasn't really thought this through, plus he's got a plan to try to lie his way through it. So what happens if none of the three private companies have the vaccine ready by November 3rd? So then he promised everybody, oh, it's going to be ready, it's going to be ready, it's going to be ready, it's going to be ready. Oh, it's not ready. Well, you just actually did even more harm to your own campaign by over promising something you had no control over. Now, at that point, they're going to say it's not ready, likely. And maybe they'll rush, rush, rush in order to get political favors.

And by the way, a ton of funding from the United States government. Maybe they'll help Trump with this propaganda and say it's ready when it's not quite ready. Because remember, even if it's ready in whether it's November 2nd or November 22nd, they're not going to get it to the public for many months after that. So those private companies are going to get to decide when they call it ready. And so there's some gray zone there. And but whether they say, they say it's ready or not, Trump will jump out and go, that's it. It's ready. I don't care what they say. No, it's ready. It's ready. It's ready. We win, right? And the question is, will the media do a good enough job of saying that is or is not true?

So that's the timing, and that's definitive. I'll get to the mass versus vaccine in a second. Did you want to say something? Yeah, I just wanted to respond to how it's really up to the corporations, the pharmaceutical companies that are so trustworthy. Look, one of the things the pharmaceutical companies want more than anything is deregulation. And if the Trump administration is rushing a vaccine, wouldn't we be a little worried about what the pharmaceutical industry puts out there?

as an effective vaccine. I mean, I just, I have a lot of concerns about how everything is being played right now, both by the Trump administration and by pharmaceutical companies historically when it comes to their profit motive and what they want to do to serve their financial interests. So yeah, look, I'm not saying this to, okay. No, no, no, no, no, let me be clear. Look, there's one thing that's possible and one thing that is not possible. So what is possible is that one of those private drug companies says that the vaccine is ready when in reality it'll be ready in another couple of weeks. So, and they do that in exchange for, for example, not lowering prescription drug prices, getting, et cetera. There's a thousand things they want from the United States government

and a thousand reasons why they'd want to play ball. So if there's going to be corruption, it'll be there, okay, in terms of the announcement of the vaccine timing, okay? But they will not lie about a vaccine being effective and then putting it out to market. The reason why I say that is it's not because I'm naive or I think that private companies are angels. No, it's because if you put out a vaccine that isn't safe and you didn't follow scientific protocol, everybody's watching, everybody in the world is watching and all the investors are watching. And there's a good chance you will totally destroy your company if you rush out a vaccine that doesn't work.

So it's too big a risk financially to do that. And they wouldn't do that for Trump or Democrats or anyone else. Because again, the bottom line is the only thing they care about. So I'm just keeping it real on what is possible and not possible. Now, turning to the mask, Redfield is largely right. You can't tell for sure until the vaccine arrives how effective it is. But a normal vaccine has some degree of effectiveness. So when you take the flu shot, for example, as I did this here, I got the flu anyway because

it only protects a certain percentage of people. There's a really good job, but it's not 100% sure. What Redfield's saying is if you wear the mask right, well, it has almost no chance of transmitting from you to someone else, right? And if you were the right kind of mask, that's also incredibly important. That's right. So if you wear the mask right in both those ways, is it more likely to be more effective than a vaccine? Yes, so he is correct. So Trump is wrong on both counts, as usual, by quite a bit. Now, at the same time, it doesn't mean that you're not looking forward to a vaccine because we don't want to wear these masks for the rest of our lives. Otherwise, we can never go inside a restaurant and eat. That's the whole

point. We want to get rid of the mass. That's why you want the vaccine. But it is true that the masks are more effective or likely to be more effective. And as of course scientists are pointing out today, me in the meanwhile, let's do both, right? And then once the vaccines here, hopefully if it works sufficiently enough, we'll be able to take the masks off. Well, let's move on to William Barr because this is a story that, I mean, you can expect from William Barr, but it is troubling if you're concerned about freedom and small government. For all that we hear from Republicans who fearmonger about big government and how we need to ensure that we don't have a tyrannical government, consider the fact that recently

Attorney General William Barr made it very clear that he's very much against our own democratic process, our democracy, and in favor of fascism. I know I sound like I'm being hyperbolic, but how about you watch this video and judge for yourselves? Putting a national lockdown, stay-at-home orders is like house arrest. It's other than slavery, which was a different kind of restraint, this is the greatest intrusion on civil liberties in American history. So what William Barr says in that video, of course it has to do with the coronavirus lockdowns, which, by the way, we did not have a federal quarantine, we didn't have a federal

lockdown that never happened. But what he's doing there is planning the seed of, no, no, no, your freedoms are being violated. If you don't practice social distancing, if you follow, if you decide to follow the social distancing guidelines, what's happening is you're being wronged. Your government is failing you, right? Now, in other ways, which you're about to see in the next videos, he's very much in favor of jailing his political opponents. He's in favor of that type of big government. But when it comes to a collective effort that's clearly necessary at a time of a pandemic during this crisis, he says, no, no, no, don't follow those social distancing guidelines, don't self-quarantine, don't do any of that because

it's a violation of your civil liberties. It's absolutely ridiculous and don't think I forgot the fact that he compared it to slavery. He compared that to slavery. So, Jake, I'll let you take the commentary on that part. Yeah, so again, there are two different things here. First of all, he made a very similar analogy about comparing it to slavery as you heard with your own ears there, but it's not close. I mean, do we have to explain why it's not close? The whippings, the killings, the enslavement, using people as property, the rape, the lynchings.

We really have to explain that that is not that close to wearing a mask so you don't get other people sick. Okay, so the right wing just can't help themselves. They're just, you guys get it, right? That's not anywhere near reality. But that's the amazing part. I say that because 42% of the country doesn't get it. They're like, I'm being whipped so that the skin comes off your back and then having your kids separated from you and sent to somewhere else to be somebody. private property and wearing a mask, 40% of the country can't tell the difference.

That's unbelievable, that's unbelievable. So when they hear Bill Barr saying that, they're like, oh yeah, man, that's so true. I feel enslaved. Oh, you know, and so now the second part of it is, so number one is slavery apparently by a little bit, and the number two in terms of taking away civil liberties is wearing masks voluntarily, okay, and say, hey, you know what, some indoor places are not going to be allowed to open because they spread disease like wildfire, right? But what, internment camps for the Japanese is that number three? Jim Crow, that basically reinstituted terrorism and oppression against millions of African Americans? Is that number four? Is it number three? I mean, I can go on and on and on. But other than being offensive to human beings,

It's offensive to the truth to say something so preposterous. I mean, I actually think that William Barr's sincere beliefs are that these social distancing guidelines and lockdowns and all of that, that's worse than slavery. I mean, think about what Donald Trump did today, which hopefully we'll get a chance to talk about. It's a late breaking story. Donald Trump signed an executive order that would essentially stop our public schools from teaching about slavery, and instead teach about American patriotism. That's not an accident. They don't really want to talk about this country's history. They don't want to talk about our dark past with racism, our current racial tensions in the

country, they want to deny it. I don't think that he's ever taken slavery seriously. I think if you were to ask him to answer that question sincerely, he would think that asking businesses to close or asking Americans to wear masks is worse than slavery. This is the type of person we're dealing with here. And unfortunately, in order for someone to be as, I guess, callous as William Barr is, as powerful as William Barr is, he needs bootlickers. Bootlickers like the chief of staff, Mark Meadows. Watch. violation of civil liberties in history except for slavery. Well, when we look at lockdowns, when you look at individual liberties and who we are

as a nation, a nation of freedom, many times when we give up those civil liberties. And I'm one that believe in those civil liberties are inherent. They're enshrined by our Constitution and that we need to protect those. Because when bad things happen, we sometimes, not always, but sometimes start to take away the liberties that are enshrined and are part of our constitutional rights and make us different as Americans than many other countries. Yeah, I'm not familiar with the quote. Obviously, we've had a number of times where civil liberties have been trampled on. And certainly when we start to look down at force confinement, those are tough, you know, to compare them with the Japanese internment camp. I don't know that he made that analogy.

I certainly would. I get it. I didn't see the quote. So again, asking people to wear masks to stop the spread of a lethal virus, that's apparently a violation of civil liberties. but sending federal agents to cities across the country to basically snatch up protesters and put them in unmarked vehicles, those aren't violations of civil liberties. And later on, by the way, we will get to some of the statements that Barr made that make

it very clear that he loves big government and he certainly loves trampling on people's constitutional rights. Yeah, so I think that, first of all, you make a good point on how they probably think it's worse than slavery. Why? Because they're conservatives. And if it doesn't affect them personally, they don't care about it at all. So they're like, slavery didn't affect me. So to me, it's a big fat zero. Don't care about it at all. Don't think it was bad because it didn't bother me 1%. And so, but wearing a mask is a little annoying. So yeah, that's worse. It is for Bill Barr. And so now the second part of that, Anna, is, you know, there's a reason why we're the worst in the world.

Think about it. We're the worst, worse than any third world country you can think of, a number of cases, and number of deaths, okay? Because we didn't even do the bare minimum. Every other world leader, every single one of them said wear a mask. It's Trump and Barr and all these guys. Ah, trying to wear your mask is like slavery. Let's all be stupid. and just not wear masks and spread it around to everyone.

Yeah, oh, we got the worst test of any country in the world. I wonder how that happened. It happened because of that, you epically incompetent morons. Well, that part of what Barr had to say was troubling enough. But now let's focus a little bit on his trampling of First Amendment rights. So recently, William Barr shared his thoughts on what should be done to political opponents. And he certainly didn't hide how he feels about possibly prosecuting politicians he disagrees with. Barr reportedly instructed U.S. attorneys during a conference call last week to

to seek several federal charges when prosecuting people accused of committing crimes related to demonstrations. He urged federal charges even when state charges could apply, sources told the newspaper. The attorney general reportedly also encouraged federal prosecutors charge protesters with sedition. Barr says that Trump and the Department of Justice have unchecked, meaning unlimited power to do this. So where are all the right wingers who claim that they were concerned about big government? Because this is as big as it gets. The Attorney General has also asked prosecutors in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division

to explore whether they could bring criminal charges against Mayor Jenny Durkan of Seattle for allowing some residents to establish a police-free protest zone near the city's downtown. Where are all the free speech warriors? You know, all those grifters who made a big name of themselves by pretending as if they were victims of social media censorship, where are they today? Are they concerned about what the federal government is trying to do to political opponents? Probably not. Probably not at all, because that's a angle that they're grift couldn't profit off of. It's just so unbelievably terrifying that this is what's going on in our federal government. And there is no real, you know, group of government officials,

congressional leaders, whoever, people trying to stop it. This is serious. What he's advocating for is incredibly dangerous and what you would expect in a dictatorial regime. Yeah, so three elements of this. First of all, here we are, talking about arresting political opponents. I told you this a long time ago, at the time everybody else in media was like, oh, it's hyperbolic, oh, you guys are biased, you have to call everything even. Fascists and anti-fascists, they're all even, they're all even, I can't tell. There's no way they're going to do that. Here is the Attorney General of the United States saying we should consider arresting the mayor of Seattle. It's the story is 100% real. He was on the phone with other attorneys from

the Justice Department. They're the ones who talked to the press and said, yeah, the Attorney General suggested arresting the mayor of Seattle. So let alone the sedition charges on protesters. Free speech, free speech. I mean, in their convention, they talk about cancel culture. They're like, now let's cancel anyone who is opposed to us by not just like, hey, we don't agree with you, but actually arrest them, take away their liberty, and put them into prison using the biggest weapon that the federal government has in terms of charges that they can bring. Sedition, sedition meaning you dare to disagree with the president and with the government, which, by the way, is your core right as an American.

And we're going to take that away because we hate freedom of speech. And we will imprison you for the wrong kind of speech. So I can't tell you how over the top this is. This is, it's not like fascism. It's not the beginning of fascism. It is fascism. And so now the media, I read a great number of articles about it. They literally are calling it even.

They're like, well, this is a troubling development, or it's an interesting development, and the attorneys say that he's considering doing this. On the other hand, supporters of the attorney general say that fascism is awesome. Now, they don't say that because that would be a giveaway. They say, on the other hand, the federal supporters of the attorney general say that, you know, it is really important to have law and order, and some of these protesters have caused some violence. Now, it doesn't matter that it's a tidy percentage. It doesn't matter that he's not talking about arresting the people who do violence.

You could just arrest them for assault or arson or whatever actual crimes they've committed. There's nothing wrong with that. He's talking about arresting people for having the ideas that don't agree with the government, for protesting the government through speech. That's what sedition charges are about. And the media confronted with full-blown fascism can't figure out who's right and who's wrong. And so that's how you get lulled into a false sense of complaint. If Trump wins, they will definitely, definitely start arresting their political opponents.

And now the third final part for me on this is Bill Barr's quote, Anna, you probably have it too. But so he recently decried, quote, the criminalization of politics. They are so Orwellian, they're so over the top, get a load of the rest of the quote. He says, now you have to call your adversary a criminal, and instead of beating them politically, You try to put them in jail. That's what you just suggested. That's what you just suggested.

And he's saying it as if the Democrats are doing it. Unreal, unreal, man. So in less than two months, we will decide whether America exists or the concept of America has died. It's not- I'm actually really exhausted with, no, no, let's not do anything until the election comes up. You know, the election that Joe Biden is poorly campaigning for. You know, the election that we're putting all of our eggs in the basket of. But at the same time, what's being done to ensure that people who want to vote by mail can still do it now that Lewis DeJoy has dismantled

the post office and has taken a number of mail sorting machines out of order. They're out of order. And he hasn't reinstalled them. He doesn't care to reinstall them. It doesn't matter. What are Democrats doing? How about we're experiencing the beginning phases of fascism right now and we don't have an opposition party in Congress to do what it takes to ensure that this country doesn't deteriorate into a country that's ruled by a dictatorial regime? How about that? Honestly, like anyone who's hopeful that things are going to change after the election is insane. We don't even know if the election is going to be carried out appropriately. We don't know if Donald Trump is going to be willing to step down.

If he doesn't step down, are we going to rely on the military to do the right thing? I'm not, what are we doing? That's the thing that I'm worried about right now. Like this constant kicking the can down the road, oh, the election, the election. I mean, Joe Biden has no one on the ground in Michigan right now. They're doing all of their campaigning online. Insane. Insane.

Anyway, sorry to be hysterical here. But it's crazy that we're experiencing this with the Trump administration. We have no real opposition party, okay? And I don't know. I don't know what people think is going to happen, but I don't think that the day after the election, fascism will be beaten and will be on the right path. I think that we're in for a lot of trouble because we're not preparing for what's about to come.

Yeah, I mean, look, it's the usual, which is the Democrats are unfortunately, incredibly weak. And so if you're relying on them not to get rolled over, oh boy, Trump has already said, we might not count all the votes. So what? Not going to count. Then Roger Stone suggested that maybe the federal government will seize the ballots in Nevada. And so that way you won't ever find out. Only people who will be able to tell you who won Nevada will be Trump, Okay, and I'm sure he'll be incredibly honest about it. And the very next day, Trump came out and said, yeah, there are problems in Nevada. We don't like the governor. I'm not sure I trust in the count the votes. So, and to Anna's point, what are the Democrats doing to make sure

that federal government doesn't see his ballots in Nevada? I mean, look, that sounds insane. But the president said backing up his top henchmen, we might not count the votes in the states, and I got a particular problem in Nevada. And so I'm going to figure out, what to do about it. Democrats, I don't know that they have prepared for any of this. I mean, there's a thousand dirty tricks that Trump and the Republicans are going to throw. The Democrats don't even have any clean tricks. So, you know, Biden's got to win by like 10 points for them to have any chance of winning. If Biden only wins by three or four, they will almost certainly steal this election. All right. When we come back from the break, we'll give you an update on the

Julian Assange extradition trial in London and also talk about how federal agents were planning on using other military-grade weaponry on protesters in D.C. What exactly were they planning on doing and did it work? We'll be 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 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

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So many great comments. I'll try to go as quickly as I can. And just first fun, Tuffy in the member section says, Jake, your shirt is great. Who cares? We're super happy to see you here. Thank you. Alex says, Jenk looks like Zordon. Ha ha. I don't know what Zordon is, but I'm sure those of you who do get it and think it's funny. Speaking of appearances, careful, its soup writes in. Redfield looks like a stouter and balder doppelganger of C. Everett Coupe. First of all, that's true. Second of all, extra points for using the word doppelganger, one of my favorite words of all time. And so now, Jody R with an excellent point. In order to get these comments read, and by the way, participate and help to show, be a member t.wit.com

slash showing. So Jody writes in, do you want to hear something funny about Oregon right now? A lot more people are wearing masks because of the smoke in the air. It protects them from the unhealthy conditions, protecting me from COVID is against everything they call freedom. But now that masks are protecting them, they're all for it. Yeah, wait a minute. If your idea is masks are by definition anti-freedom, why don't you just inhale the smoke? Why do you need mass for the smoke? I mean, wouldn't you, isn't it to protect you either way? And you don't want protection because you're, you believe in America, right? Of course, they have no logical consistency at all. Jody R, thanks for that comment. New members on YouTube for us is

Henrik Shagee Pepin von Eden and Valerie Favaza. Awesome names. Thanks guys for joining. If you're watching on YouTube, the way to join is super easy. You hit the join button right below the video. A collective miscellaneous on YouTube super chat says, jank, is that blue I see? Indeed, it's actually a lot of blue you see. By the way, let's note For the record, I got blue on blue here, right? But Anna has pink on pink, and nobody's having that conversation. Yeah, Jake, we got stories to get to. I know you're having fun, but please, we gotta go. All right, I gotta say one last one here. Grindy low on YouTube super check is such a good point. He said, hello, T.R.T. I've been saying the mainstream media needs to start

referring to election day as election week, since hopefully we'll be counting ballots for several days and Trump couldn't declare himself the winner that night. That's a great point. And so let me start referring to it as election week. So I love you guys for participating in the show. Another way to do that, of course, is to make the show possible through t-y-t.com slash go. All right, Casper. Assange faces almost certain conviction of extradited here and 175 years in prison.

U.S. prosecutors allege he conspired with whistleblower Chelsea, who had been a private in the U.S. Army to illegally download hundreds of thousands of war logs from Iraq and Afghanistan, along with a huge trove of classified cables from the U.S. State Department. Last year, Julian Assange was arrested, and now the United States is attempting to extradite him to the country so he can face pretty serious espionage charges. Now, in this case, just recently, Daniel Ellsberg, who of course leaked the Pentagon papers in 1971, testified in defense of Julian Assange to make a point about journalism and how incredibly important it is to protect journalists, including individuals who leak information that the government doesn't want people to know about.

According to Reuters, Ellsberg told the court that WikiLeaks' disclosures had shown Americans how they had been misled about U.S. action in Iraq and Afghanistan, just as his leaks, which also revealed previously secret information about the Vietnam War. Ellsberg cited a U.S. military video, which WikiLeaks published in 2010 under the title Collateral Murder, showing a 2007 attack by Apache helicopters in Baghdad that killed a dozen people. Ellsberg was quoted as saying during the trial, I was, or I should say the hearing, this is the hearing to see if he'll be extradited to the United States. I was acutely aware that what was depicted in that video deserved the term murder, a war crime. I was very glad

that the American public was confronted with this reality of our war. Now, a lawyer representing the United States, of course, also participated in this hearing and argued that what Julian Assange did in leaking these classified documents was put certain informants and individuals in danger. However, there is some indication that he actually went to great lengths to ensure that certain names were redacted. Now, the lawyer representing the United States said that many of these had suffered, meaning many of the informants and many of the people who were revealed through these leaks, had suffered harm or threats because they had been named.

He said some had disappeared, although he conceded, this is important, that there was no evidence This was directly linked to the WikiLeaks publication. Ellsberg, who was himself charged with breaking the espionage law in a case that was later dismissed, said there was no evidence of physical harm or deaths because of the leaks. The exchange with Lewis led to an outburst from Assange in the courtroom with the judge warning him to remain silent. So really at the heart of this jank is this argument that what Assange did in leaking these documents and informing the public was dangerous. It put people's lives at risk. They have no evidence

proving that or demonstrating that. In fact, the lawyer representing the United States conceded to that point. But they still want to extradite him to the United States. And I think we're pretty aware of what would happen to him if he were extradited in the U.S. He faces 175 years in prison if he is tried and found guilty of espionage. And by the way, we've seen how Chelsea Manning was treated when she was imprisoned. I mean, she was placed in solitary confinement, tortured. So look, this trial does have ramifications for journalism overall. And so I wanted to get your thoughts, but I have more from Daniel Ellsberg on this. Well, I know who's guilty. And it certainly isn't Julian Assange. So first of all, it's very similar to what Daniel Ellsberg did with the

Pentagon papers, that's why it's great that he testified. But remember, Ellsberg was not the only entity involved there. He leaked it to the New York Times. So the equivalent of WikiLeaks in this case is not Ellsberg. It's Chelsea Manning is Ellsberg in that analogy. WikiLeaks is the equivalent of the New York Times. But the New York Times is part of the establishment, so you don't take any action, I guess, the New York Times. Julian Assange, on the other hand, did something perfectly legitimate. It is the core of journalism, what he did in that case. And they're looking to end his freedom of speech, freedom of press. Hey, Republicans, what happened to? Oh, freedom of speech? No, you just meant you want to be

racist and say hateful things. When freedom of speech is actually on the line, I don't see anybody showed up. There's a few people on the right and the left that show for Julian Assange, but the great majority of Republicans are like, yeah, throw them away. You know, I can't believe being endangered our troops. No. So the people who are guilty, are clear. A couple of people in that video clearly did murder. First they killed reporters. And then on top of that, when first responders came, where there is no doubt, I can't tell the camera is a camera or a gun, that's one excuse, okay? The first responders are clearly trying to take away the wounded and they killed, and they fired again at them. That's murder. There's no question about it. Did they get any

jail time? Not one day, not one hour, totally free to go. Murder is awesome if the U.S. government is doing it. Now the other party that's guilty here is the rest of the media. They should be defending Julian Assange with a 100% ferocity on principle alone. But instead like cowards, they turn on Assange and then they say, oh, well, I don't know, hey, he's not one of us. Wait, is he in the club? He's not in the club. He's not in the club. Let it take away his freedom of the press. You schmucks, what do you think is going to happen to you next? They target head in course and they target you next, you morons, you cowards, you weaklings. And Daniel Ellsberg, you know, put it perfectly during an interview with Democracy Now.

I just want to show you a snippet of it, but I highly encourage you guys to watch the full interview, which is available on the Democracy Now website. Take a look. The American press is staring right down the barrel at the use of the Espionage Act against American journalists and publishers for doing journalism, for doing what they do best at their best every day of getting information that the government doesn't want known to the public because of their wrongdoing, their lies, their crimes, whatever. There's a lot of those. And that's what is mainly the secrecy system is intended to protect indefinitely. Now, it's not only American journalists here, although the American First Amendment, the core of our form of government, I would say, is at stake at this right now.

and is being attacked. Actually, if Julian is extradited, as I say, as you said, it will lead to prosecution here and probably conviction, and he will not be, he will be the first journalist and publisher, but not the last. New York Times probably won't be the second either. It might be the third or the fourth, and you, Amy, as well. Exactly. So any journalist can really be, vulnerable if the outcome of Julian Assange's trial indicates that he can be convicted. Extradited to the United States, by the way, under the Trump administration and convicted of espionage. And by the way, in regard to the classified documents and this accusation that he revealed people's names and that's what the real problem is here, there's an investigative journalist

from Germany who actually is also testifying in favor of Julian Assange. John Goetz, an investigative reporter who worked at Germany's Der Spiegel magazine, said the U.S. State Department had been involved in a conference call suggesting redactions, and WikiLeaks had agreed to hold back 15,000 documents for publication. He also said WikiLeaks was frustrated when a password that allowed access to the full unredacted material was published in a book by Guardian reporters in February of 2011. So it appears that he's being accused of something that he did not do. And what this is really about is basically the federal government feeling incredibly embarrassed and angry that these classified documents reveal to the American people what the reality of the situation was abroad. In these wars that we needlessly got tangled up in, in these wars that have led to countless civilians dying, in these wars that were still involved in decades later. That's what the federal government was upset about. It wasn't about protecting anyone or ensuring anyone's safety, because if that were the case, they would have at least one example of someone's life that was at risk or someone

who was actually physically harmed in some way as a result of these leaks. No, no, they're obvious liars. So, okay, if I'm a judge, all right, name one person, just name you keep saying that he endangered people's lives and somebody that people were hurt. Name the person, name one person, oh, you don't have a person. the hell out of here, throw the case out immediately, okay? But by the way, guys, even if you accept that premise, then they could shut down every single report from every single publication and say, it could get someone hurt. So don't publish the truth. You're not allowed

to publish the truth anymore, because maybe, maybe it could get someone hurt. So what if the truth did get someone hurt? But it's still true. And the American people still need to know about it. And the government is still lying to them. What, you're not allowed to have freedom of press then? No, absurd. And by the way, this is a different case. This is not about the Democratic emails that WikiLeaks released, right? On that case, they said, wow, you got it from the Russians. So let's suppose that that's true, okay?

I think there's some chance that that's true. So what? CNN and New York Times gets every story from who? The American government. So should they all be prosecuted? So that makes no sense. And last thing, Obama, Obama is massively guilty of this.

And so is the Democratic leadership. So this is not a Trump thing. So Trump is also bad on this. He is making noise about parting him but hasn't done anything. He's pursued a son to the end of the earth. But the guy who started that was Barack Obama. The guy who used the espionage against members of the press was Barack Obama. I know the rest of the press is busy kissing his ass because he's the head of the club.

But the reality is he's the one that started attacking you in the first place. That's truth. That's why they can't stand this show because we are not partisan and we will tell you things that are true no matter who it affects. When we come back from the break, I will share some of the equipment, military grade weaponry that federal agents were planning on using against demonstrators in DC. Come right back. At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control

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All right, back on the Young Church, Jenkins, Anna, with you guys. First, let me read new members on YouTube, Christy Jackson, Tatyana Mimer, Jose King, and Michelle Keelan. You hit the join button below, you become a young tourist member, you support the show, and you get our content. Please check the different layers of subscription, because at different layers, you get more and more of our video content, including the post game, which we're going to do in a couple of minutes. Kimber Maddox on YouTube Super Chat says about the Julian Assange story, just simply thank you for covering this issue. you for caring about it, by the way. Glory Jones says, thank you for covering the Assange case as well. Journalists are protecting L.A. protesters by observing the police now. We have to protect the press. Hashtag save Julian. I agree. And then finally on Twitch, Sir Mick re-s up for their

second month at Tier 1 and wrote, get money out of politics so that the world can do more about climate change. Keep up the good word, TYT. Greetings from Denmark. I love you guys from all across the country and the world. By the way, another easy way to help is to hit share button whenever we're on because that spreads our message and hit the like button. These are all easy and it takes one second. All right, Anna, what's next? All right. The lead military police officer in the Department of Defense for the D.C. region actually did ask if the D.C. National Guard could deploy heat rays against demonstrators this past June 1st. Now that was the day that protesters were in Lafayette Park and Donald Trump

used federal agents to disperse the crowd violently, as we all saw in the videos. But now we're learning through email conversations that there was an attempt to use heat rays to make the demonstrators so uncomfortable that they would have no choice but to leave. Now in written responses to the House Committee on national, I'm sorry, natural resources, Major Adam DeMarco of the DC National Guard said he was copied on an email from the Provost Marshal of Joint Force Headquarters National Campaign Region. He was looking for two things. A long range acoustic device, a kind of sound cannon known as an LRAD and a device called the Active Denial System or ADS. Now the most problematic part about this is the ADS system, right? That is the equipment that would be used as a heat ray to

to make the protesters so uncomfortable that they would have no choice but to disperse. DeMarco, who had sought whistleblower protection, quoted from an email, he said he was forwarded to him that originated from the provost marshal that read, the ADS can provide our troops, a capability they currently do not have, the ability to reach out and engage potential adversaries, adversaries at a distance well beyond small arms range, and it's a distance well beyond small arms range and in a safe, effective, and non-lethal manner. The email went on to say that the ADS can detect a beam toward a group, I'm sorry, direct a beam toward a group that provides a sensation of intense heat on the surface of the skin. The effect is overwhelming, causing an immediate

repel response by the targeted individual. Now, luckily, they did not have the equipment that was requested. That's certainly a good thing when it comes to ADS. But when it comes to to the long range acoustic device, also known as LRAD, it actually is a bit of a problem that they didn't have it and they didn't utilize it. Because remember, the crowd was forced to disperse well before the curfew that was implemented. And the government did not announce that the crowd needed to disperse. It was a surprise attack with, you see it with the gas, with the federal agents using a great deal of physical force against the protesters. And so the whole point of the LRAD would be to notify the protesters effectively so they would all hear that they need to

disperse. That didn't happen, which is why so many of the protesters had not dispersed before the federal agents went in on the crowd and started using brutal force. And you're too much of a calm journalist. The dude was thinking of using a heat ray. We're talking about Dr. Evil here. He's a comic book villain. A heat ray, a literal heat ray. Okay, so you understand how dangerous and insane this is. Kirsten Nielsen, remember her?

She used to be the head of Department of Homeland Security, and she was a massive right-winger. She's the one who defended the kids in the cages. Back when she was at DHS, Trump apparently considered using a heat ray at the border. at the border to basically, one of the, it heats up your skin so bad you think you're burning alive. And Nielsen's like, no, no, not only are we not going to do that, I don't care at what cost, you will never bring that up again, too, she said to people who are backing up the president as long as I'm here. And by the way, she's not there anymore because the president doesn't like to hear that he can't use things like heat rates. I mean, what's next? Sharks

with freaking laser beams on their heads. And by the way, that's not that far off. Remember earlier, Trump had suggested this is actually true. I know it sounds unbelievable, but he suggested building a moat that had crocodiles or snakes in the moat at the border. And then spikes staying out of the fence. And he said, I want to make sure that it could pierce human flesh to spikes. and maybe an electrified fence and shooting immigrants, but in the leg.

So when asked about it, the administration officials said, well, the president really wanted things fixed quickly. In other words, they're not denying it. They're not denying it. So he is Dr. evil. Okay, so that's the insane level we have now. And meanwhile, 50-50, I can't tell should we We vote for Dr. Evil or irrational normal politician. Like, that's a question? That's a question. I mean, all he needs is a naked cat that he strokes for no reason. And by the way, like Dr. Evil, he only does it for the money.

All he cares about is one million dollars, which is, by the way, about all he has. So, but guys, on a serious note, I don't know if it burns people alive, but it certainly makes them feel like they're burning alive. And the president seriously considered using that, not only against migrants, which would be an abomination, but against our own citizens so that he could do a photo op in front of a church with an upside down Bible. Yeah, I mean, at this point, there's so much going on in the country, I'm desensitized to to everything, everything. I'm angry some days and desensitized other days. This is one of the stories where, yeah, it doesn't surprise me. And I'm just like so devastated with where

we're at, where we're out with the country and how little oversight there really is. I'm like emotionally exhausted. It's pretty terrifying. Anyway, post game is next. Jank, you have nine seconds. Yeah, I know. So guys, this amazing story about how cops are targeting a black legislative for trying to do crime criminal reform t yt.com slash join or hit the join button below we'll see you there in a minute thanks for listening to the full episode of the young turks support our work listen ad free access members only bonus content and more by subscribing to apple podcasts at apple dot co slash t yt i'm your host jank huger and i'll see you soon