The Young Turks - TYT Goes To DC And Trump's Comments On San Diego Shooting

Episode Date: April 29, 2019

TYT’s Watchdog event was a HUGE success! On Saturday a gunman opened fire at a synagogue in San Diego. Cenk Uygur, John Iadarola, and Alonzo Bodden, hosts of The Young Turks, break it down. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to the Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. If you like the Young Turks podcast, I think you'll love a lot of the podcasts on the TYT Network. Old school, it's one of my favorites, one of the favorites for a lot of the listeners. Please check that out, subscribe, share it, that makes a big difference, and give it a five-star rating. Thank you.

All right, welcome the Young Turks, great Monday show ahead with you with you guys. Alonzo Bowdoin's here. I'm Jake Uger, John Iderola, excellent crew here for you guys. Later on the show, Hassan Piker and Brett Ehrlich are going to join us. And after that, I believe our ninth presidential candidate is going to be in studio. Jeez. Congressman Tim Ryan. Now, this ought to be a doozy.

Congressman Ryan was among our favorite congressman for about a decade on the Young Turks, but recently took a little bit more of a conservative turn. On the campaign trail, he's a little bit more progressive, so buckle up. I don't know what we're doing yet. He's your dark mirror. As you've turned one way, he's turned the other. I don't know. I like how you have him numbered.

Is that how we're identifying him now? So he's ninth, like the, and do we number them from when they announce? Is that how we do it? Well, I mean, it's as good a way as any to keep up with who's who's. So if that's it, I gotta get my scorecard. Well, yeah, it's, that's not a bad idea, but only in appearance on the young Turks. So if you didn't appear on The Youngtrip, sorry, I guess you're not a candidate. Oh, actually related to that, Marianne Williamson, who has previously been, I believe on both,

this show and The Damage Report, she will actually be in the studio on the Damage Port tomorrow morning. We're to be talking about her campaign, the big issues, all that. So speaking of folks that are coming in on Old School this week, Matt Walsh is going to be joining us. And I've been watching them on beep this year, as always, just fantastic. He's doing a great job in the print edition of BuzzFeed. That's his character on beep. And then wait, hold on, I know you're buckled up because I already told you to buckle up with these guests. On Thursday, Peter Dow, possibly the most significant critic of Bernie Sanders in the 2016 elections.

And now, a total bro. Well, we'll see, we'll see. Come and see, come and see. So look, and a lot more. So don't miss any of this week's programming, it's amazing. And of course last night we had our Game of Thrones review. We talked more about that, but Alonzo hasn't seen it yet. No, it's okay.

Don't worry about spoiling it to me, I'm gonna watch it anyway, so it doesn't matter me. I saw the very end of the series. You wanna know who went? I'm kidding. So, and by the way, we did predictions for just the members as we did last time around. make sure you check that out, tyt.com slash join. All right, well, there's a lot to get to in today's program, including Trump and Democratic candidates, whether they appeared or didn't appear on the Eric, Dirk's making a lot of news.

So let's get to it, John, to take it away. Well, we're actually gonna be starting. You wanted to talk about the T.I.T. Watchdogs Party. Okay, yeah, I'll do that. Okay. So this weekend, we had the TYT watchdog correspondent's dinner party, and so that is, of course, juxtaposed to the White House Correspondents to their party. And in fact, it's right across the street on a rooftop so we can keep watch on them. And it was just great.

That's Jim Oberfeld, by the way, the lead plaintiff in the case that legalized gay marriage, that's Ari, who is the chief of staff for Bernie Sanders, is Congressman Jamie Raskin, Ida Chavez and Ryan Grimworth, were in the picture earlier there from The Intercept. So young journalist and producers from all the different networks, now you don't have to be progressive to be there, but there were a lot of progressives, obviously, a number of campaigns including the Yang gang were there. The woman who created the tough Ojeda ads, she was there. We will introduce you guys to her a little bit later as this show goes on.

And so I love that we do a party on that same weekend where we celebrate great journalism that's supposed to watch over the government and not just kowtow to it. So, and we every year honor a person who's done extraordinary journalism. And this year was Julie K. Brown on the Miami Herald. She broke the Epstein story as it relates to Trump's cabinet official, Alex Acosta. Let me tell you exact title of it. It was how Alex Acosta helped engineer a plea deal that shielded Jeffrey Epstein. Groundbreaking story, very important and has now.

gotten people take a second look at that case, which is devastating. So if you're watching this later, we'll have the link to that article in the description box below. Please read it. She did great journalism, super proud to give her that award for excellence in journalism. And so that's what we were celebrating over the weekend. And by the way, one more shout out, and that's to you guys, our viewers. You created the Amplified program by buying membership, Young Turks membership to members

of the press so that they could hear a progressive alternative. Unfortunately, you go on television, and we're gonna talk about it later in today's program, but there's not a lot of progressives on there. I mean, there's a lot of Megan McCain's doing false equivalencies, and they're brought on to do those false equivalencies, whereas there could be roaring progressives. I did go on C-SPAN on Sunday, and I did roar a little bit. You should check that out. But that should be every day, and it shouldn't be just me.

It should be progressives all up and down the lineup. We're now obviously a significant political force. The country overwhelmingly agrees with us, and we should be represented on television, but often we are not. But for the folks that attended, you guys got membership for people from HuffPost, Hardball with Chris Matthews, The Hill, CBS News, Business Insider, and the list goes on. So thank you for doing that, because that is what amplifies the progress. progressive message.

So you were there in essence as well with us that night, and we appreciate everything you've ever done for us, and we would have nothing of the young Turks if it weren't for our members. And if you would like to become a member, t.com slash join, and obviously we are too strong together. Okay, all right, now let's do it. Okay, let's turn to the unfortunately big news of the weekend. This Saturday, on the last day of the Jewish holiday of Passover, a man entered a synagogue

in a suburb of San Diego and opened fire on those inside. While that was going on, he killed one woman and three others were injured. Rabbi Yona Fraudkin identified the woman as Lori Kay. Kay was at the synagogue to pray for her mother who passed away in November. Witnesses said Kay jumped in the line of fire to protect the synagogue's founding rabbi, Israel Goldstein, whose index fingers were injured. Another man was shot in a leg as he led children to the safety of a playroom. Two children were so well hidden, officials did not find them until 45 minutes after the shooting.

And so in these sorts of incidents, it is customary for the president to weigh in. Obviously Donald Trump has a bit of a checkered history when it comes to events like this, but here he is addressing the shooting. Tonight, America's heart is with the victims of the horrific synagogue shooting. in Poway, California just happened. Our entire nation mourns the loss of life, praise for the wounded, and stands in solidarity with the Jewish community. We forcefully condemn the evil of anti-Semitism and hate,

which must be defeated. Just happened. And I appreciate him saying that, although with the least passion that he's ever said anything in his life. Yeah, well, he was on prompter there. They're like, look, God knows what this guy will say if we don't write this out for him, and we can't risk that in this kind of situation. So he went on to praise law enforcement there for getting the guy, the shooter.

Then when he was off prompter later and the real Donald Trump, he called the FBI and Department of Justice scum because they were pursuing him in a legal case. So, yeah, praising law enforcement when it's beneficial to him and attacking law enforcement when they uncover his crimes. Okay, but obviously the major issue is the issue of anti-Semitism in this case. So this happens six months to the day after the tree of life shooting in Pittsburgh, which was the worst anti-Semitic attack in the United States history, 11 killed in that shooting. Now, there's apparently a debate as to whether Donald Trump is encouraging these guys.

guys, because, you know, he called the rabbi that was shot there, who was incredibly heroic. He tried to calm the rabbi, tried to calm the shooter down, calm the people in the synagogue down. And you know what he did? After he was shot, he could, and they had, obviously the guy had run away at that point, he continued to speak to his congregation and they had to, he wouldn't stop, he wouldn't go to the hospital until he was finished.

So incredible heroism, he had nice things to say about non-exam. Trump after their call. But the problem is not whether Donald Trump on any given time is decent to one Jewish person. Like, wow, okay, great, I'm glad he did that because he does bungle those calls from time to time. And apparently he didn't in this case, it was, according to the rabbi, genuinely empathetic. But the real issue is what is he saying publicly?

What is he encouraging? I'm never going to get past it, you should never get past it. And in fact, he doubled down on it recently. when they asked him about Charlottesville. It's not like he said it ahead of Charlottesville. And then he didn't know they were going to chant the Jews will not replace us. He didn't know they were going to chant other Nazi chants like blood and soil. He didn't know they were going to kill someone.

And well, okay, afterwards when they did, and he said, boy, man, I really condemned them. I didn't know that was good. No. He said there was very fine people on the Nazi side after the rally, after the rally, given a choice to walk those comments back just a couple of days ago, he said, no, what I said was said perfectly. So when you encourage that kind of anti-Semitism and the chickens come home to roost here, no, you don't get a pass on it, you don't.

And how many synagogues have to be attacked? So four years in a row now, anti-Semitism, violent anti-Semitic attacks have increased. In 2017, they went up by 57%, I believe, according to the Anti-Defamation League. And so it goes on and on. It's not an accident, and it's not a coincidence. Look, we're gonna get more into the different layers of problems and anti-semitism that Donald Trump has. But the shooting happened right around the time that Trump is doubling down on Charlottesville,

saying that he said it perfectly. How many synagogue shootings there does there have to be before somebody gets this man-man under control? He keeps egging on the craziest people that believe him into doing these things. And I'll tell you why they target Jews after I let everybody chime in here, and we give you a little bit more of the facts. But there is a real reason why, even though Trump mainly talks about Muslims, he says anti-Semitic things, obviously as I just explained here, and we got more, and he mainly

targets Latinos. So why do so many of these guys go after Jews? I'll explain in a sec. Well, you know, the thing about this, there's so many things to this story, right? For one thing, it wasn't just the doubling down on Charlottesville. He'd just done the NRA rally, you know, and then another AR-15 is used. And it would have been a mass shooting, but apparently the story is the gun jammed. So that's why more people didn't get shot.

So thankfully the guy's gun didn't work, or we'd be talking about who knows. knows how many people killed, you know. And with Charlottesville, and I, this is how their mind works as far as I can tell. This is where the separation is. He says, well, I wasn't encouraging the Nazis for the anti-Semitism. I was encouraging the racist for their support of Robert E. Lee. You know what I mean? Like to him, that's a separation.

No, no, I didn't like the Nazi. I don't like the anti-Semitism Nazis, but I like those racist Nazis. Those are my kind of Nazis. You know, it's, and the people following him make this same insane separation, right? It's like the lie about the southern heritage thing. And the other thing is when you get into that racism, that KKK, Southern racism, et cetera, they don't talk about, they were anti-Jew also. It wasn't like they just hated black people.

They hated Jews as, you know, just as much. And they try to, I don't know, clean it up or separate it. And like you said, when he's on prompter, there are people sitting in backstage cringing, like, please just read the words. Don't say what you really feel, because everyone knows. And there's just, you know, this huge denial and that trick they use that when you bring up race or anti-Semitism, you're the bad guy, like, well, why would you, oh, you're going to make it anti-Semitic? Because I was talking about prayers for the victims, you know what I mean?

You're the bad guy because you brought up the hate or the Nazi connection and so on. And all of this, it's all techniques and it all works. There's nothing genuine behind it. It is horrible. And just one more thing on a quick note, just on a personal level, like how this story hit. I was in Halifax last week. I'm doing a comedy festival and I flew home Saturday. Friday, me and a couple of guys up in Canada, we were talking about the gun thing.

And they were talking about the United States and the guns and how insane it is. And I was like, look, I don't even know. I don't have an answer. I can't explain to a Canadian why in the United States you can go down the street, buy an AR-15 and go shoot up, fill in the blank. And then I get off the plane and it's happened again, like the next day. I don't know what our society, I don't know what's going to be too much, you know. There's the line, but we've crossed every line you can imagine.

So you brought up a lot of things there, let me quickly address a lot. So last line we were bringing Game of Thrones, and I just happened to be sitting next to Ida Rodriguez, who was checking the news as we were watching the show. And she said, oh, there's another shooting. And then halfway through the show, there was another shooting. Now you guys probably didn't hear about those, they weren't, because they weren't massacres. So like, just regular shootings where it's a horrible tragedy would be big news in another country. gets washed out here because there's so many shootings per day, we can't keep up with them.

And what did Donald Trump do later in the rally? Celebrated guns and said, oh, the Democrats are going to take your guns away. You just said you were concerned about the shooting at the synagogue that was done with an AR-15, then you turn around and go, these goddamn Democrats are going to take your guns away. And then you can't walk into a synagogue and start shooting everybody. So that's just the reality of guns. On the issue of Jewish Americans, look, I know with the trick that they play, the one that

laws are referred to, when Donald Trump says there's very good people on the side of the people who are chanting Nazi chants, they find that to be an acceptable thing to say. When we point out that he thought there was very fine people on the Nazi side, they go, oh, you're playing the anti-Semitism card. No, that's a card that you, if that card exists at all, race card, anti-Semitism you can only say that if it's not legitimate, if it's like a made-up situation. But here, synagogues are being shot. Donald Trump did say there was very fine people on the, what he said was the problem, not

us pointing out what he said. And by the way, most people know that. And it's like Alonzo said, it's a trick, and they think they're being clever, they're like, oh, that's great, you know, we'll get to hate on blacks and Jews and Muslims, etc. And then if you complain about it, we'll pretend it's your problem for complaining. It's not very clever at all. And now, to give you a sense, one more thing for now on Charlottesville. This was a white supremacist and racist rally from its original conception.

And so we're not like, right now I know conservative heads are explicitly, you guys call it that all the time. No, they called it that. It was so explicit that even the proud boys, Gavin McInnes of the proud boys said, man, don't go there. Whether you agree or don't agree, that'll be used against you for going to a thing that is clearly racist and white supremacist. Even the massively crazy right wing violence celebrating proud boys were like, that thing

is toxic, do not attend. So everybody knew what they were going for. And then I'll get to Robert E. Lee a little bit later because his comments on Lee are outrageous and people should know the real Lee. Yeah, well, and we talked about that quite a bit on Friday's show. And look, on the United the Right, I've seen the posters that were put out to advertise for it. You can look them up right now.

It is immensely clear what the point of it was, and also what the point of it was not. Because in all of these posters that are talking about white identity and using iconography of fascist movements and things like that, on most of them, I never saw any reference to the statue. It was just about reinforcing white identity, saying that we're not going to be replaced by whatever demographic trends. I like that you pointed out the jamming. I actually had not seen that.

It's interesting because we were told all the time that the gun doesn't matter, it's the person. Why are you focusing on the weapon? But that's like a hypothesis, and an experimental condition is jamming the gun, and it certainly seems like the killing slows down after that. It certainly seems like the gun is an important part, but we're gonna keep pretending that they would do the same with a stick or whatever. One of the things that bothers me the most about Donald Trump and his philosophy running our government is not just that I believe that it's deeply, deeply anti-Semitic, and not just

that he doesn't really seem to care when an incident like this happens. I mean, you've seen him speak passionately and you saw the video that we showed you. Did that wreak of Trump passion? Not to me. But there's two other things too. It is how seriously will they take it in terms of government policy and communication? What will they do about these sorts of events? And we already know that before the events happened, they disbanded areas of the FBI and other investigative

bodies in the executive department that would look into right wing and far right violence. So they decided no, we are going to lay down our weapons. and our ability to track down these groups, and we're gonna make it more likely that these sorts of events will happen in the future. And then you have after the attack. When we're concerned about what's feeding it, they're concerned but not about that. So a little bit later on the show, we're gonna have how Megan McCain attempts to divert responsibility and attention from the actual people committing these attacks to someone else.

When it comes to Kelly and Conway, look at the pretzels she twists herself in to make sure that you're thinking about everyone other than Donald Trump and everyone other than the people who are actually perpetrating this violence, as you'll see. Does President Trump still think that white nationalism is not a growing threat around the world? Is he reconsidering that? Well, the irony is that he condemned white nationalism and neo-Nazis and the KKK during the Charlottesville incident. My question about this incident, since you brought it up, is who were these very fine people? because Friday night, the rally was. No, let me just set the stage here.

No, we've said there's so many times, but I think people are starting to be honest about it. It was called Unite the Wright Rally, and it was formed by people like Richard Spencer, who was a white supremacist. Friday night was the Tiki Torch March. Jews will not replace us. Right. People could see them on the street. Saturday, Heather Hire was killed.

Who were the, who were the very fine people talking about? Heather Hire was murdered, and her murderer has been brought to us to them. But who were the very fine people? He was talking about the debate over removing. statues and remaining. So he wasn't talking about the weekend at all. He was just talking about the theoretical discussion. In fact, he condemned them in no uncertain terms unequivocally.

Go and pull the full comments. He condemned them over time. President Trump said he didn't think. That's why he's the president. He didn't think white nationalism was a growing threat around the world. And I'm saying, I'm asking. He does think it's a threat. And there's no question as a threat.

He does think it's a threat. Yes, of course he thinks it's a threat. That's why he's condemned it in no uncertain terms. He said six weeks ago, I don't really think it's a threat. No, they were saying a growing threat. But it is a threat. Is it a growing threat? It's horrible wherever it is.

Okay, so really fast on that. Before the attacks, they take out the groups in government that would investigate these sorts of things and stop them from happening. Afterward, look at how much effort they are putting into refusing to acknowledge that it's a big issue. You have a synagogue shooting, not a big threat. More synagogue shot internationally, not a big threat. Another synagogue shooting here, not a big threat.

At this time, Long Bandy Twizzlers Candy keeps the fun going. Keep the fun going. Twizzlers, keep the fun going. Point, just like, if anything, just to reassure people in that community that you care at all about whether they live or die, say that it's a massive threat and you're taking it seriously. So Kelly Ann Conway is a known liar. And so she says check the tape. But then Tapper quotes her from the tape. She's like, well, okay, that was inconvenient. So yeah, he had it on the spot.

And on the Charlottesville, he didn't say there was very fine people at a different rally. He definitely, when we have checked the tape and we've showed you the tape, he definitely said it about the Charlottesville rally. And Jake Tapper's question coincidentally happened to me the same exact thing I asked on C-SPAN on Sunday morning. I said, I'm still challenging Donald Trump to name one fine person from that rally. Who is it? And there are no fine people at that rally.

So I would get back to Robert Lee for a second, then I want to really get to why they target Jews so much. So look, we did videos on it already, I don't want to believe. I just wanna, if you haven't seen those videos, Robert E. Lee was a slaveholder, personally whipped his own slaves, and then would pour toxins into their open wounds after whipping them, and would not exchange prisoners if they were black prisoners. At the Battle of the Crater, murdered every single black union soldier who had surrendered at that battle, and killed her, was a commander of the traitors who killed hundreds of thousands

of Americans because they were so desperately wanted to own other human beings. Robert Lee is not a good guy, not at all. You could argue as the commander of the traitorous Confederate Army, he was the biggest enemy America has ever had, and certainly on body count, and the biggest defender of slavery. has ever been. He fought, he risked his life to make sure you can keep black people as property. So I got, don't tell me you're interested, oh, very fine people who want to keep statues of Robert E. Lee.

No, they should all be torn down. Should we also have statues of other American enemies all over the south, like Osama bin Laden and Heinrich Himmler? Which other American enemies would you like to put up as statues in the south? No deal, no deal at all. I don't agree to a bin Laden statue. And I don't agree to a Robert E. Lee statue. Well, you brought up all the killing of black people.

You have to remember that Robert E. Lee and the white people at that time didn't think of black people as human. So he didn't think of it as whipping humans, killing human. I mean, they just didn't think of us as human life. We were property. So the people who defend this, the people who talk about the southern heritage, they just deny that. They just deny that reality. When they talk about the Southern Heritage, it's like, well, the Southern Heritage is racism.

It's horrible racism. It's abuse, murder, rape, et cetera. You know, Thomas Jefferson had a black girlfriend. No, he didn't. He owned a slave. Like, he raped the slave. She didn't have a choice. She couldn't say, well, no.

You know what I mean? So there's that. Now, getting to the Kellyanne Conway thing, and this is the problem they have is they have to do their, their wink to their supporters, right? So the funniest thing she said when he said that there's been rising white nationalism, she said, oh, not right, he said he condemned nationalism not rising. That's like saying, oh, you have a tumor, but it's not a growing tumor. So it's, you know, you have an okay tumor, but they will parse it that slim, that thin

to say, I'm not lying or he didn't say that. Yeah. Yeah. And by the way, it's objectively false because you showed the number. This is the greatest spike in anti-Semitic incidents in 40 years. The ADL said it's the first year, 2017 was the first year where we ever had one anti-Semitic recorded incident in all 50 states. You had the worst instance of violence at the Tree of Life synagogue.

You have white supremacist marking the anniversary now with other shootings. It's getting to the point where shootings and synagogues won't even be major news very soon. And yet they, the hill they want to die on is, that's kind of a threat, maybe. few people, as Trump said, but not a rising threat. Now, so if you are one of these worshippers, if you're going to a synagogue, do you believe that white supremacists who like Donald Trump, anti-Semites who like Donald Trump, you can say whether he likes them or not, but they're fans of his, do they feel like they've been told not to engage in those sorts of acts? Are they actually chasten from doing it in the future? From that middling, milk toast video of Donald Trump

that you saw where he said, it must be defeated. Are they defeated? Are they gonna throw down their arms? Are there not gonna be any more shootings in the future? Does anyone actually believe that that's how they will greet what he said to them? So look, if somebody did that and they were on the left and they, you know what we would say? We hate you, we condemn you, we hope you're brought to justice in every way imaginable.

You are by definition not one of us. I mean, we can go on and on. And does Trump ever get that passionate? Of course, when it said about him, no collusion, no obstruction, when it's about him. I want to say, oh, so Jews died in a synagogue. I am told I've got to read this thing about how I have sympathy for them. Well, they say, oh, well, you know, his son-in-law and his daughter is now Jewish, and so, and his grandkids, some of his grandkids are Jewish, so, yeah, but it didn't erase all those

stereotypes in his head. That's why he goes to the Republican Jewish coalition and says, nobody knows how to renegotiate better than these people here, and he says, I'm not going to be controlled by you because you like to control your politicians. What part of that is not anti-Semitic. But bottom line is, he said at one point in this speech, he said, we are going to, we will get to the bottom of it. We're going to get to the bottom of a lot of things happening in this country.

Well, you know what you're going to find at the bottom? You. So when you encourage your base and you don't want to criticize them because you want to keep getting their votes in the next election, you know what your base is up to? And this part, he might not know. But he should know, and when he eggs them on it has consequences. So, sure, they hate Muslims, they hate Latinos, they hate blacks, and the alt-right has a debate.

Should we hate all those people plus the Jews, or should we leave the Jews out of them and just hate all those other folks, right? But the reason why a lot of the alt-right includes the Jews, and at the end of the day, there's so many attacks against Jews in America, is because when they explain their conspiracy theories about why things happen the way that they do, they have all these horrible, ugly, racist stereotypes about everybody. Oh, Latinos are lazy, blacks are violent, Muslims are ultra violent, et cetera, et cetera. But that doesn't really explain why they're poor or their disadvantage, the racist themselves,

why they're in such bad shape. So they need one more thing. And if you go on 8chan, you go to any of this, look, a lot of it is open on the websites. You could, they spell it out. All these shooters talk about it. They say, yes, but the puppet masters are the Jews. They have the money, they're the ones controlling everything, including the Latinos in the caravan. Matt Gates talked about that.

Donald Trump referred to it. So they're the, it's George Sorrows. The Tree of Life Shooter referred to it? Tree of Life Shooter referred to it. So at the bottom of this horrific barrel lies anti-Semitism. And if you go deep enough, they say, you know, as much as you hate blacks and Latinos and Muslims, all of that is the fault of the Jews. It's not random that they're walking into synagogues and murdering Jews all over the country.

It's because that is their ideology. They can cover it up with, oh, I mean, for the moment being, we like Israel, and later it'll lead to Armageddon where they all die. But for the moment being, we kind of like it. And some of them really believe that. But when you get to the most dangerous guys in America that Donald Trump is egging on, they think it's all the Jews' fault. That's why you're seeing all these shootings at a synagogue.

At a time like this, when we have the worst anti-Semitism, at least of our lives, lifetimes, where Jews are being murdered all across the country, lukewarm milk toast words in public so you don't anger your racist, anti-Semitic base is nowhere near good enough. All right, we got to take a break, guys. We got more when we come. 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 powers that be. Featuring in-depth research, razor-sharp commentary, and just the right amount of vulgarity, the UNFTR podcast takes a sledgehammer to what you thought you knew about some of the nation's most sacred historical cows. But don't just take my word for it. The New York Times described UNFTR as consistently compelling and educational, aiming to challenge conventional and upend the historical narratives that were taught in school. For as the great philosopher Yoda

once put it, you must unlearn what you have learned. And that's true whether you're in Jedi training, or you're uprooting and exposing all the propaganda and disinformation you've been fed over the course of your lifetime. So search for UNFDR in your podcast app today and get ready to get informed, angered, and entertained, all at the same time. Bye. All right, back on a young church, some comments. Kyla says, TYT, yay, new member here. I've been watching on YouTube for a few years now, but finally upgraded to a convenient little app that lets me take my TYT everywhere.

Granted, I'm on my desktop right now, Teehee. Okay, well, Kyla, Tee right back at you. Thanks for being a member, t.t.com slash joining become a member, and you'll write the app is super convenient, and when I'm away in D.C. and other places, that's how I watch. Alan says, my fears that the Democratic establishment will voice credit card Joe Biden on us. This will result in four more years of Donald Trump. Oh, we're gonna talk about that in just a little bit. This new member handle I am used by, the name is Jenk but Black.

And Jenk but Black writes in, watching at 1 a.m. from Saudi Arabia, keep progressing the progressive message. Thank you. Appreciate it. Right back at you. Karen Shea says, if these shootings happen at a golf course, 45 would have more to say. Well, it's got to be personal for him. I'm gonna do one last one because I think it's really good and I had not considered it.

On Twitter, Dare Machina said, there were many fine people on both sides of the American Revolution as well. Why do we not have statues of schools named after Benedict Ardle all over New England? That's a great question. Benedict Arnold's a traitor, but Robert E. Lee isn't? You know that Lincoln offered him command of the Union Army? He said, no, instead I'd like to wage war against America. I mean, it doesn't get a bigger trader than Robert E. Lee.

Okay, we got more stories. Okay, let's mix it up. The federal O'Rourke has released his first policy proposal with details that we can actually break down here at TYT and so we're gonna do that and it has to do with climate change, but does it actually go far enough? Here are some details. The plan begins with proposed executive actions including rejoining the Paris climate agreement on day one and moving quickly to raise efficiency standards for buildings, cars, and appliances.

Longer term executive actions include setting a net zero emissions carbon budget for federal lands by 2030 and adding more national parks and monuments to protect. land and seascapes. It also allocates $5 trillion over the next 10 years to upgrade infrastructure and spur innovation, including more than a trillion dollars in tax incentives to reduce emissions and $250 billion dedicated directly to research and development. So overall, what he says he's hoping to do is guarantee the United States becomes a net zero emissions country by 2050, including by instituting a legally enforceable standard in the administration's first 100 days with a goal to get there at least halfway by 2030.

So I wanna tell you my number one concern with this planet and then I'm curious what you guys think about it. So at first I read the headline and got genuinely excited. Because better or work is not a simple guy to figure out and he doesn't have a simple record. It is a little bit all over the place for better and for worse. And so there's many years we're very excited about better or And so, for example, he took a not only no corporate PAC money pledge, but a pledge not take money from fossil fuel executives.

Then he broke that pledge and said he's not going to honor it anymore. But then in this plan, he says, we're gonna get rid of all fossil fuel subsidies. Long time coming, that would be great, that would be amazing. And I see the headline about how he's gonna put $5 trillion in. I go, well, that's terrific, so maybe Old Beddow's back. You're reading the details, look, there are good things in there. There are. It's not, again, this is more of a gray issue.

than anything else. And I like that everybody's moving to the left to try to get, to really take care of this issue. And it shouldn't be about left and right. It is, unfortunately, because the right wing denies science. It's about saving the planet and creating more jobs. But when you're reading the details, my number one concern is that not a lot of it is government money.

It's money to encourage private industry to do something. And honestly, that's not good enough. So here I'll give you an example of why I say it's not good enough. Is it because I have a fetish for government spending? No, not at all. I can, during the Eisenhower administration, they said, no, we're gonna build highways and bridges. And they created massive infrastructure that created an economic boom in this country.

And they did it through the government. It was in a sense easier. And they didn't have to worry about who's gonna make a profit off of it, who's connected, the crony cabals of a center. Now, I juxtapose that to what's happening today with the infrastructure bill that Donald Trump and the Democrats say that they both want. They're very clear about it. Why isn't it getting done?

Because Trump says, if we're gonna do it, I wanna privatize it, so you pay tolls the rest of your life to my friends who I give the contract to. Well, no deal, no deal. So this is again, privatizing the gains and socializing the costs. Just god damn it, have the government pay for it. Yes, we would pay slightly higher taxes, but we would have great infrastructure that creates more jobs, let alone saving the planet. So when I hear, oh, don't worry, I'm gonna get corporations to do it, no, I'm worried.

At a bare minimum, they're middlemen who are going to jack up the price to make more of a profit, which makes sense, they're private corporations, that's what they do for a living. But why are we paying extra? It doesn't make any sense to us. This one is, it's tough because, first of all, climate change is a hard sell in America. Americans don't understand it, they don't buy into it. They're short-sighted. We are historically short-sighted, like, oh, it's gonna cost me money.

They're not thinking about 2050, you know, the thing in here, like for instance, the national parks, like, I'm not worried about new national parks, let's stop destroying the ones we have. We're destroying the national park. When during the government shut down, the parks where people just went in and went crazy, There were no park rangers to stop them, right? So they're running dune buggies all over the place and trucks and this and that. And the parks talked about the damage. And now, you know, when you talk about private corporations, they're not going to get involved

to, like you said, till they see money in it. The minute Chevron sees more money in green than in fracking, then Chevron gets involved in green initiatives and so on. Or I don't know what kind of destruction of the planet people will have to see. Because if you watch any of these documentaries, they show like, okay, this is what the heat's doing, this is where the ice melts, this is how the ocean rises, this is why the storms are worse, and this is why you're getting destroyed. People, like said, they deny stuff, nah. And there's nothing else, just, nah, I don't believe it. I mean, we're in that era, right?

When anything you don't believe, you just say, no, fake news, it's just fake. Like, you don't have to, you know, and the downside of the Internet is you have this scientist who's gone to school. and studied and done experiments and worked and worked and blah, and he knows, he or she, they know exactly what they're talking about. And they have tons of research, but they're up against an idiot with a million followers. And you were talking about it earlier, it's given a false equivalency. It's like, yeah, well, you might have went to college, but I got a million followers. And they cover it like it's the same thing.

You know what I mean? And it's like, no, this is a scientist and this is an idiot. They're not the same, but they are the same. Honestly, so when any of these climate change bills and stuff like that, to me, it's almost like you're aiming too high because you're talking to, you know, you're trying to talk to America in a presidential election, you're trying to talk to America. And unfortunately, if you want to talk to America, you've got to aim low. You got to aim low to what they understand.

They don't understand. I understand what you're saying, and what you said about the government doing it, you know, My biggest problem with anti-tax, anti-government people is the government exists for the common good. The government is not a business, it's not for profit, it's what you said, it's to build roads, it's to have public schools, it's to do things to take care of the people to raise the entire population. You know, what Warren Buffett said to the Walmart family, without roads, no one gets

to your stores. Yeah. Yeah. You know. So let's just slight this agreement on one thing, I hear what you're saying about going big, the flip side, Alonzo is, if you connected to something that they care deeply about, then they want you to go big. So that's another issue with this that I think AOC and Ed Markey's bill is better at, right?

So what they said is, yes, well, this is going to create a lot of jobs. Government's going to spend, we're going to build this energy infrastructure, a new energy infrastructure, And so, and that will naturally, and every economist agrees, they might not agree about where it comes out on taxes, what the cost are, et cetera, but they all agree would create tens of thousands of jobs, if not hundreds of thousands of jobs. So then people go, well, if you're going big to create jobs, I kind of like that, right? So that's why I say it depends. And it seems like Beto's trying to split the difference, which is pretty Beto, but I'm

I'm curious what you think, Chad. Yeah, so look, I am glad that he is putting out literally anything because that is an improvement on what he and most of the other candidates have done so far, which is just give some speeches or whatever. And this is better than what we have right now, but we are, it's not like it's not like it goes out there into a context where we don't have any alternative plans. Like we have months of discussion of the Green New Deal. And he, this is, although he says that he supports it and he has in the past, this appears to be sort of thumbing his nose of the Green New Deal.

This is saying, no, your interconnected plan, the Green New Deal that integrates concerns over the environment, the economy, health care, environmental justice, all these different issues, and prioritizes it as the most important effort that our country needs to undergo over the next half century or so. No, we're going to put a bunch of money into these companies and hope that they innovate us out of this disaster. And maybe they will. It's better than what we've got right now. And look, the price per capacity of batteries and the efficiency of solar sales has been improving. The industries have been doing okay in some areas, but it's not enough by itself. And he seems to really believe that a private sector way of doing this is the solution.

And it also worries me, Sunrise Movement have been talking to him for some time about these issues. And they tweeted, on April 30, said, we have to do every. everything in our power to get to net zero emissions by 2030 or as close to 2030 as we possibly can, there's not much debate around this, except that apparently there was because within just a few weeks he'd switched to 2050, which is not as close to 2030 as we possibly can. So that's him changing his position by two decades inside of one month. And we've seen him change on things before on healthcare, fundamental shifts in what he thinks needs to be done to solve the problem.

So, when you combine the overall philosophy that seems to be going into this bill with his willingness to play fast and loose with what he says there's no debate on, he doesn't appear to me to be one of the people I would trust in this field on climate change. Yeah, so last thing guys, nuance, right? So is giving a subsidy to your company never a good idea? No, that's not true. Under the Obama administration, they gave some subsidies to solar companies, and Fox News made a big deal out of it for a while, and then it turned out that those subsidies worked and

actually got the money back to the government and created new industries. So it does work from time to time, and so then Fox News stopped talking about it. That was partly the so-called Cylindra scandal, and they're like, this isn't playing well, they're doing really well, so they put it away. So I'm not against some sort of mix here, and if Beto had proposed this three years ago, we would have given him a tremendous amount of credit because it would have been bold, it would have led the field, and it would have maybe led to. some bolder plans like the Green New Deal.

But today, in this context, it doesn't mean he's evil, doesn't mean he's a bad guy, and it doesn't mean this is not an improvement on today, but it is, A, definitely not the Green New Deal. It is a different proposal that largely relies on private corporations. Two, he definitely did move the goalposts by going to 2050 instead of 2030. And so within the context of the proposals out today, it is far less progressive. That's a reality. You know, just really quick, John, on moving it from 2030 to 2050, that's being a politician.

There was some study that said they're not going to buy 2030, stretch it out. I mean, that's what they do, right? They come out with a policy, and then they say it, and then they listen to the feedback, and then they're like, okay, let me adjust it, you know. So I can't fault him for that, because that's just being a politician, it's just what they do. And by the way, so the Sunrise Movement, obviously, I think one of the most important climate change related organizations around in America right now, they're going to be at the

Democratic debates. And I had Varshini Prakash, the co-founder on the damage report just a few days ago. And one of the things we talked about was as you're watching these debates and as you're seeing the plans come out, how do you identify the people who take the Green New Deal seriously and those who are just trying to get its sort of cred without actually following what needs to be done to actually make good on it? And she had some great advice for that. So go to YouTube.com slash the damage report to find that interview.

Okay. You want to do? Oh, we got to take a break. Yeah, we definitely have to. All right. We'll be right back, guys. A lot of really important stories left. At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control

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All right, we're talking about something funny. Anyway, all right, viscous korean, our member section says, waiting until the oldest millennials are 68 before you transition to country to net zero carbon doesn't seem progressive. So that's a fair point. And so every comment is against Beto, so I'll just skip all of those. But I'm giving you the sense of the audience there. And because we're short on time, I'll read only one last one. Der Swink says, just want to offer a random congrats to you.

all for truly having an obvious and undeniable impact on the media landscape, seeing how many presidential candidates clearly want to make their case on your show and to your audience is as real as it gets. Well, thank you for saying that. We appreciate that. And don't miss those interviews. So Tim Ryan's up later today. So at 8 o'clock Eastern, Tim Ryan's in the studio, he's running for president, Congressman out of Ohio, should be great. I ran into John Delaney in Washington, and he is going to be coming on the program soon as well. So give everybody your attention and give them a real hearing, right? And we'll talk about the upsides and the downsides, but please keep an open mind.

All right, John, what's next? Yes, one more story for you. Fox News is technically sort of criticizing Donald Trump on obstruction. You're going to watch the video. You're going to immediately see that it looks a little bit different than their normal content. But here is Judge Napolitano talking about obstruction of justice. When the president asked his former advisor and my former colleague at Fox, K.T. McFarland to write an untruthful letter to the file knowing the government would subpoena it. That's obstruction of justice. When the president asked Corey Lewandowski, his former campaign manager, to get Mueller fired, that's obstruction of justice. When the president asked his then White House counsel to get Mueller fired and then lie about it, that's obstruction of justice. When he asked Don McGahn to go back to the special counsel and change his testimony, That's obstruction of justice when he dangled a pardon in front of Michael Cohen in order to keep Cohen from testifying against him.

That's obstruction of justice. Why not charge him? Because the Attorney General of the United States would have blocked such a charge. Because the Attorney General of the United States is of the view that obstruction of justice can only occur if you're interfering with a criminal investigation of yourself. But that's not what the obstruction statute says. And that's not what law enforcement believes, and that's not what prosecutors do. Prosecutors prosecute people who interfere with government functions. And that's what the president did by obstruction.

Ordering them to break federal law to save him from the consequences of his own behavior, that is immoral, that is criminal, that is defenseless, and that is condemnable. So that was good. Two quick things I want to mention, I like that Fox will technically allow you to criticize Trump, but you have to go stand on the street to do it. And two, that that segment is, it's judges' chambers. It's literally the only content they make that's not in a chamber. It's outside.

But they let him do it, I guess. It's better than when Fox and Friends goes out. So I remember when Pete Hags threw an axe and hits someone on the other side when he missed. That seems made up, but it's not. But that's a real story. Anyway, look, Judge Napolitano has been honest about this. He's very conservative. So, and then he'll say other things that drive me crazy.

But that's okay. If you're a conservative and I'm progressive, we're gonna disagree. But he's been honest about these legal proceedings and that's why Trump can't stand him. So now we go to Trump getting super mad, right? Exactly. So Trump, actually I think it's part of the video, so we're just gonna go directly to that. Trump has a pair of tweets attacking Judge Napolitano and the judge responds sort of.

Thank you to brilliant and highly respected attorney Alan Dershowitz for destroying the very dumb legal argument of Judge Andrew Napolitano. Ever since Andrew came to my office to ask that I appoint him to the U.S. Supreme Court, and I said no, he has been very hostile. Also asked for a pardon for his friend, a good pal of low-rating Shepard Smith. Judge, good to see you this morning. Good morning. This is the way you treat your friends. How do you treat your enemies? Oh boy. Look, I thought the president's comments were brilliant. He wanted to divert attention

from what Mueller had said about him and what I had commented about Mueller to his relationship with me. His relationship with me is not the story. He and I have been friends for 30 years and probably will be for the next 30 years. But why? Mm-hmm. Yeah, look, in a sense you can argue there are no winners here, because why are you friends with him? And he could turn around, Trump can, and this is a rare quasi-defense of Trump, and say, well, you said I obstructed justice, what kind of a friend does that? Well, the kind of friend who's honest, because you did obstruct justice. So then that leads to the question, well, was Trump honest about asking for a pardon for

a friend and asking to be on the Supreme Court? Well, Napolitano says, no, he was not honest about it. And so do you have the quotes there? No, no. explain. So, Napolitano says, look, on the asking you to be on the Supreme Court, I didn't do that at all. He asked me, and this is apparently right after he won the election and before he became president.

He said, look, do, who do you think should be on the Supreme Court? And Napolitano says, he said, Neil Gorsuch. And Trump said, yeah, okay, okay, Gorsuch, and why? What do you like about his qualifications? Apparently Napolitano said him, and then Trump said, well, that sounds like you. And Napolitano's like, no, I'm not saying me, I'm saying Neil Gorsuch. And he's like, okay, well, then make a case for yourself. Now, hold on now.

Napolitano then does make a case for himself. So I don't know if Napolitano was like pulling a Dick Cheney, right? I got this guy you'd really like. He's, you know, he doesn't have much of a forehead, he's on Fox News a lot, right? Oh no, it's Gorsuch, I don't know what you're talking about, it's Gorsuch. So I don't know, maybe, I mean, it's not like Napolitano. He's an angel, he's been friends with Trump for 30 years, et cetera. But who do I trust between Napolitano and Trump?

Come on, that's a no-brainer. In The Washington Post just said a little past 860 days in his term, he just broke the 10,000 barrier. Trump has said falser misleading statements 10,000 times. He's up to, he started in the beginning with five times a day, then he increased the eight times a day. It is now in the last several months, 23 lies a day that Trump says. That's a check, by the way.

And Napolitana gained some credibility by saying, no, when he asked me to list why I should be on the court, I did list it, okay? So then you figure out who you believe in that. In terms of the pardon, he said, no, he asked me about a mutual friend, and I said, don't pardon him, he was actually guilty. He's like, I don't like that answer, tell him I'm gonna pardon him. So that's just a flat out lie by Trump in regards to Napolitano. Well, when Napolitano, when he just says, if, you know, this is how you treat your friends,

what are your enemies, Trump has shown who he is. I mean, everybody who he's gotten rid of, double cross turned on, he's done this too. So why does Napoliton think, oh, he did it to me? That's like being a Kardashian, right, and wondering, like, my man is cheating. Well, he was cheating with you when you got him, right? He was with somebody else when you got him, and now he's cheating on, yeah, because that's what he does. So for him to say this, it's like, well, yeah, this is what he's done with everyone else. Why do you think it wouldn't apply to you? You know, it's ridiculous. The other thing that it's really getting funny in these Trump tweets are the nicknames, you know, like low-rating Sam Shepard. And is it, if I don't know if you remember, there was a sportscaster on ESPN named Chris Berman. And he used to come up with these great nicknames for players. Like there was a guy named Bly Levin, and he'd call him Be Home Bly Levin. You know, He would just come up with these hilarious nicknames that worked with people's names.

And this is what it's becoming with Trump. These nicknames are becoming, that's the funniest part of the tweet. How much time does he spend making sure he puts that in? Like I can never say a name without putting in some little insult or something. Yeah, no, no, he takes it very seriously. In fact, Natron means business. That's another Chris Berman nickname. Anyway, so listen, one more thing.

Alonzo is 100% right. How could you not see it when he did it to everyone else around him? Michael Cohen, his personal attorney, now he's turned on him 100%. And now you can say, hey, listen, Cohen gave evidence about him, so maybe that's especially- No, but guys like Jeff Sessions, who was the first guy to support him, risked his career in the Senate to support Donald Trump. And then Trump, I mean, just obliterated him. Why?

Because he wouldn't be, he wouldn't break the law on his behalf. And he wouldn't, and he recused himself and wouldn't protect, illegally protect Donald Trump. So Napolitano, would you think you were going to give honest analysis and show that Trump is wrong on some issues? Yeah. And he wasn't going to hate you. He wasn't going to turn on you. That's what he does with everybody. And you know, the last sucker at the table is the guys in the red hats.

They think, oh, no, no, Trump will turn on everybody in his business interests. He'll go bankrupt six times just to say, ha ha, you were stupid enough to give me money. And my business, the way I run it, I don't pay you back, right? Now if a homeowner did that in 2008, they say you're a bum, you have personal responsibility to pay that money back to the bank, right? When Trump does it with millions of dollars, they're like, genius, way to screw over people. Then he screws over everyone that's supported him politically. And he screwed over everyone who gave money to his foundation, everyone who went to his university,

Those two things are disbanded now and he had to pay money because they were all scams. And you think the one guy he's not gonna scam is the poor son bitch who voted for him that he doesn't know at all and doesn't care about? No, you're the last sucker at the table. So when you turn around and Trump has caused a disaster for you nationwide and for you personally, you're gonna say, like, this is how he treats his friends? Exactly. Okay, we're way out of time.

All right, Alonzo, thank you, man. Thank you. I appreciate it. Alonzoboden.com? Yes, Alonabodin. This Sunday at WBUR in Boston. I'm gonna be doing a live show at City Space in Boston. So come on out, you NPR nerds, I know you're out there.

Come on out. CitySpace in Boston. Ty-YT nerds, NIRDS. I just said NPR nerds because it's a wait, wait, don't tell me thing. No disrespect to TYT nerds. I like you nerds too. You're fantastic. You are quite welcome.

Please join me. And everybody's checking out damage report. If you're a member, you can already see it live in the mornings. T.y.t.com slash join. But get the podcast. It's a really easy, convenient way to watch. Check it out on Facebook, et cetera. All right, we'll be right back.

And we've got, is Trump done? There's some new, devastating polls. I mean, you say like, oh, Trump's never done. Hold. Okay, we'll give you that story when we return. 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 slash t-y-t.

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