The Young Turks - TYT Hour 1 - November 6th, 2019

Episode Date: November 7, 2019

Trump suffered a huge loss in Kentucky last night. Ana Kasparian, Jayar Jackson, and Francesca Fiorentini, 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

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What's up everyone? Welcome to the Young Turks. I'm Anna Kasparian and Jank is out again, but he'll be back tomorrow. We have Francesca Fiorentini and J.R. Jackson for our one today. What's up, guys? Hey. I've been just trying to say quid pro quo quo as fast. See, I can't even do it.

Quibbo Crow, quibpo quid pro quo. Yeah, it's funny because I don't think I've ever said this on the show. Every time I hear quid pro quo, I think. Think of the Hangover where the, I forget the name of the character, but he says, quid pro quo, mother effer. And so like, that always like plays in my head in the background. We need that. Yeah. That's, I'm sure that's a gift.

It's really good. Not only is it hard to say quickly, try typing it really fast. Quip pro, quid pro quo. If you type it, you're gonna get a stuff. I'm just saying crow. Yeah. Anyhow, I'm good. Well, we're, we have a lot of great news to cover today, some good news in regard to the elections

that took place yesterday. So I don't want to waste any time. Why don't we get right to it? Democratic candidates in major local elections won yesterday. And this is a really big deal because it does make a statement when it comes to Donald Trump, his popularity, and how much sway he has on these local elections. So let's start off with the great state of Virginia where Democrats were able to flip the state to their advantage.

In Virginia Democrats reclaimed control of the state's general assembly for the first time in two decades, building on big gains the party made just a year after Trump took office. When Trump took office, Democrats held just 33 of 100 seats in the state's house of delegates. Come January, they will hold as many as 55. In the state Senate, Democrats won at least 21 out of 40 seats, meaning that the state legislature consists of majority Democrats. Incredible. Yeah, it is incredible, very, very good news.

And then there was also great news out of Kentucky. Now Republicans in Kentucky were really hoping that they could sway the gubernatorial race in their direction by nationalizing that race. So you had Governor Matt Bevin, who is the Republican incumbent, running against Bashir, the Democrat in the state. And it's incredible because Matt Bevin was not popular by any means. He was not polling well, and part of the reason why was because he was constantly going after the powerless in his state, namely the teachers who had decided to strike because there was

some talk about their pensions not being properly funded. So they strike, and then Matt Bevin thinks it's a great idea to come out and say things like this. You know, here's what's crazy to me. You know how many hundreds of thousands of children today were left home alone? I guarantee you somewhere in Kentucky today, a child was sexually assaulted that was left at home because there was nobody there to watch them. I guarantee you somewhere today, a child was physically harmed or ingested poison because they were home alone because a single parent didn't have any money to take care of them. So he went out there and he demonized these teachers who were essentially going to get screwed when it came to their own pensions.

And remember, we're talking about teachers. We're talking about people who are severely underpaid as it is. And he goes out there and he blames them for being accessories to terrible things like sexual assault. Yeah, can I just say that no one suggests that a child who is at home from school will be sexually assaulted or poisoned unless they're a pedophile. So I'm pretty sure Bevin has sexually, I don't know, maybe he's thought about it. But no one's like, oh yeah, home from school. I'd be like, you know, you get to watch cartoons, you like ride some bikes, and he's like, they're going to be touched.

You're like, no. It was weird that his mind went there. And I remember at the time when we covered that story, it was in 2018, I said that. I was like, I find it strange that his mind automatically goes there. That's not the way a normal person thinks. Yeah, if you support him, you'd stop and go, man, I believe in Matt, what he's saying, but not that part, where'd that come from? And also, since he's so concerned with kids being home alone with single parent households,

And whether or not they can get to school every day, is he worried about maybe funding for school lunches? They can eat enough because a single parent household maybe not make enough. Also, during the summertime, is he passing legislation to fund some kind of oversight for kids when they're on summer vacation, maybe spring break, winter break, things like that when people have to work constantly and their kids are home alone. It's not just that day where kids are home alone and parents are confronted with what to do with their children for daycare. It was his way of, I don't know, attempting a guilt trip on these teachers who absolutely

They should have gone out there, they should have done the strike. I'm glad that they did it. But Matt Bevin loved to go after the powerless in Kentucky. For instance, he was very supportive of the law, he was proposing a law where you would have to work in order to receive Medicaid, right? And so that was wrapped up in the courts, but it's just another example of something that led to his level of or lack of popularity in the state. Now let's go to the election and what actually happened.

In Kentucky, Attorney General Andy Bashir declared victory over Governor Matt Bevin by just over 4,600 votes out of more than 1.4 million cast an apparent upset election in one of the more conservative states in the country. Now, just to give you an idea of how much of an upset this really is, four years ago, Bevin defeated his Democratic rival by about 85,000 votes. And in Jefferson County, the most populous in the state, Bashir beat Bevin by almost 100 100,000 votes, more than twice as large as the margin by which Bevin's 2015 opponent won it, Bashir almost doubled the 2015 Democratic nominee's performance in Fayette County, home of Lexington.

So this is a big deal. And look, Bevin thought, well, here's the thing. Kentucky is an interesting state, right? Because Kentucky will elect Democratic, local politicians. But on a federal level, They're not happy with Democrats. And so they have latched on to Trump, partly because Trump has this populist economic message. Like, we all know he's lying, but positioning himself is like this populist has really resonated with the conservative voters in Kentucky. And so what did Bevin do?

He asked Donald Trump to basically rally for him in Kentucky, and that's exactly what he did on Monday. We have a short clip of that. Let's take a look. Tomorrow, Kentucky has a chance to send the radical Democrats a message. You will vote to reject the Democrats' extremism, socialism, and corruption. And you will vote to reelect Kentucky, Governor Matt Bevin, who's done a great job. Now, he is difficult.

I have to say, you know, maybe it costs him the election, but it's okay. Here, look, he's such a pain. When he needs something for Kentucky, like money, like aid, like he wants me to call, one of the many manufacturers now that are coming into Kentucky, could you call the head of some company in Japan, please? I say, Matt, do I have to do it? Please, please. But isn't that really what you want in a governor? That's what you want. He's such a pain in the shit, but that's what you want. That is the president of the United States. But look, Bevin's attempt to nationalize that race didn't work, it wasn't good enough.

So the economic populist message that came from Bashir out-trumped Donald Trump's rally and Bevin's attempts to nationalize that race. Well, Bevin was sitting on the sidelines. There was a camera shot that we didn't have there where he's sitting there and he was going. How could you do this to me? I know the whole time you're sitting there going, yeah, man, such a pain. How does that work? So again, we just talked about last week or maybe earlier this week when Trump was going

after California over the wildfires and going after the governor here in Newsom, oh my God, he wants all this money, I'm going to pull that money because you guys don't listen to me. I thought you just said that's a pain for Matt Bevin to be bugging you all the time to beg for money and beg for this and beg for that. But somehow California, with natural disaster is happening, normal funding for things that help citizens of this country, that's not good enough. But this guy begging for money so he can make sure companies come in and he can give tax breaks to while he screws over the people of the state, that's an okay thing.

Which one is because he supports you and this other one doesn't. It all comes down to that. Yeah. And I think, you know, I mean, first of all, that entire claim, like don't you want someone who's a sycophantic loyalist, hey, no, you don't want that. That's so weird. But this defeat of Bevin, I think, shows a number of things. And to your point about Bevin trying to nationalize Trump's victory, Trump's message

to sort of like, you know, latch onto his coat tails and say this still works in 2019, did absolutely fail. And it shows that the message around radical socialists. It's not, it's falling on deaf ears because people don't actually understand what is being said, like, all right, are there re-education camps yet? Like, when do I go? Do they got healthcare? Because I'm talking about healthcare.

Turns out that's what Bashir is talking about. Yes, exactly. He is talking about healthcare. He is against, you know, these Medicaid work requirements. He is for keeping Medicaid expansion. And then I think it's really important that it's not just Bevan's miscalculation. Evans miscalculation in terms of whether he, you know, brought Trump in at the wrong time, which is like such a gamble, like, hey, let's bring C.9 old grandpa in here to sort things

out, like, whoa. But it shows it like organizing, the teachers. Organizing works, Kentucky Education Association, or yeah, Kentucky Education Association knocking on doors, that actually works. And I feel like a lot of the media, we're always like, okay, well, how does that have to do with DC or not? It's like, screw DC, you know, this has to do with people on the ground, you know, just like a victory like AOC's in Queens, right?

Yeah, definitely. Or the Bronx. Why am I saying Queens? Yeah, no, you're absolutely right. That activism on a local level is incredibly effective. But also, I just want to know, you know, and really hammer this point because people keep arguing that Joe Biden should be the Democratic nominee for president because of his electability. But keep in mind that the one message, possibly the only message that resonates for voting,

voters across the ideological spectrum is the economic populist message. It really is, because whether you're a Democrat or Republican, if you're working class or middle class, you are feeling the injustice of this economic system. So what Bashir did was incredibly savvy, incredibly smart, he stayed on message. There were multiple attempts to try to get him to attack Trump. And while I believe it's obvious that he's not a fan of Trump, he avoided doing that because He understood making that race about whether or not you support Donald Trump is essentially handing a victory to Bevin.

Because we've seen the way sometimes Trump supporters work. They don't care that he has bad policies. But with other, maybe other Republicans, again, in this case, Bevan, his bad policies are on full display. And then, okay, there was, I think the four of the five seats still stuck with Republicans they're talking about. And we'll talk about how Fox News was bragging about that and Trump Jr. was as well. But that's the thing.

When people are dug in in their smaller elections, smaller campaigns, they're still stuck I got to go with Republicans because Republicans are best for me. But on the full state scale, when Bevan's running, you have to deal with everyone. And everyone is going to have to deal with seeing what this guy's doing for the entire state. And there's enough people that look up and say, this isn't working out for me. But so to take the lead for what Bashir did, you have to continue to push that the truth narrative of what's really happening with policies. Because the rest of these guys have just as bad a policy as Bevan did.

It's just they won't put at such a large scale of the entire state. His, he's, being the head of the state, his is put on blast. So smaller campaigns running for these other seats, make sure you point out the opponents, the same kind of agenda as they have that are very similar to Bevins. And then one other thing I wanted to point out. So in Kentucky, the voters tend to vote for both Republican and Democrat candidates, right? But on a national level, they have a great deal of disdain for Democratic members of Congress. I mentioned that, and I mentioned the relevance of that, because what that means is they feel,

look, we already know, the economic populist message resonates with them. They feel left behind by Democrats on a national level. So for the Democrats, the corporatists who are saying, oh, no, no, no, forget about the warrants and the Bernies of the world, they're going to cost us the election, we need a moderate, we need a centrist. Understand that the messaging coming from those types of candidates does not resonate with as many people. It just doesn't. Absolutely. And I think you put the shoe on the other foot, okay, running on pro-Trump, anti-impeachment

doesn't work. So then the converse is true. Running only on the impeachment and only against Trump, Biden doesn't work. It's not going to work to only make this a national thing. Go local. And I think we saw, you know, some Democrats saying, oh, hey, look, healthcare wins, education wins. It's like, who are the candidates who are speaking about public education, it's, you know,

expanding public education. Who are the candidates who are talking about expanding Medicaid and Medicare for all? Like these, I mean, it's not a philosophical conversation, it's not an ideological conversation. It is a stat heavy proven conversation that when you run on these bread and butter issues, you're gonna win. Definitely. Now let me go to a part of the story that could end up being disastrous if Democrats don't fight to maintain this clear win, okay?

So, in the state of Kentucky, you had Bashir, who was the attorney general in the state, beat the incumbent Republican gubernatorial candidate Matt Bevan. Now, Bashir won by a slim margin, but he won. And now Bashir is, you know, of course, saying he won, but then Bevin is saying, no, I'm not going to concede, I'm not buying this at all. So as a result, you have some bad actors getting involved. The Kentucky Senate president, Robert Stivers, threw another wrench into the state's razor-thin gubernatorial outcome late Tuesday night, saying that the legislature could decide the race.

Stivers said, based on his staff's research, the decision could come before the Republican-controlled state legislature. So they're gonna try to have Republicans in the state legislature decide who actually won, Even though, if you count the votes, the person who was the clear winner here was Bashir, Andy Bashir. Where is the legality in that? Like I'm not understanding what rock that law is hidden under. Isn't it, I thought it was supposed to be, if you want to recount, you file a formal request

to the judiciary, right, in the state? We know that Republicans like to make up rules as they go along. So let's actually hear from legal experts and what they have to say. So one legal expert from Brandeis School of Law says they can't just make them up. If the House and Senate were just to proceed on vague allegations without proof, that raises serious questions about disenfranchisement of voters who voted for Attorney General Bashir. It's an extraordinary proposition to suggest that the General Assembly would take vague allegations of unspecified irregularities and call into question a gubernatorial election.

Sounds similar to their president after he even won the election, still talking about the millions and millions of votes that were stolen by illegal immigrants. I'm not sure where he was pulling it all from, but every time you hear them accuse one group of doing what they're always trying to do, then you know to look at that source. Look at where that information is coming from, they'll probably have that down the pike to pull off anyway. So the pull out that one line, the disenfranchisement of the voters. When is the Republican Party cared about that?

Never. From voting rights act, from opposition to that, to literally tossing out votes from people or making sure that the machines aren't counting votes to where they should be. The irony is way too, yeah, the irony is way too strong for them to continue to go out on this route, but they will anyway until someone actually calls them out and says, this is the Republican Party. There needs to be that level of strength in your statement. Yeah.

What's incredible about Republicans, both on a local and national level, is they know They know they can't win based on their messages, right? They know that they don't have any popular political positions to really run on and win on. And so they try to game the system to their advantage so they can literally cheat to win, right? They do it when it comes to changing voter ID laws. They do it when it comes to gerrymandering and drawing up districts in a way that puts them at an incredible advantage. Their ideas are unpopular.

And what we need on the left is more of that firebrand behavior like the AOC like behavior where you call it what it is, you call it out. I just feel like Democrats overall haven't done a good job in calling it out, right? They always play defense, they never play offense, I think it's time to play offense. Yeah, the playbook a lot of times Republicans is fear. We talked about Bevin and the school agenda he had when teachers were striking. You pump fear first because our voters are fearful and they're going to be motivated by fear and anger.

So that's why he went with the, hey, kids are going to get raped today. Then go, oh my God, kids are getting raped. Just go with the most extreme because your base is going to be riled up by that. Then you go with voter suppression, then after you've lost that of voter suppression and fear, then you just subvert the whole process at the end of it all. Well, and I think one of the ways, and I'm not sure I've seen Democrats come up with a skillful way to tackle the extreme racism. and xenophobia that comes out of the right.

Like, I'm surprised, actually, that they went in, you know, in Kentucky with the socialism rather than immigrants are coming for your jobs, you know, which seems sort of like, you know, that's like hit number one, and it always kind of works, and everyone dances to it. It's a terrible song. But the point is, I think Democrats need not just an economic populist message, but also one that is inclusive, one that is anti-racist, and one that says, listen, all of these economic reforms help all of us, and they also primarily benefit people of color, working class people of color, and immigrants aren't stealing your jobs.

It's corporations who aren't actually giving a fair shake to their workers, who are taking away money from public education. It's governors who take millions of dollars out of the public education system that is a threat to your job and your stability. Yeah, I mean, look, again, just to give you an example of what I would do if I were playing offense, and that's at this point in the game, I really think it's the most important thing to do, is every time I suspect that anti-immigrant message is going to come up, I'm going to bring up the fact that Donald Trump hired foreign workers as soon as he got elected.

It was the first thing he did. He raised the cap on foreign workers, and then Trump properties immediately applied for over 70 foreign workers for their company, okay? What happened to America first? They're all lies, right? I would hit him with that before they can hit me. There's so much hypocrisy. Yeah.

It's rich. You can hit it all. So I remember when I was debating Ann Coulter at Politicon, someone in the audience who I knew was unfortunately seated around a bunch of her fans. And I brought up that thing about the foreign workers. And apparently a few of them were like, wait, is that true? They don't know. They don't know because it's not information that's ever given to them by the media that

they watch, certainly. So anyway, we gotta take a quick break. when we come back, we're going to give you Donald Trump's reaction to what happened in Kentucky last night. And then some other great developments that might have fallen through the cracks. If you're not paying close attention, I want to give you the details on that and more when we return. 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 wisdom and upend the historical narratives that were taught in school. For as the great philosopher Yoda once put it, You must have learned what you have learned. And that's true whether you're in Jedi training, or you're uprooting and exposing all the propaganda and disinformation you've been fed over the course of your lifetime. So search for UNFDR in your podcast app today, and get ready to get informed, angered, and entertained all at the same time. I love when we play that music, that, you know, coming back from break music, because it

reminds me of Anchorman every time. That particular tune? Yeah, 65% of the time it works every It seems somber and like bedtimey. It sounds like a 70s era, like, you know what I mean? Elevator music type thing. Yes, someone definitely got groped to that music. Oh my gosh. Sorry. All right, a few member comments and then a few announcements.

Colorado Blue Blazer Regular writes in and says, Franny is in the house with four exclamation marks, I believe, yes. A great panel with Anna and J.R. And now Franny, too, what a Wednesday. Do you like being called Franny? No. You can call me Frannes. Don't call me Frann.

Don't call me late. I never remember which one it is. Always get confused because Anna was giving you trouble last time. Whether it's Franny or Fran, I was like, which one is the best one? You got to earn a lot to call me Fran. Like, without even asking for permission. Like, no one gave me permission. I just started calling her friend.

She was like, mm. You're already going to be the godmother of my children, right, Anna? Sure. We're best friends. All right. I'm done. All right, nipple pierce jank in skinny jeans writes in and says, I don't think people understand if Bevin is not governor, he will be left at home unprotected against abuse

and poisoning. I hope you're all happy now. Yeah, also, jank has a nipple ring, so your joke. No, he doesn't. Actually, I don't know and I don't want to know. He might. Okay. Super inappropriate.

All right, so let's move on to a few announcements. L-Pen will be joining us on both the conversation and the Friday Power Panel. So make sure you check that out. So as you know, our Friday Power Panel will air as usual at our usual time. And then Jank will have a conversation with him to follow. They're gonna talk about Sunnyside on Netflix. He also previously served in Barack Obama's White House as assistant director of social engagement and is known for his roles in designated survivor, House, and Harold and Kumar.

Yeah, I was going to say, don't ask him about White Castle. I feel like it's one of those things, just don't bring it up. It's too old and he's done other stuff. I just feel like I would avoid it. Have you guys on this coast? Stop censoring journalists. Yeah, don't censor it. But have you guys had White Castle?

Oh, I grew up on White Castle. Okay, there you go. I haven't actually, but I'm curious about it. You haven't felt the slide? No, I have not felt the slide. It just slides down your throat. Oops. So it's like slimy?

No, it's like good. No, it's just not beef. One other real quick announcement, we are going to do another super chat post game show. So we're hosting a special hour long AskTyT anything super chat post game on Monday, November 11th. So use YouTube super chat to ask either me or Jank, any questions that you'd like. Everyone can watch starting at 8 p.m. Eastern time, 5 p.m. Pacific. So this will not be behind a paywall. Everyone will be able to watch this, but only the individuals participating on the YouTube

super chat can ask us the questions. Go to YouTube.com slash TYT to do just that. All right, let's move on to the rest of the news. Last night, Kentucky gubernatorial incumbent Matt Bevan lost to the Democratic Inspector General, Attorney General in the state, Andy Bashir. And this was bad news for Donald Trump, because Donald Trump had specifically campaigned on behalf of Matt Bevin, and Bevin still lost. Even though Bevin tried to nationalize this race and make it about Trump, the conservative

voters in Kentucky were not buying it. Now, Trump has come out to try to find a way to spin this in his favor. Before we get to a statement, though, I want to give you a little taste of his rally for Bevin just this past Monday. You gotta vote, because if you lose, it sends a really bad message. just sends a bed, and they will build it up. Here's the story, if you win, they're gonna make it like ho-hum. And if you lose, they're gonna say Trump suffered the greatest defeat in the history of the

world. This was the greatest. You can't let that happen to me. So it seems like he recognizes that Bevin losing signals something about Donald Trump's, not only popularity, but influence. Influence is the right word, right? So now he's saying via Twitter, no, no, no, it has not. Nothing to do with me, okay?

All right, we won big in the state of Kentucky. This is what his tweet said. Won five out of six elections in Kentucky, including five great candidates that I spoke for and introduced last night. Interesting how he doesn't mention any names there. Matt Bevin picked up at least 15 points in the last days, but perhaps not enough. Fake news will blame Trump. Right.

Look, I don't think anyone's blaming Trump for Bevin losing, but the fact that Bevin's attempt to piggyback off of Trump and nationalize that race, and the fact that it failed says something about Trump's influence. Oh, yeah. I just love that that rally just is, it's like his id, you know, just like inside every day, especially that that face, that perfectly square orange, like he's, it's just like him like farting on the toilet going, thinking about the impeachment going like, you can't let that happen in me.

Well, no, film me while I do this, please. You can't let that happen in me. That's Trump. That's all we're seeing. It's all about me, me, me, me, right? Oh yeah, I will make anything about me. Oh, is your niece having a birthday party? It's about me.

Because I'm also having a birthday party. I throw the best birthday parties for nieces. Like he'll find a way. Now, he also tweeted, our big Kentucky rally on Monday night had a massive impact on all the races. The increase in governor's race was at least 15 points and maybe 20. Why does he just like put out more numbers while he's at it? Maybe 50, maybe 50, why not? Yeah, Bevin was polling at 0% before I came in there and then he got all the way up to 48.

Just make it up. So let's go to Don Jr. attempting to distance his father from Matt Bevin. Hey, Don, Bevin was the most unpopular governor in the country, was once down 20 points. I like Matt Bevin. He's been a friend of mine. He's been a good guy. But he's picked a lot of battles. He's, you know, teed off on a lot of people in Kentucky.

That's not always popular. We understand how that works. Like I said, I think he's done a good job, but Matt Bevin has picked some fights. So this has nothing to do with Trump. The two really, I don't think, have that much to do with each other. This has nothing to do with Trump. I mean, Trump came in and attempted to save Bevin, but his influence wasn't significant enough to save him. He only said, now this is where the message should go.

Again, so, yeah, they won five out of those six out. Other ones, Trump has nothing to do with Bevin all of a sudden, even though we just heard him say, Trump has everything to do with Bevin on that night, I guess. But any other time, no, not at all. That, oh, he's been picking too many fights, he's totally unpopular. Again, why was Bevin unpopular? He signed laws to mandate ultrasounds and require health care providers to show patients pictures of fetuses before performing an abortion.

Remember when Trump was running for president and he was asked at one of those town halls, what do you think about women that may get an abortion? I think they should be punished. He said, what about the men? Maybe not. Sounds like he matches up with your policies. He also, there was a, they passed conservative labor laws, a right to work policy that undercut unions, replace their prevailing wage, guaranteed public work employees, base hours, cut all

that down. Sounds a lot like the Republican Party agenda altogether. He also successfully pursued a waiver from who the Trump administration to add work requirements, premiums, and co-payments to the Medicaid program. Sounds a lot like President Trump and his entire agenda. They're not separate. You can say, hey, he had those bad policies. These Trump Jr. goes on TV and says he was on property.

He was picking fights with teachers. He was stepping up against hard unions. That's what you guys do. When was the last time the Trump administration came out and said, oh man, these teachers they really need a pay raise, they haven't got one in 35 years. They don't do that. Bevan's policies are the Republican parties and especially this president's policies. Don't let him separate the two.

He follows the lead. What Republican doesn't follow the lead of Donald Trump? They all do. It's such a great point, JR. And there's a disconnect, because remember, voters in Kentucky might be in favor of voting Democratic candidates into office on a local level. But again, they have great disdain for Democrats on a national level. So there is a disconnect there because they tend to believe that Donald Trump is looking

out for their economic interest. But in reality, he's not. So there needs to be a better strategy on the left to make it abundantly clear that Donald Trump is not looking out for you, he's not looking, he's not even looking out for his base, Donald Trump looks out for himself, for the wealthy, and the swamp that he has infested his administration with. His entire administration and his candidacy has been a Trojan horse for a dying Republican party that didn't know how to package their bogus policies anymore.

And the last card that they had to play was the race card, it was the racist card, and they decided to play it with Trump. And it's actually not holding up for them as well as they thought it would because exactly, like mask off and guess what, they're against, you know, labor unions, mask off and they're against a woman deciding what to do with her own body. They're against raising the minimum wage and all of the same things. And their fourth tax breaks for the wealthy, et cetera. I just think what happens to the Republican Party, you know?

And like, who is going to roll out the red carpet when they decide to try and resuscitate themselves? when the Romney's and the flakes and whomever else, you know, they come back into the fold. Like, will it be Democrats? And that's what I'm afraid of. And I don't mean that to say, like, let's further drive a rift in our country. I mean that to say is there needs to be some kind of, I mean, atonement is the most ridiculous word that could come out of my mouth right now. But there's got to be a shift, there's got to be an understanding that this party, and

it's not just with the economic policies, with the impeachment, with the corruption. come out against the imp- or for the impeachment from the Republicans. Who said there was actually something wrong with offering or holding up aid to another country until they investigated your political rival? That is wrong. That is wrong. That's a high crime and misdemeanor right there. And I think the only person I can think of who still identifies as a Republican who came

out and said that this is wrong is Romney. Right. Right? Like I mean, Justin Amash does not identify as a Republican anymore. They kicked him out, so he's an independent now. This is the guy who read the full Mueller report. He read the Mueller report, he was like, oh, oh, this is, you guys, this is really bad, right? We shouldn't be for this.

And they're like, get out of here, we're done with you. That's not a Republican thing to do. Yeah. So look, even though I disagree with Justin Amash on just about everything, he's as conservative as conservative can be, conservatives can be, I give him credit for at least being principled and caring about the rule of law. I mean, you hear Republicans claim they care about the rule of law. Donald Trump said he was the law and order candidate when he was running.

We all know that that is the furthest thing from the truth. And I guess what I mean is accountability, I'm sorry. And the last thing I'll say is it's not just the amount that the Republicans have hitched their horse to Trump goes far deeper than I think we even know at this point. But we have to remember these two Giuliani goons who are arrested, you know, like Thumbace One and Thumb Face 2, they were arrested for funneling campaign money into Republican campaigns into Republican PACs, not just Donald Trump packs, but other Republican packs. And so it's like everyone's touched the dirty money, like everyone's got it on them.

So what? They have nowhere to go but down. There's no way they can get out of this other than doubling down on a corrupt president. You gotta keep them, keep their feet to the fire, as you were mentioning earlier. So also, to be fair to Trump, by law and order president, he meant he's seen every episode. Yeah. That was good, that was good, that was really good. All right, we got to move on to the next story.

And this is a little bit of a roundup that I think is important to share with you all, because it talks about all the little accomplishments the Democrats made last night that might not be getting as much attention. So Trump's taking the main election day headlines, especially. because Virginia has flipped the legislative control for Republicans to Democrats, and then when it comes to Kentucky, the governor's race went from Republican Matt Bevin to Democrat, Andy Bashir, even though Bevin still refuses to concede that he lost. Now, there were a bunch of other things that happened during the election yesterday that I want

to share with you, and this is really great news. Because of all the gains that were made for Democrats in both Virginia and Kentucky, Medicaid work requirements were defeated at the ballot box last night. That is a headline from the Washington Post, and it's absolutely true. So the Trump administration can only do so much in carrying out its vision for the Medicaid program, which includes requiring able-bodied enrollees to work or volunteer and generally trying to limit further dependence on public benefits by discouraging Medicaid expansion. To accomplish its goals for Medicaid, the Trump administration needs the help of state political

leaders and election results in Kentucky and Virginia yesterday made that less likely as Democrats widened their control in those states. There's constant proof that it's all connected. Again, exactly what that was saying. You need these guys to head up these states to control that agenda, to make sure you reject that for the people of each state. We talked about how these states reject what happened with the, when Obamacare was trying to actually do something, even though didn't do enough.

And they said, let's reject it, make sure that it's a failure, at least in our state, so the people here can be suffering, and then we say that's Obama's fault. When we just rejected what's going to come in the state to help, continue to link the two because people don't have the time to analyze it. It seems pretty simple. Let them know. Yeah, and I think just going off of that, let's just clarify here, and it's something that I didn't really know, but that under Obamacare, Medicaid, which is healthcare for the poorest

Americans, was expanded, right? And that means, actually, that the federal government will pay for 90% of Medicaid expansion costs. So it's not even going back to the state taxpayers anymore, right? And 14 states, Republican states, have not expanded Medicaid. They rejected that money. It was federal money. Yes.

Look, the Affordable Care Act did have wonderful components, and that was one of those wonderful components. Obama essentially said in the way that that law was written, hey, you know what? The federal government with its resources wants to help state and local governments expand Medicaid, and so we're gonna help fund that to the tune of 90%. And you have these Republican governors from red states, obviously, give the federal government the middle finger and say, no, we're gonna allow people in our state. state to go without health care.

Right. Right. People die under that type of thinking, and it's disgusting that they did that. So finally, there is some retaliation. And there has been, in 2018, also in the midterms, you saw in a couple of states, red states, there were ballot initiatives and ballot measures where they put it to the people, and the people were like, yes, Medicaid expansion. Exactly.

He just got to complain about Matt Bevan being of pain because he kept asking for money for things in the state. You didn't take that money that was coming to your state, though. Things that are part of law already. Democrats have taken control of Columbus, Indiana. That's actually his hometown. And so again, you're seeing these elections that are flipping from red to blue all over the place, including in areas where people like Mike Pence grew up.

Also, two other great wins. I don't know if you guys remember this story, but there was a woman named Julie Briskman. She was a woman who flipped off Donald Trump's mortarcade shortly after he was inaugurated. There's one of the headlines that CNN put out there. And so we're not going to show you the photo, but she got fired from her government job as a result of that photo going viral. And she decided to run for a local race, and she won. So she is now a district supervisor in Virginia, okay?

So she says healthcare doesn't pass, but you try to dismantle it from the inside. 500 people get shot in Las Vegas, you're doing nothing about it. You know, white supremacists have this big march and hurt a bunch of people down in Charlottesville, and you call them good people. So she's noting all of the issues on the right. And these are the types of issues that encourage people to go to the polls and retaliate. Honest politicians would pay attention to the fact that she ran on those types of things. But I haven't heard it yet, because I haven't listened very closely, but what people's

reactions are to her winning, but they'd say, this is the woman who flipped off the president. And that's why she won, because there's this much hate and division in the country. No, she had an agenda she's running on that actually paid attention to the American people. You can try and blow it off all you want because of that one instance. She was fired for that, is actually the story behind that. Not that's what she was elected. She was elected for other reasons outside of that. And then I want to end on what happened in Lewiston, Maine.

They actually hired Somali immigrant, which is great news. And she had been targeted by online trolls. So this is, her name is Safia Khalid. She's a Somali immigrant who ran for city council in Lewiston, Maine. And online trolls from as far away as Alabama and Mississippi, unsurprising, were hurling vile abuse at her, telling her that Muslims had no place in American government and she should go back to to where she came from. Well, she wasn't buying it.

She ran, she won, and this is really great news. I saw Representative Ilhan Omar tweet support toward her, which was wonderful to see as well. Look, this is really great to see because there's been so much fearmongering toward the powerless, the disenfranchised, people of color, and to see voters get energized to come out and defend these very groups of people is important. And it's also, let's keep it real, it's important to have representation in local government, in Congress, you know, there's so many, you know, Muslims in the country, Muslim women in the country who haven't received much representation at all.

So to see an increasing number of lawmakers get elected with that background is good to see. Yeah, and at a time when it's, you know, it's easy to, I mean, I think a lot of immigrants around the country and a lot of religious minorities are feeling, you know, like, well, maybe Maybe we should just, maybe this country isn't for us, maybe we should hide. You know, maybe we should make ourselves small. I think that elected representatives like this woman show that, no, make yourselves big, make yourselves known, represent as broad and as narrow a swath of people as you want, and that actually just your policies are what matters.

Exactly, and don't let the trolls intimidate you. That's exactly what they want, and it just makes me really proud to see women fight back like this. All right, we're gonna take our break, but when we come back, we are gonna discuss how Lindsay Graham not only move the goalposts when it comes to evidence for Donald Trump's impeachment, he has gotten rid of the goalposts altogether. He doesn't even want to see evidence pertaining to this investigation. We'll give you the details when we return.

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Hear me now, quote me later, the Kentucky General Assembly will vote to remove powers from the governor before Bashir is sworn in, just like they did in North Carolina. I'm really glad you mentioned that. I think, JR, you mentioned that as well during our production meeting, how they like to strip All the power from a Democratic governor, incoming governor. Happened in North Carolina, right? Yeah. Exactly.

Mariguana's number three fan. Why is it Repub's always make beards look horrible? Trump Jr. looks horrible in a beard. Yeah, you know, it's, that is interesting. That in comedy. So, yes. But so that means Ted Cruz. Oh, Ted Cruz's beard is, I feel assaulted by it every time I see it.

I mean, I just feel like anything that covers his face a little bit more. But that's the thing. You would think it'd be good to cover his case. Right, right. Everyone's trying to get their gorka on, but no one can do it. You need the accent to go. All right, in a few TYT lives. I bathe in Tommy Laren's tears.

That election was all about Trump. That's why Democrats actually won. I totally agree with you. Ecclectic miscellania says, Francesca is right. Where are all the people of good conscience in the GOP fighting against Trump's racism and corruption? Either what's left of the Republican Party are cowards, racist, corrupt are all three. Yeah, 100%.

They care about their political careers way more than they care about anything else, including their so-called values and principles. I mean, they're so afraid of Donald Trump coming after them on Twitter, and that means that their reelection is in jeopardy, right? That's all they care about. Look, the only reason why Romney is okay with timidly criticizing Donald Trump is because he doesn't have to worry about reelection for like five, six years, you know? He's like, maybe he's hoping he'll be gone by then.

Can I mention one thing? Brenda also, Heart of Life 77. She did mention the Paseo thing with the MLK Street name, said the Paseo change was done just randomly by the city council, not by votes of the people. So if that's the case, I apologize to her implicating the people of Kansas. It was a Kansas City. Missouri, yeah. Yeah, apparently it was the city council area.

I mean, I'm going off of this tweet. We can maybe look into it more, but. Okay, sorry about that. I called them, we'll look into it. Racists. All right. Either way, like the fact that that's even story. The fact that someone was doing, it just wasn't the voters, that it was the city council.

Yeah. Well, let's move on to impeachment related news. Senator Lindsey Graham, although very critical of Donald Trump during the election in 2015, has decided to be a Donald Trump sycophant. And nothing makes that clear than his defense of Donald Trump in this impeachment investigation. Now, if you can recall earlier, Lindsay Graham made some declarations about how this impeachment investigation has no evidence, which is why he's supportive of Donald Trump. In fact, let's give you a little taste of what he had previously said.

If you're looking for a circumstance where the President of the United States was threatening the Ukraine with cutting off aid unless they investigate his political opponent, you would be very disappointed. That does not exist. Well, it turns out that evidence does in fact exist. It exists in the form of actual testimony given by actual Trump administration officials. People like Bill Taylor, who was the U.S. ambassador, people like Gordon Sondland, the EU ambassador. People like Lieutenant Colonel Midman, who said that there absolutely was quid pro quo.

I mean, the list goes on and on. You have more and more Trump administration officials, both current and former Trump administration administration officials testifying before these House committees to say this was wrong, yes, there was quid pro quo, right? Now, what does Lindsey Graham have to say about this overwhelming evidence? Well, Lindsay Graham, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, doesn't plan on reading the transcripts of testimony from former special envoy to Ukraine, Kurt Volker, or EU ambassador Gordon Sondland, declaring the entire deposition and impeachment process

B.S. Graham dismissed Sondland's apparent reversal in which he now admits he thought Ukraine aid was tied to Ukraine making a public anti-corruption statement. And I want to, by the way, clarify that for a second. It's not just that Ukraine needed to make a public anti-corruption statement. Ukraine had to publicly announce that they were launching an investigation into the Bidens, okay, Donald Trump's political opponent. So I didn't like the wording there, that CBS used, be very specific about what the Trump administration demanded here. Now, in regard to that, Graham suggested he doesn't care what any bureaucrat like Sondland thinks. By the way, Sondland, not a bureaucrat. In fact, he was a huge Trump supporter and donated

$1 million to Donald Trump's inaugural fund. So to say that he's just some lame bureaucrat or some partisan who's out to get Trump is absolutely ridiculous. He spent a million dollars stupidly of his own money to support a criminal, and now he's wrapped up in this impeachment investigation. And he looks like the dodo bird from runaway bird, you know, with Sesame Street. Like that, like that, anyway. I said that bad for that poor dodo bird. Like the aging, oh no, he was mean, it was the mean dodo bird. You guys tweet me, tweet me, no pun intended.

Also Marie Yovanovitch, let's not, which my favorite thing about, you know, this is the week where we're seeing the transcripts, right? They're being released, and then the actual public testimony. is going to happen next week in terms of these same people, which, mind you, none of these people are the whistleblower. Like, this is what I love about these testimonies, like, they're not the whistleblower, and they're saying all the same things the whistleblower said. So, wow, you just gotta go to bat against all of these career officials, who I have to

say, at this point, I'm like, you know what, good for you, like, thank you. They couldn't scoop the State Department out and just like, you know, completely empty it out. I know there's nothing but bramble in there at this point, but there's something like 20% haven't been hired up still in the State Department. But still, there were some officials and they pay attention. And they know a crime and they know when something's crossed the line when they see it. My favorite part though is Yovanovitch says that Sondland, the EU ambassador, told her, because she was like, I think that I'm being set up essentially, they're trying to remove me

for my job because I won't play ball. Because I won't play ball. And I'm sort of raising concerns about this strategy to strong arm Ukraine. And Sondland was like, I don't know, tweet something about Trump. No, tweet something, applauding or praising. Praising was the word, praise Trump on Twitter so you can secure your job. How too pathetic is that? You're golden.

So when you bring up things like, well, Lindsey Graham brought up, I don't believe bureaucrats like that, because what, Sondland is only bureaucrat in Washington? Absolutely. They're simply bureaucrats like that, meaning ones that don't help out his agenda or his lies. So, I mean, bureaucrats like Barr, bureaucrats like Mike Pompeo. They're doing great. No, those bureaucrats are totally on-th-and-up. They're not bureaucrats, apparently.

And also, so you just, you go with those hot words. But remember the t-shirts behind Trump and, was it, in Kentucky? Read the transcripts. Read the transcripts. Hey, let's send Lindsey Graham a whole bunch of those t-shirts. Read the transcripts. Read the transcripts. Because, I mean, until you want to find out what really happened.

I don't, I don't do worse, I don't, I tried them, I don't like them. It's like cottage cheese to me. He is such a spineless, self-interested, corrupt, terrible politician. That's who he is. His face reminded me a lot, those close-ups, I wasn't prepared for them. Just like silly putty, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to go superficial on them, but it's just. Well, let's go from one giant Republican disappointment to the next. Senator Rand Paul has decided to make a big deal about the identity of the whistleblower.

This is the individual who filed a formal complaint in regard to Donald Trump's phone conversation with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. Now, in that phone conversation, it was clear that Trump wanted Zelensky to dig up dirt on his political rival, Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. Now, Rand Paul has started regurgitating what Trump has said. Trump wants to retaliate against this whistleblower. The whistleblower at this point is irrelevant because now you have more and more evidence, including Trump administration officials coming out and testifying that what Donald Trump

did was wrong and that there was quid pro quo involved. So they have corroborated what the whistleblower has said in his formal complaint. And the federal government is supposed to protect his identity if he or she wishes to remain anonymous. But you have Rand Paul running around town arguing that I know, I know the identity and you know what, I might reveal it. I might reveal the identity of this whistleblower because I'm trying to cozy up to Trump because I want to make sure that Republican voters reelect me in the future, right? So asked why he hasn't disclosed the name of the official individual, Paul told reporters that he probably will. Then he said, I'm more than willing to

and I probably will at some point. There is no law preventing anybody from saying the same. He actually doubled down on these types of statements in his appearance on Brett Baer's show on Fox. Take a look. But you don't think this is dangerous to actually out the whistleblower? I mean, the president has said that he's a treasonous and a traitor. I think that the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution is very clear. And I think that what we should have.

All right, so let's go to E2, please. What about this concern that protecting whistleblowers overall, if you name this person, suddenly jeopardizes other things? Let's go back to 2014. Campaign for Liberty, founded by your dad, you say this. We've got so many millions of government contractors that when they see something wrong, they should be able to report it without repercussions. Your dad, Ron Paul, says, I think we should praise our whistleblowers. Ron Paul said to applause, adding people like Edward Snowden should be rewarded. Absolutely.

If those statements are true, why are you doing what you're doing that? I agree completely with it, but we were defending Edward Snowden, who I still defend, and I think he should have gotten whistleblower status. Most of the people defending the current whistleblower wanted to lock up Edward Snowden and hang him or execute him. So yes, the whistleblower statute should protect people. Only the whistleblowers that you like? No, they should protect him.

I want Edward Snowden protected so he's not executed. I want him protected. What about this guy? I don't want him executed either. I don't think he should be fired, but I've got. I agree with what Lindsey Graham said in your lead in, and that is that it's a protection from being fired, it's not a protection to be anonymous, particularly if it's going to be a criminal case.

Once you have a crime, there is a constitutional protection that you have to confront your accuser. So there are different standards depending on which whistleblower he likes, right? So there are certain whistleblowers that deserve protections as long as they go along with something I believe. But when it comes to, let's keep it real, it's not even about liking a whistleblower or disliking a whistleblower, it's about Rand Paul's political career. It's about appealing to Trump's base, that's all this is about.

If Trump's base was in favor of protecting this whistleblower's identity, then he would fight to protect the whistleblower's identity. Again, the whole purpose of revealing this individual's name is so people can attack him or her, right? I don't know who this person is, and I have no interest in reading any of the disgusting right-wing media that's putting names out there. When Brett Bayer, like, catches you in a lie and points on your hypocrisy, I mean, pack it in. I know, right?

The walking date rape drug just like called me a hypocrite. Brett Beyer looks like a walking date rape drug. That's what I just said, and I stand by it. The point is, is that like, even Fox News, I think they're like, all right, how much disbelief am I going to enter into here, you know, in order to continue allowing Republicans to just say whatever they feel like, I don't know where this ends. Where does this go? You keep moving the lie.

You just continue to move the lie. So he brought up this, maybe Craig, if I'm wrong, we're still in an impeachment inquiry, am I right? Yeah. It's not a criminal investigation. It's not a criminal trial. It's a political process. Is Donald Trump up, does he have, are they about to sentence him if they convict him

of these crimes? No. The Sixth Amendment says the very first phrase, in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial and on and on and also a council and also gets to face his accuser. That's what Rand Paul keeps referring to. The Sixth Amendment, the Sixth Amendment, the Constitution requires you to face your accusers. In a criminal prosecution, it's not what this is.

This is to investigate his lawlessness so we can see if we're going to put him up and then impeach him. And even if you impeach him, he's not even necessarily going to be taken out of office yet. So to keep shifting the reality of the situation, when he spoke to a reporter, I forget which networks he was from, he goes, you have to get your facts straight, you have to get your facts straight. You see, I can do all this because the Sixth Amendment.

Sixth Amendment, it doesn't matter if we're endangering the life of this whistleblower. The Sixth Amendment, these are two different things. So you wanna go with the law, at least read it first before you start lambasting other people for not reading it. Yeah, and I mean, I think Bayer apologies for what I said about you, but he does have a point, which is that, and I think for people on the left and the right, and it doesn't really matter what your party is, but, you know, having a double standard around with whistleblowers is not okay, right?

And we should be protecting whistleblowers. But I mean, for example, the Republican Party, when Assange released, you know, video of Blackwater, right? You know, killing civilians, like, okay, Assange is a pariah, we hate him. And then when Assange releases stuff around Hillary Clinton, Trump talks about him at every rally. I love Assange. Juliena, WikiLeaks.

I know. Wiki, wika, wika, wika, wiki. So you can't, you can't just bend whatever. I mean, listen, I think Assange has gone off the deep end a little bit. I also think that he should not be necessarily, I don't know what, I don't know if he should be extradited, et cetera, but you can't have it both ways, you know, right? Whistleblowers should be protected. You can't change where you stand on various issues based on whether it helps your political

agenda. And you see that happening certainly on the right. And one thing that I wanted to just quickly mention, look, who is. Who knows what other questionable things Donald Trump has done while in office? I think this is also his way of intimidating future whistleblowers from coming forward. This is a form of intimidation. This is what he's doing, that's all it is. Because he knows that the evidence is out there.

I mean, he knows that there are people testifying against him right now. I mean, he's putting out this argument that he wants to be able to confront his accuser, right? That's what he wants to do. There are accusers right now. You know them by name. You know them by name. How come you don't want to confront them? It's because it's not about defending yourself.

It's not about confronting them. It's about preventing other whistleblowers from coming forward. Because I have no doubt in my mind, there were other things going on in that administration that were questioned. And to ignore the law and since it's happening. Instead, again, we talked about four, it's not about the content, it's about the process they're going to tag. This whistleblowers is anonymous.

The whistleblowers, hey, I tweeted earlier, I can name several whistleblowers, Gordon Sondland, Bill Taylor, Alex Vindman, Mark, Mick Mulvaney, Rudy Giuliani, and Donald Trump, they've all outed you because you all said, hey, this was a quid pro quo, we do this. That's what Mick Mulvaney said. We do this all the time. We do it all the time. I mean, there is no depth to the syphilitic dream and, like, nightmare that we're in. It's everyone just living inside of Trump's brain or outside of it.

That's all there is. Do you live inside his brain or do you live outside of his brain? I mean, I think every Republican needs to answer that question. All right. Well, Francesca Furentini, thank you for joining us. This was great. And J.R. Jackson, check them out on social media. It was a pleasure. Tweets.

We will be back with a whole new panel. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen to ad-free, access members, only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon. Thank you.