The Young Turks - Ugly Greed

Episode Date: May 18, 2023

Speaker Kevin McCarthy goes viral after inadvertently touting Biden’s border wins vs Trump. The ugly truth behind “we buy ugly houses.” A monthly fee for heated seats? Car subscriptions are coming — whether Americans like them or not. Ex-Rep. Kurt Schrader goes to K Street. The New Republic has learned that with little fanfare and less explanation, the White House has stopped requesting that American think tanks disclose funding from foreign governments. HOST: Ana Kasparian (@AnaKasparian) SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE: ☞ https://www.youtube.com/user/theyoungturks FACEBOOK: ☞ https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER: ☞ https://www.twitter.com/theyoungturks INSTAGRAM: ☞ https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK: ☞ https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕 Merch: https://shoptyt.com 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. The new BMO ViPorter MasterCard is your ticket to more. More perks. More points. More flights. More of all the things you want in a travel rewards card.

And then some. Get your ticket to more with the new BMO ViPorter MasterC. and get up to $2,400 in value in your first 13 months. Terms and conditions apply. Visit bemo.com slash the iPorter to learn more. It's off. What's up. What's up, everyone, welcome to TY, I'm your host, Anna Kasparian, and

And today, we are going to touch on some controversial issues. Of course, there's a housing related story that you definitely need to know about in the first hour. And if you have any loved ones who are elderly and they're looking to sell their homes, just make sure that they're privy to the story that I'm gonna share with you today. We're also gonna talk about the migrant crisis, which is in fact impacting various cities across the country. And to be quite frank with you, I think the response from the Biden administration and congressional Democrats has been weak to say the least. And I'll make my case in just a little bit. In the second hour, John Iderola will be joining in to, well, there's a lot to get to.

We're gonna talk about Jimmy Fallon's workers and some of the terrible notices they've been getting about the future of their employment for his show. We're also going to talk a little bit about what's transpired. transpiring with the gaming industry. There's a big settlement to the tune of $100 million that I want to tell you all about. And one of my favorite stories today actually has to do with Candace Owens, defending herself over a decision she made about her own children. You got to stay tuned to figure out what that is. But as always, just want to encourage you all to like and share the stream if you're watching us live. You can also become a member by clicking on that join button if you're watching us on YouTube.

Or you can go to tyt.com slash join and become a member. That way, members help to keep us afloat, keep us independent of any corporate influence. And more importantly, you guys get awesome members-only content, bonus episodes. I feel like we've been killing it lately with bonus episodes. We've been having fun. We've been keeping it light. You know, Jank and I randomly had a debate about capitalism last week that you should definitely check out. Lots of fun stuff. So anyway, with all that said, let's get to this immigration issue

because it's quite a doozy. You should know about it. And what happened this weekend? A person on the terrorist watch list from Afghanistan was just coming across this border. Why? You know, we caught more people in the month of February on the terrorist watch list than we caught the entire time of the last administration. I don't think that's the insult to the Biden administration, he thinks it is. Now, Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy very likely didn't realize it at the time. But saying that the Biden administration has caught more terrorists at the southern border than the Trump administration had, isn't the own he thinks it is.

Now, of course, the main objective for McCarthy was to trash the Biden administration after Title 42 came to an end. Now, the measure, which was implemented under the Trump administration, cited the coronavirus pandemic as the excuse to avoid having to process asylum seekers and also allowed for automatic deportations before migrants could even have their case heard before an immigration judge. Now that Title 42 has been lifted, the southern border has experienced an influx of people hoping to make their asylum case. While McCarthy's accidental admission is pretty funny, it would be a massive mistake for Democrats to just snicker and think that they're making the right moves on the migrant crisis.

In fact, go to New York, New York City specifically, or Chicago, and you'll get a completely different story. Rallies and protests have sprung up after local communities have learned that the little resources they have to care for their own residents must now be stretched even thinner to provide services for migrants. Border processing centers slam. Newly released court documents reveal more than 6,400 migrants were released into the U.S. last Thursday and Friday. In Chicago, there are now pop-up showers for migrants living in police stations.

While in New York City, parents and even students are protesting a new plan to temporarily house asylum seekers in school gyms. What worries you most? I don't know these people. Why can't send them someplace else? The immigration debate now spilling into the suburbs, too. Orange County, New York, granted a temporary restraining order, stopping more migrants from being bused the local hotels for now.

The county executive says homeless veterans were pushed out of hotel housing early to make way. The 20 11 veterans that were displaced, that really sends a bad message. You can't just drop a Bon Chalano and kick them back out to the streets. Leave the veterans alone. No, that's that's a disaster. In fact, New York is so overwhelmed with migrants that they need to shelter that Mayor Eric Adams is now saying that he wants to loosen right to shelter laws in New York. That is not good. Now Biden knew this was coming and his administration clearly did little to prepare for it.

At the height of the humanitarian crisis on Monday, more than 3,300 unprocessed migrants were left in squalor on El Paso streets, even while there were beds available in shelters. That number of unhoused people creates a powder keg of problems amid the desperation, local leaders say. Trash and excrement, the potential for migrants to be targeted for prostitution and a trapped population for human smugglers. If there are beds and shelters available in El Paso, why aren't they being used to house migrants? I mean, it makes no sense, right? Well, there's a little known flaw in how resources can be utilized that the Biden administration could do something about,

but they won't. The federal government only reimburses shelters that help migrants who have been processed and have the right documents. Since the funding stream was created in 2019, it was intended for migrants who had been processed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. It was not supposed to cover food and shelter for migrants who entered illegally and have not sought asylum. In other words, federal resources cannot be spent on undocumented immigrants. Before 2019, FEMA would actually reimburse programs that helped all migrants and did not limit resources to documented migrants. In 2022, John Martin, who runs Martin's Opportunity Center in El Paso, Texas, specifically

asked President Biden if there could be an exception made for shelters specifically in border towns. So far, the answer is no. Government and non-profit organizations at the U.S.-Mexico border say the federal government has tied their hands with a funding stream that only reimburses them for aiding documented migrants. But are their hands actually tied? Or is there just, you know, this lack of will to cut the red tape? Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the restriction tying that funding to migrants processed by DHS, is necessary and appear to suggest NGOs should tackle the problem on their own.

Wow, just great plan. Now, Biden could have spent the last year fighting to change the rule or push for much needed immigration reform. But Sleepy Joe couldn't be bothered, I guess. Martin also told USA today that it's not just El Paso. It's every community along the southern border. The city and county and NGOs are all working together. It's a very good response system to the need, but now we've got the federal laws working

against us. And look, the consequences for border communities and the migrants are dire to say the least. Father Daniel Mora, who opens the doors of El Paso's historic Sacred Heart Catholic Church to the migrants, notes that, quote, people are eating. only once a day, end quote. Not only is this a horrifying humanitarian crisis, but Biden bungling this is a huge political liability for Democrats who have taken the core of their base for granted, honestly for far too long. Take the residents of Chicago's Southside as an example. They recently found out that a high school that's been abandoned in their neighborhood

would be used to house hundreds of migrants. South Shore community advocate Natasha Dunn argues that her community is already struggling with poverty, crime, and a lack of resources. They have intentionally created barriers to impede participation in a decision-making process around the public school buildings. We pay taxes to maintain and that they unjustly close and ignoring the community's plea to keep them open. Communication regarding meetings that have been held have been lackluster. What kind of Jim Crow stuff is this? All black holders, all black stakeholders that have concerns should have been afforded

the adequate space and notice and decision which ultimately impacts are the value of our land, safety and peace. We have been redlined, Jim Crowe, pushed out enough. And look, if the federal government continues to fail to pass any comprehensive immigration reform and the Biden administration fails to provide the resources these communities need in order to take in an influx of migrants, obviously you're going to have a problem. And by the way, something I've noticed is, usually these migrants are sent to the poorer parts of these cities where the residents in those areas have to deal with the consequences with little to no resources to do so. They're not sending migrants to the wealthier parts of Chicago or the wealthier parts of Manhattan.

Now, while Texas Governor Greg Abbott has no doubt used desperate human beings as pawns in his disgusting political game, The ongoing efforts to bus migrants to democratically run cities is proving a devastating point about democratic leadership. It's easy for politicians from the left side of the aisle to pat themselves on the back by declaring their jurisdiction sanctuaries for migrants, especially when they're not governing border towns and had mostly been untouched by the migrant crisis. They love to engage in the theater, but they don't like to actually work on policy. But now that they're confronted by the realities that states like Texas have been dealing with,

they actually have to, you know, put some thought behind policy instead of just engaging in self-righteous posturing. And if they don't do so soon, I predict an increasing number of Democratic voters who tend to be sympathetic to migrants will slowly switch to endorsing right wing approaches on immigration, which are transparently much more cruel. Congressional Republicans, for instance, don't want to spend any federal dollars on any migrants. For the GOP, it doesn't even matter if the migrants are documented or not.

Other Republican lawmakers want to severely limit legal avenues for asylum. If Democrats only engage in theater, the GOP will win over hearts and minds on this issue. The scary thing is that we don't have a strong, savvy or even competent Democratic Party working to prevent that. So one thing that's very noticeable is if you watch, let's say, MSNBC, they pretend as though everyone's happy with how the Biden administration is handling this, that everyone in these democratically run cities is welcoming migrants with open arms.

They're super happy about what's going on. That is not the case. I can totally understand the frustrations that these communities are feeling. They are not bad people for protesting. They need resources. They need assistance with this. They need help. And so far, they've got nothing.

Because again, we're dealing with a federal government that engages in theater endlessly, postures and does all sorts of rhetorical garbage in order to pander to voters. But when push comes to shove, are they actually accomplishing what needs to be accomplished to deal with issues that we're facing in this country, including this migrant crisis? The answer is no. And if Biden thinks he's going to win against a Republican candidate, very likely Donald Trump, on this issue, he would be mistaken. It's time for them to get serious about doing something about this, about actually fighting

back against the Republican Party when on one hand, they say, they want to do something about immigration reform, but on the other hand, they try to obstruct any efforts. So call them out, work harder, fight them on this. But we haven't seen any of that, and local communities are suffering as a result. All right, we got to take a quick break. When we come back, I'm going to tell you about how those signs you might have come across saying that they'll buy your ugly house, they might for a very, very low price and essentially. rob you. That and more coming up. So here we go, here you have it.

Chances are you've been confronted by a bandit or two in your life. They're ugly, illegal, and can really destroy the aesthetic of your neighborhood. And while they might seem bold and bright, you should make no mistake. Some of them are definitely trying to rob you. Here's a bandit sign from a company known as home vesters. Signs like these are known as bandit signs and are according to, new reporting from ProPublica, they're pretty aptly named. ProPublica has revealed that the business practices of Home Vestors of America, which is the

company behind the We Buy Ugly Houses Bandit Signs, are predatory and have robbed some Americans of their homes, financial security, and peace of mind. Now, Home Vestors of America is a franchise in the so-called wholesale real estate business and And its franchisees, like all business owners, seek to maximize their profits. But in this business model, profits are reliant on buying distressed properties for the lowest price possible to then sell for the highest price possible. And unlike other home flippers, wholesalers usually don't do renovations before selling the property to a buyer. According to ProPublica, HomeVestors of America was founded in 1996 by a Texas

real estate broker who developed a system for snapping up so-called problem properties. Since then, the business grew to nearly 1,150 franchises and 48 states. Homevesters likes to think of its business model as somehow above the fray. Homevesters, the self-proclaimed largest home buyer in the United States goes to great lengths to distinguish itself from the hedge funds and YouTube gurus that have taken over large swaths of the real estate investment market. The company says it helps homeowners out of jams, ugly houses and ugly situations, improving lives and communities by taking on properties no one else would buy. But honestly, HomeVestor sounds a lot like the YouTube gurus it seeks to differentiate itself from. Low-balling home sellers is the name of the game.

And Rick Jin, who hosts a home flipping YouTube channel called Flip with Rick, is pretty candid about it. When you make your initial offer on any wholesale or really any investment deal, remember, wholesaling's about getting the absolute best price to maximize the profit in any type of real estate deal. When you make your first offer, it should be embarrassingly low. How do I know it's low, Rick? I'll let me tell you this. When you feel brutally uncomfortable and actually a little bit nervous and scared, you were definitely in the right place. If you thought making a lowball offer is gut-wrenching, if you make too high of an offer on your first one and they say yes right off the bat, I got to tell you, it is a helpless feeling. I have done this. I have done this.

multiple times and I learned my lesson. That feeling of making an offer too much is so much worse than that awkward, uncomfortable lowball offer in the beginning. If you were going to make a $100,000 offer and you were like fine with it, drop it down to like 60. Rick, $40,000, that's insane. Well, let me ask you this. What if they take your previous offer? Say you're going to offer $100,000. And they say yes. That means you left $40,000 on the table. If low-balling people who are looking to sell their homes is the main ingredient in maximizing profits, there's inevitably going to be some gross conduct taking place, especially if the investors are looking for sellers in desperate situations. Take what happened to one of the

elderly homeowners who was profiled by ProPublica named Corrine Casanova. Casanova and her husband bought their Los Angeles bungalow in the 1960s, and after dutifully paying her mortgage for decades, she owned it outright. But her husband had since passed away, and in 2016, she was looking to sell her biggest asset and move into an assisted living facility. So she decided to call the number she saw on a home vesters ad. Soon she found herself working with a guy named Cory Evans, who ProPublica describes as well versed in the Home Vestors of America Playbook. In the two years prior, Evans executed more than 50 deals by finding homeowners who needed to sell fast because they were in a desperate situation. When it comes to Casanova, there was a big

problem. She was 82 years old and was suffering from dementia. In fact, a recent neurological assessment had found the 82-year-old was unable to say what year it was or named the city she was in. She routinely mistook her adult son for his uncle. When she cross paths with Evans in an effort to sell her home, the deal was anything but for Casanova. By the time he left that evening, Evans had a contract to buy the house for roughly two thirds of its value. Casanova's son David decided to, you know, pay for an appraisal after learning about the contract his mother had signed. The appraisal put the home's value at $440,000, a whopping $165,000 more than Evans had offered. The contract would spur years of legal battles and

heartache. David, her son, let Evans know that his mother had dementia and wanted to cancel the sale. But Evans didn't care and in fact decided to record a notice on the home's title that prevented the Casanovas from selling to another buyer. The family suddenly found themselves in a multi-year legal battle to keep the home. Corrine Casanova died just 19 days after she signed the contract to sell her home for much less than it was worth. And unfortunately, stories like these are, they're not that rare. Katie Southerd owned a HomeVestors franchise in North Carolina and candidly admitted to ProPublicla that when it comes to sellers, quote, you're always lying to them.

That's what we were trained. There was a price that you could pay, but you would always. go lower and tell them that was the price you could pay. There are many examples to prove this point. A man in Broward County, Florida, believed he was signing a document for a home equity loan that in reality was a contract to sell his $100,000 house for just $37,500, according to a lawsuit he filed, but ultimately abandoned. A woman in Arizona said in an interview, she was told her late mother's home in

a popular outdoor recreation town would have to be torn down and rebuilt to fetch a fair price. After paying her just $10,000, the home vester's franchise sold it for 55,000 without making any improvements. One court case documented the plight of an elderly man in Florida who was told if he sold his condo he could continue living there temporarily. But he spent his final days alive waiting to be evicted because after the contract was signed, the franchise owner informed him, the homeowners association rules didn't allow him to stay in the property. As if these specific cases aren't tragic and heart wrenching enough, ProPublica notes that some homeowners fought from hospital beds to keep their properties. At least three died shortly

after signing sales contracts. A fourth died after three years of worrying about money. Their families told ProPublica that they aren't convinced that the stress of losing their houses contributed to their loved ones' deaths, though all had been ill. Homefester swears that lying is against its code of ethics and that they specifically train franchisees to stay away from sellers who show signs of mental decline. But its training manuals teach something known as the Sandler system. Central to the sales strategy is building rapport with homeowners in order to find the pain. Pain is always a form of motivation, the training

manual reads. Once you find the seller's pain, you have a much better chance of buying the house. They look for circumstances that can lead to a quick sale, like a job loss, pending foreclosure, or overwhelming medical bills. One former franchisee described how he found a potential Atlanta seller's pain by asking the homeowner why he needed to sell so fast. The answer? His mother was living out her final days in hospice 1,400 miles away. It's not because they want to sell the house, the former franchise.

said. It's because they want to get to Colorado to see their dying mother. How HomeVestors advertises their services also says a lot about their business model. In an interview, a former employee of the ad agency hired by HomeVestors recalled discussions about how to serve online ads to people in the vicinity of nursing homes and rehabilitation hospitals. The goal was to catch families who needed to sell assets so Medicaid would pay their nursing home costs. The employee who asked not to be named because they unfortunately still work in the industry also recalled the agency's owner bragging about the ability of its advertising, its digital advertising, to find an elderly person who had broken a hip.

That injury, the employee reported, the owner saying is effectively a 60 day countdown to death and possibly a deal. Now, franchisees also generate their own leads. So they're advised to build relationships with nursing home administrators, probate officers, and even divorce lawyers for Intel. They're also instructed to look for clues of distress, like utility shutoff notices, boarded up windows. or any sign of desperation they can pounce on. If a family's belongings are on the curb, for example, the directive is clear. Quickly pursue the property where the trash pile indicates eviction.

And if you're wondering if there are regulations to protect people from these predatory business practices, it really depends on the state you live in. Now, ProPublica claims that the practice has come under regulatory scrutiny in several states. In Philly, for example, Flippers are required to provide prospective sellers with a bill of rights that identifies resources to help desperate homeowners and describes how they can get a fair price. But federally speaking, and this should be unsurprising, the short answer is largely no. And the play, and they play by different rules compared to real estate agents. So unlike real estate agents, house flippers operate in a largely unregulated space.

Real estate agents have a fiduciary responsibility to represent a homeowner's best interest in negotiations, which is defined in state laws, licensing requirements, and also in an industry code of ethics. But in most states, flippers don't even need a license. So what does home vesters have to say about all of this? Well, for one, they tried to, you know, bury ProPublica's reporting according to a subsequent ProPublica piece, noting that the We Buy Ugly Houses Company held a virtual meeting for its franchisees to outline a plan to minimize visibility of their investigation. In an official statement to ProPublica through a spokesperson, homevesters claimed that the horrible and predatory deals represent just a tiny fraction, small fraction

of the company's overall transactions. Then they boasted about their high customer ratings, which I personally found laughable. A home vester spokesperson denied the company had targeted the elderly and pointed to a 96% approval. rating among homeowners who sell to home vesters, which was calculated internally from what the company says was over 500 customer reviews. Oh, and they did an internal aggregation of positive reviews saying that the company is great. Awesome, I guess nothing to see here. Why am I even talking about this? Like, obviously I'm being sarcastic. That's a ridiculous response to very real issues that are now coming out of these business practices.

Now, within days of receiving questions from ProPublica, homevesters prohibited its franchises from recording documents to prevent homeowners from canceling sales and discourage them from suing sellers. The practices not only affect the seller, the company noted, it creates a paper that reporters and prosecutors can follow to a franchise's doorsteps. And if you're doing this on a serial basis, they say, you're putting the entire system at risk. Homevesters General Counsel Anthony Lohenberg said during a national call on April 18th to alert franchise owners to ProPublica's upcoming story. Hmm, looks like good muckraking reporting can really make a difference.

ProPublica certainly has, and the same, unfortunately, can't be said, of our federal lawmakers and regulators who have allowed these swindlers to basically be predators and operate with impunity. But I don't want this story to end on a sour note, because there was one man who fought for justice. Unlike a lot of Americans, David Casanova, the gentleman that we talked about earlier in the story, had the resources of time and money to fight Corey Evans after his dementia-riddled mother was swindled by him. After Patriot holding sue to hold the Casanovas to the sales contract, David filed a cross-complaint alleging fraud and elder abuse. Evans, he claimed, used affection intimidation and coercion to get his mother, Corrine, to sign the contract.

Patriot Holdings, the franchisee for home vesters, fought for the house for nearly three years and just would not give up until Evans ended up being the subject of a criminal investigation over his dealings with two elderly victims in Ventura County, California. In August of 2020, Evans pleaded guilty to two felony counts of attempted grand theft of real property. He received a suspended jail sentence, dropped his lawsuits against both victims, and paid restitution. He was prohibited from any transaction involving the purchase or sale of real estate during his probation. After the war was over, David was able to sell the house for a lot more than what Corey Evans was willing to pay for it. David sold it for $510,000, $235,000 more than Evans had tried to pay for it.

David said he did none of the repairs Evans had insisted under oath were necessary. But clearly, he was still able to sell the home for quite a bit of money and quite a bit more than what Evans had offered. All right. Well, let's move on to another story involving business practices that should absolutely infuriate you because subscription services are coming to a car near you. Car companies are looking to cash in by charging you subscriptions for special features that for the time being are already included in the purchase price of your car. But why charge consumers one time when automakers could be charging you monthly for the perk of using your seat warmers? They're calling it features on demand and it's going to make owning a car even more expensive than it already is. As automakers can add technology on the fly through things they call features on demand or car subscription services, we're seeing more and more of these software and even hardware type upgrades coming to cars with a subscription type model.

BMW famously about a year ago tried to have people pay for heated seats. This functionality was already in the car, but they're in order to turn it on if you didn't buy it from the factory, they wanted you to pay subscription. So they did that abroad. People heard about it here, very upsetting about that. Mercedes just added the ability to add acceleration boost to its EVs via subscription. And then Toyota did the same thing with their connected features on their phone. You want to unlock the car or do things like that. You have to pay an extra fee by month to do these connected features on your phone.

Let's unpack the point made about BMW, charging people for the heated seats to really internalize how insane this is. The seat warmers are already built into the car. The only thing BMW would get paid to do is turn the warmers on remotely, and that potentially translates to big profits with very little effort or cost for BMW. Here's another example by Mercedes, which announced that it would allow owners of the EQ series EVs to unlock more power through a subscription feature activated through the Mercedes app. The costs are pretty significant. For instance, for the EQE 350 formatic EV, great name, Mercedes notes prices of $60 per month, $600 a year, or just a lifetime cost. You can do a one time lifetime cost of nearly $2,000 to unlock an additional 60 horsepower.

Kind of creepy that the horsepower of your vehicle can be manipulated remotely by the car company, right? If you hate this, don't worry because you've got company. A new study from Cox Automotive this week found that 69% of respondents said that if certain features were available only via subscription for a particular brand, they would likely shop elsewhere. But if all car companies start rolling out features on demand, and many already are, consumers won't really have many options. Yahoo Finance reports that despite the rage that automakers are already noticing among car buyers, they're pushing ahead because they're counting on billions of dollars in revenue from subscription services. The editor-in-chief of the automotive research firm Edmonds told Yahoo Finance, quote, I think

the general view is that this isn't going anywhere because most automakers have seen this as a significant revenue source, and that's not just luxury brands. GM has been very open about it. Ford is working on it. So this is the new frontier of how to generate revenue and honestly how to make Americans and car buyers even more miserable than they already are. And by the way, he's right. Automakers have already included subscription fees in their financial models to predict their revenue and profits. Wall Street analysts and investors are counting on these additional dollars, beefing up the bottom line. in future quarters, and thus boosting share prices.

And look, as we all know, shareholder profits reigns supreme, folks. We the consumers will just have to shell out cash for things that were once included in the purchase price of our cars so that the precious investors get a nice return on the brave act of parking their money in car companies in the quest for passive income. That's how this all works. Just when you think life couldn't get more complicated and more costly, companies find a way to do it. They're always going to find ways to do it. They've got to maximize profits on behalf of their shareholders.

And that's exactly what's happening with these subscription services for vehicles. It's insane. We got to take a quick break. When we come back, we've got more news for you, including some stories involving corruption. Don't miss it. We'll be right back. What's up, everyone, welcome back to the show. We've got two more stories for you, and they're both kind of related, since they have to do with corruption.

Why don't we start off with, you know, let's take a look at. what happened to a congressional Democrat who was successfully primaried by a progressive, what is he up to these days? After losing to the progressive who primaried him, former representative Kurt Schrader has landed himself a cushy job at a firm that lobbies on behalf of the same pharmaceutical companies, he assisted in price gouging the American people. That should come as no surprise, considering Schrader took hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Big Pharma during his time in Congress. Surely there's no connection there, right? Now, if you're not

familiar with the corrupt former Democratic lawmaker, I can give you a quick rundown. Trader represented Oregon's fifth district as a Democrat from 2007 to 2020. During his time in Congress, he voted against a bill that would ban assault weapons. He also voted against raising the COVID stimulus checks from $1,400 to $2,000 repeatedly opposed an increase to the federal minimum wage and even initially opposed the second impeachment of Donald Trump after the January 6th Capitol riots. Perhaps most infamously, Schrader opposed allowing Medicare to negotiate the prices of prescription drugs. I mean, look, it doesn't take a genius to figure out why.

The health and pharmaceutical industries donated a staggering amount of money to Schrader during his time as a representative. So let's take a look at that. According to Open Secrets, for instance, the health professionals industry donated more than $972,000 to Schrader. The pharmaceutical and health products industry was also quite generous. and bought Schrader by having donated more than $742,000 to the lawmaker. Now, after he was called out for opposing the Medicare price negotiation provision back in 2021,

the now former congressman gave this pathetic defense of his corruption. He said this, if pharma thinks they're buying a vote, they're getting a bad deal. I personally am proud of the work my grandfather did and developing mass production for Pfizer. He saved millions of American lives during World War II. But that in no way influences the work I do. Yes, yes, it should be noted that Schrader's grandfather was vice president and director of biochemical and research development at Pfizer. Now, Schrader also claims a common fallacy, the average person, has is the reason they give you money is because you say you're going to vote for this or vote

for that. I've never, ever done that. And I don't know many legislators that do that. They just want to have access to at least just plead their case. That's all they want, folks. These poor lobbyists, they shell out so much money because they just want to plead their case. Now, thankfully, Schrader's voters didn't buy that BS and voted him out, so big win on that. Now, after all, the provision that he opposed was extremely popular. It turns out that if you vote against the will of the people, there are consequences for it, and I love to see it. Now, in April of 2022, a poll revealed that 83% of all likely voters supported giving Medicare the power to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs. Specifically, 86% of Democrats supported it, and 81% of independents and Republicans supported it.

Because guess what? People don't like seeing our hard-earned taxpayer money go to waste as these pharmaceutical companies price gouge the Medicare system. But today, Schrader is still sitting pretty in the pocket of big pharma. On Thursday, May 11th, Williams and Jensen, PLC, announced that former Congressman Kurt Trader will be joining the firm as a principal after more than 25 years in public service. Williams and Jensen is a lobbying firm that, according to Lee Fong, lobbies on behalf of Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Bayer, Merck, and Amgen. In announcing their new hire, the chair and CEO of Williams and Jensen pretended as though Schrader is a hard, hard worker, saying that Congressman Schrader has a track record of rolling up his sleeves and leading on policy issues. We are delighted to welcome him to the firm, and we know that he will be an invaluable resource to our clients. But remember who he rolled his sleeves up to work hard for.

It wasn't for you, it was against you. And on behalf of the companies that he's now helping to buy off his former Democratic colleagues. This is how the system works. And unless we pass strong regulations and potentially a constitutional amendment to get money out of politics and push for publicly financed elections. We're just going to have an entire Congress, an entire political system, really, that's bought off by corporate interests. That's why in each policy where you see widespread support, we don't get what we need. We don't get what we want because our voice, our vote, tends to be less important. It tends to pale in comparison to the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars corporations pour into campaign coffers,

including those of Democratic lawmakers. As we speak, members of the House GOP and especially Oversight Committee Chair James Comer are on the war path against President Joe Biden and his family members. Who Republicans accuse of collecting foreign cash in exchange for influence over American foreign policy? Now, while legalized bribes are an anti-democratic and destructive element within our government, Comer has embarrassed himself by failing to prove any illegality. or wrongdoing by President Biden.

Many people are saying this, even conservative talk show hosts on Fox. I know the Republicans said that the smoking gun were these financial records that you were able to subpoena and got your hands on. They'd show that some of the president's relatives were paid more than $10 million from foreign sources between 2015 and 2017. And your party, the Republican investigators say that that's proof of influence peddling by Hunter and James. But that's just your suggestion. You don't actually have any facts to that to that point. You've got some circumstantial evidence. And the other thing is, of all those

names, the one person who didn't profit is there's no evidence that Joe Biden did anything illegally. Well, if you look at the laptop and the emails between the president's son and his associates, they went to great lengths to hide Joe's involvement. They even gave him nicknames. They called him the Celtic and the big guy. In other words, he's got no evidence. But honestly, what's even more interesting is how the Republican Party seems to be intentionally going after Biden for nonsense that's unlikely to be true when they could call out clear and evidenced examples of corruption, but they don't.

Likely because they enjoy and engage in the same unsavory acts. For example, the Biden administration quietly ended one of the only good policies that went into effect under Trump, and it has to do with increased transparency of foreign influence in Washington. Now, without any explanation, the White House has stopped requesting that American think tanks disclose funding from foreign governments. This is crazy. Now, think tanks act as fronts for various money to interests, including government officials for other countries. Shockingly, back in 2020, then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared

that the Trump administration would be requiring think tanks to disclose details about any funding they receive from outside of the United States. Pompeo announced that the State Department would finally request that think tanks disclose prominently. on their websites, funding they receive from foreign governments, including state-owned or state-operated subsidiary entities. Pompeo, who's notoriously hawkish on foreign policy, continue to stress the importance of these disclosures. Really, he did, saying that the unique role of think tanks in the conduct of foreign affairs makes transparency regarding foreign funding more important than He's right about that. And look, I definitely understand that this was implemented in 2020,

right? So at the tail end of the Trump administration. But nonetheless, it was a good policy. And I don't know why Biden decided to do away with it. But that doesn't matter. Because without any explanation, the Biden administration scrapped the requirement and officials have not explained why they decided to revoke it. This should be a massive scandal. In fact, it would be a massive scandal. Had Trump scrapped the policy like Biden did? Like Rachel Maddow would undoubtedly run endless segments speculating on which foreign actor

Trump was in bed with. Unfortunately, foreign financing has only become more and more commonplace in Washington. Regimes abroad love to bankroll American think tanks as a way to influence our politicians without having to deal with regulations like the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which does in fact require foreign lobbyists to disclose their payments and activities. Think tanks can also work to launder the reputations of dictators or other authoritarian international figures. Dictatorships like Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan have all directed significant funds toward America's leading think tanks, splurging millions on the organization's crafting policy for American

legislators. More recently, leading Russian kleptocrats have been connected to America's leading think tanks with groups like the Council on Foreign Relations, keeping Russia's wealthiest oligarch, a close associate of Putin's, and one now sanctioned by the United States on its board, even after Russia's expanded invasion of Ukraine last year. The New Republic also reported that the president of the Brookings Institution was acting as a cutout for Qatari interests after Brookings accepted literally millions of dollars from Qatar's dictatorship. The UAE likes to utilize the same strategy as part of a far broader political influence

and interference playbook, the UAE's brutal dictatorship has, on an annual basis, funneled millions of dollars into America's leading think tanks. In fact, the UAE is now the single largest foreign benefactor overall for several groups, including the Aspen Institute, Brookings, and the Atlantic Council. And as early as the 2010s, the UAE had already become one of the top donors for the Center for American Progress. The money certainly pays off too. Following the UAE's funding, which ran into the millions of dollars, a staff member for the Center for American Progress began helping Emeraldi officials organize UAE sponsored trips to the country and began directly advising

emirati officials on how to lobby their American counterparts. And what about the Atlantic Council? Well, according to the New Republic's reporting, the Atlantic Council's ties to the UAE have given the UAE the opportunity to shape the think tank's reports prior to publication, effectively allowing the dictatorship to craft the Atlantic Council's supposedly independent analysis before release. As leaked email showed, Atlantic Council officials directly reached out to their UAE patrons with offered. to edit their text, including material that was to be published under the name of David Petraeus, one of America's best known former military officers. In addition to influencing the lobbying efforts and research analysis of these think tanks, foreign governors, governments I should say, also pay to have representatives from these groups

write glowing op-eds about them. So in early 2023, for instance, CNBC published an op-ed from Atlantic Council President Frederick Kempi, or Kemp, praising the UAE's selection as the host for the United Nations upcoming climate change conference known as COP 28. As he wrote, the appointment of the Sultan, Al Jaber, the CEO of the UAE's Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, was the ideal choice. Now, that op-ed failed to add any disclosures about the UAE's relationship with the Atlantic Council, which, by the way, shows just how broken our media is as well. But CNBC did later note that there was a problem, you know, they informed their readers of Kempi's ties to the dictatorship and described that relationship as an obvious conflict

of interest. Not only was the Biden administration's reversal of the Trump era rule terrible, but one should also ask why we haven't heard a peep about it from the same Republicans who want to make the case that Biden is bought by foreign interests. Maybe influenced by foreign actors isn't all that important to them after all. And they're just engaging in theater with their cute little investigations that lead to nowhere. Maybe somehow, they don't know what we do. Either way, the word is out there now, and the GOP doesn't seem to care one bit. We should be asking ourselves why. We got to take a break. We've got more news for you and John Iderola when we come back.

Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work. Listen ad-free. Access members only bonus content and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at Apple dot co slash t yt i'm your host jank huger and i'll see you soon