The Young Turks - Victory Lap

Episode Date: October 12, 2022

J.D. Vance was brutally mocked on stage during an Ohio senate debate. When the topic of abortion arose during the Ohio debate, J.D. Vance tried his best to shift the spotlight on his opponent. Tulsi Gabbard has just announced that she is leaving the democratic party. A co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement has spent thousands of dollars on a home renovation and it’s sparking controversy. Governors who benefit from private prison money are rejecting Biden’s recent pardons.  Host: Ana Kasparian 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. Welcome to TYT. I'm your host, Anna Kasparian. Jank Yugar is out for the day. He's feeling a little under the weather. He's doing fine, but he is getting some rest at home. But don't worry, we still have an excellent show prepared for you today, including a solo first hour where I will give you some of the highlights of the Ohio Senate debate between Republican J.D. Vance and Democrat, Tim Ryan, looks like at least some Democrats are finally catching on to how going high when they go low doesn't really work.

So there will be some positive commentary toward Ryan, even though politically speaking, he's a little to the right of me, to say the least. Nonetheless, later in the show, we'll also have some discussion about Tulsi Gabbard announcing something that I think anyone with two brain cells already knew. What did she announce? Well, you're going to have to wait and see. And if you're online, you probably already know. But I've got some analysis to add to that story.

You don't want to miss that. And in the second hour, we'll have Wozni Lombray joined me, which I'm really excited about. He'll be in studio to help me talk about a variety of topics in the news today, including pretty explosive Vice News report where they were able to obtain footage from Kanye's interview with Tucker Carlson that Fox News did not air. And if you think what he had already said in the context of that interview was bonkers, wait until you get a load of the videos we have prepared for you of the content that never aired. Now, as always, just want to encourage you guys to like and share the stream.

If you aren't a member, you should become one because Was is going to stick around for the bonus episode today. And that means we're going to have a real good time. There's an incredible story involving how dogs know. What is it about dogs? How do they know when we're down, when we're stressed? It's an incredible study that I want to give you the details of, but that's only for our members. TYT.com slash join to become a member or click on that join button if you're watching us on YouTube. You can become a member through YouTube. Well, let's get right to it. Let's get to the

Ryan Vance debate. I'm for Ohio. I don't kiss anyone's ass like him. Ohio needs an ass kicker, not an ass kisser. That wasn't a Republican. I say that because typically, In these types of debate settings, you have a Republican candidate who incessantly and politically kicks the Democratic candidate in the face while the Democrat pats himself on the back for refusing to hit below the belt. No, it's time to hit below the belt. And to be fair, I think that Democrat Tim Ryan in the context of his debate with Republican J.D. Vance for the Senate seat in Ohio did a fantastic job finally breaking this paradigm that I think has been incredibly, honestly terrible for the Democratic Party. Now, I want to give you a little more

of that interaction so you get a sense of just how far Tim Ryan was willing to go to call J.D. Vance out on how he's just an ass kisser for Donald Trump. So let's take a look at that. I'll give you more details. Just a few weeks ago in Youngstown on the stage, Donald Trump said to J.D. Vance, all you do is kiss my ass to get my support. And then the New York Times did a fake story today, big front page, that J.D. wasn't sure if he wanted my support. J.D. is kissing my ass. He wants my support. That means J.D. Vance is going to do whatever he wants. Mitch McConnell's given him 40 million. He's going to do what he wants. And Peter Thiel gave him a 15 million. He's going to do what he wants.

And here's the thing that's most troubling about this, lack of courage, is that after Trump took J.D. Vance's dignity from him on the stage in Youngstown. J.D. Vance got back up on stage and said, start shaking his hand, take a picture, saying, hey, aren't we having a great time here tonight? I don't know anybody I grew up with. I don't know anybody I went to high school with that would allow somebody to take their dignity like that and then get back up on stage. We need leaders who have courage to take on their own party. And I've proven that. And he was called an ass kisser by the former president. That was delicious.

So delicious, I might want a second serving, honestly. That was incredible and correct. It was correct. The spineless nature of Republican candidates, their inability to actually speak from a place of sincerity, to have interesting policy proposals that are not only genuine, genuine, but maybe something unique, something that they've thought of, actual solutions to problems that we're facing in the country. You don't see any real ideas coming from these Republican

candidates. And fact of the matter is, they have no principles, they have no values, they are willing to do anything and say anything for what purpose? For political power? What is the point of running for office, whether it's for a Senate seat or a congressional seat? When you You have absolutely no interest in representing the actual needs of the people, the constituents that you're running for. What's the point? No, I say that because J.D. Vance, much like many other Republican candidates and current lawmakers, is willing to suppress what he really thinks, is willing to pretend like he supports

Trump no matter what, just to accumulate power for himself, just to get elected into office. office and then do what? Be Trump's puppet? Now, Republican voters might want that. The Republican party is the party of Trump. And that's why you have all of these Republicans running around philating the former president in a quest to accumulate political power for themselves. But what does that actually mean? When you take a step back, what does that communicate to the American people in a democracy? That these are not individuals who have any interest, representing your best interests, they just want power for the sake of power. And also, I mean, there's all sorts of goodies that come along with getting elected into Congress

or the Senate. It means you can trade individual stocks based on insider information that you get through closed door briefings. I mean, it's no surprise, so many members of Congress end up becoming incredibly wealthy. That entire system is set. up specifically to attract the worst people, self-interested narcissists who have no interest in representing the best interests of their voters. And just to really drive home that point, let's watch what JD Vance actually thought of Donald Trump prior to running for office. You have to remember, the Republican J.D. Vance was very critical of President Trump during his time, in the White House. He would put out tweets making remarks about some of the policies that the president

had put out. It wasn't until Vance started to run for the primary that once he became endorsed by President Trump, he changed his tune quite a bit. He even went back and deleted some of those tweets that were critical of the presidents. I think frankly that's a big problem with with Trump is that he diagnoses the problems in a very successful, very passionate way. But I don't see him is offering many solutions? I don't see him as offering many solutions. Now, that was one of the weaker critiques that J.D. Vance previously had for Donald Trump prior to running and realizing, oh, if I want to win, I have to completely pretend that I'm a Trump

supporter. I have to do away with any values or principles I might have. And I honestly, at this point, I question whether he has any. And as Tim Ryan perfectly mentioned in in that answer, I have a lack of courage, J.D. Vance does. And I'm just going to allow Trump to take my dignity. Because that is exactly what happened during his rally in Ohio not too long ago, where Trump took the stage, took the podium, and talked about how Cheney Vance is just kissing his ass. Trump said that in J.D. Vance's own rally. I mean, have some self-respect, JD. But I mean, he's got to choose. Self-respect, principles, values, all the things that Republicans purport to care about or political power. He's willing to go in the direction of accumulating

political power for himself. And it's embarrassing. That's not what strong, masculine men do. That's what weak, power-hungry little bitches do. And that's what J.D. Vance happens to be. Now let's go back to some of the more harsh critique that J.D. Vance had for Donald Trump. What he actually thought about Donald Trump before he realized, oh, well, I'm just a self-interested narcissist looking for political power. So let me just completely reverse my views. He actually referred to or compared Trump, I should say, to Hitler. This was a message that he had sent in a group chat that included a former roommate of his. And his former roommate felt the need to post it online.

his name is Josh McLaurin, he's a Democrat, but he felt the need to share a screenshot of this message, specifically to call out J.D. Vance for changing his views publicly on Donald Trump, specifically for political power. Now, in this message, J.D. Vance, if you read at the end, he says, I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical, you know, a whole like Nixon, who wouldn't be that bad and might even prove useful, or that he's America's Hill. How's that for discouraging? But you know, when you're looking for some of that political power, you're willing to launder the image of someone that you compared to Hitler,

just to make sure that your chances of getting elected into office increase. That's your J.D. Vance is. A coward. And maybe I'm being a little too harsh on J.D. Vance, because the fact of the matter is, there is just a massive inventory of cowardly Republican politicians who behind closed doors have all sorts of negative things to say about Donald Trump. I should know.

When I debated at the Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce event with Ben Shapiro, it's fascinating to hear what Republicans really think about Donald Trump. But they're willing to sell out the country. They're willing to lie to the American people and their voters specifically in an effort to either maintain their own political power or accumulate political power. And that's why we have Congress failing to represent our best interests year after year, election cycle after election cycle, because it ain't about us. The way the system is set up is to attract people who want to make it all about themselves. J.D. Vance happens to be one of them. And I'm happy that a Democrat, Tim Ryan, called him out on it to his face during that debate. We need to see more of that. We need to mock the weakness that we see among these disgusting, craven Republican candidates.

Because they love branding themselves as tough guys. But when push comes to shove, they're cowards. We have some more highlights to share with you from that incredible debate. Now, let me also just note, again, Tim Ryan, I don't agree with him on a lot of policy issues. Is he better than J.D. Vance? Yes. Did he do a good job in this debate? I would venture to say, yes, he did. And I want to give you some more examples. So let's get right to it. The topic of abortion came up during Representative Tim Ryan's debate with Republican opponent J.D. Vance. They're both running for a Senate seat in the state of Ohio. And it was fun to watch J.D. Vance squirm over his incredibly unpopular stance of forced pregnancies in childbirth for women in America.

So let's watch how it went down. We read at least a couple articles every week of young people, underage girls who have been raped or women who have had significant problems with their pregnancy, not be able to get help in the state. They got to go to Indiana. They got to go to Illinois. And that's not good enough for J.D. Vance. He supports a national abortion ban in which he wants women to have to get a passport and go to Canada. Like, we've got to have some moderation on this issue. He's got a very extreme position.

J.D., you called rape inconvenient, right? That's rape is not inconvenient. It's a significant tragedy. And he thinks that we should have Ohio state law, which says if you're raped or incest, pregnant through incest, that you should be forced to have the baby. Well, first of all, I did not call rape inconvenient. Congressman Ryan knows that's not true. You have said in the past that you compared abortion to slavery,

even in the case of the 10-year-old Ohio girl that made headlines across the country, you said two wrongs don't make a right. It sounds tonight as if you're saying there are some exceptions I would accept. Can you specifically tell us what you might accept as an exception? Look, I've always believed in reasonable exceptions. This is a misrepresentation of my view. Oh, it's a misrepresentation of your views, except it's not. Now, this is what political candidates often do.

And my job is to make sure that people are informed on what the reality is. They will stand there and lie to the American people, lie to their constituents with a straight face. And that's what J.D. Vance did there. So what's the reality? Okay. Well, Tim Ryan brought up the fact that Vance had referred to pregnancies that occur through rape as inconvenient. Inconvenient. Vance said, I didn't say that. Did he? Hmm, let's go to this Washington Post piece from about a year ago, September 24th, 2021, written by John Wagner. Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance

argues against need for rape and incest exceptions in abortion laws. Fascinating. Did the word inconvenient come up at all in this story? Um, yeah, looks like it did. So Vance, defended the Texas abortion law and argued against the need for exceptions for rape and incest in such restrictive statutes, downplaying such circumstances as inconvenient. Inconvenient is in quotation marks because J.D. Vance used the word inconvenient. Let me continue. When asked during a local interview whether abortion laws should include exceptions for rape and incest, Vance a Republican said he thinks two wrongs don't make a right. Oh no, JD, looks like you've actually addressed this in multiple statements.

So it's not just the inconvenient thing. You also said two wrongs don't make her right. Woman gets raped. She doesn't want to carry a rapist baby for nine months and then put her body through the trauma of delivering that rapist baby. Well, we should just tell her two wrongs don't make a right. Let's continue. He said, quote, it's not whether a woman should be forced to bring a child to term.

It's whether a child should be allowed to live, even though the circumstances of that child's birth are somehow inconvenient or a problem to the society, Vance told Spectrum News in Columbus, Ohio. So he lied. And it's interesting because much like his previous harsh criticism for Donald Trump and how he later flip flopped when he realized it would be politically advantageous to flip flop. He's now flip flopping on this issue. He's squirming on state. lying to his own constituents because fact of the matter is he doesn't really have any values or any principles. I mean, he's willing to do and say anything just to get that sweet, sweet power. I mean, just this guy is Gallum. It's, it's, but he's not unique. I mean, you see this all across the political spectrum. Politicians who will lie, politicians who have no original thought or original ideas who have no real political identity, they just want the power. And that's who J.D. Vance is. It is incredible. Now, he was squirming so much. He's like,

I don't know, I don't want to talk about abortion anymore. I need to pivot. I need to deflect. And what better way to deflect than to go into the topic of immigration? Now let me set this up a little bit. Remember, not too long ago, we were talking about an incredibly young child, a girl who was raped and needed an abortion at the age of 10. And since she wasn't able to get an abortion in her state, she had to travel out of state to get an abortion. Now, Republicans wanted to deny that that story was real. It turned out that it was real. We're the Republicans wanted to deny it was real, though. I mean, if you're a Republican who thinks that everyone should be forced to carry a pregnancy to term,

no exceptions. Shouldn't you proudly boast about how you believe in that policy, even in an instance where a 10 year old girl is pregnant from a rape? But JD Vance, you know, feels real uncomfortable addressing that topic. And he just wants to pivot, pivot, pivot. How did he pivot to immigration? Well, let's watch how he did it. Why was a 10 year old girl raped in our community? raped in our state in the first place. The thing the media and Congress and Ryan, they talk about this all the time. The thing they never mentioned is that that poor girl was raped by an illegal alien, somebody that should have never been in this state in the first place. You voted so many times against border wall funding, so many times for amnesty, Tim. If you had done your job,

she would have never been raped in the first place. Do your job on border security. Don't lecture me about opinions I don't actually have. So we're not having a conversation. about immigration. We're having a conversation about a woman, a girl, I shouldn't say a woman, a girl, literal girl, 10 year old, who was raped and then became pregnant as a result of that rape. So how about address that? But he doesn't want to address that. He mentions the fact that the perpetrator in this instance happened to be an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, who happened to be living in Ohio for seven years. Seven years. I thought Donald Trump was the boss when it came to dealing with undocumented immigrants. What happened? What happened?

And by the way, are we really going to pretend like we don't have issues of rape in this country? That it's just an immigrant related issue? And as you know, we've talked about the studies, we've shown them you, we've shown you the statistics indicating that perpetrators of crime tend to not be undocumented immigrants. Sure, you can cherry pick specific cases, to make your point and fearmonger about undocumented immigrants in this country. But I don't know if this guy was in Ohio for seven years. Obviously while Trump was president, while Republicans had power in Congress, I'd like to know why Republican lawmakers fearmonger about immigration, yet do absolutely nothing to reform

our immigration system. But one other thing I want to mention is, you know, J.D. Vance brought up the border. because the border. The border is the most important thing when it comes to combating undocumented immigration, right? Except it's not, and it hasn't been for a long, long time. So you want to throw money at a border wall, great, fine, do it. But that's not going to combat their concerns with undocumented immigrants in this country. So overstays, meaning people who came into the country and overstayed their visas accounted for only 34% of illegal entries into the United States in 2004, but by 2014, they made up 66% of new entries.

The study estimates 42% of the 11 million immigrants believed to be living in the United States illegally as of 2014, I should say, 2014, had overstayed their visa. So the numbers, I would imagine, have gotten higher, because that is how the majority, of people come into the country and remain in the country. They don't cross the border. They fly in either as tourists or otherwise, and they just stay. They overstay their visas. So if you, again, you want to throw money at a border wall and you think that's the end-all,

be-all, they just love it. It's their, it's a symbol for them. That's all it is. It's just a tangible symbol for them that clears them of actually having to do anything in regard to immigration reform. But look, J.D. Vance wanted us to talk about immigration so we could ignore the fact that a 10 year old girl became pregnant from a rape and the Republican Party wants to force her, wants to absolutely force her to carry a rapist child for nine months and then put her small 10 year old body through the trauma of either a C-section where doctor rips open her abdomen to take out a fetus or forces her to have a vaginal birth. J.D. Vance, on the record, thinking that everyone, including 10 year old rape victims, should be forced into a potential vaginal birth. No, let's call a spade a spade. Let's get real

graphic about what the Republican Party wants to put a little girl's body through just so they can earn political brownie points among their evangelical religious zealot base. That's who they are. And that's why Jady Vance is squirming there, because when he's up on that stage, when he actually has to defend his point of view, it gets real tough. In fact, it gets so tough that even his own campaign manager squirms when he's asked about the issue. Let's watch. Get more clarity from Vance after the debate in the spin room. But unlike Ryan, who did take our questions directly, Vance himself did not show up.

He sent his chief strategist instead, and here's part of my exchange with him. You didn't give a broad statement on what he would accept as accepted as he'll he'll talk about those and why isn't he here to answer that? He went to a debate and he actually does talk to the press at all times. I mean, I'm not the candidate, but the candidate will be at the debate next week and there'll be plenty of times to talk about more specific than abortion. So you don't know what his stance is on abortion? I'm not prepared to answer that specific question now.

Still trying to get some clarity on this from the campaign. Again, this is a candidate whose website says he wants to end abortion. That is a headline on his issues page. No, you're not going to get a straight answer from them. Because J.D. Vance, again, has no real political identity other than I want power. I will do and say whatever I think is convenient in accumulating that power. And when you're up on that debate stage knowing full well that somewhere between 70 to 80% of Americans do not want to outlaw abortion, it gets very difficult to say, no exceptions, no exceptions, no, he's a real tough guy when he's talking to Spectrum News in Ohio, not a tough guy on that debate stage. And definitely not a tough guy when it comes to, I don't know, having a little bit of self-respect.

and, you know, not allowing Donald Trump to continuously humiliate him. But maybe he deserves to be humiliated. It's certainly fun to watch. We got to take a break when we come back. One of my favorite stories of the day, Tulsi Gabbard announcing what smart people already knew. Welcome back to the show, Anna Casparian with you. As I mentioned earlier, Jank Uger is out for the day, but have no fears. Wazni Lombre will be joining me for the second hour and the member's only bonus episode.

To watch the bonus episode, just go to t.yt.com slash join to become a member, or you can click on that join button if you're watching us on YouTube. Well, let's get to my victory lap, the moment that I'm sure you guys all knew I would was waiting for. I'm calling on my fellow common sense, independent-minded Democrats to join me in leaving the Democratic Party. If you can no longer stomach the direction that the so-called woke Democratic Party ideologues are taking our country, and I invite you to join me. Tulsi Gabbard announced what, honestly, most common sense, rational Americans already knew. She's a Republican.

She has made it pretty clear in various ways in the recent past, including hosting Tucker Carlson's show when he was out, constantly rubbing elbows with all sorts of nefarious figures in the right wing, criticizing Democrats for what Republicans engage in far more than Democrats do. And I'll make that case with the receipts in just a moment. But I love this because it's this self-important announcement that she's leaving the Democratic Party over the one thing that Republicans have decided to make their politics about, which is anti-wokeness. That is the full extent of their political beliefs. Anti-wokeness, that's all they talk about, that's all they draw attention to, they've got nothing else.

So without further ado, why don't we take a look at the entirety of her videos and do? a breakdown just to point out the insane hypocrisy of what she claims Democrats are up to while completely providing cover for the right wing. I can no longer remain in today's Democratic Party that's under the complete control of an elitist cabal of war mongers who were driven by cowardly wokeness. Elitist cabal of elitist cabal. Alitist cabal is interesting framing, okay? Because she loves to hang out with elitist.

I mean, she's good friends with Tucker Carlson, good friends with, well, before he passed away, Sheldon Aidelson, hangs out with all sorts of elitists, to say the least. And in fact, if you, you know, just kind of take a look at the details on what she says about war mongers, the elitist cabal of war mongers, she kind of fits in that category. What do I mean? Well, Mrs. Aloha loves to pretend like she's the peace candidate. At least when she was running for president, that's what she kind of branded herself as. I'm all about aloha. I do yoga videos. I go surfing and I'm anti-war. I'm anti-regime change war. And for anyone who takes even a moment to read into her congressional record, her past statements and various interviews that she's done, she's not the anti-war candidate, far from it. Let me give you the receipts, because that's what matters on this show, the actual evidence

to back up the point that we're trying to make. Fact of the matter is, she's very much in favor of war, I'll give you, I don't know, several examples. article that was written by Max Van Dyke in International Policy Digest. Good summary here. During an interview with the Hawaii Tribune, Harold, Gabbard described her views on foreign policy with the following. When it comes to the war against terrorists, I'm a hawk. When it comes to counterproductive wars of regime change, I'm a dove. Now the war on terror, as you all can imagine is very vague. You could, you could describe anything as a war on terror. I mean,

anyone could say that we're engaging in helping the Ukrainians against Russia due to Russia's terror. They're, we're waging a war on terror against Russia as they're terrorizing Ukraine. Anyone can make, you can use that statement to fit into any international conflict. So it was intentionally vague because if you look at a record, there's all sorts of military funding that she's been in favor of, all sorts of interventions she's been in favor of. It's been pretty incredible. Elaborating on her views on the war on terror during an appearance on NDTV, Gabber told an interviewer that the U.S. has a responsibility to, quote, root out evil wherever it is,

to defeat Islamic extremism. One might easily mistake this as a quote from Dick Cheney. And that's exactly right, exactly right. It is our responsibility to root out evil wherever it is. Now, what she's referring to as Muslims, if you look at her record, she also seems to, you know, have some pretty serious Islamophobic beliefs. But I'll continue, I'll give you some more receipts for this warmonger who lives in a glass house, yet is throwing stones at the Democrats. By the way, as if the Republican Party isn't full of war mongers. Now, let's just keep it real. The Democratic Party has deep issues. I am not erasing that.

I'm not providing cover for that. That is something we talk about on this show on a regular basis. My issue with Tulsi Gabbard is, A, her pretending that she's this peace-loving individual who doesn't want these interventions abroad. She absolutely has been supportive of these interventions. But more importantly, as she's attacking Democrats, she's providing cover for Republicans not only engaging in the same bad behavior, but doing so in a far more extreme way. Really, you're going to pretend like the Republican Party is the peaceful anti-war party?

Are you insane? Let me give you more. According to a 2018 article from The Intercept, Gabbard again doubled down on her support for drone strikes in the Middle East to fight terror. Let's pause for a second. Let's come to me. Go back to TYT's YouTube page, Facebook page, wherever you watch your content. Go back to the archives and watch our commentary about President Barack Obama's expansion of the drone war. We were always incredibly critical of that. But while we were critical, Tulsi Gabbard, double down on that policy. She liked that policy. She liked that expansion.

Let me give you more. She said with these terror cells, for example, yes, I still believe that the right approach to take is these quick strike forces, surgical strikes in and out very quickly, no long-term deployment, no long-term occupation, to get rid of the threat that extremists and get rid of the threat that extremists and then get out and the very limited use of drones in those situations where our military is not able to get in without creating an unacceptable level of risk. That is the exact line of thinking that Obama used in his expansion of a drone war that killed untold numbers of civilians, innocent individuals who were not members of any insurgent group, who were not part of any terrorist cell, just innocent people.

In some cases, as they were mourning their loved ones who had died as a result of our terror against them. Children, women, people celebrating at a wedding. Those were the quick drone strikes that we engaged in. The same drone strikes that Tulsi Gabbard is super supportive of in that comment. Let me give you more. There's so much more, guys. You getting tired of this? Because I love it.

All it took was just a moment for everyone to sit their asses down and read, about her. Just read about her. Look at her congressional record. But there were so many people who somehow were gullible enough to think that this woman was representative of peace and anti-imperialism. What a joke. Let me give you more. Gabbert also voted to increase the defense budget in 2018. She actually did so a few times. In fact, Gabbard has a bit of a history of voting against measures that would reduce military spending. For example, in 2013, Gabbard voted against measures to save money on aircraft carriers, reduce funding for submarines, cut wasteful spending, take steps toward closing Guantanamo Bay and reducing Pentagon spending.

She voted against all that, knowing full well that there's a lot of waste, with taxpayer money being funneled to private military contractors. So she was very much part of a system that has redistributed wealth from the bottom to the top. I'm not done yet, though. There's a little bit more, just a little bit. In 2014, Gabbard voted against an amendment that would prohibit U.S. combat operations in Iraq and against an amendment that would prevent funds being used for the 2002 AUMF in Iraq. The following year, Gabbard voted against reducing the number of required aircraft carriers. The Navy was required to keep cutting nuclear missile program funding and a continuing resolution introduced by Representative Jim McGovern to remove.

U.S. troops from Iraq and Syria. That's her record. I mean, sounds like a warmonger to me. If it talks like a warmonger, walks like a warmonger, it's definitely a warmonger. And that warmonger is throwing stones outside of her massive glass house. Then in 2016, Gabbard voted thrice three times against repealing or blocking funding for the 2001 AUMF, which is what currently gives American presidents a blank check for starting more endless wars. She's a fraud. In fact of the matter is she's also a coward because I knew all this about her years ago. I was trying to warn the audience about her in 2019. And I was attacked viciously for it, by the way. And when she realized that I had the audacity to just read her congressional record and understand how she voted, she

had her team right into TYT as we were quickly approaching an interview that Jank and I were supposed to do with her to let us know that she would not be doing the interview unless I was excluded from it because she's a freaking coward who can't even stand by her own goddamn record. Let's hear more from the liar. who actively work to undermine our God-given freedoms that are enshrined in our Constitution, who are hostile to people of faith and spirituality, who demonize the police but protect criminals at the expense of law-abiding Americans. God-given freedoms? So what about the people who don't believe in God in a country that has a separation of church and state? And what about the fact that we're currently grappling with a rise of Christian nationalism in this country, a rise in individuals who don't respect our First Amendment, which specifically states Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. What about that? And while she is going after Democrats for doing away with our freedoms, after Republicans successfully stripped women of their bodily autonomy, you should also keep in mind that you have Republicans openly, openly

stating that they don't respect the Constitution and they certainly don't respect separation of church and state. They want to force, yes, force their religious beliefs on everyone in the country. Don't believe me? We've got some evidence on that too. Let's watch. The church is supposed to direct the government. The government is not supposed to direct the church. That is not how our founding fathers intended it. And I'm tired of the separation of church and state junk. Again, there is no separation of church and state.

It's a fabrication. It's a fiction. It's not in the Constitution. But Democrats are the problem, right? It's the Democrats. Democrats are the ones that are doing away with people's freedom. Just yesterday, Congresswoman, Marjorie Green talked about how we are in the best position to reverse same-sex marriage in

this country. How's that for freedom? But Tulsi Gabbard loves it. Because if you look at her past, she's also anti-gay marriage. I mean, this is who she's been. And this attempt to rebrand herself as a Republican is hilarious because she's always been a right winger. It's just, unfortunately, some people fell for this charade that she was engaged in. Final part of her video that I found so laughable had to do with corruption, actually. So let's watch that. I believe in a government that's of the people, by the people, and for the people. Unfortunately, today's Democratic Party does not.

Instead, it stands for a government that is of, by, and for the powerful elite. Now, she's right that the Democratic Party, corporate Democrats in particular, are taking campaign donations from corporatists, from individuals who have destroyed our economic system and have fueled the inequality that we're seeing in this country right now. That's why Democrats, one of their biggest mistakes, was moving further and further away from average working Americans. They used to represent blue collar workers. They used to represent workers in general in this country. But the FDR days are over for the Democratic Party. And that's a huge mistake. So I will grant her that point. But to make that point, while completely ignoring the

reality of corruption among Republicans is hilarious. Does anyone really think that Republicans are the party by the people for the people? Really? I know they're using all this phony, surface level populist lingo. But why don't we take a look at who funds them? Let's start with the 2020 election, the last major general election. Man, Republican billioners got real active, real active. Sheldon Adelson, who fortunately died in January of 2021, broke his own spending records, doling out $120 million to GOP, that means Republican congressional super PACs, 90 million to a pro-Trump super PAC, and about another 8 million to other conservative causes and candidates. That's interesting. I mean, Tulsi Gabbard, from what I've read about her, is actually very familiar

with Sheldon Aedelson. Here's a tweet from Rabbi Shmuley with Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii and Miriam Adelson at our gala dinner last Thursday. Yeah, she loved to, you know, get real cozy with these individuals. That was a tweet from May 9th of 2016. We've got more. Hedge fund heavyweight, Ken Griffin, a Mitt Romney supporter in 2012, didn't donate directly to Donald Trump's campaign in 2016 or 2020. Instead, he focused on Congress dumping $37 million into a super PAC supporting Senate Republicans and another $10 million to a group backing House Republicans over the last two years. Wow, that really seems like a party by the people and for the people. there's more. Of course there's more. There's so much more. The richest man in private equity, Stephen Schwartzman, put $35 million into a super PAC called the Senate Leadership Fund supporting

Republican senators. He also gave $2 million to a group supporting one particular Republican senator, Susan Collins of Maine. Former President Trump also got some love with committees that support him receiving $3.7 million. And I can't help myself. I just want to make sure you guys get the receipts, right? Because I'm just a dumb girl who doesn't know what I'm talking about. I have to be dogpiled for months and months and months until people realize what I'm talking about is actually based on evidence that I present on the show. But let me give you one more piece of evidence. Georgia mega donor Bernard Marcus donated $10 million to a super PAC that ran a slew of anti-Biden ads in the run up to the election and put $5.8 million toward a super PAC focused on GOP Senate

races. Marcus's co-founder from Home Depot, Arthur Blank, supported Biden in 2020, but Marcus spent more than 30 times as much money on Trump as Blank did on Biden. There's plenty of corruption to go around. To erase the bad behavior or provide cover for the bad behavior of right-wing politicians while attacking Democrats makes it clear that Homegirls got an agenda. But what I want you guys to understand is this agenda is not new. It's been here for a while now. And rather than immediately having a knee-jerk negative reaction to someone who's trying to warn you about who someone really is, especially a politician who's seeking power, maybe take a look at the evidence that's presented and make a judgment call

instead of getting offended that your preconceived notions have been challenged. That's all I ask. With that said, Jimmy Dor can suck it. Let's take a break. A lot of feedback in regard to the last story we did about Tulsi Gabbard leaving the Democratic Party, which I'm definitely not crying any tears over. L.J. Wombology says in our super chat section, I appreciate a good dunk fest that's righteous and brutal, stay real, T.YT. So do I. It's my favorite part of my job.

All right, well, let's move on to a story that caught my attention today that kind of bothers me. there's really no evidence indicating that there's misuse of funds in this particular instance, but nonetheless, let's talk about it. Patrice Cullors, who co-founded Black Lives Matter and later stepped down from the organization, is facing a new round of backlash because it turns out that she has renovated the backyard of one of the properties she purchased back in 2021. This is a property in Topanga. This is a part of Los Angeles County that's a little more, I mean, it's known for its hippie culture, it's a little more secluded, it looks like a really nice house. And there seems to be this implication that she has continued misusing funds from Black Lives Matter to do this work in her backyard.

I want to be clear that there's no evidence of that. And I think it's actually pretty damaging to anyone who wants to look into the use. of funds for Black Lives Matter in a good faith way to put out all of these innuendo stories. Okay, so let me give you the details, and then I'll tell you why her activity gets so much attention, okay? So Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrice Cullors has allegedly spent thousands of dollars on renovating the backyard at her $1.4 million home in Los Angeles. Updates include the construction of a plunge pool as well as a backyard sauna. that's fine. So is there, is there any evidence that she used or misused BLM funds to do this?

Like, why is this a story? And it would be a story if there was any evidence that, but I haven't seen it. Now, it's worth noting that she bought this home back in 2021, a year after BLM saw a massive spike in donations. You know, just individual donors. The average donation was about $30. And obviously people wanted to donate to the cause following the murder of George Floyd. They collected $90 million that year. And there was a huge controversy because the local chapters claimed that they hadn't seen any of that money. That the national chapter had been either hoarding the money or misusing the money. There's been all sorts of accusations thrown around.

And to be honest, some of it looks really bad. Now, there's an investigation into it. Let's see how the investigation plays out. She purchased the property under a corporate entity, apparently based in Delaware. And the timing of the home's purchase is a little questionable because it's in 2021 after they saw this massive cash infusion. And then you have the local chapters furious that they didn't receive any grants or any support for what they were doing in their local communities. the organization had failed to file taxes. They have since done so.

And so there are these issues kind of floating around. But again, in terms of this latest story involving her backyard, no evidence that she misused BLM funds to do this work in the backyard. Photos obtained by the post show that the pool hasn't had water added to it yet. They also reveal a small shed that contains the sauna. a swing set and slide can also be seen in the pictures. Now, Colors had officially stepped down from her position as the Black Lives Matter, Global Network Foundation's executive director.

She did so in May of last year. Now, last month, though, because the issues keep arising, Shalomia Bowers, who emerged as the founder's new leader in April, was accused of using 10 million in Dorian. owner money to pay his privately owned Bowers consulting firm. And he's currently, Bowers is currently facing a lawsuit as a result of that. The lawsuit has not been adjudicated. We don't know what the results of that lawsuit will be, but I felt the need to bring that up. Because it's not just about this whole backyard thing, which again, no evidence for that. There are all sorts of

other issues at play, including the purchase of a $6 million home. In 2021, it was disclosed that the organization had secretly purchased a $6 million mansion. And I think there are more issues with that purchase and what that home was used for than what we're hearing today about the backyard of this Topanga Canyon home. Colors has previously stated the property was never intended for personal use, but instead a respite for artists and organizers as they worked on movement-related work. But in an associated press interview, she revealed that she had at least twice used it for personal purposes. She later claimed that she had paid the organization back after using the

property for personal use. I am not involved in any of those investigations. So all I can do is give you the he said, she said, you know, run down of what's happening here. New Yorker had put out, or New York Magazine, I should say, had put out a pretty lengthy piece on all of the other issues involving the use of BLM donation money. We did a pretty extensive story on that. You should look into that because that details some of the issues in a more elaborate way. But with that said, I give you that story. I think I'm fair noting that there's no evidence indicated that she missed use funds. I'm stating it again for, I don't know how many times I've said already when it comes to the backyard of this Topanga home.

But I did also come across something that really bothered me. Something that, I don't know, it's just so wrong because keep in mind that people who donated to Black Lives Matter did so because they wanted to see reforms, they wanted to support the movement, they wanted to see a change in how we do policing in this country. And BLM wasn't supported by billionaires. by ordinary people, average donation was $30. And when Patrice Cullors was specifically asked about some of the criticism that she's been facing about the use of these funds, she said something that bothered me a lot.

This was during an interview with a podcast called Into America. So here it is. Here's what she said. Contrary to what, you know, has been reported, much of the funding that came in was for individual donors. That was a lot of white guilt money. There was a lot of white folks being like, we just got to put the money. That's that good guilt. That's a lot of good guilt.

That's a lot of good guilt. I'm really happy she stepped down from Black Lives Matter. That statement was pretty disgusting. To refer to people who support the movement as individuals dealing with white guilt, that's a right-wing talking point. That erases the goodwill of people who supported her movement. And I find that so utterly disgusting. Just keeping it real.

How do you say that? How do you insult people who not only personally but financial? supported your movement with small dollar donations. Average donation being $30. In the middle of a pandemic, by the way, when tens of millions of Americans had been laid off and were struggling, she wasn't doing Black Lives Matter any favors by saying that. It ain't white guilt money. These are people who wanted to see a change, who wanted to support you, who wanted to support the movement, you just insulted them. It's pretty gross.

Anyway, we got to take a break. When we come back, Wozni Lombrey joins me for some more news, including some of the unaired portions of the Kanye West interview with Tucker Carlson, you know, the clips that Fox News didn't want you to see. We'll be right back. 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.