The Young Turks - Whistleblower Complaint Seals Trump's Fate

Episode Date: September 27, 2019

Is this the beginning of the end for Trump? Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian, hosts of The Young Turks, break it down.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

The head of the ship has started, has submerged. It's in the water. The ship is starting to tilt down this way. And then it's gonna break in half. Yes, yes it is. It's gonna break in half. So, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. Tick, tick.

Tick, tick. All right, very important development from the whistleblower. That's coming up. Okay. After that, Trump wants to start executing people. After that, he starts calling reporters scum. It's insane. He's not even exaggerating, he's actually telling you what's happening.

Okay, after that, new poll out, you don't even know this, it just came out. Numbers for impeachment have gone up 13 points, okay. It's funny because I have seen it and someone in the office mentioned it once it made news and I was like, I don't care. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're wrong not to care. I just these polls. I'll explain, no, no, I'll explain later in the show why that matters. It's not just like, hey, fun polling, it actually affects the politicians.

Anyways, and then later in the program, Elizabeth Warren on Medicare for all. We're gonna debate. We're gonna argue. That's gonna be interesting. So, an informant told me that you disagree with my perspective. on this, which made me prepare for our debate. Okay, so first of all, treason, okay? Who are these leakers?

Witch hunt? Okay, and I don't know what's a hoax, but something's a hoax. Okay, anyways, as you can tell, fun show ahead, tell your friends, tell your family, tell Randy Gazelles, share the stream, here we go, guys, now we're so close, one of these days you're gonna wake up. What you result? All right, anyway, let's go. You're hilarious, okay.

The whistleblower complaint by a member of the intelligence community regarding Donald Trump's phone conversations with the Ukrainian president has been released by Congress. Of course, this is a redacted version, but the public has now learned some more details about this whistleblower complaint that are important to share with you guys on the show today, namely what the Trump administration was trying to do to hide the transcript or any of the notes in regard to that phone conversation, the July 25th phone conversation, which has now led to an impeachment inquiry. Now, according to the Wall Street Journal, it not only details Trump's July 25th call with

Ukraine's president, during which he asked his counterpart to investigate the Biden family, but also alleges administration or alleges that the administration's efforts to lock down records of the conversation. So I'm gonna read to you that portion, which which outlines what the administration tried to do. So the whistleblower complaint says, in the days following the phone call, I learned from multiple U.S. officials that senior White House officials had intervened to lock down all records of the phone call, especially the official word for word transcript of the call that was produced,

as is customary by the White House situation room. This set off, this set of actions underscored to me that White House officials, that White House officials understood the gravity of what had transpired in the call. He or she continues to write, White House officials told me that they were directed by White House lawyers to remove the electronic transcript from the computer system in which such transcripts are typically stored for coordination, finalization, and distribution to cabinet level officials. One more part of this.

Instead, the transcript was loaded into a separate electronic system that is otherwise used to store and handle classified information of an especially sensitive nature. One White House official described this act as an abuse of the electronic system because the call did not contain anything remotely sensitive from a national security perspective. Okay, now let me tell you why this is monumentally important. So it's not that we're learning about a new call, it's not that we're learning that anything that happened in that call is worse than we realized yet, okay? But what we're learning is two different things.

One is they knew it was bad. Now that's not just politically important, that's legally important. Because some laws are based on a state of mind. Did they intend to do the wrong thing? And you know this with murder cases. Homicides and manslaughter is different based on intent. I meant to go kill the guy and I had intent ahead of time to do it. Or it was an accident when we got into a fight and I was heated.

etc, right? So in this case, when they go to hide the phone call that Trump had with the Ukrainian president, they know that it's bad, they know that it's potentially illegal, that's why they're hiding it. And the fact that they took that physical action to do it shows intent. They knew it, they knew it. Now the second reason why it's hugely important is, number one, as Anna explained really carefully yesterday, what we showed you yesterday was not a transcript, it was a written out recollection

of the call, and we don't know if it was complete. The transcript does exist in the secret database. Yes. So you could pull it out and maybe find other things that were said in that perfect call. And Trump is so proud that it was a perfect call, of course, partly because he's stupid, and he doesn't know that he admitted to a crime, but partly maybe because he thought, oh, I already hid the bad stuff, okay? And then finally, and we're gonna get to more of details on this in a second, they might

have hidden more things in that same database. Wooee, okay, man, they're in a world of hurt. Trump, again, not bright enough to understand the kind of trouble he's in, but you could tell this panic response that, oops, I didn't realize it was gonna be this bad. I just wanna note that there have been colleagues of mine who have now turned on me when it comes to our bet. They were sure that I was going to win this bet. Jenk believes that Donald Trump will eventually step down before the 2020 election even takes

place. So we took this bet, I don't think that's gonna happen. And now, because of all this new information that's coming out, your case is becoming stronger. All right, so let's do a couple things here. First of all this. Okay, let's relax for a second. All right, what are you, okay, I got it in. All right, so now, seriously guys, seriously, this reminds me with the, seriously, this reminds me of the Buford fight story I told members in the postgame of when I got knocked down, I got hidden the ear, et cetera, and then came back and the crowd started chanting Rocky.

I'm not saying that the control room's chanting Rocky. I'm just saying, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. Okay, by the way, if you want to hear that story, TYT.com slash join. So let's go to other portions of this redacted whistleblower complaint that I think are relevant. So it starts off by saying, quote, in the course of my official duties, I have received information from multiple U.S. government officials that the president of the United States is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election. So this whistleblower makes it abundantly clear that he or she believes that these communications

are all about trying to influence the 2020 election with the help of a foreign leader. The interference includes, among other things, pressuring a foreign country to investigate one of the president's main domestic political rivals. The president's personal lawyer, Mr. Rudolph Giuliani, is a central figure in this effort. Attorney General William Barr appears to be involved as well. Also, this whistleblower complaint says, I was not a direct witness to most of the events described. This is something that the Trump administration is really harping on. However, I found colleagues accounts of these events to be credible because in almost all cases,

multiple officials recounted fact patterns that were consistent with one another. So this is also really important. There is half a dozen people who might have had access to that call, who the The whistleblower talked to, and they have the names. So meaning the whistleblower has the names. You call the whistleblower in, gives you the names, you call on the six people. And by the way, if you're a Trump supporter, if this is a hoax and a witch hunt, et cetera, those six people will say, oh, no, absolutely not.

And I mean, the president didn't say anything about Joe Biden, except we already know he says something about getting dirt on Joe Biden. It's already over. But if there's an extra layer to it, an extra crime of saying, I'll withhold the money, and so just being more explicit about what he already said and what we already know in the call, those six witnesses could either verify it or dispute it and refute it. So if you're after the truth and you're a Trump fan, you should want them to come forward. Right, so this is not based on one individual who went to this whistleblower and raised some concerns

about Donald Trump's actions. there are multiple people, that's important to keep in mind, especially for stories that we're going to cover later. So now I want to get to Donald Trump trying to influence the dealings with prosecutors within Ukraine, which we've talked about a little bit, but this helps us suss it out a little more. The president also praised Ukraine's prosecutor, prosecutor general specifically, and suggested that Mr. Zelensky might want to keep him in his position.

And then he includes a note. Starting in March of 2019, this prosecutor general made a series of public allegations, many of which he later walked back about the Biden family's activities in Ukraine. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So Trump is thinking, well, this prosecutor general might be on my side. He might help dig up some of this dirt on the Biden family. So let me just suggest that he should keep this prosecutor general in place.

Look, guys, there's actually no factual dispute that Donald Trump. asked Ukraine to dig up political dirt on his political opponent. It's in the call, it's in the call that's already been released. So does any Republican even deny that? You can't deny it. It's already in the released part of the calls. So does that mean Republicans think, oh yeah, it's totally okay if my Democratic opponent goes and asks for help from any foreign country to make up corruption charges on me?

That's totally fine, totally fine. So, well, you can't say that, it's illegal and it'd be mental. Then the democratic components can be like, all right, China, what do you got on corruption on Congressman X, Senator Y, whether it's real or unreal? Who cares? Come help my campaign. Iran, come help my campaign. Cuba, come help my campaign.

This is preposterous. I have a question, and it really does matter because depending on how this plays out, obviously more people will be implicated in this investigation. So as you've mentioned a million times, Donald Trump doesn't really seem to know the law, care about the law, he keeps doing things without really thinking about the ramifications or consequences. Now, one can argue he hasn't had to face any consequences thus far, so maybe he does know what the law is, and he's decided to brazenly break it anyway. However, look, the fact that there were White House officials who wanted to hide the evidence of this phone call, right? So are there people protecting Trump? Like Trump has these conversations, he's thinking like, yeah, I'm having a normal conversation. There's no big deal. Others in the administration hear the call.

They know that it's problematic. They know that he's breaking a law here and they decide to move forward with hiding a transcript of it on his behalf. Well, he doesn't technically know how to move a call into a secret database. So there's no question that there are people inside the White House who are doing it for him and hence helping him. And guys, this is really important. I love that Anna brought it up.

So Trump has fired every competent person in his administration, whatever little of them existed in the first place. And he's replaced them with lackeys and yes, men. Because to him, like a mob boss, loyalty is more important than competence. Because, and it actually makes sense. If you're a mom boss, if anyone is disloyalty, you're going to go to prison for the rest of your life. So for that particular job, loyalty is more important than competence.

But what that does is it creates a number of people after you weeded through some people as Trump has done that are generally incompetent but willing to break the law and most importantly bow their heads. So yes, sir, of course, sir, asking for favors from a foreign government to attack your political opponent. Of course, sir, yes, sir, because anyone who says no is fired, right? And anyone who doesn't play ball and is willing to commit crimes is fired. Part of the reason Trump's done this his whole life and the people who worked at the Trump

organization explained how he did it in the business world is that so eventually he also has a fall guy. So he says, I didn't move it into the secret database. This schmuck did, right? And remember, he recently just said about Giuliani. Oh, well, I guess you'd have to ask him that. I don't know anything about that. Oh, you see, that's why he's surrounded by guys who are willing to break the law.

law, not challenge him on things that are obvious and gets himself into this kind of situation. This isn't a normally family run business, whether you're doing that, you know, in a nefarious way or not. This is the White House, you're gonna get caught, brother. And I mean, I'm surprised it took this long, and it's only because your opponents are Democrats. Right, exactly. So the whistleblower also outlines the way in which he or she was concerned with the way

the Ukrainian government responded following the call. So I want to give you a little portion of that. The Ukrainian side was the first to publicly acknowledge the phone call. On the evening of the 25th of July, a readout was posted on the website of the Ukrainian president and contained the following line. And then he mentions that the translation was from original Russian language readout. So Donald Trump expressed his conviction that the new Ukrainian government will be a able to quickly improve Ukraine's image and complete the investigation of corruption cases

that have held back cooperation between Ukraine and the United States. So they have this call and they put out this statement saying, we have this wonderful call, Donald Trump believes that we're gonna really improve the image of Ukraine. A day after the call, US Special Representative for Ukraine negotiations, Kurt Volker, visited Kiev and met with President Zelensky and a variety of Ukrainian political figures. Ambassador Volker was accompanied in his meetings by U.S. Ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sundland. Based on multiple readouts of these meetings recounted to me by various U.S. officials,

Ambassadors Volker and Sundland reportedly provided evidence to the Ukrainian leaders. I'm sorry, reportedly provided advice to the Ukrainian leadership. about how to navigate the demands that the president had made of Mr. Zelensky. So already you have people getting involved, trying to enforce or at least move into put into motion what Donald Trump had discussed with Zelensky. And Ukrainian officials saying it was clear to us that investigating Biden was a condition of talking to Donald Trump. And again, they know that Trump has held up the money.

and the Ukrainians are asking, where's the money Congress, the United States Congress appropriated to us, and they're made aware that the condition for that kind of conversation is, you've got to investigate Biden. So I want to mention one more important thing in regards to who knew what and when. Dan Coates was the director of national intelligence. He resigned three days after the call. Okay, so now you can say, oh, it might have been a coincidence, if you say so, okay, but that looks really bad.

And by the way, he also advises number two, who he was very close to, to also resign and she did. And so he's like, get out, get out, the ship is capsizing, we got to go. Because if you stay, then you have to defend the illegal actions. Well, Dan Coach is a massive right winger, but he ain't stupid. So he's like, I don't know that he knew about the whistleblower. At that point, the whistleblower, I don't think, I know, had not put in the official complaint yet. But he doesn't have to know about the whistleblower.

He knows about the intelligence, he's the director of national intelligence. Right. So he knows about the call. I don't know if he knew that they had moved the call to a secret database to protect it. I don't know if he knew that they have moved other calls into the secret database to protect those. But I do know that he is like, oh, there was a bad call made where you asked for political

interference in elections from a foreign country. Gotta go! So, coach leaves. Coats grabs his coats. He's gone. Gone. By the way, one other thing that I want to keep reminding everyone of as we continued reporting on this developing story, this is just one, one of as many as eight conversations that Donald

Trump had with the president of Ukraine. And so who knows what those other conversations contained? I'm hopeful that we'll find out more information about them as this investigation moves forward. But just given this one conversation, it's bad, it's really, really bad. I'd like to add to that. So I want to give you one more quote from the Wall Street Journal. In an appendix to the complaint, the whistleblower wrote to the White House officials said this was, quote, not the first time the Trump White House.

White House had put a presidential transcript, quote, into this code word level system solely for the purpose of protecting politically sensitive, rather national security sensitive information. So it is imperative that the investigators find out how many calls were moved into that secret database and what were in those calls. Because every call that got moved in there, the White House knew there was something wrong with it. There was something politically sensitive and potentially illegal in those calls. Otherwise, as the whistleblower is explaining, there's no reason to move unclassified calls into the most top secret database the government has, unless you want to hide them.

Hide them even from other cabinet officials and from anyone else ever seeing them. We must find those calls and we must find out what's in them. Because you didn't move things into a secret database because they weren't problematic. Tick, tick, tick. Tick, tick. Tick, tick. Drams. All right, we got to take a break. Oh, you're the worst. Please stop doing about it. Okay, wait, we got to take a break. But when we come back, we're going to talk about Donald Trump putting out conspiracy theories about the individual who informed this whistleblower. It is an insane story. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-F-The Republic or UNFTR. As a young Turks fan,

already know that the government, the media, and corporations are constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the rich and powerful. But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the conventional wisdom. In each episode of Un-B-The-Republic or UNFTR, the host delves into a different historical episode or topic that's generally misunderstood or purposely obfuscated by the so-called powers that be, featuring in-depth research, razor-sharp commentary, and just the right amount of vulgarity, the UNFTR podcast takes a sledgehammer to what you thought you knew about some of the nation's most sacred historical cows. But don't just take my word for it. The New York Times described UNFTR as

consistently compelling and educational, aiming to challenge conventional wisdom and upend the historical narratives that were taught in school. For as the great philosopher Yoda once put it, you must unlearn what you have learned. And that's true whether you're in Jedi training or you're uprooting and exposing all the propaganda and disinformation you've been fed over the course of your lifetime. So search for UNFDR in your podcast app today and get ready to get informed, angered, and entertained all at the same time.

Right back. All right, back on the young Turks. So lots of interesting comments for the members as usual. Jane Locke writes in, I'd almost rather see Bill Barr in jail than Trump, although adjoining cells would be in the words of Jank, Walsam. Yeah, no way, I'll take Trump over Barr. Okay, I hear you, Barr is terrible, he helped Trump cover everything up, get rid of Trump. Okay, I bathe in a very stable geniuses, tears writes in, Anna, you will win the bet.

This is why. Jank is right that Trump is a child, but like many children, Trump doubles, triples, and quadruples down on everything. He will not resign from office and McConnell will make sure the Senate won't have a trial, fearing Republicans being on the record due to election season. I think you're right. Yeah, you think this person is right. Of course.

Yeah. No. So look, Republican senators are already getting jittery. Classy Ben Sasse. He's like, troubling. Mitt Romney's like, troubling. Okay, Susan Collins, tick, tick, tick, she's going to lose. So shrublings around the quarter.

It happens all the time though. Every time there's a controversy, a few of those Republicans get worried about their political career and they'll say super mild things that are critical of Trump and then hope that it'll blow over. And more often than not, it'll blow over. Now in this case, it might not, I hope it doesn't, but I don't know. I just, I don't trust that Donald Trump is ever willing to step down. I don't even trust him to step down if he loses the election.

Like that's the kind of guy I think he is. So I could be wrong, you could be right, we'll see. We'll see, all right, and I Sanchez on Twitter says, Dems better not fumble this gift from the gods. I want to throw an impeachment party. I'm so there with you, brother. Do we have an impeachment party? Oh my God, we're gonna have an impeachment party on the show, live on the air.

Are you kidding me? It's gonna be so much. Okay, anyway, what is that? I don't know, Jake. I feel like it's inappropriate for you to do that. Okay, I don't know about that. Agree to disagree. All right, you guys ready?

One more thing. This is so great that you said this. Rebecca Jones Howe says on Twitter, using hashtag TYT Live to talk to us 6 to 9 p.m. when we're live. Wow. Jenks Hugo's suit is mad nice today. Why, thank you. So actually, it's from Ron Thompson.

That's a store in L.A., and they were very nice to me, and they're wonderful folks. Did you get that for free? No, not for free, but at cost, which is like greatly reduced, which is awesome, and they're the best. And I love you guys. So these are, you know, folks have given us wonderful things, including maybe for the climate change debate. They might have given us one of the best venues in L.A. for free. So we do this stuff together. But the jacket and the shirt, this is this one on the blue one are now my favorite.

Yeah, you love that jacket. You wear it all the time. I do, I do. Okay, Ron Thompson.com, okay, it's a men's clothing brand, formal wear and street wear. A lot of celebrities as well as me are wearing it, okay. It's located downtown in 840 South Los Angeles Street here in LA, but you can go to Ron Thompson. dot com. Thank you for asking and for noticing, so that's wonderful of you.

Thank you guys. All right, let's move on to the rest of the news. Trump was at a UN event in Manhattan today, and it was close to the media. However, there were reports immediately following the event that he was throwing out conspiracy theories about the individual who informed the whistleblower, who then later filed a formal whistleblower complaint against Donald Trump because of his conversation with the president of Ukraine. Now, during this UN event, Donald Trump went on to say insane things about this informant

to the whistleblower. Take a listen. But basically, that person never saw the report, never saw the call, meaning never saw the call, heard something and decided that he or she, whatever the hell, and they sort of like, what was the spy? I wonder, who's the person that gave the whistleblower? Who's the person that gave the whistleblower the information? Because that's supposed to a spy.

You know what we used to do in the old days where we were smart, right? spies and traceable, we used to handle it a little differently than we do now. So when he refers to handling spies a little differently, he's referring to executions. So he is putting out an unfounded claim that this individual is a spy, and then he is suggesting that this individual should be executed? I mean, this is out of control. And by the way, the event was close to the media, but apparently someone who was who was was there, and again, this is an official UN event, recorded what Donald Trump was saying,

and then gave it to the Los Angeles Times. Yeah, look, I actually thought William Weld talking about treason and the penalty for it, his death was too much. And so Weld is the former Republican governor of Massachusetts, and he said that in regards to Donald Trump committing treason by working with a foreign government against the political opponent here in the U.S. We gotta bring that language down, okay? We're not gonna execute anybody that's crazy talk.

So now Donald Trump is saying, if anyone in the government betrays me, is loyal to the Constitution, is loyal to the laws and loyal to America, but betrays me personally, well, you know, I'm gonna call that spy, I'm gonna call that treason and remind you what the penalty for that is. So for the president to make that kind of threat, it's deeply troubling as usual. Make that kind of threat and make these kinds of of statements at a UN event, right? Like we're talking about international leaders, diplomats.

This is obviously a domestic issue, right? And he's facing an impeachment inquiry as a result of it. I mean, he's using these UN events to vent about his own personal issues. And just to give you more, Trump repeatedly referred to the whistleblower and condemned the news media reporting on the complaint as crooked. Some in the crowd laughed, which you could hear in that audio recording. The person briefed on what took place said. The event was closed to reporters and during his remarks the president called the news media

scum in addition to labeling them crooked. I mean, this is supposed to be the leader of a so-called democracy going after the media, which is supposed to be protected by our constitution. Yeah, I mean, you know what he went on to say. You know, these animals in the press, they're animals, some of the worst human beings you'll ever meet. Okay, so that this is not the first time that he's called people animals. He of course did it in regards to immigrants as well, and went on to say they're scum.

Many of them are scum, and then you have some good reporters, but not many of them, I'll be honest with you. Reminds you very much of what he said about immigrants too. Mexicans are coming in, they're animals, they're rapists, they're criminals, there's some that are good, but not many. And so here he is again, now doing it about the reporters and this is, but look, it's the talk of a fascist, it is, that's what fascists do. Hey, don't get information from reporters, get my propaganda instead, I'm gonna call them subhuman,

I'm gonna call them scum, we're gonna target them, we're gonna call them the enemy of the people. This is, look, it's not remotely hyperbole, that is exactly what fascists do. And other sets of groups of people are also less than human, and it's an infestation, invasion, same language that was used in Germany, and also for him, the context of the United Nations and moments that are supposed to be sober and cerebral, et cetera. Cerebral. I mean, they're completely lost on him. He has no sense of context.

And so, you know, I'm not surprised that he's saying these outrageous things. That's what he's always said, and I'm not surprised he's saying it in that context. What we got to do is take action. And luckily, finally, impeachment is happening because if you let this become the norm, well, then we've got significant trouble. Then freedom of the press is actually in jeopardy. And again, most importantly, the threats of violence. He did it at the rallies, punch them in the face, I'll pay your bills.

I remember the good old days, another reference that he did here, right? He said in the good old days, they'd get carried out on stretchers. And that was in regards to protesters. Some of them African Americans, I don't think that was the good old days, but he does. And talking about how it was great that a Republican congressman body slammed a reporter. So the threats of violence also fascism 101. I'm gonna make a comment, and I don't really make feminist arguments on this show often, because we don't cover that material as much.

But I just wanna remind everyone that women are the ones who are constantly told that they're over-emotional and their emotions get in the way of them being able to do their jobs effectively. Here we have the President of the United States who is so overwhelmed with emotion that he is ineffective at doing what he is supposed to do as the President of the United States. He is in front of the United Nations venting and crying and whining about his legal troubles domestically. Yeah. It's crazy.

But he has no sense of anything. Look, I'll give you two more quotes from this. event and it gives you a sense of it. One, he says, then you have sleepy Joe Biden who's dumb as a rock. This guy was dumb on his best day and he's not having his best day right now, he's dumb as a rock. I mean, it's, I've never seen a case of projection more clear than that. This is the biggest glass house in the world.

That's right. I mean, president releases a call where he implicates himself in a crime very clearly because he's dumb as a rock and he's not on his best day. And he wasn't right on his best thing. And then finally, on a funny note, he says, they're talking about me and I didn't do anything. But this is my favorite. I don't know if I'm, I don't know if I'm the most innocent person in the world. Really?

Really. I mean, imagine you're a world leader and you're listening to this guy who's like, that guy's dumb as a rock. Yeah, you're listening to this guy who's assisting Saudi Arabia in the death and destruction of the Yemenis, including all those children. Most innocent guy in the world. Yeah, and he says the reporters are scum while he's assisting the Saudis who chopped up a reporter.

Exactly, yeah. Okay. And then he goes, you know, this is it, oh, look, maybe we, you know, in the old days we used to have different things for treason, you know how it is, I don't know, I'm pro, I don't know if I'm the most innocent man in the world. They all had to be like, oh, when is this international nightmare going to be over? I mean, this is the most powerful country in the world, led by an obvious embecile and an obvious criminal.

Well, let's talk a little bit more about possible financial crimes, because this is a story that unfortunately isn't getting enough attention, and it shows a little bit of the incompetence on the left. So everyone is understandably focused on the formal whistleblower complaint involving Donald Trump's conversation with the president of Ukraine, of Vladimir Zalekh. Now, there are some reports that are trying to draw some attention back to a different whistleblower who hasn't gotten any attention. Now this whistleblower has not gone through the formal channels.

In other words, this individual has not filed a formal whistleblower complaint. He or she has gone directly to Congress. And it's in regard to Donald Trump's possible financial crimes, including working with the IRS to prevent them from doing a real audit into his tax returns. So let me give you the details on that, and this is reported by the Huffington Post. The tax whistleblower went straight to Congress, as I mentioned, specifically to the House Ways and Means Committee, which had sued the Trump administration for refusing to provide copies of the president's tax returns in response to a formal request.

Democrats say they need Trump's returns to make sure the IRS properly enforces tax laws against the president. But Ways and Means Chair Richard Neal is far less outspoken than Adam Schiff and his approach to the tax case has been cautious. He decided to stay focused on the lawsuit using the whistleblowers material to bolster that case. To give you some more information, the spokesman for the committee said this week that the U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump nominee who donated to the Trump 2016 campaign and volunteered for the Trump presidential transition has so far not asked to hear more about

the whistleblower, he denied a Democratic motion to speed up the case. So here's the issue, you have this whistleblower, then you have super timid members of the Democratic Party who aren't aggressive enough, and then you have judges who have been nominated by Donald Trump. And so that is a disastrous mix. For anyone who really underplays getting a Republican like Donald Trump elected, when it comes to the court system, these are the types of situations that really do hurt America as a whole. Because if you have the courts stacked with these pro-Trump judges, well, then you're

not going to get justice. Yeah, that's super important. Luckily, there's appeals processes, etc. But now more and more of the judiciary is filled with people who were appointed by a guy who doesn't believe in rule of law. In fact, he said, what do we need judges for? So he's not picking based on who would be the best judges, he's picking based on who would be most loyal to him. Exactly. And a guy who has been honestly a lifelong criminal. So when you have criminals speaking to judges, that's not a good thing for the country.

But I want to say one more thing about Richard Neal. He's trying to outcompete Nancy Pelosi for who has historically protected Donald Trump the most. There is something weird and wrong about Richard Neal. So this is now how many times in a row he has said, I do not want. want to investigate Donald Trump. Richard Neal has the most important job outside of the Speaker of the House. He is the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.

That is the most powerful committee, it controls the budget, okay? And Nancy Pelosi, of course, said, who is the weakest, most complicit Democrat I have? Richard Neal, you're in charge of the most important committee. So he will not investigate Trump on a boat, he will not investigate him on a goat. So, Richard, there's something wrong with Richard Neal. And look, I'm gonna tell you this, and then you're gonna think, oh, well, hey, is it a bias to center? No, I'm straight up about it.

There's a guy named Alex Morse running against Richard Neal in a Democratic primary. This is exactly what's wrong with the Democratic Party. There's a good progressive, he's a Justice Democrat, Justice Democrats.com slash Morse, M-O-R-S-E. But I'm telling you about him because of how bad Richard Neal is. I didn't know Alex Morse from a hole in the wall, I didn't know Richard Neal that well until he became the head of the Ways and Means Committee. I knew him tangentially as a random congressman. Why am I animated against Neil?

Because he gets in there and goes, I don't want his state tax returns. I'm going to wait incredibly long to ask for his normal tax returns. I don't want this. I don't want that. I don't want to investigate the guy. Then what are you doing there? No, it's out of control. And it goes to a broader issue with the Democratic Party when it comes to these

investigations in the first place. Look, I see frustration among progressives in regard to what finally led to an impeachment inquiry? Whatever, I'll take it. There needs to be an impeachment inquiry, and I'm glad that it's finally started. The frustration is, well, what about all these other crimes that Donald Trump is committed? And I agree with you on that. There are other crimes, namely potential financial crimes, especially financial crimes tied to his tax returns. Did he intentionally lie about his assets to commit tax fraud? Is he trying to influence the IRS's audit into his tax returns? These are the big questions that have been brought up by this whistleblower who's getting

no attention and some progressive members of Congress. But then you have someone like Richard Neal who's acting incredibly timid when it comes to these whistleblower complaints. Now, I don't know, I don't know what is fueling it, you can only speculate, but I do think it's strange that Democrats are staying away from any type of investigation into financial crimes. I mean, famously, Nancy Pelosi this week wanted to narrow the scope of the impeachment investigation and not focus on anything other than Ukraine.

When it came to the Mueller investigation, they didn't fight back when Mueller had a very narrow scope of his investigation. It's very strange. No, there's something wrong, man. This like, look, I don't want to, I've been resisting for now, at this point, well over a year or since the Democrats to control the House, right, what are we doing here? Why won't you look into his business ties when that is the most likely place, I mean, he was a businessman, and he had gone bankrupt six times, and then magically gets hundreds of

millions of dollars. His kids say it's from the Russians, well, wouldn't that be a giant incentive for Donald Trump to work with the Russians? And wouldn't that be leverage that the Russians would have on him? To say, I categorically do not ever want to look into that is bizarre. So the burden is not on us to prove why Pelosi and Neil are not looking into it. The burden is on them to explain why on God's green earth they continue to protect Donald Trump and his business ties.

What is it? Because now it's such an extreme level that for the first time you have to begin to ask the question of what are you trying to hide? I mean, this is weird. All right, we got to take a quick break. When we come back, we have more news for you, including one of my favorite stories of the day, Lindsey Graham on impeachment back in the 1990s versus Lindsey Graham on impeachment today. At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control

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and secure your data with a top VPN solution available, ExpressVPN. And if you go to ExpressVPN.com slash TYT, you can get three extra months for free with this exclusive link just for TYT fans. That's EXP-R-E-S-S-V-P-N dot com slash T-YT. Check it out today. Come right back. We hope you're enjoying this free clip from The Young Turks. If you want to get the whole show and more exclusive content while supporting independent media,

become a member at t yt.com slash join today. In the meantime, enjoy this free session. All right, back in a young church, so many fun comments for you guys. Become a member, get your comments read more often. And first, tyt.com slash join to become a member. Michelle says, ha, ha, who needs a spy when he commits his crimes in the open? Good point, Michelle. Bodega boy one duh writes in zero to impeachment real quick LMAO what did I tell you

you're gonna wake up one day and he's gonna be gone and you're gonna be like what happened zero to impeachment real quick zero to resignation anyway and Nancy Pelosi aka Democratic cancer that's too much guys bring that handle down okay don't use words like cancer I know I you don't mean bad by it but we're trying to bring that down. Okay, anyway, says, I'm going to Ron Thompson to buy a suit. That I love. Whoever supports TYT gets my support, you guys are finding the hard fight for all of us.

That's great to hear. P.S., my money's with Anna, yet to see the fight the Democrats won't roll over and submit to. If this impeachment is successful, it will be from other Republicans getting on board and fighting Trump themselves. But yes, that's exactly right. That's true. Right?

I mean, Democrats, anyway, we all know what you're talking about. But the minute any Republican joins, not any, but like three, five, seven, nine, gone. He's gone. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Do you have any more? Yeah, I do.

They're all fun. So Admiral Mardson says, dabbing jank is my favorite grandpa jank ever since he doesn't even know what it is. You're, of course I know what it is. He actually does know what it is. Please. We talked about it during the break. Yes.

I didn't know what it was. And he was, and grandma, Casper over here was asking me, what is that from? I didn't say it that way. I asked, how do you know about Davy? Yeah. Look, I learned it like all Americans from Cam Newton on the Panthers. Anyway, Tim says, God, I love this show. I love Jenks of enthusiasm.

Man, it fires me up. Tim, this one's for you. Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick tick, tick tick. Tyt dot com slash join. I'll read one YouTube super chat because those help the show and we appreciate it. Alexa Kirtik says, with all the misleading facts in the mainstream media, it's nice to know, TYT is no BS. Thank you for everything you do.

Thank you, Alexa, for making this show possible along with our members. Oh, by the way, so during our postgame yesterday, we had a discussion. I gave Jank a little tip on what to do before he starts cleaning at home. And then I asked our members to respond to my suggestion and say whether or not they're also engaging in this activity. And so I want to read some of those comments during our post game. Yes, all right, fine. Anna's vindicated on vacuuming while high, okay? Come on.

You're just giving it away, giving it away for free. Anyway, no, no, no, you'll see, you'll see. We'll get back into that important debate. T.Rt.com slash join. That's hard hitting. Okay, all right, what's next? All right, let's do it. The point I'm trying to make is you don't even have to be convicted of a crime

to lose your job in this Constitutional Republic. That's Senator Lindsey Graham back in the night. Graham back in the 1990s, talking about impeachment in regard to Bill Clinton, obviously a Democrat. Now, that Lindsey Graham is very different today as a sycophant for Donald Trump. But I want to give you some more context into what Lindsay Graham said back in the day. So let's take a look. The point I'm trying to make is you don't even have to be convicted of a crime to lose your job in this Constitutional Republic. If this body determines that your conduct as a public official is clearly out of bounds

in your role, because impeachment is not about punishment. Impeachment is about cleansing the office. Impeachment is about restoring honor and integrity to the office. the office, restoring honor and integrity. Oh, what happened, Lindsay? Well, you know what? We actually have an answer because he was confronted about it. But before we get to that, Jank, thoughts.

No, no, I just love every part of that. Look, guys, this is why people hate politicians. And you never hear people on TV saying because they're all friends with politicians. And the reporters at New York Times, et cetera, they need access. And it's not their job to be fair to them to say this. Although you could point out an article that according to polling, Americans hate politicians. It's because of guys like Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell. And so Lindsey Graham, when it's a Democrat, I don't even need a crime.

I don't like him. I find him dishonorable. So I'm just gonna impeach him for something that is perfectly consensual because I didn't like it. I don't need any standards for impeachment. Trump, oh, he committed crime after crime after crime. I know, but I'm trying to convince him to invade Iran. So, honor, I don't need integrity. Okay, I don't even care that he committed crimes.

I mean, this hypocrisy, it's so obvious. It's so obvious. It's so good, and it's so delicious. I love pointing this kind of stuff out. Now, obviously, the topic of impeachment has come up several times before. This is the first time Democrats have finally decided to pursue a formal impeachment inquiry. But back in 2018, when the topic of impeachment came up again, Again, there was an interview that Vice did with Lindsey Graham and they confronted him about

his previous statements. Let's take a listen to what he had to say. There's some comments you made back in 1999 that are back in the news today for some reason. Don't you think those words apply today? I think they always apply and finally somebody's listening. It took 20 years for somebody to figure out what I said in 1998. So welcome to the dance. Here's the deal.

If Mueller finds some evidence of Trump colluding with. of the Russians where he knew or should have known, that would be probably it for me. Other stuff, not so much. But you said in 1999 that the president doesn't even have to commit a crime. He even wagged his finger, doesn't have to commit a crime. We want to restore honor and integrity. That's what we want to do, honor and integrity, doesn't even have to commit a crime. Yeah, well, now.

Come on. I mean, but you just saw him say on tape. I mean, if there was evidence of him colluding with the Russians, then that would, you know, that presumably would get him to impeachment. Well, congrats, it's not the Russians, it's Ukraine, it's on, it's very clear, and Donald Trump has admitted it. He colluded with Ukraine to get dirt on his political opponent, Joe Biden. Period.

You don't need quid pro quo, and Lizzie Graham didn't mention quid pro quo there. He didn't say, oh, okay, if this or that, no, it's just, do you collude with a foreign government on interfering in our elections. That's exactly what Trump did in the case of Ukraine, and the favor he asked to target Joe Biden. So even by Lindsey Graham's shifting standards, he should still vote for impeachment. But on the other hand, I'm a politician and I'm a slime ball, and I can't wait to invade Iran because I love wars. Where's my Czech military industrial complex?

Raytheon, I'm here for you, don't worry. Shifty Lindsay. All right, so just so you guys really visualize the changing perspectives of Lindsey Graham, depending on who's president at the time, let's take a look at Graham then versus now. If you determine that he committed the crime of perjury and you determine that he committed the crime of obstruction of justice, based on the president of the Senate, I think you'd have a hard time saying under the situation in this case that that's not a high crime. He doesn't have to say go lie for me to be a crime. You don't have to say less obstruct justice for it to be a crime.

You judge people on their conduct, not magic phrases. To impeach any president over a phone call like this would be insane. Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha. But you know, Lindsay Graham's not alone. There are others including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Before I move on to him, did you want to add anything else? I'm just going through old tweets of Lindsay Graham, not about Will Clinton, but about Donald Trump during the primary. If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed and we will deserve it.

Last night, if you were looking for competency, Donald Trump fell short. And then I got this great one about Putin. He says, just when you think he can't get worse, a leading American candidate for president, praising Putin. So back when he was running against Donald Trump, you don't have to go back to the 1990s. He's like, even praising Putin was of deep concern to Lindsay Graham. Now he's like, oh, well, I mean, if he's working with Putin, that's great. When do we enraid?

Let's bomb. I'll take Venezuela. It doesn't have to be Iran. I'll take North Korea as long as we start a war. World's biggest hypocrite. Honor and integrity. Now, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell also had some strong statements in regard to impeachment today versus impeachment back in the 1990s.

So let's focus on what McConnell's been saying about impeachment today. It's laughable to think this is anywhere close to an impeachable offense. If this is the launching point for House Democrats' Democrats' impeachment process, they've already overplayed their hand. Also, the Kentucky Republican made no mention of the transcript. or impeachment inquiry on his social media accounts, while his office also stayed silent, having only issued a press release on the matter the day before the White House's records were released.

Now, when it comes to Bill Clinton and the impeachment process back in the 1990s, things were very different for Mitch McConnell. According to Newsweek, in a transcript of McConnell's comments in a February 12, 1999, closed door Clinton impeachment hearing, the GOP senator condemned Clinton for having chosen a path of lies and lawlessness in a desperate bid to stay in office. In fact, he was quoted as saying, time after time the president had the opportunity to choose the noble and honorable path. Time after time, he chose the path of lies and lawlessness for the same reason, for the

simple reason that he did not want to endanger his office on, his hold on public office. The president would seek to win at any cost. It sounds a lot like Donald Trump. If it meant lying to the American people, if it meant lying to his cabinet, the name of the game was winning, winning at any cost. Washington Post fact checkers say that as of August 5th, so we're now way past that, Donald Trump had told 2,019 falsehoods or misleading claims. So Mitch McConnell, who pretended to care, well, I mean, look, there's no lawbreaking or anything

by Bill Clinton, but oh my God, he told a lie. He once told a lie about a consensual affair. I am so moved by that. I have to impeach. I don't have a choice. Donald Trump has told 12,000 lies while in office. Well, golly gee, you know, I don't think. lives make really much of a difference at all.

I know what they're hanging their hat on. Well, look, you know, Bill Clinton, we dragged in front of a grand jury, in front of a proceeding where he had to swear, and so it was sworn testimony, et cetera. Donald Trump refused to cooperate with prosecutors, so he never had to do that, right? Right, he was never under oath, yeah. Yeah, so if that's the read, you want to hang all of your things on, God bless, go forward. But every American knows, look, was Bill Clinton always honest? No, of course not.

The one lie he told about Monica Lewski, you think that was his only lie? No, he told many, many lies. But if you're talking about being concerned and impeaching people based on lies, even the Magu guys know, Donald Trump has told way more lies than any politician ever, right? So they might not concede that, but they know he's told more lies than Bill Clinton, And they know he lies on a regular basis. So Mitch McConnell with the, oh my God, whenever it's a Democrat, they always get the vapors. Oh, always.

Right, they're like, oh, I do declare this is outrageous. Remember the constant panic over Obama's executive orders? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Now they're like, no, of course you have to do executive orders. Yep. Well, obviously, how else would you run the government? Okay, so now I'm gonna give you one last one from Lindsey Graham. This is now, after he got beaten the primaries, now he's trying to preferred Donald Trump.

So there's Lindsey Graham who was like, hey, oh, Bill Clinton should be impeached on anything. I don't know, he walked on the wrong side of the road, right? Now he's like, no, you shouldn't do impeachment even if there's crimes. Okay, then there's Lindsey Graham who hated Donald Trump. Then there's Lizzie Graham who's now kissing his ass, right? So he goes to play golf with Donald Trump. This is now in the ass kissing period, right? So somebody asked him, how'd you do against Donald Trump?

Now remember, by the way, Trump also cheats in golf. So golf magazine covered that way before he was president. He'll constantly just pick up balls and throw them. He was picked up a ball that wasn't even on the green, like, oh, that's obviously it. Anybody who knows Trump knows, and they'll say like, well, look, I like the guy, he's fun, but is he lying? Of course, he lies all the time, he cheats all the time. Anyway, so Lindsey Graham says about the golf outing.

How bad did he beat me? I did better in the presidential race than today on the golf course. Great fun, great host. Oh, my God. Oh, that's so sad. I have to say, look, there are just countless downsides to this Trump presidency. But you gotta take your wins where you can get them. And one of the wins is how Donald Trump very effectively unmanned these Republicans, especially

the Warhawks. Yeah, you know that Donald Trump docks Lindsey Graham, literally put out his phone number and everybody started calling him with death threats, the Trump supporters. Beta. So he had to get a new phone. After one of the meetings, after the meetings in the White House, Lindsay Graham said, oh, how good did it go? Well, I gave him my new phone number. Oh, that's so sad.

That's wonderfully sad. Look, Mitch McConnell is the heart of darkness and the worst politician in the country. I would say, including Donald Trump, because he keeps corruption going. Trump's an idiot. He's into personal corruption. Mitch McConnell built the machine of corruption, systemic corruption, where the don't. Owners buy off all of our politicians. But when it comes to snibbling politicians, I think Lindsey Graham even has McConnell and

Ted Cruz beat. Yeah, definitely. I totally agree. He is the snivelingest of them all. Yep. All right, we gotta take a break. When we come back, we have some awesome original reporting from Emma Vigland and also from Ryan Grimm.

They went to two different events with protesters. And it's just, it's wonderful. Grimm spoke to Iyana Presley and Ilhan Omar. They have a disagreement. What is the disagreement? You don't want to miss it. Come right 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.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Jank Huger, and I'll see you soon.