DECEMBER 13 AND
14, 2019
NEWS AND VIEWS
TEACHERS ARE
THE LEAST APPRECIATED WELL-EDUCATED GROUP THAT WE HAVE, I WOULD SAY, AND YES,
THEY DESERVE AT LEAST $60,000 A YEAR.
Bernie Sanders
tweets teachers should be paid 'at least $60,000' if Gerrit Cole can make $324
million
Chris Bumbaca
USA TODAY
PUBLISHED 4:39
PM ET, DECEMBER 14, 2019
Bernie Sanders
is using baseball's lucrative off-season to point out proposed policy changes.
The Vermont
senator and Democratic presidential candidate highlighted the record-breaking
contract Gerrit Cole signed with the New York Yankees to point to teachers'
inadequate wages. Cole's contract is the largest ever for a pitcher by a wide
margin.
"If
pitchers can make $324 million, we can pay every teacher in this country at
least $60,000," Sanders' official account tweeted.
The salary of
$60,000 is consistent in Sanders' argument. On his campaign's official website,
a goal under his "reinvesting in public education" issue statement is
"give teachers a much-deserved raise by setting a starting salary for
teachers at no less than $60,000, expanding collective bargaining rights and
teacher tenure, and funding out-of-pocket expenses for classroom
materials."
Bernie Sanders
✔
@BernieSanders
If pitchers can
make $324 million, we can pay every teacher in this country at least $60,000.
https://twitter.com/sportscenter/status/1204831730491936769 …
SportsCenter
✔
@SportsCenter
On Tuesday,
Gerrit Cole signed a contract with the Yankees worth $324 million.
That's just $1M
less than the $325 million the City of Anaheim agreed to sell Angel Stadium and
the 133 acres of surrounding land for last week 😳 #SCFacts
(h/t
@Alden_Gonzalez)
View image on
Twitter
36.4K
2:30 PM - Dec
14, 2019
Twitter Ads
info and privacy
7,974 people
are talking about this
Sanders also
has been involved in the battle between minor league clubs and MLB. The league
is advocating for a plan that would reorganize the minors and eliminate 42
clubs. Sanders wrote a scathing letter to commissioner Rob Manfred about the
issue and the two met last week to assure that the league is committed to a
good faith negotiation "that would maintain professional baseball in the
42 communities while addressing concerns about facilities, working conditions
and wages for minor league players."
TOMORROW’S
BERNIE STOP
Bernie Sanders
to visit city of Coachella on Monday, mayor says
Risa Johnson,
Palm Springs Desert Sun Published 3:49
p.m. PT Dec. 14, 2019 | Updated 3:59 p.m. PT Dec. 14, 2019
28 PHOTOS – Scenes
From Berniechella 2016
Democratic
presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is expected to make a third stop in the
Coachella Valley next week, according to the Coachella mayor.
In addition to
events in Rancho Mirage and Moreno Valley next week, Sanders, a U.S. senator
from Vermont, will host a campaign office opening and rally on Monday at the
Veterans Park in Coachella, according to Coachella Mayor Steven Hernandez.
Hernandez
posted the announcement Saturday afternoon on his public Facebook page. The
event is set to take place at 4 p.m. Monday, Hernandez said.
The Bernie
Sanders campaign could not immediately be reached for confirmation.
More: Bernie
Sanders to outline Green New Deal plan in Moreno Valley, a trucking and
warehouse epicenter
More: Bernie
Sanders makes play for California; will hold rally in Rancho Mirage Monday
IMAGE -- A
screenshot of Coachella Mayor Steven Hernandez's Facebook post Saturday about a
visit by Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Democratic presidential contender, to Coachella
on Monday, Dec. 16, 2019. (Photo: SUPPLIED)
Hi, I'm Risa
Image
I cover Native
American communities in the Coachella Valley for The Desert Sun as a Report for
America corps member. My work is made possible, in part, because of community
donations. I am passionate about local news and amplifying the voices of people
seldom heard. If you want to discover new stories, support our journalism and
subscribe to The Desert Sun today.
USA TODAY
NETWORK
DEMS BOW TO
LABOR
2020 DEMOCRATIC
DEBATES
Democratic
candidates threaten to skip debate amid labor fight
All seven
candidates who have qualified for next week's debate say they will not cross
the picket line.
By QUINT FORGEY
12/13/2019
01:47 PM EST
Updated: 12/13/2019
05:17 PM EST
PHOTOGRAPH -- Democratic
presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. | Justin
Sullivan/Getty Images
All seven
Democratic candidates who have qualified for the PBS NewsHour/POLITICO Debate
at Loyola Marymount University next week threatened on Friday to skip the
event, asserting they would not cross the picket line of campus workers locked
in a labor dispute.
UNITE HERE
Local 11, a union representing 150 cashiers, cooks, dishwashers and servers at
the university, said in a statement that it had not yet reached a resolution in
negotiations for a collective bargaining agreement with Sodexo — a global
services company that employs the workers and is subcontracted by the
university to handle food service operations.
Local 11 began
talks with Sodexo in March, but said the company last week canceled scheduled
contract negotiations after workers and students began picketing on campus in
November.
"We had
hoped that workers would have a contract with wages and affordable health
insurance before the debate next week," Susan Minato, co-President of
Local 11, said in the statement. "Instead, workers will be picketing when
the candidates come to campus."
The Democratic
National Committee said in a statement that it was working with all parties
involved to find "an acceptable resolution" that will allow the
debate to go forward.
"The DNC
and LMU learned of this issue earlier today, and it is our understanding this
matter arose within the last day," Xochitl Hinojosa, the DNC
communications director, said in the statement. "While LMU is not a party
to the negotiations between Sodexo and Unite Here Local 11, Tom Perez would
absolutely not cross a picket line and would never expect our candidates to
either."
Massachusetts
Sen. Elizabeth Warren tweeted that Local 11 "is fighting for better wages
and benefits—and I stand with them. The DNC should find a solution that lives
up to our party's commitment to fight for working people. I will not cross the
union's picket line even if it means missing the debate."
Half an hour
later, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders tweeted: "I stand with the workers of
@UNITEHERE11 on campus at Loyola Marymount University fighting Sodexo for a
better contract. I will not be crossing their picket line."
Tech
entrepreneur Andrew Yang also tweeted that he would not cross the Local 11
workers' picket line to attend the debate. "We must live our values and
there is nothing more core to the Democratic Party than the fight for working
people. I support @UNITEHERE11 in their fight for the compensation and benefits
they deserve," he wrote.
"I won't
be crossing a picket line," former Vice President Joe Biden tweeted.
"We’ve got to stand together with @UNITEHERE11 for affordable health care
and fair wages. A job is about more than just a paycheck. It's about
dignity."
Billionaire
envrionmental [sic] activist Tom Steyer tweeted that if the dispute between
Local 11 and Sodexo "is not resolved before the debate, I will not cross
the picket line. I trust the DNC will find a solution ahead of the debate, and
I stand with @LoyolaMarymount workers in their fight for fair wages and
benefits."
"I take
the debate stage to stand up for workers’ rights, not to undermine them,"
tweeted South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg. "I stand in solidarity with the
workers of @UNITEHERE11 at Loyola Marymount University and I will not cross
their picket line."
Speaking at a
roundtable of labor leaders in Miami, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar said:
"I don't believe we should cross a picket line. So I would encourage the
DNC to try to work this out to find a new location, or they're going to have to
figure out how to resolve this."
The California
Labor Federation, which is made up of 1,200 affiliated unions, had urged the
White House contenders to not participate in the debate amid the protests,
tweeting: "Every democratic candidate has vowed to fight for working people.
It's time to put those words into action."
The planned
demonstrations and candidates' ultimatums mark the second time a campus labor
fight has upended plans for the December debate, slated to be the final
party-sanctioned televised forum of the year.
After
announcing the University of California, Los Angeles, as the debate's initial
venue in late October, the DNC backtracked two weeks later, deciding the
university would not host the event.
AFSCME Local
3299, the University of California's largest employee union, had demanded a
boycott of speaking engagements at the university after being locked in a
dispute with the the 10-campus system for nearly three years.
"In
response to concerns raised by the local organized labor community in Los
Angeles, we have asked our media partners to seek an alternative site for the
December debate," DNC senior adviser Mary Beth Cahill said in an emailed
statement in November.
UCLA said in a
statement it had "agreed to step aside as the site of the debate rather
than become a potential distraction during this vitally important time in our
country’s history."
The DNC also
officially announced on Friday that the seven candidates met the qualifying
thresholds necessary to take part in the PBS NewsHour/POLITICO Debate — the
smallest assembly of competitors set to appear on one debate stage thus far in
the primary cycle.
Alex Thompson
contributed to this report.
FILED UNDER:
ELIZABETH WARREN, ELIZABETH WARREN 2020, BERNIE SANDERS
JUST BECAUSE
THE US DEMOCRATIC CENTRISTS GIVE A WARNING DOESN’T MEAN THAT THEY ARE RIGHT
ABOUT “THE DANGERS OF A PROGRESSIVE NOMINEE.” THEY’VE BEEN DOING THAT SINCE THE
RACE BEGAN. THE TIME IS NOW FOR PROGRESSIVES TO CONTINUE THE PUSH. IF SANDERS /
WARREN DO NOT WIN A SUFFICIENT NUMBER OF DELEGATES, THEN THEY WON’T HAVE THE
CANDIDACY. IT’S THAT SIMPLE. THIS IS JUST ANOTHER CENTRIST MOVE TO DISCOURAGE
THE SANDERS CAMP I BELIEVE, AND ONLY THE PRIMARIES WILL DECIDE THE ISSUE. BESIDES,
BRITAIN IS NOT THE USA.
Blowback from
U.K. election burns Warren, Sanders
Centrists warn
Corbyn defeat highlights the dangers of a progressive nominee.
By HOLLY
OTTERBEIN and ALEX THOMPSON
12/13/2019
09:10 PM EST
Photo of Bernie
Sanders and Elizabeth Warren
Bernie Sanders
and Elizabeth Warren | AP Photo/Andrew Harnik; all others Getty Images
The votes were
still being counted in the U.K. when a fierce debate broke out over whether the
crushing defeat of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party foreshadowed dark days ahead —
for the left-wing Democrats running for U.S. president, that is.
As exit polls
rolled in showing a landslide victory for Boris Johnson’s Tories, particularly
in former Labour strongholds that had backed Brexit, centrist Democrats seized
the opportunity to argue that a moderate must be nominated to defeat President
Donald Trump. And they continued to press the case Friday.
“It’s a lesson
for all Democrats who are eager to replace Trump,” said former Chicago Mayor
Rahm Emanuel. “There was no skimping on the progressive agenda and it was the
worst performance in two decades. It’s not just economics. You have to have a
candidate and a message that’s close to the zeitgeist of the moment — not just
a grab bag of giveaways.”
The
thoroughness of Corbyn‘s thrashing revived the longstanding debate within the
party over just how ambitious the Democratic agenda should be, and provided
fresh ammunition for the arguments of moderates who contend that if the party
backs Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren, the primary’s leading progressives,
they’ll lose the Rust Belt and perhaps even elsewhere.
The left played
defense in the wake of the loss, insisting that it is unwise to compare the two
countries an ocean apart, and that the moderates bashing them had never been
held accountable for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 loss. Plus, they pointed out,
Sanders and Warren have far higher favorability ratings than the unpopular
Corbyn.
But because
Sanders had praised Corbyn in the past and his current and former aides have
boosted him, Labour’s monumental defeat trained attention onto him in
particular, even from some fellow progressives.
"Corbyn
was basically a satellite project for Bernie world. If there is one lesson to
be gleaned from the devastating loss across the pond, it's that we need more
than just soaring rhetoric backed up by bravado of organizing,” said Murshed
Zaheed, a Megaphone Strategies partner and former Harry Reid aide backing
Warren. “We need to have leaders who have crystal-clear analysis of how to
solve problems and leverage power to achieve those solutions. Corbyn never
appeared to be a candidate with any sound plans on how to move U.K. forward.”
Before the
polls closed on Thursday, Sanders’ national organizing director, Claire
Sandberg, had tweeted that the “Bernie team says #VoteLabour” with a picture
attached of campaign staff. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a top congressional
ally who has campaigned with Sanders in Iowa, also tweeted in support of
Labour. Two 2016 aides to Sanders, Becky Bond and Zack Malitz, had traveled to
London earlier this year to help the pro-Corbyn group Momentum as well.
Notably,
Sanders himself did not weigh in on Corbyn ahead of the 2019 election. That
marked a something of a change from the last U.K. general election in 2017,
when the Labour Party defied expectations and won 30 additional seats, though
not an outright majority. Sanders said that year that there were “similarities”
to Corbyn’s political work and his own.
“What Corbyn
has tried to do with the Labour Party is not dissimilar from what some of us
are trying to do with the Democratic Party,” he said at the time. “Which is
make it a party which is much more open and inviting for working people and
young people and not have kind of what we call a liberal elite making the
decisions from the top on down, but making the decisions from the bottom on up.”
The U.K.
election has also reinvigorated debates among Democrats over how to best win
back the working-class voters that have fled them and Labour Party in droves in
recent years, handle disinformation campaigns on social media, and navigate the
culture wars. For progressives especially, it has led to renewed discussions
over how to woo senior voters.
On Thursday,
former Vice President Joe Biden said Boris Johnson's win showed the consequence
of moving too far from the center: “Look what happens when the Labour Party
moves so, so far to the left. It comes up with ideas that are not able to be
contained within a rational basis quickly.”
Rep. Ro Khanna,
Sanders’ campaign co-chair, insisted that anyone who argues for a return to
“the status quo” is overlooking the economic disparity that led to Brexit in
the first place.
“What the U.K.
elections show is that the technology revolution and globalization has led to
deindustrialization and stagnation of wages for the working class,” he said.
“They channeled that into a nationalistic populism. The task of the left is to
offer an aspirational vision instead — how can we bring new, good paying jobs
to people and communities left behind.”
Though many
progressives in the U.S. are now distancing themselves from the Labour Party,
some privately saw a potential Corbyn win as something that could provide
momentum for the left-wing 2020 candidates and show that a socialist victory
was possible. Likewise, some moderate Democrats quietly believed before the
election that a Labour loss would send a signal that the Democratic Party would
suffer by nominating a progressive.
A former
Sanders aide questioned the wisdom of the Vermont senator’s staffers speaking
out in support of Corbyn in advance of the U.K. election: “They should stay
focused on winning the required number of delegates to win the nomination. Not
on elections abroad. This is a prime example of eyes not on the prize or a
fundamental lack of understanding of what’s needed to win.”
Michael
Bloomberg, the billionaire businessman and former New York City mayor who
entered the race this month after coming to the conclusion that the field
lacked a clear candidate who could defeat Trump, said the loss was a clear
warning: "Americans want change but I don’t think they want revolutionary
change.”
It was an
implicit shot at Sanders, who has long called for a “political revolution,” and
Warren, who has attacked Bloomberg vigorously and is calling for “big,
structural change.”
Pete Buttigieg,
who has risen in the early-state polls while arguing that Sanders and Warren’s
progressive message is “not unifying,” struck a less critical tone an interview
Friday with journalist Robert Costa at a Post Live event.
“It’s a little
tough to draw comparisons because of course they’re dealing with this Brexit
issue that is just different than anything going on in the United States,” he said.
“I do think it’s a good moment to remind ourselves that a Conservative in a
place like the U.K. would probably be considered a center-left Democrat in a
place like the U.S., right? The climate policies, even a lot of the health and
social policies that are considered more right or center-right over there, are
not at all welcome in today’s American Republican Party.”
Even Emanuel
acknowledged there were differences between the two situations: “I get it that
Brexit was an overpowering issue, but Trump is an overpowering issue too.”
Still,
Buttigieg said, there is a meaning in the election for the left: “You’ve got to
be ready to build a coalition and gather that majority, but here's the thing.
In America today, most Americans are with us — and by us I mean with my party —
on every major issue.”
Polls in the
U.K. showed that voters backed many of Corbyn’s policies as well, but strongly
disliked the candidate.
FILED UNDER:
ELIZABETH WARREN, ELIZABETH WARREN 2020, BERNIE SANDERS,
SANDERS DECIDED
TO WITHDRAW HIS SUPPORT FOR UYGUR. IT’S SAD, BUT THE RIGHT DECISION. THERE IS
NO STATEMENT THAT UYGUR IS DROPPING OUT, BUT RATHER THAT HE IS SIMPLY ACCEPTING
NO MORE ENDORSEMENTS.
Bernie Sanders
Retracts Endorsement of Cenk Uygur After Criticism
Mr. Sanders had
said Mr. Uygur was “a voice we desperately need in Congress.” But many
Democrats condemned the endorsement, citing Mr. Uygur’s history of offensive
comments.
Jennifer Medina
By Jennifer
Medina
Dec. 13, 2019
Updated 5:26
p.m. ET
PHOTOGRAPH -- Cenk
Uygur is running to fill the seat vacated by former Representative Katie Hill
in California’s 25th Congressional District. Credit...Christian
Monterrosa/Sipa, via Associated Press
LOS ANGELES —
Can an endorsement be put back in the bottle?
On Thursday,
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont endorsed Cenk Uygur, a progressive talk show
host running for a California congressional seat who has a history of making
offensive comments about women, Jews, Muslims and other groups. But he withdrew
the endorsement a day later, after facing considerable backlash for his
decision, and after Mr. Uygur made an announcement of his own: He was no longer
accepting endorsements of any kind.
“Going forward
from today I will not accept endorsements, so it means Bernie Sanders has not
endorsed me,” Mr. Uygur said, adding that he did not “want to damage” his
potential backers.
The backing from
Mr. Sanders, a leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination,
came in what has already proved to be a heated battle in the race to replace
former Representative Katie Hill, who stepped down earlier this year.
Mr. Sanders had
called Mr. Uygur, the founder and co-host of the online talk show “The Young
Turks,” “a voice we desperately need in Congress” in a statement on Thursday.
“I know he will
serve ordinary people, not powerful special interests,” Mr. Sanders said then.
But by Friday
afternoon, he had reconsidered.
“Our movement
is bigger than any one person,” he said. “I hear my grass roots supporters who
were frustrated and understand their concerns. Cenk today said he is rejecting
all endorsements for his campaign, and I retract my endorsement.”
Mr. Uygur, who
lives outside the district, is running against Christy Smith, a state
assemblywoman who has represented the area for years. Ms. Smith has received
the backing of many prominent Democrats in the state, including the House
speaker, Nancy Pelosi. Her campaign has called attention to Mr. Uygur’s long
history of crude comments, many of which are being regularly reposted by her
supporters.
Election 2020
The Latest – Updated
Dec. 11, 2019
New: Pete
Buttigieg released the names of nine clients he advised as a consultant at
McKinsey & Company, a period of his life that has come under scrutiny.
New: Senator
Elizabeth Warren is abandoning her above-the-fray approach and delivering her
most forceful and direct criticism yet of her Democratic opponents.
New: Andrew
Yang is the latest candidate to secure a spot in the December Democratic
presidential debate. The deadline is Thursday.
Senator Kamala
Harris of California has suspended her presidential campaign after months of
slumping poll numbers, a dramatic comedown after her campaign began with
significant promise.
Gov. Steve
Bullock of Montana, who argued that his track record of winning in a deep red
state positioned him to beat President Trump in 2020, is dropping out.
Senator Cory
Booker of New Jersey proposed investing $100 billion in historically black
colleges and universities and other minority-serving institutions.
Representative
Joe Sestak of Pennsylvania, a former Navy admiral who made history in 2006 as
the highest-ranked military officer elected to Congress, announced on Sunday
that he was dropping out of the presidential race.
Get the Latest
Updates
On Politics
will keep you informed of the latest political news.SIGN UP
In 2017, Mr. Uygur
was forced out of the group Justice Democrats, a group he co-founded that backs
progressive congressional candidates around the country, after his old blog
posts objectifying women came to light.
Mr. Uygur’s
long history of comments about women included ranking them on a scale of 1 to
10, based on how likely men would be to have them perform oral sex. He also
defended a similar ranking by Harvard’s men’s soccer team, which was widely
condemned at the time.
Mr. Uygur, a
longtime supporter of Mr. Sanders, has also disparaged former President Barack
Obama on his show, argued that bestiality should be legal and hosted white
supremacist figures, including David Duke. In one clip that circulated on
Twitter, Mr. Duke ends an interview by saying, “I am not, what you call a
racist,” to which Mr. Uygur replies, “No, of course not.”
Mr. Uygur
called the clip a “complete smear” that had been taken out of context from a
combative one-hour interview in which he pushed back on Mr. Duke.
He said he had
already apologized for and disavowed many of his past statements, and called
the criticism he was facing “incredibly unfair, driven by the corporate
Democrats and to some extent corporate media.”
Ms. Smith has
mostly declined to comment on Mr. Uygur’s past remarks, which have repeatedly
resurfaced in local press. But last month, she told The Washington Post: “I’m
not sure how to rank what is most damning of his commentary, but the most
disqualifying to me was the night of the Saugus High School shooting when he
boasted about his fundraising totals while I was with grieving families and
students. He is not fit to serve anywhere, least of all a district where he
doesn’t even live.”
Several liberal
groups in California have condemned Mr. Uygur, and Mark Gonzalez, the chairman
of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party, had called for Mr. Sanders to
withdraw his endorsement.
“This man has
spent decades, including up until recently, attacking women, the LGBTQ
community, Jews, Muslims, Asian-Americans and African Americans,” he said in a
statement. “His vulgarity, his hate speech and divisive rhetoric have no place
in our party.”
Ms. Hill
stepped down from the congressional seat in October after nude pictures of her
surfaced online. She faced a House ethics investigation into allegations that
she had a sexual relationship with a member of her congressional staff, a
violation of House rules and which she denies. Ms. Hill said she was the victim
of an abusive husband who had engaged in revenge porn by distributing the
photos.
The sprawling
congressional district north of Los Angeles includes Santa Clarita and Simi
Valley, bedroom communities that are popular with people who work in Los Angeles
but move for less expensive housing. The district is widely viewed as moderate,
but Mr. Uygur said he had no doubt he would win as a liberal.
“Everyone knows
they are criticizing me because they think I am too progressive,” he said
Friday.
Will Rodriguez-Kennedy,
the chairman of California Young Democrats, noted that many progressive groups
had already backed Ms. Smith in the race and said he was surprised by the
Sanders campaign’s decision to get involved.
“I am almost
positive they didn’t check with this local team,” Mr. Rodriguez-Kennedy said.
“It’s not usually a good thing to make controversial endorsements. Cenk has a
history of racist and homophobic and misogynistic comments that are
inconsistent with the Democratic Party.”
At least two
Republicans are also vying for the congressional seat: Steve Knight, the former
congressman who lost to Ms. Hill in 2018, and George Papadopoulos, a former
Trump campaign adviser who was sentenced to prison for lying to the F.B.I.
The primary
election will be held on March 3, the same day as the presidential primary in
the state. If no candidate receives more than 50 percent of votes, the top two
vote-getters — regardless of party — will advance to the November election.
CENK UYGUR IS
ONE OF THE PROGRESSIVES WHO SPEAK MOST STRONGLY ON THE INTERNET FOR CHANGE. PRONOUNCING
AND SPELLING HIS NAME IS NOT THE HIGHEST HURDLE, THOUGH. HE HAS A BACKGROUND OF
MAKING “CRUDE” REMARKS ABOUT WOMEN. ENDORSING HIM MAY BE A BERNIE MISTAKE. I
HOPE IT BLOWS OVER. SEE THESE ARTICLES ON HIS HISTORY.
Sanders
endorses Young Turks founder Cenk Uygur for Katie Hill's former House seat
BY TESS BONN -
12/12/19 05:45 PM EST
PHOTOGRAPH –
UYGUR SPEAKING
Sen. Bernie
Sanders (I-Vt.) has formally endorsed Young Turks founder Cenk Uygur to fill
the House seat vacated by former Rep. Katie Hill (D-Calif.), breaking with
leading California Democrats who back state Rep. Christy Smith.
“For years,
Cenk has inspired people all across the country to organize against corrupt forces
in our politics, and now he’s organizing the people in his district to do the
same,” Sanders, a top-tier 2020 presidential candidate, said in a statement
shared by Uygur in a series of tweets on Thursday.
"I’m
endorsing Cenk because I know he will serve ordinary people, not powerful
special interests. He is a voice that we desperately need in Congress and will
be a great representative for CA-25 and the country," he continued.
Sanders also
noted in his statement that Uygur has been “a strong advocate” for his
signature health care proposal, “Medicare for All,” and believes that health
care “is a human right and not a privilege.”
The
left-leaning commentator has long aligned himself with the progressive wing of
the Democratic Party. He endorsed Sanders in the 2016 Democratic presidential
primary and in his current White House bid.
Uygur has also
received endorsements from Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and former Ohio state
senator Nina Turner, who is now co-chairwoman of Sanders's presidential
campaign.
Smith,
meanwhile, has been endorsed by leading California Democrats including Gov. Gavin
Newsom, Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris and Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Smith has
emerged as a leading candidate to replace Hill, who resigned in October following
a House Ethics Committee investigation into allegations of inappropriate sexual
relationships with congressional and campaign staffers.
The Hill has
reached out to Smith's campaign for comment.
TAGS DIANNE
FEINSTEIN BERNIE SANDERS KAMALA HARRIS NANCY PELOSI KATIE HILL GAVIN NEWSOM RO
KHANNA CENK UYGUR THE YOUNG TURKS
WHAT DID UYGUR
SAY AND WHEN? YES, IT WAS MOSTLY IN THE EARLY 2000S, BUT THE LATEST COMMENT WAS
IN 2013, AND THE CONTENT WAS PRETTY DARNED ROUGH.
‘Young Turks’
Founder Cenk Uygur Apologizes for ‘Ugly,’ ‘Insensitive’ Old Blog Posts (Exclusive)
Liberal host
once wrote that women are genetically “flawed” because they don’t want to have
sex often enough
Jon Levine |
December 21, 2017 @ 8:00 PM
Last Updated:
June 15, 2018 @ 5:28 AM
“Young Turks”
creator and host Cenk Uygur made multiple graphic and disparaging remarks about
women in his early days as a blogger, including saying that women were
genetically “flawed” because they don’t want to have sex often enough.
TheWrap found
the blog posts, from the early 2000s, in online archives. In an interview with
TheWrap, Uygur apologized and said he deleted the “ugly” posts a decade ago
because “I don’t stand by them.”
“The stuff I
wrote back then was really insensitive and ignorant,” Uygur said. “If you read
that today, what I wrote 18 years ago, and you’re offended by it, you’re 100
percent right. And anyone who is subjected to that material, I apologize to.
And I deeply regret having written that stuff when I was a different guy.”
Also Read:
After Sam Seder
Returns to MSNBC, Jeffrey Lord Asks, What About Me?
Uygur said he
wrote the posts while he was still a conservative, before he underwent a
political transformation into a liberal. His news organization, The Young Turks,
now offers left-leaning stories and commentary.
“If someone
said that today, I would heavily criticize them on the show and rightfully so,
and I have. I’ve criticized myself over the years,” he added. “I had not yet
matured and I was still a conservative who thought that stuff was politically
incorrect and edgy. When you read it now, it looks really, honestly, ugly. And
it’s very uncomfortable to read.”
In an entry
from 2000, Uygur complained about not having enough sex while living in Miami:
“It seems like there is a sea of tits here, and I am drinking in tiny droplets.
I want to dive into the whole god damn ocean,” he wrote. “Obviously, the genes
of women are flawed. They are poorly designed creatures who do not want to have
sex nearly as often as needed for the human race to get along peaceably and
fruitfully.”
In another entry,
“Rules of Dating,” Uygur described how fast physical intimacy should progress.
“Women, ignore
these at your peril,” he wrote. “Rule 1: There must be some serious making out
by the third date. If I haven’t felt your tits by then, things are not about to
last much longer. In fact, if you don’t get back on track by the fourth date,
you’re done.”
He added: “Rule
2: There must be orgasm by the fifth date.”
In a a post
archived in 2003, he wrote about carousing with numerous women in New Orleans
while drunk.
“I had one of
the best nights of my life at Mardi Gras. I kissed over 23 different women, saw
and felt countless breasts, and was in a wonderful drunken stupor thanks to my
friend John Daniels,” reads the post.
John Daniels is
sometimes used as a nickname for Jack Daniels whiskey. Uygur told TheWrap that
all of the behavior he described had been consensual.
The posts were written
during the earliest years of Uygur’s career as a journalist on YoungTurk.com —
which today redirects to a website for The Young Turks.
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Another post
from 2004 described a road trip with Uygur and David Koller, now senior vice
president of operations at the Young Turks. The post was written in the style
of a diary entry. At one point, “Dave” described chatting up some underage
teenage girls he called “whores in training.”
“In one small
Pennsylvania town we stopped for gas, and while Cenk filled up I went to talk
to these three girls who were walking down the road nearby. Turns out they were
three teenage girls, whores in training, literally looking for boys to pick
them up,” he wrote. “They were around 14-16 and in a few more years will be
pretty damn good looking.”
Koller declined
to comment on the matter.
“I don’t want
to talk about any of that stuff. Thank you for calling,” he told TheWrap by
phone before hanging up.
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Uygur said
while the trip had been real, much of what was described in the entry had been
satirical and exaggerated.
“[Koller] wrote
in a way that was over-the-top satire and that doesn’t look good,” said Uygur.
“Some of the stuff he did in there we didn’t do … We did not proposition any
underage women.”
Uygur said the
posts in no way reflect his views today, and that The Young Turks encourages a
progressive atmosphere where many women hold positions of power. But one former
employee, who spoke to TheWrap on condition of anonymity, said Uygur still
makes comments that make female staffers uncomfortable.
“Cenk is just a
knucklehead. He’s a boy. He talks about women the way I talked when I was 13,”
he said. “He’s obsessed with body count — basically how many people you f—ed.
This is an important number to him.”
Uygur’s public
fondness for Miami women was still on display as recently as 2013, when he
tweeted about their “improbable” breasts and butts.
MEN WILL BE
BOYS
POLITICS
12/23/2017 06:20 pm ET
Progressive
Group Ousts Cenk Uygur Over Past Sexist Writing
The founder of
The Young Turks will no longer work with the Justice Democrats.
headshot
By Daniel
Marans
PHOTOGRAPH -- GABRIEL
OLSEN/GETTY IMAGES
Cenk Uygur,
founder of the popular progressive YouTube network The Young Turks, apologized
for sexism in blogposts written in the early 2000s.
The Justice
Democrats ousted Cenk Uygur, one of its founding board members and a creator of
progressive online network The Young Turks, following the Thursday revelation
that Uygur had authored sexist blogposts in the early 2000s.
The
left-leaning political organization, which Uygur and others established this
year to support progressive primary challenges against Democratic incumbents in
Congress, made the announcement Friday. The group also severed ties with David
Koller, who co-founded The Young Turks with Uygur and served as Justice Democrats’
treasurer. A 2004 blogpost in which Koller used degrading language about women
he and Uygur met on a road-trip surfaced this week as well.
“The words and
conduct in Mr. Uygur and Mr. Koller’s posts degrade what it means to be a
Justice Democrat,” Justice Democrats executive director Saikat Chakrabarti said
in a Friday evening statement announcing the board’s decision to demand Uygur
and Koller’s resignations. “We do not feel that Mr. Uygur is fit to lead or
participate in an organization that truly believes women’s issues and the
issues of black and brown people are all of our issues.”
The Justice
Democrats board reached its decision to call for their departures after hearing
Uygur’s “side of the story” and consulting with the political candidates the
group has endorsed, Chakrabarti said.
The Young Turks
did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the past writings.
This week, The
Wrap unearthed archived blogposts from Uygur’s early days as a pundit and
writer in which he repeatedly used objectifying language to describe women.
“Obviously, the
genes of women are flawed,” Uygur wrote in a 1999 post lamenting the inadequate
amount of sex he was having while living in Miami, Florida. “They are poorly
designed creatures who do not want to have sex nearly as often as needed for
the human race to get along peaceably and fruitfully.”
In a 2002 entry
in which Uygur described the “rules of dating,” he specified that “there must
be orgasm by the fifth date.” And in a 2003 column, he described drunken revelry
at Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he “kissed over 23 different
women, saw and felt countless breasts.”
In addition, a
2004 post by Koller described teenage girls that he and Uygur met near a gas
station in Pennsylvania as “whores in training, literally looking for boys to
pick them up.”
Uygur
apologized profusely for his past writing, telling The Wrap in an interview
that his comments were “really insensitive and ignorant.”
“If you read
that today, what I wrote 18 years ago, and you’re offended by it, you’re 100
percent right,” the progressive pundit said. “And anyone who is subjected to
that material, I apologize to. And I deeply regret having written that stuff
when I was a different guy.”
Uygur also
noted that at the time, he “was still a conservative who thought that stuff was
politically incorrect and edgy.
“When you read
it now, it looks really, honestly, ugly. And it’s very uncomfortable to read,”
he added.
Koller declined
to comment when reached by The Wrap, but Uygur insisted that what Koller wrote
had been “over-the-top satire” and that they “did not proposition underage
women.”
Justice Democrats
✔
@justicedems
We are deeply
disturbed by recent news regarding @cenkuygur & David Koller. Their
language and conduct is horrifying and does not reflect our values at Justice
Democrats. We would be hypocrites to not act immediately and ask for their resignation.
Here is our official statement:
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Uygur’s
explicit comments about the physique of women in Miami continued through at
least 2013, however, when he marveled on Twitter about the city’s “improbable
breasts” and “improbable butts.” He also declared Miami women “outrageously,
almost unacceptably, hot,” but clarified in a subsequent tweet that the women
were “unacceptably hot,” because he was married and they were therefore
off-limits to him.
Although Uygur
and Koller were ousted for their words, rather than their actions, their swift
departure from Justice Democrats occurs amid a wave of reckoning with sexual
misconduct in the media and politics worlds that has not spared prominent
figures on the progressive left.
The Young Turks
fired reporter Jordan Chariton in November after Chariton was accused of sexual
assault by a former employee of his group Truth Against The Machine. Chariton maintains
that the sexual encounter was consensual and is suing HuffPost, where an unpaid
contributor first lodged the accusation, for $23.5 million. (HuffPost had
removed the post after Chariton’s public complaints.)
Uygur explained
the decision to fire Chariton during a November broadcast on The Young Turks,
where he is a co-host of the channel’s live evening show.
“Here’s why we
did it: to protect the people that work here and to make sure we have
professional employment in place,” he said.
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information you want to share with HuffPost? Here’s how.
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