I popped my head up over the booth and
I saw the barrel of a gun poked into the patio room.
I saw just the tip of it, and it was at that point
that I legitimately thought I was about to get shot.
>> Michael Anderson was working as a bartender at the Q Nightclub in
Colorado Springs, which, unfortunately, was the target of a mass shooting.
Five people died as a result, dozens of others are injured,
some of whom are currently in critical condition.
Now, what we know so far is that the suspect used an AR-15 style rifle.
The shooting took place over the weekend on Saturday night and
authorities have placed the shooter in custody.
He was injured and is currently in the hospital, but
is facing ten felony charges, including murder and hate crime related charges.
Now, why would they charge him with a hate crime?
Well, it's because of the fact that Q Nightclub is an LGBTQ nightclub in
Colorado, Springs.
The mass shooting occurred just before the Transgender Day of Remembrance on November
20th, an annual observance that honors the memory of the transgender people
whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence,
according to GLAAD.
Now, the suspected shooter has been taken into custody, and it turns
out that a bar patron or as many as two bar patrons were able to subdue him.
As people were running out of the club,
two others decided to run toward the shooter and they managed to subdue him.
In fact, in the next video, you're gonna hear from Mayor John Suthers of
Colorado Springs, who says that the person who subdued him is a hero.
Let's watch.
>> The call came into the police at 11:57 PM,
police were on the scene by 12, an amazingly quick response.
This incident was over by 12:02.
And that's largely because of the intervention of at least one,
possibly two very heroic individuals who subdued this guy,
appears to have taken his handgun.
He had a handgun with him, and used it to disable him.
And so they do not shoot him, but hit him with the gun and disable him.
But for that, as tragic as this incident is, it's a horrible crime.
It could have been much, much worse, weren't for these heroic actors.
>> So if it weren't for those two nightclub patrons subduing him,
he could have killed more people.
Now, of the 25 individuals who were injured,
19 of them are suffering from gunshot wounds.
And authorities have identified the 22 year old shooter,
Anderson Lee Aldrich, who had at least two firearms with him,
one of which was the AR-15 Style Rifle, the other was a handgun.
Here are a few more details about the suspect from CNN.
>> Police have identified the suspected shooter as 22 year old
Anderson Lee Aldrich.
Police say he entered the club just before midnight on Saturday and
began shooting immediately with a long rifle.
Two weapons were found at the scene.
More details are emerging about the suspected shooter,
including a 2021 arrest for felony, menacing,
and first degree kidnapping according to a news release at the time.
After his mother says, he threatened her with a homemade bomb and other weapons.
>> Now, there are Murky details about the run in with police that he had in 2021.
For instance, we know that he had five felony charges,
but the prosecutor, the district attorney, decided against prosecuting him.
His mother was the one who called the police on him, she was later posting
on social media asking for help to find legal counsel for her son.
But that's what we know so far.
I have a few other details to share, but Cenk I wanna get your thoughts first.
>> Yeah, so every person who is a right winger who advocated a gift for
laws against LGBTQ folks is guilty.
Every religious person who said that homosexuality is a sin is guilty.
I know now, important caveat, I was religious,
I know what religions like, I know what growing up in religions like.
And so I know that not all of you meant it in a hateful way, you were taught that.
But I'm here to be honest with you guys, you were brainwashed into this hatred,
and you keep saying it over and over and over again.
Do you know what's wrong with homosexuality?
Nothing, zero, nothing.
According to your own ideology, God created them that way.
What could possibly be wrong with God's creation?
Are you saying God made a mistake?
Are you that arrogant?
Are you that opposed to God according to your own ideology?
So, no, you have pastors and people watch The Young Turk for many years,
have seen me say this thousand times cuz there's a very good reason for it.
There's a thousand things in the Bible that your preachers and
your right wing evangelical leaders ignore all the time cuz
they don't give a damn what's in the Bible.
It says in the same Leviticus, you shall not lie with a man and
you shall not eat shellfish, red lobster, shrimp, crabs, whatever.
Have you ever, ever heard a right wing evangelical leaders say that?
No, because they're liars.
You think they haven't read it?
You think they haven't read the Bible and all the things that are an abomination?
So why do they ignore the parts that are not focused on hate, but
then take the parts that are focused on hate and glorify it?
You think this is an accident that in the most conservative area of Colorado,
lunatic goes and targets gay people to murder.
It's not at all an accident, it's driven not by, hey, you know what,
Trump said this and the lunatics on the right said that recently.
Yes, sure, they have massively blind, the Republican Party is 100% guilty.
They have passed over 600 laws against the LGBTQ community
just since 2018, 100% guilty.
If you're a Republican, you drove this hatred, you drove it,
it's your fault, okay?
But my point overall is, guys, it isn't just the last couple of years where
they drove that hatred, my whole life right wing religious
leaders have said hate gay people, hate them, hate them, hate them.
I'm not saying hate the sinner, but
their sin, they're sinning, it is not a goddamn sin.
It isn't, if it is, then eating shrimp is just as bad and
you will roast in goddamn hell for it.
Did you ever hear that?
No, cuz for God's sake, they're lying to you, stop murdering gay
people because your leaders are hateful, they're drenched in blood.
You think there's not gonna be another shooting at a gay club or
anywhere else involving LGBTQ people?
You're crazy, of course there's gonna be another shooting.
And of course, it's gonna be a right-winger.
And of course, it's gonna be a right-winger that was taught it's a sin,
it's a sin, it's immoral.
The people who taught you that or act themselves deeply evil.
And in your lingo, they're satanic, they're hugely immoral, despicable people.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with homosexuality or the homosexual life.
If anyone tells you that, tell them that they're an agent of hate and
you will not tolerate it.
>> So when it comes to public figures who decided that they would spend
all of their time campaigning on vile anti-transgender garbage,
yeah, I think that they are absolutely responsible.
And for anyone who might be offended by that, I mean,
I just would like you to recall when there would be ISIS related
terrorist attacks either here or in Europe.
And the right wing wanted every single Muslim person,
even if they had nothing to do with it whatsoever, even if their interpretation
of their religious doctrine was very much different from ISIS.
Even if their belief in Islam differed from that of ISIS and
the terrorists who would commit these vile acts, the conservatives wanted
Muslims to answer for it, to apologize for it, to condemn it, right?
But they had nothing to do with it.
In this case, you literally have endless campaigns of hatred toward the LGBTQ
community, and as of late, mostly towards the transgender community, right?
And that's what they campaign on, that's what they hang their head on,
that's what their political action really centers on.
And there's nothing else that they wanna offer their constituents or
to the American people, it just hate, hate, hate, hate while they,
of course in the background, assist corporations in robbing you blind, right?
Yeah, that's gonna lead to in a country full of people who don't have
health insurance, who don't have health coverage, and
who have mental health issues that go undiagnosed and untreated.
Yeah, this stuff happens, it happens, I mean,
it happens way more often than we could have even predicted, honestly.
And it doesn't matter, they're not gonna stop, Cenk, they're not gonna stop.
They don't care, they are not gonna stop.
>> No, no, I don't care either.
And let me explain something.
I don't care if they're offended, I don't care at all.
If you're a right wing religious person who your whole life has been telling
people, the gay people are sinful, they commit sins, sin, sin, sin!
Okay, you are a terrible person.
Maybe you didn't know you were a terrible person, but I'm telling you now, wake up.
Did you ever go tell people that are eating lobster, you're sinful,
you're going to goddamn hell?
No, you never did cuz you're effing lie, okay?
So wake up and I don't care if you're offended,
I care that those people are dead and you're gonna get somebody else killed.
When you keep talking about how people are immoral, just for
who they are, you don't get it, you're the immoral one.
If you're a right wing, evangelical, religious nutcase who is
constantly talking about how homosexual actor sins, you are evil.
You're the definition of evil and you get people killed.
>> All right, one other thing I wanted to mention, and
this doesn't necessarily mean anything in regard to the shooter himself,
but it does give you some background in regard to who he's surrounded with and
what kind of political beliefs exist within his family.
So it turns out that his grandfather is an assembly member here in California,
a Republican who actually just got voted out of office during
the midterm elections.
His area was redistricted, which forced him to run against another Republican and
the other Republican won.
Now, Randy Voepel is his name.
And as you can see in the image, he is very much
a MAGA Republican who spews all sorts of terrible things,
including he likes to provide cover for the January 6th rioters.
>> Of course, he love violence, he's a Republican.
>> So Aldrich is the grandson of outgoing California Republican
state Assemblymember Randy Voepel, the former mayor of Santee, California.
Voepel represents the 71st District in the San Diego area.
There were calls to expel him from the State Assembly after he made comments
comparing the January 6th, 2021 attack on the Capitol to the Revolutionary War.
And he was quoted as saying, this is Lexington and Concord,
first shots fired against tyranny.
So, I mean, it gives you just completely in agreement with what the writers did.
Tyranny will not follow in the aftermath of the Biden swear in on January 20th.
According to the San Diego Union Tribune,
Vocal later tweeted that he condemned violence and lawlessness.
>> Yeah, except for the parts where you were celebrating it.
By the way, there's another code word for you guys.
The tyranny of government, when the right wingers talk about that,
it is always attached to the 2nd Amendment.
The tyranny of government, that you must fight back through with your guns, right?
Guns, guns, guns, go kill, go kill people, go kill people.
That's what Republicans say all the time.
That is the talk of, you must fight against the 2nd Amendment for
the tyranny of government.
They're oppressing me, my God, I have to go murder them,
I have to go murder them, that's what the right wingers teach you.
And then when they have their most unstable lunatics go and
actually commit the acts, they act all surprised.
My God, you guys murdered again?
[LAUGH] it's another mistake, it's our 1,000 mistake in a row.
I'm gear deranged lunatics thought we meant it when we said,
go grab your guns and kill people.
It was gay people, the people we've been demonizing for hundreds of years,
thousands of years.
And we directed them right towards the target and
then we're gonna pretend to be surprised.
Did they kill you guys?
[LAUGH] I bet you guys had a good laugh over it.
No, the right wing in this country are monsters.
Are you offended, are you?
All your whole life you've been telling people that they're immoral by nature,
now you're gonna get offended?
Please go ahead.
I hope your heart breaks with how offended you are,
I'm sick of you guys getting people murdered day in and day out.
By the way, all those hateful stereotypes against gay people too,
who are the biggest heroes in the country?
They went and tackled them with no guns, no nothing.
The two guys that were in that bar, presumably they're in the LGBTG community,
and they tackle them cuz they're brave, they're brave and
they say God knows how many lives.