[MUSIC]
You have said from the podium that you're not going to comment on any
stories having to do with Justice Thomas and his own code of conduct.
Why not?
>> Right now it is being as it relates to the ethics, as it relates to that process,
Senate is clearly moving forward with their own own Senate procedural process.
I'm just going to leave it there for now.
>> So Biden doesn't want to come out strongly in the wake of all of
these different stories that have been breaking about
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, about his wife,
about many of the other members of the Court.
I mean, the Senate is doing something.
So who is he to weigh in on what's going on in the country and a crisis of
confidence in one of the most important institutions in American politics?
In any event, look, a lot of people are taking this seriously,
and some lawmakers are now pushing for an actual, I'm not going to say concrete, but
at least some sort of ethical guidelines to be put on the Supreme Court.
She's asked about that, and
it doesn't look like Biden is going to take part in this.
>> President believes that there should be a code of conduct for the Supreme Court.
>> So I know I've been asked about ethics and this question many times before.
Senate is currently moving forward with a process.
We're going to leave it to the Senate for now.
>> His own commission on the Supreme Court, which he established,
issued a report in 2020 that said, a code of conduct for
the court would bring the court into line with the lower federal court, et cetera.
Did the President not read that report?
>> Understood, the President has seen the report.
We have said many times before he appreciated the bipartisan
commission that came together and put the report together,
put the report that you're just speaking of as it relates to this moment in time.
Senate clearly is taking some sort of action.
They're going through their process, and
we're just going to leave it there for now.
>> Look, I don't know at this point if he forgets that he is still in office,
that he is the head of a branch that is supposed to be co equal against
the other two.
The idea that if two of them are bickering, he should just stay out,
it does seem cowardly, I will grant you that.
But I guess he just doesn't like drama.
He just doesn't want to get involved because they're fighting and all that.
But when he's even running from his own administration's report implying that
there should be a code of conduct, that is just horrible.
To say they should have a code of conduct, and then when many stories come
out demonstrating how deeply necessary it is, now you don't want to say anything.
Look, I can only speak for myself.
I'm not expecting that he's necessarily going to heavily weigh
in on every single new report from ProPublica, but
he can't say that there should be ethical guidelines.
He can't imply that every single person operating in the US Government should be
under some sort of code of conduct, then that's particularly cowardly, even for
Joe Biden.
>> Yeah, so before I get to the essence of it,
let's note a couple of fun things in there.
Has the President read the report?
Significant pause, the President has seen the report.
In other words, of course he didn't read it, but he appreciates
the bipartisan commission that could be Biden's defining quote.
Well, we put together a useless bipartisan commission that we don't intend to execute
at all, but he appreciates that they did this useless project,
which he now no longer supports because he won't publicly back it.
>> He doesn't appreciate it enough to read it.
>> Yeah, well, look, I get it.
The President can't read every 90 page report, et cetera, so
I'm not overly emphasizing that.
But you asked for the useless commission.
It actually came up with something.
This is the one time to use it, and you're choosing not to use it,
which then tells me that every time you ask for a bipartisan commission,
you're thinking, I don't care about it at all.
This is just an attempt to ignore the issue instead of addressing the issue,
which by the way,
for anyone following politics is obvious unless you're a mainstream media reporter.
Okay, so now, finally, to the essence of it.
Look, is Biden soft and he doesn't want to criticize the Supreme Court or
conservatives?
Or is he just totally indifferent, like the Supreme Court is corrupt or
not, what difference does it make to me?
Or is he afraid of conservatives?
And so like, but they might say something mean about be if I
criticize Clarence Thomas, the correct answer is D, all of the above.
And that is the defining characteristic of Joe Biden.
He is soft, afraid, and indifferent, which might be the most damning, because, guys,
look, you can tell just think about if you were the President and Clarice Thomas.
I mean, we have a story later in this show.
We've already done like half a dozen, but there's a new one out today about how
Jenny Thomas is taking even more money from the same guys that Clarence Thomas
goes to vacation with, like when they're paying her a salary and
they are trying to make sure that no one finds out.
That is the equivalent of a bribe.
I mean, that's not apples and oranges.
That is apples and apples.
And so the President of the United States doesn't care that
a Supreme Court justice is being bribed,
let alone a Supreme Court justice on the opposite side of the political spectrum.
Well, that just tells you I'm either a coward or I don't care about anything.
I'm already president.
I'm just worried about my legacy.
I don't want anyone bothering me.
And as you can tell, I think it's both, I really do.
Ramesh, what do you think?
>> Yeah, it's very telling.
I mean, you all on the Young Turks, and I know Cenk,
you've mentioned this many times.
The issue really is corruption.
Corruption is rampant in our government, but on many different levels.
We have the leading Republican candidate, former president,
who boasts about his corruption and lies constantly.
We have many accusations levied against the current president about corruption.
And so when corruption actually occurs in a highly demonstrative way involving one
of our Supreme Court justices, but actually quite honestly, more than one,
as we can see with the probe recently, it's in the interest of the president,
I believe, as a leader of this country, to opine on his thoughts on this corruption.
So President Biden expressing his views about the dangers
of corruption in the judicial branch is totally in line.
And that doesn't replace the legislative bureaucratic process that's
likely to go nowhere in terms of possible impeachment.
So I think that this is yet another example
of the president with some sort of calculus, which we're not exactly sure of.
Perhaps it's all the things you just mentioned, Cink,
deciding not to take a stand.
But we've seen that again and again and again.
I mean, for whatever reasons,
he likes to invoke Bipartisanship in relation to almost everything he does.
And very rarely does he call out the elephant in the room,
which is that Washington is corrupt on almost every level because it's all in
the pocket of corporate elites.
>> The Bidens of the world assume corruption,
like they think it's not that big a deal.
He thinks, well, I mean, if I criticize Clarence Thomas,
because he's taking all this money from Harlan Crow.
But do you have any idea how much money I've taken from billionaires?
Now maybe not directly, although with Trump,
it was kind of go to his properties, et cetera.
Goes into his pocket.
Russell Walker, it was directly, but with Biden, his campaign contributions whether
that goes to his power, fame, and eventually wealth.
So I think that people in power allow others to be
brazenly corrupt because they're worried, well,
if I do something about him, then they might come for me next.