Why would a Democratic Congressman
and an alleged ally to the LGBT
community attend an anti-LGBT
conservative conference in Ukraine?
That's what I want to know.
That's the question that we should
ask Representative Juan Vargas of
California.
In fact,
TYT Investigates has a bombshell of
a story involving his attendance
at the prayer breakfast in Ukraine.
Because it's not just in
the United States where
evangelicals want to spread their
conservative anti-reproductive
rights and anti-LGBT messaging.
Representative Juan Vargas,
an LGBTQ ally in the United States,
was a featured participant at
an anti-LGBTQ event in Ukraine last
week.
The annual event is also a hub for
opponents of reproductive rights,
and this year included
a side discussion on defending
conservative values.
In fact, let's take a look at this
tweet that makes it abundantly
clear what this was all about.
Again, this is in Ukraine.
After the National Prayer
Breakfast, we had the opportunity
to share our experiences in
defending of conservative values on
an international discussion panel,
okay?
So there's no mistake about
what this is about.
And I do also want to direct you to
this photo to show
you Representative Juan Vargas on
this panel.
He's the one who's got
the headphones on, chilling,
having a back and forth with
conservative goons in Ukraine.
Vargas, by the way, is one of the
few Democrats still involved with
The Family, that's the evangelical
right-wing organization.
He's been listed as a National
Prayer Breakfast host for the past
three years and co-chaired it in
2016, when the invitation list
discriminated against Catholics,
progressive religious leaders, and
non-evangelicals.
>> Okay, so one of the things
that we're doing here is exposing
what The Family actually is.
Because what they do is, and
this is really important guys, and
a part of the whole series
of articles on TYT.com about this,
is they use the the aura of
bipartisanship to
push a very conservative agenda.
Oftentimes an anti-LGBTQ agenda and
oftentimes abroad where they'll
say, look, we've
got Republicans and Democrats,
all the powerful people in America
agree that you should do this.
The guy talking to Vargas in that
picture that we showed you is one
of the most right-wing people in
Ukraine, and he's very anti-LGBT,
and he talked about how, yeah,
the Americans agree.
Now he's actually part of
a very small evangelical Christian
community in Ukraine.
It's only 2% of Ukraine, but
it is growing larger and
more powerful every day.
Why?
Because it's getting funding and
attention from evangelical
Americans.
So they're pushing out
this agenda and part of that
agenda is gay people shouldn't have
the same rights as straight people.
So if you're a Democrat that's
going along with this,
you're doing grave damage to people
who you say you're representing.
So we gave Vargas an opportunity to
comment, he didn't.
There was another Democrat
that attended that did comment and
actually seem to me, at least they
were quotes, read the article.
And the article is going to be in
the description box below if you're
watching this later on YouTube or
Facebook and/or you just go to
TYT.com.
You'll see there's another Democrat
that seems like he didn't quite
know and that's okay.
That's why we do stories that's
called investigative journalism.
We let you know and
then see what your reaction is.
>> Yes, let's see what your
reaction is.
>> Right, but the guy who's the
biggest Democrat in favor of the
prayer breakfast is Chris Coons.
>> Bingo.
>> Joe Biden's top ally in
the Senate.
And one of our reporters caught up
with him on camera before and
he totally defended the prayer
breakfast.
And he always say he's
non-partisan, it ain't
non-partisan, and it's used to do
terrible things across the world.
>> Well, let's pause for a second,
because in regard to attendance for
the National Prayer Breakfast
here in the United States,
it certainly has been
non-partisan and that's a problem.
Because make no mistake about it,
the people behind this organization
are evangelical conservatives.
And the event itself has these,
they do the prayer breakfast,
but the whole point isn't to like
get together and pray, it's really
a way for powerful people to meet
and make deals.
They have these breakout rooms
where deals are made, right,
where lobbying takes place,
and that's a huge part of it.
This is also the same organization
that went to Uganda and pushed for
a law that would execute members of
the LGBT community in that country.
So while Democrats have attended
the National Prayer Breakfast,
Obama had attended
the National Prayer Breakfast.
Make no mistake about it,
ideologically speaking,
there are serious issues with this
organization and what it promotes,
right?
And look, I don't know,
you're way more willing to give
people the benefit of the doubt.
You're way more optimistic
than I am.
I'm definitely way more
pessimistic.
So I can't help, but
roll my eyes at any lawmaker who's
like, well, I had no idea,
I had no idea that this was- >> No.
>> But okay, I guess
they're clueless.
They're completely clueless about
organizations that they
decide to get involved with.
I mean, maybe do a little bit of
homework.
>> Yeah, so that's why I draw a big
distinction between the folks who
really genuinely didn't know and
you could tell in their reaction.
And then are people like Chris
Coons who clearly know, and don't
mind, and are greatly annoyed when
you do reporting on it that exposes
something they already knew.
>> Are you annoyed about reporting,
Chris Coons?
Sorry about that.
>> Yeah, no Democrat in their right
mind should go to this group.
Every LGBTQ group in the country
should be outraged at any
Democrat that supports this group.
And so I make that distinction
between the two people who didn't
know because there's definitely
good progressives who didn't know.
Once we brought this reporting to
Ro Khanna and Ted Lieu,
they immediately pulled up.
Because you have to understand, in
America, the media did propaganda
in favor of this group for decades.
They would constantly show
Bill Clinton, and George Bush, and
Barack Obama, and all these people,
Hillary Clinton, going to
the breakfast and like, this is
non-partisan, this is non-partisan.
And then they do the breakout rooms
where they convince Mike Lindell
to support Donald Trump and
give all his money to massive
right-wing causes.
That's another article at TYT.com
that got a lot of attention, okay?
And then they send legislators,
including Democrats abroad to push
an anti-LGBTQ agenda, some of them
winning, some of them unwinning.
But now know, you got to pull out
of this group, otherwise you're
complicit in what they're doing.
>> I want to also direct you to
some of the statements that were
made by a Republican Representative
back in 2019.
So this is in Ukraine,
it's the same event, but
it's not 2021 or 2020, it's 2019.
So Family insider, Representative
Tim Walberg tells Ukrainian prayer
breakfast attendees that if he does
what God wants, regardless of what
my constituents think of me, the
God who I serve will be pleased.
In the same speech, Walberg praises
then President Trump's support for
supporting marriage between a man
and a woman for
life and for life from conception
to natural death.
So these are the kinds of speeches
that they're giving at the exact
same event.
Spare me the,
I didn't know what this was about,
but okay, maybe sure,
maybe some people are completely
clueless about what's going on.
Maybe they're on their phones,
not paying attention to the insane
speeches that are being given.
>> But Ana, just be fair,
most of the time when the cameras
are rolling,
they do not give those speeches.
>> This was on camera.
>> No, I hear you, that one was,
right?
And look, I'm telling
every Democrat, you're nuts if
you're going to these things.
But a lot of the reasons that even
some progressives went was because
there's tremendous marketing in
DC that this is a wonderful thing
to go to.
So hey, if you're not Christian,
but you're going to the prayer
breakfast, that shows how much
you care about the religious
community in your constituents that
are religious or Christian,
especially if you're not one,
right, so make sure you go.
And that gives them the veneer of
respectability.
And people think, okay,
that's good, I want to respect
the Christians in my community and
a lot of them are left-wing, etc.
So it's a perfect little trap
to push their right-wing agenda.
That's why I said, the distinction
between knowing and not knowing is
everything in this case.
But how many stories can we do?
And it's not like they don't know,
we asked for comments every time.
>> Exactly. >> We've asked Coons
for a comment on camera, and
he gives a dismissive comment,
protects the organization, and
runs away.
So the people go that continue
to go, now there's
no question that they know, and
you should hold them accountable.