Below The Bar - October 16, 2026

Cenk Uygur (0:00)

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and read our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome, thank you.

SPEAKER_2 (3:34)

I don't know, be sitting pretty, looking cool, sitting pretty.

Cenk Uygur (4:16)

All right, welcome to The Young Turks, Cenk Uygur, John Iadarola with you guys. We have surprising to shocking news today, because there's a little bit of media pushback on Israel being God's gift to humanity.

Wow, now don't get me wrong, the main storyline is editors at CBS. They're saying, no, shut up, you stupid reporters, and report that Israel is God's gift to humanity, okay? So that clash is super interesting. And then, speaking of clashes, a Washington Post reporter is attacked in the West Bank. And since they're not Muslim, it counts, and the rest of the press is covering that. So that's an amazing story. And speaking of the press, the press secretary has been fired. We're going to get to that in a second.

So, there is a world of news. And on the political front, Donald Trump's numbers, I've never seen anything this bad. These numbers are unprecedented. So I'm super curious what's going to happen in the midterms, because I've never seen a president more unpopular in my lifetime. And we lived through George W Bush. So, yeah, so it's amazing stories and some hopeful today. Hey, do you believe in miracles?

John Iadarola (5:37)

Yeah, that's if you believe the polls are real and not fake news.

Cenk Uygur (5:39)

Yeah, well, no.

John Iadarola (5:41)

So we'll see.

Cenk Uygur (5:42)

So, okay, before we get started real quick, John, jogging in a Dragon Squad shirt a week ago.

And I had my earbuds in, so I didn't hear perfectly what he said. But he pointed to my shirt and was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then looked at me a little quizzical and then moved on.

John Iadarola (5:59)

That's funny, you could tell the whole thing that happened.

Cenk Uygur (6:03)

Yeah, so he definitely likes Damage Report. Awesome, thank you.

John Iadarola (6:07)

He probably likes you.

Cenk Uygur (6:09)

Maybe. Maybe. But everybody check out Damage Report. It's at 1 o'clock Eastern, Monday through Friday. It's on YouTube, it's on tyt.com, and it's on our 24 hour channels along with everywhere else. All right, let's get started, guys. So Kate Zacharia's term as press secretary didn't quite last the Scaramucci. So she's fired.

So let's get into it because let's see, we need to hear the whole story. Why did she get fired and what's the fallout? John, tell us all about it.

John Iadarola (6:42)

Yeah, I think it was technically less than half a Scaramucci, less than half of the lifespan of a head of lettuce. It did not go well.

She had one press conference, and that's being generous to call it a whole. It was half of a press conference that she did. And in case you missed what happened at it, take a look.

SPEAKER_6 (7:01)

Good morning.

I am so honored to work for President Trump and the American people as the new White House press secretary. I want to thank President Trump for his trust that he has placed in me. I have wanted to work for him for a very long time. Everyday Americans are showing up in droves to attend these rallies because of President Trump's America First agenda of lower taxes, higher wages, and one of my favorite secure borders. In addition to that, we will be, yeah, there is $54 billion tied to the Alaska LNG pipeline and terminal to service the Pacific Rim. I love being with my kids. The idea of not spending evenings with my kids is completely unacceptable. So my president, excuse me, my husband, that's a good one. My husband is out here.

John Iadarola (8:11)

Yes, that didn't go very well. Donald Trump used to say of Carolyn Levitt, including a lot of things about her physical appearance, she's like a machine gun, those lips, they just go.

In this case, I think the gun's jammed. I don't think that it works very well. So that was almost the entirety of the press conference, exaggerating slightly. It was like a third of it at least. But she then went on to do some appearances on Fox News. I guess they figured she can't stand up to the media. So go to the fake media, the fake right-wing media. And even that didn't go all that well. Take a look.

SPEAKER_7 (8:44)

Why only three questions in 14 minutes? And what might you do a little differently going forward? I can give you some unsolicited advice. That's never going to be a friendly room to you.