Pathetic Petey's Pentagon - September 3, 2026

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
He's just sitting over there in his cabin, doing some hunting and fishing.

**Cenk Uygur** (0:13)
All right, welcome to The Young Turks, Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian with you guys.
Fascinating stories for you all today. Is Pete Hegseth a goner? We'll talk about that in a little bit. Ted Cruz tries to take on Tucker Carlson, that's funny. Alan Dershowitz tries to take on Dave Smith, that's funny.
Donald Trump is supposed to take on Democrats, but he's not going to, that's funny. So apparently in the midst of tragic news, we have plenty of funny stories. Kaspar, how are you doing?

**Ana Kasparian** (0:42)
I'm a little under the weather, but other than that, I'm doing okay, hanging in there.

**Cenk Uygur** (0:46)
Well, we appreciate you soldiering on and joining us anyway. We appreciate the nice sweater look you got going on and the Lego set in the background and everybody's a winner today.
Yes. And today we also explain the mystery of the chair on Piers Morgan.

**SPEAKER_5** (1:05)
No, roll it.

**SPEAKER_6** (1:07)
Let me play a little match up of your nephew Cenk Hasenbiker and the controversial things he said about it.

**Cenk Uygur** (1:13)
Here we go, here we go, back to-

**SPEAKER_6** (1:14)
Well, I'm sorry.

**Cenk Uygur** (1:15)
Are we ever going to talk about Mike Rogers?
There's so many funny parts about that, right? First, the chair gives in on me. Secondly, I just keep going. Third, we'll analyze what I actually said and I'll explain it. And I'm going to also explain you what actually happened. We're going to solve the great mystery of the collapsing chair. So Kaspar, what do you got on this one?

**Ana Kasparian** (1:44)
Okay, so I watched the debate immediately after it was published yesterday and I have so many comments. But honestly, Jillian Michaels and her unbearable facial expressions throughout the debate, which really is her only contribution to any debate, was so distracting that I almost didn't even notice your chair moment, believe it or not.
So-

**Cenk Uygur** (2:10)
Yeah, well, that is hard to believe.
But we all went on like it didn't happen, so it's hard to blame you on that one. The Internet noticed afterwards.

**Ana Kasparian** (2:20)
So-
Of course, of course. Well, let me set this up for the audience in case you guys missed the debate. We're not going to show you highlights of the entire debate. But I want to show you what led up to this moment where it looked like Cenk's chair kind of gave out. So they were obviously debating the Iran War. And the woman that you're going to hear Cenk debating is Ronna McDaniel, who used to be the head of the Republican National Committee.
Not anymore. There were some questions about where some of the funds for the RNC went under her leadership. But that's not what they're debating. They're talking about the Iran War. And more importantly, they're debating Hassan Piker and his influence over the Senate candidate in Michigan, the Democrat, of course, Abdul al-Sayed. Let's take a look.

**Cenk Uygur** (3:11)
So since there are almost no defenders of Abdul al-Sayed in media, I'm going to declare myself an unsanctioned surrogate for Abdul and I will take on anyone. I will debate anyone on this Michigan Senate race. Mike Rogers has worked for Israel for 20 years trying to drive us into this disastrous war for 20 years. He also, by the way, takes money from telecommunication companies, Big Pharma. He believes in on spying on you. After Stoneman, he wanted to spy on Americans even more. He's in favor of the surveillance state. No one asked him any of these questions. Why is the media so biased?

**SPEAKER_6** (3:47)
They won't ask Mike Rogers a single tough question.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:50)
But all they ever do is, Oh, Abdul al-Sayed, he's so Muslim. He's so Muslim. Well, you should hate him because he's Muslim.

**SPEAKER_5** (3:57)
That's all this press ever does.

**Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez** (3:59)
And I'm ready to defend Abdul.

**SPEAKER_1** (4:01)
Yes, go ahead, Rodney, give me your BS and let me kill it. Let me destroy your nonsense talking points.

**Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez** (4:06)
Go ahead.

**Ronna McDaniel** (4:07)
You're so vitriolic. Can we just have a conversation? And it's not fair to say that people who disagree with-

**SPEAKER_5** (4:13)
Yeah, I don't like our country being dragged into war.

**Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez** (4:16)
18 Americans are dead because of your beloved Israel.

**SPEAKER_8** (4:19)
That's why I'm vitriolic.

**Ana Kasparian** (4:22)
So that was the lead up. As you can tell, Cenk is very passionate. Typical Cenk passion, really peak Cenk passion in that moment. And then this happens.