The Young Turks Cenk Uygur Sucks Up To Elizabeth Warren, Disappoints Fans

The Young Turks' Cenk Uygur did one of his biggest interviews to date yesterday with Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Uygur has made a name for himself by calling out politicians on both sides of the aisle, and not holding his fire when it comes to Democrats who ignore their base.

So it was quite surprising that Uygur repeatedly lobbed softballs at Warren, and didn't bother following up when she tried to change the subject.

Anyone familiar with The Young Turks knows that Cenk Uygur quit his job at MSNBC because (he says) he was asked to be less tough on guests. His interviews were consistently biting, and he didn't pull his punches.

And on The Young Turks show, Uygur is extremely tough on politicians who don't listen to the base. In fact, he has pushed the left to primary many Democrats, such as Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia.

Given his past, many fans were disappointed with the way he pitched softballs to Elizabeth Warren yesterday, and let her say things without follow-up like this, about Joe Manchin:

I wanna make a spirited defense that folks like Joe Manchin -- he works hard on issues that affect working people in West Virginia. We just -- he rounded up the whole Democratic caucus -- and I given complete credit for this -- to get the US government to move in and make good on the miner's health insurance, for people who can be kicked off their health insurance...and when we can get together on student loans, when we can get together on Social Security expanding Social Security instead of contracting, when we can get together on the issues that affect the economic well-being of hard-working people in this country then by golly I'm gonna do it.

Warren further claimed that she was "saving [her] fire" for the Republicans, which Uygur seemed to be fine with.

Uygur then asked Warren why she didn't back Bernie Sanders during the 2016 primaries.

Warren's response: that primaries are good and that the race "made [her] proud to be a Democrat." Uygur timidly followed up, asking "do you get why some progressives are still mad about that?" Her response: Russia... (yes, that's right).

Uygur finished the interview by asking Warren if she would support Bernie if she didn't run in 2020. Of course, Warren gave a non-answer to that:

I don't know where we'll be in 2020. It's a long time off. I supported and helped Bernie long before I ever thought I'd be in politics. I used to go up to do town halls with Bernie to talk about what was happening to working families... But I don't know where we'll be in 2020, I don't think Bernie knows where we'll be in 2020, so I don't know what Bernie's going to do and I don't wanna be in a position to push Bernie to do anything.

Note that nobody was asking her to push Bernie to do anything -- Uygur simply asked if she would support him if she didn't run.

Like us, many of the Youtube commenters were not happy with the interview. Here's one comment from someone named Patrick:

Hey TYT. I'm giving you money so you'll act like good journalists and ask though questions. If you're going to soft-pedal it to protect your access then what's the point ? When she evaded the question of the primary and bullshitted you about being "proud" of this rigged mess of and election, you shouldn't have move on. You should have challenged her until she was blue in the face.d>>z

We'll have to see how other The Young Turks interviews go in the future. If it keeps going this way, maybe we'll see Uygur back on MSNBC at some point...

Here's the video:

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