- Hope, Goss and Gwen, you are my entire. - World and I love you. I'm letting you in on how we started a family. [00:00:19] Because this is a big part about what this election is about. On Wednesday night, Tim Walz's 17 year old son Gus went viral for his emotional reaction to his father's speech, proclaiming, that's my dad while tears streamed down his face. [00:00:36] It is very important to note that Gus has special needs and a learning disability. Governor Walz and his wife Gwen, revealed this earlier in the week in an interview with people magazine, quote, when our youngest Gus, was growing up, it became increasingly clear he was different from his classmates. Gus preferred video games and spending more time by himself. [00:00:54] When he was becoming a teenager, we learned that Gus has a nonverbal learning disorder in addition to an anxiety disorder and ADHD. Conditions that millions of Americans also have. Count me in that ADHD bucket, by the way. It's a real thing. [00:01:09] The viral moment from the DNC brought more attention to the challenges of people with learning disabilities, and was met with praise and admiration. Even Ben Shapiro thought it was sweet. Posting on X this is really quite nice. [00:01:24] And when you're on the more heartless side of an issue than Ben Shapiro, you really got to question what's going on in your life and in your heart. But that praise was, of course, met with ugly comments from the right and bullying from others MAGA supporters. [00:01:41] Right wing extremists like Ann Colter posting this now deleted post saying talk about weird. Unreal. Mike Christie, a Trump supporter and podcaster, tweeting Tim Walz stupid crying son isn't the flex the left thinks it is. [00:01:58] You raised your kid to be a puffy beta male. Congrats! Does Barron Trump cry? Nope. Does he love his father? Of course. That's the types of values I want leading the country. Aside from being heartless and insane, it's also probably because Barron Trump's [00:02:15] only met his father three times, so there's not a deep emotional connection there. It's just the three. That's right. Mondale's putting it up on the scoreboard there for us. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Jay Webber, a conservative Milwaukee radio host, [00:02:30] made a now deleted post on X criticizing the Wallace family quote, If the Wallaces represent today's American man, this country is screwed. Meet my son Gus. He's a blubbering b, expletive deleted boy. His mother and I are very proud. Webber also deleted his post and apologized because he didn't know [00:02:47] Gus had a learning disability. But even so, does that excuse attacking a child? You'd like to think not. Colter said she took down the post as soon as someone told her he was autistic, but didn't offer any sort of apology. So that's the first part of this story. Mondale your thoughts? [00:03:06] Guys. Are we listening to what's going on? You have to be special needs if you are a child to be off limits. What in the hell is going on? You got adults that are willing to go on online and to take shots at someone's parent who's a politician by attacking their child, their minor child. [00:03:22] This is from the party of family values. This is from the party of Christian values. This is the party of morality. I am so disgusted with this Republican to speak, double speak. That is absolutely ridiculous to me that I don't even. I don't even know if I believe they took it down simply because they found out [00:03:42] he has special needs. I think they took it down because in this climate they don't know what the ramifications are. These people don't give a damn. They would leave it up if they if they thought they wouldn't have legal ramifications or something else could happen to them. That's who they are. I mean, I watched Ann and tell someone that you would not vote for him [00:04:01] because he was not a white male and he sat there and smiled, talking about Vivek Ramaswamy as she told him, I would never vote for you because you're an Indian man. On her show on TV and people act as if this behavior is normal. It is un-American as hell. How in the hell do these people ever visit New York and see the Statue of Liberty [00:04:18] and believe anything that our Constitution or that part of the statue is holding? When you said, send me your man or send me, send me anybody to these shores, I don't see it, man. I'm very upset with the state of our politics, especially as I travel a lot. [00:04:33] And I and I saw and I see in Africa, countries that have so much less than we have. And their politics is so, so much more serious than anything we could ever imagine in this country. And that is bothered that is bothersome to me. [00:04:49] And you make a great point. I mean, even the Statue of Liberty is not white. That's a green lady. And those people who can't admit that they're just lying. Hey, don't scroll away. Come back, come back. Because before the video continues, we just want to urge you to lend your support to TYT. [00:05:05] You power our honest reporting. You do it at t.com/team and we love you for it. I think to Mondale's point they're saying oh well I didn't I didn't know he had a learning disability or I didn't know he had, you know, some sort of impairment. So I deleted the post. [00:05:21] If he didn't, that still doesn't make it right. This is someone who's just proud of his dad and loves his dad. And seeing his dad on a national stage. Make a speech, accept the nomination to be Vice President of the United States. How could you not get emotional? [00:05:36] And the fact is, these are cold, heartless people who have no real connection to reality, to loved ones, to themselves, emotionally. And Colter is somebody who has been reportedly engaged multiple times but never married. [00:05:54] That's a huge red flag about someone's character, about who they are and maybe their ability to love or experience love or experience feelings. Of course, we know Ann Colter is a uniquely vile and racist, despicable person, but good lord, like, [00:06:11] how awful are you when you see a child emotional at their parents success, their parent achieving a unique milestone in their life on a national stage? Okay, they're emotional. They're happy. [00:06:28] What the. The right has just lost their minds. And again, this is the the nuclear family the the family values party. Of course they're not. It's all disingenuous because they don't care if you're a little bit different or your family looks like a little bit different than the the standard [00:06:48] prototypical American dream family. This is a beautiful country where families come in all shapes and sizes, all colors and creeds. That's great. We should welcome that. Someone loving their dad. That's your attack line. These people, like Tim Walsh says, are weird. [00:07:04] Yeah. No doubt. And not just weird. Not just racist, disingenuous people that use race baiting tactics just to aggravate and polarize and divide. Because Ann Colter, I don't know if she's still with him, but for a long time at least, her boyfriend was Jimmy JJ Walker, a very [00:07:22] famous black man, if you didn't know that. And so she, in her private life supports or who knows what's going on in their bedroom but has no problem with black people and then goes publicly and and does things that convey quite the opposite message. [00:07:37] You know, you talk Jordan about them being cold hearted. It's so true. Paula Abdul warned us about these kind of people when she said, he's a cold hearted snake girl. Look into his eyes. Oh, he's been telling lies. He's a lover boy, a player. He don't play by the rules, girl. Don't play the fool now. [00:07:54] And I think those lyrics are as prescient now as they ever were. And that's why I've always looked to Paula Abdul for my political wisdom. The attacks from the right were met with criticism from Gust's defenders. Former first lady Michelle Obama tweeted in defense of Gus. I was touched to see Gus Wallace's joy when his dad, Tim Wallace, [00:08:12] took the stage last night. Thank you for showing us all what real love looks like, Gus. Let's be a nation that embraces this kind of warmth and vulnerability instead of making fun or mocking it. We could all use some of Gus's example in our lives. Some were more pointed in their criticisms, like The View's Ana Navarro, [00:08:28] who tweeted, what kind of monster are you to attack a 17 year old special needs kid for expressing the love for his dad, Gus? Wallace is neurodivergent, has ADHD, anxiety, and nonverbal learning disorder. Teens like Gus can have trouble regulating their emotions in social settings. [00:08:43] Leave him the f alone, you ghouls. And she didn't stop there. Later in the day, she appeared on CNN and let loose on those Republicans. Take a look. Before coming here, I was at a brunch with One Walls, the wife of Tim Walz, the vice presidential nominee, [00:09:00] and you could see the emotion she has of the attacks that are going on against her teen son, who's got special needs. There are many Republicans, many Trump Republicans out on social media taking horrible attacks on a kid who had a beautiful moment of authentic pride and love for his [00:09:16] father yesterday and got emotional. That cannot be the Republican Party. And the Republican Party cannot call itself the party of family values and the party of Christian values if they think it's okay to such viciously attack a 17 year old kid with special needs. [00:09:33] That is cruel. It is inhumane. It is disgusting. It is un-American and it is unacceptable. And that is what this is about today. The contrast between hope and joy and empathy and compassion and that level of cruelty going on on that side. [00:09:50] Ana Navarro not holding back one bit, and it is just true. It's a level of cruelty. They will take any political attack without thinking, without wondering about what this not only does to the person they're attacking, but what it does to their own public persona. [00:10:06] They don't care. They're short sighted. They're opportunistic. They jump on whatever moment they can to alienate, to demonize, to divide. That's all they want to do. They don't care about it. If it scores them political points in a poll, in garnering a few extra supporters [00:10:24] and booing their current supporters to feel like they're being big, bad, tough guys, they're fine if they offend great swaths of the American populace. It's disgusting. I don't understand what goes through their mind sometimes. And you see it in their policies. You see anti IVF stances, [00:10:41] rhetoric, attempts to to ban it. Of course you see calls for especially from Vance national abortion bans and super misogynistic language and rhetoric around how that would be enforced, [00:10:58] tracking women or people who are seeking an abortion. And then that's defended, normalized. And then what's the extension of that? Where do they go from there? They're not going to stop there. And now they're attacking this kid. This is a child. [00:11:13] I mean, it can't stress it enough. He's just happy for his dad. It's weird that we're even talking about it like this is just it seems unthinkable. And there are always people who make odd comments online. Strangers, randoms, whatever. Everyday people. You can't control everyone. [00:11:30] There's always going to be weirdos. But these aren't just random people online. These are prominent conservative pundits, talk show hosts, figures. What are we? What do we want our system to look like? Us? Do we want it to operate like this? Of course, I don't want a strong, robust Republican Party, but I would [00:11:50] prefer if it was normal, just filled with normal people with different ideas. I'd much rather be that than whatever this is. I mean, I mean, even if we're being honest, let's let's keep let's let's keep it a buck. As these young folk would say, how how how are we talking about a teenager who has, [00:12:08] an issue that makes it hard or complicated for him to self-regulate his emotions when the Republican Party looks just like that as damn adults? I mean, how they're not self-regulating. You have a president who mocked a handicapped reporter. You have a president who made fun of a veteran [00:12:24] who got caught talking about John McCain. You have a president who didn't want to be around disabled veterans, people who gave the most, he don't like people who died at war. He called them suckers. So, I mean, we we see the lack of America in everything that has become the Republican Party with the the taint of Donald Trump. [00:12:42] Yeah. And, you know, maybe if there's a way to explain this to some degree, to give these Republicans the benefit of the doubt, probably they just have never experienced the love of their own fathers, and so they don't know how to react when somebody actually loves their family [00:13:01] and has love expressed in the household, and not just dealing with some stereotypical dude from back in the day who says, son, if you're going to show an emotion, you're out of this household. We don't need any emotional sissies in our house. And that probably all too often is actually the case. [00:13:19] But, you'd think maybe they'd learn just polite society and you don't attack people despite that. Anyway, thanks for watching The Young Turks really appreciate it. Another way to show support is through YouTube memberships. You'll get to interact with us more. 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