Cenk Uygur Announces Choice For President, Says America ‘Playing With Fire’

A widely followed progressive who stumped for Senator Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primaries, the co-founder and host of The Young Turks, Cenk Uygur, has announced his choice for president by supporting Democratic nominee and former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.

“Now, I’m not in the camp that this was an easy choice,” Cenk Uygur began his announcement in a TYT video recorded yesterday.

“Oh! C’mon, third-parties, just dismiss them out of hand,” the TYT host appeared to mimic a member of the establishment.

Uygur insisted that third-party candidates did have a chance, particularly before the televised presidential debates in September. He noted that Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson had reached 12 percent in national polls, and he described that as a “huge number.”

The TYT host noted that he had personally interviewed both Johnson and Green Party nominee Dr. Jill Stein, and he was prepared to host a debate with all four presidential candidates, had they agreed to participate.

“We even asked Evan McMullin on the show,” Uygur said with regard to the ultra dark-horse who has been giving establishment candidates grief in Utah. McMullin is the only third-party candidate to make any convincing dent, in any state.

Speaking in regard to Johnson and Stein’s low and decreasing national poll numbers, Uygur stated, “They are not going to win.”

The host anticipated that TYT viewers might be angered by his appraisal of the race, that some might call him “shillary,” or that he’s secretly in the back pocket of Trump, or someone else. He forecast some TYT members would be cancelling subscriptions.

Cenk Uygur then spoke with empathy toward third-party voters who may be voting for “ballot measures” to ensure their candidate will be in future elections.

“But, understand what the stakes are too,” the Wharton School graduate implored America. “What we have here is not a normal election.”

“I believe that you should vote like your vote matters, because it does,” Cenk Uygur said. “I’m going to vote for Hillary Clinton.”

The host described his view that, while important, the vote is not the most important part of elections, but that activism and debate carried out during presidential primaries are.

“The part where you have the most power, but you don’t realize it,” Uygur stated in regard to political activism.

The TYT host called not voting and then blaming the outcome on people who did “a coward’s choice.”

“That’s not my job, I don’t work for her,” Cenk Uygur said with regard to critics who believe he has been too harsh or thorough with his reporting on Hillary Clinton, given that Donald Trump is such a “monster.” Uygur has compared Trump with Mussolini more than once.

Uygur explained that TYT covered all of the WikiLeaks, Clinton Foundation, and other negative news about the Democrat because it was relative to the presidential race, and newsworthy.

“That isn’t true,” the host said with regard to the zero-sum proposition that because Donald Trump is a monster, Hillary Clinton must be somehow “wonderful.”

“I was never going to say that,” Uygur stated.

Uygur said that there is corruption on a systemic basis in Washington and that Hillary Clinton is “part of it.”

The TYT host made clear that merely because he was announcing his intention to vote for Clinton, he was not supporting or endorsing her. He said that he is presented with two “realistic” candidates and is being forced to choose.

Cenk Uygur described the political establishment as “laying a trap” for the citizens in this election and announced a protest against Clinton, “hour one” after the election, if she is elected.

“Live to fight another day,” the leading progressive stated.

Uygur then addressed the question of why he would vote for Clinton, given all that he knows about her, including her alleged corruption.

“Her opponent is worse. Significantly worse.”

Uygur weighed Hillary Clinton’s “hawkish” foreign policy with Donald Trump’s, including the Republican’s promises to “‘bomb the hell out of ISIS,’ whatever that means.” The host also expressed concerns that the former Apprentice host could be capable of starting a war if someone sent him a tweet that upset him.

The TYT host expressed frustration with people who fail to investigate the situation more thoroughly, holding up Hillary Clinton’s shortcomings as somehow equal with Donald Trump’s.

The host described Trump as a “bigot, racist, and sexist,” as being the “captain” of a team of “deplorables,” his comments with regard to Mexican rapists at the launch of his campaign in June 2015, the sexual assault allegations against him, his questioning of President Barack Obama’s birthplace, and his proposed Muslim ban.

“I’ve seen that movie before,” Cenk Uygur stated.

Uygur then spoke of the Republican’s supporters’ use of the Nazi term “luegenpresse” and chants of “Jew-S-A,” as previously reported by the Inquisitr.

“It never ends in one religion,” the TYT host spoke soberly.

Uygur asked if Americans were going to allow “this wannabe fascist” to take control of the United States.

The host compared newspaper reports from the early 1930s, stating a belief among Germans that if Adolf Hitler was elected, that he wouldn’t really go through with the absurd propositions he made, with Donald Trump’s promise to ban Muslims from entering the country.

“Why wouldn’t he go through with it?” Uygur, an atheist who has Muslim family members in Turkey, asked.

He contrasted the situation of his family members being prevented from entering the United States with the family members of undocumented immigrants of Mexican heritage literally being rounded up and shipped to another country.

Though he is now a progressive liberal, Uygur explained that he started his career in media as a conservative and that it was George W. Bush’s “incompetence” that drove him to change his thinking. He sees similarities between Donald Trump and George Bush in this regard, particularly concerning foreign policy.

“Trump is, arguably, more incompetent that George W. Bush,” the host stated.

Uygur then listed several of Donald Trump’s failed business ventures, several of which have been previously featured by the Inquisitr, before labeling the Republican a “buffoon.” He spoke of a crash, on different fronts, both militarily and economically, should Trump be elected.

The host explained that he couldn’t vote for a third-party candidate because he doesn’t want to risk “in any way, shape, or form” Donald Trump becoming President of the United States.

Cenk Uygur compared Hillary Clinton’s corporatist leanings with Donald Trump’s plans to back out of the Paris Agreement on climate change, repeal “8 out of 10” environmental regulations, and his belief that climate change was invented by China as a “hoax.”

“We’re playing with fire here,” Uygur said of his decision to vote for Hillary Clinton.

[Featured Image by Joe Scarnici/Getty Images]