Bashar Al-Assad: Dictator Said To Be Fan Of ‘The Young Turks’

Last night, progressive newscaster The Young Turks hosted a fifteenth-anniversary special that included revelations regarding the program’s audience, to the apparent amazement of hosts Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian. According to journalist Michael Isikoff, a regular guest on the program, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is a regular TYT viewer.

Cenk Uygur described Isikoff, who now writes for Yahoo!, as a “legendary investigative journalist” and explained that when he had the opportunity to interview the Syrian dictator, who has been described as a potential war criminal by PRI, as previously reported by the Inquisitr, talk somehow turned to TYT. The host stated that he wasn’t sure how the show came to be a conversation topic between Isikoff and al-Assad but noted the possibility that the Syrian president had seen the journalist on the program in the past.

“Oh, I watch The Young Turks all the time,” Cenk Uygur restated Isikoff’s recollection of al-Assad’s words.

Ana Kasparian appeared to be left momentarily speechless by the news, at first only able to offer the words “shut up” and exaggerated shudders. Uygur admitted that he wasn’t sure if al-Assad watched the live TYT program or clips hosted with Facebook and YouTube.

“Hey Bashar. How you doing?” Cenk Uygur waved to the camera with the chance that the dictator could be watching. “Please stop killing people.”

“Man, I thought it was going to be someone exciting,” Ana Kasparian said.

“What?” Cenk Uygur exploded in response.

After conceding that the news that Bashar al-Assad watches TYT is exciting, Kasparian lamented that fact that it wasn’t a “better world leader” who was a viewer of the program.

Angela Merkel’s name was offered as an example of a “better” leader.

“Or Justin Trudeau,” Kasparian asked. “Do you think he watches?”

“Oh my God, you’re worried about whether Justin Trudeau watches,” Uygur teased Kasparian, as laughs could be heard in the studio from those gathered.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in Washington, D.C. earlier this week, visiting with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House. Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, shared a photo of herself flanked by the two North American leaders at her father’s desk in the Oval Office. Canadian magazine Maclean’s described Ivanka and Trudeau as being “hapless props” and the image as “chilling.” Vice opined that Ivanka Trump appeared “smitten” with the Canadian P.M.

“A great discussion with two world leaders about the importance of women having a seat at the table,” the caption of Ivanka Trump’s Instagram photo reads.

Cenk Uygur continued with his razzing of Kasparian by considering how Bashar al-Assad might view the host, whose father is Syrian and is of Armenian descent.

“C’mon Ana, very beautiful, and smart. I like,” Uygur put on his best Syrian accent, imitating how al-Assad might respond if questioned about Kasparian.

“No, no, no. I’m not beautiful or smart. Please stay away from me,” Kasparian appeared to prepare a response should she ever hear those words from the Syrian president.

Both Uygur and Kasparian encouraged viewers to watch Isikoff’s interview with al-Assad, as featured with Yahoo!, and expressed hope that the writer would be able to appear on TYT in the future to discuss his findings, as well as the talk with the Syrian president, which Uygur described as “really interesting” and “contentious.”

The Isikoff-Assad interview, the first by a Western news outlet since Donald Trump took office, begins with the journalist asking the dictator if he has communicated with Trump and his team since the inauguration.

“No. Not yet,” al-Assad responded.

“Dude, he interviewed Bashar al-Assad. That’s amazing,” Ana Kasparian commended Michael Isikoff’s prowess as an investigative journalist.

“That is amazing,” Cenk Uygur agreed.

The TYT co-founder then relayed a story from the 2016 Republican National Convention, where a live TYT set was infamously crashed by Alex Jones and Roger Stone, as previously featured by the Inquisitr. At the RNC, Uygur stated that he was approached by a Kurdish reporter who called the host “famous” and expressed amazement that he had met such a renowned person.

“You’re so famous,” Cenk Uygur recounted the reporter’s words.

“I am?” Uygur expressed surprise that a Kurd would recognize his name.

The host went on to tell the reporter’s story of how a video of Uygur reporting on Kurdish fighters’ efforts to recapture a town that had been taken by ISIS, his description of their battle prowess, and his comments that the Kurds will never be uprooted from northern Iraq, went viral and resulted in celebrations throughout Kurdistan.

“It’s over. An American anchor said we will have Kurdistan,” Cenk Uygur closed the piece imagining the words of celebrating Kurds with a look of astonishment on his face.

[Featured Image by Sean Gallup/Getty Images]