Cenk Uygur
Cenk Kadir Uygur (/ˈdʒɛŋk kəˈdɪr ˈjuːɡər/; Turkish: [ˈdʒeɲc kaˈdiɾ ˈujɡuɾ]; born March 21, 1970) is a Turkish-born American[2] politician, political commentator, media host and a former presidential candidate. He is the co-creator of The Young Turks, a left-wing, progressive, sociopolitical news and commentary program.
Cenk Uygur
- Political commentator
- media host
- politician
Democratic (since 2007)
Independent (2000–2007)
Republican (until 2000)[1]
Wendy Lang
2
Hasan Piker (nephew)
In 1996, Uygur worked briefly as an associate attorney. He launched and began hosting The Young Turks in 2002. In 2011, in addition he appeared briefly on MSNBC as a political commentator (he was replaced by Al Sharpton), and then from 2011 to 2013 he appeared on a weeknight commentary show on Current TV. In 2017, Uygur co-founded the progressive political action committee Justice Democrats.
In 2020, Uygur was a candidate in both the special election as well as the regularly scheduled election for California's 25th congressional district. Uygur's candidacy was considered by some to be controversial due to his past comments about women, minority groups including the LGBTQ+ community, Asians, religious Jews and Muslims, and others, which were considered offensive but that he described as taken out of context.[3][4] He ultimately lost both elections, being placed fourth overall and second amongst Democrats after receiving six and seven percent of the vote, respectively.
Uygur announced his candidacy in the 2024 Democratic presidential primaries in October 2023, despite not being a natural-born U.S. citizen as required. He expected the requirement to be overturned by the courts in the event of his victory due to the Equal Protection clause, emulating an unsuccessful argument previously made by ineligible candidate Abdul Hassan, in 2012.[5] Uygur withdrew from the race on March 6, 2024.[6]
Early life and education[edit]
Uygur was born in Istanbul, Turkey, to a wealthy Turkish Muslim family. He emigrated with his family to the United States when he was eight years old.[7] He spent the remainder of his upbringing in East Brunswick, New Jersey, and graduated from East Brunswick High School.[7] Uygur was raised in a secular Muslim household, but became more religious during college.[8] He says that he then became agnostic and still identifies as a cultural Muslim.[7][8][9]
Although a “D” in high school calculus almost kept Uygur out, he transferred into the undergraduate Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he majored in management and graduated in 1992.[10][11] There, he wrote a school paper column in 1991 in which he criticized affirmative action for blacks and other minorities.[12][13] He also criticized campus feminists for “making Anita Hill their patron saint,” and made disparaging comments about women.[14][15][12] He also said that all of the discussion about rape on campus was making men afraid.[12]
Representing the Turkish Students Association on the university's Student Activities Council, Uygur argued against a $228 allocation to the Armenian Club in the council budget; council members overwhelmingly voted against him, and uncharacteristically applauded after his defeat was announced.[16][12] In November 1991, he wrote an article in The Daily Pennsylvanian titled "Historical Fact or Falsehood?", in which he denied the Armenian genocide and asserted: "The claims of an Armenian genocide are not based on historical facts. If the history of the period is examined it becomes evident that in fact no such genocide took place."[17] He has since denounced these statements and reversed his position (though the credibility of his denouncement has been questioned by Stephan Pechdimaldji in TheWrap).[18][19][15][20] He received a Juris Doctor degree from Columbia Law School.[21]
Career[edit]
Early career[edit]
Uygur worked briefly in 1996 as an associate attorney. He practiced first at the law firm Drinker Biddle & Reath in Washington, D.C., and then at Hayes & Liebman in New York City.[7][12]
He then worked in 1996 as a weekend/fill-in radio talk show host on WRKO in Boston, Massachusetts, and also that year in a similar position on WWRC in Washington, D.C.[22] He bought time on a local access channel in Washington, D.C., where he made political commentary on his show called The Young Turk.[23]
In 1999, he wrote for, produced, and appeared on a WAMI-TV news show, The Times in Miami, Florida.[22][24] He then started The Young Turks (TYT) on Sirius Satellite Radio.[22][24] That year, Uygur wrote on a blog post on the TYT website: "It seems like there is a sea of tits here, and I am drinking in tiny droplets. Obviously, the genes of women are flawed. They are poorly designed creatures who do not want to have sex nearly as often as needed for the human race to get along peaceably and fruitfully."[12] He also wrote, in a letter to the editor in Salon, that talk of an Armenian genocide was simply propaganda.[17] In a July 21, 2001, post about Native American tribes filing a lawsuit against tobacco companies for deliberately targeting Indian teens, Uygur wrote: “these Redskins show up everywhere there’s a buck to be made these days."[25] In the 2000s, Uygur maintained a weekly blog on The Huffington Post and wrote entries that were critical of the 2003 Iraq war.[26][27]
Cenk Uygur
Cenk Uygur
Suspended
October 11, 2023
March 6, 2024
Political affiliation and views[edit]
Once a Republican, Uygur says that he has "enormous disdain for the Republican Party."[22] At the same time, he said of Barack Obama: "He’s conservative in his bones, so I’ve got no love for Obama whatsoever."[4] Uygur is critical of the New Democrats wing of the Democratic Party, which he regards as the incumbent political establishment.[139] He has called for the Democratic Party to undergo a revitalization process.[59]
Uygur slowly transitioned away from the Republican Party and conservative politics. He has cited the decision to invade Iraq as a "seminal moment" in that transition.[140] A progressive, Uygur is known for criticizing both Democratic and Republican politicians, accusing many of being influenced by donors.[141][87][142]
In 2000, Uygur voted for John McCain in the Republican primaries; however he did not vote for McCain in the 2008 United States presidential election due to his coziness with the Christian right and his views on taxes and waterboarding.[143] Uygur supported the presidential campaigns of Bernie Sanders in 2016 and 2020.[144][145][146]
Awards[edit]
In 2010, along with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Uygur accepted the "Emperor Has No Clothes Award" from the Freedom From Religion Foundation[147] and later the Humanist Media Award from the American Humanist Association.[148]
Controversies[edit]
Comments about women[edit]
In the early 2000s, Uygur posted a series of blog posts which were described as sexist. One post said, "I had one of the best nights of my life at Mardi Gras. I kissed over 23 different women, saw and felt countless breasts, and was in a wonderful drunken stupor thanks to my friend John Daniels." Another post said, "It seems like there is a sea of tits here, and I am drinking in tiny droplets. I want to dive into the whole god damn ocean." Uygur would delete and later apologize for his comments.[149]
In a 2011 episode of The Young Turks, Uygur and his cohost Ana Kasparian dismissed actress Olivia Munn's sexual harassment allegations against director Brett Ratner, and Uygur defended Ratner bragging about having sex with Munn, saying that she likely "drove him crazy". Uygur would later apologize for his comments.[150][151] In one episode in 2013, Uygur ranked women on a scale of 1-to-10 on how likely men would be to let them perform oral sex on them.[152] That same year, Uygur said a model looked “like she’d just come out of a [concentration] camp.”[54]
In 2013, Uygur made lewd remarks about women's physical appearances in Miami, saying "the women on this island are outrageously, almost unacceptably, hot."[153][154] In 2017, an unnamed TYT employee told TheWrap that Uygur spoke inappropriately about women.[153][155]
In 2016, Uygur defended the Harvard University men's soccer team for ranking the sexual appeal of female students on a scale of 1-to-10 on a widely shared “scouting report,” including explicit descriptions of potential sex acts with the women.[152][153] Uygur defended his comments, telling The Los Angeles Times that he should not be criticized for having "frank conversations about sex."[156]
Response to unionization of TYT staff[edit]
In February 2020, when the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees sought to unionize The Young Turks, Uygur controversially urged his employees not to do so.[157][158] Uygur allegedly fired employee Jacorey Palmer for his pro-union activities, and, according to an anonymous TYT employee, Uygur allegedly withheld bonuses and increases from employees who were involved in the union drive. Uygur denied the charges. Uygur's position toward the union was criticized as hypocritical by The New Republic due to his claims of support for unions and progressive causes.[159][160]
Personal life[edit]
Uygur is Turkish-American.[52] He is married to Wendy Lang—a marriage and family therapist who is the founder of Beverly Hills Child and Family Counseling—and they have two children.[164][165]