The MeidasTouch Podcast - All Hell Breaks Loose in Congress as Hearing Blows Up

Episode Date: June 26, 2025

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Republican hearings in the House of Representatives and the Senate blowing up in their faces as the MAGA Republican Congress Members behave poorly and the Trump witnesses performed terribly during the questioning of them. Trade: Get 50% off your one-month trial at https://drinktrade.com/MEIDAS Visit https://meidasplus.com for more! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Watch as Marjorie Taylor Greene just starts speaking out of turn, just on her own, saying, I love veterans. No one loves veterans more than me. I love veterans. And the Democrats are like, okay, that's great, but like, can we have some order here? Like, there are people asking questions. Are you just like showboating for the camera? And then Marjorie Taylor Greene just starts taking her gavel like a maniac and just starts going whack, whack, whack, whack, whack And then Democratic congresswoman stansberry is like dude, what are you doing? What the hell was that? And then Marjorie Taylor Greene's like whack, whack, whack And then stansberry is like, all right, this is getting a little, like a little weird.

You want to read the rules? They're green. Here, watch this, play this clip. The gentleman yields. No one loves veterans more than President Trump. And he's made that apparent. That's why he's working for peace right now. Madam Chairwoman, it's not your time right now. I'm the chair of this committee. That's not how Harley and Terry procedure works. You're not recognized, Ms. Stansberry. You're not recognized Ms. Stansbury. You're not recognized. I'm the chair of this committee. Ms. Stansbury, you're not recognized. Ms. Stansbury, you're not recognized. Ms. Stansbury, you're not recognized. Ms. Stansbury, you're not recognized. We're going to get you a Robert's Rules of Order and a committee.

Point of order. Ms. Stansbury, you're not recognized. Point of order. Whether you understand parliamentary procedure. Point of order. Okay. Point of order. All right, Madam Chair, calm down.

Let's move on. Ms. Stansbury, you're not recognized. Point of order. Madam Chair, I've got a... Oh, I'm sorry, you had a point of order. Go ahead. Madam Chair, can we decide who's going to speak first and we go? Absolutely. I'm the chair of this committee and Mr. Gill from Texas is recognized for five minutes. Then you had the MAGA Republicans in Congress doing their dear leader routine where you had

MAGA Republican Congress member Tim Burchett. It's like, everybody knows that Donald Trump's approval is soaring, it's never been so high. We all need to be praising him. Like literally, he says that. And then Democratic Congresswomen, Jasmine's Crockett's like, first off, what the hell are you talking about? Like, this hearing is not about that. Number two, she's like, can I get unanimous consent? And can we just read Donald Trump's latest poll numbers?

Worst polling ever from this poll. Worst polling ever from that numbers? Worst polling ever from this poll. Worst polling ever from that poll. Worst polling ever from this poll. Trump's polling is literally like the worst in presidential history, but these MAGA Republicans live in their weirdo cosplay, MAGA fascist world where dear leader does no wrong. Here, play this clip.

Are going to continue to live through chaos and destruction that has been occurring every since he swore in in January and I hope y'all remember who caused this because it wasn't the gentle lady's time has expired congressional republic and gentle ladies time has expired I now recognize mr. Burchett from Tennessee thank you chair lady I would remind members of both sides of the aisle that President Trump's approval rating is soaring and last I checked congressional approval is is not and I think that bears witness. Madam Chair, I have a unanimous consent without objection. Thank you so much.

This is just from a couple hours ago trump pivots to distractions as polls show collapsing support for his agenda without objection so the next one is donald trump's approval rating plunges in multiple polls without objections and next one donald trump's approval rating new polls

show shakeup over iran bombing without objection so ordered The next one, Donald Trump's approval rating. New polls show shakeup over Iran bombing. Without objections, so ordered. The next one, Trump's approval rating drops to term low amid Israel-Iran war. Without objections, so ordered. I hope you're not reading the same thing from your phone, which it looked like. I now recognize Mr. Lynch from Massachusetts for five minutes. I just want to clarify. I can give you the sources because- Mr. Lynch is recognized. Ms. Crockett, you're rudely interrupting Mr. Lynch's five minutes. That was so good. And then Democratic Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett starts questioning one of the witnesses and says, okay, let's play a game. Helpful or harmful? Is cutting billions from agencies like the NIH helpful

or harmful? Here, play this clip. Ms. DeVito, let's go through some of the things that the Republicans have done to see if they're helpful or harmful to Americans. Helpful or harmful? Stripping health care away from 16 million people. I would say harmful. Laying off hundreds of thousands of federal workers. Harmful.

Disrupting or delaying federal services such as Social Security. Harmful. Medicaid. Harmful. SNAP benefits. Harmful. Cutting billions from agencies like NIH. Harmful. EPA. Harmful. HUD. Harmful. FDA. Harmful. Alright, seems like you understand the assignment. You had Congresswoman Barragan doing a brilliant cross exam of RFK Jr. And she's like, if you claim that you support Alzheimer's research, why are you cutting billions of dollars in Alzheimer's research? Here, play this clip. Do you agree with that assessment?

Yes or no? We are completely committed to solving the problem of Alzheimer's. Do you agree that the NIH's research is critical to the development of Alzheimer's disease? I do. The issue is complicated. OK. If you want a real answer to that question, I'm happy to give it to you. I have limited time.

So you said that you think it's critical yet you are proposing to cut 1.7 billion dollars from the NIH's National Institute on Aging, which is the primary federal agency that supports and conducts Alzheimer's and dementia research. That's a lot of money, Mr. Secretary, for you being committed to ending an epidemic like Alzheimer's and saying that you believe that NIH does critical work. That is a ton, a ton of money. Then you had AOC light up RFK Jr. with brilliant cross exam play this clip. If we're making decisions around waste, fraud and abuse, this is the largest source of waste, fraud and abuse of public dollars in the public insurance space. You say $80 million?

$80 billion a year. Did you say $80 million or $80 billion? With a B, billion. With a B, billion. With a B, yeah. Yeah. If that's the case, why did you nearly double the rate that taxpayer dollars give for-profit insurance companies like United next year, if you don't know those things. Double the rate. How did I do that?

So your agency nearly doubled the taxpayer dollars that for-profit insurance corporations like United will be paid next year. Next up, you had Democratic Congressmember Ruiz asking RFK Jr., let me get this straight. Why did you submit a report that you're relying upon to basically prevent people in America from getting immunization and vaccination that seems to have relied on all AI and you literally cited fake studies that didn't exist and fake scientists and just like literally fake data? And then RFK Jr.'s like, well, actually, those were just some typos. But

what really happened was all of the data is actually still accurate. And Congress member Ruiz is like, how is it accurate if you literally relied on false reports that don't exist? Play this clip. Mr. Secretary Kennedy, you're listed as the chair of the commission. Did you read the report and fact check its sources prior to publication? All of the factual... Did you read the reports and did you yourself fact check them, sir? I did not fact check. You did not fact check. Why then, as has been... All of the foundational assertions... Excuse me, sir, I'm speaking. Why then did the report include a citation to sources that don't even exist?

How does that happen under your leadership, sir? All of the foundational assertions in that report are accurate. They did not exist. How can they be accurate if they did not exist, sir? Some of the citations were... You know, in fact, my understanding is that even once the report was updated, more authors and researchers came forward stating that their research was misconstrued. This is quite unbelievable, sir.

In fact, I was a pre-med at UCLA. They have a great pre-med program. If somebody turned this in as an undergrad to their professor at UCLA, they would have received an F, sir, an F for the misinterpretation, the falsehoods, the denials, and also citing references that don't even exist. That's lying and dishonest, sir. My concern here is that you and this administration are undertaking vast changes to our federal public health system and using purported facts and gold standard evidence that you claim to have as justifications for your decisions, actions, and frankly, your dis- decimation of our nation's

public health infrastructure. Yet what you are relying upon isn't real. It isn't data driven. And it isn't based in fact science or reality sir It's wrong and then RFK jr. States that his vision for every American is to be wearing a wearable Within four years you know what like tracks you and tracks your health and tracks everything about you So remember when the MAGA Republicans were like, oh, the Democrats want to put chips in your body and they want to literally track you.

Let me get this straight. You have Elon Musk literally wants to install a chip in your head. That's what Musk is building, a chip inside your brain and your head. But I guess MAGA is okay with that. You have a AI company called Palantir having a government contract with the Trump regime

to create databases and lists on every American. You have RFK Jr. wanting everybody to wear a device called a wearable that will track everything about their health and send it to the government. Okay, that's, it's always projection and confession with these magas. Here, play this clip of RFK Jr. talking about the wearables, play this clip. About their physical activity, about the way that they live their lives. We think that wearables are a key to the MAHA agenda, making America healthy again. And

we are going to, my vision is that every American is wearing a wearable within four years. Yep, I guess that's what MAGA meant by MAHA, government tracking you. Let's be honest, coffee isn't just a drink, it's my lifeline and everyone at Midas and you all know that I take my coffee very seriously as the resident coffee geek here.

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Next you have Congress, Democratic Congress member Kelly speaking to RFK Jr. about the fact that still the HHS COVID vaccine webpage still lists it. Play this clip. What you said was wrong. We're not depriving anybody of choice. If a pregnant woman wants the COVID-19 vaccine, she can get it. No longer recommending it because there was no science supporting that recommendation. There's study after study that shows adverse events. One study, 27 adverse events, during pregnancy from that campaign. I'm gonna interrupt you,

because I need to reclaim my time. Another study shows an increase in miscarriage. There's no safety data for it. So we're not gonna recommend it. Not true. We have a- We don't have safety data. We have a pediatrician that is on this committee. Not true. I'll go back to does HHS COVID-19

vaccine webpage reflect the department's view, viewpoint on COVID-19 vaccines? Please, yes or no. I didn't understand the question. You're asking if. If the HHS's COVID-19 vaccine webpage reflect the department's viewpoint on COVID-19 vaccines. I imagine it does. I haven't seen the website. You haven't seen HHS's COVID-19 vaccine? Well, I haven't read the entire website.

Well, it's kind of troubling that you're unaware of what your own department's website states on the safety and efficacy of the vaccination. Let me read it directly to you. COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective, and COVID-19 vaccines are available to everyone six months and older. Getting vaccinated is the best way to help protect people from COVID-19. Get vaccinated if you haven't. Chairman, I have the paper copy of the website

to insert into the record. Democratic Congressmember Carter right here, let's play it. It's unacceptable, sir. Lastly, I'd like to bring your attention to termination of HIV vaccine studies. These cuts make up $258 million. Secretary Kennedy, did you make the decision to terminate these studies?

I didn't personally make that decision, but I understand. You sanctioned them. How could you possibly justify such an action? We've been studying an HIV, been promising an HIV vaccine since 1984. And every year, Congress pours money into it, and every year it accomplishes nothing. Because they haven't come up with a word, you can cut the forward motion by getting

rid of NIH dollars that critically do research that save lives and because it hasn't happened yet. Show me one life. Well, we haven't, sir, it's my time. It's my time. Show me one life. It's my time, sir. Show me one.

I can show you a whole lot of lives if you got a minute. I'm insulted that you would suggest that there aren't lives that have been lost. People are dying every day, sir. And for you to say, show me one, there are people all over this country that are suffering the loss of their loved ones. Democratic Congresswoman Schrier right here, some great cross exam. Let's play it. Now, I know Senator Cassidy had concerns about your views on this. And so when he voted to confirm you as secretary of HHS on February 4th, he explained that decision by saying on the Senate floor that, quote, if confirmed, you will maintain the CDC's advisory committee

on immunization practices without changes. But then two weeks ago, you fired all 17 experts on that very committee. Mr. Secretary, question for you. Did you lie to Senator Cassidy when you told him you would not change this panel of experts? I never made that agreement. So are you saying that Senator Cassidy lied

when he was on the Senate floor, lied to the American people? I didn't see that statement by Senator Cassidy. I've only heard it from you. But if he said that I agreed to it, it would be inaccurate. I made an agreement with him. I made an agreement with him. And he and I have talked many times about that agreement. My time.

I just want to tell you that for most of us sitting here right now, we believe Senator Cassidy more than we trust you when it comes to vaccinations. It sounds to me like you gave him the answer he needed to hear in order to get his confirmation vote. And then as soon as you were secretary, you turned around and did whatever you want. You fired all 17 members. I'm complying with all the agreements that I gave

to Senator Cassidy. Mr. Secretary, you're now on the record. You lied to Senator Cassidy. You have lied to the American people. You have lied to parents about vaccines for 20 years. And I also want to be clear that I will lay all responsibility for every death from a vaccine preventable illness at your feet.

I yield back. While that was going on, you had MAGA Republican Congress member Turner saying that, okay, we know the US bombs did not destroy Iran's nuclear sites. That's not news because it was never the goal to destroy the nuclear sites. That's what the Magna Republicans are going with.

We never wanted to destroy the nuclear sites. So really, okay, that's what they're going with. Like, do y'all just think that we are stupid? You promised you destroyed the nuclear sites. The whole thing was denuclearization. That's what you said. So you didn't destroy the nuclear sites. Iran still has nuclear weapons.

They're speeding it up. They're no longer working with the IAEA, so there's going to be no supervision of it. They're meeting with Putin and Russia and China and cementing their alliances against the United States there. Donald Trump praised China and said that China should be buying cheap oil from Iran. What was it? I guess it was make Iran great again. It was the whole plan to make Iran great again because you know who it

benefits if you have a really strong Iran, you know who it benefits? Putin and Russia because Iran is supplying Putin with the Shahed drones that are killing the innocent Ukrainians. But I'm sure we all knew that here playing this clip. But then let's go to the next step is that we have this headline that CNN is reporting with the headline says, US bombs did not destroy Iran's nuclear sites early Intel suggests. What's what's troubling about that headline and Phil, let Phil let's try to get us all back on track here, is that that headline is not fake news, but it's not news. Because the administration did not say that the bombs destroyed Iran's nuclear sites. President's statement and the President said that they had sent, they had carried out massive

precision strikes on three key nuclear facilities. Then you have a MAGA Republican Congress member, McCall, on CNN, who was really upset that the intelligence showing that Trump did not destroy the nuclear sites that that leaked. And McCall says, I've been briefed on this plan in the past The plan was never to destroy the nuclear facilities. Oh really? So you've got McCall and Turner saying we never wanted to destroy the facility Oh and give Trump a Nobel Peace Prize here play this clip. I'm interested to know your reaction To this considering that President Trump has repeatedly said

that the program was, quote, completely obliterated. Well, it's unfortunate that intelligence gets leaked so quickly in this administration. I understand the president's frustration. Having said that, it did cause significant damage. And I think that's important in terms of a time to negotiate a peaceful resolution. However, and I've been briefed on this plan in the past,

it was never to completely destroy these three facilities, but rather cause significant damage. But it was always known to be a temporary setback where they could then rebuild the centrifuges. Democratic Congress member Robert Garcia became the head of the House, the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee. Great news right there. He came on the Midas Touch Network first. Let's play it. And straight off the post-victory win, the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, we have Congress member Robert Garcia, Democrat Congressmember Garcia.

First off, congratulations on the victory. Now, the ranking member of the Oversight Committee were the Democrats. I was just showing a bunch of clips right there before about Maga Mike Johnson and what he's trying to pull. But let's talk more about what the Democrats are doing for moving the agenda forward, and specifically what you're going to be doing now as the ranking member of the Oversight Committee. I mean, Democrats still in the minority, but what are you going to do?

Well, look, first, I'm very grateful, of course, to the House Democratic caucus just winning the election. As you all know, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is at the heart of keeping Congress working for the American public. It's about investigations, it's about taking on corruption, it's about investigating those that are in power that are trying to damage the public and our institutions.

At the same time, it's about government reform. How do we make government actually work for the public? How do we actually make it more efficient? How do we actually transform actually work for the public? How do we actually make it more efficient? How do we actually transform government to support the workforce? That's what oversight is. And as we know, oversight has always been that committee that is investigating corruption. And so it's been an honor to work with Jerry Connolly. Obviously, Jamie Raskin was one of my heroes coming into Congress.

And to be able to take on this role as the lead Democrat in this committee, we are going to hold Donald Trump and his administration accountable. I'm grateful for the support and I'm happy to be here with you. And here we have Democratic Senator Ossoff and his questioning to the head of the VA, Collins. Here, play this clip.

17% to 24 billion. Not medical care, medical services. So here's your... Okay. And just to be clear, I mean, the chairman mentioned this, we usually get this. I understand completely. Specifies how many folks you intend to employ.

We have a 26 page PowerPoint, but in that 26 page PowerPoint, here are specified about 17 billion dollars in cuts to the medical services budget. So what are you cutting in medical services? Specifically, who are you cutting since that's exclusively personnel? Again, and this is the issue we have right now, and I'll just state this for either of us to go back in circles. You'll be getting, we'll be providing more of those numbers, as I said yesterday on our phone call this

week. So at this point in time, the numbers that we're providing are the numbers that we have at this point. I'll be happy to talk to you further about those later. I'm just, I'm, and understand that, that that's why we usually get these in advance of this hearing. I mean, I'm wondering if we need to reconvene having received the full budget request. Because the thing that is causing a lot of consternation is this proposed $17, $18 billion cut to medical services. I mean, that... And so today is the budget hearing where you justify the budget request. So how do you justify this cut to medical services and who are you going to fire in order to pay for it?

And I'll go back to the same answer I gave you just a few minutes ago. I mean, in this process, we'll have the more information on that part of it as we go forward. The basis of the budget was based on the, you know, our workforce as it existed and moving forward and the numbers have not been cut to the medical I'm sorry, but you have in your PowerPoint here 17 18 billion dollars in cuts to medical services again. This is the this is a 26 page PowerPoint to justify the budget so And this is the budget hearing so who's getting fired? I And this is the budget hearing. So who is getting fired? I don't know, Mr. Chairman, if we need to reconvene after they send us the materials,

but I think this is insufficient. Clearly. And I'll follow up in my next round. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There you have it, folks. Let me know what you think. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million subscribers.