The MeidasTouch Podcast - All Hell Breaks Loose in Senate Hearing as GOP Gets Exposed

Episode Date: November 6, 2025

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Senate Hearing where Democrats exposed that the White House East Wing demolition may have resulted in massive asbestos exposure to workers and the Senate hearings also revealed that a GOP Senator was spying on Democratic Senators. Try ZipRecruiter for free at https://ZipRecruiter.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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19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Concerned by your gambling or that if someone close, you call 1866-3-3-1-2-60 or visit comixonterio.ca. Wow, these hearings in the United States Senate during the government shutdown this week have been absolutely explosive. You had one hearing where Democratic senators were exposing that in the demolition of the White House East Wing, the construction workers may have been exposed to deadly asbestos. We'll talk about that. Then there was another hearing and what should have been a sleepy Senate commerce hearing on transportation nominees as Dan. And Diamond refers to it as, but then it was uncovered that a MAGA Republican senator, Bernie Moreno, was secretly spying on a Democratic senator, Jackie Rosen. He was sneaking like right outside her car to get her VIN number.

And Democratic Senator Jackie Rosen was like, were you spying on me? You were looking at my VIN number? You went to my dashboard. Like, what the hell are you doing? And then there was even more than that. You had a hearing where a courageous officer, a Capitol police officer testified before the United States Senate. And then you had these MAGA Republican witnesses all say that the individual

who beat and almost killed this Capitol police officer deserve to be pardoned. And there's even more explosive data than that and details in that. So let me go through with you what went down. The first thing I want to show you, is where you have a Democratic Senator Markey. He's questioning some of these witnesses at this hearing about apprenticeship programs that are offered by unions that the Trump regime is gutting.

And Senator Markey uses his time to ask these apprenticeship union leaders who help with these apprenticeship programs. You know, are you aware if there was any asbestos, controls or steps taken at the East Wing when they demolished it at the White House because they used non-union workers. So as a result, I mean, we saw these smoke clouds outside of the East Wing that look like what we normally see in very deadly and fatal asbestos exposures in the past. And we know asbestos was used in the East Wing. And in Donald Trump's rush to tear down

the East Wing, what we may uncover in the future is that, he exposed those workers who did not go through the steps that the safety precautions that take place in unions because Trump went around the unions, that Trump may have exposed those workers to very deadly asbestos exposure where those people may die early in the future. Watch this questioning. And again, you haven't seen this in many other places and hat tip to Dan Diamond for flag in it. Here play this clip. Lyuna runs a world class apprenticeship program that includes training on asbestos.

abatement. Many old buildings were constructed and renovated when asbestos-laden products were industry standard, including the White House. Are you aware of any permits or other indications that the White House, the President Trump, took any of the appropriate safety steps when Trump demolished the east wing of the White House to protect against asbestos exposure? I'm not aware of anything that they would have done to protect. So the White House could have exposed workers and passes by to deadly asbestos. Is that you of you? They could have, and I can tell you, had it been a union workforce, we would have access to that.

This administration chose to use a non-union workforce to go do that on a union project. One of the first things we teach in our apprenticeship is to have your brother, your sister's back. And if you see something, you say something. If something's unsafe, you can stop that work. This isn't a union job site, so we have no access to it. so I don't know what's going on out there. No, thank you. And those safety standards, they exist for a reason.

It's to protect workers. It's to protect innocent people who may be nearby, even working in the White House, exposure to asbestos. And those standards just don't disappear on the whim of President Trump. They're there because of all the lessons we learned, especially because of asbestos workers

who died at unbelievably high levels before we actually put protections in place. And that's why I wrote to the contractor who tore down the East Wing to demand answers on whether and why workers were put at risk for Trump's big donor ballroom. It's just another example of how Trump is the most anti-union president, anti-safety president in history. And that is something that absolutely we have to get to the bottom of. I've received no answers yet in terms of.

any asbestos protections, any other safety protections that were put in in order to ensure that workers were not unnecessarily exposed to health-endangering situations. So I thank both of you for your work on these issues. Thank you, Mr. President. For the record, every Merritt Shop that I visited emphasizes and takes great pride upon their safety record, and they are subject to the same OSHA regulations as regarding maintaining safety and exposure to asbestos or anything else. So just for the record.

No, I agree with you. The question is, does the president think he can waive all regulations because it's the White House and not any other property in the United States? And if that was the case, then these workers were exposed. Next, we'll show you this sleepy Senate commerce hearing on transportation nominees. And it quickly devolves into a heated fight, as Dan Diamond puts it, between Jackie Rosen, Democrat, and Senator Bernie Moreno, when Moreno admits that he was tracking her team's cars and her automobiles VIN numbers here play this clip. As somebody's been here 10 months, I think what we just saw was exactly classic Washington, D.C. In other words, the car that I drive should be safe, the car that my staff drives, who cares about them? I get a paycheck. I object to you stalking my car and my staff to find the VIN numbers to present to this committee. Why are you doing there? What are you going to do with them? It's an invasion of our privacy.

Asked me from my bin. I will tell you what I have in my car. It's visible from the outside of the car. So you went and followed me. You went and followed me to see who drives me. Can I reclaim my time? And write down their VIN number. You interrupted me.

You're attacking me. You watched me go to see who drives me, writing down their VIN number so you could find out what they have. That seems a little creepy. Exposed the hypocrisy, much like, for example, Exposing hypocrisy. You get a paycheck, but you walk by, you get, you get a paycheck.

I'm donating my paycheck, sir, and I would happily be on legislation not to give that. What do you say to the staff? What do you say to the TSA workers? Where do you say the air traffic controllers? What do you say to the military? What do you say to the Capitol Police? You are in control of the White House. You are in control of the House, and you are in control of the Senate.

And if you went home to a food bank, instead of going to Mar-a-Lago, to eat at a gold-plated. dinner while people are starving, you might see and hear your constituents, sir. You are you are blind to the suffering of your people. Does it take 60 votes? It takes you listening and coming to the table to have a discussion. It does take 60 votes. You want to have this. Come talk to me in private, sir. So it does take 60 votes for the record, just so that we're clear on the reporting. So there's no misinformation. It does succeed. Back to you, Mr. Edwards. Question about airports. How bizarre is that, as Arthur Delaney writes. Earlier in this hearing, Bernie Moreno said he looked up all of his colleagues' VIN numbers

to expose them for not buying newer vehicles with expensive safety features. Maybe a weird way of making the point is Jamie DePri writes to get a car's VIN number. You have to physically walk up to the car and look into the windshield. So Marino was personally going up to his colleague's cars. How many cars? Staff cars, Senator cars, he was spying on their vehicles? What the hell is going on here? Then in the Senate Judiciary Committee, here you have Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, cross-examining one of Trump's federal judicial nominees about the kind of anti-abortion, anti-women, anti-reproductive rights stance. Here, play this clip. You believe that female patients are less likely or less able to understand medical abuse?

advice than male patients? Senator, I'm sorry. I'm not sure I understand your question. Could you? Well, you said not every patient understands the consequences, and we certainly know that we're talking primarily of women, of childbearing status. And you went on to say there are a number of patients

who don't understand the nature of the fetus. Do you believe that female patients are less likely to understand this? Now, Senator, what we were saying in those arguments is we were summarizing the evidence in the record for the court, there were several witnesses who testified by a sworn declaration that they wished, my recollection is they said they wished they had had that information because they didn't quite understand the nature and the consequences of that issue. Didn't understand the nature of the fetus, women? My recollection is, and is that the testimony in the record in those sworn declarations said that that would have been helpful

information that they would have liked to have had. And I believe that also was kind of hearkening back to statements in the Supreme Court's Casey opinion as well as perhaps Gonzalez v. Carhart. I'm going to tell you, I don't understand what you're saying based on this quote here. And if you wish, it's your decision. If you want to clarify what you've just said in light of what I quoted, please do so because at this point, I believe there's really a serious question as to what you were trying to say. Senator, we were just simply making an argument based on the evidence in the record. And it was the commonwealth.

Your decision as to whether you want to clarify it, but at this point, I think it's going to be a problem for some of us. What if you could always find exactly what you're looking for right away? Parking spots, holiday gifts, that phone charger that always co is missing. Imagine how much time that would save. Well, you may never instantly find these things, but if you're hiring, you can find qualified candidates right away time and time again with ZipRecruiter. And today, you could try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash Midas. That's M-E-I-D-A-S. ZipRecruiter's powerful matching technology

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Again, that's ZipRecruiter.com slash Midas, M-E-I-D-A-S. ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire. Now, going back to this health committee hearing on the Apprenticeships, more questioning from Marky right here. Let's play it. Trump has waged an all-out assault on union clean energy jobs.

In Massachusetts alone, 17 projects, $8.6 billion of investment, and almost 17,000 clean energy jobs have been axed or stalled in just nine months. And because of Donald Trump's attacks from canceling permits to repealing the Inflation Reduction Act tax credits, union workers are seeing job offers evaporate and work sites shudder. A port development project in Salem with hundreds of union jobs under a project labor agreement, axed. A cable manufacturing plant in Somerset that would have created hundreds of union jobs, axed. Three thousand good jobs from the solar for all program that Trump cut. axed the offshore wind projects up and down the massachusetts coast which we're going to have

thousands of union workers putting those workers out there in a new industry they're all in the cross as to be axed so so far we have lost nationwide 158 000 clean energy jobs in just nine months that is an economic record look at that destruction. That's the most destruction that anyone's ever taken to one industry, such a brief period of time. That's Trump's record. Union building trades workers are starting to see the unemployment rolls for the first time in over a decade. It is a shameful situation, and Trump's attacks will have a chilling effect on new projects for years to come. Union apprenticeships actually require high-quality education programming, but they also require mentored on-the-job experience.

And with Trump and Republicans shuddering these work sites, apprentices cannot train. So General President Booker, how are President Trump's attacks on clean energy sector affecting your workers, including your apprentices? It's, you know, it's the chaos, it's the uncertainty, it's the inability to recruit new members into it. It's the inability to have our current members who are in the system, not be able to graduate the system because they don't have a job to go to. They're going to finish their current job. They're not going to have their next job. So it's just this chaos and uncertainty is it's creating an environment where it's going to be very hard to bring people back into the construction industry at a time where we should be bringing people into registered apprenticeship and in the construction industry. General President Donnelly, could you add your perspective to this situation as it's unfolding?

No, I would echo the same sentiments from President Booker. The one other piece I guess I would add would be that we put a lot. lot of time, energy, effort, and resources into training to do this offshore windwork. And that all just came to a screeching halt. And so now we have a bunch of members with a bunch of credentialing that we don't know if we're going to be able to put back to work in the future. Next, we see Senator Adam Schiff from California asking critical questions during this week's Senate Agriculture confirmation hearing about why is the Department of Agriculture stealing people's personal private data and are they selling it to AI companies? Are they selling it to

government contractors? Are they spying on people? Why are they getting and gathering all of this data on people and creating a database and a list? Is this part of the further plan to put Americans and migrants into concentration camps that ICE and Border Patrol is doing here? Play this clip right here. Mr. Wilk, can you tell us what the legal authority is that USDA is relying on to collect store and share the personal data of tens of millions of Americans, including Social Security numbers, home addresses, simply because they received or applied for SNAP benefits? Senator, I appreciate that question. My understanding is there were four requests for state data for state recipient data. One of the requests was made in May, and so I was at FNCS, but as I recall,

I had no involvement in drafting or issuing that particular request, but I was aware of what was going on. And I would say, I know that there is a lawsuit brought by numerous attorneys generals. I hesitate to give my opinion in terms of what that authority might be because that may be an issue in the case. Mr. Walk, if confirmed, are you committed to reviewing this policy independently, objectively, to ensure that it does not violate federal privacy laws which protect Americans' personal data and identities? Sir, I appreciate that question, and I will say that I think the collection of data itself is something that we need to look at in general. As a 24-year federal employee, I certainly understand the privacy implications and that we have laws that protect data throughout the information like cycle from collection to transmission to storage to disposal. And I will, and I want to make sure that as we use the data technologies, which carries promise that we also make sure that we employ them in a way that abides by the law. Now, here was a moment, a very somber moment for me to even watch this, to see what even took place.

You're going to see all of the Republican witnesses at this Senate hearing. there so the mega republicans wanted to do this like performative hearing on political violence all the violence takes place with Democrats it's all Democrats fault but Democrats were pushing back at this hearing and here you have Democratic Senator Welch examining the witnesses most of them all of the Republican witnesses who were there raise their hands when they're asks Do you support the pardons of the violent January 6th extremists by Donald Trump? The ones who killed police officers, almost killed police officers, do you support the pardons of them? Every Republican witness raised their hand.

Here, play this clip. Everybody who was involved and convicted was pardoned. Raise your hand if you believe that those pardons were appropriate. All right. So that includes pardons for folks who were. involved in attacking officer Hodges. It does. And that means that included, like literally on that panel, the Democrats called Daniel Hodges,

the D.C. police officer who courageously defended the Capitol and who was almost killed by the January 6th insurrectionist. He's sitting next to them. He almost died this guy. And all the Republican witnesses were like, yeah, the people who attempted murder on you that makes sense to pardon them a year after they went to jail. You know, we support Donald Trump pardoning the people who wanted to kill you. I just want you to think about that.

But he persevered. Daniel Hodges gave this incredible speech. I want to share it with you during that same hearing. Here, play this clip. I'm speaking in my personal capacity. However, I draw upon my experiences as one of the few police officers in this country who has policed both the protests and riots of 2020, as well as the insurrection of Jimenez 6, 2021. I am intimately familiar with political violence, as when I fought to defend the United States Capitol and many of your very lives, I was beaten, bloodied, crushed with my eye gouged, and my skull smashed with my own baton. Political violence is a worthy topic for discussion. However, the press release I saw from the subcommittee chair,

made it clear this was not going to be an honest consideration of various causes and effects, but rather a ham-fisted attempt to propagate the unsupported notion that liberal ideology is the greatest origin of modern political violence. This is particularly galling to me, since every single member of the majority on the subcommittee has either contributed to one of the most infamous examples of conservative political violence of our age or the protection of its perpetrators. Every majority member who could do so voted to acquit Donald Trump during a second impeachment, and now we find ourselves in a new horrific age of political violence. One word is carried out by the state itself. A permanent resident was arrested without a warrant

and is being threatened with deportation simply for his politics. A Tennessee man was arrested and is being held on $2 million bail for sharing a Trump meme on social media. Members of Congress have been denied access to ICE facilities despite the law granting them unannounced oversight rights. These attentions and prohibitions are all grounded in the threat of deadly force and violence. are absurd or outright illegal and politically motivated by right-wing ideology. The fact that these actions are carried out by agents of the state doesn't make them acceptable, it makes them far worse. The current administration is doing whatever it can to downplay the threat

that right-wing violence presents to the United States, including literally erasing data. Between September 12th and the 13th of this year, the Department of Justice deleted their own study from their website, which came to the conclusion that right-wing extremism poses a much greater threat than left-wing extremism. I quote now the opening paragraph of this National Institute of Justice Report published just last year. Quote, militant, nationalistic, white supremacist violent extremism has increased in the United States. In fact, the number of far-right attacks continues to outpace

all other types of terrorism and domestic violence extremism. Since 1990, far-right extremists have committed far more ideologically motivated homicides than far-left or radical Islamist extremists, including 227 events that took more than 520 lives. In this same period, far-left extremists committed 42 ideologically motivated attacks that took 78 lives. A recent threat assessment by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security concluded that domestic violent extremists are an acute threat and highlighted a probability that COVID-19 pandemic-related stressors, long-standing ideological grievances related to immigration, and narratives surrounding electoral fraud will continue to serve as a justification for violent actions.

There will always be those who seek to further their own political agenda through extra-legal violence, and that is what law enforcement is for. But to reduce the risk of the population at large from falling into radicalization, the solution is simple. It's unfettered democracy. One of democracy's greatest assets is how, when unsullied, it provides a mechanism for everyone to have their voice heard. And when people believe their government speaks for them in some manner,

that they're less apt to seek violent means to accomplish their political agendas. So make voting easier, not harder. Stop gerrymandering people into oblivion. Stand on the strength of your ideals, not the depth of your donor's pockets. Stop shopping for judges and start seeking ideas that withstand scrutiny from any political ideology. When you tell the people that an election was stolen from them, they will take up arms against their neighbors without a shred of evidence. I know.

But if you tell them brilliant political rhetoric is their birthright, and civic engagement is their privilege, they'll instead take up the book in the pen, and we'll all be richer for it. And when you... Just so you know that this is the helmet that U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick wore on January 6, 2021,

and he died the following day. The family member just got back that today. Thank you. By the way, are you seeing what I'm showing you on any, hopefully you're not watching corporate news anymore, but have you even heard this stuff? Like, think about the the significance behind this

report that I'm doing. Like, have you seen this anywhere else? Next, I want to show you Senator Mike Rounds, Republican Senator right here, and he views the election as a real repudiation of the fact that Republicans are just not having government work right now. Here, play this clip. We are losing

money in the economy. That's not good for anybody. Let's focus on that. Let's get our jobs done. I think people want to see the trains run on time. They want to see the airplanes run on time. And that's something that we want to get back to as sooner the better. And you had Claire McCaskill on MSNBC. She was talking about how the results from Tuesday's election show that Americans, if you're running for a Senate seat as a Democrat, that this could be a good year for you. So Sherrod Brown in all. Roy Cooper in North Carolina, that this blue wave that we saw can now allow the Democrats to take control of the Senate. And it's looking more and more like that's going to happen. But just think

about what these clips I just shared with you in the Senate. But let's play with Claire McCaskill has to say. Play the clip. So I think the COJ, all the stuff with him prosecuting his enemies, it piles up after a while and the frustration that people have that I encounter at the grocery store. What can we What can we do, Claire? What can we do? You guys see it, right? Everywhere you go. Well, today people could do something. They could vote. And I think unless Donald Trump turns into a different person tomorrow, I think this trend will continue. And I think you're going to see, I've talked to a lot of people tonight. And there's people like Sherrod Brown that are very happy tonight. There are people like Roy Cooper that are very happy tonight. I think the Senate, we didn't think the Senate was going to be in play next year. I think after tonight, the Senate's definitely in play. It definitely is, it's on the, uh, on that sort of circle. It's on the cusp of that circle.

Yeah. Hello, Texas. Right before they get to the batters boxes. Next year, Texas, Texas, I'm talking to you. You've been doing it next year, Texas. Well, there you have, folks. Let me know what you think. Let me know what you think, okay.

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