The MeidasTouch Podcast - Congressman Chris Pappas Responds to Trump’s Disastrous Term

Episode Date: April 19, 2025

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Donald Trump’s attempt to destroy data and stop data gathering to hide the evidence of his failures and Meiselas interviews New Hampshire Democratic Congressman Chris Pappas who is running for Senate on his response to the Trump regimes disasters. 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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mount as his regime is showing what an utter disaster it is donald trump's plan now is what his plan usually always is which is just attack the data. Remember what he said back in 2020 with COVID, which he completely mishandled, didn't handle it all. If you don't do the testing, then you don't know, you don't have to know what's even going on. So here's what we know from today. A great article out from ProPublica, Trump's war on measurement means, losing data on drug use, maternal mortality, climate change, and more. He's just going to try to erase the data gathering from the various agencies. And I'll just give you an example right now. There was a deadly E. coli outbreak that hit 15 states, but the FDA chose not to

publicize it. That would normally be something that would be publicized. This is from NBC, which found out about it. The outbreak linked to romaine lettuce killed one person and sickened at least 88 more, including a nine-year-old boy who nearly died of kidney failure. But that really didn't get reported anywhere until now. And had we known about that, people could have taken safety precautions. I was also thinking about that press conference that Donald Trump did in the Oval Office on Friday, where he tried to claim that the real issue with eggs and egg prices are that they're too cheap and there's too many eggs. Just play this clip of what Trump said in the Oval Office on Friday. And the egg prices are down 87 percent. But nobody talks about that. You can have all the eggs you want. We have too many eggs. In fact, if anything, the prices are getting too low. So I just want to let you know prices are down.

Just entirely false. U.S. egg prices have increased to record highs going into Easter. Literally, if you look at the remaining data that we have, you can see that, but they want to get rid of all of that data. And to me, it's a throwback, as I said at the outset of this video, to what he was saying in 2020, don't do the testing, then you don't know if there are cases. Remember this, we made this video a few years back at the Midas Touch Network. Here, play this clip. So I said to my people, slow the testing down, please. Come on now.

That was tongue-in-cheek. Please. I don't know that it was tongue-in-cheek at all. I know it was tongue-in-cheek. He has said, Testing's frankly overrated. We absolutely need to significantly ramp up the number of tests. You said that you told your staff to slow the testing down to improve the numbers. Did you ask to slow it down?

It was a comment that he made and Jeff. I don't kid. Let me just tell you, let me make it clear. Let's bring in Democratic Congress member Chris Pappas, who's also running for the Senate seat in New Hampshire. Congressman Pappas, first off, welcome to the Midas Touch Network, your first time on the network. Hopefully we get you back again. What do you make of all of that, though? Trump's attack to be on with you. And we know how estranged Donald Trump is from the truth. And the fact is, his administration isn't interested in data. They're not interested in science. They're only interested in power and making life more chaotic for Americans all across our country. And that's what they're doing. You know, I was talking with folks that had contracts with the Department of Education recently, and they were telling me how the Department of Ed has ceased the collection of data. So just putting on a blindfold, not wanting to know what's going on in education across our that have very specialized expertise into how our education systems work

and how best we can approach improving our schools for the future. So this is a full-out assault, not just on government, but really on our ability as a country and as communities to solve problems, to know where the challenges lie and to know how best to address them collectively moving forward. So it's a deeply chilling moment, I think, for our democracy and

the ability of our government to work for everyday Americans. And, you know, look, government needs to be a stabilizing force that's informed by reality, that's informed by the data in order to be able to fulfill its mission. But Donald Trump, we know, and the folks around him, they don't believe in the mission of government. They only believe in Donald Trump and amassing more power. And they're doing it at the expense of the American people. And we've got to continue to find ways to stand up, to be counted, to provide a full accounting of the damage that's being done, and to work to try to put up guardrails wherever possible. Let's talk about that hostile takeover of the federal government by Trump and Musk. Even in

the data that we've seen, federal spending is actually up right now. There's more federal spending than under former President Biden, and they've wrecked the federal government in the process. What are you hearing from your constituents with all of these cuts to the programs from shutting down social security offices, the attack on Medicaid, the attack on the Department of Education, the attack on veteran services, and basically every other essential service and service in general? People are deeply concerned with what they're seeing right now, and it is far reaching in terms of its impacts. It's the delivery of critical programs, including those earned benefits like Social Security. People are

going to have to wait longer to be able to apply for benefits or to get a question answered because they've moved to fire half the people that work for the Social Security Administration. You think about the VA and the positive steps we've taken over the last few years on a bipartisan basis, mind you, to expand care and benefits for veterans exposed to toxic substances and burn pits. But they're moving to fire 80,000 people, including people who provide direct care to veterans and others who answer crisis lines and process claims. That's all having an impact on the ability of our government to deliver on its promise to those who risk everything for our nation and who defended our freedoms. So it's an urgent challenge right now.

We are working to hear directly from our constituents, from our communities, from local nonprofits, all of whom are really disturbed, angry, and anxious about what's happening in Washington, DC. And we've got to make sure that we're using every tool possible on the inside to address this. So we're signing letters, we're sponsoring legislation, we're signing onto court briefs,

we're giving remarks on the floor, we're holding press conferences, but we also need the public really to be engaged in this, in helping to bring the fight in Washington back home. So whether that's talking about this in terms of jobs and livelihoods, on funding that's being withheld from our communities, on just the ability to deliver critical services, especially to some of our most vulnerable citizens. This attack is far ranging and we're deeply concerned about where it goes next. We know that the reconciliation package with drastic cuts to Medicaid that could essentially end healthcare coverage for tens of millions of Americans and jeopardize the care provided by our community health centers and hospitals, all in the name of providing tax breaks to billionaires like Elon Musk, it is the most

backward priorities that you could ever come up with in a bill. And people are really incensed about it. And we're going to continue to try to fight on the inside as best we can to stop that legislation. And then you have Donald Trump declaring a trade war against the world using a made up cockamamie formula that was based on deficits to claim what the reciprocal tariff rate was. And then he put him on and then he put him off and then he put him on against adversaries and allies alike. I mean, constantly attacking Canada, saying he wants to conquer it and annex it and saying that about other countries, picking fights against the EU, fights against Australia. And now we're seeing real impacts of this. I mean, we're seeing the tariffs starting to impact the cost of goods, affecting businesses.

What's going on in New Hampshire with these tariffs? Well, as you can imagine, New Hampshire, which borders Canada, has deep ties to our Canadian partners and our economy is very much interconnected. And so we benefit from free trade with Canada. That's why updating the USMCA under the first Trump administration was an important step forward to protect those trading partnerships and to make sure that we're also protecting domestic industries in America. But what I'm hearing from small businesses is that things are getting more expensive. 88% of small businesses import products in order to sell them to customers or to make something else that they're delivering

to customers right here in America. So that's making things more expensive. It's a huge tax, not only on our small businesses, but on the American public. And I've heard that very directly from our small business community. In addition to that, our businesses that export to places like Canada or China are also being hit hard. I had an extensive conversation with businesses in our forest products industry, which is important here in New Hampshire. We're the second most forested state in the country. And they have a huge market in China, which now is being hit with 150% reciprocal tariff. And so that market is going to

go away, people are going to lose their jobs. And so whether that's in logging in the sawmills, or in the lumberyards, there is tremendous pressure that they're just not going to be able to navigate. I was talking to them about some of the legislative efforts that we hope to undertake, and maybe pull some Republicans along with us. And they said, look, we just can't wait. This is urgent. This is existential for our business. And if we don't get some relief from the president, we can't just wait a few months for Congress to pass something. So we need to make sure that we are leveraging the voices that we're hearing in our districts from the small business community that are being hurt on both sides of the trading relationship. It's really devastating. And it comes at a time where we should be taking every step possible to lower costs, to make housing more affordable, to make sure child care is more available, and to lower the cost of energy. This is just hitting people where it hurts at a time

where most families and businesses can't afford it. Tell us about your Senate race for that seat in New Hampshire. You announced that you were running. You have long roots in New Hampshire, 100 plus years, your family dating back in New Hampshire. But tell us, what does the fight look like to you against the Trump regime? And what are you telling the voters about what your candidacy means if you were to win? Yeah, well, this is an important race. I've served four terms or am serving in my fourth term in the House of Representatives, having represented half of the state of New Hampshire.

And this is an open seat. Our Senator Jeanne Shaheen decided to retire at the end of her term, which comes up in 2026. And so I decided to jump in this race. I think this is a moment where we all should look to go beyond what we're used to doing to make sure we are raising our voices and standing up for what counts. And I have a track record of being well-grounded in terms of the challenges that people face out there. I'm a small business owner, so I know how our economy works. And I also know how to take on tough fights and get things done, whether that's lowering the cost of prescription drugs, standing up to the entrenched special interests and corporate power that runs amok in Washington, D. that we figure out how to build the kind of coalitions that we need to be able to confront the damage that is being done to our democracy,

to our way of life, and to our country, and to win. And I'm absolutely committed to doing that in the coming months. So we're really excited about the energy out there. This is a moment where I think everyone wants to be a part of a solution. And as people express anger and anxiety about the future, we want to give them a way that they can be constructive in terms of how we truly achieve some checks and balances moving forward. And I believe we need to do that by taking back the majorities

in the midterm elections. Where can people find out more information about you? Well, thanks. People can go to chrispappas.org and find out more about me, about the work that I've been doing, fighting on behalf of the people of New Hampshire, and to pitch in or just leave a comment. We'd love to engage with you all as we go about this race. This is a state that is very purple, was decided by less than three percentage points in the last presidential election. And our Senate race in 2016 was decided by 1,017 votes. So we know close races here in New Hampshire. We're taking nothing

for granted. We're going to get out there and earn this and we'd love people's help. Congressman Chris Pappas running for the open Senate seat in New Hampshire. Thanks for joining us. We hope you come back. Great to be with you. Thanks. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 5 million subscribers. Can't get enough Midas? Check out the Midas Plus sub stack for ad-free articles, reports, podcasts, daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, and more. Sign up for free now at MidasPlus.com.