The MeidasTouch Podcast - Democratic Whip Katherine Clark Addresses GOP Disasters

Episode Date: September 11, 2025

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on MAGA Mike Johnson folding under pressure as his cover up attempt for Donald Trump just failed and Meiselas speaks with Democratic Whip Katherine Clark about MAGA Mike’s failures and the looming government shutdown. 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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Light the path to a brighter future with stellus lenses for myopia control. Learn more at SLOR.com. And ask your family eye care professional for SLR Stellist lenses at your child's next visit. We are 20 days from a government shutdown based on the MAGA Republicans complete incompetence. Their handling of the budget and Maga Mike Johnson darting out of a press conference when questions about Jeffrey Epstein were being asked. You'll hear a reporter say, you want to take an Epstein question? He got out of there awfully quickly. Here, play this clip.

You're going to accept the January 6th, none of you? You want to take the rest of the question? Yeah. Yeah, I'll just get up with that. I run, Maga Mike, run. And then you have Speaker Johnson, Maga Mike, doesn't think that that birthday card that's clearly sent by Donald Trump to Jeffrey Epstein,

which has Donald Trump's signature, it looks like all of his other signatures. It's his signature. We don't even need to be, it's not a debate. He sent the thing to Epstein. But here's Maga Mike doing what the regime tells him to do, saying, I don't see it. I don't think so.

Here, play this. Mr. Speaker, do you think the Trump birthday now to Epstein is real? I don't. They say it's not. I don't. He says Donald Trump told me. It's not. So why would I even ask a question? I don't. And by the way, it's, it's all of them at this point, like Byron Donald's and all of you. Watch this, this brief montage of all of them saying the same thing, basically. Let's play it. I mean, anybody can do a signature. You didn't really someone might just forge this somehow and say?

Yeah, I mean, somehow it's so easy to do. For what I see, it's not a signature. I've seen Donald I'm saying a million things. This doesn't look like his signature to you? Nope. I highly doubt that it is. I mean, how could someone could afford this? Well, are we talking about, are we talking about the birthday card? The letter, the Trump apparently.

Oh, you know, I would, you know, that's new for me. I've not seen that. We'll let other people decide whether it's real or not. What does that even mean? That's new to me. You were the one who brought up the birthday card. That's new. That's new to me.

I didn't see it. You said, you said, what were you thinking they were talking? about when they were talking about forgery and birthday card as much again it's the most ridiculous stuff oh and then you have james comer big mad the new ranking member of the house oversight committee congress member robert garcia pushing forward and getting all that stuff because remember it wasn't just the birthday card in that book for epstein's 50th birthday in 2003 there was a bunch of other documents in there sick disgusting documents of like epstein and trump friends holding checks talking about Trump paying 22,000 for a fully depreciated woman. There's like women talking

about meeting Prince Andrew and Donald Trump, thanks to Jeffrey Epps. There's some grotesque stuff and that. But MAGRA Republicans are pissed that Democrats are fighting back. Listen to Comer here. Let's play it. Chairman Comer, can you give us a comment about the Epstein documents being released and what else is under review right now? Well, the Epstein documents are released because I subpoenaed the estate for the documents. That's why we have the document. So I know the media has been obsessed with the discharge petition. The discharge petition didn't even cover the estate. This is a serious investigation, just like I said it would be. We're going to be transparent. I think we got the

documents uploaded last night on the computer. It takes, you know, a few hours. Obviously, when they send out, when I subpoena documents, they send them to the Republicans and the Democrats. Of course, you know, the Democrats, they, they find one thing in there and they promote it and try to get a narrative. This investigation is about providing justice and accountability for the victims. And the Democrats, you know, it's really disappointing to see how they back it. I mean, Garcia, he's been on the job for about two weeks. He's proven to me to just be a real big drama queen because this is all about providing transparency of the American people. and justice for the victims. It's not about scoring political points. So hopefully he'll mature up

and get serious about the investigation. We've got a lot more documents we expect to get in. We're going to bring a lot of people in for deposition. So I mean, that was the guy for three years holding up nudies of Hunter Biden in the hearing. And then he's calling Robert Garcia a drama queen to which Congress member Garcia is like, are you just saying that because I'm gay? Like, what, what a drama what are you talking about like we got the book because democrats pushed for it you didn't want that to be released we push forward we released it and then you're like oh they're cherry picking it and all of these things are absolutely ridiculous let's bring in democratic congresswoman katherine clark the democratic whip and a big deal coming uh in the very near future 20 days of course

is that if a budget doesn't pass we're in a government shutdown so i want to talk about that but i think showing those epstein clips though uh show that we're not dealing with you're not dealing with like serious people who are in in the world of reality like i don't even know what that was so let's address first like what they've been saying just get your reaction to that but i just want to talk about it's in everything they exist in this maga club rose garden world I mean, I don't know where to begin. I mean, how can you look at these documents that came out in this Epstein birthday book that are disgusting? They are vile and there are multiple ones and just say, oh, that's some sort of democratic hoax.

They have one master and that is Donald Trump. And they are willing to throw the American people to throw just a, just, investigations, transparency. They will do nothing but raise costs on Americans. And he says jump and they just say, how high. And it just makes them not only look absurd, but they are just barreling towards disaster for people at home who are unable to make it in this economy that Donald Trump and his, you know, devotees have created for them. It's a co-equal branch of government. And our founders, constitutional framers, believed that even out of self-interest,

the other branches would want to defend its turf to push back and being a congressperson's like a big deal. I mean, Maga Mike's the Speaker of the House, but he's. He may as well be, you know, Donald Trump's golf caddy, you know, from, you know, as a summer job based on the way it's just so strange to me that people with important positions to protect the people have been so willing to give it away because of Donald Trump in the White House behaving in such a bizarre and erratic fashion that that, like, I'm just trying to even understand how that works.

Like, how does that appeal to them when you know tariffs are attacks on Americans and they go, oh, it's not. It's like, yes, it is. That's his signature. Tariffs are attacks on Americans. You're taking away health care. How do you work with delusional colleagues, I guess is my question. And how do you maneuver people who are so maggot up that you can't do deals with these people?

Yeah. I mean, how do you do deals with people who, one, won't come to the table. When they do come to the table, they then go ahead. and undermine and go back on everything they said, even if it makes it through Congress, they stand by a president who shreds everything they just did, whether it's projects, economic development, keeping hospitals open in their own districts.

They, you know, they just will do anything that he wants. And the point we're making 20 days out from, from a shutdown, which is 100% their responsibility. They have the majority in the House, the Senate, and Trump is president. So it is up to them to fund the government and keep it open and working for people. And what are they doing instead?

They are taking away people's healthcare. So whether it is the half a trillion dollars in Medicare that this bill will trigger, and cuts, the cuts they've already done to Medicaid, the 300 rural hospitals that are going to close, and every single day, we are already seeing hospitals close in states due to the big, ugly law. This is coming true for people right now. I had farmers in my office this morning, who we're talking about not only what is happening to them with the tariffs and how bankruptcies for farmers are up 95%, but that they have no place to go to get health care.

So they want to go ahead with this agenda, taking away the fundamental, you know, the fundamental need of American people that when they are sick and they need to see a doctor, they should be able to do that and be able to do it close to their home, they can do that on their own. We are not going to rubber stamp this extremist agenda. So for our audience to know, the position of Democratic whip is whipping up the votes and coordinated and organizing unified positions amongst the party in terms of a vote and making sure the people show up to vote, it's a lot more common. complicated than that, but at a high level, it's a big, important job. So when it comes to this

government shutdown that is looming, can you articulate for our audience the Democratic position because people, I know our audience says, do not support this MAGA desecration of our health care, shut it down. And our audience was very upset at what happened in the Senate before when that happened. So what do you say to our audience right now? That Democrats in the House are crystal clear. We are not supporting a budget that decimates health care for Americans. That's where we are.

And if they want to go ahead and do a spending plan to pass a budget that continues to make these cuts, and just this week, they're talking about more cuts. to mental health, to our public health infrastructure. They are not stopping. They are doubling down. They want to do that. They can do it without a single Democratic vote. In other words, we're willing to shut it down, right?

Shetting it down is up to them. We're telling them we're not voting for a budget that doesn't make sure that people can access health care. The fact that they are barreling. and notices are starting to go out. They've gone out in my home state of Massachusetts telling people the premium increases they are going to experience because they are refusing to renew tax credits and support for the ACA so that people can afford to get health care.

So they are looking at increased premiums, taking away the help that they rely on and need to get health care. and these guys are running around saying, well, we don't care about that. We care about one thing. And that's tax cuts for our billionaire friends. And at the same time, utterly denying that Donald Trump had anything to do with his billionaire friend Jeffrey Epstein. I mean, you cannot make this up. So we're going to stay focused where we are.

And that is, you cannot get away with doing these health care cuts at historic levels without a fight from House Democrats. I just have one procedural question because I think maybe the audience, I think if I'm confused, the audience probably shares the community. So there's a, there's the budget bill they called the big, beautiful, blah, blah, it was a disastrous budget bill that passed. Before that, there were all of these CRs that I would talk about, like a continuing. doing resolution. Then they do the disastrous budget bill. How come then there's like another budget that needs to be passed? Like what's the, why do we even come close to a shutdown when they forced this other one through just in terms of the like the procedure of it all? Yeah, the procedure is very difficult and complex. But in the simplest terms, our fiscal year

in the federal government ends on October 1st. So every year we have to have a budget. it in place. And in the last two years of Republican control, seven times they have brought us to this place. And Democrats have had to come in and say, we're going to, you know, try to come together, find some common ground. We're still at that place, but we are clearly telling our Republican colleagues and the president that they cannot count on a single Democratic vote if they are going to rip health care away. Fifteen million people are going to lose their health care in this country. And premiums for 20 million people alone, just under the ACA, are going to soar probably

out of reach for most people who need it. And we cannot just sit by and rubber stamp their agenda. They want to hold the American people hostage by saying, well, if you don't go along with our agenda of taking health care away, we're going to be in a shutdown and those are painful. You just can't negotiate with these people anymore. And so we are very clear. You want to come and talk to us about how we can make health care accessible and affordable to the American people. We are here to listen. We are ready to go negotiate with that. If you want to proceed doing whatever it is you want, imposing illegal tariffs, taking away Medicaid and Medicare and veterans' health

programs, children's insurance, food from hungry people. We're out. We're out. You cannot rely on our votes. We will not help you succeed in that kind of harm to American families. Democratic whip. Catherine Clark, thanks for joining us, as always. Thank you. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to six million subscribers love this video support independent media and unlock exclusive content add free videos and custom emojis by becoming a paid member of our youtube channel today you can also gift memberships to others let's keep growing together