The MeidasTouch Podcast - Democratic Whip Katherine Clark on Disaster Budget Bill

Episode Date: June 15, 2025

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on the GOP hearing blowing up in their faces as their plan was easily exposed by Democratic witnesses and Meiselas speaks with Democratic Whip Katherine Clark about the Trump and Republican dangerous agenda. 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

The name of the game for Republicans on Capitol Hill is distraction, distraction, distraction from their disastrous budget bill. Anything to take the heat off the fact that I think the approval for this budget bill, the last Quinnipiac and AP poll I saw, it's like 27% approval. I think the nation recognizes how harmful this is for everybody other than the billionaires and potentially owners of gun silencers. So let me just show you what the MAGA Republicans tried to do in the House and why it has backfired because I think it's just made them look extra deranged and it's so obvious what they're

doing. So you've got Mike Lawler who tries to present himself in his New York congressional district in Rockland County like he's a moderate when he's anything but. And you know these MAGA Republicans they called this hearing at the end of last week where they were bringing in the Democratic governors just to try to attack them, get their soundbites, go after the governors. And I just loved it when the New York governor Kathy Hockel called out Mike Lawler, who's a congress member in New York. And she's like, we all know what you're trying to do here. I mean, you're just trying to distract from your budget bill here. Watch this clip.

State, that's why you're here. That is the exact reason why you're sitting in front of us testifying because of your disastrous EOs, your disastrous pro-criminal policies that have resulted in the death of New Yorkers. That is your failure. And the fact is that you can't even answer the question. No, the reason I'm sitting here is because Republicans are looking to deflect from the big bad ugly bill that's going to hurt people. Governor, Governor, Governor, you know, when they times expired. Governor, you got to know when they talk over,

they're just so they're just so obvious. They start talking over, which is no, you're here to distract from your disastrous big bad budget bill. Others were, I guess, a little less subtle. I mean, you have Marjorie Taylor Green. This was her line of attack and saying to Governor Hokel, you state that you're a proud registered Democrat. And then Hockel's like, is that,

I'm just trying to understand, is that illegal now under your new MAGA doctrine? You're watching this. Governor Hockel, you stated that you're a proud registered Democrat. Yes, I did. Is that illegal now too in your country? Governor Hockel, this is not a laughing matter.

We're just laughing. I literally just saw you. It's a ridiculous question. She was then laughing. This is not a laughing matter. Then you have mega Republican Nancy Mace, who probably makes what 200 like I'm not exaggerating 200 posts every day about bathrooms she stands in front of bathrooms she talks about like genitals every day I have no clue what's going on this is what they it's what they do here play play this could play this clip I don't even know what's going on here here play it team 90 okay what is a woman I what is a woman? I...

What is a woman is the question. I'm not sure I understand the question here. That... What do you want me to say? I want you to say that a woman like me is an adult human female. That men can't become women. You guys are the party of violence and you're the party erasing women. You don't respect us. You're a bigot. You're a misogynist. You're a sexist.

I'm for real. I mean, you have this budget bill that's going to rip away health insurance from over 10 million Americans. The biggest transfer of wealth in history. It's going to literally rip foods, lunches out of the mouths of children. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, buh-bye Medicaid, buh-bye housing and rental assistance, buh-bye. We've got Nancy Mace and all these Republicans. What's a woman? Am I a woman? You're a woman, Nancy Mace. You're a woman, Nancy Mace. Yes, you're a woman. The crazy stuff are the craziest stuff. Oh, and then I just got to show one more. Then after we saw Trump's Gestapo arrest

a sitting Democratic Senator from California, Alex Padilla, you then have Anna Paulina Luna go on, go and do her right-wing media tour and play the victim for Christy gnome, the Department of Homeland Security, saying why this man Padilla, he tried to attack her, which he obviously didn't. She's she's such a fragile little woman. She's such a friend. She why would you go after such a gentle woman here? Play this clip. What's going on? What's going on with this jackass? Well, you know, it's crazy too is so I think obviously this guy did this for clickbait, but also to like what

actual testosterone dude goes in and tries to break Christina. She's like the most delicate, beautiful, tiny woman. And he's going in, what does he think he was going to like yell and scream at her? I don't know which Christinai Noem was she dressed as? Was she cowgirl Kristi Noem? Was she SWAT team Kristi Noem? Was she firefighter Kristi Noem? Which outfit was it? Let's bring in Democratic whip Catherine Clark,

Congresswoman, I showed you a lot there. I guess- Wow. I guess I should just start by what's your reaction to that? Oh, my goodness. You know, they are showing us that the American people, when you say we're going to take away health care from 16 million of you, let's go after food programs while we're at it, school lunches, WIC, meals on wheels,

veterans benefits, our public schools. And why are we doing this? Oh, that's right, tax breaks for billionaires. They don't like it very much. And they have been saying the the Mike Lawlers of the world have been saying they won't do this, we're not gonna cut Medicaid, wherein the bill doesn't say Medicaid, and here we are. And the American people have seen this before, a tax scam that is just making the winner circle so small in this country, and taking away opportunity for all the rest of America.

And they're gonna do anything they can to turn the page and talk about something else. But they just can't do it because this is their big, ugly bill and they own it. I always hear people say, Trump is sending, federalizing the National Guards. It's a distraction from the budget bill or from the fact that Elon Musk is saying that Trump's all over the Epstein file. So that's a distraction from this. And then Donald Trump failed in

his negotiations, you know, with Iran and he got, and then now there's a war as a distraction. I'm just like, look, I think that, and then they arrested a Senator as a distraction to distract from the distraction from the distraction. I'm just like, look, this guy is bad. And everything they're doing is very problematic. But I still say, I don't know if, I don't give them the benefit

that they're actually actively planning. I just think they do a lot of bad things that distract from all of these things. But I do agree, we can't get distracted from this budget bill. Like I think that's so stipulated because there's a lot to focus on when we wake up every day, not good things.

So what are you telling people to do right now as this what, this budget bill sits in the Senate now, we don't know what they're gonna do, how they're gonna handle some of the disagreements. The Republicans in the House sent a letter to the Senator saying, I know we passed a really bad bill, you gotta help us, can you remove the provisions and then send it back as we didn't,

we voted for these things, but we didn't realize it. So where are we and where do we go Congresswoman? Well, let's start at your last point there because we did have members like Marjorie Taylor-Green saying, oh, I didn't know this provision was in there. I wouldn't vote on it. And they said, okay, we're going to fix this. So they brought the bill actually back before us

on a procedural vote this week and didn't fix it. So they just voted again for all the things that they said, if I had known we're in there, I wouldn't vote for this. So we're done with their excuses. They know full well what they're voting for. They know it is against American families and their interest. It is, just as you said, the biggest cuts in history

to healthcare and the biggest transfer of money out of the pockets of working families into those of people who don't need and won't even notice these tax breaks. And so, yes, is what's happening with calling up our military to LA a distraction? It is, but it is also something we need to talk about four square about what that is. That is Donald Trump trying to fulfill his dream of having our military be his own police force

and enforce his political will on the American people. So we have to keep our eye on all of these things and keep connecting the dots for folks at home from all their misinformation, all their lies about what is happening. So today when this interview is airing, the military dictator parade is gonna be taking place. We have photos of Fort Bragg where you have this

Trump merch was being sold on Fort Bragg. When if you zoom in, you can actually see the American flag being replaced by Trump flags, Donald Trump's name on the flag, Trump's face on the flag, flags that just have Donald Trump on it. They were giving members of the army a card that was called the White Privilege card,

not making this up. And it says, White Privilege trumps everything. And they were handing these out to members of the 82nd Airborne Division who were there. Now the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, because Trump fired the other guy, the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs acted like, he goes, I didn't see those reports.

I think you saw the reports on military.com. Everybody's talking about this, so you're either just not looking at things or you're lying. But this is bad. I mean, this is bad. This is ugly. And from a nonpartisan military perspective, and what's your view of what we're seeing here?

And it's making us weaker abroad. I mean, it's clearly not strong, or no one's listening to what the guys say. That's right. And it's funny how that happens when you abandon your allies and you side with your adversaries. But what we saw play out at Fort Bragg is a continuation of what we're seeing play out in LA. This is politicizing our armed forces, and that is something the Constitution has a lot to say about, and the American people have a lot to say about this, too,

because this is unconstitutional, and it is a dangerous escalation of what this president is doing. And, you know, he has been attacking civil rights and equality, but just think about that moment of handing out cards that say white privilege at a military installation in the United States of America and replacing our flag, our country's flag with his own. I mean, if there, if you need more proof that he is moving rapidly to consolidating power, to making this an authoritarian regime instead of a presidency.

You need more proof of that. I don't know what to say to you. He is putting it all out for the American people. And I am telling you, the American people are not going to stand for this. And it is part of what we have to do. We have to keep speaking out because the strategy of chaos does work. It does distract us from things. So we have to be able to talk to all of these pieces and not let anybody forget the very

big generational impact that the big ugly bill is going to have, while we also have to talk about what it means to be sending Marines into LA, a situation that has seen some violence, has seen things that none of us condone, but also is under control by local and state police. And there was no need, as the judges ruled, for the National Guard to be there. That was unlawful.

And again, it is unlawful and unconstitutional that our troops are being called into L.A. as well. So all these pieces tie together and paint a very dangerous picture for our democracy. You know, I think the people are really beginning to get it also, and it's why also I always point out what the right-wing media is trying to do. You know, when they're very heavy on talking about

what is Simone Biles beefing with Riley Gaines about? And you know, when they start their attacks on, what's a woman, what's a woman, the bathroom, the, the, the, the, the, the, it's like, all right, we, we, we, we, we know the game, we know the hustle, we're calling it out, and we're speaking to the American people. Anything else you want to say before we wrap up?

You know, it's just that we're gonna stay on it. As Democrats in the House, we realize what's at stake for American families. And we have an opportunity in the Senate to try and stop this bill. And we are going to do it. And at the same time, we are going to be out there and joining peaceful protests around the country

and saying, there's no room for a king here. We already fought that war. It started right here in Massachusetts. We won that revolution and we are not gonna let another monarchy take root in the White House. Democratic Whip, Catherine Clark, appreciate you. Thank you, Ben. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to five million subscribers.