The MeidasTouch Podcast - GOP Gets Shut Down as Dems Finally Go Nuclear

Episode Date: February 20, 2025

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Democratic leaders taking the battle to Republicans and putting them on the defense. Fay Nutrition: You can qualify to see a registered dietitian for as little as $0 by visiting https://FayNutrition.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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please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. This is what I like to see. You've got Democrats, you've got Senator Bernie Sanders and others going on the offense and saying to the people, it's time to go to the streets. It's time to protest. It's time to stand up against authoritarianism. Go on the offense. Then you've got these MAGA Republicans and their

propaganda machines on the defense. This is what I like to see. I want to highlight what's going on with some of these stronger pro-democracy voices, and I want to show you what it looks like to see MAGA Republicans on their heels. So here we have Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont saying this struggle against authoritarianism is going to require we the people to take to the streets. Play this clip. At the end of the day, the struggle against Trump, the struggle against oligarchy, which is led by Elon Musk, the struggle against authoritarianism, the fight to make sure that the working class of this country gets a fair shake, that is not going to be won here in Capitol Hill. It's going to be won by millions of people all over this country standing up and saying,

you know what? We fought and died for democracy. We're not going to move toward authoritarianism. We fought to create a country that works for all, not just the billionaire class. That's the struggle. And I'm going to be active in trying to rally the American people to do just that. Exactly, Bernie. Exactly. Then Bernie Sanders talks about how we're not just dealing with this move toward authoritarianism. We're dealing with what is new to America. Yes, politicians have always lied, but the way we are seeing the big lie every day, it's like Nazi Germany. Play this clip. Into this. And what we do know is that there's a lot of people that still remain in the database, but as far as people who are actually getting payments, it was 44,000 who got payments according to an audit that was done in

2023. Out of how many millions? There's tens of millions. So when they say tens of millions, that would be a third of the world's social security. This is what we are dealing with. We're not only dealing with oligarchy, the incredible power of the very, very rich. We're not only dealing with a move toward authoritarianism. We're dealing with what is new to America. You know, politicians have always lied, nothing new about that. But the level that we're seeing right now, the big lie, over and over again, and it goes out, there's a big lie, and then it goes out on Musk's Twitter to, what, several hundred million people, repeated over and over again. Now the word is out there,

oh, people on Social Security, 150 years of age. Can you believe it? The whole thing is corrupt. It's broken. Well, where does that lead you, Caitlin? What's the next step? If government can't do anything, if Social Security doesn't work, if Medicare doesn't work, if Medicaid doesn't work, we're going to get rid of all of those programs and we're going to give it over to the billionaire class to run it. That's what you think they're ultimately trying to do? Yeah. At the end of the day, not only do they, A, they want massive cuts to programs for the

working class in this country in order to give tax breaks to the very rich. And then they want to move to the privatization of every important government agency. And here, Bernie Sanders says there should be co-equal branches of government. But with the way Congress is right now with the Republicans in control, they've given up their authority to Donald Trump. Play this clip. in the world, who has enormous conflicts of interests, who is helping to fund right wing extremist organizations all over the world, who is looking forward to get massive tax breaks from Congress. He's running the show. So if he's technically if he's running the show, but not on paper, as they essentially argue, but you say in practice, he basically is. You're a co-eval branch of government as a senator on Capitol Hill. Are we? I kind of thought so, but I think you have to explain that

to the president. Do you feel that you have oversight when it comes to what Elon Musk is doing? Look, what we're seeing right now, Caitlin, is a very dangerous moment. I'm laughing here, but it is not funny. This country is moving very rapidly under Trump into an authoritarian form of society. You know who I think has been doing a really good job lately? Senator Chris Murphy, I think, has been doing a really good job. Here he is talking about Pete Hegseth, the unqualified secretary of defense who was a fox host play this clip pete hegseth got the job because he's the weekend news anchor on fox and donald trump watches a lot of fox and so he decided to make that guy the head of the department of defense and our chief negotiator in ukraine

pete hegseth is screwing it up badly, but of course he is. He has no experience negotiating with anybody. All he knows how to do is read the news. So nobody should be surprised that this national security cabinet is badly mismanaging the early stages of this negotiation and are going to end up in a settlement that ultimately likely gets a lot of Americans killed in the medium and long run. Just to play devil's advocate. And here you have Senator Murphy again explaining why Donald Trump wants to steal Ukraine's rare earth minerals, then kind of put it into his own sovereign wealth fund for him and

the billionaires to divvy up. Here, play this clip. President Trump is adamant about the U.S. getting access to Ukraine's supply of rare earth minerals. Ukraine's president says he's open to it in exchange for security guarantees. But then President Trump also says that the U.S. would not take part in any peacekeeping force. But if European countries wanted to send peacekeeping forces, he's, quote, all for it. Would any kind of peacekeeping force without U.S. involvement be, I mean, feasible? Would that be enough of a deterrent? Well, I mean, Donald Trump pretends like he's some great dealmaker. It's pretty amazing that

he has thrown out any leverage that could help in these negotiations. Right from the start, Donald Trump has said, yeah, the United States isn't going to take part in any security guarantee after the war ends. The United States isn't going to continue to fund Ukraine. The United States doesn't believe that Ukraine should be able to regain the territory that it's lost. Essentially, you're giving away all the leverage that you might have at the negotiating table.

But let's also be clear about why he wants these mineral rights. This is just about the billionaires that he serves that can make a ton of money in Ukraine if they are taking those minerals out of the ground and selling them globally for a profit. it's consistent with the way that Donald Trump operates, that his number one agenda would be to gain mineral rights for his billionaire donors instead of actually trying to secure the freedom of Ukraine and American security interests in the region. Bingo. Just call it like it is. Don't hold back. Don't mince words. And you know who doesn't hold back and who doesn't mince words? Democratic Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett. He or she is. Let's play it. It's not even just nonsense. It's just that they're idiots. I mean, these are the same guys, remember, as it relates to our nuclear stockpile, right? They're like, oh, wait a minute. We needed

those guys. Oh, can we get them back? Oh, we don't know how to. Like, I don't know how anyone in this country can look at this administration and feel some semblance of of any type of confidence. Right. And this is all at the same time. Like Elon doesn't want us talking about the fact that he has received almost a billion dollars worth of new contract money from the U.S. government in just two weeks. $400 million for Tesla and over $300 million for SpaceX. This is nothing more than a money grab. He's not out there trying to save money for the American people. That's not what he's doing.

He's lining his pockets. And at the same time, he's outraging people who don't know exactly how we spend our money and how it benefits us to make sure that things like HIV and AIDS doesn't become the worldwide pandemic that it used to be. Exactly. Same thing with everything else that we're dealing with. I love this one right here. Let's play it as well. You were involved in a hearing with Elon Musk about condoms. Right. Do you remember this whole this whole.

It wasn't with elon elon if you're watching come through boo because you haven't shown up to the doge that's right it was right and you you called him out at that subcommittee but this became weird because buddy carter your colleague from georgia started talking about how we were giving condoms to the taliban and then donald trump himself then it became about gaza but it would have to have been about 7,000 condoms per person. And then he said it was just Hamas, which none of it made sense. But it caused a lot of people to have to run around and follow the story and find out that we give condoms as part of USAID to prevent the spread of HIV to a place in Mozambique called Gaza province. Correct.

This is the nonsense we have to deal with here. It's not even just nonsense. It's just that they're idiots. I mean, these are the same guys. Remember, as it relates to our nuclear stockpile, right? They're like, oh, wait a minute. We needed those guys. Oh, can we get them back? Oh, we don't know how to like. Next up, you have Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen. Here he is saying, you realize, just think about what Donald Trump, Marco Rubio are doing by going to Saudi Arabia and trying to cut deals, begging Putin to cut deals with America while Ukraine is fighting for its life. Could you imagine what that was like if in World War II, you had FDR in the middle of it saying to Churchill, I'll just let Van Hollen says it better than me. Here, play this clip.

Right now, but what they did in Munich with President Zelensky was primarily to bully them, the Secretary of Treasury handed him a piece of paper that essentially required Ukraine to hand over about 50% of its mineral reserves to the United States simply in payment of the support that we've already given, which we've given because they were a democratic country attacked by Putin and the Russian forces. I mean, can you imagine FDR in the middle of World War II saying to Churchill, you know, we're not going to continue to help you until you turn over half of your coal and mineral reserves. That's not how you behave when you want to support a friend who's under attack by an authoritarian like Putin. Exactly, exactly.

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Play this clip. When we were asking questions of the Biden administration, asking for answers, they refused to answer it. Look, oversight is back. American taxpayers work hard for this money. They give it to the government. The government should be good stewards of it. We must get people answers.

We must do better. The things that have been uncovered are actually mind boggling. And I have a feeling we are just scratching the surface. We're going to get to the bottom of it. We're $36 trillion in debt. Doing better started the day that we rolled in a Republican Congress on January 3rd. And when President Trump took office on January 20th, America is back and this is just the beginning. And then you have the MAGA Republican Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, who then tries to blame all of the plane crashes that have been taking place under the Trump administration on former President Biden.

Play this clip. To cast blame on this administration for the policy failures of the last four years and say it's our fault is outrageous, but it's rich. So I want to talk quickly about the FAA. So it's true that less than 400 people were laid off at the FAA. There's 45,000 employees there. So this is 0.89%. So utterly pathetic. And here's Sean Duffy again. Again, Trump's secretary of transportation lying and saying that there were more plane crashes under Biden than under Trump already. And he goes, planes crash.

That's just air crashes happen. Could you imagine if Pete Buttigieg says, yeah, air crashes just happened here. Play this clip. But again, air crashes happen, but they were more under Biden than than Donald Trump. But the point here is we want to get to a place where we have zero crashes. We don't want people to die in aircraft, which is why what I've done is focus on how do you upgrade the system? But will you look at what's happened? The airspace around DCA, that was allowed to stay open under the last administration. The inspections that were done of the aircraft that have crashed, that was allowed to stay open under the last administration. The inspections that

were done on the aircraft that have crashed, that was done under the last administration. So it is rich that they would come at this administration for the mistakes that they've made and blame us for the crashes. We're going to fix what they refused to fix over the course of their four years. And that's the mission of this department. And by the way, what Duffy's saying is false. And also, Trump's only been in office for a month. There was no commercial jet crash when former President Biden was in office. Absolutely not. And again, here's how the MAGA Republican mouthpieces like John Roberts are trying to justify Elon Musk going through all of your personal files and your records. This is what they're saying on Fox. This is how they're trying to brainwash

their audience of sheep. They're saying billionaires should be trusted. Billionaires are so rich that why would they care about your information? Like billionaires are the most trusted people in America. That's what they're saying. And they're pumping this into the arms of their sheeple. Watch this clip. Elon Musk had access to all that stuff when he was running PayPal. Right. And if you're going to trust anybody with rooting out waste, fraud and abuse, wouldn't you want it to be a guy who really doesn't need your money? Right. right. And also, does anyone actually think that Elon Musk is sitting in the West Wing right

now going through people's tax returns? Give me a break. It's people who are appointed by the president within the agencies to conduct audits, to do their jobs. And people entrust their personal and private information to all kinds of people all the time. The IRS, for instance, had contracted thousands of folks to review sensitive information, yet there's a problem. And why is there a problem? Because

they are Donald Trump appointees. It is so utterly, utterly ridiculous. So may I just compare right there, John Roberts, who you saw with Jim Acosta. Jim Acosta was recently on the Midas Touch Network. We've been collaborating a lot with Acosta since he left his other network. Let me show you what Acosta said to me when I interviewed him yesterday. Play this clip. You know, it's hard to see somebody out Spicer, Sean Spicer, or out Huckabee, Sarah Huckabee Sanders. But Caroline Leavitt, she's making a run for it. She just might get on Trump's all-star team of liars. She might be on the bench

right now, but if she keeps working hard, if she does her homework, she just might make it onto the team. It's a sad and sorry state of affairs, but what we're seeing right now from this White House is exactly what we saw during the first Trump administration. They performed for the audience of one, Ben. Sean Spicer did this. And as I used to say about Sean Spicer, that the problem for Sean Spicer was not that Melissa McCarthy became Sean Spicer,

it was that Sean Spicer became Melissa McCarthy in that caricature that we used to all laugh about on Saturday Night Live. And Caroline Leavitt, unless they've already done it on SNL, I would have to think that something like that is in the works because the skit writes itself. They're such bad liars. I mean, it's sort of like, you know, anybody has kids out there when your kid is telling you a tall tale and you're just looking at them like, OK, Johnny, sure. Yeah, I believe you. And you just walk away saying, what the hell? That kid's, you know, not telling me the truth. That's what's going on over at the White House right now.

But make no mistake, they are performing for an audience of one. And so if she gets out in front of the cameras and starts telling the truth, Donald Trump, who is addicted to being on TV, hearing about himself on TV, reading about himself online, he's probably watching these briefings and thinking to himself, well, wait a minute, they can't go out there and tell the truth. They have to tell it the way I tell it, which is, you know, all lies. And, you know, we're right back where we were in that first Trump White House, Ben. It is a very sad and sorry state of affairs. And I feel very sorry for the fact checkers out there because once again, they're working in overdrive. Wow. So good right there. Well, let me know what you think. It's fight time, folks. It's fight time. You ready? You ready?

I'm ready. I'm ready to do it with you. Let's go. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 5 million subscribers. Thanks for watching. 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