The MeidasTouch Podcast - Rep. Greg Casar Blasts Trump for Attack on Texas

Episode Date: July 19, 2025

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Donald Trump continuing to unleash hell in Texas and focusing on illegally gerrymandering the state versus helping the people in need and Meiselas speaks with Democratic Congressman Greg Casar on Trump’s unlawful gerrymandering scheme while the state is suffering and what we can all do about it. 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 gamble responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you please contact Connx Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor for you charge that MGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Total havoc continues to break out in Texas and across the country but I want to focus on Texas right now because I don't want the catastrophic flash floods to just be a one-off story and we don't talk about we need to really focus on the systemic failures that took place and what is still happening right now there's over a hundred missing people still to this

day in the United States of America 1314 days out a hundred people are missing or more here's how the local networks are covering it here Here's KENS 5, let's play it. And first at four, the search for those missing after the deadly Hill Country floods enters day 13. As we've seen, there's still a lot of work to be done before communities can return to looking normal. KENS 5 reporter Simone Simpson is joining us live right now. She's in Ingram in an area that was once full of RV trailers. Simone, what does it look like today?

Hey there, Sarah. It's a sad sight today. Where I am standing is Blue Oak RV Park. And as you can see behind me, the traces that are left behind after Mother Nature and those rapid waters swept through the area, there's not much left here. As you said before, this area was full of RV trailers just 12 days ago. Now first responders are continuing to work to recover those who are still missing. Kerr County officials confirmed Tuesday 107 people are dead as crews continue searching for 97 missing people. Monday volunteers were told to stand down in their efforts as heavy rain threatened more flooding. Only teams working under the direction of Kerr County Emergency Operations Center Unified Command were permitted in the response zone. This came

after all search and rescue operations were suspended Sunday due to heavy rain and street level flooding. Today, we encountered road closure signs at the entrance of Hunt. Restrictions are in place for the public, but not for first responders. The San Antonio Police Officers Association is in Hunt today to deliver supplies and more. And the San Antonio Police Officers Association will remain in the hunt until Sunday. Coming up at five, we'll hear from the president of that organization who will fill you in

on the emotional toll their efforts has had on his team. Reporting in Ingram, Simone Simpson, KENS 5. No, and I think we all appreciate the work there by the San Antonio Police Officers Association. I just also want to know where everyone else is and what else is going on there. We know that while Donald Trump continues to have this trade war against countries like Mexico

and say horrific things about, or spread lies about the trade agreements with Mexico. Mexico rescue workers are there in Texas. Let's show this. Of course, the recent rain created even more challenges for search and rescue crews in Kerrville yesterday, including a team from Nuevo León, Mexico. Amanda Henderson with our news partners in Houston spoke with them about their mission. At the Guadalupe River in Ingram, Texas, mountains of branches continue to align the banks, the

site met with the sound of helicopters. The condition of the river is easier right now than before, but it's still hard to go into the river. Down in the Guadalupe River, you'll find Manalo Acevedo and his crew, Proteccion Civil from Nuevo Leon, Mexico. Armed with ATVs, divers, boats, maps and search dogs, they're searching the Guadalupe for those swept away in the deadly July 4th floods, only taking breaks when officials tell them to.

What troubles have you guys had with the water today? Well, we were working last day, but today, yesterday and today, we have to stop for the raining. The raining is causing the rivers to come up. And it should just be noted that during the weekend where these flash floods were taking place, Donald Trump was just licking ice cream cones at his resorts and golfing and whatever. I want to bring in Democratic Congress member Greg Kassar. Congress member, it's great to see you. That's what we should be talking about in Texas. What's happening with the flash floods? What are we doing?

You have Christine Ohm out there saying, this is the greatest, this was perfect. This is what we wanna see FEMA do more everywhere. This is the template, she says. But now Texas is calling an emergency session to deal with a completely different issue, stealing democracy and redistricting Texas so that during this tragedy, while people are still missing out there,

and while the governor says that you're a loser, if you, and we don't want losers in Texas, if you try to understand why certain things happen the way they did regarding the flash floods, they're doing emergency redistricting to get rid of all Democratic Congress members. That's what's going on in Texas. It's tragic and it's outrageous. We should be having a special session to deal with rescue and rebuilding and relief, not with redistricting. As mean, like, as you just pointed out,

over 100 people have died, dozens of children dead, over 100 people still missing. And the governor is focused on doing Donald Trump's bidding and trying to make sure Donald Trump can't be held accountable in the upcoming elections. It's just so sad and so awful. In fact, the governor has the authority, or has at least shown that he believes he has the authority

to move millions of dollars without even a special session. He did that essentially at Donald Trump's behest by pulling money out of the juvenile justice system and moving hundreds of millions of dollars over towards his medieval border wall. So he could be helping out places that you saw right there on those videos in Hunt and in Kerrville

and in other parts of the Hill Country right now. But instead he's focused on trying to make sure Trump doesn't get held accountable. And a great example of why Trump and his administration needs to be held accountable is that they don't wanna be held accountable, for example, for what happened during these floods. Whistleblowers at FEMA pointed out that Kristi Noem,

who is the cabinet secretary for DHS above FEMA, waited 72 hours to approve search and rescue missions after the flood. That shouldn't take more than 72 seconds to think about. And we've got to be able to ask those hard questions. She refuses to come in and answer those questions for members of Congress. The way that we can require her to come in

is to win a majority of people of conscience and Democrats in the Congress and the upcoming elections and then call her in so that we can respect the dead and protect the living by having accountability and asking hard questions. Donald Trump doesn't want that to happen but Donald Trump doesn't have a plan to win the elections. He has a plan to rig them long before they ever happen by suppressing the votes of people of color in Texas, destroying basically as many of the Democratic districts as he can, which are overwhelmingly districts that represent people of color, redraw the whole map and have Texas Republicans carry his water for him so that he can be unaccountable for his corruption, his crimes,

and then his failures in places like Texas. He shows up in Texas for a few hours. He describes the flash floods as something that even the best surfers couldn't surf. I mean, those are his words of. Yeah, so I'm like shifting in my chair, just how gross it is. Right. That's what he says. And then he said to the reporter, you must be a real thing was a CBS reporter.

You must be a really evil person to ask a question about what went wrong. You must be really evil. And then you had the MAGA Republican Congress member, Chip Rice. I agree with the governor. That's what losers do. And we like football in Texas.

So then I guess they washed their hands a bit Donald. I did that. I showed up. I think he even said, I guess I had to come here. I'm the president. Melania wanted to be here. He made some comment like that.

And then now it's all about how do we rig the election in Texas and how do we redistrict it to get rid of the Democratic seats to talk to us about this plan, the redistricting plan at a granular level of where they're targeting and how they're trying to do it and why it's unlawful and what are we doing to fight it back against it? The radical racial gerrymandering that Donald Trump is ordering right now in Texas is the

biggest political thing happening in America right now that you haven't heard about. It is a five alarm fire with the risk of spreading like wildfire all across the United States. And if I were to break it down about first, what's going on, and then second, what we can do about it. What's going on is that Trump has ran through a bill to kill, to knock 17 million Americans off their healthcare. It will kill people. He's given all of these benefits to his billionaire buddies, and he doesn't

want to get held accountable for it. billionaire buddies, and he doesn't want to get held accountable for it. And so he's ordered Texas Republicans to target at least five districts held by Democrats in the state of Texas. The map right now in Texas is already illegal and it already violates the voting rights act of 1965. But Trump is saying, what if we violate it even more? What if we go and rip up every part of the Voting Rights Act and radically suppress the votes of people of color?

And the way they do that is they go into communities of color and break them up into four or five different congressional districts so they water down those votes. And they hope to get rid of Democrats that way. And if they do five districts as Trump is demanding, it will be so radical. And if they take that to the Supreme Court

and Trump's Supreme Court rubber stamps this, then Trump has already said that he wants to take this to more states so that he can take over so many seats, that if there's a giant wave of voters that are opposed to his agenda in the midterm elections, what if it's just too late? And we can't let that happen. So what are we going to do about this? I think in three steps.

First, we have to delay this extreme and horrible plan. We need to support our Texas legislators who could filibuster this. We have a great tradition of filibustering. You can remember Wendy Davis's filibuster against the anti-abortion group, and we have a legislators who could filibuster this. We have a great tradition of filibustering. You can remember Wendy Davis's filibuster against the anti-abortion laws in Texas. There can be quorum busts, which means if Democratic legislators walk out en masse out

of the Texas Capitol, it actually shuts down business. Delay first and foremost. Then we got to use that time well to make this a national fight. That's step two, because this isn't just about Texas. This is about not going to pre 1965 voting laws. We need to have a mobilization nationally like we had during the civil rights movement because we're in the same fight right now. And if we have a national fight, then we have an actual chance. You can see how Governor Gavin Newsom is out there saying, maybe California is going to strike back and maybe California Republican members of Congress will reap what Texas sows. That kind of leverage, that kind of

power all across the country gives us a fighting chance to beat back some of Trump's plan. And then third, if they do make sure that they get some part or all of this plan through, if the Republicans in Texas just wind up being Donald Trump's water boys and do whatever it is he wants, then we need to make sure that they have to pay for it. And we should be raising millions of dollars and fielding excellent candidates in these Republican Congress members districts. Because if they want to chop up Democratic districts and disempower certain communities

of color by dragging, chopping them up and putting them in their districts, they make some of those Republican members of Congress more vulnerable, because now they're representing a bunch of people who are pissed off. And we cannot let them, even if they ran through these maps or some version of them, we can't let them all come back and win. And we should be making it sure that this boomerangs back on some of them, so that they aren't encouraged to keep doing this year after year, month after month, to the point where they leave democracy in tatters in a way that we'll always regret. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed on a bipartisan basis.

1965 to show you how far we've regressed right now in 2025. We've rewound in a pre 1965 world with the way the MAGA Republicans, you know, are treating this. I asked my law students and I do it in a nonpartisan way. I just say how many people here in my class, I have about 105 students, how many of you think that we could pass the Civil Rights Act or the Voting Rights Act again right now in 2025? Nobody raises their hand. I go just think about that. In 2025, the Voting Rights Act again right now in 2025. Nobody raises their hand. I go, just think about that.

In 2025, the Voting Rights Act and Civil Rights Act, you don't think could be passed right now in 2025. And it just seems that there's been this long-term project to attack the Voting Rights Act because the way it used to work was that these gerrymandered maps would have to get approval by an independent justice department or by a three-judge judicial panel before it was even passed. But then the right-wing Supreme Court gutted the formula and gutted the kind of predetermination

rules that the DOJ and the three-judge panel did. So now, I mean, I think what Texas has watched this right wing Supreme Court do is basically allow unlawful gerrymandered districts to exist through an election. You can have an unlawful Congress member in place and then just deal with it multiple years later because they cite this Purcell principle in the Supreme Court. We're too close to an election now. Nothing we can do. We'll just have to keep the unlawful map.

And I think, I mean, it's part of a broader plan, right? As your point is to bring this and turn America into Russia. And basically what you have to, we have to understand, how is it that they can do something even more radical than they did just a few years ago? And you just nailed it on the head. Donald Trump doesn't care about the Republican party. He doesn't care about Republican members of Congress.

He doesn't care about the Voting Rights Act. He just cares about himself. And maybe sometimes when he's done taking care of himself, he has a little bit of time for his billionaire friends, but mostly about himself. So he thinks that if he shreds the Voting Rights Act, which could have generational impacts all across America. But he shoves it through in the dead of night

with nobody watching, because we've got so much other stuff happening in the news that it could save his skin for one more election or two more elections. Much of these Republican members of Congress could get wiped out in primaries or in later elections because they drew districts that eventually included more Democrats than they wanted wanted or those districts could be struck down someday

by a court. But Trump wants to jam this through right now because he doesn't want Democrats to win a midterm election and then be able to investigate his corruption, investigate his crimes, expose him. And I've been telling people, I know you've been telling people, we've got to start mobilizing for these midterm elections. And I think where I've been telling people, I know you've been telling people, we've got to start mobilizing for these midterm elections. And I think where I've been wrong, and I'll admit that I was naive, was telling people that we've just got to focus on those midterm elections. Because what if Donald Trump rigs the rules of those elections before we even get there? And what I don't want is for you and me to be on the show right after next year's November election.

And Speaker Mike Johnson has just been re-elected by one or two votes because we went and flipped 15 seats. But they went and rigged 16 or 17 of them because they got started in Texas in the summer months and people didn't notice. So people got a notice. you got to speak up, call your governor's office, call your state reps, call your members of Congress, Democratic and Republican and say, something's got to be done about this. Politicians should not be picking their voters

and radically drawing districts to cut up communities of color. Voters should get to elect and unelect their politicians. And if you're in a blue state, there's something you can do and say about this, because we've got to stop bringing butter knives to a gunfight. I think that places like California should have passed laws that said California will have an independent commission and it will go into effect the day that Texas has one, or that New York will have one, but it only goes into effect the day that Texas has one or that New York will have one, but it only goes into effects of the day that Florida has one because we've got to get rid of gerrymandering nationwide.

We shouldn't be giving a free pass to wannabe autocrats. with Sasha Barraco and which is apt today, unfortunately, where Sasha Barraco and is the slowest, not a good athlete, but he's playing in the Olympics of whatever country he's from. And he starts running and he's got a gun and everybody else, they're all shackled while they're running and he turns to them and he starts shooting them. And then he wins in first place. And it feels sometimes that that's the way the Republicans are playing this game and they're looking back and you know and and we are and you know the pro democracies playing by

the rules and let's be nice and let's be and and they're just keep on screwing us every time and they're not aligned with the people. I'll throw this to you before we go. If you look at all of the issues actually America agrees on a lot of things. I mean, 75 to 80%, whether it's, you know, common sense gun control, whether it's women's reproductive rights, whether it's the Democrats economic agenda, Americans agree with that stuff,

yet you don't see that in the outcome. And it's because of stuff like this. So it's just fighting. I think it's just getting, you know, just saying enough of this crap. And I like that you're leading the way before we go. Anything else you want to say to our audience? I think you're spot on. This is something that I have had to change and learn within myself is that

us being right and putting on the shackles of being right does not in and of itself win elections and let us do the right thing for the people. And so I think being a real progressive means actually saying, you know what? It's not good enough just to be right. We've got to beat back autocracy, inspire a large number of people,

unrig the rules, and get power so that we can do right by the people because the current Trump regime and those folks in power are doing everything they can to dismantle our democracy. Congressmember Greg Kassar, thanks for joining us. Thanks a lot. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to six million subscribers. The truth is more important than ever.

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