The MeidasTouch Podcast - Republicans Lose It on Live TV over Trump Destroying GOP

Episode Date: May 12, 2025

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas breaks down a disastrous weekend for Republicans on the news circuit as they struggled—and failed—to defend Donald Trump’s latest wave of indefensible decisions and scandals, exposing just how broken the MAGA message machine really is. Thanks to Manukora: Head to Manukora.com/MEIDAS to receive $25 OFF your starter kit! Subscribe to Meidas+ at https://meidasplus.com Get Meidas Merch: https://store.meidastouch.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, 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. The MAGA Republican leaders had a series of disastrous appearances on Sunday News. Let me just break down for you what took place. And it's just shocking the audacity of this corruption and incompetence. For example, here you have Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on air traffic control systems. He says the lights are blinking. This is like an emergency moment, folks. We may be in serious trouble. This is the Transportation Secretary saying, I don't know,

fix it, do your job, maybe? Here, play this clip. The Congress and the country haven't paid attention to it, right? They expect it to work. And so now I think the lights are blinking, the sirens are turning, and they're saying, listen, we have to fix this because what you see in Newark is going to happen in other places across the country. It has to be fixed. And so what we're having is some telecom issues, but we're also having some glitches in our software.

As the information comes in, it's overloading some of our lines and the system goes down. So I'll just tell you specifically in Newark, we believe we're going to have it up and running in short order. We're going to be able to fix that glitch. And we feel a little more comfortable about our primary line that gets the data in on radar. And our redundant line is up and looking as well. I don't know. Maybe we shouldn't be getting our transportation secretaries from the real world road rules challenge. Maybe we should have people working to actually fix things instead of people like Sean Duffy, who are posting like bachelor photos of himself

saying hashtag Latino wife, saying that his wife made him carne asado tacos. I mean, what the hell are we talking about here? That's what he actually posted. Here is Sean Duffy again talking about how concerned he is about all of the airspace. Play this clip. You talked about the fact that this might not be confined to Newark. Are there other airports that you are concerned about right now? I'm concerned about the whole airspace, right? The equipment that we use, much of it we can't buy parts for new. We have to go on eBay and buy parts if one part goes down.

You're dealing with really old equipment. We're dealing with copper wires, not fiber, not high-speed fiber. And so this is concerning. Is it safe? Yes, we have redundancies, multiple redundancies in place to keep you safe when you fly. But we should also recognize we're seeing stress on an old network, and it's time to fix it. Bottom line, is it safe to fly in the United States right now? Listen, we are the safest airspace, for sure. And traveling by air is way safer than any other mode of transportation, which is why I take it. My family takes it. But again, that doesn't mean you don't look over the horizon and say, hey, if there is a major outage, could that be a risk

to life? Of course it could be, which is why we fix it. By the way, you know who spent his time actually working and doing things and making things better and not whining and complaining and panicking on TV? I don't know. Maybe the last transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, who now all the MAGA Republicans and before want to attack all the time. I don't know. Maybe that was a better style of leadership than whatever the hell this is.

Speaking of whatever the hell this is, MAGA Republican Congress member Michael McCaul addresses Donald Trump and Trump's top advisor, Stephen Miller, threatening to suspend habeas corpus, in other words, shred the Constitution so they can throw anybody they want in concentration camps without the federal courts by claiming fake invasions. This is Congressmember McCaul, who seems to think it's a good idea. Here, play this clip. This past week as well, White House Senior Advisor Stephen Miller said, habeas corpus can be suspended at the time of an invasion, saying the administration's looking at ways to potentially do away with due process for undocumented immigrants. You're an invasion, saying the administration's looking at ways to potentially do away with due process for undocumented immigrants. You're an attorney. You're someone who deals with

homeland security issues and immigration being there from the Lone Star State. Is suspending habeas corpus for undocumented immigrants a good idea? Well, this was done by President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. It's a very extreme measure to take. Any person in the United States under the Constitution has due process rights. So I think the courts are going to decide this one as to whether this invasion in fact constitutes what would be a state of war. Some would say it would. People in my state of Texas see an invasion and the drug cartels and the danger that they bring into my state and in this country. I think that would be a very interesting legal argument before the courts. Well, curious to call it an invasion, especially when the administration likes to remind us that the border crossings are, of course, at a historic low.

So that'll be part of the legal debate, I suppose. They have gone down substantially. Yeah, they sure have. Shifting gears to MAGA Republican Senator Barrasso from Wyoming. He asked he's asked a question about Donald Trump and the regime statement that little girls should now just have one doll, one pencil and pay more for it. That the Trump regime is imposing central planning on Americans and American children, telling them the amount of pencils and dolls that they can have. And Barrasso's like, he's a master at messaging. This is how you do it. Here, play this clip. I want you to listen to a part of my interview with President Trump when he talked about what this

could mean for supplies. Take a listen. I'm just saying they don't need to have $30. They can have three. They don't need to have 250 pencils. They can have five. Senator, what do you say to people who hear those words and feel like the president is telling them to ration their goods? Well, the president, I think, is very effective at using the bully pulpit, and he is using it, I think, to show strength and leadership of America. A week ago, you would have never foreseen the discussions going on in Switzerland this week between our trade representative, our secretary of treasury, and China. We wouldn't have foreseen the deal with Great Britain. We wouldn't have seen the call for

the ceasefire and Putin agreeing to have peace talks. The president is very effective at using the bully pulpit. Well, at the same time, Donald Trump is saying, little girls, you get one pencil and you get one doll. Donald Trump's accepting gifts from Qatar in the form of $400 million airplanes that he's going to fly around in. And the gift is such that Donald Trump gets to keep it after he leaves the presidency. It belongs to Donald Trump through his presidential library is what they're calling it. The corruption is astounding. And the incompetence is as well. Here's one of Donald Trump's top advisors as well as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who again lies about tariffs and says that tariffs don't

make things more expensive. Is the 10% tariff that we're seeing in the framework for the UK going to be in place for the foreseeable future? So we do expect a 10 percent baseline tariff to be in place for the foreseeable future. But don't buy the silly arguments that the U.S. consumer pays businesses. Their job is to try to sell to the American consumer and domestically produced products are not going to have that tariff. So the foreigners are going to finally have to compete. They're going to have to compete. What happens is the businesses and the countries primarily eat the tariff. You've got Senator Barrasso asked another question.

He's good. He's the senator from Wyoming. And here he's asked, what's your message to the people of Wyoming who have to pay more? And Senator Barrasso's like, people love it. They love paying more. Whatever Donald Trump tells us here in Wyoming, we do. He says, you pay more, we pay more. He says, one doll, one doll. Whatever dear leader says. The hell? Play this clip. Administration, you expressed real concerns that prices had increased at stores like the Dollar Tree, for example, which you talked about how important a store like that is to Wyoming, to rural communities in particular. And now the Dollar Tree says that the tariffs could actually push them to raise prices again

and that they may not be able to stock some of their goods. What do you say, Senator, to the people of Wyoming who hear that, who rely on stores like the dollar store and they're worried? Well, I travel around Wyoming. People in Wyoming are very happy with the president and what he's doing to help our economy. Tariffs are just one tool as part of our comprehensive economic plan. We're trying to get that passed in the very near future in Congress, focused on both the safety and the prosperity of the American people. We are focused on lowering prices, raising wages, and bringing jobs back to America. And that's our focus right now in Congress. Are you looking for something

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this is brilliant. If Trump says use the Putin interpreters, use the Kremlin interpreters, show up Witkoff with no one from the embassy and no one who knows Russian. Just show up on your own and use a Kremlin interpreter. Here's what Cotton says. Play this clip. NBC's reporting this weekend that Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, during three high-level meetings with Putin, didn't use his own interpreter. Instead, using an interpreter from the Kremlin. Michael McFaul, former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, told them this.

He said using the Kremlin's interpreter was, quote, a very bad idea that put Witkoff at a real disadvantage. McFaul went on to say, I speak Russian and have listened to Kremlin interpreters and U.S. interpreters at the same meeting, and the language is never the same. If that reporting is accurate, why would we agree to that? Well, first, I don't necessarily credit that reporting. But second, Steve Witkoff is a very skilled and capable negotiator. He has the president's total trust, and he's 100 percent loyal to the president. He's doing what the president has asked to try to get Vladimir Putin to the table with Vladimir Zelensky to get to a ceasefire. So I have confidence that that's what he's doing on the Ukraine dispute,

just like I have confidence in what he's doing right now in Oman negotiating with Iran over its nuclear program. That's what they're going with. Here's Lutnik again. Again, some call this guy nutlick. Some call him Lutnik. You can call him whatever you want to call him. Here he is on what his message is to dock workers who are losing their jobs. His message to the longshoremen is enjoy it. You deserve it. You deserve not to have your job. You don't believe me. This is what he says. This is his own words. We've got reports out on the West Coast that there are hundreds of dock workers now out of work as those ships are not coming in. The ripple effect there hitting the trucking industry and others as well. One union official out there says it's beginning to manifest itself as real loss of jobs and income from our members. So what do you say to those American workers?

I say to those American workers, Scott Besant is in Geneva right now talking to his counterparties in China, right? Remember, this is just a China problem right now, right? We have 145% tariff, they have 125% tariff. Those tariffs are too high to do business, but that's why they're talking right now. The rest of the world is 10%.

So don't overdo it. The rest of the world is 10%. They're sending their goods here, as the president has said time and time again, we are the consumer of the world. Everybody wants to sell their goods here. So they need to do business with America. And we're using the power of our economy to open their economy to our exporters. So that is happening right now. Yes, Scott Besson is in Geneva talking to his counterparties right now. And let's see what

happens. But the president said last night he was very optimistic and very positive. So you should be very optimistic and positive because the president truthed it happens. But the president said last night he was very optimistic and very positive. So you should be very optimistic and positive because the president truthed it out and I rely on the president. OK, now, could you imagine for a second if this was the type of thing that was coming out from a Democratic administration? I mean, could you imagine it for a second? So why are we here not caught? Well, we're calling it out here on the Midas Touch Network. Over here, we have Kristen Welker speaking to Sean Duffy, interviewing him. And she's like, but I know you're complaining about your staff at the at the FAA, but you're the transportation secretary. Like, weren't you and Musk like firing these people?

And now you're complaining that you don't have enough staff. Maybe should you not have fired him? Here's what his response is. You're saying some were fired, some were brought back. People will hear that, think it sounds a little bit chaotic. I guess the bottom line is, did Elon Musk ask you to cut air traffic controllers directly? So listen, we were having a conversation about who do we preserve? And again, I wanted in those probationary employees to preserve air traffic controllers. We went back and forth and Elon agreed. The president agreed. Of course, you want to keep air traffic controllers.

We're trying to hire more of them. But I think the key is, can your government be more efficient? We've had a massive expansion of government. You can actually be more efficient and still accomplish the mission of safety, which is what I think we can do. And we are doing that. Did Elon Musk, though, initially ask you to cut air traffic controllers? And did you dispute that? Did you have a disagreement with him?

Elon and I get along really well. He never called me and said, cut air traffic controllers. He would never do that. This was a broader conversation about what positions are going to be preserved. Also, I don't want to even show this clip because it's so disgusting, but on OAN, the other right-wing propaganda network, Matt Gaetz and MAGA Republican Congress member Andy Ogles were doing interviews in front of the Seacott prison cells,

which is a violation of the Geneva Convention, to parade yourself in front of prisoners like that for the purposes of spreading propaganda. They do the interviews while the people are in the jail cells behind them. I mean, it is cosplay fascist theater right there. And now, can I just contrast this here to what I think are actually good interviews, like from Michigan University economics professor Justin Wolfers, who talks about what these quote unquote trade deals that Trump's doing really is about. Like the deal with the UK is now like the sole thing it achieved is that like UK luxury cars can get into the United

States cheaper while screwing over American manufacturers. Here, play this clip. We tariff cars differently than we tariff other goods. But of course, when it comes to British cars, we have a lower tariff on British cars. So apparently we should be buying British cars, but not Canadian cars. By the way, you know what kind of cars we import from Britain? What? Rolls Royces, Bentleys, Aston Martins, Jaguars, Land Rovers and Minis. I think I pretty much just described the Mar-a-Lago parking lot right there. But it really is

a stunning thing. I want you to imagine for a moment that you're in the room with the president and the pollster says, we're having trouble selling these tariffs. people are worried about the distributional implications they're worried of course because these tariffs hurt working in middle class americans the most and then the president says i know how to fix that why don't we have a special tariff carve out maybe we'll call it the rolls-royce carve out for rolls royces bentley's jaguars aston Aston Martins, and Land Rovers. That will please the punters. And by the way, it's literally the only tariff carve-out in the UK-US trade deal on consumer goods, is expensive British cars.

Here's what Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar had to say, play this clip. But to me, you know what? That isn't really the issue. The issue is that Stephen Miller brings that up on a Friday just to throw it out there. You heard the reaction of John Barrasso. This is not what they're talking about in Congress. Why is he doing that? So you ask me about it on a Sunday show. I'm telling you right now, he's doing it because they don't want to focus on what's really in front of them and that they have created havoc in our economy. Economy that was improving. And now we have people out there scared to death that they're not going to be able to get their Social Security because people aren't working there to answer their calls. They're not going to be able to get their Medicaid and be able to have their mom in assisted living.

And, yeah, their small businesses are folding. That's what's happening right now. And they don't want to deal with it. So they keep throwing out these things just so we all talk about them for four days. And I am frankly tired of it because no, they're not going to reverse habeas corpus in the Congress. That's not. And so you can contrast that for yourself right there. But that was the weekend appearances. It's wild. I mean, look, I want you to look at it. I just want to exert common sense here, right? I mean, we see what's going on. I just want to follow the truth. I want to follow the facts. Anyway, hit subscribe. Let's get to 5 million subscribers thanks for watching

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