The MeidasTouch Podcast - Swalwell Calls Out Trump’s Unlawful War and Discusses Gov Race

Episode Date: March 29, 2026

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on the growing calls across the country for Trump to be impeached and Meiselas interviews Congressman Eric Swalwell about Trump’s disastrous presidency and Swalwell’s race for governor in California. 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 Cult Conversations: The Influence Continuum with Dr. Steve Hassan: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show The Ken Harbaugh Show: https://meidasnews.com/tag/the-ken-harbaugh-show Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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That's right. At a CPAC convention, the head of CPAC Schlapp, tried to hype up the CPAC crowd and said, Who here wants to see Donald Trump get impeached? And then the crowd started clapping for Trump's impeachment at the CPAC event. here, watch this clip. How many of you would like to see impeachment hearings? No. That was the wrong answer.

We tried again. How many of you would like to see impeachment hearings? No. Can someone bring some coffee out for the... Okay, well, that either demonstrates that they want to have him impeached or the type of voter who flocks to Donald Trump. But at that same CPAC event, you know, you know, that's a week. You had Todd Blanche, Donald Trump's deputy AG, panicking over the fact that if Democrats take control of the House and Democrats take control of the executive branch in 2028, that Blanche and all of Trump's cabinet are likely going to be prosecuted.

Here's what he says. Let's play it. Everybody's afraid that the next administration, if we don't win, we're going to all be investigating and indicted. Think about that. This is not a third world country. This is America. And the existing administration is afraid that they're going to get indicted. And why are they afraid? Because that's exactly what happened during the last administration.

All of President Trump's cabinet, everybody that worked in the White House, his secret service detail had to go to the grand jury. And meanwhile, Pam Bondi is trying to raise her hand up and say, look, I'm Exhibit A, everybody. As earlier on Friday morning, while the markets were also tanking, She said, you know, being a citizen in our country, it's not a right. It is an absolute privilege to be a citizen. And Donald Trump's going to pick who he wants to be as a citizen because it's Donald

Trump's determination of if you have the privilege to be. Let's watch what she says. Play this clip. I'd about their marriage to get in this country. You can't do that. Being a citizen in our country is a privilege. It's not a right. And Donald Trump is going to have everyone in this country who deserves to be here who's

a citizen. And yeah, sure, it could be. It could be easier, but I think we're moving at lightning speed, given what we're up against. I'm thinking about the old dominion. Meanwhile, Donald Trump's approval is absolutely tanking on the economy. It's net negative like 33, the lowest in presidential history at this time on cost of living. Net negative 41. His overall approval is 36 percent, and it just continues to crash each week amongst

white non-college male voters. He's at a net negative 4% right there when just this past December 2025. He was a plus 10. So it's all a crashing down for Donald, who is also curious about the 25th Amendment being invoked against him as well. Let's play this clip. But I wouldn't talk. It's like the question this young lady. Sorry, but I'm embarrassed her.

I don't want to embarrass it because I think she's a friendly reporter. So I'm sorry. But, you know, I can't say what we're going to do because if I did, I wouldn't be sitting here for long. They probably, what is it called, the 25th Amendment? That institute the 25th Amendment. I want to bring in Democratic Congress member, Eric Swalwell. He's also running for governor, the great state of California, the state that I call home.

Congress member Swal, it's great to see you, as always. I want to get into what's going on in California, what's going on with the airports in California. We'll get there. But I want to first just have you react to just the, this historical moment that we're in as this disastrous war rages on in Iran, as Americans can't afford things at home. And as we see a deranged Donald Trump do his encore, I guess to COVID, doing the exact same schick as we head into Easter, but about this disastrous war in Iran as our economy implodes and as we lose lives overseas.

I saw your CPAC clip intro. Sounds like there's a lot of conservatives who want the president to be impeached. And I bet they're pretty pissed that this guy promised he'd lower costs on day one. And instead, he's done the exact opposite with this stupid tariff tax that has raised the cost of almost everything that we buy. He said he would have no more wars. Instead, he's added wars to the map. And it's costing us money. By the way, in California, as you see when you go to the gas station, we are paying almost $2 more per gallon today because of these wars than we paid on the first day of Joe Biden.

Biden's presidency. So he's costing us in every way. And if you listen to that room, it sounds like people are pretty pissed off about it. You know, with all of the destruction he's unleashed and with all of the money that they've spent on this destruction, I've always thought we imagined a world, regardless of who the person is, came into power and they used the money in order to build. building and to give people health care and to help people get the type of education they want and help people find jobs. And the amount of efforts spent right now hurting people, if you use those same funds and help people, I don't always just seem like the entire country would benefit or the state of California. The states across this country would benefit. It's obviously

there if it's so easy to say $200 billion supplemental for a war in Iran, where we're chasing Netanyahu into a war over there and no one even knows what the hell we're even doing, you know, to kill people. Why is it so difficult to spend money here to actually help the American people that could have a return on investment? Two things would happen if he did that. First, he'd help people and bring down costs and lift up opportunity and two, he'd be more popular. The popularity tracks exactly with what people expected and are not seen from this guy. And all they see, is that he has more fucking plans for a ballroom in the East Wing

than he does to lower costs or to carry out this war in Iran, which he can't justify or explain what he's going to do next. So talk to us about California. People refer to this as a jungle primary, and people get awfully nervous who look at that jungle primary, and they get worried. They see two Republicans and ten Democrats. Democrats and people have been very proud, I think, in California of the way Newsom has stood up to Donald Trump and pushed back against him and been a leader internationally as well during a time when that was needed because California is also the fourth largest economy of the world.

And so people are saying, what's going on with this jungle primary and what's, what do I make of it? And, and, you know, who how do you make sense? I mean, obviously, you're in it. you know, and, you know, and so what's, what's your pitch to the voters? The Californians want a fighter and a protector. And as I talk to folks from Reading to Redlands, you know, what I hear is they ask, what are you going to do to fight and protect for me? And you mentioned Governor Newsom, and there's no person in America who's more protected by their governor than a Californian by Governor Newsom.

And so the first thing you have to do is show how you're going to protect against a president whose ICE agents are chasing Californians through the fields and factories where people work who are dragging women by their hair and throwing them into unmarked fans and who are committing public executions. You have to protect the people first. And I offer in our candidacy 10 years of being in the arena

and taking on this guy in every imaginable way from investigations to impeachments to my own lawsuit against him that is the only one that survived this new presidency. It's me in the January 6th officers. But then also being in parallel able to write a new California story on lowering the damn cost. And you said it. There are a lot of candidates in this field. There is a risk right now that two Republicans could get through in a crowded field.

Now, we are at the top consistently in all the polling. We're consistently the only Democrat that has been in the top two. But if we had a Republican governor, God forbid, Donald Trump would have a Western White House. And what Californians want right now as it relates to Donald Trump is not a friend. They want a fighter. You know, as I think about whether it's the California governor's race, governor's races across the country, heck, the Iowa governor's race. You know, people like that on here, right? You know, I think about, I think about ICE and Border Patrol on the streets, though, and what it's like living in California, seeing people.

terrorized and tortured here, seeing those scenes across the country, seeing the cruelty of Elon Musk and Doge and taking people's private data and gutting these programs or cutting off aid to people with HIV and just the true extent of the cruelty isn't even known yet. And I think when we read that, it'll be proportions that are so sick. But I think, I just imagine, imagine if there was the governor of a state or the leader of the country who rather than seeing ice on the streets when we were driving down our blocks, we saw homes being built. And rather than a Musk who was cruel and taking away and mocking people on social media, and I'm not suggesting Elon would do it,

but you actually saw Tesla homes being built that were $50,000 and they were going up and people were with their families playing out and parks were being built. And to me, I just think, of that and I'm like we know that's possible because again if you do all the opposite with that with your with the money it's possible just to do that and and have help people so it seems like you know you running for the governor's race I mean it seems to me when I speak to voters what they're looking for is who can execute on that vision to see things getting built and and and connections being made and help being offered and people being up uplifted and steady leadership. What do you think about that?

Yeah, you can put your energy in one of two directions, right? You can put it in the direction of good and growth, growth in wages, growth in economic development, growth in the number of houses in California, or you can put it toward cruelty and evil as the president and so many others have done. What I have said I'll focus on on day one is to tell every agency in the state that they have 90 days to approve or deny every outstanding housing application so that we surge supply. I've always thought over 20 years in government from being a planning commissioner to a city councilman to a deputy district attorney to Congress that a goal without a deadline is a dream. And Californians, when it comes to housing and affordability, are done dreaming.

They want more doing. And so, yes, you have to be able to see the optimism in Californians and see our way out and through this president. And so being a fighter protector is table stakes for being able to run, but building on the optimism of a great state that always remakes and reimagines itself, that's the path forward. I could have made my campaign anything, Ben. I named it a new California because we have to write a new California story as it relates to post-Trump, but also what we can do on affordability, growth, and modernization for the next chapter. Congressman, where can people learn more about the campaign, learn more about you? Thank you. At Eric Swalwell, one L in the middle, on social and ericsswawwell.com.

And about 38 days to go until voters go to the polls. And we're proud that from Senator Schiff to SCIU to California's firefighters and doctors, we have broad support in this race. And now it's on me. It's my job to make my case across the state, and close this thing out and be the one Democrat that gets through so that we can really do the work between June and November, which is building the best team to lead,

but also making sure we win the House seats in California that were so critical to what we did last November with Profit. Congressman Swalwell, thanks for joining us. My pleasure. Thanks, man. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million subscribers. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our substack at Midasplus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, add free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available at Midasplus.com.

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