The MeidasTouch Podcast - Yikes! Trump Forces GOP to Humiliate Itself on Live TV

Episode Date: February 20, 2025

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Donald Trump having the Republicans in Congress obey him like his little ugly dogs on live tv. Elevate your workspace and energize your year with Uplift Desk. Go to https://upliftdesk.com/meidas for a special offer exclusive to our audience. 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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You've got the MAGA Republican senator. I wouldn't say he was MAGA, but he is now the Senate Republican leader, Senator Thune. Here he's asked about Ukraine. Are you concerned that Donald Trump is calling Zelensky a dictator and Trump is blaming Ukraine for Russia's unlawful invasion? Senator Thune used to be viewed as like a moderate guy, more of a centrist, a quote-unquote normal Republican. Not anymore. Watch this word salad of a response he gives. Here, play this clip. You have long supported Ukraine, aid to Ukraine. Are you at all concerned about the president's rhetoric, blaming Ukraine for starting the war and calling for elections

in Ukraine, which is what Vladimir Putin is calling for? I think what I'm in support of is a peaceful outcome and result in Ukraine. And I think right now the administration, the president, and his team are working to achieve that. And I think right now you've got to give them some space. Honestly, this is something, this war has been ground on now for three years. There's been a lot of cost, a lot of death, a lot of injury associated with it. And I think it's in everybody's best interest, Ukraine, Russia, Europe, the United States, if they can bring about a peaceful conclusion to the war. So that's what this is about right now.

And I think most of us want to support their efforts as they move in that direction and hopefully to a successful outcome. Then you have your Republicans like your Lisa Murkowski or your Susan Collins, and they're like, I am so shocked and offended. And then they don't do anything. And then they support Trump's chaos and rampage and destruction. This is what Lisa Murkowski said after Donald Trump called President Zelensky of Ukraine a dictator. We all heard what Donald Trump said. Murkowski goes, quote, I would like to see the context because I would certainly never refer to President Zelensky as a dictator. As our editor in chief, Ron Filipkowski notes, the context is that Donald Trump is Putin's little bitch.

That's the context, Murkowski. What context? You want me to play it for you? I'll play you what Donald Trump said. Here, play this clip. Easy, pretty easy. A dictator without elections, Zelensky better move fast or he's not going to have a country left. Got to move, got to move fast, clip. You need more context than that, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, or are you clutching your pearls? Oh my gosh. Grow a spine, Republicans. What are you doing? Here, going back to Republican Senate leader, Senator Thune, he's asked, okay, this is a good question by the reporter. You talk about saying that agriculture is the lifeblood of your state, South Dakota. Well, the budget guts billions of dollars for farmers and Donald Trump's doge attacks affected a lot of jobs of farmers.

Donald Trump's tariffs are going to hurt the farmers. And you're selling out your state, dude. And he's like, what are we talking about here? Here, play this clip. You're fond of saying that agriculture is the lifeblood of South Dakota. Right. Yet your farmers, already struggling, are now facing additional headwinds, including contract freezes, staff firings, including inadvertent ones or accidental ones affecting bird flu responders, and also the interruption of overseas food aid that they depend on. So how does all this make sense when food prices are already through the roof and when support for downsizing the government could be on the chopping block as the damage from this purge builds up?

Well, look, I think we all know that the administration, the new administration, is giving a very careful scrub to the government, to all the agencies of the government, to figure out how we can do things more efficiently and save money for the American taxpayer. It's important in doing that that you don't undermine important services. In many cases, as you point out, there are some that affect my state. There are some that affect all of my colleagues' states around the country. And we will work with the administration as they move forward to ensure that important services that have to do with health and safety, for government, is long in need of the kind of scrub that is being done to figure out how we can do things better. And I think most of us support that effort, and we will, with our individual states, respond to the administration if there are things that we think that need to be addressed, address that perhaps they're not considering as they make some of these decisions. But at the end of the day, the American people, I think, demanded in the election that we have a smaller, more

limited, more efficient federal government that costs less and delivers the important services that they expect their government to deliver. Thank you. I mean, look, then you go to MAGA Republican, ultra MAGA Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville. I mean, look, then you go to MAGA Republican, ultra MAGA Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville. I mean, you don't expect anything from this guy. I mean, this guy is a total clown. And here he goes, look, I just feel bad for what the American people are about to go through. Things are going to start to get even harder for the American. Why are you going to make it harder?

Things were going in the right direction at the end of the Biden administration. And these Republicans constantly keep talking about inflicting the hardship on us, right? Every day they're like, we need to inflict hardship. Look, we got to make sure the billionaires are doing good. We got to hurt the working class Americans. Why? Play this clip. There's no way some of these places actually receive this money. So it's going to be interesting to watch. But again, I hate it for the American people. They've had to go through this. But again, tough times get hard. President Trump is going to, he's going to expose all this. And then after we expose it, we correct it. I think you're onto something with that. That's why I wanted you to elaborate here. Muscles are vital for movement and play a key role in supporting the vascular system.

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troops, American troops in Baltic states and basically collapsing NATO. And Donald Trump's talking about what just totally capitulating to Russia, letting Russia do anything that Russia wants. But for Ted Cruz, it's Biden's fault. You know, we all know it's Biden's fault. No, not Russia's fault for unlawfully invading Ukraine. They go, it's Biden's fault. It was clear when President Trump campaigned throughout last year that he was campaigning, among other things, on ending the war in Ukraine. The war in Ukraine was caused by Joe Biden's weakness, his weakness as commander in chief. I mean, these people are pathetic. I mean, you had a former Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev statement. He quotes Trump here and he goes, a dictator without elections, Zelensky better move fast or he's not going to have a

country left. That was Trump's, he's quoting Trump. If you'd have told me just three months ago that these were the words of the U.S. president, I would have laughed out loud. He goes, they're mocking us in Russia. And these spineless Republicans are like, we stand firmly with Ukraine. You don't if you're allowing Donald Trump to do this. If you're enabling Trump, then you have over here MAGA Republican Senator Tim Scott, who's literally just making up numbers at this point. He's like $10 trillion, $2 trillion, $4 trillion, $18 trillion. Here, play this clip.

And that's why Doge is so important. Whether he finds $500 billion, $1 trillion, or even, aspirationally, $2 trillion, that probably multiplies to $10 trillion in private sector activity over a 10-year period of time. Those numbers are real dollars in the pockets of the American people. Thank God Almighty, we have a president who made promises on the campaign trail, and now he's keeping those promises. Good news for the American people. Free at last, free at last. Not quite yet, but we not quite yet but we'll see who knows where they are in six months who so wild then you have the trump pick as labor secretary remember who that like maga teamsters head what sean o'brien was the guy's name you know who would give the thumbs up and said donald trump so great we love donald

trump or whatever the ridiculous i mean throwing the Teamsters under the bus, geez. But here's the labor secretary, Trump's pick, refusing to answer if any American can survive comfortably on a minimum wage that Trump supports because they refuse to support living wages. Here, play this clip. I recognize that it hasn't been changed, the minimum wage. I guess I'm just asking you, like, do you think that's enough for a worker to live on? I'm just trying to get a sense of your vision for what the standard of life for an American worker is. Yeah, well, I mean, again, for every state, for every community, again, I mentioned Oregon. What happens in Portland doesn't happen in Grants Pass. It certainly

doesn't happen in Oregon. I understand that about Oregon, but I guess I would ask you, what is $7.25 an hour? That is what in an annual term? Do you know off the top of your head? Oh, it's not a math question. So I'm just trying to get a sense. So it's about $15,000 a year. So I guess I just want to ask you, do you think that there is a state in this country where someone can live comfortably on their own for $15,000 a year? Well, I don't know if there is, but I would look to work with Congress. This is a congressional issue. I hope I can support you in telling the story of what's happening on the ground. But that's what I'm just trying to get a sense of from you is what your vision is. And I got to play this because in my view, this guy's basically MAGA at this point,

Sean O'Brien, the Teamsters president, the damage this guy has done to the Teamsters rank and file. One of the greatest betrayals, I think in labor history, it's in my view, one of the most shameful things. You can't see it over there.

I have the Teamsters magazine. I love Teamsters. I just can't believe that this guy's leading it. Here, Sean O'Brien goes on Fox, goes on the propaganda network, and he downplays Trump's reckless firings of federal workers. Play this clip. The president came in and he didn't come in subtle, that's for sure. And there's a lot of controversy on that. Look, we don't want to see anybody get laid off. We don't want to see anybody losing their jobs.

But he thinks he's within his right. There are court proceedings, and ultimately the courts are going to decide whether what he's doing is lawful or not. I know that there is a lot of fat in the government he's trimming, and I don't think people are opposed to that. And look, I tell people all the time, let's take a look at the 101st day and where we're at at that point in time. All of this is taking place. Donald Trump is posting photos of himself wearing crowns, saying long live the king on fake Time magazine covers. While all of this is going on, you've got another plane crash yesterday, the ninth plane crash, nine plane crashes. I think four were lethal. This one was lethal, maybe five, nine plane crashes since the Trump administration started.

And this one was in Arizona. But folks, you have people like this MAGA Republican from Florida, Ashley Moody, who goes, everybody, the grownups are back in charge. The big boys are back in charge. Here, play this clip. So our country was looking more and more like cartel territories. Deadly drugs, gang violence, taking over full apartment complexes. I mean, it was out of control. Well, guess what? The parents came home. The grownups are back. It is time to take back control of this nation. President Trump said he would do it. He is fulfilling that promise.

And those of us that have been in law enforcement and begging for this decisive, aggressive action, it's like Christmas come early. And you know who's going to pay? The cartels. And we're going to make sure that Americans are put first again. And then over here, you have Speaker Mike Johnson, who previously said, one of my promises is we're going to have single subject legislation. And then Donald Trump said, nope, I want one big, beautiful bill. And then Mike Johnson was like, we're doing one big, beautiful bill. I mean, again, these people, they're not a co-equal branch. They're just utterly pathetic. You got Mike Johnson saying, this is what he said on January 9th, 2023. He goes, the House GOP instituted the most positive reform in generations.

Some highlights, a truly open legislative process. Bills must be about one single subject only. No new votes on a bill without at least 72 hours notice. And then Donald Trump, though, sends a post yesterday, February 19th, saying the House and the Senate are doing a spectacular job. However, unlike Lindsey Graham's version in the Senate, the House resolution implements my full America first agenda. Everything, not just part of it. We need one big, beautiful bill. So what does Mike Johnson then say? House Republicans are working to deliver Trump's full agenda,

not just a small part of it. Let's get it done. By the way, you know what that agenda is? $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid, $250 billion in cuts to agriculture, $350 billion cuts to education, nothing about no tax on tips, Nothing about no tax on Social Security. Nothing about no tax on overtime. $4.5 trillion in tax cuts for the billionaires. For the billionaires. We told you that was going to happen. It's all the Project 2025 agenda. Screwing over hardworking people. Sad to see. Sad to see. We got to make our voices heard, America. We got to make our voices heard. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 5 million subscribers. Thanks for watching.

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