Chris Murphy
Appearances
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
The largest collection of preserved 17th and 18th century houses, I think, in the country.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
I'm in what they call my hideaway office. So I'm in the basement of the Capitol right now. You may hear some bells going off here during our conversation as the votes for the day get
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
Well, I think you are describing the demographic makeup of Connecticut, which is right now well-matched with this version of the Democratic Party. If the Democratic Party was to, let's say, become more tolerant of views that are outside our social and cultural mainstream, would we lose... Voters that are currently in our coalition, I'm not sure that we would.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
Would we be able to pick up some slice of Trump's base that now see him handing the government over to his billionaire friends and are willing to vote for Democrats who support industrial policy and a higher minimum wage so long as they don't feel like they are being judged and looked down upon for their views on transgender girls in sports.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
That's my theory of the case, is that you are not necessarily going to lose folks that are already in your coalition. You'll just build a bigger, more enduring coalition, especially if the Republican Party doesn't learn from what's happening right now and actually grapple with real populism versus fake populism.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
I think there's some truth to that. I mean, what I argue for is that the Democratic Party should be. more overtly populist and more pugilistic, more confrontational in its populism, meaning that you are more regularly naming the individuals, organizations, and the companies that are screwing voters that we might become more
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
you know, overtly antagonistic to tech companies, that we might be more willing to name individual healthcare companies, pharmaceutical companies that are price gouging, that, you know, we would explain what the takeover of our healthcare system by the private equity industry is going to mean for quality and prices.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
If we did that, yes, you're right, we would probably lose some piece of our coalition. There would probably be a handful of voters in Greenwich, Connecticut, I'll name it, right, that would be Right. That would be unhappy with the way in which we were, you know, calling out and naming certain companies or certain industries that were harming voters.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
But I think the net benefit to the party, that kind of confrontational politics, explaining who's screwing you, which is what voters want. They want you to explain who's screwing them.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
And an opening up of the tent would net far more voters into the coalition that it would lose in a group of very, very wealthy individuals who were probably with us only because of Trump's ethical problems and social issues that made them very distasteful.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
Well, the bet that Kamala Harris made in 2024 was that the democracy coalition would be bigger and stronger than the populist coalition. That's why Liz Cheney was inside the tent, not outside the tent. That was a bad bet in 2024. They were wrong. Whether or not a different coalition based around a more confrontational populism would have won the election, we'll never know.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
It is true that the threat is now much more real. And so you could make the argument that a coalition really focused on saving democracy might be bigger today because folks now know that he is truly serious. And that's probably a prescription to win favor.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
the House back, it's not really a prescription to win any meaningful, enduring majority in the Senate, because in the Senate, we need to win states like Missouri and Iowa. And in those places, I just don't think
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
You can be competitive unless you are picking up those pieces of the Trump base that do want a more robust government role in the economy to make it fair, but who aren't necessarily with us on the social and cultural issues.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
That's why I argue that you should risk losing a handful of people who think that the economic message is too spicy or at least push them to make a decision as to whether they care enough about democracy to stay in the coalition, even if it maybe is even more apparent now that they might have to pay a little bit higher tax rate or their company might get broken up a little faster if it's too big, if Democrats win.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
I don't know that anyone was ready for Trump in his second term. I think there was an assumption both in the public and within the Democratic Party that Trump 2 would look very much like Trump 1, that it'd be a lot of rhetoric and bluster, but it wouldn't be matched with actual action. Things have gone very different than the public imagined and that the party imagined.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
Yeah, the Declaration of Independence is a radical document for a number of reasons, but maybe the most radical phrase in that founding document is the government owes a right to its citizens to pursue happiness. And the underlying assumption is that the government has a responsibility not to deliver you the last mile, but
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
towards a happy, meaningful life, but to set the conditions upon which individuals can pursue happiness. It is true that this is a much less happy nation than at any time before in recorded data. We are a much more lonely nation. We are a much more disconnected nation.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
And I think it's OK for leaders to talk about that and to talk about the fact that there are more people waking up every day who don't feel a sense of purpose like they may have 50 or 60 years ago. And I think this is a conversation that either the Republican Party or the Democratic Party could have. But right now, in a vacuum lies opportunity.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
That's why I think, for instance, you know, a real robust conversation about the The regulation of technology is therefore the taking, because I do think that folks think that technology is overwhelming their lives. They don't really know which party cares more about protecting them from the rough edges of technology.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
And both parties have been corrupted, frankly, by, you know, too close experience politically and culturally with the technology companies. Neither party is really willing to make a break, but there is likely some
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
Trump, from day one, began to wage a very coordinated, thoughtful assault on the rule of law in order to enable the transfer of our government from democracy into some form of quasi-democracy to put his billionaire friends in charge. And I just don't know that the Democratic Party was ready.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
a real winning political message in talking about how we can incentivize in-person experience and in-person communion and disincentivize virtual experience, because that's in part what is leading to folks waking up every day and feeling pretty shitty. There's been a 60% reduction in the with friends and companions in the last 20 years. That's extraordinary.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
And giving people a route back to the things that used to make them happy and explaining what role government plays in that, I think is an important policy discussion and probably a winning political discussion.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
Yeah, I agree with you that it's a distinct problem.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
I mean, when I think about the factors that contribute to this spiritual unspoolingness and happiness in America, I mean, I'm sure I don't have it right, and I'm sure I'm missing things, but I think about one bucket, which is a loss of economic control and agency over your life, one bucket that is loneliness and disconnection from community, one bucket that is just frustration with technology and how a handful of
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
elites are winning and everybody else is losing. And then the last being a real frustration with market fundamentalism and a replacement of consumerism for citizenship. And so the technology bucket is its own bucket. And there lies some fairly easy fixes. The first thing that government could do is just make it a lot harder for for your kids to get addicted to the algorithm.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
And if less kids were addicted to the algorithm, then when they turn 18, I think they'd at least have a fighting chance because they would have spent a lot more time learning how to build friendships and create conversations and talk to strangers when they were kids. But this also speaks to the lack of control that a lot of people feel today.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
One of the primary ways that parents feel out of control is that they have no idea what's going on when their kids are up in their bedroom looking at their phones. So government could play a really simple role here. We could say no child under 13 should be on social media and we're going to have strict age verification.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
And I think even to this day, a lot of folks in the party still think this is politics as normal, still think that we're really not. at risk of losing our democracy, that we're going to have an election in 2026, and that if we just continue to push his approval ratings down bit by bit, that everything will turn out okay.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
The algorithm cannot turn on until you become 18 years old and that we would hold the companies responsible for building verification systems. And if we saw widespread abuse of those systems, that those companies could be held accountable. That would first just put more kids in touch with each other. It would get them off their screens, and that would be good for kids.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
It would give parents a sense that they're back in charge, right? They decide whether their child is on social media and what sites, not their kid. And it would sort of lift the spiritual health of the country in multiple ways. That's something that I think is good for the country and that one party could choose to run on more strongly than the other party. Right now, it's kind of muddled.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
Nobody knows whether the Democrats or the Republicans are for that.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
I think that the broad public has been very dissatisfied with the Democrats' reaction, and that's in part why you see approval ratings for the party in the toilet. Slowly, I think the party is beginning to understand that democracy itself is at risk. So our response is getting better. It's getting more precise. But there is still an open discussion inside the Democratic Party as to how
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
Well, listen, I'll think about the predicate to that question. I'm not actually sure I buy that lower-income families care less about their children's cell phone addiction. I'm speculating. I admit it. Some of my experience actually speaks to the opposite in that When you have to work, you know, 60 hours a week or two jobs or weekends, your kids are on their own more often than not.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
And it's sometimes those parents, they rely on the phone. They do. Right. But they worry more. To your question, though, yes, part of what we have to admit is that people have become untethered to institutions, institutions that used to give them both companionship, but also meaning.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
If you want to know why we are in a spiritual state of disrepair in this country, you don't have to look much further than this rapid diminution of membership in both churches and labor unions to big institutions that in the early part of last century provided a lot of meaning and connection for people in this country. And so I think it's okay for Democrats to say we'd be better off as a country
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
If more people affiliated with institutions and on that list is included religious institutions. And let's have a conversation as a country about how we can help make religious institutions more healthy. We could, as Democrats, support more grants and more public funding going to help keep the doors of religious institutions open.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
When we talk about wages, we could talk about how wages are connected to free time and leisure time and say, as a party, we value people having the time on a weekday evening or a weekend day to be part of a church community or to be part of any other social or cultural institution where people find companionship.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
So I think Democrats, yes, have been very reluctant to engage in talk about church and religious life. But I think that's wrong from a policy perspective and from a political perspective.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
Well, I'm thinking about your question. I mean, I don't know that Republicans are more willing to use religion in their talk because of their own personal experience with religion. I just think they are more willing to use it as a mechanism to try to sort of exploit fissures in our communities.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
Jesus talked a whole lot more about caring for the poor than he did marginalizing people who come from different countries or speak different languages, and yet Republicans tend to talk more about religion as a foundation of their policy motives. Yeah, for me, I mean, I have made tries, often unsuccessful, frankly, in the last couple of years, to rejoin a religious life.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
I was active in a church group when I was growing up. My youth and adolescence was filled with church experiences that have defined me. How were you brought up? What were you raised? Congregational. The most Connecticut. The most Connecticut. The most New England. Yep.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
urgent this moment is. And I'm not sure which side is going to win. I think if my side, the side that believes it is like five alarm urgent, doesn't win, we might not actually have an election that Democrats can compete in in 2026.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
was, you know, an important reminder to me that even if I didn't know somebody, I still should care about them and they were part of my community. And I do feel like I've lost something as I have sort of strayed from structured religious life. And I will admit, I still have not found a church home turned into my 50, but I've been searching.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
Well, part of it is a familiar story to a lot of other busy families out there, just time. The fact of the matter is I've got two kids whose Sunday mornings are often dominated by travel sports. I'm a politician, so I'm on the road many weekends. So I find myself having very few open Sunday mornings.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
And I think that's what's happening to a lot of families in this country, that either through work or other family commitments, that Sunday morning time is just not as sacred as it used to be. And so the lack of
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
Free time, leisure time outside of your work schedule and your family schedule has made it hard for a lot of folks to connect with a variety of different kinds of institutions, not just churches, but other places where you might be able to find connection and find some sense of common cause with people in your community. Do you think that God is disappointed in you?
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
I guess I don't ask that question very often. Listen, I struggle with my own personal thoughts about God and the afterlife, but I find that even if your beliefs lean towards secularism or deism or agnosticism, you can still find a lot of value in church.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
Well, you were. No.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
Well, I mean, we do, right? And I don't have the common religious history that Barack Obama has, right? So I'm not going to speak the same- It's not a very congregational thing to say, I will consider. I'm not, yes. I'm not going to speak the same language as Barack Obama, nor would I try.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
But no, you are correct in that the Democratic Party more broadly, I do think, has to get more comfortable with a language of spiritualism and to not allow the Republican Party to own a monopoly on the ways in which Policy connects to religious tenets.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
As we spoke earlier, the Bible and Jesus' story are full of mandates for communities to care about the plight of the dispossessed and the disempowered, the poorest and the weakest amongst us. And so why aren't Democrats more willing to talk about the spiritual imperative of Medicaid, right?
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
why aren't Democrats willing to call out Republicans demonization of gay children based on a commandment for us to love our neighbors, regardless of their language or ethnicity or sexual orientation. So I think you're right. The Democrats shy away from that kind of language. And maybe that's because, you know, that there are fewer elite Democrats that are spending time in church.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
I'm not sure that that's true, but that might be, but that might be true. Justin, Justin,
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
Yeah, I'm not sure that I agree with you. I think that there is a secular moralism and a religious moralism that connect. And I think if you are lifting up a debate outside of the sort of weeds of policy and talking about our common obligation to each other, our moral imperative— to take care of our neighbors.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
I think even if you aren't framing that in a specific religious doctrine, you are still speaking to religious voters. So I don't necessarily believe that you have got to talk in the way that you frame it as a mechanism to connect with people who find their interest in policy as directly connected and derivative of their experience in religion.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
Well, it's more precise than an oligarchy in which government serves the broad interests of every powerful individual or corporation, right? Oligarchies generally don't serve all rich people. They serve the rich people who pledge political allegiance to the leader.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
And there is formed a cabal of a certain set of rich people that get richer and the people who don't pledge allegiance to the leader tend to get less rich over time. That's, I think, what is going on here.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
If you pay homage to Trump with a donation or a purchase of cryptocurrency or just an agreement to kind of stay silent about his thievery and corruption, then you're going to be in on the oligarchy. But if you don't make that specific pledge, then, yeah, you might end up being on the outside.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
That's why the tariffs, you're right, are broadly opposed by the sort of elite economic set because, yeah, they don't feel great about a world in which they are going to have to cut deals with the president in order to be exempt from the tariffs. But if the tariffs stay, then that's exactly what will happen.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
If you cut a deal with the president, if you buy his crypto coin or if you pay him off or if you say that your employees will never join the political opposition, then you probably get an exemption and you're probably part of the club. And if you don't do that, then you probably sit on the outside. So, yeah, I think that's generally how oligarchies work.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
And I think that this is, you know, as the textbooks defines it, a pretty standard attempt at building an oligarchy.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
Correct, but in the end, I think you will find that though the broad elite economic interests, the big corporations and CEOs would oppose his policies at the outset, once they are the law, once they are the operating system for the economy and the government, they will all likely fold in.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
I'm not sure that the pharmaceutical companies, you're right, didn't like RFK, but I do not think that they were trying to take down
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
Correct. But again, that is I think that is the classic story of oligarchy is that you are using the levers of power you possess as the executive in order to command loyalty from elite economic actors. And it is in the end, you know, not just a preference for rich people. Right. It is a recognition of how you use elite economic power in order to stay in power economically.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
as the leader of a nation or a civilization forever.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
So I don't actually know the answer to the first question. If Democrats ran, telling the public that Donald Trump was going to be a threat immediately to democracy, why did Democrats not stand up a more effective, more urgent response immediately? I think losing to Trump for the second time...
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
I mean, I do think it starts with empathy and less judgment. Take the issue of transgender athletes in sports. I think that the folks who oppose biological boys participating in girls' sports have a very understandable position and concern. And I think we don't act like that often. We judge them as bigots from the outset, and that essentially creates no room for conversation.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
My feeling on this is that we would probably be better off with each individual jurisdiction, state, or school board and municipality being able to make up their mind for themselves. And that would allow for a community like West Hartford, Connecticut, to come to a different conclusion that another community might. It doesn't change my position on the issue.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
I don't have any fear of transgender athletes participating in sports.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
I don't have girls, right? So I necessarily can't, right? I can't put myself in that position.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
I mean, I've talked to lots of parents of girls in Connecticut who do not think it's unfair and who think that the benefits that those athletes get from being part of a team is important and they don't mind or feel threatened by the competition.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
When Trump had openly advertised to the public that he was going to try to degrade our democracy, I think it was a body blow to Democrats. And I think there was just, you know, in those early days, a real lack of energy. I didn't understand why when he pardoned all of the January 6th protesters, there wasn't a more immediate response a day later.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
It's just you're saying you don't. Yes, my conclusion is that I would support those athletes being able to participate in my community, but I would not substitute my judgment and my community's judgment for another community's judgment on the issue of the border and immigration. For me, it's a little different in the sense that I do think because that's unquestionably an issue that.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
that arrives at a need for national consensus. You can't just let every community decide for themselves because the border is where the border is. And the process to become an American citizen is a national process. There, I haven't been shy about it. I think the Democratic Party needs to reform its position. I think we have become wildly out of step
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
with where the broad American public is, and for good reason. In a multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-racial society, I think you have to have a very certain process by which somebody becomes a member of the whole, a member of the club, a member of the nation. Because it is hard to sort of hold together a melting pot. There are natural retreats to tribalism.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
And so when the rules become pretty murky about how you become a member of this team, this club, in an official sense, I think it makes it hard to keep the tensions at bay. So that's why I would argue that you should have a much more firm, much quicker resolution of asylum that happens at the border, right?
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
rather than what we have today, which is folks coming into the country and waiting 10 years before they get an adjudication. I tried to pass that bill. I ultimately got, you know, most Democrats, but not all, to support it and only a handful of Republicans.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
It was a heterodox position inside the Democratic Party at the time to say that we should essentially not allow people to leave the border before they get their asylum claim determined. But it was the right thing to do for a In part because the rules around how you became an American were becoming really hard to understand.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
And I don't think that that's acceptable in the kind of society that we are trying to build.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
So you let's do it backwards. You should not remove individuals who right now are playing by the current rules and in line for a determination around legal status. Right now, the Trump administration is removing people who are waiting for their asylum claims. to be adjudicated. If you are here with a pending claim, you should not be removed.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
If you are an individual who has lived here for a long period of time, have family member, have children who are American citizens, I do not think that you should be removed. The prioritization I think was right during the Biden administration and the Obama administration to focus on individuals who had committed crimes, people who had violent histories.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
There's then a gray area, right, of people who are not in line for asylum, have not committed serious crimes, do not have American citizen children. Those people are eligible for And I think that's just a question of how many resources you want to devote to that exercise. But there's no question that that category of individuals is legally subject to deportation.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
And I don't think there should be a complaint if a government acts to remove that category of people.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
There was a proposal to sort of speed through the Senate the nomination of the director of the CIA, and Democrats were all ready to fall in line, not understanding that this was an opportunity to make an argument over why Trump was actually terrible for national security, why he didn't care about the security of this country when he was authorizing his followers to engage in mass violence against our democracy.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
So I don't accept the premise. That's fine. if we are only able to mobilize Americans around that specific threat to democracy, which is this high stakes confrontation between the executive and the judicial branch, that may happen. But most democracies that die or many democracies that die, die without that high stakes confrontation.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
What happens over time is that the mechanisms of accountability, the lawyers, the journalists, the college campuses, the places where truth is protected, where protest as midwife, they become co-opted by the regime or they become weakened enough that the opposition really never has enough oxygen in order to operate.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
I think that's more likely to be the story of American democracy's demise is that there actually isn't this grand confrontation between the Supreme Court and Trump. But that is not the But I guess we won't know the answer to your question, whether the public cares about that other more methodical assault on democracy until we tell that story.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
I'm not sure that Americans will care any less about that. But right now, that's not the story broadly that the progressive left is telling. We are sort of hanging our hat on everything is probably OK until John Roberts and Donald Trump square off in a duel.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
And listen, I think it is also dependent on – we started talking about the economy and we end there as well. I think people are going to be doing more head scratching and more introspection and more examination about his assault on democracy so long as the economy is getting worse because, again, it strikes at the heart –
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
But to the extent that the country voted for him having listened to him say that he was going to be a dictator on day one, I think that explanation is pretty easy. They just didn't believe him. They believed him when he said he was going to be serious about lowering prices. They didn't believe him when he said he was going to be a dictator.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
of the self-narrative that I believe many Trump voters went to the polls with. I don't think he's serious about this stuff where he talks about attacking democracy. And even if I do, I'm going to kind of look the other way because I really think he's going to tackle prices. I think he's going to make my economic life better.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
And so if my economic life isn't getting better, then I'm going to care a lot more and maybe a little bit earlier than I might have otherwise about what he's doing to our democracy. So those two discussions I think will play out together in conjunction in the minds of a lot of voters.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
And so I think the reason that his disapproval ratings are going up so fast is that a lot of his own voters are now coming to the realization that he didn't mean it when he said that he was going to tackle prices. And the thing he was serious about was dismantling our democracy. And that's not exactly how they sort of read his rhetoric during the campaign.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
Yeah, it's a long list. And as I said at the outset, I think we're checking off more boxes as the weeks go by. But the first is you need to meet his flooding of the zone, as they say, with your own flooding of the zone. We've got to be producing as much content as he is, and we need to be expressing outrage every single day. There's this popular meme that
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
You know, you should reserve your outrage and that if you show too much of it, you'll kind of tire people out. That's not how he operates. Every single day he is doing something exceptional. He is pushing buttons and Democrats have to every single day responds with a sense of urgency and emergency and just produce the same amount of content he is.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
Second, we have to be willing to engage in more risk tolerant tactics. He's engaged in all sorts of risk tolerant tactics, but we're still kind of afraid of doing things that might boomerang and hurt us. That's why we didn't boycott the State of the Union speech en masse, as I think we should have done. That's why.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
at least 10 or 12 Democrats refuse to vote against their continuing resolution because shutting down the government might have gone badly for Democrats.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
But if you're not taking exceptional tactical steps in the opposition right now, then you're not providing any inspiration for people out there in the public to engage in the kind of risk-taking that will be necessary to save the republic when we need hundreds of thousands of people to mobilize on the streets. And then if I just sort of give one suggestion on the sort of policy front,
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
One of the reasons why the pro-democracy message did not work in 2024, and I agree it was the tentpole of the Harris campaign, is because Democrats aren't seen as credible Well, let me say this a different way.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
Democrats can't really argue for this version of democracy because people think this version of democracy is rigged in favor of the billionaires and the special interests, and they're not really interested in protecting this version of democracy. For Democrats to credibly argue against Trump's destruction of democracy, we have to –
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
make it credible that if we win power, we will unrig the democracy. So that means Democrats have to talk a lot more about campaign finance reform, getting a constitutional amendment to get all private money out of politics, things like the Stock Act or closing the revolving door of lobbyists and staff and members of Congress. We've got to have
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
a real focus on the way in which we would fix democracy if you give us power. In the last 10 years, I would argue that that set of issues was like never top 10, certainly not top five for Democrats. It's got to be top two now, because that's the only way that you will convince people that are starting to get pretty tired and pretty worried about Trump's assault on democratic norms.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
Right, which is why I say it has to be a top two issue, right? The first issue is how Democrats would unrig the economy. Right. So talk about that.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
But let me make the connection first, which is that one of the only ways you unrig the economy – is to unrig the way the government works in which the special interests and the billionaires get everything they want out of government, right?
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
The reason that the economy is rigged is because the government is rigged, is because the way in which campaigns are financed means that the billionaires and the corporations get a seat at the table and you don't. So if you are interested in changing the structure of the economy so that small businesses get a
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
or workers don't get abused in their workplace, then you have to fundamentally unrig the way the government works. So the two are intimately connected. And I would argue, Ross, that there's plenty of examples of elections that actually have turned on the issue of corruption, because it's kind of like a baseline issue.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
People don't care about corruption until they are looking in the face of a corrupt elected official. And then really, regardless of your positioning on corruption, economics or immigration or choice or guns, they will vote you out. On this question of how you unrig the economy, I'll just start with this, and I'm sure we'll have a longer discussion about it.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
Democratic economic policy during the Biden administration, I would argue, was very heavily reliant on subsidy. The child care tax credit, the increased Obamacare subsidies, the forgiveness of student loans, essentially a whole bunch of efforts to write families a check in order to paper over the unfairness of the economy. I don't think that's actually what voters want.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
Those are good economic policies, but they feel unfair. Kind of dirty, kind of lousy to just have to be compensated for the fact that work doesn't pay, which is why that has to be the structure of our efforts to unrig the economy, making work pay. That means a much higher minimum wage. That means much more empowered labor unions.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
That means the deconstruction of corporate power so that if you do start up a small bookstore in your community, you don't get squashed out of existence in the first week. You know, a suite and a set of policies that say to families, if you play by the rules, you are going to have a much better shot of getting ahead than you did under the old rules.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
Absolutely. And more than that, I think the fundamental underlying story of American politics today is this realignment that is happening, a new consensus of American voters that is looking for a home. And it is really a question of
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
of whether the Republican Party becomes more sincerely populist and tolerant of more government intervention in the market before the Democratic Party decides to be a big tent in which we allow into the party people who might not agree with us on social and cultural issues or guns and climate, but do believe in things like a higher minimum wage, more empowered labor unions and industrial policy.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
The Republican Party has been recently talking a big game on populism, but has not delivered. And in fact, the way in which Trump is implementing the tariffs seems to be just another nod to sort of former market based neoliberalism in which the companies with the biggest megaphones and the biggest bank accounts get exemptions from the tariffs.
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
And those without political power are subject to the tariffs. The Democratic Party has a chance to use this fake populism to win over a chunk of his base, but only if we are less judgmental about the differences that may exist inside that tent on really tough issues like gay rights and abortion and guns. And I, you know, Ross, I'm...
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
partially to blame for that judgmentalism, because I think I helped, for instance, frame our litmus test on the issue of guns in a way that probably has been unhelpful to building a broader coalition for the Democratic Party.
Pod Save America
Trump Heals Grieving Nation
Listen, that is not a conversation that we have out loud, but I don't know how what has happened in the last week doesn't have an impact. I haven't shared this yet, but it is just true. My office has received phone calls and threats that are different than anything we had received prior to the pardoning of the January 6 protesters. We have had to have very different conversations internally.
Pod Save America
Trump Heals Grieving Nation
about how we protect me, my family, and my staff. I assume other offices are getting those calls. I assume those calls are reaching other Democratic activists who speak up online all around the country. And whether or not that reaches the level of consciousness, I don't know. But when your family is threatened with harm, of course it may, at the very least, subconsciously depress your interest in
Pod Save America
Trump Heals Grieving Nation
And given the fact that Elon Musk can sort of rouse those people with one or two or three tweets, it probably also has to do with why there hasn't been a concentrated effort to take him on personally, because folks don't want to end up as I have been and many others on the receiving end of sort of his social media storms, because what comes with that is an implicit threat of violence.
Pod Save America
Trump Heals Grieving Nation
Well, I just feel like I have a unique responsibility. I mean, I'm one of 47 Democratic senators. I'm going to take some precautions to make sure that me and my family and my staff are protected. But if I mute my voice, then all is lost. And yes, I don't completely understand why everybody isn't fighting as hard as some of us have been.
Pod Save America
Trump Heals Grieving Nation
So I feel like my role right now is to model a kind of vigorous, organic, authentic anger at what is happening to hopefully inspire others to join.
Spot On with Link Lauren
Dylan Mulvaney Cosplays Melania, Prince Harry is Really Lost, and Calley Means on Trump's MAHA Diet
I don't have girls, right? So I necessarily can't, right? I can't put myself in that position.
Spot On with Link Lauren
Dylan Mulvaney Cosplays Melania, Prince Harry is Really Lost, and Calley Means on Trump's MAHA Diet
I mean, I've talked to lots of parents of girls in Connecticut who do not think it's unfair and who think that the benefits that those athletes get from being part of a team is important and they don't mind or feel threatened by the competition.
Spot On with Link Lauren
Dylan Mulvaney Cosplays Melania, Prince Harry is Really Lost, and Calley Means on Trump's MAHA Diet
It's just you're saying you don't. Yes, my conclusion is that I would support those athletes being able to participate in my community, right, in my community. But I but I would not substitute my judgment and my community's judgment for another community's judgment.
Spot On with Link Lauren
Dylan Mulvaney Cosplays Melania, Prince Harry is Really Lost, and Calley Means on Trump's MAHA Diet
Do you think that they were were they actively covering it up? Were they sort of in denial or was it or is it or was that just a bad debate? Like, what is your read on that?
Spot On with Link Lauren
Dylan Mulvaney Cosplays Melania, Prince Harry is Really Lost, and Calley Means on Trump's MAHA Diet
Well, it means you knew that it was really bad and you're pretending otherwise versus you're deluding yourself, which I think is what people do a lot.
Spot On with Link Lauren
Dylan Mulvaney Cosplays Melania, Prince Harry is Really Lost, and Calley Means on Trump's MAHA Diet
I don't have any fear of transgender athletes participating in sports.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2204 - Rubio BLOWS UP Senate Democrats
I don't think the party is in near as bad shape as it's being portrayed to be. We lost the election. I don't like the party. I don't blame the party reputation for being low. But I think if AOC wants to run for president, she gets to nominate, and God bless you, you are the leader of the Democratic Party. Whoever gets that nomination is going to be it. That's all I'm waiting for.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2171 - Who Shot JFK?
I went through this for 15 hours. It's quite different for 24 hours. No bathroom breaks, can't sit down, can't even move from his desk or he loses his right to remain on the floor. So yeah, a pretty stunning biological feat being pulled off by Cory Booker on the floor of the Senate right now.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2180 - IMMIGRATION FIGHT: Will Salvadoran Illegal Immigrant Return?
I'm here at the airport. I'm about to board my flight for San Salvador. The goal of this mission is to let the Trump administration, to let the government of El Salvador know that we are going to keep fighting to bring Abrego Garcia home until he returns to his family. I hope to meet with representatives of the government. I hope to have the chance to actually see Kilmar.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2180 - IMMIGRATION FIGHT: Will Salvadoran Illegal Immigrant Return?
and see what his condition is. But we are going to keep fighting because this is a miscarriage of justice. The Supreme Court has ruled nine to zero, nine to zero, that he was illegally taken out of the country and put in a prison in El Salvador. This is about due process. This is about rule of law. What bullies do is they begin by picking on the most vulnerable.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2180 - IMMIGRATION FIGHT: Will Salvadoran Illegal Immigrant Return?
But if we get rid of the rule of law due process, the United States, it's a short road from there to tyranny.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2180 - IMMIGRATION FIGHT: Will Salvadoran Illegal Immigrant Return?
So, Kate, I applaud Harvard's decision not to give in to bullying from the Trump administration. You know, Donald Trump believes in First Amendment rights for himself, but apparently for nobody else. Others they will punish when there's an exercise of First Amendment rights.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2198 - Left FREAKS As Trump Accepts White Refugees
That pause, of course, was subject from the very beginning to exceptions where it was determined that this would be in the interest of the United States. Some of the criteria are making sure that refugees did not pose any challenge to our national security and that they could be assimilated easily into our country.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2167 - MORE TRUMP WINNING: NPR CEO IMPLODES, MS-13 Head ARRESTED
His wife Kathleen's the manager. Talk about all this. Come on in here, MSOC. Come on to the show. Haven't ironed my shirt in 27 years. Same shirt every day. Got some bad pit stains by now, but let's talk about the cover-up. Covering up those pit stains with this jacket here. Go, Chris Matthews, go. I believe this story moved from blunder, which it was for all the last few days, to cover-up.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2167 - MORE TRUMP WINNING: NPR CEO IMPLODES, MS-13 Head ARRESTED
And the cover-up, it began almost immediately.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2167 - MORE TRUMP WINNING: NPR CEO IMPLODES, MS-13 Head ARRESTED
Yeah. What about you?
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2181 - When Murder Is Apparently Totally Fine
So I asked the vice president if I could meet with Mr. Abrego Garcia. And he said, well, you need to make earlier provisions to go visit Seacott. I said, I'm not interested at this moment in taking a tour of Seacott. I just want to meet with Mr. Abrego Garcia. He said he was not able to make that happen. So I asked him if I could get on the phone.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2181 - When Murder Is Apparently Totally Fine
either video phone or just a phone, and talk to Mr. Abrego Garcia. He said he could not arrange that. He said maybe if the American embassy were to ask, maybe that could happen.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2181 - When Murder Is Apparently Totally Fine
And his answer was that the Trump administration is paying El Salvador, the government of El Salvador, to keep him at SECOT.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2181 - When Murder Is Apparently Totally Fine
Tariffs are highly likely to generate at least a temporary rise in inflation. The inflationary effects could also be more persistent. Avoiding that outcome will depend on the size of the effects, on how long it takes for them to pass through fully to prices, and ultimately on keeping longer-term inflation expectations well anchored.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2181 - When Murder Is Apparently Totally Fine
U.S. federal debt is on an unsustainable path. It's not at an unsustainable level. And no one really knows how much further we can go. Other countries over time have gone much farther, but we're now, you know, we're running very large deficits at full employment. And this is a situation that we very much need to address. Sooner or later we'll have to, and sooner is better than later.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2149 - Trump-Zelenskyy Meeting GOES TOTALLY NUCLEAR
It is absolutely shameful what is happening right now. The White House has become an arm of the Kremlin. Every single day, you hear from the national security advisor, from the president of the United States, from his entire national security team, Kremlin talking points. For the last week, the White House has been pretending as if Ukraine started this war.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2149 - Trump-Zelenskyy Meeting GOES TOTALLY NUCLEAR
That's essentially saying that Poland invaded Germany at the beginning of World War II.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2202 - Biden Was Senile, Had CANCER, And They Knew!
Yes, I thought that back then. I still think that. But I don't know that. When people ask me, did I know this or did I know the other? And the fact of the matter is, no, I didn't. And you make my point here. So it's not all about age. I've seen people develop Alzheimer's when they're in their 30s and 40s. So it's not about age. It's about the ability to do the job.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2202 - Biden Was Senile, Had CANCER, And They Knew!
And I never saw anything that allowed me to think that Joe Biden was not able to do the job.
The Bulwark Podcast
Anne Applebaum: Planning for a Techno-Oligarchic Regime
There is no doubt that this administration's policy towards the Middle East is going to be compromised by the fact that they are making money off of the very people that they're sitting across the table from and supposedly having a conversation about the interests of the United States. for the normalization of Trump's financial empire to be woven into the statecraft of this country.
The Bulwark Podcast
Anne Applebaum: Planning for a Techno-Oligarchic Regime
All that matters is how much money he makes, how much money his family makes, and it comes at a cost to the rest of us.
The Charlie Kirk Show
The Biggest Generational Shift in Memory
I'm here at the airport. I'm about to board my flight for San Salvador. The goal of this mission is to let the Trump administration, to let the government of El Salvador know that we are going to keep fighting to bring Albrego Garcia home until he returns to his family. I hope to meet with representatives of the government.
The Charlie Kirk Show
The Biggest Generational Shift in Memory
I hope to have the chance to actually see Kilmar and see what his condition is. But we are going to keep fighting because this is a miscarriage of justice. The Supreme Court has ruled nine to zero, nine to zero, that he was illegally taken out of the country and put in a prison in El Salvador. This is about due process. This is about rule of law.
The Charlie Kirk Show
The Biggest Generational Shift in Memory
What bullies do is they begin by picking on the most vulnerable. But if we get rid of the rule of law due process, the United States, it's a short road from there to tyranny.
The Charlie Kirk Show
The Crusade to Cut Spending + My Super Bowl Reaction
Listen, I think this is the most serious constitutional crisis the country has faced, certainly since Watergate. The president is. attempting to seize control of power and for corrupt purposes. The president wants to be able to decide how and where money is spent so that he can reward his political friends, he can punish his political enemies. That is the evisceration of democracy.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Donald Trump's DOGE Defunding Rampage
I think this is the most serious constitutional crisis the country has faced, certainly since Watergate. The president is attempting to seize control of power and for corrupt purposes. The president wants to be able to decide how and where money is spent so that he can reward his political friends. He can punish his political enemies. That is the evisceration of democracy.
The Daily
Where Are the Democrats?
We don't pledge allegiance to the billionaires. We don't pledge allegiance to Elon Musk. No. We don't pledge allegiance to the creepy 22 year olds working for Elon Musk. We pledge allegiance to the United States of America.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Gaza Backtrack, Trans Sports Ban, Garden of American Heroes | Ke Huy Quan
Hey there. Chris Murphy. It's been a very long, long day today, full of a lot of bullshit. So I poured myself a drink. It is. It's pink. It's pink. It's vodka and grapefruit juice.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Jordan Peterson on Pathological Masculinity, Alarming Political Gender Gap Among Young Voters, and Snow White | Ep. 1035
Hey there.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Jordan Peterson on Pathological Masculinity, Alarming Political Gender Gap Among Young Voters, and Snow White | Ep. 1035
It's been a very long, long day today, full of a lot of bullshit, a lot of threats to
The Megyn Kelly Show
Jordan Peterson on Pathological Masculinity, Alarming Political Gender Gap Among Young Voters, and Snow White | Ep. 1035
Democracy. Tonight I want to talk about Signalgate and what a colossal fuck-up this is in terms of our national security.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Jordan Peterson on Pathological Masculinity, Alarming Political Gender Gap Among Young Voters, and Snow White | Ep. 1035
Which could divert people from the number one issue we have against these bastards. Sorry. These people.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump vs. Zelensky Oval Office Fight Fallout, Musk Reveals All, Cuomo for Mayor?: AM Update for 3/3
The only winner in that exchange is Putin. Millions of Americans are embarrassed or ashamed that you have a president of the United States who says that Ukraine started the war.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
GOP Gets Shut Down as Dems Finally Go Nuclear
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.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
GOP Gets Shut Down as Dems Finally Go Nuclear
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.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
GOP Gets Shut Down as Dems Finally Go Nuclear
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 MeidasTouch Podcast
GOP Gets Shut Down as Dems Finally Go Nuclear
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.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
GOP Gets Shut Down as Dems Finally Go Nuclear
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.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
GOP Gets Shut Down as Dems Finally Go Nuclear
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.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Fox News Crashes Hard on Live TV as Trump Tanks Fast
Look, President Trump is a businessman. Thank God he became elected president. And what we're seeing right now is a master negotiator practicing his craft.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Fox News Crashes Hard on Live TV as Trump Tanks Fast
He got elected to lower costs and grow opportunities for Americans, and he is working feverishly seven days a week at that, bringing in other businessmen, having dialogue, some of which you see in public, most of which are happening behind closed scenes. But I could not be more optimistic.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Fox News Crashes Hard on Live TV as Trump Tanks Fast
Fifty days into this administration, we have seen simply tremendous achievements, and wait till you see what happens in the next 50 days.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
OMG! Trump Gets Humiliated at New Raucous Town Halls
Charlotte, can you come up here for a second?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
OMG! Trump Gets Humiliated at New Raucous Town Halls
I'm going to embarrass you for a second. That was like the most beautiful question that I've ever gotten. Because what you said is that you're thinking every single day of other people. as good as you. And when we think about why we exist in this world, we exist in this world to help other people, don't you think? Yeah, to help people who are less fortunate than us.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
OMG! Trump Gets Humiliated at New Raucous Town Halls
And I think why all these people are here today is because they wanna live in a world where we have a government that looks out for everybody, right? That looks out for everybody, regardless of what race you are, or what religion you are, or how much money you have, that we have a government that respects everybody.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
OMG! Trump Gets Humiliated at New Raucous Town Halls
And everybody in this room here is gonna decide when they go home tonight, how much energy are they gonna put in to trying to fight for that world? And I bet you, bold and courageous to stand up here on behalf of the other kids that go to your school. I bet you everybody in this room is going to work a little bit harder to make that kind of world that you're asking us to believe.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Dems Finally go ATTACK MODE on Republicans IN PUBLIC
I think we talk a lot about the coming dictatorship, but I think what's really coming is what you would call an oligarchy. That's a term you probably forgot from high school, but what it means is that a handful of really rich people run the government, and they steal from ordinary people using their access to government in order to make themselves and their families even richer.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Dems Finally go ATTACK MODE on Republicans IN PUBLIC
That is likely what we are heading for in the United States of America. I don't think it's a... a coincidence that Trump's cabinet is filled with billionaires. There's more wealth on that cabinet than 169 different nations.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Dems Finally go ATTACK MODE on Republicans IN PUBLIC
After Trump left office, his son in law, Jared Kushner, went and did a massive deal with Saudi Arabia in which Saudi Arabia promised billions of dollars to invest in Kushner and his properties, properties that the Trump family benefits from. There is no doubt that this administration's policy towards the Middle East is going to be compromised by the fact that they are making money
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Dems Finally go ATTACK MODE on Republicans IN PUBLIC
off of the very people that they're sitting across the table from and supposedly having a conversation about the interests of the United States. I mean, it's just extraordinary that we have allowed for the normalization of Trump's financial empire to be woven into the statecraft of this country.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Dems Finally go ATTACK MODE on Republicans IN PUBLIC
All that matters is how much money he makes, how much money his family makes, and it comes at a cost to the rest of us. We'll see really bad policy made in the Middle East because he's got unqualified people there.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
GOP Leaders Stunned as Dems Go for Kill Shot on Live TV
Und sie fragen für nationale Sicherheitskonzessionen im Rückgang. Das ist die Definition von Korruption. Außergewöhnliche Regierungen, die Geld in den Präsidenten-Pocket legen. Und in den Vereinigten Staaten geben sie nationale Sicherheitskonzessionen, die unsere eigene Sicherheit schaden. By the way, the plane is not a gift to the American people, as the Secretary said.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
GOP Leaders Stunned as Dems Go for Kill Shot on Live TV
Und Senator Murphy macht es auch sehr klar, dass...
The MeidasTouch Podcast
GOP Leaders Stunned as Dems Go for Kill Shot on Live TV
Im Faktum, der Inflation Reduction Act. ...which made massive investments in renewable energy, reduced prescription drug costs, was done in a way that drove down the deficit, not driving the deficit up. Most of the deficit was added under Joe Biden's presidency, was in those early days when we were still recovering from the pandemic. Und dann Senator Murphy.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
GOP Leaders Stunned as Dems Go for Kill Shot on Live TV
Again, I like, this is how you gotta fight. Senator Murphy says, look...
The MeidasTouch Podcast
GOP Leaders Stunned as Dems Go for Kill Shot on Live TV
Well, what we're standing in the way of is the most massive transfer of wealth from the poor and the middle class to the rich in the history of the country. This budget bill is an absolute disaster. It is going to kick over 10 million people off of their healthcare. Medicaid covers about a quarter of all Americans. in order to pass along a new trillion dollar tax cut for the richest 1%.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
GOP Leaders Stunned as Dems Go for Kill Shot on Live TV
Nobody in this country is asking for that. And in addition, it's going to dramatically drive up the deficit. I heard the Treasury Secretary say that who cares about the downgrading of our credit rating for Moody's? That is a big deal. That means that we are likely headed for a recession.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
GOP Leaders Stunned as Dems Go for Kill Shot on Live TV
That probably means higher interest rates for anybody out there who is trying to start a business or to buy a home. These guys are running the economy recklessly because all they care about is the health of the Mar-a-Lago billionaire class. They only care about their corporate friends. They are going to destroy this economy.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
GOP Leaders Stunned as Dems Go for Kill Shot on Live TV
They are going to throw millions of people off of health care just so that they can pass along a benefit to a small handful of very rich Americans. That is deeply unpopular and my hope is that it won't pass. That enough Republicans see that nobody is asking for that massive investment in only a small handful of Americans that they'll vote against it.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
GOP Leaders Stunned as Dems Go for Kill Shot on Live TV
So why did he choose these three countries to go to for his first major foreign trip? It's not because these are our most important allies or the most important countries in the world. It's because these are the three countries willing to pay him off. Every single one of these countries is giving Trump money. The plane from Qatar, an investment in Das ist ein Kryptowährungs-Scam von der UAE.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Gets Nightmare News as World Elections Crush Him
Donald Trump's visit to the Middle East. My view is the overall narrative here was selling out U.S. national interests for the private gain of his family business. He essentially gave away the crown jewels of American A.I. and semiconductor technology to the Gulf in exchange. In exchange, it looks like for a two billion dollar investment in the Trump family stable coin venture.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 3/14/25
Look, President Trump is a businessman. Thank God he became elected president. And what we're seeing right now is a master negotiator practicing his craft.