Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
Appearances
The Charlie Kirk Show
The Confirmation Continuum: Day 3
Reform. We've had lots of stops and starts over the last probably two to three years on this very issue. And it's holding up construction of critical energy manufacturing, infrastructure, transportation, doesn't matter what kind of energy, renewable energy, pipelines, whatever. So we need to make it easier to build in America.
The Charlie Kirk Show
The Confirmation Continuum: Day 3
I believe that's President Trump's vision as well by modernizing and streamlining our environmental review and permitting processes. Congressman Zeldin, what opportunities do you see for EPA to be able to establish more efficient and predictable permitting processes in addition to working with all the other agencies that play a part in this vital process? on these vital decisions.
The Charlie Kirk Show
The Confirmation Continuum: Day 3
Yeah, I think a lot of times in the public domain, PERMITTING REFORM MEANS TO CERTAIN PEOPLE SKIRTING THE RULES OR BREEZING THROUGH ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEWS WITHOUT REALLY TAKING THEM SERIOUSLY OR ACTUALLY HAVING THEM SCIENCE-BASED AS WE'VE TALKED A LOT ABOUT TODAY. THAT'S NOT WHAT PERMITTING REFORM MEANS.
The Charlie Kirk Show
The Confirmation Continuum: Day 3
PERMITTING REFORMS MEANS MAKE THESE ENVIRONMENTAL CLEAN AIR, CLEAN WATER RULES AND OTHERS AND OTHER AGENCIES work together and work so that we are getting the right result of clean air and clean water, but we're able to move forward. And so I look forward to that. Here's another West Virginia issue very quickly. And it's the Muddy Creek Restoration Project.
The Charlie Kirk Show
The Confirmation Continuum: Day 3
It's 19 miles of waterways that has acid mine drainage. And West Virginia went about with coordination with the past Trump administration. And it was initially championed by the Biden administration to deliver real results in cleaning up this area of our state. It was a true win-win.
The Charlie Kirk Show
The Confirmation Continuum: Day 3
The Biden administration, for some reason, which we can't figure out, flip-flopped on this, and they just started putting more burdensome, costly, and a much, much slower cleanup process. So you're still having your acid mine drainage while we're getting hung up here. It threatens projects like Muddy Creek and discourages other communities from pursuing similar efforts to achieve real,
The Charlie Kirk Show
The Confirmation Continuum: Day 3
environmental remediation and benefits. Will you commit to me, working with me in the state, to try to reverse these counterproductive changes and cut the red tape and restore this for more cost-effective, but also better environmental results?
The Charlie Kirk Show
The Confirmation Continuum: Day 3
Thank you. I understand that a five-minute break would be in our best interest. Would you like to do that now, or do you want to keep going?
The Charlie Kirk Show
The Confirmation Continuum: Day 3
Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Exclusive: Senator Schiff Calls for Trump Admin Resignations
the DNI, Director of National Intelligence, none of them apparently bothered to say, hey, folks, we shouldn't be talking about this shit in a commercial chat, on a commercial app. This is the most negligent handling of highly sensitive information. No one even bothered to say that, which tells me this wasn't the first time.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Exclusive: Senator Schiff Calls for Trump Admin Resignations
Well, there's no sugarcoating it. It's a massive fuck-up dealing with some really highly sensitive national security information. These were detailed war plans, detailed plans to strike military targets. in Yemen, Houthi targets, the time of the attacks, the sequencing of the attacks, the ordinance that's being used.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Exclusive: Senator Schiff Calls for Trump Admin Resignations
It also tells me that beyond negligent, they're just arrogant and feel they can do whatever they want. There's no accountability. Hegzeth, when he's first confronted, basically used the go-to for the Trump administration, and that is he went straight to the lie.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Exclusive: Senator Schiff Calls for Trump Admin Resignations
um accusing jeffrey goldberg of making this up it's all a big lie never discussed war plans etc that's their fallback and the results of this ought to be his resignation i think tulsi gabbard should resign if she can't be trusted to know better with national security information she can't be trusted with the nation's secrets the same is true of ratcliffe and if whitcoff was
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Exclusive: Senator Schiff Calls for Trump Admin Resignations
in texting from the Kremlin or from Russian soil, he should be gone. They should be fired or they should quit.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Exclusive: Senator Schiff Calls for Trump Admin Resignations
Yes, I am. Yes, I am. And, you know, if this were any other administration, it would be a foregone conclusion. They would be gone. But you compound it with the testimony we heard today from many of these same people where Ratcliffe was essentially, no, this wasn't a big mistake. And Gabbard is like, well, this information wasn't classified. All of that is just utter nonsense.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Exclusive: Senator Schiff Calls for Trump Admin Resignations
And, you know, for them to try to pretend this is anything serious, other than a desperately dangerous mishandling of national security information from the same crowd, the same Hillary email crowd, is just the most unconscionable hypocrisy.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Exclusive: Senator Schiff Calls for Trump Admin Resignations
Well, if they weren't classified, they should have been classified. And I think what she's doing is the same thing that Hegseth tried to do, which is play with the language. So Hegseth says, well, these weren't war plans. So he's going to fall back on the excuse. We're not in a state of war with the enemy. Therefore, these are not war plans.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Exclusive: Senator Schiff Calls for Trump Admin Resignations
None of that matters if you're discussing details of military strikes. The risk is the same. And what Gabbard is saying basically is this information, because it was in real time, there was no agency opportunity to classify it. Well, that's giving a technical answer to obfuscate the truth, which is this is deeply sensitive national security information, which, by the way, is a crime to mishandle.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Exclusive: Senator Schiff Calls for Trump Admin Resignations
All of this laid out in a commercial app, including people on the app who were in foreign countries at the time, one of whom, Steve Witkoff, the envoy to the Middle East and to Russia, was apparently in Russia, may have been even in the Kremlin while he's texting in this chat. So massive screw up by the administration. And, you know, there's so much to be shocked about by this.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Exclusive: Senator Schiff Calls for Trump Admin Resignations
And they recklessly mishandled this information, having this conversation. And while the conversation itself, they can argue about the material contained in the conversation, the details of this attack and the timing and the targets, all of that should be classified.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Exclusive: Senator Schiff Calls for Trump Admin Resignations
Well, you've got Laura Ingraham pretending that, what, I guess she's constantly texting the wrong person detailed military strike plans? Is that something that's a normal thing of her day? That is absurd. And then you get the suggestion that he just plants in there that, well, maybe the reporter somehow inserted himself into this chat, which cannot happen on Signal.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Exclusive: Senator Schiff Calls for Trump Admin Resignations
So he wants to plant some seed and he attacks the reporter, calling the reporter a loser. No, Mike Walz, you're the loser. And frankly, the country loses when we have an incompetent bozo like you as the national security advisor. So, yeah, that conversation is quite revealing at every level.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Exclusive: Senator Schiff Calls for Trump Admin Resignations
They blame the journalist when they get caught mishandling national security information that jeopardizes security. our personnel.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Exclusive: Senator Schiff Calls for Trump Admin Resignations
It is pathetic. Actually, the only good that Elon Musk could do here is if he would riff all these people that are responsible for that chat. It's so pathetic the way they can't acknowledge the magnitude of this screw up. They can't take responsibility for it. Even while Mike Wall's saying the buck stops with him, he's saying he's blaming the reporter for his own screw up and not acknowledging
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Exclusive: Senator Schiff Calls for Trump Admin Resignations
the risk that this meant to our national security. Now, the NSA had already warned people in the intelligence community not to use this app, not to believe that whatever they say on signal is not subject to being hacked or spearfished or whatnot. They've already been warned. The Pentagon put out another warning after this incident. But they don't need to be reminded of this.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Exclusive: Senator Schiff Calls for Trump Admin Resignations
This is something that the intelligence community has known for years. uh and everybody on that call should have you know had the most basic training but this is really the problem when you have people appointed like Tulsi Gabbard, who has no experience in the intelligence community. And you have people appointed like Hash Patel, who's just a hack for the president.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Exclusive: Senator Schiff Calls for Trump Admin Resignations
And you have others appointed like Heg Zeth, who, you know, was a fox couch potato and gets appointed. They're all out of their depth. And the ones who get hurt are the American people, our national security, with this colossal screw up on signal.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Exclusive: Senator Schiff Calls for Trump Admin Resignations
I chaired the House Intelligence Committee. When I would travel overseas, I wouldn't bring my personal electronics. I would bring, if anything, a burner phone. I was made aware anything I texted, anything I emailed. I should assume that foreign governments have access to. There is no privacy. They're going to be deeply interested in anything that's said over these communications.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Exclusive: Senator Schiff Calls for Trump Admin Resignations
Well, look, I think the takeaway for the American people is that this crowd is reckless with the nation's security. They don't care if they endanger our service members carrying out missions. They don't care if they endanger the success of the mission. They're gonna lie. They're gonna obfuscate. They're gonna act recklessly. This probably wasn't the first time. It probably won't be the last time.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Exclusive: Senator Schiff Calls for Trump Admin Resignations
These are the consequences when you appoint people on the basis of who said nice things about you or who appeared good on Fox News. This is the criteria the president uses for top level appointments. And the result is we are less safe as a nation. The catalog of irresponsible actions is long.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Exclusive: Senator Schiff Calls for Trump Admin Resignations
Just looking at one of the participants in the signal chat and other events this week, Wyckoff, this envoy to the Kremlin, this envoy to the Middle East, was quoted saying that he thought Putin was a man of his word, talking about Putin praying for Donald Trump.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Exclusive: Senator Schiff Calls for Trump Admin Resignations
I mean, this is someone who has been so easily manipulated by the Kremlin and now potentially has compromised information of a deeply sensitive national security matter to the Kremlin, if not others. So sadly, it's the American people and our security that are gonna be hurt by all this.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Exclusive: Senator Schiff Calls for Trump Admin Resignations
So to be discussing this jeopardized potentially the safety of the American pilots conducting these operations, jeopardized the potential success of the mission. And the fact that no one on this chat, not the vice president, not the secretary of defense, not the national security advisor, not the head of the CIA, not the head of the
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Ossoff Calls Out Trump’s Attack on America
It's incredibly unpopular. I think that there's even a significant amount of the MAGA movement that hates what Elon Musk has been empowered to do. You know, you got the richest man in the world who spent $300 million to elect this president being given the keys to the kingdom, unfettered access to sensitive personal information of Americans. And the incompetence
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Ossoff Calls Out Trump’s Attack on America
It was a great event, and we did not even do that much promotion. We had thousands of people come out. It just speaks to the energy that there is in opposition to this attack on the rule of law and our Constitution. And it was an opportunity for not just Democrats, but folks across the spectrum in Georgia to speak out together against what this administration is doing to our country.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Ossoff Calls Out Trump’s Attack on America
of firing tens of thousands of people and then realizing that, you know, they fired the folks who protect the nuclear weapons and they fired the folks who protect us from Ebola and they fired the folks who manned the veterans crisis hotline and they're scrambling to rehire them. So it's this combination of corruption of incompetence and elitism.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Ossoff Calls Out Trump’s Attack on America
The point I made in the speech at the rally is like, you've got the richest cabinet ever. You've got the richest man in the world doing whatever he wants. Their agenda is tax breaks for the wealthy. They're not even talking about anything that matters to ordinary people, healthcare or childcare. They are the elites that they pretend to hate.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Ossoff Calls Out Trump’s Attack on America
I mean, his mother-in-law's son-in-law is a billionaire and one of the richest and wealthiest people in the country. So maybe she would be okay, but seniors in Georgia who would have to cut their pills in half or turn off the air conditioning in summertime or go without groceries because they didn't get their social security check would be in deep trouble.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Ossoff Calls Out Trump’s Attack on America
And it is really alarming that they talk about social security in this way in particular, and Musk talking about it as a Ponzi scheme, Because it betrays that they are serious about going after Social Security. I mean, Musk posted on his website just a couple of weeks ago plans to shut down like five Social Security offices in Georgia alone. And again, that's like...
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Ossoff Calls Out Trump’s Attack on America
They are the richest and most elitist and most powerful people in the history of the planet. And they have this like anti-elite populist shtick, but what are they doing? Again, it's the whole agenda is tax breaks for the wealthy, rounding up immigrants, revenge and power.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Ossoff Calls Out Trump’s Attack on America
And that does nothing for my constituents, for my constituents who voted for Trump, for my constituents who voted against Trump. They're doing nothing for the people.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Ossoff Calls Out Trump’s Attack on America
Well, it's the way that they post about it and talk about it and treat it all like it's a game, right? Like these federal agencies are their playthings and they're mocking the concerns about what happens when they act recklessly. Disabled students and the parents of disabled students in Georgia are calling my office every single day saying, what's this going to mean for me?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Ossoff Calls Out Trump’s Attack on America
What's this going to mean for my child? And they're posting about it online to own the libs. It just reveals the total lack of concern for ordinary people. And these are not folks, you know, these again are the wealthiest, richest, most powerful people in the world mocking the concerns of the American public who are asking what's going to happen to public education.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Ossoff Calls Out Trump’s Attack on America
Two thoughts on that. The first is that. It's hard to overstate how alarmed the rest of the free world is that the United States seems to be not just abdicating its leadership of the free world, but aligning itself with the most brutal authoritarians on the planet. Second thought is that, you know, the president's affinity for the Kremlin and his apparent admiration of President Putin
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Ossoff Calls Out Trump’s Attack on America
That's actually one of the reasons I think it's so important to go right at him. First of all, we have this spiral toward strongman rule and authoritarianism in the United States. In his first
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Ossoff Calls Out Trump’s Attack on America
When you think about it in the context of what Donald Trump is trying to do domestically, which is to wield the power of government to crush his political opposition, something that we have never seen in American history, not even at the height of McCarthyism, it's really chilling, right? I mean, he is... trying to use every instrument of state to entrench his and his political party's power.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Ossoff Calls Out Trump’s Attack on America
And I have never seen fear and intimidation used like this in American politics, and certainly not in modern American history has it been used like this in American politics, where the message from our own government is pay tribute, do not criticize us, or face
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Ossoff Calls Out Trump’s Attack on America
And that is something that should send a chill down the spine of every patriotic American, regardless of our political affiliation, because it is an affront to the basic values of political freedom. that animate our republic and that are embedded in our constitution.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Ossoff Calls Out Trump’s Attack on America
You even see right now that other countries around the world are advising their nationals not to travel to the United States because the erosion of civil rights and civil liberties in our country is happening at such an alarming rate.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Ossoff Calls Out Trump’s Attack on America
This is what happens when you have Fox News personalities cosplaying as government officials. I mean, this is the most clownish, amateurish. It honestly, it would be funny, except that it is deadly serious, right? They're talking about the execution of lethal military operations, international diplomacy, intelligence information. And these are people who absolutely should know better.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Ossoff Calls Out Trump’s Attack on America
few months he's purged the government of independent watchdogs filled the most powerful offices with personal loyalists he's commanded them to go after his opponents we're seeing the use of fear and intimidation against the political opposition unlike anything i think in our republic's history and he's so consumed by
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Ossoff Calls Out Trump’s Attack on America
It is an embarrassing and dangerous, reckless and amateurish demonstration of just how they lack any... commitment to conscientiously doing their jobs.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Ossoff Calls Out Trump’s Attack on America
Well, look, first of all, I want to remind folks that I am the only Democratic senator running for reelection in a state that Donald Trump won. And I will win. And we will win in 2026 in a landslide. And we need to get into that mindset. But I'm going to have huge amounts of money, probably from Elon Musk, coming in against me. And I would appreciate support at electjohn.com.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Ossoff Calls Out Trump’s Attack on America
And my message to the public is, is first of all, we have to reject this un-American attack on our constitution and our core values and the rule of law, but we also have to recognize how we got here. How is it that a demagogue like Donald Trump who threatened to burn down the whole system, was elected twice. And I think we have to look deeper than Trump.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Ossoff Calls Out Trump’s Attack on America
It's about corruption in American politics that predates him and that gave rise to him. The way that money in politics, since the Citizens United decision, has corrupted policymaking in the United States has caused people to realize that, yes, the system is in fact rigged. Members of Congress live in fear of super PACs. That's why public policy doesn't serve the needs of ordinary families.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Ossoff Calls Out Trump’s Attack on America
That's why there's such cynicism and resentment of the ruling class in this country. And that is what gave rise in large part to Donald Trump. But Trump is not trying to unrig a rigged system. He is trying to re-rig it for himself, for his political party, and for his cronies.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Ossoff Calls Out Trump’s Attack on America
It's electjohn.com, electjohn.com, and I'd be grateful for support.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Ossoff Calls Out Trump’s Attack on America
Thanks for having me. Thank you.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Ossoff Calls Out Trump’s Attack on America
his efforts to secure revenge and to crush his enemies and, you know, conquering Greenland, that he's doing nothing for the people who elected him. His entire domestic agenda is tax breaks for the wealthy, rounding up immigrants, revenge and centralizing as much power as he can in the presidency.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Bernie Sanders on how to Fight Oligarchy
And thank you so much for doing that. I really do appreciate that.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Bernie Sanders on how to Fight Oligarchy
Well, that was an extraordinary moment. And here is the reality, which is not talked about very much. The reality is that in America today, our life expectancy is about four years less than other wealthy countries. But even worse is the fact that if you're working class in America, on average, you live seven to eight years shorter life than people who are wealthy. Now, why is that?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Bernie Sanders on how to Fight Oligarchy
And the answer is not just healthcare, which is important. Working class people, low income people do not have access to the kind of healthcare that the rich do, but it is the stress the day-to-day stress that working class people live under. And I grew up in a working class home. I know a little bit about what it's like to have a family living paycheck to paycheck.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Bernie Sanders on how to Fight Oligarchy
And what I did, that was in Altoona, Wisconsin. I said, okay, all right, tell me what it's like to live under economic stress. And people just stood up.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Bernie Sanders on how to Fight Oligarchy
And one woman says, you know, it's a question of whether I buy shoes for myself or my kids, whether I can afford eyeglasses, whether I can afford to go to the doctor, whether, you know, I'm going to have the money to prepare a decent meal for my kids, that I live every day not knowing, you know, what to expect. How do I survive?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Bernie Sanders on how to Fight Oligarchy
And what that is about, that is the reality that tens of millions of our people are living under. We don't talk about it. And what I have learned over the years that some of the most important issues are the issues that get least discussion. And one of those issues is not just the working class people who have six years shorter lives, seven years shorter lives than the rich. That's important.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Bernie Sanders on how to Fight Oligarchy
Why is that? But what's equally important is 60% of the American people in the richest country on earth live paycheck to paycheck. That means they go to work. And if their landlord raises the rent, they don't know how they're going to be able to pay for it. Kid gets sick, don't know how to afford to send the kid to the doctor. Car breaks down, don't know how to get it fixed, et cetera, et cetera.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Bernie Sanders on how to Fight Oligarchy
That is the reality facing tens of millions of Americans in the wealthiest country on earth. And that is the issue that we got to focus on. And that is why we got to transform our economy so that it works for everybody, not just billionaires.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Bernie Sanders on how to Fight Oligarchy
Well, look, you tell me. I mean, this is not hard to understand. I grew up in a family that went through this. If your car breaks down and you can't afford to get it fixed, how do you get to work? And if you can't get to work, you lose your job. If you lose your job, what happens? People struggle every single day and that impacts the doctors.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Bernie Sanders on how to Fight Oligarchy
There are physicians out there who call this the physiology of poverty. Physiology of poverty. Your body reacts, your mind. The stress of just trying to survive every single day breaks the mind, breaks the body. And that is why people are living shorter lives who are working class than the wealthy. And this is an issue that we have got to deal with.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Bernie Sanders on how to Fight Oligarchy
Let me comment two ways. Number one, of course, what you're seeing precisely is that attitude now being reflected in what Musk is doing to the federal government. Oh, you work for the federal government for 20 years? You're gone. We don't need you anymore. You have a poor performance. Who determined that? Well, I did. I never met you. I never saw you. I never talked to you. You're gone.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Bernie Sanders on how to Fight Oligarchy
So that is precisely what they're doing. And I want to say this. I know there are people out there who say, well, you know, it's really unfortunate what's happening to these federal employees. People like Musk are great believers in technology, artificial tech, artificial intelligence and robotics.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Bernie Sanders on how to Fight Oligarchy
And when that revolution sweeps across the private sector and threatens the jobs of tens of millions of workers, you know what the Musks of the world are going to say? You're out of here. Have a nice day. Goodbye. They could care less about what happens to working people. But to answer your question more deeply, why did people vote for Trump? Which is a good question.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Bernie Sanders on how to Fight Oligarchy
Well, the goal of the tour is to go to areas where there are Republican congressmen and women who won by slim margins. and educate the people in those districts to demand that their member of Congress not vote for huge tax breaks for billionaires while at the same time support cuts to Medicaid, education, and healthcare.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Bernie Sanders on how to Fight Oligarchy
Why do many working class people? Vote for Trump. The answer has, I think, less to do, to be honest with you, with Trump and Musk than it does with the Democratic Party.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Bernie Sanders on how to Fight Oligarchy
And in my view, you have a Democratic Party, which over the years has been very strong and effective, I think, in fighting for women's rights, terribly important, fighting for gay rights, fighting for civil rights, all of which is important. But in terms of standing up and taking on powerful special interests and fighting for the working class, Democrats were not there.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Bernie Sanders on how to Fight Oligarchy
And I hope you know, and I think many of your listeners may know, that unbelievably, it's not just that we have today massive income and wealth inequality, where three people on top own more wealth than the bottom half of American society. The reality, the economic reality of today is that over the last 50 years, five zero years,
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Bernie Sanders on how to Fight Oligarchy
Real inflation accounted for wages, despite huge increases in worker productivity, have not gone up. Workers are making the same, maybe a little bit less than they were 50 years ago. And during that time, there was a $75 trillion transfer of wealth from the bottom 90% to the top 1%. So the average worker out there says, yeah, I hear the Democrats, they're this, they're that.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Bernie Sanders on how to Fight Oligarchy
Do they understand what I am going through? Do they understand that I used to have a decent job in manufacturing that's gone and now I'm making half as much as I used to? Do they understand that I can't afford health care? I can't afford child care. I can't afford to send my kids to college. That I'm working 50 or 60 hours a week. That my wife is working. Do they really understand it?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Bernie Sanders on how to Fight Oligarchy
And the answer is no, they don't. So to my mind, the reason that Trump did so well with working people is he said, look, the system is broken. And Democrats said, well, not really. It's just we need a little bit of changes. Trump is right. The system is broken. The problem is his quote unquote solutions are going to make a bad situation even worse. Is the system broken? Yes.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Bernie Sanders on how to Fight Oligarchy
Are you living in a democracy today? Well, maybe. but we have a corrupt campaign finance system which gives you one vote, but Elon Musk the ability to spend $270 million to elect Donald Trump as the next president. That's a broken anti-democratic campaign finance system. We have a healthcare system where despite spending twice as much per capita on healthcare as any other country,
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Bernie Sanders on how to Fight Oligarchy
85 million are uninsured or underinsured. The cost of healthcare is soaring. We don't have doctors, nurses, mental health counselors, dentists. Is our healthcare system working well? No, it is broken. Is our educational system working well? No, nobody can afford childcare. Usually expensive. Kids are going deeply into debt to get a higher education. That system is broken. What about housing?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Bernie Sanders on how to Fight Oligarchy
Well, we've got 800,000 people who are homeless, but that's only half the problem. There are 20 million people who are spending 50% of their limited incomes on housing. I talked to people in Vermont trying to bring in a teacher from out of state. They signed up a good teacher. Teacher couldn't come because the cost of housing was so high. True in Vermont, true all over this country.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Bernie Sanders on how to Fight Oligarchy
So the system is broken for working class, for the middle class, for low-income people. For the people on top, they're doing fantastically well. So what the Democratic Party has to do is understand that reality, can't keep defending the status quo, and say, you know what, we are prepared to take on the oligarchs who have so much economic and political power.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Bernie Sanders on how to Fight Oligarchy
We are prepared to take them on and create an economy that works for working people, not just the 1%.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Bernie Sanders on how to Fight Oligarchy
So the goal is to make sure that we do not pass a terrible, what is called a reconciliation bill. But most importantly, it is an effort to bring people together
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Bernie Sanders on how to Fight Oligarchy
It means that this is a critical and unprecedented moment in American history. It means that despair is not an option. And it means that you've got to stand up and fight back not only for yourselves, but for your kids and in terms of climate change for the future of the planet. So what does that mean? It means you got to get out of your zone of comfort.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Bernie Sanders on how to Fight Oligarchy
It means you must be involved in the political process. And that means maybe running for school board, running for city council, running for state legislature, or supporting good candidates who are prepared to stand up for the working class.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Bernie Sanders on how to Fight Oligarchy
It means right now, when we're facing a major Republican reconciliation bill, which wants to give over a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the 1% and cut Medicaid and education, it means making sure that your member of Congress does not vote for that terrible piece of legislation. And by and large, it means in any way that you think is effective, Get involved in the political process.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Bernie Sanders on how to Fight Oligarchy
The truth of the matter is that what goes on in Washington is way, way, way out of touch. with where the American people are. The American people don't think billionaires need a tax break. American people don't want to cut Medicaid.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Bernie Sanders on how to Fight Oligarchy
The American people are sick and tired of paying the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs, of being the only major country on earth not to guarantee healthcare to all people, of having the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country on earth, a nation in which 22% of seniors are trying to get by on $15,000 a year or less.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Bernie Sanders on how to Fight Oligarchy
to take on the oligarchs who now run this country, to take on the people who are moving us toward authoritarianism, and to make the point that the overwhelming majority of the American people want to see a government and an economy that works for all and not just a few.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Bernie Sanders on how to Fight Oligarchy
In other words, the American people do not support the status quo. But what we have got to do is educate and organize and get people involved in whatever way works for them in the political process. And ultimately, we need to create a government with members of Congress who are standing proudly with the working class and not with the 1% and campaign contributors. That's what it means.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Bernie Sanders on how to Fight Oligarchy
We're going to be in Las Vegas on Thursday, and then we are going to Denver, Colorado, and then we're going to be in Greeley, Colorado, and then we're going to be in Arizona. both in Phoenix and in Tucson. And already I'm told by my staff that we have some 20,000 RSVPs for the rally in Denver, which will I think be the largest rally, which is kind of off the charts.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Bernie Sanders on how to Fight Oligarchy
But the turnout looks like it's very good. I'm going to be going
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Bernie Sanders on how to Fight Oligarchy
with my good friend uh alexandria ocasio-cortez who i think as everybody knows is has been an inspiration for young people all over this country she's a real fighter she's doing a great job in the house so it's an honor to be uh hitting the road with alexandria it's an honor to have you here on the midas touch podcast senator bernie sanders will be covering all of those rallies here thank you for all you do thank you very much keep up the good work
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Glitches Out on Live TV as His Mind Deteriorates
Well, like I said, the president speaks for himself. What I want to see is a peaceful result, a peaceful outcome. And I think right now there's a negotiation going on. And let's see where that ultimately leads. Hopefully it'll get to the outcome we all want to see.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Padilla Responds to Trump Destruction & Attacks on Voting Rights
they didn't vote for this what are you hearing senator so hearing a lot of the same fury a lot of the same frustration and people coming to the realization donald trump lied to them his whole campaign his platform his promises were all a lie and it's coming home to roost
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Padilla Responds to Trump Destruction & Attacks on Voting Rights
uh because you're right whether it's the the tariffs we know who's going to pay the price ultimately it's not foreign countries as donald claims it's going to be working families here in the country when prices will go up this is a president who said he was going to tackle inflation and bring down prices on day one the opposite has happened prices are up in all categories and now he's i guess the one thing he has said that's truthful just this last weekend he says he doesn't care
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Padilla Responds to Trump Destruction & Attacks on Voting Rights
He can care less specifically is what he said if prices go up because they're going up on everything from cars to fruits and vegetables and everything in between.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Padilla Responds to Trump Destruction & Attacks on Voting Rights
Yeah, I mean, this is just insult after insult after insult to the group that you started this segment with, the agricultural interest in the Central Valley of California, the growers that supported him in his election. They're going to pay the price when it comes to tariffs, number one.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Padilla Responds to Trump Destruction & Attacks on Voting Rights
They're already feeling workforce concerns because of the over-aggressive detention and deportation operations. So many farm workers that are afraid to show up to work, afraid to send their kids to school, afraid to show up to hospitals for doctor's appointments. It's having a real impact in the fields. And now this.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Padilla Responds to Trump Destruction & Attacks on Voting Rights
Just for show, for the sake of being able to post to social media accounts, a release of so much water in the middle of winter. Trying to make a point. This was not for the fires in Los Angeles. By the time the water was released, the fires were already contained. Second, where they released the water, there was no way, literally, for that water to make its way to Southern California.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Padilla Responds to Trump Destruction & Attacks on Voting Rights
But the worst part, what nobody's thinking about yet is come the summer, come the hot, dry summer months, when farmers need the water for irrigation, there's now so much that water has gone, and you cannot get it back. So insult after insult after insult, it's gonna hurt growers, it's gonna hurt the agricultural industry, it's gonna cost jobs, and it's gonna raise food prices.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Padilla Responds to Trump Destruction & Attacks on Voting Rights
argument that maybe there's short-term pain but long-term gain here but but you just mentioned some of those countries i mean i was looking at the numbers 95 of montana's imported goods come from canada mexico and china is this going to hurt people in your state you think there's absolutely
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Padilla Responds to Trump Destruction & Attacks on Voting Rights
yeah uh when uh senator he says donald trump has been clear about that let's be clear he's been clear about that after taking office throughout the course of the campaign he promised the opposite so he lied it was a bait and switch he promised to lower costs costs are going up this short-term pain uh only now he's he's realizing what it means, but the pain is real.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Padilla Responds to Trump Destruction & Attacks on Voting Rights
So my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, you know, there's inconvenience and there's pain. If you're remodeling a house, hey, you know, good for you, but that can be an inconvenience. That's not pain. Pain is being left homeless, which a lot of people will be when they lose their jobs or can't afford to pay the rent because of Donald Trump's policies. That is very, very real.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Padilla Responds to Trump Destruction & Attacks on Voting Rights
Another impact of his tariffs on again, off again, and on again, on again, prices going up is what's happening with the stock market. Now, I don't say this because I'm sympathetic to traders on Wall Street. I bring this up because so many people's pensions, so many people's 401k, some people's retirement savings are tied to the economy.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Padilla Responds to Trump Destruction & Attacks on Voting Rights
So when the stock market crashes, that's literally dollars that Duke no longer have for retirement. It's gone up in smoke. But once again, if you ask Donald Trump what he thinks of all this, he could care less.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Padilla Responds to Trump Destruction & Attacks on Voting Rights
Yeah, so first of all, thank you for bringing this up because all the chaos in the flood of executive orders that continuously comes out of the White House, you know, this one is important to pay attention to. First of all, it's not his first attempt to try to get the personal information of every voter in America. He tried it in his first term.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Padilla Responds to Trump Destruction & Attacks on Voting Rights
I remember vividly because I was serving as California Secretary of State at the time. We refused to cooperate with his sham of a commission. And ultimately, it was opposed by both Republican and Democratic Secretaries of State. So it failed. But now he's got Elon Musk by his side. And so he's trying again to get everybody's personal information across the country.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Padilla Responds to Trump Destruction & Attacks on Voting Rights
We're not going to stand for it. Number two, when he says this executive order is important so that we make sure that non-citizens don't vote in our elections, it's already the law that you have to be a citizen to be eligible to register to vote and vote in our election. So it is a a solution in search of a problem. And it's a problematic solution at that. And here's the real rub.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Padilla Responds to Trump Destruction & Attacks on Voting Rights
The way it's crafted new requirements for being able to register and to cast ballots will only have the effect of disenfranchising a lot of eligible voters.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Padilla Responds to Trump Destruction & Attacks on Voting Rights
in to have to carry around a passport half the country doesn't have a current valid passport so now you won't be able to vote because of a requirement that is not necessary number one service members who move around may have an id that doesn't reflect their current address because of deployments so you're going to disenfranchise members of the military from voting Really?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Padilla Responds to Trump Destruction & Attacks on Voting Rights
Or how about women, when they get married and may change their name, and there's a lag between changing their name in one document, but their driver's license or IED, and so they won't be allowed to vote? That's what Donald Trump wants. And the last thing, because this is, you know, the hypocrisy is rich on so many fronts with our Republican colleagues.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Padilla Responds to Trump Destruction & Attacks on Voting Rights
When President Biden was in the White House and we tried a number of things to strengthen our democracy by improving voter registration and getting more people to participate, Republicans were kicking and screaming, we cannot federalize elections. States administer elections and we shouldn't impose federal requirements on them.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Padilla Responds to Trump Destruction & Attacks on Voting Rights
But now when Donald Trump has ideas of how he wants elections to run, Republicans are silent. The hypocrisy is offensive.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Padilla Responds to Trump Destruction & Attacks on Voting Rights
Yeah, we're going to push back, right? We're going to continue to challenge through litigation at every turn. And for the most part, we have been successful since the beginning of the year, whether it's temporary restraining orders on a lot of his overreach. or actual overturning his policies through the judicial system. We're going to legislate as best we can.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Padilla Responds to Trump Destruction & Attacks on Voting Rights
We don't have a ton of leverage points because Democrats are in the minority at the moment, but whenever we do have these leverage points, we have to exercise them and we've got to spread the word. When the general public learns more and more about what's happening,
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Padilla Responds to Trump Destruction & Attacks on Voting Rights
whether it's how it's going to be harder for them maybe to register and vote in the future, or prices going up for their daily living expenses, we have to channel that energy into organizing because the midterm elections will be here before we know it.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Padilla Responds to Trump Destruction & Attacks on Voting Rights
I know we have a few minutes left, but I got to say this, as soon as we wrap here in a couple of minutes, I'm going to go do another piece, support my friend, my colleague, Senator Cory Booker from New Jersey, who is holding the floor.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Padilla Responds to Trump Destruction & Attacks on Voting Rights
He's filibustering, calling attention to the chaos coming out of the White House and all the damage that they're trying to do because we have to use every tool in our toolbox to continue to highlight and to continue to push back.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Padilla Responds to Trump Destruction & Attacks on Voting Rights
I have confidence in him. I think he can. I think he should only be righteous because the days that we're living in, the threats to our Constitution and the future of our country is also unprecedented. So I'm going to be proud to stand with him. And, you know, people are watching. People are paying attention. We need people to be talking and we need people to be organizing.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Panicking Trump Goes Nuts on Tariff Day
Anyone who says there may be a little bit of pain before we get things right need to talk about farmers who are one crop away from bankruptcy. They don't have time. So we've got to be crisp on this implementation.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Panicking Trump Goes Nuts on Tariff Day
Let's get back to the ideals that others are threatening. Let's get back to our founding documents, that those imperfect geniuses had some very special words at the end of the Declaration of Independence. It was one of the greatest in all of humanity, declarations of interdependence. When our founder said we must mutually pledge, pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Panicking Trump Goes Nuts on Tariff Day
We need that now from all Americans. This is a moral moment. It's not left or right, it's right or wrong. It's getting good trouble. My friend, Madam President, I yield the floor.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Panicking Trump Goes Nuts on Tariff Day
You know, newsflash, these guys are incompetent. They don't know what they're doing. I mean, we hired a weekend Fox News host with no diplomatic or management experience with a checkered personal history of abuse and alcoholism to be our chief national security official. And it's going very badly. I don't know that anybody could have seen this coming.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Panicking Trump Goes Nuts on Tariff Day
The reality is that these revelations are really worrying, but their contempt for remediation is even more worrying. They opened and closed an investigation in about 48 hours. They haven't announced any change in practice. For all they know, they're continuing to conduct sensitive business on Signal or on
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Panicking Trump Goes Nuts on Tariff Day
Gmail, for all we know, they are continuing to include non-administration officials on those message threads.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
YIKES! Senate Hearing GOES OFF THE RAILS over Trump Picks
And here's what this nominee himself has said about using his office to prosecute journalists. We will go out and find the conspirators, not just in government, but in the media, We're going to come after you, whether it's criminally or civilly. Is that a correct quotation, Mr. Patel?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Warren Calls Musk “Scared” for Not Testifying
And understand this, they even lose 2% of their budget. They work so efficiently using every dollar to its maximum benefit. That really means they got to stop offering services. So what? They cut out care for little babies. They cut out emergency care. They cut out preventive care. None of that is good. You want to force people to go to the hospitals.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Warren Calls Musk “Scared” for Not Testifying
You want to force people to give up the care they need. In the long run, that just costs us more money and a whole lot more misery.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Warren Calls Musk “Scared” for Not Testifying
My response is... I care about people and I know you do too. And what I really care about is that we don't give a bunch of tax breaks to billionaires and pay for it on the backs of hard working people. People who a lot of times are putting together two and three jobs just to be able to keep their families and themselves above water. Come on. We don't want to cut health care for those people.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Warren Calls Musk “Scared” for Not Testifying
We don't want to cut access to nursing homes for their grandmas and grandpas. This is just basic who you think this country ought to run for. And that's true whether you're Democrat or Republican, an independent, a libertarian, a vegetarian. You've got to care about who this country works for. And this Republican budget plan is all about billionaires win, everybody else loses.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Warren Calls Musk “Scared” for Not Testifying
We just can't do that.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Warren Calls Musk “Scared” for Not Testifying
Look, the Republicans are following Donald Trump's lead here when he said to his donors, make him president and he would give his richest hell donors, those are his words, fabulous tax cuts. And that's exactly what this is about. Look, there may be a lot of ways we should be doing tax cuts for working people, for middle class families.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Warren Calls Musk “Scared” for Not Testifying
More than you can measure. Think of it this way. The bumper sticker for this budget proposal is billionaires win, everybody else loses. And when I say everybody else loses, I really do mean everybody. So big hunk of these cuts are for the program called Medicaid. And that's like in Massachusetts, my home state, two out of every three people in a nursing home is there funded by Medicaid.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Warren Calls Musk “Scared” for Not Testifying
But that doesn't mean you have to give tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires. And that's the real difference here. The people who are sucking up all those tax cuts are the people at the very top. Last week in the United States Senate, about 4 o'clock in the morning, we're running through our first version of how the budget's going to work.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Warren Calls Musk “Scared” for Not Testifying
And the Republicans have put forward a bunch of the same stuff. So I stood up and said, is there anybody, anybody who is rich enough they shouldn't get a tax cut? And I said, how about, here's my amendment, anybody who makes more than $10 million in a year That's it for them. They don't get a tax cut. All the Democrats said, yes, we vote for that amendment.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Warren Calls Musk “Scared” for Not Testifying
And the Republicans said, no, not going to do that. So then Mark Kelly stood up and he said, OK, OK. He said, not that. How about if we make it for $100 million? Anybody making more than $100 million doesn't get a tax cut. Democrats said, yes. All of the Republicans, no. So then Angus King, independent from Maine, stood up, he said, okay, how about $500 million?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Warren Calls Musk “Scared” for Not Testifying
Anybody who's making at least $500 million doesn't get a tax cut under the Republican plan. Can we agree on that? All the Democrats said yes, and the Republicans shouted no. So then Chuck Schumer stands up and says, okay, how about a billion dollars? Could we agree that if you're making a billion dollars in the income in a single year, No tax cut for you under the Republican plan.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Warren Calls Musk “Scared” for Not Testifying
And every single Republican said no. And that tells you a lot. This is about tax cuts for the very, very, very richest Americans. paid for on the backs of little kids with serious disabilities who need an aid to be able to be in public school, paid for on the backs of people who get meals on wheels, paid for on the backs of your community hospital and health care system. That's just not right.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Warren Calls Musk “Scared” for Not Testifying
So, Ben, here's our big strategy. tell everyone what's really in this bill. Because if people get it, whether they're Democrats or Republicans, whether they live in red states or blue states, whether they voted for Donald Trump or Joe Biden or nobody at all, They don't want a tax package that says huge giveaways to rich people and then make everybody else in this country pay for it.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Warren Calls Musk “Scared” for Not Testifying
That's the part we got to fight back against. I get that there's a lot of stuff we need to go back and forth on what's right, what's wrong. I'm all for that. But can we just agree as we start out that we're not giving tax cuts
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Warren Calls Musk “Scared” for Not Testifying
to a handful of millionaires and billionaires and giant corporations and making our little kids and old people and people who need health care be the ones who are going to pay for it.
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Senator Warren Calls Musk “Scared” for Not Testifying
So let's back up just a tiny little bit and remember what the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is all about. We put it in place after the big crash in 2008 when 10 million people, 10 million families lost their homes. And the idea was we had all these consumer protection laws. They were scattered among seven agencies. Those agencies didn't enforce them. It was nobody's first job.
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Senator Warren Calls Musk “Scared” for Not Testifying
So it turned out to be nobody's job at all. We gathered those up, we put them with one agency, and then we said to that agency, enforce the law, that's your job. So over the last dozen years, what that agency has done is it's found more than $21 billion in fraud. where people got cheated on various financial products and they didn't just find the fraud.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Warren Calls Musk “Scared” for Not Testifying
So what exactly is the Donald Trump Republican plan here? That those old folks who don't have anything else, they don't have like some retirement plan or big fancy checking account to draw on. Are they just going to set them out on the corner to be picked up with the trash? Those are the kind of cuts we're talking about. Medicaid also helps fund community health centers all across this country.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Warren Calls Musk “Scared” for Not Testifying
Thank you, Ben. I'm just delighted to be here with you.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Warren Calls Musk “Scared” for Not Testifying
They found the fraudsters and made them give the money back to the people they cheated. More than $21 billion, it's gone to about 200 million people. This is government that really works. So Elon Musk comes in, shuts it all down. And now here comes the best part. It pays to fight back because that's what's happened. People have taken to the street over this.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Warren Calls Musk “Scared” for Not Testifying
People are telling their stories about how the agency helps them. And it appears that there's some moving in reverse here. For right now, we're in the courts because what Elon Musk did is plainly illegal. But this is a place where people are starting to say, damn it, this is government that works for me, and I want those cops back on the beat so I'm not getting cheated.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Warren Calls Musk “Scared” for Not Testifying
They understand that what Elon Musk has done is kind of like draw a target on anybody who has a credit card a mortgage, a car loan, a payday loan, a student loan, a checking account, even those online transactions, all of them. The CFPB is just the cop on the beat to say, you got to follow the law. You can't make your profits by cheating people. Elon doesn't like that, but the American people do.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Warren Calls Musk “Scared” for Not Testifying
And we're pushing back against him.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Warren Calls Musk “Scared” for Not Testifying
Elon, stop being such a coward. You say that you are for maximum transparency, then get out of your bunker. And come over here where there are people who ask serious questions, not people who just suck up to you, but people have serious questions about what you're doing because you're affecting the lives of millions of people across this country in really terrible ways. And people want to know.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Warren Calls Musk “Scared” for Not Testifying
So why is it, for example, that you want to get rid of the one cop on the beat that protects Americans from scams? Is it because you want to launch X money? You've made that quite public. And if you do that, that would be the one cop that would make sure you have to follow the law. Are you just trying to push that cop out of the way before you start?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Warren Calls Musk “Scared” for Not Testifying
Or are you over at the CFPB rummaging through all of their data so that you can get the information the CFPB already has? on the other sites that would be like your ex money, those same peer to peer platforms. Are you going to just try to get all of your competitors information so you can decide how to exploit that for your own use?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Warren Calls Musk “Scared” for Not Testifying
Look, you want to be transparent, then show up and answer some real questions, serious questions about the kinds of changes you're trying to make to our government and to our country.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Warren Calls Musk “Scared” for Not Testifying
I do. I think that I think this is one of those things where they kind of build their alternative reality. And Elon spends all of his time with people who don't contradict it. The only people who contradict him are online. He's got his thumbs out and he can have a torrent of clever tweets and emojis and laugh and still
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Warren Calls Musk “Scared” for Not Testifying
If you're not going to a community health center, you really ought to try one out. They do everything from little tiny babies to seniors. They do all kinds of care, preventive care, really the soup to nuts of taking care of people. And they give that high quality care. at the lowest possible cost. Cuts to Medicaid means that they could lose as much as half their budget.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Warren Calls Musk “Scared” for Not Testifying
Just live in this completely cloistered environment where people say, yes, Elon, yes, Elon, yes, Elon. You know, Elon, there's a whole real world out here. And the real world has some serious questions about what you're up to.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Warren Calls Musk “Scared” for Not Testifying
Thank you for having me, Ben. Let's do it again.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
FED UP Dems Finally PUT THE SCREWS in House GOP
Before you even got to all these really extraordinary findings, you had a guy who Donald Trump was proposing to be the top prosecutor for the United States of America, whose only experience with criminal investigations was to be the subject of them. before you even get to the conduct. That alone should have been disqualifying.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
FED UP Dems Finally PUT THE SCREWS in House GOP
So to your earlier point, the reflection of this on the judgment of Donald Trump is perhaps the most remarkable part of this whole story, setting aside all the grim and salacious details.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Yikes! Trump Forces GOP to Humiliate Itself on Live TV
And I think it's in everybody's best interest to 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.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Yikes! Trump Forces GOP to Humiliate Itself on Live TV
Well, look, I think we all know that 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.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Yikes! Trump Forces GOP to Humiliate Itself on Live TV
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 example, are protected and preserved.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Yikes! Trump Forces GOP to Humiliate Itself on Live TV
But I think we all understand that this government, federal 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 that perhaps they're not.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Yikes! Trump Forces GOP to Humiliate Itself on Live TV
that 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.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Yikes! Trump Forces GOP to Humiliate Itself on Live TV
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.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Yikes! Trump Forces GOP to Humiliate Itself on Live TV
And that's why Doge is so important. Whether he finds $500 billion, a trillion dollars, 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.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Yikes! Trump Forces GOP to Humiliate Itself on Live TV
Thank God almighty, we have a president who made promises on the campaign trail, and now he's keeping those promises. Okay.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Yikes! Trump Forces GOP to Humiliate Itself on Live TV
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.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Fox News in Total Panic as Trump Approval Falls
And the FDA administrative release, we assume it would be, is Dr. McCary coming up with new nutrition guidelines and helping America eat healthy once again.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Fox News in Total Panic as Trump Approval Falls
You know, I think there's like anything as a physician, it's education of my patients. We need to reeducate America, but we can also stop funding federal government funding of processed food. 70% of America's calories come from ultra processed food. There's no reason that those need to be in our school lunches, in our senior citizen meals as well.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Fox News in Total Panic as Trump Approval Falls
But we can redevelop those habits and we'll get it done eventually. But we need to cut back on the ultra processed foods. I cut back on the sodas, the sugar sodas that Snap is funding. So there's opportunity in the federal government as well.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Gets Rude Awakening as Zelenskyy Strikes Back
No. Putin is a war criminal and should be in jail for the rest of his life, if not executed.
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Trump Gets Rude Awakening as Zelenskyy Strikes Back
Well, I read a pamphlet back when I was in junior high called... you can trust the Russians. And then parenthetically, it was to be clearly on their side and to violate the rule of law. I think that's what we can trust the Russians to do, is to do anything to their advantage, to take temporary steps. But Vladimir Putin has violated every tenet of international law.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Dems Finally Smack Down the GOP Over Trump Disaster
That's what these idiots are saying. Play this clip. We all love a good stock market, but the reality is that stock market imbalance didn't necessarily benefit the smaller mid-sized companies and average shareholders across the country. It didn't necessarily benefit Main Street that much. So I think we are going to see a correction there. But the reality is the stock market is not the economy.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Dems Finally Smack Down the GOP Over Trump Disaster
The economy is not the stock market. It's not uncommon for uncertainty to cause disruptions in that as they digest a new environmental, a new economic landscape.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Dems Finally Smack Down the GOP Over Trump Disaster
And Trump's tariffs making America great again. It's a great strategy. If somebody's finally doing something out of the White House, President Trump that is, that says you have to take an action in another country.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Dems Finally Smack Down the GOP Over Trump Disaster
Yeah, no pain, no gain. That's what we used to tell our football players. There's going to be some pain with tariffs, but tariffs got us back as the strongest economy in the world when President Trump was in the first time. He knows what he's doing. Democrats get out of the way, shut up. You have no answers. You didn't do anything right in the last four years with Joe Biden. We have a game plan.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Dems Finally Smack Down the GOP Over Trump Disaster
Trump has a game plan along with Howard Ludnick and the other people that are pushing the tariffs. We can turn this thing around. But folks, let me tell you, this is our last chance. If we can't get it done now with tariffs and with pulling regulations and getting people back to work and cutting our debt and cutting the amount of spending, we're not going to have the country that we've had before.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Dems Finally Smack Down the GOP Over Trump Disaster
So people need to just listen, learn from this, understand it's short-term pain. We're going to get this turned around. President Trump knows exactly what he's doing, and he has a game plan, something Democrats didn't know anything about.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Dems Finally Smack Down the GOP Over Trump Disaster
Well, yeah, first of all, that was kind of a surprise to me. When I was flying in combat over Iraq during the first Gulf War, getting shot at on, you know, almost every time I went up on missions, I didn't expect that there was a 10-year-old kid you know, sitting in South Africa, who one day was going to become the richest guy in the world and was going to call me a traitor for doing my job.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Dems Finally Smack Down the GOP Over Trump Disaster
I mean, I mean, who saw this coming? It was, uh, it was quite the surprise. I don't take him very seriously. You know, now he kind of acts like a 12 year old kid, uh, just, you know, hurling around insults. He supposedly has this big job in the Trump administration. He's just doing an incredible amount of damage.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Dems Finally Smack Down the GOP Over Trump Disaster
to our institutions, to our workforce, but to the missions that this government needs to keep people safe, to keep our economy moving forward, he's doing significant damage. So I don't take the guy incredibly seriously. But at the same time, I do worry significantly about the damage he's doing. I got to mention this one more video here.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Fox News Crashes Hard on Live TV as Trump Tanks Fast
Here, play this clip. Says you can be deported if you support a terrorist organization. Here's the bottom line. Mr. Khalil hates America, as you said in your monologue. You know, if you're not happy where you are, move. You're not a tree.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Witness Crumbles Under Cross-Exam at Hearings
President Trump said, Mr. Greer, that he had no choice in terms of Canada. And I live 50 miles away from the Canadian border. He had no choice but to bypass Congress and to impose an emergency 25 percent tariff on Canada to stop, quote, the massive, end quote, amount of fentanyl and, quote, the millions and millions of undocumented immigrants coming from the northern border.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Witness Crumbles Under Cross-Exam at Hearings
unfortunately, that's a lie. The truth is that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported just 43 pounds of fentanyl was seized at the Canadian border last year, representing just two tenths of one percent of the total. Further, he said among he talked about millions and millions of undocumented immigrants coming from Canada.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Witness Crumbles Under Cross-Exam at Hearings
In fact, last year, there were 24000 people, not millions of millions. First question, really, we can argue about tariffs, but why does the president have to lie? all of the time in order to make his point.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Witness Crumbles Under Cross-Exam at Hearings
Drugs are a real emergency. Two-tenths of one percent. You can then argue drugs, illegal drugs come from every country in the world. If you declare that as an emergency, you're giving the president of the United States unbelievable power.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Witness Crumbles Under Cross-Exam at Hearings
I'm not a trade expert and I'm not gonna question it at this point. I do have a question about at the end of the day, the other thing in management consulting we like to focus on is this concept of one throat to choke. In other words, when you're finally taking a look at a strategy, someone has to own it. And you can't say that it's the president or the vice president.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Witness Crumbles Under Cross-Exam at Hearings
So my first question to you, in this scenario, the decision maker who decided the alla prima approach, who has obviously had to have spent time anticipating what we saw in the markets and some of the pushback, I'm assuming this all got gamed out, because it's a novel approach, it needed to be thought out. Whose throat do I get to choke if this proves to be wrong?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Witness Crumbles Under Cross-Exam at Hearings
But are you at the tip of the spear?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Witness Crumbles Under Cross-Exam at Hearings
Did you propose the a la prima approach?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Witness Crumbles Under Cross-Exam at Hearings
Section 232 and 301. We know particularly section 232 is still in aluminum. Section 301 is Chinese imports where there's no other I overheard you say that maybe I thought I heard you say in response to another question that for the near term, there won't be any exclusions. Is that true of China, where they have said the U.S.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Witness Crumbles Under Cross-Exam at Hearings
is unilaterally bullying and completely groundless and they're going to fight to the end? Are the 232 and 301 tariffs exclusions on the shelves until we get to a reasonable agreement with China? I'm just trying to answer a question that I have several people in North Carolina asking.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Witness Crumbles Under Cross-Exam at Hearings
There will not be any exclusions on steel, aluminum, or any products that are only manufactured in China for the foreseeable future until... China determines what the end is, because they said they're going to fight to the end. Again, I'm just trying to communicate the questions that I've asked, so there will be no exclusions. I won't waste your time asking for them.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Witness Crumbles Under Cross-Exam at Hearings
That's the main reason I wanted to ask the question. So again, I'm just trying to get my head around the logic of an alla prima approach, and I'm waiting to see it be successful. But it just seems like we've decided to begin a trade war on all fronts. And that's okay if the person who thought this through has an answer for why you go after...
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Witness Crumbles Under Cross-Exam at Hearings
partners that we have a very long story relationship with.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Witness Crumbles Under Cross-Exam at Hearings
There is a trade. We already have a free trade agreement. We have a trade surplus. So getting the least bad, why did they get whacked in the first place?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Witness Crumbles Under Cross-Exam at Hearings
Ambassador Clear, answer the question on Australia. We have a trade surplus with Australia. We have a free trade agreement. Why? They are an incredibly important national security partner. Why were they whacked with a tariff?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Witness Crumbles Under Cross-Exam at Hearings
With your Greek letter formula, the fact that we have a trade surplus.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Witness Crumbles Under Cross-Exam at Hearings
I think that answer... Sir, you're a much smarter person than that answer. The idea that we are going to whack friend and foe alike... and particularly friends with this level is both, I think, insulting the Australians, undermines our national security, and frankly makes us not a good partner going forward.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Witness Crumbles Under Cross-Exam at Hearings
The lack of trust from friends and allies based upon this ridiculous policy that goes into full effect at midnight tonight, is extraordinary.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Witness Crumbles Under Cross-Exam at Hearings
Sales tax is increasing prices for families. It's also causing huge losses in Americans' retirement savings. Ambassador Greer, would the administration reverse course if the president's tariffs led to 10% inflation?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Witness Crumbles Under Cross-Exam at Hearings
I understand your justification for the policy, even though there are some very contradictory justifications coming out of the administration. But my question is, what's the inflation rate? where you guys would reverse course. 10% inflation that I just asked you about, that is higher inflation than we saw at the peak of the COVID economic crisis.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Witness Crumbles Under Cross-Exam at Hearings
But you aren't gonna say here today that you would reverse course even if you created inflation as high as we had at the peak of the COVID economic crisis.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Witness Crumbles Under Cross-Exam at Hearings
Let's just be really clear that the Trump administration is here today to say that even if inflation hits Americans' pocketbooks at 10% because of these tariffs, then the Trump administration is still going to go charging ahead.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Witness Crumbles Under Cross-Exam at Hearings
So, Ambassador, would the administration reverse course if the president's tariffs caused a 50 percent stock market crash, which would hurt Americans' retirement savings even more than they've been hurt in the last 10 days or so?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Witness Crumbles Under Cross-Exam at Hearings
So again, your answer is even if the stock market crashes 50%, which is how much the stock market crashed in the Great Recession, you're not going to say here today that you would reverse course even if you crash the stock market and harm retirement savings as drastically as happened during the Great Recession in 2017.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Witness Crumbles Under Cross-Exam at Hearings
My hypotheticals are based on the fact that a lot of Americans are looking at their 401ks today and wondering how much of a lifestyle change they are going to have to have or whether they're going to be able to retire when they plan to because of the recklessness and haphazard nature of the Trump administration's imposition of tariffs. Nothing was... thought out about this.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Witness Crumbles Under Cross-Exam at Hearings
This has been a haphazard, incompetent effort, and it's showing. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Witness Crumbles Under Cross-Exam at Hearings
What are you doing about the impact of international tourism and now these blanket tariffs having a negative impact?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Witness Crumbles Under Cross-Exam at Hearings
So what are you doing to impact the negative impact of tourism right now?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Witness Crumbles Under Cross-Exam at Hearings
I'm asking you, what are you doing in this administration to address now the impact that you're having with these blanket tariffs, not targeted tariffs, blanket tariffs on international tourism that is a big impact for our economy? What are you doing to address that?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Witness Crumbles Under Cross-Exam at Hearings
Well, let me say I only have so much time and apparently you're not. So here's what I would like, because you haven't thought about this and the administration hasn't really thought about it because I haven't heard anybody talking about tourism. So why don't you come talk to me in my office and let's talk about and put a plan together because these blanket tariffs are having an impact.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Witness Crumbles Under Cross-Exam at Hearings
on tourism in my state and across the country. So instead of just defending it, why don't you just come sit down with some of us and try to address the concerns that we are seeing and feeling in our states that this administration has not taken into account.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Witness Crumbles Under Cross-Exam at Hearings
Ambassador Greer, we lost 700,000 jobs each month in the last recession. If 700,000 Americans lose their jobs, will the Trump administration suspend these tariffs?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Witness Crumbles Under Cross-Exam at Hearings
Mr. Greer, let me just stop you there. I'm not asking about projections. I'm asking if the numbers show that 700,000 people have lost their jobs because of these new tariffs that Trump has slapped on, will the administration reverse course and lift those tariffs?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Witness Crumbles Under Cross-Exam at Hearings
Now, let me just ask this, because this is also true, and I so appreciate Senator Lankford asking this. Time matters. How long did it take to negotiate that agreement, the USMCA, that you were part of?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Witness Crumbles Under Cross-Exam at Hearings
Two years. And now you're telling us you have nearly 50 countries coming to you, approaching you to enter in a negotiation, and you think that you can do that overnight? Yes. India, you're pretty superhuman here, if that's the case. So let's be realistic. That's all we're asking. Common sense.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Witness Crumbles Under Cross-Exam at Hearings
Questions for members. But you can see all my colleagues. We are thoughtful people with specific issues about our constituencies. I just met with raspberry growers. They're concerned. They want to know if they're going to get some seat on a council so they can have their issues heard. I'm for trade. I represent trade. I represent a trade economy.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Witness Crumbles Under Cross-Exam at Hearings
I represent the success of what innovation and trade get you. But you're coming here this morning with this not only tanking of the market and 401s, now you're coming here telling me that tariff is the tool. And I'm telling you innovation is the tool. You're telling us in your testimony you want a tariff on semiconductors.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Witness Crumbles Under Cross-Exam at Hearings
I'm saying that the last administration and this organization here passed the Chips and Science Act so we could reshore semiconductors here in the United States. So you're not going to win the innovation economy by tariffing semiconductors and reshoring that. I don't know what you think.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
BOOM! GOP Gets Stunned as Dems Finally Start Fighting
The corruption is why hedge funds get to buy up all the houses in your neighborhood and Congress doesn't do anything about it. See, this is why so many have lost faith in our system. Because the system really is rigged but Trump's not unrigging it, he's re-rigging it for himself.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
BOOM! GOP Gets Stunned as Dems Finally Start Fighting
And then on top of the chaos, you have the corruption. It was just reported that dinner with the president at Mar-a-Lago is on sale for just $5 million. And really, the whole royal family is cashing in. Don Jr. is setting up a new business empire. Jared's investment firm got $2 billion from the Saudi royal family. Hunter Biden should have been more ambitious.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
BOOM! GOP Gets Stunned as Dems Finally Start Fighting
In my Senate office, just over my desk, there's a portrait of Congressman Lewis. And I promise you, his spirit is with us in this place right now. Right now. The power is still with the people, Atlanta. Atlanta, are you ready to get in good trouble? Atlanta, Atlanta, are you ready to speak out? Atlanta, are you ready to organize? Atlanta, are you ready to march? Georgia will bow to no king.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
BOOM! GOP Gets Stunned as Dems Finally Start Fighting
And Georgia will lead the way again. Thank you all. Thank you, Georgia. Thank you so much.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
BOOM! GOP Gets Stunned as Dems Finally Start Fighting
They are busy attacking ordinary people. They don't understand what it's like to have to fight to cover the cost of child care. They don't understand what it's like to have to ration your prescription drugs. or what it's like to try to figure out how to afford groceries, even the price of a dozen eggs. In the words of that prophet who just spoke at the Super Bowl, they not like us.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
BOOM! GOP Gets Stunned as Dems Finally Start Fighting
In fact, Mr. Musk had the unmitigated audacity to call Social Security a Ponzi scheme. I guess that's easy for a billionaire who's been living on the government dole to say. He doesn't understand the struggles of ordinary people, and that is the problem with this administration. They are incapable of understanding the experiences of ordinary people. They've gone out of their way to target seniors.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
BOOM! GOP Gets Stunned as Dems Finally Start Fighting
And none of this is on the administration's agenda. They just do not care. They do not care. Trump's cabinet is worth like $60 billion. That's not even including Elon. They are literally the elites they pretend to hate. The president is not at his palace in Florida thinking about whether you can afford daycare for your daughter.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
BOOM! GOP Gets Stunned as Dems Finally Start Fighting
This administration just announced that they are offering fewer services by phone, so folks have to wait up to a month for an in-person appointment. And that's what I call government efficiency.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
BOOM! GOP Gets Stunned as Dems Finally Start Fighting
Quite honestly, I've been stunned by a turn of events that would appear that we might abandon Ukraine and collapse longstanding alliances from NATO to NORAD. And then we've got two close neighbors here in Alaska. We've got Russia over here. We've got Canada over here. How we came to a place where we're fighting now with Canada and we're making nice with Russia, it's beyond me.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
BOOM! GOP Gets Stunned as Dems Finally Start Fighting
how to stop insurance companies from denying your claim or anything that matters to our daily lives. When is the last time you even heard Donald Trump talk about healthcare or childcare? He's talking about invading Greenland.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
BOOM! GOP Gets Stunned as Dems Finally Start Fighting
And as long as we've got to send up fighter jets to chase off Russian bear bombers from our addies, I'm not going to trust Putin here, and I'm not going to be quiet about it. I'm going to stand up and say so. Thank you.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
BOOM! GOP Gets Stunned as Dems Finally Start Fighting
In our form of government, unless you are a coward, you don't sue the media because they report on things you don't like. You don't sue the Des Moines Register because they did a poll whose results you don't like.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
BOOM! GOP Gets Stunned as Dems Finally Start Fighting
If we were, look, if we were a poor country, I would come before you and I'd say, I'm sorry that you got to work 50 hours a week. I'm sorry that you really have to do dangerous and dirty work. I am sorry that you can't afford to send your kid to college. I'm sorry that the elementary school your kid goes through is inadequate or that you can't afford childcare, but we're a poor country.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
BOOM! GOP Gets Stunned as Dems Finally Start Fighting
We just can't afford that.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
BOOM! GOP Gets Stunned as Dems Finally Start Fighting
We are not a poor country. There is no excuse in God's earth that people have to make a choice between food and the medicine they need to stay alive.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
BOOM! GOP Gets Stunned as Dems Finally Start Fighting
And see, this is why things don't work for ordinary people. It's not because of trans kids or woke college students. It's not because of our new arch enemy, Canada. The corruption is why you pay a fortune for prescriptions. The corruption is why your insurance claim keeps getting denied.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Gets Outmaneuvered by World Leaders Instantly
We give foreign aid. We do so because it furthers our national interest. That's why we give foreign aid. Now, obviously, there's a component to foreign aid that's humanitarian in scope, and that's important too. I promise you it's going to be a lot harder to recruit someone to anti-Americanism, anti-American terrorism. If the United States of America was the reason why they're even alive today.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Gets Outmaneuvered by World Leaders Instantly
Anybody who tells you that we can slash foreign aid and that will bring us to balance is lying to you. Foreign aid is less than 1% of our budget. It's just not true.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Gets Outmaneuvered by World Leaders Instantly
I have felt for a long time that USAID is our way to combat the Belt and Road Initiative, which is China's effort to really gain influence around the world, including Africa and South America and the Western Hemisphere. So we need an aid program to match the Chinese effort. but it needs to be done in a way that the policymakers of the United States have decided ought to be done.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Gets Outmaneuvered by World Leaders Instantly
And so I'm eager to see an audit and see the sort of mismanagement that the Secretary of State has told us about today.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Uh Oh! Dems Torch the GOP in Their Own Turf
I want to ask about how we're going to do that. Will you agree this morning, since you want to cherish Medicaid, to oppose any cuts to the Medicaid program? And I want a yes or no because we all agree that we need to do more to fight fraud and such matters. But what I want to know, yes or no, is since you cherish Medicaid, will you agree to oppose cuts in the Medicaid program?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Uh Oh! Dems Torch the GOP in Their Own Turf
That's not the question, doctor. The question is, will you oppose cuts to this program you say you cherish? Time's short.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Uh Oh! Dems Torch the GOP in Their Own Turf
Let the record show that I asked a witness who said he cherishes this program, will you agree to oppose cuts? And he would not answer a yes or no question.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Sen. Mark Kelly on Trump’s ‘Worst 50 Days’
But with his tariff policy, this has been very, very harmful. It creates a tremendous amount of uncertainty. And I think he's done a rather horrible job. I can't think of what he could have done to make the first 50 days worse.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Sen. Mark Kelly on Trump’s ‘Worst 50 Days’
Look, we have to remember, step back for just one second. We have to remember that if Kamala Harris had won on November 5th, the stock market would be down 50%. Business climate would be a total disaster and this country would have been on a path to ruin.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Sen. Mark Kelly on Trump’s ‘Worst 50 Days’
It would have been worse. They're going with it. Yeah, it would be where this is like upside down world. Right. I mean, it's just pretty, pretty crazy. You would have had some of the policies with certainly some changes from President Biden. Some of these programs that we put in place, by the way, bipartisan.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Sen. Mark Kelly on Trump’s ‘Worst 50 Days’
You know, Democrats and Republicans working together on semiconductor manufacturing, the Chips and Science Act. I know Bernie Moreno wasn't here then, but he's from Ohio. His state is benefiting from a program that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris put in place, which was the Chips and Science Act. And this president, Donald Trump, said he wants to get rid of this. He wants to cancel this.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Sen. Mark Kelly on Trump’s ‘Worst 50 Days’
He wants to replace it with more tariffs. And how is his tariffs working out for the American people? It's raising costs. It's creating tremendous uncertainty. And he can't even get his tariff plan right. I mean, it's one thing to have a shitty tariff plan. It's another to not even be consistent with your crappy plan. And that's what we see going on here.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Sen. Mark Kelly on Trump’s ‘Worst 50 Days’
And that's why I think the market is reacting to this. I think this is going to probably get worse before it gets better. The American people need to need to buckle up for a little bit of a wild ride. But let me, let me tell you this. We are a great country. We've got the best innovators in the world. We've got the best military. We got a strong workforce. We're going to get through this.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Sen. Mark Kelly on Trump’s ‘Worst 50 Days’
I'm hearing exactly that. I had a dozen veterans here in my office about a week and a half ago or so. These are folks that served our country in uniform. Many of them were combat veterans. Several of them were disabled. One was 100% disabled who had a government job after leaving the military because of his disability. Recently received a excellent or very good performance report.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Sen. Mark Kelly on Trump’s ‘Worst 50 Days’
Three weeks later, he's fired via email from the richest guy in the world. Elon Musk fired him for poor performance. This guy was doing his job really well. I mean, at least they should be fair about it and just say, hey, I'm firing you because we don't want you anymore. They even have to lie about it and tell this guy he's a bad performer. That same story happened thousands of times.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Sen. Mark Kelly on Trump’s ‘Worst 50 Days’
6,000 veterans who served this country honorably just kicked to the side of the road, their lives ruined. The next day, this guy was starting a minimum wage job in a kitchen. That's what Donald Trump and Elon Musk think about veterans.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Sen. Mark Kelly on Trump’s ‘Worst 50 Days’
It's insane. I mean, and it's it's dangerous. How do we tell Putin and other dictators around the world that you can't invade your neighbor when we start threatening to send troops to take the Panama Canal or start talking about how we're going to take Greenland possibly by force or maybe, you know, this this crazy. crazy stuff about Canada. Canada is our best ally on the planet.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Sen. Mark Kelly on Trump’s ‘Worst 50 Days’
You can't be talking about your friends in this way. So I think it's dangerous. It makes us weaker. He thinks it makes us look tough. He thinks he's a tough guy. As you point out, here's a guy that avoided being drafted during Vietnam because he has bone spurs when he was in his, what, 20s? And now he's in his 70s, and he's on the golf course a couple times a week. I mean, I don't get it.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Sen. Mark Kelly on Trump’s ‘Worst 50 Days’
I don't even think he gets it, to be honest. Here's a guy who says something one day. The next day, he's flipped 180 degrees, and then he's back. He's kind of like with the flip-flops. He's kind of like a house of pancakes here.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Sen. Mark Kelly on Trump’s ‘Worst 50 Days’
Well, yeah, it's not that. That doesn't help. People don't understand that. It's hard to understand that even when you're here in the Senate for four years. What is all that stuff? What can we do? We can fight back, and we can fight back stronger.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Sen. Mark Kelly on Trump’s ‘Worst 50 Days’
I get the criticism here, and we have to because they've taken a wrecking ball to the government, and now it's affecting the economy, so it's affecting people's lives. I think folks today, 50-something days into it, this are poorer. If they have a 401k, any kind of a retirement program, any kind of savings like that, they've got less money today than they did before.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Sen. Mark Kelly on Trump’s ‘Worst 50 Days’
Senator Kelly, what's your response to that? I think it's probably the worst 50 days of any presidency I can think of in my life. It's been pretty much a shit show since day one, since his getting sworn in in the Capitol. I was there. I didn't expect prisoners, criminals to be released after beating up police officers. My parents were both cops. I take great offense.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Sen. Mark Kelly on Trump’s ‘Worst 50 Days’
And then the cost of things are going up. This is the guy who said he was elected or running all about bringing down costs. He has done exactly the opposite of this. And these costs are going to continue to go up. And he lies to the American people about how tariffs work. All anybody has to do is look it up in the dictionary or in an encyclopedia to find out, you know, how do these things work?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Sen. Mark Kelly on Trump’s ‘Worst 50 Days’
And they're paid in the United States by the person who imports it. Turned, that cost gets passed on to the consumer. Prices go up. It's pretty simple. So I think we keep, you know, fighting back. You know, Elon is doing a lot of damage to... the federal government to the economy.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Sen. Mark Kelly on Trump’s ‘Worst 50 Days’
Hey, and then I think it's fair to say I'm all about, you know, change in the government and reducing any kind of redundancy or if there's waste or there's fraud. We have to have a serious look at that. But this isn't the way you do it. You do this through a process of.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Sen. Mark Kelly on Trump’s ‘Worst 50 Days’
you know, managing these agencies and looking for doing some analysis and then let the heads of the agencies, even the ones that I didn't vote for, let them take this on as a project. Let them do this and try to make smart decisions. This is just like random. And it's not helpful.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Sen. Mark Kelly on Trump’s ‘Worst 50 Days’
Well, I'm not going to hear from people that are the diehard Donald Trump supporters very often. I do occasionally. And, you know, there are some folks that just whatever he does, they're going to be in favor of. But there are so many people. And I think there's more of these folks that are really concerned about.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Sen. Mark Kelly on Trump’s ‘Worst 50 Days’
about breaking institutions about actions that this president is taking that is going to have a direct effect on them that are concerned about turning our backs on the ukrainians who are allies who we have supported their democracy against
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Sen. Mark Kelly on Trump’s ‘Worst 50 Days’
a country that has been an adversary and who wants to undermine Western civilization, who would like to see us fail, who interferes in our elections, who attacks us with cyber warfare routinely.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Sen. Mark Kelly on Trump’s ‘Worst 50 Days’
And by the way, just as an aside, why did the Department of Defense and we're still trying to verify exactly what happened, but decide to stop planning offensive operations against Russia, cyber operations when they attack us all the time? It happens every single day. So, you know, I think folks are you know, they're they're really concerned. And I get it.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Sen. Mark Kelly on Trump’s ‘Worst 50 Days’
And I'm going to be here in Washington, D.C., you know, fighting to get us back on track. It's going to take some time. We got an election in 2026. And then again, a presidential election in 2028. Elections matter. People need to show up and vote.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Sen. Mark Kelly on Trump’s ‘Worst 50 Days’
to what Donald Trump did at the beginning of the administration. And since then, it has been one bad thing after the next. The economy is now struggling, I would say, if you just look at the stock market. And I usually, Ben, I usually don't want to equate what a president does with how the markets react to this. It's generally not a good thing.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
AFT President Randi Weingarten on Trump Threats to Gut the Department of Education
To my friends who are upset, I would say with respect, you know, call somebody who cares. They better get used to this. It's USAID today. It's going to be Department of Education tomorrow.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
You know, my state seal is the only one that has a rebuke on it, thus be it always to tyrants because, and this has been on our flags since 1776, we have to fight against an authoritarian who wants to screw up the economy and
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
screw up relations around the world and and screw up agencies that do good work all to benefit himself and his friends and i have great confidence in the american people that we will stand up and that we will be celebrating not mourning come our 250th birthday in 2026. senator murphy your message to the 5 million subscribers we have here and the many more who listen here and abroad
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
Tim and I had different jobs at the beginning of the week on Monday and Tuesday. Tim was lining up these Republican votes against the tariffs. He did a fantastic job. I was on the floor for all 25 hours of Cory Booker's filibuster as kind of his wingman. He did it for me back when I held a filibuster on guns and And it was just a reminder to me that one person can make a difference.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
I mean, not everybody out there is the United States Senator. Not everybody has access to the Senate floor like Cory did, but he did something heroic that really moved the nation. And I think everybody can look at what he did and realize that you have the ability just through your own voice, in concert and chorus with other Americans to step up and stop this thievery. What Tim said is right.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
We beat the Affordable Care Act repeal in 2017. Wake up every day with a little bit of that anxiousness, right? With a little bit of that anger, but also with optimism about the fact that in this country, citizens are still in charge. So that's our message every single day.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
And the reason that these tariffs may not make any sense when you sort of look at the design is because maybe they're not actually economic or trade policy. Maybe it's actually political policy. So once again, just an absolute disaster for regular working people out there and maybe a big threat to our democracy.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
Yeah, I'm wearing my Virginia State seal pin that says 6th Emperor Tyrannus on it. I'm wearing it for a reason. It is part of it. I'm looking at this president and, you know, we all know the fairy tale of Rumpelstiltskin. We were a kid, the mysterious guy that would turn straw into gold. This president is Rumpelstiltskin. He's turning gold into straw.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
On Inauguration Day, he had the strongest economy in the world.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
low unemployment stock market strong manufacturing jobs growing infrastructure jobs going and in less than two months he's turned it through chaos and incompetence into one with flashing red lights and question marks all over it and i battled really hard this week and was able to get republicans to stand up against canadian tariffs and we're going to do the same with this
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
broader tariff that he's laid on the entire world. I agree with Chris. He likes doing it because he thinks he can do it unilaterally. But let's be clear what this is ultimately about. You know, he said the tariffs are to go after countries with trade barriers, but he put tariffs on companies that have zero trade barriers for U.S. products.
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Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
He said it was because of trade deficits, but he put tariffs on countries where the U.S. has trade surpluses.
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Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
um it's going to cause massive pain to consumers so why do it he's doing it so that he can have six trillion dollars that's what he's assessing over 10 years of tariff revenue that he can use to pay for a tax cut for himself and his friends chris has been really focused on all these cuts to medicaid and other programs that everyday americans care about so you take all those cuts
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Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
And then you take all this tariff revenue. Essentially, it's a national sales tax on American consumers. You put it in a bucket and then you use it to give tax breaks to the wealthy. That's the only thing that really explains any, quote, economic theory behind this. It's a pay for for a giveaway to the richest.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
Yeah, listen, it's extraordinary. I mean, these crowds that are showing up for kind of anything, right? Tens of thousands for Bernie Sanders. But, you know, you throw a protest against the Tesla dealership in my state and you're going to get a thousand people. You know, folks want to be plugged into action right now.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
So I do think it's incumbent upon those of us who are leaders at the national level to be out across the country, holding town halls, holding rallies, giving people actions that they can take to try to stop this thievery and corruption. But I also think that we need to meet the moment by meeting Trump's volume level.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
There's a little bit of a theory that some have in the Democratic Party that we should sort of sit back and just wait for these guys to disintegrate and collapse. Well, they may collapse politically, but when they flood the zone, we need to flood the zone.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
What are you seeing? Yeah, I mean, listen, these guys are the keystone cops. You saw it last week with Signalgate. You're seeing it now with tariffs. These guys don't know how to run a country. They don't know how to run an economy. This is going to be an absolute disaster for consumers. Prices are going to go down. sky high, the jobs are not going to show up.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
So what a lot of us are doing is just dramatically upping the content we put out there so that every time Trump says something, we can explain to you why it's happening and how it fits into this broader storyline that Tim was laying out, which is that They're trying to turn the government over to their billionaire friends, to their Mar-a-Lago friends.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
Everything is about empowering these oligarchs. And they're willing to destroy the democracy because what they're doing is super unpopular. So they have to try to crush dissent in order to get away with it. So I just think we have to be running a national political movement. We need to give people options for action. We need to be really loud.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
We need to triple the content that we're putting out there. That's the best way right now that we can meet the moment try to spur on the kind of national epic scale mobilization that we're going to need to save the country.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
I'm hearing the same thing as Chris. We had our first recess week in March since we came in in January, and I did 26 events in seven days around Virginia. And I just heard a boatload of concerns and anxieties. And what I tell people is, look, there's a five-level strategy we have. It's courts, Congress, states, elections, and activism.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
And in each one of these, we have to have a coordinated set of plans. The one that I'm most responsible for, obviously, with Chris is in Congress, what can we do? And we We're in minority in both houses. So what I did is I asked my staff after the dust settled in November, OK, we're in the minority in both houses and Trump's got the White House.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
What are things in minority you can do where they can't block you, that you get a free pass to go right to the floor and get a vote? They can't bottle it up in committee. They can't. kill you. You go right to the floor. And I found about four mechanisms in Senate procedure where you can take the fight right to the floor. Even just one senator can take it right to the floor.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
So twice in the last month, I've used this. I challenged President Trump's bogus energy emergency that he declared, even though we're producing more energy than at any time in the history of the United States, he used that emergency to justify end runs to all these environmental laws for oil, gas, and coal. I took that to the floor. I got a vote. It unified all Dems.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
The Republicans all stood with Trump because they're too afraid to say, hey, there's no energy emergency. But when I did the same thing this week, I used the same unusual procedural tool to force a vote on the Canadian tariffs. I got four Republicans. This is the first break where any Republicans have been willing to stand up against Trump. And obviously, Chris and I are in minority.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
The fact of the matter is, yeah, there's a world in which tariffs can help restart American jobs, but you have to pair the tariffs with domestic industrial policy incentives for companies to locate here. They're not doing that. So the only people that are going to feel pain are consumers. But I've got a little different theory of the case on this. And then, obviously, I'd love to hear Tim on it.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
So we got to look for ways that we'll get some Republicans to come our way. The outside game that puts pressure on them, the economic indicators that are showing that Trump's screwing up the economy, that increases the pressure for them to join us as we're challenging Trump.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
And so I'm trying to perfect these tools that will force them again and again and again to have to declare whether they're on their constituent side or whether they're on Trump's side.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
Well, the bottom line is that every year, the majority party gets the chance to pass something in the spending and tax arena with a majority vote. It's called reconciliation, but who cares what it's called? They get one chance to do that every year. And so this is what Republicans have been trying to do for the last couple of months is pass their spending and tax package. And it's pretty simple.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
It's a massive tax increase, about a trillion dollars for the richest 1%. And it's paid for by throwing a whole bunch of people, millions of people off their health insurance, about a trillion dollars of cuts to Medicaid. Medicaid is the program that insures 24 percent of American families. Nobody really knows it as Medicaid because it's called something different in every state.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
In Connecticut, it's Husky Care. In Wisconsin, it's Badger Care. But one quarter of families are on Medicaid. So that's the spending and tax package, massive transfer of wealth from middle class to families, to the wealthy. But the reason that it looks confusing is that like everything else, these guys are just bad at governing. So there's two steps.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
They have to pass sort of the framework and then they have to pass the final bill with all the details. They can't get the framework passed. The House passed one version, the Senate passed one version, but it didn't match. And so this week they're trying to pass a new version that matches. They're the keystone cops in the White House, but it's the same thing in Congress as well.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
So it looks even more convoluted and confusing because like when they couldn't figure out how to elect a speaker in the House of Representatives and they had to try six or seven times, they're doing the same thing in the House and the Senate. But the bottom line is that they are trying to do the same thing. They just can't get agreement on the details.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
What they're doing is massive tax cut for the wealthy. Their tax package gives about 850 times the benefit to the very wealthy as to the very poor and paid for by cuts that are going to affect regular Americans. They are trying to vote this week on another version of the framework.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
but we'll see if they ever get to the final version because what they're doing is super unpopular and people out in America are rising up in protest like they did in 2017 when they tried to pass a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, which covers 20 million people.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
But this is also a political tool for Trump. You see what he's doing with these universities, with these law firms, penalizing them and making them come to him to pledge loyalty. I think it's likely the same thing could happen with the tariffs.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
They couldn't do it because it was so unpopular and our hope is that we can drag this out for as long as possible so that we can rise up public opposition like we did to the repeal of the Affordable Care Act so they actually never get this thing across the finish line. That's our goal.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
I'll just weigh in what Chris said because he really laid it out well. The debate this weekend is still about the framework and the instructions, not the actual budget. But once that's set, they'll bring the actual budget back and then we will have a battle royale.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
But it is important for everybody to know when the Republicans had the majority in Trump in the White House in 2017, they used their one shot. Chris says you can do this once a year. They used their one shot to get rid of Obamacare and make cuts to Medicaid. And we beat them. We got Republican votes, just like we got on our Canadian tariff thing earlier this week.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
So our goal is to shine a spotlight on how bad this will be and use the intense activism of people around the country leaning on their legislature so that when they come up with the actual budget bill in a few months, based on this instruction we're working on this weekend, our goal is we're going to beat them again like we beat them in 2017. And that's what this is all about.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
Yeah, that's right. Another one of these arcane Senate rules is that anytime you are trying to pass either the framework for this once a year majority vote budget or the final package, Democrats or Republicans, basically any senator has the unlimited right of amendment. So you can offer as many amendments as you want. Nobody can shut down the amendment process.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
that each big company or each big industry is gonna have to come to Trump, get some tariff relief in exchange for political loyalty, in exchange for a commitment to buy Trump crypto coin or a commitment to make sure their workers and employees don't speak up against Trump. I think he's trying to destroy democracy
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
And so tonight we will likely go well into the night offering lots and lots of amendments. And I'll give you an example. Republicans will likely defeat all of them, but it gives us an opportunity to show what this is all about.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
One of the things we'll likely do tonight that we did last time they tried to pass the framework is just put them on record as to how much they care about tax cuts for the super wealthy. So we might put an amendment on the floor that says, the framework can't allow for any tax cuts for people who make more than $500 million a year. And they'll vote that down.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
And then we'll put one up that says, well, you can't have any tax cuts for people that make more than a billion dollars a year. And then we'll try 5 billion, right? We'll just put them on the record to show how badly They care about tax cuts for the wealthy, but they can't even vote against massive tax cuts for people that are making a billion dollars or more a year.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
They probably will defeat these amendments, but it just puts them in a box and it further refines the message for us, which is that all they care about is the economy for billionaires. They do not care about, and we've seen this with the tariffs, with their tax package, with their custom Medicaid. They do not care about the economy for regular Americans.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Senators Murphy and Kaine Respond to Trump Crash
I tell you what motivates me every day. 2026 is 250 years of American democracy. And I am damn committed that we will celebrate it, not mourn it or not have a coronation. We're going to have a celebration, not a coronation or a requiem. And so this budget battle is part of a larger battle.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Fox News Loses It After Trump Oval Office Meltdown
Yeah, the America Last crowd has always got something to say. But I think today was telling. I think people should pay attention to the people who are defending Zelensky versus the people who are defending America. So it's a kind of a defining day. I think a fault line that had existed for a while is now out in the open. And it's very, as you said, it's very educational. It's very instructive.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Fox News Loses It After Trump Oval Office Meltdown
But the truth of the matter is, we're Americans. That's our president. And no foreign leader comes into the Oval Office and disrespects us that way, especially when we're trying to help.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Fox News Loses It After Trump Oval Office Meltdown
And they were very clear today. I just think and I also have golfed with President Trump from time to time today for Zelensky. This was a gimme. This was a one foot putt that he just blew past the hole with his arrogance and his smugness. It totally backfired.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Fox News Loses It After Trump Oval Office Meltdown
The biggest losers here are the Ukrainian people because you have an American president, the only person on the planet, Laura, who can bring peace. And he couldn't bring himself just to say thank you today. to say thank you and just listen as opposed to popping off. And then he got escorted out of the Oval Office and out of the White House. So this thing's really in jeopardy now.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Fox News Loses It After Trump Oval Office Meltdown
But I'm glad the American people have a president and a vice president who are willing to stand up for them.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Adam Schiff Responds to Trump’s Oval Office Meltdown
was just offended that the president of Ukraine stood up for his country. I don't know, but we are going to be living with the consequences of this for a very long time.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Adam Schiff Responds to Trump’s Oval Office Meltdown
I told President Trump, I said, there's two ways to look at this. Your interaction with Zelensky was maybe the best television I've ever seen, but it's deeper than that. The world is now watching how Trump behaves and acts when he's pressed. I thought he stood up for America, that we're a good people. We want to help you, but we're going to be respected.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Adam Schiff Responds to Trump’s Oval Office Meltdown
So I think Moscow is probably more afraid of Trump than ever. Hope the Chinese are, and I hope the Iranians are. As to Zelensky and Ukraine, to the Ukrainian people, America wants to help you. The way the meeting went today, you made it almost impossible to help you.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Adam Schiff Responds to Trump’s Oval Office Meltdown
I can't imagine a better meeting from the point of view of Vladimir Putin. He has to be just overjoyed with this, watching the President of the United States betray Ukraine, watching the President of the United States call Ukraine the aggressor, make out Zelensky to be a dictator. Literally, they must be celebrating in the Kremlin. This has been such a dramatic transformation of American policy.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Adam Schiff Responds to Trump’s Oval Office Meltdown
So I don't know what meeting my colleague was watching, but it could not have been the same meeting that the rest of America and the world were watching. This is a dream come true for the Kremlin, but for our allies, and I think you can see the reaction of our allies, world leaders in Europe and elsewhere, all coming to the defense of Ukraine.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Adam Schiff Responds to Trump’s Oval Office Meltdown
They witnessed the same meeting and they're all expressing support for Ukraine. And why? Because they witnessed the president of the United States betray Ukraine. So I don't think there's any question about what the mood is in Moscow. It's just jubilant. But everywhere else, it's a cataclysm.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Adam Schiff Responds to Trump’s Oval Office Meltdown
And frankly, if the President of the United States won't defend our values, won't defend democracy, won't stand by our allies, then we damn well need to do it in Congress. And I hope that what we heard from one of my colleagues is very much an outlier, because if it isn't, I don't know what happened to the party of Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan must be rolling over at his grave right now.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Adam Schiff Responds to Trump’s Oval Office Meltdown
I was horrified and sickened by it. I think about what other generations of Americans have done going off to war in World War II, fighting for our freedom, fighting for democracy, fighting for our values. To see them so utterly betrayed in this meeting, it is just really incomprehensible to have the President of the United States and the Vice President of the United States
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Adam Schiff Responds to Trump’s Oval Office Meltdown
I went to the Munich Security Conference, which was only a week or 10 days ago, and it was a bipartisan delegation. We sat down and met with Zelensky. During those meetings, I expressed my strong support for Ukraine. I took issue with what Secretary Hegseth had then said about, well, Ukraine won't be a member of NATO and they're not going to be able to retain the territory that Russia has invaded.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Adam Schiff Responds to Trump’s Oval Office Meltdown
and said that, no, Ukraine and NATO should decide who's in NATO. Nobody gets a veto. The Kremlin certainly doesn't get a veto. And what's more, we shouldn't be undercutting Ukraine in terms of its territory, even before negotiation begins. And those remarks I made were not an outlier. I think they were very much consistent on a bipartisan basis with what other senators in the room also felt
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Adam Schiff Responds to Trump’s Oval Office Meltdown
Now, whether they'll speak out, some have spoken out before today, whether they'll speak out after today when they cannot avoid a direct confrontation with the president remains to be seen. But if not now, when, if not after such a fundamental betrayal,
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Adam Schiff Responds to Trump’s Oval Office Meltdown
then indeed their support for Ukraine, for our international standing has simply vanished, disappeared along with Donald Trump's arrival on the scene.
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Senator Adam Schiff Responds to Trump’s Oval Office Meltdown
It is crazy stuff, and it's a continuation of what we heard from President Trump yesterday when he was talking about how we can rely on Putin, and Putin seems to be a man of his word. This is the guy who puts polonium in your tea and kills you. This is a guy who has murdered journalists and thrown, not personally, but had top Russian military and other leaders killed.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Adam Schiff Responds to Trump’s Oval Office Meltdown
who disagree with him or aren't sufficiently pro-Putin thrown out of windows or has their plane crashed. As we saw with Prigozhin, this is the guy that we're going to certainly trust him. And he's taking issue with Zelensky for his criticism of Putin. We used to have presidents of the United States until this one who would share that criticism of the Kremlin dictator.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Adam Schiff Responds to Trump’s Oval Office Meltdown
But look, this is Donald Trump. being petulant Donald Trump. This is Donald Trump caring about nothing of American values. It's just about his ego or trying to make a buck or aggrandize himself. If he truly believed in the peace negotiations, would he be willing to walk away from them with such a huff? You know, it's all about Donald Trump.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Adam Schiff Responds to Trump’s Oval Office Meltdown
siding with the Kremlin dictator, regurgitating his talking points, a country that brutally invaded its neighbor, that has massacred tens of thousands of people, that has kidnapped children, that is torturing POWs. That's the guy they're defending, and they're abusing the president of Ukraine, Zelensky, who was forced to defend himself, defend his country, and all in the service of what, exactly?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Adam Schiff Responds to Trump’s Oval Office Meltdown
And today, Donald Trump wasn't pleased with a leader who stood up for himself and stood up for his country and wasn't going to be a lickspittle. But you can see the reaction around the world. And it has not isolated Zelensky. It has isolated Donald Trump and sadly Zelensky. the United States of America along with him.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Adam Schiff Responds to Trump’s Oval Office Meltdown
Well, to the people of America, I want to just say this is not who we are. This is not who we are. We don't bully an ally. We don't take the side of a dictator. We don't ignore the long and important role that we have played in defending democracy. That is not who we are. We're just not what we saw displayed by the President of the United States today. And
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Adam Schiff Responds to Trump’s Oval Office Meltdown
I think we all have a role to play right now in the defense, not just of Ukraine, but of what the country stands for, of our values. I would say to our allies around the world, what they witnessed too might be Donald Trump, but it is not America. And we'll have to get through this period. We'll have to struggle through this period. We'll have to be more reliant.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Adam Schiff Responds to Trump’s Oval Office Meltdown
When I say we, the freedom loving people of the world are going to have to be more reliant on other leaders in the world because we cannot rely on this president. And it's a terrible way to feel about a president of the United States, but the shameful display we had today is so antithetical to everything that our country has stood for, and I hope it is never repeated.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Adam Schiff Responds to Trump’s Oval Office Meltdown
The mineral rights, is that what this is about? That President Trump is upset he didn't get the mineral rights to Ukraine? Are we that transactional? Does nothing matter to us but some kind of protection racket? Or I don't know what, but whether this was a deliberate sabotage, an orchestrated sabotage, or whether a small, petty, weak President Donald Trump
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Yikes! Republicans Blow Up on Live TV over Trump Crash
Do you believe the information on that group chain was classified?
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Yikes! Republicans Blow Up on Live TV over Trump Crash
Jeffrey, what do you make of those explanations?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Yikes! Republicans Blow Up on Live TV over Trump Crash
I feel like in some ways in the economy, this is kind of like a kitchen remodel or a bathroom model. There's a bit of a mess at the beginning, but everybody has a long-term look of where we're headed. It's going to be noisy for a little while, but we all know where we're headed trying to reduce the prices for Americans and increase jobs.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Yikes! Republicans Blow Up on Live TV over Trump Crash
We are less than three months into the administration at this point. So I think we've got a ways to go to be able to determine anything related to that. This is the first.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Yikes! Republicans Blow Up on Live TV over Trump Crash
Part of America, the going against Denmark, who is a NATO member who rules Greenland currently, this whole approach that Trump has of treating our allies, when we turn Canada into a enemy, our allies are As you not allies and suddenly wanting to buddy up with Putin in Russia or with Xi and China. Think about it.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Yikes! Republicans Blow Up on Live TV over Trump Crash
America two weeks ago, three weeks ago, voted with Russia, North Korea, I think it was Belarus. against everyone else who is a democracy, because we wouldn't acknowledge that Putin started the war in Ukraine. This is a crazy foreign policy, and America is stronger when we have allies. America alone is weaker if we don't have that intelligence sharing, if we don't have these mutual defense pacts.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Yikes! Republicans Blow Up on Live TV over Trump Crash
Do you believe that directors Ratcliffe and Gabbard were truthful when they testified before your committee?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Fox News Implodes on Air as Guests Backfire
Well, absolutely. And Elon Musk will also admit that mistakes have been made along the way. They are very excited about the opportunity to come in and reshape the federal government, one that will be more efficient.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
GOP Leaders Nuke Congress on Live TV... Dems Strike Back
Supporting terrorist groups. And if you look at what UNRWA has done, it's been so counter to our national interest. It's unbelievable that we would fund it.
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GOP Leaders Nuke Congress on Live TV... Dems Strike Back
You have to look at what the Trump administration is doing right now. They are simply trying to dismantle the government. So yes, look, if we have to take steps to be able to hold them accountable, use the leverage that we have to force it, I cannot support efforts that will continue this lawlessness that we're seeing when it comes to this administration's actions.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
GOP Leaders Nuke Congress on Live TV... Dems Strike Back
And for us to be able to support government funding in that way, only for them to turn it around to dismantle the government, that is not something that should be allowed.
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GOP Leaders Nuke Congress on Live TV... Dems Strike Back
This is on them. This is about whether or not they can get the votes. They are the majority. And if they cannot govern, then that's for the American people to see. But I worked in government. I worked through multiple government shutdowns. I would be the last person to want to get to that stage.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
GOP Leaders Nuke Congress on Live TV... Dems Strike Back
But we are at a point where we are basically on the cusp of a constitutional crisis, seeing this administration taking steps that are so clearly illegal. And until we see a change in that behavior, we should not allow and condone that, nor should we assist in that.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
GOP Leaders Nuke Congress on Live TV... Dems Strike Back
Appropriator, I've asked them to be very clear about, for example, their role funding Hamas in Gaza. They would not comply. They will not tell us what they do. Now that we start to find out some of the programs that AID has been funding, if you think about it, sex change operations in Guatemala, LGBTQ programs in Serbia.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
GOP Leaders Nuke Congress on Live TV... Dems Strike Back
But you sit on... That is not true, Margaret. I couldn't get the Secretary of State. I asked him three times to tell me that we were not funding Hamas through AID. He couldn't do it.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
GOP Leaders Nuke Congress on Live TV... Dems Strike Back
Certainly. The funds that have gone to UNRWA. You saw the UNRWA members who were also Hamas members going on an attack on...
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Leaders Destroy Trump in Red Districts
Well, to the people of America, I want to just say this is not who we are. This is not who we are. We don't bully an ally. We don't take the side of a dictator. We don't ignore the long and important issues. role that we have played in defending democracy, that is not who we are. We're just not what we saw displayed by the President of the United States today.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Leaders Destroy Trump in Red Districts
And I think we all have a role to play right now in the defense, not just of Ukraine, but of what the country stands for, of our values. I would say to our allies around the world, what they witness to might be Donald Trump, but it is not America. And we'll have to get through this period. We'll have to struggle through this period. We'll have to be more reliant.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Leaders Destroy Trump in Red Districts
When I say we, the freedom-loving people of the world are going to have to be more reliant on other leaders in the world because we cannot rely on this president. And it's a terrible way to feel about a president of the United States, but the shameful display we had today is so antithetical to everything that our country has stood for, and I hope it is never repeated.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Leaders Destroy Trump in Red Districts
So 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.
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Democratic Leaders Destroy Trump in Red Districts
That's essentially saying that Poland invaded Germany at the beginning of World War II. There are still facts in this world. And the fact is this. Vladimir Putin is a brutal dictator. Russia started this war. And the entire pretext for that meeting yesterday was an attempt to rewrite history in order to sign a deal with Putin that hands Putin Ukraine. That is disastrous for U.S. national security.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Leaders Destroy Trump in Red Districts
That means that China will be on the march. Putin may not stop. America may be at war with a nuclear power. And for what? For what? It appears as if America is trying to align itself with dictators, that Donald Trump wants us to have our closest relationships with despots all around the world, because that makes it easier for him
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Leaders Destroy Trump in Red Districts
to transition America into a kleptocratic oligarchy where Elon Musk and Donald Trump rule and steal from the American people. If we were allied with democracies, that would be harder.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Leaders Destroy Trump in Red Districts
But if the United States' closest partner is Russia, then it makes it a lot easier for Donald Trump, Elon, and their billionaire pals to steal from the American people, to steal our data, to steal our Medicare, to steal our Medicaid in order to enrich themselves.
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Democratic Leaders Destroy Trump in Red Districts
Nope, it was a mistake. It was a mistake. I think a lot of us thought that Marco Rubio was going to stand up to Donald Trump on an issue like this, that when Donald Trump decided to align America with dictatorships, again, in order to make it easier for him,
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Leaders Destroy Trump in Red Districts
to steal from the American people, to turn America into an illiberal democracy in which, just like Russia, the oligarchs, the economically powerful people in America rule and the rest of us just feed the powerful. I thought when Donald Trump
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Democratic Leaders Destroy Trump in Red Districts
decided to do that, when Donald Trump would come to him and say, help me move America closer to Russia and to Russian values, Marco Rubio would stand up to him. Marco Rubio has not, and that's been a great disappointment to many of his former colleagues in the Senate.
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MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 3/14/25
Play the clip. And Trump's tariffs making America great again. It's a great strategy. If somebody's finally doing something out of the White House, President Trump, that is, that says you have to take an action in another country.
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MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 3/14/25
We all love a good stock market, but the reality is that stock market imbalance didn't necessarily benefit the smaller mid-sized companies and average shareholders across the country. It didn't necessarily benefit Main Street that much. So I think we are going to see a correction there. But the reality is the stock market is not the economy. The economy is not the stock market.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 3/14/25
It's not uncommon for uncertainty to cause disruptions in that as they digest a new environmental, a new economic landscape that the president.