Seth Moulton
Appearances
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Seth Moulton on Trump Failed Policies
They're doing it for one reason, Ben. It's not MAGA. It's a one-word answer, fear. That's why they're doing it. They're just cowards. They're so scared of him. And they say totally different things in private than what they say in public. So, yeah, they're going to get on TV and act like sycophants because they're scared that he'll primary them if they don't.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Seth Moulton on Trump Failed Policies
But then in private, they don't like what he's doing. They actually do respect veterans. They do respect NATO. I sat at the Munich Security Conference just three weeks ago with the likes of Senator Graham, a tirely bipartisan delegation of Republicans and Democrats from the House of Representatives,
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Seth Moulton on Trump Failed Policies
all reassuring our European allies, all standing by Zelensky, all propping him up, all doing the same thing, singing from the same sheet of music. And then here's the same story. Trump does something totally crazy that no Republican with an ounce of intelligence or morality can agree with. And about two hours later, you know, sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Seth Moulton on Trump Failed Policies
These Republicans spin some crazy disjointed story to justify what Trump did. And then all of a sudden they're cheering him on. So it's just utter hypocrisy because they're scared. They're just cowards.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Seth Moulton on Trump Failed Policies
I mean, these countries did come to us after 9-11, and they're not even required to do so the way we are required by treaty to come to their aid if they get attacked in Europe. They didn't have to help us in Iraq and Afghanistan, but they did. And it's not surprising that Trump doesn't know that. I mean, he's not a student of history.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Seth Moulton on Trump Failed Policies
Yeah, I mean, look, Trump has never liked veterans. I mean, let's not forget, this is the guy who literally made fun of John McCain for being a POW in Vietnam, who called people who sign up losers, and if you get killed, a sucker. I mean, this is just who Trump is.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Seth Moulton on Trump Failed Policies
But I think more to the point, he doesn't have any sons or daughters who served in the military after 9-11. You know, they're all about my age. They all could have done their part. Just one of them had signed up, maybe he would know that we served on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan alongside Canadian troops, French troops,
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Seth Moulton on Trump Failed Policies
united troops from the uk the danes the poles all these nato countries not to mention our ally just to the north and you know they lost a lot of lives there they didn't need to do that but they did it because that's what allies do that's what allies do they stand by your side And when we went to Iraq, we became allies with these Iraqis, right? And they were difficult allies.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Seth Moulton on Trump Failed Policies
I mean, there are a lot of times we disagreed. I've been in a lot of very contentious meetings with Iraqi leaders. They didn't always pay their bills. but no one on the ground there, even those of us who disagreed with the war, imagine selling them out, selling them out to the enemy, starting to use Al-Qaeda talking points. I mean, that's what Trump's doing.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Seth Moulton on Trump Failed Policies
He's selling Ukraine out, he's selling our NATO allies out, and he's literally using the talking points of the enemy. Imagine if Roosevelt had started using Hitler talking points. That's how bad this is. And I get it that we don't win elections on national security issues, but Trump is putting this country in danger.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Seth Moulton on Trump Failed Policies
He's putting our national security at risk because all across the globe, our allies are saying, we can't trust America anymore. And our adversaries, especially Xi Jinping and China are saying, yeah, it looks like we're getting the green light. We can just walk all over America and its friends no matter where we want.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Seth Moulton on Trump Failed Policies
He dodged the draft himself because he thought someone else less important than him, I guess, as a guy in his early 20s should go to Vietnam in his place. So it's really not a surprise. It shouldn't be a surprise. People who believe his rhetoric about how he's tough and he's going to restore confidence in the military and things like this, it just doesn't line up with his personality.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Seth Moulton on Trump Failed Policies
We're getting a lot of calls from veterans right now who say we depend on the VA. I mean, I depend on the VA. I get my health care at the VA. I made that promise when I got elected that I'd continue going to the VA and wouldn't just, you know, live off the congressional health care plan.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Seth Moulton on Trump Failed Policies
if they cut 80 000 people from the va we're not going to be able to get care so it's all these concerns and yeah a lot of them are about the economy let's not forget trump promised that prices would go down on day one well they've just gone up that's the one thing that's gone up the market's down consumer confidence is down investment is down everything's down except prices prices are going up
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Seth Moulton on Trump Failed Policies
And none of this crazy talk about tariffs, none of the selling out our allies, Ukraine, none of our unwillingness to just uphold our commitment to NATO, which has kept us safe for 75 years. None of that is lowering prices. Prices are going up.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Seth Moulton on Trump Failed Policies
You know, I was in the gym a few weeks ago, bipartisan, you know, bunch of Republicans. And one of them said, oh, you know, we're going to a Bible study today. Anyone want to come? And I just said, I really hope you're going to cover hypocrisy. I hope you go over that in your Bible study group because you guys are really good at it. Again, they're scared. They're scared.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Seth Moulton on Trump Failed Policies
And they don't let hypocrisy get in the way of supporting Donald Trump, no matter what he's trying to do. Yes, everyone knows that Doge is bad. A lot of the calls we're getting, these thousands of calls, 9,000 people showed up at a telephone tele-hall I had last week. I mean, all these people are complaining about Elon Musk and Doge and all the things that are gonna be impacted.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Seth Moulton on Trump Failed Policies
He's definitely making government less efficient. It's going to take longer to get appointments at the VA. It's going to take longer to get your license renewed. I mean, any of this stuff that's impacted by the federal government is going to get less efficient. But we also got to talk about the fact that I mean, I'm standing I'm sitting here as a Democrat who's a big champion of government reform.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Seth Moulton on Trump Failed Policies
and making government more efficient. The first bill I passed in Congress was the Faster Care for Veterans Act just to make it easier for vets to get appointments at the VA.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Seth Moulton on Trump Failed Policies
I heard a story, a guy called me up from my platoon and was like, hey, I tried to get a mental health appointment at the VA because I was thinking about killing myself last week and they told me I could see someone in three months.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Seth Moulton on Trump Failed Policies
and this great marine vet that i served with risked his life for for all of us he's like look i wasn't thinking about killing myself in three months i was thinking about it last week you know and so there's a lot of reform that's needed in government and i think democrats have to be more proactive about saying here's our plan to reform government here's how we can do it well
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Seth Moulton on Trump Failed Policies
The point is, Musk might have a good idea that government could be more efficient, but the way he's going about it is just slashing everything. I mean, he's not making government more efficient. He's making it non-existent. And that does not serve America well.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Seth Moulton on Trump Failed Policies
So no, it's not surprising that he's cutting the VA and a lot of veterans are going to get hurt.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Seth Moulton on Trump Failed Policies
We do have to fight. And I think you've got to pick your battles because you're right. We don't have control, so we can't win every battle. But take issues that you can have an impact on. I'm a Marine vet. So is JD Vance. So I went after him pretty hard when he sold out Zelensky.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Seth Moulton on Trump Failed Policies
And I know it got under their skin because they obviously called Fox and Friends and did a hit job on me the following morning, which I'm fine with, you know, but the point is it got under their skin. We do have to stand up and fight. But the other thing that we have to do is we've got to put ourselves in a position to win.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Seth Moulton on Trump Failed Policies
And let's be honest, we got wiped out in this last election when it should have been easy. We were running against a convicted felon. Democrats should have cleaned up across the board. So I don't care how much we lost by. The simple fact that we lost, means that we're out of touch with the majority of Americans and we gotta work on getting back in touch.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Seth Moulton on Trump Failed Policies
And there's three things I'm focused on, doing a lot more listening and a lot less preaching. I wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post about how we just become a party that talks down to people and says, if you disagree with us, you're not only wrong, you're a bad person. We gotta change that around and start listening to a majority of Americans again.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Seth Moulton on Trump Failed Policies
The second thing we've got to do is stop listening to the lobbyists, to the extremist groups that give us these litmus tests, these litmus tests on the far left that say, if you don't answer these questions, check these boxes, then you're not a Democrat. Well, that's not a way to build a broad coalition. That's not the way to build a winning majority.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Seth Moulton on Trump Failed Policies
And then the third thing is let's actually put people in leadership positions who aren't just from safe seats. You know, put people like Pat Ryan, Abigail Spanberger, I mean, people who win tough elections into leadership positions in the party to show that Democrats actually care about getting elected. And we're not just catering, you know, to San Francisco or Brooklyn.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Rep. Seth Moulton on Trump Failed Policies
We got to do these things to show America that we got the message that we lost. We got the message that you don't trust us anymore, that you think we're out of touch. And we're going to turn this around. We're not just going to hate Trump. We're going to show a positive vision forward for the country that you can get behind because we're listening to what you want.