MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas interviews Democratic Congressman Jim Himes on Trump’s capitulation to Putin. Visit https://meidasplus.com for more! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What are Jim Himes' views on Trump's policies towards Ukraine?
I'm joined by Democratic Congress member Jim Hines, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee.
Congress member, given your position, the sensitive intelligence you see as a ranking member of the Intelligence Committee, I got to ask you your reaction to what we saw last week and frankly over the weekend with President Trump and his administration's attacks on President Zelensky of Ukraine.
Yeah, well, we're in a mighty weird world, right? And I mean, you can just see it out there. The Russians are thrilled. Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for Putin, is saying it looks like the United States and Russia are aligned now on our goals. Remember, this is the country that is responsible for 70,000 deaths in Ukraine that brutalized a struggling democracy.
And we have always, certainly in my lifetime and well before, the United States has always stood with the good guys, right? You know, in 1941 and 1942 and World War II, we didn't say, oh, so many people are dying in France and the UK and Germany. And, you know, we should bring an end to this. We've always stood with the good guy.
And right now you've got Donald Trump and his administration fighting.
trying to convince the American people, despite the civilian bodies you saw, the raped women, the children who were murdered in the town of Bucca, you've got the Trump administration trying to convince the Americans that this is some irrelevant conflict where we're just trying to stop the violence between two pesky combatants, right?
We, for the first time in our history, in a major conflict, certainly in Europe,
are trading our heritage of standing up for what is right and good and liberty in favor of Donald Trump's bizarre internal hatred for Ukraine in particular, but for anybody that it perceives as not powerful and strong, and that's radically changing the way our allies think about us, the way we're thinking about us, and it's just enormously concerning.
It's like, why is this even a question? How is this even a close call? Like Russia wants to destroy us. Ukraine is our ally. Like, what the heck are we even talking? Like, do you have that reaction sometimes? I mean, look, your committee in particular was a... was a very bipartisan community.
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Chapter 2: How does the U.S. alignment with Russia impact global perceptions?
It took us a year to get that supplemental package done. And by the way, this gets to the real truth of the matter. You know, half the Republicans now, all of the Republicans don't want to support Ukraine because the dear leader is
hates ukraine but can you imagine 70 000 dead ukrainians a brutal invasion and jd vance wants you to say thank you and by the way i've met with the president any number of times and all of his people and the first thing they say always is thank you it is disgusting it is sickening it makes me want to throw up as i watch that tape of what happened in the oval office
Talk to us about what you're seeing across the country, though. We're seeing these town halls in even ruby red Republican areas. People are pissed at what they saw in the Oval Office, how Donald Trump and J.D. Vance treated Zelensky. They're pissed that America right now is looking like an authoritarian regime supporting other authoritarian regimes.
They're pissed that their Medicaid is getting cut. They're pissed that Elon Musk and a group of 19 to 25-year-old guys who call themselves big balls or whatever are going through their private information, their social security data, their medical records, and they're being told billionaires are the best people to give all your private information to. And they're hearing about tax cuts for...
billionaires and they're getting screwed and prices keep going up. Trump posted this moments ago. Paid troublemakers are attending Republican town halls. It's all part of the game for Democrats. I just want to get your overall take on, I guess, first, the vibe that you're seeing in the country right now.
Well, first of all, you know that the White House realized after that Zelensky meeting that they had a problem, right? Because the cabinet officers, Besant, Rubio, they all within 10 minutes were putting out exactly the same stuff about how this remarkable president had doing courageous things that no president has ever done. But the talking points went out. They knew they had a problem.
I mean, frankly, the talking points and the propaganda that the cabinet put out would make the North Korean Politburo throw up, but they did that. And, you know, look, I agree with you. There is a lot of anger and concern. Foreign policy has never been the thing that has driven American voters, by and large, most American voters. It's the economy.
And, you know, okay, fine, Donald Trump, deny what is happening in all of these Republican, imagine that they're all paid fine. You know, underestimate the rage that is out there because because I want you to underestimate it so that when we have the house election in 2026, we wipe the floor with your people. But here's the thing, right?
Foreign policy is generally not all that important politically to most Americans, right? But what they're talking about, and you brought it up, they're talking about
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