The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Adam Schiff Responds to Trump’s Oval Office Meltdown
Sat, 01 Mar 2025
MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas interviews Democratic Senator Adam Schiff on Trump’s despicable meeting with Zelenskyy. For more, visit MeidasPlus.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What was the Oval Office meeting controversy about?
I'm joined by Senator Adam Schiff. Senator, I want to get your reaction to that travesty in the Oval Office today where Donald Trump was attacking Ukrainian President Zelensky in the Oval Office with J.D. Vance laundering talking points, seems directly from the Kremlin. You had President Zelensky, in my view, kind of holding his ground, defending his country and, frankly, all democracies.
I want to get your reaction to what you observed.
Chapter 2: How did Senator Adam Schiff react to Trump's actions?
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
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 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
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.
Your colleague, Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican, he spoke after the meeting and he said that he thinks that after that, Moscow will be more afraid than ever. Let me show you what Senator Graham had to say and I'll get your reaction to it.
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Chapter 3: What was Senator Lindsey Graham's perspective on the meeting?
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.
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.
Senator Schiff, do you think Moscow is more afraid than ever after what they observed in the Oval Office earlier today with Trump and Zelensky?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Chapter 4: Is there bipartisan support for Ukraine in Congress?
So what do you think is the reaction that's going to be? I'm not sure if you've heard anything from some of your colleagues, perhaps on the other side of the aisle yet. That's what Lindsey Graham had to say. There was, you know, tended to be bipartisan support for Trump. By and large, I mean, I would say there are a lot of Republicans in the House who are in support of Ukraine.
But in the Senate, there was more bipartisan support of Ukraine and Zelensky. What are you hearing now? Are Republicans so afraid of Trump that they're afraid of his tweets and Elon Musk posting things on X and Doge? I mean, what's going on?
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.
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
Chapter 5: What is Senator Schiff's stance on Ukraine and NATO?
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,
then indeed their support for Ukraine, for our international standing has simply vanished, disappeared along with Donald Trump's arrival on the scene.
So after that Oval Office meeting, Donald Trump canceled press conference that was supposed to happen and then announced that he posted on his social media platform that he was also just canceling the peace talks. I mean, it feels like what a petulant child would do in a situation like that.
Then he went outside of the White House and he was wearing the like the red MAGA hat and he was basically asked by the press. So what would Zelenskyy What should Zelensky have done in the Oval Office? And Trump is like, well, he shouldn't have stood there and been like, Putin's bad, Putin this, Putin that. Why was he talking about Putin that way?
I mean, you could hear for yourself what Trump said. I'll get your reaction to it. Let's play it.
He's got to say, I want to make peace. He doesn't have to stand there and say about Putin this, Putin that, all negative things. He's got to say, I want to make peace. I don't want to fight a war any longer. His people are dying.
Trump's saying he doesn't have to say negative things, Putin this, Putin that. I mean, I'm watching that and I'm thinking to myself, this is crazy. This is crazy stuff.
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.
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.
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