Brian Tyler Cohen Discusses GOP Chaos and Fighting Back

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0:37Ben Meiselas:Stop piecing your software together. Go to odoo.com. That's O-D-O-O dot com to learn more. Magamike Johnson and Republicans have finally returned to Capitol Hill and chaos has already erupted. MAGA Mike, I think, put the House of Representatives in like another two week vacation. He's trying to act like things are going great. And the map lines that are set for these critical midterms look wonderful for the MAGA Republicans. But as you see the fear and panic of these MAGA is going on the various TV shows, that's telling quite the other story. So they're bringing back their oldies this morning.

1:14Ben Meiselas:They're talking about Dr. Fauci, right? We've seen Donald Trump doing lots of post attacking Fauci lately. I guess this is their midterm plan. You've got James Comer, who's not even holding oversight hearings or allowing depositions to take place, informal meetings regarding the Epstein file cover up. But he is definitely focused on Dr. Fauci. That's their main talking point this morning. Fauci. Here's what James Comer said earlier. Let's play it. I can't for the life of me understand why the Department of Justice won't do anything about Dr. Fauci. The pardon, pardon, not just Fauci's pardon, a lot of pardons could be declared null and void.

1:53Ben Meiselas:The Biden family, you know, you've got Adam Schiff and Jamie Raskin, all the January 6th meeting, they all got pardons. They can be thrown out because, again, there's no evidence Joe Biden participated in that. So now I'm sure that's what people are focused on. Well, what Dr. Fauci and schools and Donald Trump's we should Donald Trump's mishandling on covid, which led to all that inflation. But that's what they want to talk about right now. Then you've got MAGA Republican Congress member Hardopolis saying, look, we know that you can't afford anything, but we all know the number one reason why Americans can't afford homes.

2:26Ben Meiselas:It's the 10 million people who are here unlawfully, and it's Biden's fault here. Let's play this clip. Now, on this housing bill, this is the 21st century road to housing bill and the final legislation coming after all of those months of negotiations between the Senate and the House.

2:42Brian Tyler Cohen:It would roll back some permitting regulations while limiting corporations from buying single family homes. It was another priority for President Trump.

2:51Ben Meiselas:Congressman, is this a priority because you believe that this is going to affect inflation and the cost of living? I do.

2:59Brian Tyler Cohen:I mean, number one reason why we have these higher hiring costs, in my opinion, is that you had 10 million people coming here illegally over four years. You had too many people demanding housing. And by changing these rules and laws, we're going to be able to reduce some of that friction.

3:14Ben Meiselas:Blame the immigrants. I want to bring in Brian Tyler Cohen here. Brian, I want to show you one more right here where they bring in MAGA Republican Congress member Pete Sessions. And they're asking him, they go, Pete, you know, so Donald Trump said when it came to Iran, unconditional surrender, I'm going to blow you up. all these things. Now, even again, after yesterday, Donald Trump threatening Iran more. Now it's a full general license, complete sanctions waiver. So just, by the way, I think that there should be peace. I want to see a deal happen and I don't want us to be in one. I just want to be clear where I stand on this.

3:45Ben Meiselas:But they're asking him, so talk to us about the representations versus what happened. And Pete Sessions is just like, look, he's a very complex guy. You don't understand the plan yet, but it's all complex. Watch this and let's talk about it. We have seen during this period of the talks, the United States has had time to retool their military drone war. And I think that that is going to be necessary. But you've also got to understand what available assets we have there now, what have come home and what might be left. So I think that there are a number of circumstances. This president is a pretty complex guy.

4:27Ben Meiselas:I think the military is up to the work, but let's know what the plan is. Once we know what the plan is, then we'll be able to nod our head or shake our head one way or another. Absolutely. Absolutely. That's what we normally do, going to wars. Then you talk about several months later, the plan, Brian Tyler Cohen, the author as well, of the day after, how to wield power in a post-Trump world. Everybody make sure you order right now. Now it officially comes out July 14th, but you can get a copy of the book right now. And I know all of our audience is buying The Day After by Brian Taylor Cohen. But Brian, I want you to react to that right here, because here we are not just a day after this catastrophic war in Iran, when Donald Trump said it would be days, then weeks, then months.

5:17Ben Meiselas:And now you have the MAGAs out there saying all of those things. But really, the American people are suffering right now. And they're saying, what's Congress doing? What are these people doing, Brian?

5:26Brian Tyler Cohen:Well, I mean, what they're doing is pretty clear. It's just basically shoving their heads as far up Trump's ass as they can possibly get them. I mean, that is what these people are there to do. They're there to just placate Donald Trump. They're there to pander to him, to grovel to him. And so even in this scenario where you have a president who campaigned expressly on not getting into foreign wars in the Middle East, who got into a foreign war in the Middle East, which in turn caused gas prices to spike here at home, inflation to spike 33 % since Joe Biden left office. And yet they're still running cover for him.

6:02Brian Tyler Cohen:Nobody has an ill word. We have no idea what the plan is. We haven't had an idea what the plan was for over 110 days now. We're nearly four months into this whole debacle. and and it you know they're they're presenting it as if it's 4d chess as if trump is some master negotiator when when in reality we've seen how he negotiates he just basically logs on to true social and threatens nuclear annihilation to the iranians and as a result uh uh you know the whole negotiation falls apart or or they try to you know piece together some iteration some lesser iteration of the JCPOA, Obama's Iran nuclear deal, and then call it a win.

6:45Brian Tyler Cohen:So the whole thing for the last several months has just been such an abject disaster. The people who are feeling the consequences of this are the American people. We've seen our energy prices rise. We've seen our gas prices rise. We've seen our consumer good costs rise. And yet none of these Republican legislators or senators have any interest in fixing this on behalf of their constituents, because they are solely interested in just, you know, pandering to the God King. That is their first, second, and third priority.

7:14Ben Meiselas:And I think though, they're going to base their strategy on, look, it worked for us last time. Look how disastrous Trump handled COVID. And then when someone had to go and fix the mess, they engage their trillion dollar media network to then blame the person who was handed the baton or handed the ticking time bomb that was blowing off. and then the firefighter got blamed as being the arsonist. So in your book, though, The Day After, how do we avoid this dynamic, though? Because we could see how this plays out. Brian, for the next two years, Trump is going to keep this 60-day, maybe it's 90 days, maybe it's 30.

7:53Ben Meiselas:Iran closes the strait. This is what's going to happen. I mean, it's pretty clear. This is what's going to happen for the next two years. This is how he does things. And then it's going to be handed over to the next person. And then they're going to be blamed when they actually have to do the surgery to fix it. It's bloody when you do the surgery. So how do we wield power the day after?

8:12Brian Tyler Cohen:Yeah, I think in this instance, it's going to be a little bit more difficult for them to just pin the blame on an Anthony Fauci-like figure. I mean, I know that you opened up this video by talking expressly about how they're trying to rerun that playbook, the 2020 playbook for this upcoming election in 2026. But the problem is for Republicans, they have full control of government right now. They have the House, the Senate, and the White House. And we have seen the extent to which the economy has such a massive impact on how Americans are feeling. And there is nobody to blame. I mean, you can't point to any Democrats in power that are going to be responsible for high costs.

8:52Brian Tyler Cohen:We know that that was the result of Trump's trade war, the result of inflation. We know that that's because of this Iran war. the high cost that stemmed from health care being gutted that was the result of republicans passing that almost immediately food assistance getting gutted i mean all of these things one by one are the direct results of republican governance and so they're not going to be able to say hey who's the anthony fauci of 2026 who can we pin the blame on it is republicans who are in full control who are the result who have caused these high prices who've caused inflation who've caused this iran war who have refused to release the epstein files uh who got us involved in another war in the middle east that they swore that they would avoid so again i think it's going to be really difficult for republicans to pin the blame on somebody which is not to say that they won't try because donald trump's whole ethos his whole mentality his whole mo is uh to take all the credit and none of the blame and so for everything that's kind of falling uh falling you know crumbling around him he of course is going to try to blame it on the democrats but i do think in in this instance, past this prologue, and we can see how Americans react to a weakening economy and who they blame, and it is the party in power.

10:02Ben Meiselas:So let's talk about, though, what you think Democrats do short term, long term. You know, what worries me a little bit is the idea of creating these frameworks versus listening to the people. And there are all these people who are professing to be experts with all these models. We need to be more like this, or we need to be more like that, or this is too much like this, or this is too much like that. And they're thinking about it of how do we move the voter X points this way or this points that way. I think that's a fundamentally flawed framework to even start to think about things. But I want to get your take because my view is listen to the people.

10:46Ben Meiselas:They're pretty much telling you exactly how they feel right now. And rather than trying to move them points this way or points that way, why don't you move yourself and your ass to fight for the people that are telling you what they need right now? And so that to me is an important thing, but I want to hear from you what you think about it.

11:09Brian Tyler Cohen:Absolutely. I mean, we are in we have a rare opportunity coming up in this in this moment where where I think because of the extent to which Republicans and Trump have been so willing to lie and show utter contempt for their voters on all of these issues where they where they offered up promises and then refused to deliver. Democrats have a rare opportunity here where we can get people back into this camp but it's going to take you know to your exact point not having commissions and not trying to move people too tens of a point and not uh deferring to the processes of government we have to focus on the outcomes of government and so in the book the day after I talk a lot about um a lot about the fact that Democrats have refused to wield power in the past while Republicans completely abused their power.

11:55Brian Tyler Cohen:We have to think using that mentality, but to do it in a virtuous way. So to not let the filibuster or the parliamentarian or processes or norms, all of those things get in the way of actually delivering for Americans. But I think Democrats are institutionalists or have been institutionalists in the past. And so to get ourselves out of that mindset and start thinking, okay, Donald Trump was onto something when he tapped into a lot of the populist frustrations that people are feeling. Of course, he had no intention of delivering because this guy is a billionaire looking to deliver for billionaires.

12:30Brian Tyler Cohen:He did it in his first term when the only major piece of legislation he passed was a tax cut for millionaires and billionaires. They re-upped that tax cut again. And since then, Trump has enshrouded the Oval Office in gold, built himself a ballroom, bought himself a Atari jet that we paid for to the tune of a billion dollars to retrofit, and on and on. So this guy obviously had no intention of following through on any of those things, but I think it can be instructive for Democrats to recognize, hey, there is a swath of very disillusioned, disaffected people out there who left the Democrats to go to Trump.

13:00Brian Tyler Cohen:And now we're leaving Trump because they know that he isn't willing to deliver. We have this opportunity to do exactly that, but it means focusing on outcomes, not defending the institutions of government. And so, you know, as we move toward 2026 and ultimately 2028. It is to figure out how to deliver in the biggest way for people financially, to deliver in the biggest way from a healthcare perspective, from a climate change perspective, from a jobs perspective. And all of these things can be done because again, Trump has shown us that these institutions of government are not sacred. They're not sacrosanct.

13:35Brian Tyler Cohen:They can be amended and changed. They can be malleable, but that we can actually do it in a way that's virtuous and not just self-enriching as this president has done.

13:45Ben Meiselas:You know, when you say Donald Trump is onto something, you're so right, because as the ultimate con artist in global history, what he's onto is what con artists are usually able to see, which is the fear in people and how to prey on that. And you could recognize the problem as he has throughout his life and said, okay, here's how I exploit those vulnerabilities and gain from it, which is what he's doing. I think the Democratic Party or anybody who's looking to wield power needs to understand that these fears that people experience are not hypothetical. They're not talking points. It's not political posturing.

14:29Ben Meiselas:It is, I can't afford my rent. And I have to decide if I'm going to eat tonight or pay my rent. And unless and until you feel that way and you recognize that people feel that way and it's not a talking point, you really have to get into the trenches with people. and I think that's how you wield power for the people and people will reward you for it. I wanna give you the final word in all of this though, Brian, about where we go from here. And then of course, your message to the Midas Mighty subscribers. They all, I know they're all gonna buy your book. I've got a copy of your book, but you're doing some incredible things with your book as well.

15:12Ben Meiselas:And there's also a really good cause behind it too. So kind of final message. And then I'd love so that you tell people one of the great things you're doing with this book.

15:21Brian Tyler Cohen:Yeah, I think the final message here is that, you know, when I was growing up, kind of my formative years and really getting into politics and Obama came onto the scene and it wouldn't matter where you were geographically, it wouldn't matter where you were socioeconomically. Obama had one culture in such a big way that everybody, you know, when I was going to college was an Obama voter. and you know i'm a millennial and so millennials are i think in large part owed to obama uh the most liberal generation and then you know cut to today 2024 2025 2026 republicans kind of did the unthinkable and were able to to win back a lot of the support from younger generations something that i didn't think we would see um but once you win a generation that generation largely stays contained within that political ideology.

16:12Brian Tyler Cohen:That's why millennials continue to be one of the most or continue to be the most liberal generation. And now we're seeing Gen Z that is much more conservative than millennials. And so that's usually how it stays. But because Trump has refused to deliver and because Republicans have decided that adherence to Trump is more important than adherence to the law or the constitution, now we have a rare opportunity where we can actually win those people back. But those opportunities, A, don't come around often. and B, I think we have one shot before people just become disillusioned with all of politics.

16:45Brian Tyler Cohen:And so I think in this moment, it's going to be really important to deliver right away. And we've seen, for example, how it can be done. We've seen Zoran Mamdani come to power in New York and within five minutes of taking office, fill 100 ,000 potholes. That's something that people see on a daily basis. And so I think that has to be our North Star is figuring out what tangible wins we can deliver for people depending on what they want to your point ben what they want because if you just listen to people they will tell you and uh and and deliver in this in this you know small amount of time that we have once we actually take power again i think that that will um have a massive impact in terms of not just winning elections moving forward but but also um you know changing people's political identity i think like the the brand of the democratic party people are so worried about the brand, that's not something you can fix with a new logo, right?

17:38Brian Tyler Cohen:It's not something you can fix by tweeting better or going on to podcasts. You fix the brand by bringing people into power who are then willing to deliver for their constituents. I think Zoram Amdani in that sense is helping fix the brand because he's showing that as a Democrat, he's willing to deliver. So that will come in time. But I think that all Democrats have to recognize that we have this rare opportunity where they can actually do that. So that's a little bit about what I talk about in the book. I talk the North star of this book is is how republicans have abused power how democrats have failed to wield it but what democrats must do if and when we take power back again and i'm really proud to be able to announce that i'm partnering with mark elias's free election fund that's a 501c3 that supports election litigation we have seen how important the courts have been over these last several months and years in in fighting against you know these uh these executive branch overreaches so i think it's important you know in terms of the work that i'm doing not just to talk the talk but to walk the walk to walk the walk and so i'll be donating proceeds from every single book sold to the free election fund those are going to be matched by my editor and those are going to be matched by my publisher so we're doing a three to three to one match a three times match um all to support the free election fund and to support this election litigation which as we get closer and closer to midterms is going to become more and more important so ben i know that you're going to throw a link to pre-order into, you know, into the post description of this video, but would really appreciate if you support not just my work and the work of folks like me in independent media, but also the crucial critical election litigation that's happening right now and as we head toward November.

19:20Ben Meiselas:Brian Tyler Cohen, of course, got that great channel on YouTube, but also the number one New York Times bestselling author back at you with another book, The Day After, How to Wield Power in a Post-Trump World, forward by Mark Elias. And you heard the great cause as well. Go get your pre-order right now. Thanks, Brian. Thanks, Ben. Everybody hit subscribe here. We appreciate you. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our sub stack at MidasPlus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, ad-free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available at MidasPlus.com.

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