Claw Back Trump’s Billions!!! Rep. Ansari on Dems’ Relentless Oversight Plans

0:00Ben Meiselas:And they're out. Maga Mike Johnson plans to shut down the House of Representatives yet again, sending the House into recess until the end of the midterm elections. Maga Mike previously said that he would not shut down the House and go into recess before the end of September. But MAGA Mike and Donald Trump, they all lie when it turned out the Democrats were going on the offense on trying to expose the Epstein cover up and calling out the Trump regime and MAGA Republicans for making everything far more expensive. The MAGA Republicans are like, we don't want to be here in Washington, D.C. when people put cameras to our faces and actually ask us questions.

0:41Ben Meiselas:We're going home. So MAGA Mike is sending Congress into recess again very shortly. But we have the footage, by the way, when Maga Mike was just asked this past week, are you going to shut down the House as Thomas Massey claimed you were because you're covering up the Epstein files? Look at what Maga Mike said. Play this clip. Mr. Speaker, Thomas Massey is now alleging that you are going to hold the House in recess until after the midterm elections due to the Epstein Files Transparency Act. So let me tell you how stupid Thomas Massey's comment is. If he would come to our House Republican conference meetings as we had this morning, he would have heard me say privately, as I've said publicly, Republicans are here to work.

1:23Ben Meiselas:We have a schedule, a calendar that's been out for a year. We are abiding by that calendar. We are going to work all the way through September and every day that's on the calendar so long as people like him don't stop the progress. So that is a nonsensical statement by someone who is not participating as a full member of the Congress. And it's really sad that he doesn't. And then we have all these MAGA Republicans running away from the Midas Touch Network on Capitol Hill. Our cameras are there. We just tried to ask MAGA Republican Congressmember Van Orden a basic question about affordability, the fact that the American people are suffering as things are far more expensive.

2:01Ben Meiselas:And Congressmember Van Orden said, patience, I don't like dealing with your stupid questions, he said to our reporter on Capitol Hill, Pablo Manriquez. He said that's what he's paying more for, patience. And he hates stupid questions about affordability. Here play this clip. Congressman, real quick before you guys go out. Yes. What are you paying more for right now than you were two years ago? Patience so I can deal with your stupid questions. Got it. Thank you, Congressman. We then caught up with MAGA Republican Congress member Nels, who was leaving the House earlier in the day. And we asked him, what do you think about this discharge petition for the Epstein files?

2:39Ben Meiselas:would you sign it? And he said, the Epstein files, that's over. No one's talking about that anymore. People don't care about the Epstein files. The DOJ's got it under control. Folks, these MAGA Republicans are a bunch of scumbags who cover up child sex trafficking rings. Play this clip. Mr. Nels, real quick, do you think you'll sign on to the second Epstein? You what? Do you think you'll be signing on to the second Epstein files? The Epstein stuff is over with. It's over with. I think that, And listen, the DOJ, everybody's getting to the bottom of it. We need to focus on other things. And everybody wants to bring Epstein up.

3:15Ben Meiselas:And the Democrats want to bring Epstein up. Some of the anti-Trumpers want to bring Epstein up because we're, what, two months away from a general election. So Epstein, we got other things to focus on. And then today, their buddy, billionaire Leon Black, was supposed to testify under oath about his connections in the Epstein files. And you know what he did? He didn't show up. Instead, he filed a lawsuit against the House of Representatives saying that there's no legitimate legislative purpose to investigate Epstein's connections or to have his deposition taken. With all of this going on, the American people are demanding accountability.

3:54Ben Meiselas:They're demanding oversight. And that's what they're looking at if and when Democrats take control of the House of Representatives, robust oversight, especially when it comes to the Trump regime pillaging the United States and enriching themselves to the tune of billions and billions of dollars. People are asking what accountability is going to look like if and when Democrats take control of the House. And lots of people are floating the idea that for accountability to really matter, you have to disgorge the unlawful gains that Donald Trump and his family have taken from the American people with all of these damn quid pro quo deals where they've enriched themselves to the tunes of billions of dollars while the American people suffer.

4:36Ben Meiselas:this unjust enrichment needs to end and the money needs to be clawed back that's what david from argues in a recent piece in the atlantic he writes trump and his family gained their present wealth by accepting payments from persons and entities seeking favors from the u.s government selling tokens rapidly revealed as worthless and moving markets by the use of office and trading on advanced knowledge of those moves trump's multi-billion dollar gains in 18 months of this presidency are wrongful by almost any standard of wrongfulness. The next Congress and administration should take action to recover these wrongful gains.

5:15Ben Meiselas:And in Frum's article, he studies other areas, other places throughout the world where autocrats and their families have enriched themselves to the tunes of massive amounts of wealth while screwing over the people. Here's an example of what he describes. In 18 months in office, Trump and his family accumulated billions of dollars. Even if after Trump leaves office, this wrongfully obtained fortune will offer a resource for power seeking by his heirs. Other democracies have reclaimed plundered wealth from fallen autocrats. Some lessons from Americans from Nigeria, Peru, and the Philippines. And he goes on to talk about other countries where they did not ultimately claw back the money.

5:58Ben Meiselas:And in those countries, the heirs were able to kind of rise to authoritarian power. And in countries that do claw back, it's the best way to try to stop the rise of authoritarianism again. And meanwhile, you have countries like the Netherlands, so afraid that Donald Trump's going to take their gold that they have stored in the United States. They're literally moving away their gold to London because they are in, quote, crisis preparedness mode. I want to bring in Democratic Congresswoman Ansari from the House Oversight Committee. If and when Democrats take control of the House, Congresswoman Ansari, who's already played an incredible role, even though the Democrats are not in power in the House.

6:39Ben Meiselas:But the oversight work that you and Congressman Garcia and others have done has been incredible. But people are going to be looking to you and your committee, I think, as the kind of most important tool that Democrats have. Let's be clear. You can't do deals with Donald Trump. As Warren Buffett says, you can't do a deal with a bad person. And Donald Trump is the worst type of scum out there, in my opinion. You can't do deals with him or his people. What are you going to do? You're going to do a deal on affordability with a guy who lies about everything. So I think people want ruthless accountability.

7:09Ben Meiselas:And I think this is a good idea. So I wanted to get your take on that and, you know, these investigations and if they lead to the foundation of that clawback I've been discussing. I think this is a brilliant idea that we could emulate here in the United States. I mean, as you said, this is the most corrupt administration in American history, and it's not even close. You have Donald Trump himself, who has made billions of dollars since being president. Then look at the entire family. The sons are all incredibly corrupt. You have the older sons, Don Jr. and Eric Trump, having invested not just in crypto, but in defense companies that are profiting off of the illegal war in Iran.

7:52Barron, you know, I've been talking about the need to subpoena Barron because he's made a ton of money. He's locked in with the Tate brothers and influencing their preferential treatment in the United States. So to prevent that generational authoritarianism and corruption and the fact that they have been stealing from the American people, they need to pay for that. And I think that accountability needs to come in the form of people going to jail, people paying the consequences, but financially as well. When you think about how much the American people have suffered financially, whether it's the small businesses that have suffered as a result of tariffs, whether it's the Americans who've lost their health insurance or their food assistance, or every American practically who's paying more for gas than ever before because of Trump's illegal war, they need to pay for that.

8:42And that, you know, I think we should look at different models that have happened across the world. I know some of this funding has gone towards education, towards health care. We could look at, you know, Americans who will be losing their jobs as a result of artificial intelligence, which Donald Trump is advocating for and working directly with these big AI CEOs and promoting data centers now. So I love it. I think that that could something like that could play a really big role in really restoring trust with the American people ultimately.

9:16Ben Meiselas:You know, people talk about political messaging, this and that. And I go, just stop it. This is not normal times. This isn't are we going to move someone 2.5 points this way or 2.5 points that way. This is a Trump regime that, in my opinion, hates the American people. They hate our service members. They've engaged in acts that demonstrate, frankly, traitorous and treasonous behavior on a daily basis. And I think if you want to have a unifying principle of Trump, which I don't think he's all over the place, but they don't ever work from national interest. It's always from Trump family interest.

9:51Ben Meiselas:And that hurts the nation. It is counter to. If you look at all of the problems we're facing right now, whether it's at home or in the Middle East or elsewhere, it is quite literally because he put his own self-interest and his own making money for himself and family members above what normally a president would do if they said, aha, I'm working in the interest of America. And the problem is when you have someone who does that and it clashes with someone who leads with national interests, like Prime Minister Carney of Canada, or you name the country abroad that's working in a national interest, the nation is more powerful than the greedy ass individual who hoards for himself.

10:31Ben Meiselas:And you rally a nation against a bloviated guy who hides in catering containers with Natalie. And that's why we're getting crushed. To me, it's as simple as that. Yeah, I mean, look, Donald Trump ran for president again to stay out of jail. He would be in jail right now if he was not the president of the United States. And they tricked, you know, he hates his own supporters. I mean, he's made that very, very clear. The fact that he turned on Marjorie Taylor Greene, who spent millions of her own dollars getting this guy elected and made all sorts of promises to her and to his, you know, to MAGA about no new wars, bringing prices down.

11:13This is all about the Trump family securing them. We see it in every single decision that is being made. I mean, the amount of corruption that is underway every single day in broad daylight has never been seen before. I mean, I don't think this happens on this level at this scale in the the most, you know, authoritarian societies across the world. It's craziness. And if we don't do everything possible to hold these people accountable and make them pay for their crimes, then we have completely lost the plot. Right.

11:54Ben Meiselas:You know, I often hear people even compare him, you know, he's behaving like, you know, you name the authoritarian abroad. And I go, honestly, let me be very clear. Those authoritarians are broad, deeply bad people. I said, but this guy here behaves like way crazier than that. I don't see them engaged in this deranged behavior that looks like a, it literally looks like a crazy person that your parents or whoever would tell you avoid that person. If you see that person like in a bar or in a whatever, just get the hell away. Like it is literally watching a crazy person. Then I hear people try to give us these normal discussions.

12:36Ben Meiselas:Oh, well, the Democrats feel this way in the Republicans. I'm like, we have a crazy person who's posting and behaving like an actual psychotic lunatic. Like, can you just call it what it is? And I know one of the things I like about you is you call it out and you go, this guy's like a demented, crazy psycho. Like just, it is like, what do you want? I'm not treating this thing like it's normal. There's literally not enough words. I mean, I have run out of words he's a narcissist he's a sociopath he's insane he's crazy i mean like every night the guy posts like 40 different posts every single night ai slop himself as this you know religious figure that person or that person i mean what was that post he did the other day with the presidents and and having you know all the some of the presidents in history and himself is the greatest one.

13:21I mean, it's just, it is, it's so insane. I, I, I feel like I'm living every day in a new episode of The Black Mirror, but quite literally crazier than each episode I've ever seen. So it's, you know, it is what it is. We're in this situation. I think most Americans have realized that this guy is, is insane and he's protecting pedophiles. You know, he's, again, Let's not forget about the Epstein files. He is in the Epstein files more than almost anything else. And the corruption continues on that front. I mean, today we were supposed to have a deposition with Leon Black, another billionaire who worked with Epstein, and he didn't show up.

14:06And now he's trying to sue the committee. And I'm sure the Trump administration has a hand in that, too.

14:10Ben Meiselas:It's not a legitimate legislative function to try to go after the thing that Donald Trump said was going to be his priority to uncover the child sex trafficking. It just it isn't. It turns out that the cabal are the people who are accusing the other people of the cabal. It turns out the deep state are actually the deep state. All these MAGA influencers are the feds. They're out there working for Hexit. They're the feds on X and they're posting Pete Hexit. This is so I mean, but we could go on on this forever. But but but does Doesn't this look weak? I mean, like for me, the part of this thing, not that it would make it better, Congresswoman, if it looks strong, like I would still, but like I look at this behavior and I'm like, these are a bunch of freaking losers and they're behaving like the biggest loser quality.

14:59Ben Meiselas:The guy's hiding in catering containers when he has Air Force One, the most protected plane. I'm like, they're scared, they're weak. And I'm just like, this is just, it's loser behavior to me. I'll let you close on that and react to that. We, I mean, we've lost all credibility around the world. We lost that credibility in the first Trump administration, and it took so much work for the United States to be able to gain the trust back of our allies, of partners. But this time is just on an entirely different level. When you have a situation where Donald Trump started this illegal war with Iran, he said it would last a couple of days, a couple of weeks.

15:39And then you have the Islamic Republic regime in Iran, which is also is a brutal regime in and of itself, an extremely corrupt regime. They are trolling the president of the United States regularly because of his antics. I mean, this guy goes on social media, conducts foreign policy via Truth Social every other day. We're either going to be destroying Iran or he, you know, applauds their regime. Then he says it's a new regime. I mean, the fact that, you know, again, a nation, a regime in Iran that we have had hostile relationships with for about 50 years has beat the United States in this war because you have a loser like Pete Hegseth as the guy running the place at the Department of Defense.

16:32And then they are just constantly making fun of Donald Trump and the United States. It's obscene. It's absurd. We're lucky, honestly, that worse outcomes haven't happened yet. We've already lost 18 American service members. It's an absolute tragedy. Thousands of civilians have died. But I think with the type of incompetent, you know, loser leadership that we have, I pray every day that, you know, more people don't lose their lives. Because that is truly how life and death I think that this is. I think that these people are all major national security risk to the United States of America.

17:13Ben Meiselas:Congresswoman Ansari, thanks for joining us. We will be looking forward to the efforts of the House Oversight Committee in the coming weeks and years. And we appreciate the work of you and Congressman Garcia. And there's everybody else on that committee on the Democratic side working for accountability. So we appreciate you. Thank you. Appreciate you. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to seven million. Before you go, our book WTF America is available for pre-order now. It's the story of how we got here and how we fight our way back. To pre-order, scan the QR code or click the link in the description.

17:48Ben Meiselas:Let's do this.