Dems Finally Turn Tables on GOP at Their Own Hearing

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2:11Ben Meiselas:Democrats are finally rolling up their sleeves and turning the tables on MAGA Republicans at critical congressional hearings. So the MAGA Republicans are holding a hearing to try to attack the Southern Poverty Law Center. And the MAGA Republicans, led by Jim Jordan and the Judiciary Committee, lined up their witnesses to try to attack the Southern Poverty Law Center and say there was some grand Democrat Southern Poverty Law Center conspiracy to promote extremism when in fact the Southern Poverty Law Center was out there exposing extremists who, by the way, Donald Trump is pardoning and wants to give billions of dollars to for a corrupt slush fund where Donald Trump's main purpose is also to waive his own tax liability for the past 20 to 30 years.

3:01Ben Meiselas:But Democrats were not letting MAGAs get away with it. And you had the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, Jamie Raskin, really putting the dagger right into Jim Jordan. Same thing with Jasmine Crockett, really shoving it back in Jim Jordan's face. And even the Democratic witnesses or the witnesses who were called by the MAGA Republicans who they were trying to call out ended up making very powerful presentations and basically hit it right back in the Republicans face and showed them, you know, that this hearing idea was just an absolute disaster for Republicans. Let me show you what went down.

3:41Ben Meiselas:So the MAGA Republican witness over here, Miss King, she was testifying. And let me show you what happened when Jamie Raskin was cross-examining this MAGA Republican witness, Alveda King. Watch when she's like, you want me to try to get you some evidence? Yeah, that's what you're here for. Not to lie, but she was just lying profusely. Here, play this clip. So do you pay the same people to do the bomb and then go and comfort the people from being bombed? You pay the same people to do both jobs? That's kind of fraud to me. That's weird and chaotic and confusing. Well, Dr. King, I don't think there's any allegation that anybody who was working with the Southern Poverty Law Center bombed anyone.

4:22Do you have information to that effect? I don't personally, but outside agitators did bomb our house in 63 and then ran back and took off the Ku Klux Klan sheets and put on police things and ran up in the yard. Well, that's the same people. It was crazy. I'm with you. And that's a statement about the racism of that police force working with the Ku Klux Klan. Hey, y 'all pay both of them to do the double jobs. SPLC does. Really. You hire them to do the bombing. Then you're asserting a lot of things. That's weird. Dr. King, you're asserting a lot of things under oath and you haven't brought the evidence with you.

4:53So I'll get some for you. OK, please bring us the evidence. And I'll yield back to you, Mr. Church.

4:59Ben Meiselas:Mr. Fair did this. And when she was cross-examined, again, this is Jim jordan's witness right here she starts talking about well i'll just let the clip do whatever just happens watch watch jamie raskin cross-examiner here play this clip splc is using okay about my question is about the one proposed by todd blanch it's a yes or no i will not answer i think they need to stop killing the babies and cutting the penises off and so any i have limited time we money in that is the problem mr banger Now, state regime media, Fox was caught flat-footed when they were showing Jamie Raskin's opening statement, where he used this hearing to highlight all of Donald Trump and Trump's regime, egregious corruption and extremism.

5:50Ben Meiselas:This was live on Fox because Jim Jordan wanted this thing because Jim Jordan was like, we're going to expose the Democrats in the Southern Poverty Law Center. But Jamie Raskin, who is the ranking member for the Democrats, is like, no, I'm going to use this to expose you MAGA criminals, you MAGA pedo protectors. I'm going to I'm going to expose you all. Watch Jamie Raskin here. Let's play it. And now Todd Blanche wants to create a$1.776 billion taxpayer-funded slush fund to turn the January 6 foot soldiers into mega millionaires. And while Blanche was at it, he signed an outrageous super pardon to give not just Donald Trump, but his entire family and all their businesses complete and total immunity from any investigation, audit, lawsuit or prosecution by any federal agency for any criminal or civil violation against the United States up until this point.

6:47And while systematically firing prosecutors and FBI agents who worked on the January 6th investigation, the largest criminal probe in American history, Trump and Blanche are putting January 6th rioters, violent extremists and their closest allies in key positions throughout the DOJ. Like Jared Wise, who urged riders to kill police officers on January 6th. Like Ed Martin, who defended violent cop beaters, both as a defense attorney and a federal prosecutor. He's been given free reign now as DOJ's pardon attorney, despite his long history of consorting with neo-Nazis. Donald Trump nominated Paul Ingrassia, three years out of law school, to run the ethics watchdog Office of the Special Counsel and stood by him after it was revealed that he admitted to having, quote, a bit of a Nazi streak in him.

7:42And he wrote that the Martin Luther King holiday should be tossed into the seventh circle of hell. The Department of Defense hired Elias Irizarry, an unqualified, inexperienced, 24-year-old Trump loyalist and convicted J6 rioter who was pardoned by the president to work on irregular warfare and counterterrorism and so on. We understand that the extremist swamp that gave rise to this criminal indictment against the SPLC is just one more Orwellian attack on the civil rights movement and one more Kafkaesque prosecution designed to shame and ensnare the righteous and acquit and absolve the guilty.

8:26It is a tissue of lies that will join the pantheon of debunked fraudulent prosecutions that DOJ has been excoriated for by dozens of judges across the land, appointed by all different presidents. A few weeks ago, a federal judge in Rhode Island, Judge McElroy, called the government's submissions in a case misleading, if not utterly false. Another judge said that DOJ attorneys had submitted a patently false allegation to the court. Another judge rejected administration officials' testimony as disingenuous, squalid and dishonorable. And another court found the administration had provided a highly misleading, if not intentionally false, sworn declaration so disingenuous that the court is left with little confidence that the United States can be trusted to tell the truth about anything.

9:16I predict it will not be long before another federal judge casts this obscene prosecution to the winds. I'm only sorry the great name of the House Judiciary Committee has now been made an accomplice to this fraud against the court in the country. I yield back to you, Mr. Chairman.

9:32Ben Meiselas:Then we heard from Democratic Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, who's just doing such a incredible job in Congress and glad to have her in Congress, you know, just doing the hard work. Here, let's play this clip. You know what? I hate that we have spent this much time, you know, on SPLC, and we've not addressed the elephant in the room, the literal elephant in the room. The vast majority of the people on that side of the aisle, and for those of you that are at home, let me tell you, when I say that side of the aisle, I'm talking about the Republicans, the ones that brought this hearing, and again, you've heard that this is not the first hearing, but the vast majority of them are white men.

10:16White men are lecturing people of color because the vast majority actually any semblance of diversity comes from this side of the aisle. You want to tell people of color who is fighting for who? People of color do not feel comfortable or welcomed within your party. That's why you have to parade someone who has the name Dr. King attached to them so that people can be confused because I have been reading the comments online and people are like, who is this Dr. King because you want them to believe that somehow she espouses who Dr. King was, yet you've yet to have MLK III come in here. You've yet to have Dr.

10:56Bernice King, the ones that were actually raised by Dr. King, the ones that actually probably understand the teachings of Dr. King.

11:04Ben Meiselas:Then you had Jim Jordan try to cross-examine the witness who he was trying to embarrass. So he called the interim director of the Southern Poverty Law Center, this guy by the name of Fair. And Jim Jordan was like, so you wish you never did this Southern Poverty Law Center program where you worked with informants in order to uncover these extremist groups? That's why you canceled the program. And then the Southern Poverty Law Center interim head is like, no, we don't do it anymore because at this point, the extremists are so embedded in the Trump government and the Trump regime that running an informant program is kind of useless when the Trump regime is the extremists.

11:54Ben Meiselas:We don't need the informant to expose it when literally the guy in the Oval Office who's out there turning the White House lawn into a freaking junkyard for a UFC fight, the guy who's destroying this country and pardoning January 6th insurrectionists and literally having them work at high level positions in the national security apparatus. us. Yeah, we know who it is. It's you. It's you. It's the MAGAs. It's Jim Jordan. Watch as he brilliantly flips the script. Let's play this clip. I just I'm not saying in general, I'm not saying it's one thing you've said you've had informants, you had field sources.

12:32If you have informants and field sources there, that's one thing. But the indictment says that these informants and field sources were encouraging other people to attend these hate rallies. And I'm saying, OK, so you don't have to answer that specifically. But is that a good thing in general? Again, all the allegations and the indictment will be addressed. Do you wish you hadn't have done the program? You said the program was successful, helpful, but now you're stopping it.

13:03We stopped the program because we believe hate and extremism has migrated significantly online and into government agencies. Wow. Wow. That's big. That makes no sense. The chair now recognizes... Mr. Chairman, I've got a UC request, if that's all right. Gentleman, consider the UC request. Okay. First, asking, I'm sent to introduce this article about whether, in fact, people have been driven from public square. 2025 was a banner year for Alliance Defending Freedom. Now, it wasn't just that hearing in the day as well.

13:45Ben Meiselas:Despite the MAGA Republicans trying to do everything they can to cover up Donald Trump's dark past and to engage in this protection of the pedo ring, the Epstein files that Donald Trump and the Epstein class in the MAGAs want to do, there was still a interview. The Democrats are chopping wood on this investigation. They're not going to let James Comer and MAGA get away with everything. And so even though James Comer is now like not doing hearings under oath anymore and he's just doing these interviews, Democrats were able to get the interview of an individual by the name of Groff. And Groff was the assistant to Epstein.

14:29Ben Meiselas:And so she appears in the files, Leslie Groff appears in the Epstein files about 167 ,000 times. Jeffrey Epstein said that Leslie Groff was like his right hand. She's a co-conspirator. And so the Democrats were interviewing her and she admitted that she would set up these interviews between her, Epstein and Donald Trump, which I think is a pretty important admission. What are you trying to uncover with Bill Gates' testimony about Epstein? Well, look, today we had Ms. Groff, who's actually still testifying right now to the committee. She's giving us, in fact, I think a lot of names of staff, employees, folks that work in the Epstein orbit.

15:13She worked for Epstein for 18 years. So she's being asked, I think, some very tough questions, rightly so, about what she knew, who she scheduled appointments with. She scheduled massages. We know that. And so that's being asked of her right now. We're going to go back to as soon as votes are over. But then of Mr. Gates, we've said we don't care if you are a Republican or a Democrat or who you are. The fact that Mr. Gates still had a relationship with Mr. Epstein, even after knowing about the conviction, knowing what he had done, I think is very concerning. So we want to know what Mr. Gates know, who else was around that orbit and why Mr.

15:46Gates continued to have a relationship with Mr. Epstein. I think those are important.

15:49Ben Meiselas:That was Democratic Congress member Garcia right there. Now I'll show you, you know, James Comer was here as well. Here's what James Comer had to say. Let's play it. I put in a formal request to have Todd Blanche subpoenaed. Are you going to act on that subpoena? Will Todd Blanche become? You know, Todd Blanche came to speak to us for a briefing. And the Democrats got up and tiptoed out and ran to the press, clutching their pearls in outrage. What a wasted opportunity. We had Todd Blanche and Pam Bondi in there. And they didn't ask Todd Blanch a single question. But the Republicans stayed. We did our job, and we asked Blanch questions for two hours, Blanch and Bobby.

16:33So, you know, it's never enough for Garcia. I have a question I think you all should ask. Garcia and Walkinshaw and all their members that come out and complain and they're outraged. They complained about Lutnik. They said he said all this stuff. They said they were Bondi. You all have the transcripts. What was their problem? They say stuff to try to create a false narrative. They have an opportunity to ask questions to people, and they refuse because they just pull stunts to try to get on TV. We are doing a substantive investigation. I would argue the most thorough investigation ever of Epstein because the more evidence I...

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18:50Ben Meiselas:Let's play this clip. You know, she, she did as she was told. She really, you know, is saying essentially that she was naive, didn't know better, did not think anything of it. You know, she was calling and booking predominantly in New York is what she says that she didn't manage most of what happened in Palm Beach or in New Mexico. He also had, you know, five or six traveling assistants. So that's people like Sarah Kellen, who of course came before us and she herself was a victim and says she was a victim. But Leslie does not have that same story. She says she was never abused or assaulted by Epstein, that there was nothing romantic or sexual in nature there at all.

19:30And yeah, she scheduled all of his calls with, important high-profile people. She was just, as I left the room, being asked about setting up calls with Donald Trump before their alleged fallout, and she said that she did that about once a quarter before that time period. And did she know anything about the tenor of their conversations? Did she reveal any of that? She would reveal nothing about that, said she didn't know. I mean, the number of times the the interview will come out as it does in form of a transcript. You will see the words, I don't recall. I don't know. No, I wasn't aware many, many, many, many, many times.

20:12Understood. Congressman, you mentioned that 2008 agreement that Epstein reached with federal prosecutors, obviously controversial in its own right, but it includes a clause that it would not bring any charges against any potential co-conspirators, including Leslie Groff. Did she answer questions about that? Why was her name included in this non-prosecution agreement? My recollection is that she said she did not know. She, you know, was not aware. And Sarah Kellins had a very similar thing that she found out about it after the fact. I think there needs to be an independent investigation into this non-prosecution agreement from 2008.

20:54I think Alex Acosta, when he came before the committee, made very clear, at least in my view, it was very clear that he was lying.

21:01Ben Meiselas:Then the Midas Touch Network was able to catch up with MAGA Republican Congress member Rob Whitman, who faked a phone call for roughly 90 seconds after being asked about MAGA Mike Johnson's comments about cutting social security. You can see the phone screen remain visible with his cheek inadvertently tapping different parts of his display. Might as touch on Capitol Hill for you. Watch as we caught up with MAGA Republican Congress member Rob Whitman, who literally ran away from us. Here play this clip. Congressman, what is Mike Johnson's secret plan to cut Social Security? Hey, how you doing? I'm good.

21:38I'm good with that. Yeah, I'll be there in just a few minutes. No response, sir? I'm heading your way right now. Yeah, it's over at 416. Congressman, what is Mike Johnson's secret plan to cut Social Security? I appreciate that. I've got some more efforts that I want to talk to you about. There are actually more things that we have to be working on. Yeah, I want to make sure that we're putting more... No response, sir. Yeah, listen, thanks. I appreciate your help on this. I really do need some more of your input. if you can actually reach out I'll make sure that we do more of this yeah listen I really appreciate it thank you yes yes I believe you I understand there's more of those things that we need to work on yes well thanks thanks again I appreciate it thank you Congressman, what is Mike Johnson's secret plan to cut Social Security?

23:15Ben Meiselas:And just so you know what he was responding to, what we were asking him, we were asking questions that MAGA Mike Johnson was saying that he wants to cut Social Security. Here's MAGA Mike saying that he wants to cut Social Security. Let's play it. We're going to lead up to what we have to do and address the largest spending item. The reason we're in trouble is because over 74 % of federal spending is on autopilot, mandatory spending. That's your entitlement programs like like Medicare, Medicaid, and then things like Social Security. They have to be adjusted and fixed. We have a plan to do that next year.

23:50And it's critical.

23:51Ben Meiselas:And Maga Mike was also running away from members of the press. Maga Mike said the following about Donald Trump's strikes on Iran, which have now further created calamity here in the United States. Let's play it. What about Iran? What about Iran? He says they're going to respond on Iran? Do you have a sense of whether there'll be a new bombing campaign? And why shouldn't Congress weigh in if there is another bombing campaign? I don't I don't know what the reaction is going to be, but obviously Iran cannot be firing on U.S. troops. That's a serious problem. We'll see what happens. Did you discuss this attack?

24:22Did you get shot down? No, we did not know about that when I was in the situation.