GOP Leaders Implode on Sunday Shows as Trump Tanks Party

0:00Choice Hotels gets you more of what you value. Here's a little tune to help you remember. Same drive, different day. Don't you wish you were getting away? Pack your bags and come on through. Texas, Ohio, Alaska, we're up there too. Comfort Inn, it's calling your name. Save on the stay. Oh, and free waffles are yours to claim. Well, I hope you like my little song. Book direct at choicehotels.com. Some follow the noise. Bloomberg follows the money. Whether it's the funds fueling AI or crypto's trillion dollar swings, there's a money side to every story. Get the money side of the story. Subscribe now at Bloomberg.com.

0:48Ben Meiselas:Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. The message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop. With Mint, you can get premium wireless for just$15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments, but that's weird. Okay, one judgment. Anyway, give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of$45 for three-month plan, equivalent to$15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. See full terms at mintmobile.com. I'm Jake Stouck, co-founder and CEO of Serval.

1:22We built Serval to automate the IT work that slows companies down. Onboarding, password resets, access to applications, my laptop stopped working. While employees wait for help, their real work is put on hold. IT desperately wants to automate this work, and that's why they need Serval. You just tell Serval what you want to automate in plain English, and it's built. No drag-and-drop workflows, no expensive consultants. Employees get unblocked, and IT teams go from drowning in tickets to building what actually matters. With Serval, IT becomes the AI engine powering the entire company. This is a new way to run IT.

2:00We guarantee you'll automate 50 % of all tickets and we'll prove it to you in a free four-week pilot. Go to serval.com slash listen. That's S-E-R-V-A-L dot com slash listen.

2:19I'm Jake Stouck, co-founder and CEO of Serval. We built Serval to automate the IT work that slows companies down. Onboarding, password resets, access to applications, my laptop stopped working. While employees wait for help, their real work is put on hold. IT desperately wants to automate this work, and that's why they need Serval. You just tell Serval what you want to automate in plain English, and it's built. No drag-and-drop workflows, no expensive consultants. Employees get unblocked and IT teams go from drowning in tickets to building what actually matters. With Serval, IT becomes the AI engine powering the entire company.

2:58This is a new way to run IT. We guarantee you'll automate 50 % of all tickets and we'll prove it to you in a free four-week pilot. Go to serval.com slash listen. That's S-E-R-V-A-L dot com slash listen.

3:19Ben Meiselas:MAGA Republican leaders and Trump MAGA Republican cabinet members were spiraling out of control on live TV on these Sunday shows to try to justify Trump's disastrous presidency, his plummeting approval, the fact that Americans despise the guy. Let me show you what went down. You had Donald Trump's treasury secretary, Scott Besson, continuing to say that he owns a soybean farm. he gets called out for it and he goes well i have family members work on it which we know is not true here play this clip since the agreement with the chinese they are going to buy 12.5 million metric tons but margaret i'm involved in the agriculture industry i run a soybean farm and i can tell you you invest in it sorry you own or invest and people in my family go out and work on it i actually just divested it this week as part of the my ethics agreement so i'm out of that business, but I probably know more about any treasury secretary than ag about agriculture since the 1800s.

4:23And I can tell you that what farmers need is certainty. And we have put that in place with this trade deal.

4:29Ben Meiselas:Then you have Maria Bartiroma speaking with MAGA Republican Senator McCormick about Donald Trump's economic plans and his policies to which Senator McCormick, mega Republican from Pennsylvania, says, I think the message we need to tell the American people is we inherited a train wreck from Biden, but we've saved the day. Here, play this clip. I think to be with the president on Tuesday. And what are you expecting the president's messages to be? Well, I'm hoping to be with him. And I was just in Pennsylvania the last three days in that part of the Pennsylvania, the northeastern part. And listen, I think I think the message is that we inherited a train wreck from the Biden administration, out of control inflation, an enormous regulatory state, real wage growth hadn't kept up.

5:19And we've made a lot of progress in the last 12 months with the president's agenda. Inflation is about half of what it was on average during the Biden administration. Real wage growth exceeds the inflation numbers. And you've got all sorts of things that we did right out of the gate, which is putting money in the pockets of working families, whether it's the child care tax credit or no tax on tips, no tax on overtime. So we've made a lot of progress, but there's a lot more work to do. And I think the president will lay out that agenda and how all the policies that he's put in place are going to help working families.

5:52And there's more to come, particularly in deregulation and in energy dominance.

5:57Ben Meiselas:Actually, the economy right now is horrible for most Americans. And you didn't inherit a train wreck. You inherited an economy that The Economist, Wall Street Journal, referred to as the envy of the world. There was a manufacturing boom beginning to take place. I think lots of economic papers called it a Goldilocks economy. Here, going back to Treasury Secretary Scott Besant, he says that actually the economy right now is much better than we thought it would be. What does that even mean? You promised a golden age, and right now it is anything but, and the American people are suffering. Here, play this clip.

6:37Lower numbers of purchases and higher prices. The economy has been better than we thought. We've had the 4 % GDP growth in a couple of quarters. We're going to finish the year, despite the Schumer shutdown, with 3 % real GDP growth.

6:52Ben Meiselas:And by the way, Treasury Secretary Scott Besant is a billionaire, and he's so detached from what people are experiencing. But just look at that shit-eating grin of his. He's so proud of himself for the deceit and the lies that he spreads. I can't get that annoying face out of my mind because this guy is just the worst. He's then asked on one of the morning shows about prices in the toy space that are going up because inflation is surging right now. And his response is that inflation is a composite number and it's roughly the same every year. And so there's actually no inflation right now. What are you talking about?

7:34Ben Meiselas:What does that even mean? We know inflation's rising right now. We all go out there. I just had a breakfast. I mean, for those of you who've seen the background, I just had breakfast in Palm Springs, I brought my wife, my niece, and my sister-in-law and my baby girl. And we just had standard eggs, bacon, normal breakfast each. The bill was$165 right now. Here. Anyway, play this clip. Well, the maker of Tonka Trucks, their CEO said it's going to cost 40 bucks for their toys right now because of tariffs and inflation. It was 30 bucks the year before that 25. Prices in the toy space are accelerating and people are feeling that.

8:20Well, Margaret, inflation is a composite number and it's roughly the same year over year. And if we were to look at all imported goods, imported goods inflation is below the inflation number. The inflation number, you mean? The PC number, which is about 2.9 percent. Imported goods inflation is about 1.8 It's the service economy that's generating inflation, which actually has nothing to do with tariffs.

8:48Ben Meiselas:OK, going back to Treasury Secretary Scott Besant right here. He's asked again about Donald Trump saying affordability is a con job. Here, play this clip. We hear from, for example, the president when he says that affordability is a con job by Democrats. That seems to just not be resonating with consumers that have been pulled by CBS. 60 % of Americans polled by this network told us President Trump makes prices and inflation sound better than they really are. And his approval rating on the economy is now down to 36 % in our latest poll. On inflation, approval is even lower, 32%. Don't you need to show that you feel the pain?

9:30Well, Margaret, I think the president's frustrated by the media coverage of what's going on. This is the polling of average Americans. Yeah, but I think the average Americans are hearing a lot of it from media coverage. And I will tell you that affordability has two components. There's inflation and then there's real incomes. Real incomes are up about 1%. And what we're not going to do is say that Americans don't know what they're feeling. We've been working on it every day. I was on your show on March talking about affordability. We've made a lot of gains. But remember, we've got this embedded inflation from the Biden years.

10:08Ben Meiselas:And again, look at his face. Look at this face of this liar, this smug, arrogant liar. And again, he's a billionaire. He bought himself in Charleston, South Carolina, before taking this job, a pink Barbie Malibu mansion replica in Charleston, where he lived in a pink Malibu Barbie home, like$22 million. And this is the guy saying Thanksgiving was much cheaper. He goes, he says Thanksgiving was much cheaper this year. Turkeys were down 16%. I don't know where you're shopping right now. Thanksgiving was not cheaper. And stop the freaking gaslighting, people. We know, we've went out. If you're out there, we know it's more expensive.

10:56Ben Meiselas:Here, play this clip. Well, I mean, grocery prices are up nearly 3 % compared to last September. Remember, the president seems to be acknowledging that grocery prices or at least beef prices are a challenge because he put out this order just yesterday saying they're going to investigate corporate price gouging for high beef prices. Isn't suing the food companies the same thing the Biden administration did and it didn't really work? Well, nothing. How's this any different? Nothing the Biden administration did work. So why are you doing it? Because this isn't the same thing. If they if they had done this, if they've done it properly, we'd be in a different spot.

11:32And beef is one component. Thanksgiving turkey was down 16%.

11:38Ben Meiselas:So next, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessens asked, so if everything's great, if everything's fine with farmers and you're saying things are great, why is it that you need to bail out farmers right now? Why do you have to give them what you're calling a bridge payment, which is a bailout, to the farmers right now? And he goes, well, because you need to help them with the financing now because next year is going to be so great. Here, play this clip. Why, if everything's fine, then why do farmers need a bridge payment from the agricultural department? Sorry? Why would farmers need a bridge payment from the agriculture department?

12:14Because these prices haven't come in because the Chinese actually used our soybean farmers as pawns in the trade negotiations. And we are going to create this bridge because again, agriculture is all about the future. You've got to start financing for planning next year. The wind things will be very good.

12:34Ben Meiselas:Ever have one of those moments where your body reminds you it's not 25 anymore? Maybe it's the slower recovery after a workout or the way your joints creak like an old floorboard. And don't get me started on how much worse it is in the winter. It's like my energy goes into hibernation. Aging is a reality for all of us, but our actions determine how we age. That's why I use Qualia Senolytic to help keep my cells healthy and my body feeling youthful. Zombie cells are real and they're aging you. These senescent cells stop being useful, but stick around draining your energy, slowing recovery and making you feel older than you are.

13:11Ben Meiselas:Qualia Senolytic helps your body fight back against aging. It's a powerful, clinically tested formula with nine vegan, plant-derived compounds that support your body's natural ability to eliminate zombie cells so you can feel sharper, stronger, and more energized. Take it just two days a month. That's all it takes. Take Qualia Senolytic for just two days a month and start aging better at the cellular level. After adding Qualia Senolytic to my routine, I noticed a real difference. My energy feels steadier, recovery is quicker, and mentally I'm more dialed in. Experience the science of feeling younger.

13:46Ben Meiselas:Go to qualialife.com slash Midas for up to 50 % off your purchase and use code Midas for an additional 15%. That's qualialife.com slash Midas for up to 50 % off your purchase. Your older self will thank you. And thanks to Qualia for sponsoring this episode. And they bring on this MAGA Republican Senator John Curtis from Utah who tries to fancy himself as a moderate, but he's really not. He aids and abets all of Trump's extremism. But he says it in a tone that he tries to act like he's reflecting on things in a serious way. He isn't. And he's asked about Donald Trump calling the entire Somalian community garbage, saying they're garbage people.

14:31Ben Meiselas:Again, clearly racist and xenophobic and hateful, but Trump's a racist, xenophobic, hateful person. So what do you have to say about that, Senator Curtis, MAGA Republican Senator Curtis? And he's like, well, I don't love that language, but This is what the American people voted for. We wanted to experience pain, so we're getting the pain that we deserve. Here play this clip. Right. And the best thing I can do is set my example. And I think all of us need to wake up every morning, look in the mirror and say, what are we doing? What am I doing specifically today to make this country a better country, to make all of our immigrants feel more welcome?

15:08That's what we've always had. And I think if more of us would do that, it would matter less what individuals said. Right. But as you know, he's not just an individual. He's the president of the United States calling an entire community garbage. So, you know, it wasn't very long ago, just a little year ago, that we elected him. And we knew very well what we were electing at the time. The country wanted a disruptor. And he's put disruptors into place, Tom Homo and things like that. And that disruption is very, very painful. But you'll have to remember the reason I think the country went that direction is they were very uncomfortable with a number of things we were doing in this country.

15:43And we wanted a disruptor. And for good or bad, that's what disruption brings.

15:47Ben Meiselas:Then they bring on Tom Cotton. I mean, Tom Cotton's basically just, this guy's a weird guy. I mean, there's more to this guy's background than I think people know publicly, but I'll just leave it at that. Okay. I'll leave it at that. And he tries to compensate for that with this bloodlust and acting like he's got all this testosterone. Oh, here's what we're going to do. So he's asked about a few things. The first he's asked, well, how are you protecting Arkansas right now from drugs if Donald Trump is pardoning the biggest drug trafficker, Juan Orlando Hernandez, who brought in 500 tons of cocaine and was instrumental in helping the Sinaloa cartel?

16:32Ben Meiselas:So does that make sense to you? Play this clip. You are talking about the president protecting Americans, Arkansans from drugs. And yet just this week, the president pardoned the former president of Honduras who trafficked more than 500 tons of cocaine into the United States. He was serving a 45 year sentence, Senator. How does that make America safer? Well, I haven't spoken to the president about that pardon. There may be strategic reasons to pardon the former president of Honduras because of our relationship with Honduras and trying to move them in a more pro-American direction. I'll leave that open as a possibility.

17:06But, Kristen, I think you know my general approach to crime is that we should lock them, we should convict them, and then we should lock them up. And once they're locked up, we should keep them locked up. So given that, do you oppose the pardon, given that you're saying you want to protect our Kansas? I'd have to know more about the circumstances. Sometimes pardons of foreign nationals who've been leaders of other countries, do have underlying strategic reasons. But my approach, as you know, Kristen, to crime is to lock them up, throw away the key and don't let them out.

17:31Ben Meiselas:The war power. Oh, I guess he doesn't know about that. But what he does know is that when the survivors of the first boat strike on September 2nd were waving their shirts and they were surrendering and they were stranded in the water, that actually they were signaling that they wanted to pick up more drugs. Let me just say this as well. The ship was headed to Suriname. The ship was heading the fishing boat, not even a ship, the little tiny fishing boat that couldn't even make it to the U.S. without seven refuels if it was going in the direction. It was going from Venezuela east, east, outside the direction of the U.S.

18:07Ben Meiselas:Here play this clip. He continued to talk about one of them took off his shirt as if he's trying to suntan. But again, your colleagues, some of them saying, look, they were waving their arms around? Isn't it possible that even the act of taking off a t-shirt could have been part of an attempt to get attention for help? Or it could have been an attempt to signal to another cartel boat to come pick them up and pick up the cargo. But is there a confirmation of what they were doing and what their intentions were? For Admiral Bradley's decision, it doesn't really matter what they were doing. They were on that boat.

18:38That boat was still a valid target. They were not in a state of distress on a plank of wood in the ocean like subsequent survivors were. And when that was the case in October. Our military did the right thing. It sent a vessel. It picked them up. It took them back to shore.

18:52Ben Meiselas:Whoever lets facts get in the way of MAGA bloodlust and terrorism and despicable criminal conduct. Speaking of, you got MAGA Republican Senator Eric Schmidt, and he's asked, do you support Trump pardoning the former Honduran president? Here play this clip. In the Senate, and Senator, let me just begin where we left off with Congressman Smith. Do you support this pardon of the former Honduran president? I'm not familiar with the facts or circumstances, but I think what's telling here is to try to imply that somehow President Trump is soft on drug smuggling is just ridiculous. At least Stephanopoulos pushes him again.

19:28Ben Meiselas:He's like, what do you mean you're not familiar with the facts? Everybody knows about that. You haven't had time to formulate an opinion on things that we all know has happened here at Play This Club. What do you mean you're not familiar with the facts and circumstances of the pardon? It's been well reported all across the country as the former president of Honduras. He was convicted of conspiring to bring in 400 tons of cocaine into the United States, also guns and other materials. It's been front page news across the country. Aren't you curious about that? Well, I'm curious about your pushback on that particular point.

19:59Ben Meiselas:With your previous guest, you had zero pushback because he's giving the Democrat talk again, so utterly despicable. Here's Tom Cotton again, defending war crimes. Let's play it. Hear you saying they weren't incapacitated and yet Democratic Congressman Adam Smith of Washington, the ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee, saw this very differently. He saw that video. He said, quote, it looks like two classically shipwrecked people. Other lawmakers who saw the video said the two men appeared to raise their arms potentially to signal that they were trying to surrender. Senator, why did Admiral Bradley interpret those actions as anything other than these two men trying to seek help and survive?

20:38Well, again, they were sitting or standing on top of a capsized boat. They weren't floating helplessly in the water. And Kristen, I don't think it matters all that much what they were trying to do. It looked at one point like they were trying to flip the boat back over, presumably to rescue its cargo and continue their mission. Or to stay afloat, potentially? Maybe they were signaling to other airplanes or drug cartel boats because they're in waters that are just on drug cartel areas. At one point, the guy takes off his t-shirt. Maybe he's trying to get a suntan. It doesn't really matter what they were trying to do.

21:05What matters is that they were not in a shipwrecked state, distressed, dog paddling in the water at all. And therefore, that boat, its cargo, and those drug traffickers remained valid targets.