GOP Leaders Lose Control on Live TV Over Trump’s Behavior

0:00Hey, Chicagoland, the Wayfair store is in your neighborhood at Edens Plaza and Wilmette. Finally, you can feel the fabric, sit on the sectionals, and even open the refrigerators. Plus, our in-store designers will help you bring it all together with free one-on-one design support for any project on any budget. Yep, we said free. Oh, and did we mention the cafe? So what are you waiting for? Come see all that's in store. Visit the Wayfair store today at Edens Plaza and Wilmette. Wayfair, every style, every home

0:29Ben Meiselas:GOP leaders are absolutely losing it as they and Donald Trump have sent the United States government into a shutdown Now they're pretending like they haven't even heard the things that Donald Trump's been saying Hear no evil, see no evil, I guess that it doesn't even exist Let me explain to you and show you what they're actually doing You have MAGA Republican Senator Ron Johnson He was asked on CNN how he feels about Donald Trump using AI images of Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries wearing a sombrero and putting a mustache on him and putting AI words into the mouth of Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer.

1:13Ben Meiselas:Like, do you think that is a good faith way to deal with very serious negotiations about the shutdown? and Republican Senator Ron Johnson from Wisconsin says, I don't know, I didn't see it. I have no clue what you're talking about. First time I'm hearing about it. I can't comment. Here, play this clip. President Trump posted an AI-generated depiction of minority leader Hakeem Jeffries in a sombrero and mustache. Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic House leader, responded saying, bigotry will get you nowhere. What was your response to this if you saw it? Are you comfortable with your party leader posting things like this?

1:49I honestly haven't seen it. Don't know what you're talking about.

1:52Ben Meiselas:Okay. That's the thing. These people are so pathetic where you confront them with what Donald Trump says and they go, I don't hear it. Or they try to like make a joke about it. I mean, you have Senator John Thune from South Dakota, the leader of the Republicans in the Senate used to be like viewed as a serious guy, moderate guy. Now he's full-fledged MAGA. And so he was asked by Jesse Waters. So have you heard them ever talk so much about a sombrero? And then Senator Thune's like, you know, we're getting great content out of it. You know, we kind of never thought we can get this kind of vibe. We're getting real good content.

2:29Ben Meiselas:You're getting good content? The American people are suffering and you are bragging about getting social media content for your weirdo, dystopian right-wing MAGA sphere? That's what you're talking about as the leader of the set? You're getting good content? It's about Americans dying. And you're talking about sombrero content? Here, play this clip. Have you heard them ever talk so much about a sombrero? Yeah, it's been a subject and really overused subject all day up here today. So yeah, Yeah. Who knew, right? You could get this kind of content and get this kind of vibe going about it. Yeah. So you see a theme here developing, right?

3:16Ben Meiselas:Then you have MAGA Republican Mike Turner, who used to not be a MAGA guy. I mean, he was always viewed Armed Services Committee. He was removed by MAGA, by Donald Trump and MAGA Mike Johnson from his position there. This guy was viewed as like a serious, centrist, smart guy. And he was asked by Caitlin Collins, well, why do you think Trump didn't mean what he said at his speech in front of the military generals and admirals where he said we're going to invade American cities? And he listed the cities. And Mike Turner goes, he doesn't mean it. He doesn't mean it in the manner that you say. She goes, I'm directly quoting what he's saying.

3:58Ben Meiselas:He's saying that he wants the generals and admirals to invade American cities. He's very specific. Oh, no, no, no, you don't get it. He meant something different. He meant something different. I didn't hear it. We're harvesting good content. Do you see what they're saying here? And again, this is why I say I don't care what political party you're from. This is not normal behavior, of course, by Donald. But this justification is weak, cowardly, pathetic. Here, play this clip. Why do you think he didn't mean that? Because he said this could be an issue for the people in this room in terms of he referenced very specific cities here in the United States, mostly Democratic-led cities.

4:41Well, I think he doesn't mean it in the manner in which you said it. I think he certainly means it. I was just quoting him. Overall, he's raised it before in the issue of public safety, and he certainly has raised it before in that manner. Yeah, no, I'm just quoting him. He said what they've done to San Francisco, Chicago, New York, L.A., they're very unsafe places, and we're going to straighten them out one by one, and this is going to be a major part for some of the people in this room. That's a war, too. It's a war from within. Right, it's a common theme of his, and it certainly is an important, issue.

5:10And certainly for the people who live there, I think across the country, everybody understands. And it pulls, I think, certainly even if your viewers understand that our cities have an issue of crime. And I think that is an issue that people know impacts our daily lives. It certainly impacts our economy and people daily. And I think the president has rightly identified that as important. And that certainly is equally important. Public safety and national security safety are equally important issues. They impact our lives daily.

5:37Ben Meiselas:Now, back to Mike Turner, you heard him try to recast what Donald Trump said at that horrific meeting in front of our military generals and admirals in Quantico. And here he tries to, I guess, repackage what Pete Hegseth was saying, what Donald Trump was saying also. And Mike Turner, again, he's supposed to be one of the leaders of the armed services committee, supposed to be a serious guy. He's like, yeah, but what Donald Trump and Hegseth really meant was peace through strength. That's what they meant. This is a peace through strength approach. Peace through strength. That was one of the weakest, most pathetic things.

6:15Ben Meiselas:And you talked about, Donald Trump talked about sending the military against American cities. Here, play this clip. What was your reaction to what you heard from Secretary Hegseth and President Trump to those military leaders today? Right, Caleb. Thank you for having me. And the part of the speech that you didn't play, which I think is probably the most important, which was the crux of really his message, is that he's returning the focus to peace through strength. And the fact that we really do have adversaries who mean us harm. There was a period of time where the Department of Defense went through this whole concept.

6:50Ben Meiselas:So going from Mike Turner to MAGA Republican leader, the agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins. Brooke Rollins says, look, Donald Trump, he's the most pro-farmer president in history. Obviously, obviously, there are major problems that our farmers are going through now, and the economic uncertainty is real. But Donald Trump loves the farmers. Why? Because he says love. He goes, I love you. I'm going to make you so rich, You're not even going to know what to do with it. How rich you are. No horrible Trump impression, but I didn't want to do a good Trump impression because he's a horrible guy and he's killing farmers right now.

7:33Ben Meiselas:And this is what the agriculture secretary says here. Play this clip. Farmers are getting a little angry, a little antsy here. It's pretty clear they support the administration. They understand what's going on, but they're sort of caught in the middle. China specifically trying to hurt them in this tariff war. So what should they expect from the White House? Well, thanks so much for having me on, Charles. And I loved your introduction. I think it told the story perfectly. For so long, this country has been basically built on the backs of our farmers and our ranchers. The president, President Trump, has been the most pro-farmer president, perhaps in our lifetimes, perhaps in history.

8:08But this moment of uncertainty in the farm economy is real. And there are many reasons for that. Obviously, the ongoing trade negotiations with China and others. But it goes way before that. Under Joe Biden, the cost of inputs went up 30 percent. No new trade deals, which you showed in that chart, which was actually a great chart. It's pretty remarkable that in four years under Joe Biden, there was not one new trade deal. And we went from an ag trade surplus under Trump one to a 50 billion dollar ag deficit under Joe Biden. And we're now just beginning to crawl our way back out of that. But the times are changing.

8:44Listen, it is a golden age. It's around the corner. But this president on Liberation Day at the White House, when we were all watching, when he announced this new tariff and trade world realignment, that it was going to take a little bit of time. But in that time, we've already struck seven or eight deals. Japan, the U.K., the E.U., Indonesia, the Philippines. I mean, it is I was in the U.K. two weeks ago selling ethanol, supposed to be in Japan tomorrow talking rice and other row crops. We'll see what the government shut down if that happens. But it is going to be gangbusters. gangbusters. But right now, the farm economy is not in a good place.

9:18We're working around the clock. The president has committed to supporting our farmers, and we'll have an announcement on that very soon, likely next week.

9:25Ben Meiselas:So she's asked another question. She goes, OK, can you tell us more about Trump's plan to bail out the farmers? What's the plan? And she goes, you know, it's a very elegant solution, right? The amount of tariff money that's coming into our country is stunning. The whole entire world economy is now realigning around American products. Here, play this clip. Can you tell us a little bit more about President Trump's plan to use tariff money to pay farmers? What does that look like? How much are we talking about? How long will that program last? You know, it is a very elegant solution, right? The amount of tariff money that is coming into our country is stunning.

10:03The president had a vision. He's effectuating the vision. The vision is pretty remarkable. The whole entire world economy is now realigning around American products, which is incredible. But again, to this moment of uncertainty, the ability to offset any payments to the farmers through potential tariff revenue is really where the president wants us to head. And that's what we're looking at. One more.

10:26Ben Meiselas:Brooke, Brooke Rollins, quite the opposite. They are unaligning. They are disaligning whatever the right phraseology is. They are decoupling. I know that was a word that the regime liked to use, decoupling. They're decoupling from the United States. As you said, the United States wanted to decouple from all of these countries. American farmers are not able to sell their produce anywhere because no one wants to do business with America. American manufacturers are suffering for the same reason. Construction workers are suffering. All American workers are suffering. No one wants to do business with us, Brooke.

11:05Ben Meiselas:That's the reality right now. And Donald Trump is so focused on his own personal deals with Saudi Arabia and Qatar and all these countries. And he doesn't give a crap about what's happening to our country. That's what you should care about when you're the president. Our country. We the people. You know, I remember the first time I overdrafted my old bank account. I didn't even realize. And what a nightmare. Huge fees, stress, and all for something as simple as a small purchase. That's why I love how Cash App has your back. Signing up was fast, the app is easy to use, and honestly, it does way more than I expected.

11:43Cash App does more than you think when it comes to having your back and making sure your money stays your money. If you direct deposit at least$300 in paychecks each month and use the Cash App card for purchases, you can unlock up to$200 in free overdraft coverage. If you overdraft unexpectedly, there are no hidden fees. Manage your money on your terms and take advantage of free overdraft coverage up to$200 on CashApp today. For a limited time only, new CashApp customers can use our exclusive code to earn some additional cash. For real. Just download CashApp, use our exclusive referral code, CashApp10, in your profile, send$5 to a friend within 14 days, and you'll get$10 dropped right into your account.

12:26Terms apply. That's money. That's CashApp. Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App's bank partners. Prepaid debit cards issued by Sudden Bank member FDIC. Overdraft coverage provided by Cash App, a Block, Inc. brand. Visit cash.app slash legal slash podcast for full disclosures.

12:43Ben Meiselas:Then you have MAGA Republican Senator Kramer. And he's asked like, so, you know, do you think that this is all just really about stuff like men playing and women's sports? Is that why we're doing this whole shutdown? Men playing women's sports? Transgender people? Let's watch this clip here, play. They want open borders. They want men playing in women's sports. Senator Kramer, you know, just in a moment like this of such seriousness, is this really about stuff like men playing in women's sports? Well, I don't know whether it is or it isn't, but the issue of the moment is keeping the government open and the Democrats have chosen not to do that.

13:21This is not like complicated, it, Aaron. This is a clean CR, something Democrats voted for 13 times in the Biden administration when Chuck Schumer was a majority leader. So this is not, you know, this isn't, you know, unknown territory to anybody. This has become far too common, quite honestly. And the other thing that's discouraging about it is we actually have real momentum in regular order in the appropriations process. Last year, Chuck Schumer didn't allow one appropriations bill to come to the Senate floor. We've already passed three of them on the Senate floor and on our way to passing just about all of the rest of them and with agreement, by the way, with the House in many cases.

13:58So all of that momentum is being closed up now because Chuck Schumer is afraid of AOC more than he is afraid of the consequences of a government shutdown.

14:06Ben Meiselas:Then I'm going to do a whole other video on Maggie Mike Johnson, which you may have seen already, but he was worried about Donald Trump getting impeached. Let's play it. Speaker Johnson, you have a very, very, very narrow majority. At a scale of one to 10, how likely is it that the Republicans build on this very slim majority next year. We're going to win in the midterms. Absolutely. We're going to have a big victory. And I think we can expand that majority so we can keep going. We have to give President Trump four years and not two. Imagine if the Democrats took over the House. They didn't get ready for the investigations.

14:34They're already ramping it up.

14:36Ben Meiselas:Then you get Senator Katie Britt. Oh, remember when she gave that awful, awful. What was it? The rebuttal speech that she gave in the state of the union that one time anyway. Here's Katie Britt saying Donald Trump won the hearts and minds of the American people. He won their confidence and we're going to enact the envision. He is a con man. He is a confidence man. He's a con man who told people that he would solve all these problems on day one. And now he's posting videos of democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries wearing a sombrero. And he's also posting AI slop videos of secret technology from outer space used by aliens, like UFOs called the med bed that cures everybody's cancer if you just go in the med bed and that that's his healthcare plan.

15:26Ben Meiselas:QAnon conspiracy is called med beds. Here's Katie Britt. Let's play it. The only reason they're making a different change here is because of Donald Trump. Donald Trump won the hearts and minds of the American people. He won their confidence and we're going to enact his vision. So we're ready to get going and we'll be here when they finally get to do that too. Then Russ Vogt, who's the director of office of management and budget, who was the author of project 2025. He's giddy right now at the idea of just cutting all government services. They love to cut government services and fire. They're looking forward to firing hundreds and thousands of government workers here.

16:05Ben Meiselas:Play this clip. And we're going to manage this shutdown and try to keep the American people from the havoc that the Democrats have caused with their crazy demands. But let it be said, there are all manner of authorities to be able to keep this administration's policy agenda moving forward. And that includes reducing the size and scope of the federal government. And we will be looking for opportunities to do that. And now I'll just show you just a bit of some of the response by people who care about our democracy. Here you have Senator Bernie Sanders, and he's asked by Caitlin Collins. So are you going to vote no every time to support, I guess, funding this authoritarian regime?

16:46Ben Meiselas:Watch Bernie Sanders response. Let's play it. But these guys have said, it's my way or the highway. This is the way it's going to be. And that is kind of what Trumpism is about. That's that authoritarian tendency that we're seeing in America right now. So are you telling me you're willing to vote no every time Leader Thinke brings this up? I am not going to allow. Let me be clear. All right. You can quote me on this. You can quote be honest, we say in Vermont till the cows come home. I will not let tens of thousands of fellow Americans die because they're thrown off of health care. In my state, people cannot afford a doubling in the health care premiums.

17:19We are already paying the highest prices in the country for health care. People just can't afford it. And what the Republicans have got to do is go into their hearts and go back into their constituents, ask their constituents in Louisiana, where Johnson is from, do you think it's a good idea to give a trillion dollars in tax breaks to people like Bezos and Musk and Zuckerberg, the richest people in this country, in order to cut, throw people off the health care they have? I think the answer will be a risality no. So I hope the Republicans develop a sense of morality, listen to the people of America and do the right

17:51Ben Meiselas:thing. AOC with a powerful response as well. AOC says, look, we know Donald Trump's authoritarian machinations. We get it. But there's two things going on at the same time. They're weak. The Trump regime, they're weak, they're unpopular, they're despised, but they want to project confidence and inevitability. But that's why you got to fight back because these are weak, pathetic people, she says. Here, play this clip. I think there's two things that are happening at once. And this is something that's very important for people to understand. One, there absolutely is an unprecedented abuse of power, destruction of norms, erosion of our government and our democracy in order to prop up an authoritarian style of governance.

18:41That is happening. However, they are weaker than they look. And it is important that we remember that because what they rely on is the impression of power, the perception of inevitability in us giving up in advance to say, oh, what's going to happen if I stand up, et cetera? Nothing's going to happen. They rely on that perception of inevitability and power so that people comply in advance and acquiesce in advance and give up in advance. And at the end of the day, Donald Trump is at record levels of unpopularity in his tenure. The Republican House is at record levels of unpopularity. They are underwater across the board and they know it.

19:33And that is causing them to double down in public. But it is backfiring. That is why whether it's a shutdown, whether it's all of this, they want us to blink first. and we have too much to save. Protecting people is too important a task for us to give up before anything even starts. So they may want to send people in, but these National Guardsmen do not want to be turned against their fellow Americans. We're seeing this here in Washington, D.C. It is an insult. Donald Trump is insulting the service members of this country by putting them on these silly tasks that they themselves do not want to be enforcing.

20:19And so we have to understand that standing up matters, that our voice matters, to not give in to the cynicism because that is what they rely on in order to perpetuate this idea that they have total immunity from consequence. They will experience the consequences of this, but we have to be the consequence, which is why we have to stand tall right now alongside everyday Americans who want us to be standing up right now as well.

20:50Ben Meiselas:And here she is again saying that Donald Trump's trying to play this bluff game. AOC perfectly gets what's going on right now. Here, play this clip. You know, Donald Trump is trying to play this bluffing game of, well, maybe what we're going to do is hold the entire, all the federal workforce hostage and fire everybody. Donald Trump has been firing everybody. We saw this with Doge. We've seen this at the State Department. We've seen this at the Department of Justice. They are firing everybody. They are completely eliminating the federal workforce. And in order for us to stop this madness, we have to put a stop to it.

21:28And we have to stop enabling their abuse of power, including their use of rescission. And when we're fighting on their health care, it forces them to act in ways in accordance with the law and other ways, too.

21:40Ben Meiselas:But folks, according to Kevin Hassett, Donald Trump's top national economic advisor, we are all in a golden age. It is here. Play this clip. The golden age that President Trump promised us is really on the way. Are we in a golden age? Because when we actually hear what MAGA Republicans, let's listen to what this MAGA Republican, Senator Roger Marshall had to say, play it. Seems very disingenuous for the Democrats to be blaming President Trump for these rural hospital struggles. The reason rural hospitals are struggling is because of the bad economy, because they've lost 30 or 50 % of their population.