GOP Panics as Trump's MAGA Base Starts to Slip

0:00Ben Meiselas:GOP leaders are freaking out at the election results from this Tuesday, especially the special election in Pennsylvania's State House District 12, where a Democrat pulled off a massive upset in a district that was plus 18 Donald Trump in 2024. On Tuesday, that district swung 19 points in favor of the Democrat who went on to win. And these Republicans and these MAGA leaders are saying, if that trend holds, which we've seen in special election after special election over the past 18 months, this is going to be a wipeout in the midterms. So you have MAGA Mike Johnson, the MAGA Republican Speaker of the House, and other MAGA leadership.

0:50Ben Meiselas:They're running across the country and they're trying to do whatever they can to lie to the people of the United States and fear monger and talk about communism, this and communism, that and hope that people don't realize that the Trump regime has destroyed their lives. The problem, Aga Mike, is when you're there, you just remind people about how your so-called big, beautiful bill, your disastrous budget bill, and Trump's never-ending wars, and your cover-up of the Epstein files has disgraced the United States and destroyed the lives of so many people, how you've ripped away health care from people, how you've destroyed jobs, and how not only have you and Donald Trump not kept your promises, you've been exposed as total frauds, which Donald Trump has been his entire life, a fraud and a bankruptor.

1:42Ben Meiselas:So MAGA Mike Johnson rushed to Lansing, Michigan, where he was there with the MAGA Republican Congress member, Tom Barrett. And MAGA Mike just lie after lie. How do you know that MAGA Mike Johnson is lying? Well, he opens up his mouth. Watch how pathetic this is as MAGA Mike's like, well, everything was going great. The economy was just booming. But then we had to do the war in Iran. Of course, everyone knows we had to. No, we don't know that. Donald Trump rushed into this catastrophic war with Netanyahu for no reason at all, never even gave any explanation to the American people. But Maga Mike's like, but now I'm going to say communism.

2:23Ben Meiselas:I'm just going to say communism over and over again to try to scare you. Here, play this clip. History will record this will be one of the most successful and productive congresses in the history of the institutions since 1789. Why? Because we did what we said we were going to do. We passed about 800 pieces of legislation. We codified over 125 executive orders, and we brought the biggest tax cuts and the biggest wage increases in generations. We mentioned the biggest tax refunds that Michiganders have experienced. We also infused our legislation with pro-growth policies. We set the table for the U.S.

2:56economy to take off like a rocket. If you look at it, we were doing that the first quarter of this year, and then we got into this conflict with Iran. Now, look, we had to act. Iran was on the verge of having nuclear capability. The largest state-sponsored terrorism could not be allowed to do that. It was in America and the whole world's interest to make sure that couldn't happen. We did it, and now we've got to resolve that. I'm convinced, as the president is, as soon as that happens, that we will be able to get stability again against prices and hold this down. But we're in the process of doing that.

3:25I believe we're in seven days before the election or not. People understand you cannot turn the government over to radical Marxist communists, okay? Because they will take over everything. Your taxes will go through the roof. Your opportunity will go through the floor and it will lead to human suffering every single time. Every single time in history, socialism or communism has been tried. It's been an abject failure and it's led to human suffering and famine and poverty, we cannot go down that road. So you need hardworking Americans.

3:57Ben Meiselas:Right. How utterly pathetic was that? Then Mag and Mike goes, okay, if I haven't made my point clear, everything was great, but where it was bad, it's Biden's fault. Okay. Let's just blame Biden. And this is what he says again. We need to all blame Biden. I mean, how pathetic is this? Now we know prices are high right now and we're working every day to make sure they continue to come down. Remember that we inherited from the Biden-Harris administration the highest inflation in 40 years. So it's taken a while to climb out of that. The Iran conflict is going to continue and that will help make sure that gas prices stay low.

4:32And that will bring down the prices of groceries as well because the transport costs of oil and gas. But every day, Republicans are working really hard.

4:39Ben Meiselas:And then MAGA Mike's like, but I'm very bullish on the midterms. I think we're going to all win. I think we're going to look great. By the way, even the people next to him, I circled him, are looking at him like, oh my God, how does this guy even lie like this all the time? Here, play this clip. Bullish on the outcome of the election is 77 days from today, but who's counting? Okay. It is true. We have to defy history. Only twice in 90 years has a sitting president picked up seats for his party in that first two-year cycle, but it's going to happen this year. And it's a combination of factors. Not only do we have a great record to run on, we have much stronger candidates.

5:12This is a contrast election, a contrast between common

5:25Ben Meiselas:You know, we're hearing from voters from across this country as well. Take a look at this voter from Ohio playing this clip. I am. Do you vote in Republican primaries? I do. So you're just not happy with the way the - I'm not happy. Well, the party that I know doesn't exist. Hopefully it finds its way. If you could say something to President Trump right now, what would you say? Resign. You're destroying the country. And so there's a Republican voter, longtime Republican voter, still votes in the primaries, not going to vote for Max Miller. Obviously very upset with President Trump. Wow. Or how about this three-time Trump voter expressing her disappointment over the Iran war on MS Now?

6:16Ben Meiselas:Play this clip. President Trump about this war, what would you tell him? I would tell him enough. Bring our guys and girls home. And I don't want to see it. I don't like seeing war. That's all. We need to protect our borders and keep ourselves, keep our family here safe. The fact that, you know, President Trump launched this war with Israel after campaigning on no new foreign wars, does that bother you at all? Yeah, it does. He was a no war president and now we're at war. So I'm not thrilled with that at all. Or how about this 52 year old man who said he has been voting in every election since he was 18 and never voted for a Democrat.

6:58Ben Meiselas:But in Texas, he intends to vote for James Tallarico for the first time. The first time he'll ever vote Democrat. Play this clip. And when you talk about corruption, there is a 52-year-old man. He did not want to be filmed on camera when we were inside. But I spoke with him afterwards. He said he has been voting every election since he was 18 years old. And he has never voted for a Democrat. He believes Ken Paxton is corrupt. He will not vote for him. And I said, so will you vote for James Tallarico? And he said, I'm seriously considering it. He clearly was impressed that he came here, listened to what people had to say.

7:37And look, the polls are incredibly tight. But what I really noticed in the latest poll that came out today is that in all of the key metrics, James Tallarico is ahead. He's ahead on the economy. He's ahead on affordability. He's even ahead on keeping Texans safe. And so he's going to stay here tonight. He's going to do a rally not far from where I'm standing. And he believes that if he goes and learns from things like this and takes the message that people are giving him to other parts of the state, that it's part of the of the way to win. Not that he's not raising money. He's raising lots of money.

8:14But he thinks that this ground game, this one on one kind of aspect of his campaign could be the difference.

8:21Ben Meiselas:Speaking about Texas, as diesel price reaches record highs and gas prices are record highs, the diesel crack spread is over$102 a barrel. Regular gas price is$90 a barrel,$4 per gallon and more on average. Average price of diesel is like$5.27, something like that. This was just from, I mean, every day the price is going up on diesel,$10,$12,$15. cents. Let's take a look at some of these Texans, what they're experiencing. This is what you're probably experiencing at home too. And you know, we need to spend a lot more attention talking about diesel. I know we talk a lot about gas as we should, but also diesel is what fuels our industries and agriculture and our freight and everything.

9:06Ben Meiselas:And that's going to result in lots of other prices going up. And Donald Trump's just saying his new plan, not even a plan at all with Iran is just to do nothing. He goes, I'm just going to disengage and that will do it. That will strangle Iran. I mean, so utterly pathetic. Here play this clip. I used to have a big Ford F 250 diesel and I had to get rid of it because the prices were too high. This seems like every day they go up, you know, they'll go down for a couple of days and they shoot back up even higher. It's not sustainable. None of this is sustainable. Now we're getting some new polling out of Michigan.

9:43Ben Meiselas:El-Sayed is now leading Rogers amongst independents, 44 % to 46%. And the latest tip poll, what about regular, what about Michigan statewide? 45 to 42 % Abdul El-Sayed leads in tip. The TIPP poll is one of, is, is, is a top rated poll in Michigan. So in this poll, Abdul El-Sayed leads by three points. Jocelyn Benson just destroying John James, 53 % to 37 % right there. Amongst registered voters, Abdul El-Sayed up 43 % to 39 % against Mike Rogers, and Jocelyn Benson, 48 % to 34%. This is a Republican-sponsored poll, I might add as well. I think Abdul El-Sayed's a good debater also. When you put him on stage next to Mike Rogers, And Rogers is going to be like, I love the big, beautiful bill.

10:40Ben Meiselas:I love everything, data centers everywhere. I think you'll see the distinction. By the way, you saw Donald Trump's hand-picked senator in South Carolina, Darlene Graham. Did you see what went down there? I'll show it to you one more time just so you can see Darlene Graham during the debate. Hear a play of this clue. Senator, if you want to respond or we can move on, it's your choice. That's okay. We'll move on. Okay, we'll move on. All right. Okay. On the national security question as well. Senator, are Taiwan and the South China Sea national security issues for the United States? If so, why? I'm sorry.

11:27Could you repeat the question? Are Taiwan and the South China Sea national security issues for the United States? And if so, why or how? I'm just going to be honest here. I'm not on national security. I'm not that informed on national security. But I do support the military. My brother was in the Air Force for 33 years. So I will do everything I can to support the military. My dad was in the Army. I'm not a polished politician up here. National security is not my thing, not my area of expertise, but I do support the military. Congressman, I'll give you a chance to respond, and I'm sure he recognizes that we'll...

12:12Taiwan's a definite ally, and we have a trading relationship with them that is beneficial to the United States, Chips being one of them, and others. So what the president is doing right is he's enabling Taiwan to defend themselves against China. But it's peace through strength that he's showing with Iran that China, Russia, others are looking at it so that they don't want to deal with America. And that's why they haven't attacked Taiwan. If they had some weak Democrat in office like Biden or another Obama, yeah, they'd take it over. But we can't let that happen. I know we've got to take a strong, a piece through strength is working.

12:56Ben Meiselas:Yeah, that was rough to see. Then she believed that there was 55 or 50 million people in South Carolina. There's like 5.5. Here, play this clip. Well, I know how that feels. There's 50 million people in South Carolina. Half of them live paycheck to paycheck. I know, right? Absolutely brutal. And then she and the opponent were fighting over who supported the big disastrous budget bill more. Like that's what I support, you know, Lindsey Graham supported and you hesitated, you wavered in your support. People, the big beautiful bill ain't big and beautiful. It was disastrous. Objectively, it has caused so much pain to the American people.

13:39Ben Meiselas:Like the data is in and it ain't good about the disastrous budget bill. But they want to brag about it here. You can listen to it for yourself here. Play this clip. It's kind of ironic when you talk about the big, beautiful bill, because it's my understanding that you were the holdout on the big, beautiful bill. And Trump had to call you in and convince you to sign it. And then just watching these other MAGA Republican Congress members run around like Brian Mast, MAGA Republican Congress member from Florida, who's like, we're supposed to deplete our stockpiles of strategic petroleum reserves. That's why we have them in the first place.

14:20Ben Meiselas:We're not supposed to deplete them this low. I mean, could you imagine if this was anyone else other than Trump? I mean, these people are so damn pathetic. Here, play this clip. This has gone on and it does deplete U.S. stockpiles, but those stockpiles, they exist for us to use for defense, for deterrence and for eliminating enemies that have been attacking us. And he laid that out as well. Iran has been attacking us for the last 30 years. But even if I gave you a number of the last 30 months, in the last 30 months before Epic Fury, they attacked us over 350 times, killed three U.S. service members, countless contractors, driving small boats into our big ships, firing ballistic missiles and drones at us.

15:00This has been sustained. And Epic Fury is simply the first time that the United States of America has said, you know what? We're not going to take this anymore. And the only way we bring that forever war to an end is to end those that have been conducting it against us. And so that's what has to be done, no matter how long that takes.

15:18Ben Meiselas:Or MAGA Republican Congressmember Pat Fallon, who claims that these family members of our courageous sailors and Marines are just lying about the conditions that their family members are experiencing on the aircraft carriers. Here play this glimpse. Congressman, your thoughts on your colleagues' call for congressional oversight and some of these reports that we've gotten from the Lincoln that potentially several crew members tried to jump? Well, Cheryl, good morning and thanks for having me on. We have oversight currently. I'm sitting on the Armed Services Committee with my friend Don Bacon, and these reports are just that.

15:58I haven't heard anything personally from our office, and I trust the Navy to do this as well. So I don't make much of it, to be honest. Okay, so you're not concerned about these reports. Two to 60 days is a long time for deployment. Yeah, oh no, there's no doubt about it. I mean, look at our armed services, our folks, our soldiers, our sailors, our airmen do a fantastic job. Of course, when I served, you always prefer to be stateside if possible, but as part of the job is to deploy. And they did that. I think they did an outstanding job. I'm glad they're coming back.

16:34Ben Meiselas:Well, there you have it, everybody. Let me know what you think. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million. Thanks for watching, y 'all.

17:02We'll be right back.