Jack Schlossberg on Trump Failures and his Campaign

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0:19Ben Meiselas:Your cabana's ready. Would you like fresh towels?

0:21Jack Schlossberg:It matters where you stay. Book now at Hilton.com. Hilton. For this day.

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2:00Ben Meiselas:Tax Act can even do it for you if you prefer. It's the easiest way to know you're doing it right. Well, other than going back to college and obtaining a bachelor's degree in accounting with a minor in finance, then interning somewhere and becoming fluent in all tax forms. But that might be hard to accomplish before tax day. So maybe just stick with Tax Act. Tax Act. Let's get them over with. I acknowledge that this is a war. This is war right now. I think it's an operation. And with that, Republicans are refusing to work yet again. Yep, as you know, the MAGA Republicans have effectively shut down the House of Representatives right now.

2:39Ben Meiselas:Where are they going while the American people need to understand what the hell is happening with this war on Iran, this unlawful war where American soldiers, American service members are losing their lives, where our economy is tanking, where it's the largest oil shock in world history. Well, the MAGA Republicans have went to Doral in Miami. They're in Donald Trump's resort as we speak. They are taking a vacation, a MAGA Republican retreat. I kid you not, that is where they are at right now. MAGA Mike left the house. You saw him right there. And then they all went to Doral to hang with Donald Trump and watch him golf.

3:24Ben Meiselas:And they are doing events right now in the Donald J. Trump ballroom. MAGA Mike and all the MAGA influencers are going to be there, and they're going to be talking about how great they think everything is. It should be noted, if you look at the gas prices, as Meredith Lee Hill points out, just outside Trump's Doral, Florida resort. By the way, all the money being funneled there is just absurd. They'll be greeted to see what Donald Trump has done to gas prices because gas prices are surging. Now, before Maga Mike left, he also wanted everybody to know that it is a misconception that war is a bad thing.

4:06Ben Meiselas:War is about peace is what Maga Mike Johnson wanted everybody to know before going to Doral. Play this clip. One last note. there's a misconception that Operation Epic Fury is in any way a diversion from Republican demands for peace. It's the opposite. And Maga Mike also wanted everyone to know that sure, Congress has a constitutional right to exercise oversight over things like war. In fact, it's actually Congress that is the one required for there to be a declaration of war. But Maga Mike says what strength is, is not doing that. So let me get this straight. War is peace and strength is weakness.

4:48Ben Meiselas:Here, play this clip. In my estimation, this course of action was necessary, lawful and effective and reversing it now would weaken America. Congress has a constitutional right to exercise its oversight authority and we will, but we also have a duty and obligation not to undercut our own national security. Now, at this retreat in Doral in Miami right now, you have MAGA Republicans making posts like this. Congressman Andy Ogles writes, Muslims don't belong in American society. Pluralism is a lie. The kind of ideas coming out of Doral, Florida right now, you've got Donald Trump making posts like this, Australia is making a terrible humanitarian mistake by allowing the Iran national women's soccer team to be forced back to Iran, where they will most likely be killed.

5:40Ben Meiselas:Don't do it, Mr. Prime Minister. Give asylum. The U.S. will take them if you won't. Thank you for your attention to this matter, Donald J. Trump. You know, Donald, the U.S. is actually taking Iranians who are here and sending them back to Iran. Your whole policy is not taking Iranians for asylum. And so now you want to use this as some bizarre propaganda distraction piece. But that's what's going on in Doral right now. I want to bring in Jack Schlossberg. Jack, it's great to see you, is running for Congress in New York's 12th congressional district. Jack, it's great to see you. I want to get into kind of your policies.

6:20Ben Meiselas:I want to get into why you're running. But let's the why may be a little bit answered by the lead in right there, which is Congress ain't working for us. And they're out there vacationing and doing whatever the hell Donald Trump wants them to be doing. But it ain't helping us. Can you talk to us about that first?

6:41Jack Schlossberg:Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me on the program. Ben, I'm a I'm a longtime listener and I this is a so happy to be here with you. And thanks for all that you guys are doing to get the message out there. Yes, the Republican retreat. Our Congress isn't working for us. And that's a huge reason why I'm running. I think we need to get people in Congress who are going to shake things up, new generation with new energy, new creativity and new ideas. And we need to be doing a lot better because the problems that we're not solving every day that goes by are just things that we're going to have to deal with down the line.

7:14Jack Schlossberg:It's going to cost you and me time and money for the rest of our adult lives, all the time that we're missing right now and all the issues that we're not addressing. So I like the idea of a Republican retreat. I do think that the GOP is on its heels in many ways around the country. We've seen that from Democratic voters turning out in record numbers. And I think we're going to keep seeing that in the midterm elections. But I really want to say this, because yes, they're in retreat. They may be on their heels. Their policies are wildly unpopular. Gas prices are going to go up. Everything is more expensive for everybody, not just here in New York 12, where people are struggling to think that they They can raise a family here.

7:50Jack Schlossberg:People can't afford to pay their rent. Things are not good in New York 12 and around the country because our economy is not affordable. It's not affordable to live in New York and so many other places. But here's the real deal. Yes, a lot of this stuff is people are understanding that Trump is not for them, even if they thought he was. But we can't underestimate the stakes right now. This is our country's 250th anniversary. I think it's coming at a very particular time. We're at a crossroads and this is our last chance to stop Trump. We don't know what happens if the Democratic Party doesn't win back the House.

8:27Jack Schlossberg:And that's going to take a huge amount of effort. We are behind and will be behind for some time. We have to recognize that as a party, even though we might take comfort in some of the little wins. We can't act like this is all going to go our way. They're going to try dirty tricks. They're going to try to nationalize the election. Trump is going to try to stay for a third term. I'm running because we don't have enough time. We don't have another. We don't we can't afford to see what happens. We have to take it into our own hands and people have to step up and run. And that's what I'm trying to do here in New York.

8:55Ben Meiselas:Yeah, it is interesting calling it a retreat while it does feel like the Republicans are in a retreat at a retreat. And it does feel though like America is in retreat. And sure, Trump uses the bloviating and braggadocious language that he's done his entire life. But if you look at his casinos and you look at his companies, where did that take him? As he would say, my casinos have never been better. This is on the precipice of the most historical thing. Bankrupt, bankrupt, bankrupt, bankrupt. And to me, what we're seeing right here, specifically in this particular moment, is really exactly what happened with his casinos and all of his businesses.

9:36Ben Meiselas:He made these promises. It's total utter fraud. everything is being destroyed, like quite literally everywhere. All of our relationships are being broken. And what's he doing on America's 250th? Well, last Friday, he registered the Trump 250 trademark so he could put his name on the flags and the monuments and the pins to make money off of it for himself. Doesn't that just kind of sum up this moment perfectly, Jack?

10:06Jack Schlossberg:Yeah, it really does. I like to say we're in a three-part crisis, a cost crisis, a corruption crisis, and a constitutional crisis. And to me, the most unifying of all of those, well, it's probably cost, but corruption is up there because this president has made upwards of$4 billion this year. His son is sitting on boards of tons of publicly traded companies. He himself has his own currency that he's issued. We need to step up and do something about this Because if this becomes the new normal and the president is able to trademark America's birthday and issue his own currency while weakening the dollar and having gold skyrocket and increasing prices on basically every commodity and input cost in our economy, we're getting screwed and he's getting rich.

10:49Jack Schlossberg:And I think everybody knows he tells us what we want to hear and then picks our pockets. It's a slap in the face with one hand and he's picking our pockets with the other.

10:58Ben Meiselas:Out of control. We can't let this go on. Talk to us about your policies in, you know, in New York and kind of what you're running on, because, you know, I think that obviously, you know, Trump's at a record low when it comes to the presidency. And, you know, I think it's going to stay that way. But I think, you know, one of the reasons that your campaign's been taken off is that people are looking for answers and they're looking for policies that are these policies going to these policies going to help me. because what other stuff is happening ain't working. So talk to us about what you're running on.

11:34Yeah, so we try to communicate policies

11:38Jack Schlossberg:in ways people can actually understand that make sense to them. So I go around, I've been campaigning around the district in New York 12, my hometown for months now, and I listen to people and their concerns. One of the most important things people have told me is housing. People can't afford to pay their rent. Rents are skyrocketing here in New York 12. So we came out with our three-part housing fairness plan. One part is a standard renter's deduction. That's something that I have created and put forward. It would allow renters to deduct their rent from their federal income taxes, just like a mortgage interest payment.

12:11And people have been very, very well received.

12:15Jack Schlossberg:We call it the SRD and people, I was walking down the street yesterday and a group of guys started cheering, Schlossberg SRD. People love the SRD. We've got the Ricochet rule, which is our plan for public safety. Why is it called the ricochet rule? Well, there are a lot of illegal firearms that get trafficked into New York 12. And crime and public safety is another top concern people tell me when I'm out on the trail. So we've got to plan the ricochet rule to stop the flow of illegal guns into New York 12. Because those guns, 70 % of them, of the guns used in crime in New York, come from five different states.

12:49Jack Schlossberg:So we want to put a monetary penalty on those states that export illegal firearms across the country and use that to create a task force to try to enforce gun laws here in America. Another policy I'm really proud of, it's the first policy that we came out with was, and especially in light of the attack that we saw over the weekend here in New York City, in this district on the Upper East Side, where I'm from, is Jack's fast track plan, where we want to try to fast track a doubling of funds for the nonprofit security grant program here in New York. And that program is a federal program that provides millions of dollars to houses of worship in this district and across the country to pay for security upgrades, for cameras, for security guards, for reinforced doors.

13:33Jack Schlossberg:And we're really proud of those policies as well. So we're focused on, again, those three crises, the cost crisis, the corruption crisis, and the constitutional crisis. And on the corruption crisis, we've got a really exciting policy that I'm not going to give away too much, but we're going to be announcing it later today maybe tomorrow and it has to do with trump tower so i hope people will stay tuned because i'm really proud of this one and the way you're going

14:01Ben Meiselas:about uh fueling the campaign i think says a lot also talk to us about it because where you're taking money from where you're not taking money from i think people want to know that these days

14:11Jack Schlossberg:look i think corrupt the corruption crisis is real and it matters where your representative gets their money from that's who they can be expected to answer to once they're elected And unlike the opponents that I'm running against, which are taking a lot of dark money and relying on IEs and super PACs to buy them millions of dollars of TV ads, we don't do that. I took an integrity pledge upon myself to challenge the other opponents in this race to do that. They haven't done so yet. And it's, I don't take corporate PAC money. I don't take super PAC money. And I will not take money from big AI companies like Palantir and the rest.

14:44Jack Schlossberg:Our campaign is our average donation, unlike the other people I'm running against is under 40 bucks. We've got 45 ,000 people who have contributed from all 50 states. And we're really proud of that because we are a people powered campaign. It's grassroots. And it might be a kind of ironic coming from me, given my family background, but I'm the outsider in this race. And the numbers tell a story of a campaign powered by real people out on the ground who just want to see change and want to see new energy and new life into the Democratic Party, because we don't need to accept what's going on here as normal.

15:17Jack Schlossberg:And we can't be the ones who sell out to corporations and big PACs. We need to go back to what we do best, which is representing real people and their real struggles.

15:28Ben Meiselas:Jack, where can people find out more about the campaign and learn more?

15:31Jack Schlossberg:Oh my gosh. Well, they'll be very, very happy to visit www.jackfornewyork.com. Please sign up to volunteer if you live in New York 12 or anywhere in New York or really anywhere at all. visit to hang out for a day. We've got over 3000 people who have signed up to volunteer and we're loving it. And if you can chip in a dollar,$5 go along, goes a long way. We can win this, but we're going to need a lot of support.

15:54Ben Meiselas:Jack Schlossberg, everybody running for New York's 12th congressional district. Thanks, Jack. Thank you. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million subscribers. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our sub stack at MidasPlus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, ad-free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available at MidasPlus.com.

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17:07Jack Schlossberg:Way fair, every style, every home.

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