Kamlager-Dove Discusses Defeating Trump and MAGA

0:00Ben Meiselas:Queen Carvania stood haloed by the morning sun. An army hung on her every word. My champions! I have sold my chariot on Carvana! Twas a lovely SUV, an inexplicably queenly offer. They're even coming to the castle to collect it! Tonight, we feast! An offer you can feast on. Sell your car today on Carvana. Pick up fees, may apply. Where'd you go, Maga Mike? Republican Speaker of the House, Maga Mike Johnson has continued to keep the House of Representatives shut down in recess all summer long. And frankly, for most of the year, Maga Mike doesn't like to do work because that would involve, I don't know, doing congressional hearings and oversight and passing laws.

0:51Ben Meiselas:And Maga Mike and Donald Trump don't like doing that. And Maga Mike's just a Trump bootlicker. But MAGA Mike is panicking as he realizes time is up. MAGA Mike getting ready to lose his job come the midterms and he'll probably lose all leadership positions in the Republican Party thereafter. And he sees Donald Trump's polling hitting record lows. Donald Trump, according to the Pew Research poll and other aggregates, Trump's polling is the lowest in modern presidential history since modern polling in 1953. 53. So what has MAGA Mike been doing as he's shut down the House of Representatives? Well, basically nothing.

1:32Ben Meiselas:And he's been out there, though, reposting this interview that he did recently with Politico. And I had a click on it for you to say, what the hell is MAGA Mike bragging about? Like, what are these MAGA Republicans even talking about right now? As Donald Trump has us in this never-ending war in Iran, as gas prices have now hit the highest average in the nation, in the history of our nation for the month of August. As Donald Trump's latest speech in Nassau County, New York, he stated, we all should have higher prices. We should be thankful for the higher gas prices because this war is a great thing and the higher prices is a wonderful thing for everybody.

2:14Ben Meiselas:As Donald Trump said before heading to Nassau County when he was on the tarmac, I want to see those service members, those Navy sailors and the Marines aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln and the George H.W. Bush who are suffering from horrific conditions that Donald Trump and his defense secretary Hagseth have inflicted. Trump says, I want to keep them on board for longer. They should be on there much, much longer. So with all of this going down, what's MAGA Mike doing? Well, here, Maga Mike says, look, Donald Trump is perfectly, he goes, he's perfectly messaging right now the situation with our oil.

2:54Ben Meiselas:The American people understand. And Maga Mike says, Donald Trump's being perfectly transparent. Here's what Maga Mike says. Let's play it. We acknowledge the pain at the pump. We acknowledge that there's real challenge. Does the president acknowledge that enough? Sure he does. Yeah. I mean, I talk to him multiple times, usually a day. I mean, And he's very in tune to that. And he understands the correlation between this and the midterms. And as you know, he's working around the clock every day to resolve the situation in Iran. He makes no apology for having eliminated nuclear capability. That's a priority for everybody around the world.

3:25Ben Meiselas:What I think will happen in the days, weeks ahead, is we'll have a number of other countries around the world who understand the necessity, for example, of keeping the Strait of Hormuz open for commerce. Because most countries have a bigger stake in that than we do. You're confident this is going to be put to bed by November, by September? I'm hopeful it's soon. I mean, you're hearing the White House and folks close to the administration say that we're on the verge of something big here. I hope that's true. If we're not, if we're disappointed by the Iranians again because they can't be trusted at the negotiation table, then we'll handle this as quickly and as steadily as we can without compromising the position and the freedom and the interests of the American people.

4:02Ben Meiselas:And that's ultimately what's at stake here. I'm confident the Pentagon is handling this and that Congress is watching it closely and we'll see how it develops. And then MAGA Mike's like, you know, I see my job as a guy who handles the different levers. And I turn this lever and that lever and then something comes out of nowhere. But I've got it. I'm dealing with all the levers. Here play this clip. Sort of, this is how I think of it, a control panel with a bunch of dials every day. There's over 250 dials or so. And every day I'd spend all the time trying to make sure they're perfectly calibrated.

4:34Ben Meiselas:As soon as I step back to assess that, there's something that goes off that's way off my panel. They're things out of my control. OK, so all I can do as the leader of my party in the House and our effort is to make sure that we're controlling the controllables. I feel really good about that. But we are running a transparent campaign that is honest with the people. And it's exactly the opposite of what Joe Biden tried to pull off. And MAGA Mike then says, look, I've made people's lives and Trump has made people's lives so much better. and the American people truly appreciate that we've improved their lives.

5:06Ben Meiselas:Here, play this clip. He has made everybody's life better. He has put the economic conditions in place. World affairs sometimes intervene in those things. Domestically, we're doing everything we said. We're keeping our promises. Newt Gingrich has a good way of crystallizing things. And he said, Oh, we're bringing in Newt. I'm bringing in Newt. He and I talk about this a lot. He's one of probably the greatest living historian of all things pertaining to Congress. And he said, Mike, you think about this, this election isn't a contract with America year. Y 'all did that really in 2024 and you kept your promises.

5:37Ben Meiselas:This is more of a contrast for America year. And I think that crystallizes it well. And I said earlier, contrast between common sense and crazy, but really increasingly now, this is a big thing. It's a contrast between common sense and communism. And you can shrug that off, but I'm telling you, I've been flying around the country. I'm going to Every state, okay? Everywhere I go, the alarms are being raised. There are two things that motivate people in the midterm. One is anger. Of course, Democrats have that. The other is fear. And this is a real fear that people have that Marxists are taking over our government.

6:08Ben Meiselas:They put out their platform. Everybody in Politico needs to be paying attention to this. I mean, your audience is - I mean, Maga Mike's not a good liar. Maga Mike is the worst, most bizarre, odd liar. He's just a very strange creature, this guy. And then Maga Mike says, at the end of the day, Donald Trump works each and every night to take care of the American people. Here, play this clip. He wants to move quickly. He wants to fix everything overnight. And the legislative body is frustrating to everybody because the Congress is designed, in a way, especially the Senate, to move slowly. And that's a frustration to a type A, go-getter, problem-solving president like we have.

6:46Ben Meiselas:I mean, he's a real hands-on commander-in-chief, and he wants to fix it all immediately. So he's trying to acclimate to that and accept the challenges and the hurdles we have in doing that. And yet we're still delivering the agenda. And so look, here is MAGA Mike's last post before going even more radio silent. Congratulations to Mike Alfonso, Wisconsin, to victory in the Wisconsin seventh Republican primary. I look forward to working together to defend and grow the majority November. I mean, look at this weirdo. This is Michael Alfonso, weird dude. And he's Sean Duffy's son-in-law. And the guy's like, I thought he was in middle school, but apparently he gives these interviews and he's obviously reading a script next to Sean Duffy and he's got Sean Duffy by his side.

7:34Ben Meiselas:I mean, it's actually DEI, didn't earn it. DEI didn't earn it. I mean, this guy's video that he dropped and this MAGA Mike's like posting it about his campaign. He did like, there's three cuts in six seconds because the guy can't speak in sentences. Here, play this clip. We're finally here, August 11th with a big election this Tuesday. You know, it's really been the honor of a lifetime to go all around. And then MAGA Mike has the audacity to say, the 2026 midterm is a contrast for America between common sense and crazy. You want to talk about crazy? I mean, look, Pete Hegseth, literally a crazy, is like a crazy thing.

8:16Ben Meiselas:I mean, Donald Trump, like literally, I mean, these are crazy people who behave like crazy authoritarian communists who engage in the most horrific, like we've seen what they've done over the past two years. I mean, they're getting mocked by Iran right now as Donald Trump hides in cafeteria trucks in Turkey. He there just mock him every damn day. And Trump's polling, as I know, it is all time low. I want to bring in Congresswoman Sidney Komliger Dove. I got a lot of questions. Let's bring in Democratic Congresswoman Komliger Dove. Congresswoman, great to see you, as always. It certainly does seem as we get closer to the midterms, thankfully, but unthankfully, there's an acceleration of the criminality.

9:05Ben Meiselas:It's every day, maybe in the past there was, you know, a few, and now it is everywhere you look, there's a new crime that is taking place. And I don't want to understate the fact that there were crimes taking place before, but just the fact that the frequency right now has clearly accelerated to reach a new level. I know, you know, one of the initiatives that you've been pushing is, you know, articles of impeachment against Russ Vogt. Russ Vogt, the Office of Management and Budget Director, for not complying with the law when it comes to critical grants. I want to talk about that. But you look around Trump's cabinet, it's just all criminals.

9:44Ben Meiselas:I just want to be blunt. It's a bunch of lawless criminal thugs who are out there saying, what was the story yesterday? Today, Russia oligarchs, come on in. We won't require beneficial ownership disclosures anymore. And it's just like, what the hell is this country becoming? What has it become? And talk to us about your initiative, but doesn't it seem too like right now, it's just like, here it is where we are some, we are Orbán's hungry right now. Well, thank you for having me as always. Love being on this with you, this podcast. Yes, we basically have a gang in the White House. I feel like this is a RICO organization.

10:28It is a cartel. But he was very upfront in the beginning about how he was going to be president, right? He was going to seek revenge. He was going to go after folks and he was going to enrich himself. And that's what we're seeing happen. It is sad how unabashed, how unapologetic, how brazen they are with their corruption. You were talking about Russia. You know, there was some intelligence, some counterintelligence coming out talking about how bad these people are and essentially that got derailed because trump doesn't want folks to really know um his ties um to russia um we and so now yes we've got russell vote um omb secretary uh who has been breaking the law now this is the guy who's the architect behind Project 2025.

11:22This is the guy who has had a pattern of criminality, of disobeying the law. He's the one who's terminated thousands of federal workers. He's the one that defunded and dismantled USAID. He's the one that defunded the Consumer Finance Department, CFPB. Those are not things he is allowed to do. Those are only things that Congress can do. And this is a guy who has said that the Impoundment Control Act, right, how we allocate money is a suggestion. It's a consideration. And that congressional appropriations are an idea, but that is not a law that needs to be followed. And so he has really done what he says he thinks about government.

12:10And this last act of his to essentially cut billions of dollars and projects going to states, states like California, while he has refused to come and talk to Congress, be transparent to Congress, answer the American people's questions, bridge too far. And so we've introduced articles of impeachment to go after him.

12:35Ben Meiselas:And the debt continues to rise. I mean, these phony, I'm a fiscal hawk. No, you're just a freaking criminal fraud is who you are. You ain't a fiscal hawk. These labels, Congresswoman, are the stupidest things. And when the media, oh, but they're a hawk. These people aren't even talking about hawks and stupid shit. It's just dumb. It's like, they're a bunch of frauds. They're a bunch of Bernie Madoffs who stole our fricking money and they want to dress it up in some flowerly language, but they stole our fricking money and they took it away from people who needed it while Trump wants to build fricking golden ballrooms and nuclear powered battleships because he likes the way battleship is a little he's a little baby and he likes the way battleships look like in the 1920s so now our money is being diverted to 400 billion dollar projects that a simple drone can take down and it's just like enough i just think you know here's americans are clearly sick of it americans are tired but americans can't be exhausted and i think that there's an effort right now to exhaust us before the midterms and make us just say whatever so how do you what do you do and how do we keep up with this you know and and not fall into these traps have just been okay enough i mean what do you say is i control the straight of hormones we own it you don't own it you don't control it you're a loser just shut up you do want to say that each and every day stay awake and shut up or go someplace and go to sleep um this is a guy who is spending a billion dollars of our taxpayer dollars a day fighting a war that's unnecessary.

14:08The Strait of Hormuz was open before this clown decided to get involved in this, right? And so those dollars are not helping us get healthcare. They're not helping us take care of our families and feed our families. The reflecting pool we've talked about, right? The ballroom we've talked about, the changing the Department of Defense to Department of War, all of these things, the whole putting your name on the Kennedy Center, all of that stuff costs money. And it's money that the American people actually want to help their gas and grocery prices go down. So it is serious. And they are trying to exhaust us, right, with this fire hose of crazy to wear us down.

14:49But I believe that American voters are enraged and they're also engaged. They are coming out to these polls each and every time there is an election. It is no wonder that once again, this guy is a hopped up on getting the SAVE Act passed because he wants to suppress the vote and continuous like rumors around, is he going to, you know, call for martial law, you know, so that we cannot have midterm elections. So I'm saying this, if Donald Trump thinks that Democrats are losers and that we are do nothing, then why are you so afraid of us that you're trying to get the SAVE Act passed? And you are now talking about, will there be midterm elections in November?

15:34Only a coward, only a weak and scared person would be pushing so hard to suppress the vote. If he was such a baller, then he would stand on his quote unquote wins and on his platform and on his legacy thus far as the president. But he can't because they all stink. His policies stink, his behavior stinks, probably his behind stinks, but I don't have any evidence about that. But based on what people tell you, and that's why folks need to continue to show up because that's what he's been so afraid of and angry about. He's looking at these returns just like you are, just like I am after every election.

16:18And he's like, oh, snap. You know, like, what the fuck? What's going to happen in November? Dude, we're coming for you in November. And if we win, when we win, we are going to do all of the things that the American people have been crying out for. Accountability, oversight, restoring cuts, putting forth a plan to build, to fix, to build, to rebuild, to do better than we have been doing these past umpteen months with this carnival barker in the White House stealing our money.

16:55Ben Meiselas:Speaking of coward, I wanted to get your take on the story how Donald Trump snuck out of the old Air Force One and went on the catering truck and then lied and claimed he was on Air Force One, and apparently he was there with Natalie Harp, who people refer to as his human printer, Dan Scavino, and he left the press at everybody else on the old Air Force One. Then he told the press, I was with you. I was with you. We go down together. What do you make of that? I mean, this is a guy who couldn't see or tell the truth if it hit him in the face. I actually believe that this is someone in real cognitive decline.

17:34I think he and his handlers are trying to hide from the American people how sick and how sickly he is. And I think when you enter into that kind of state of dementia or cognitive decline, you do these kinds of crazy things. I mean, when I read and see the things that he's doing, I'm like, doesn't this remind you of that old and crazy uncle who was fighting so desperately to not have to go into the assisted living facility? And like at some point it becomes your fault that you haven't snatched the keys away from him and just put him in that home. Like this is what we're dealing with right now. But he's asking people to to to not even see what they're seeing with their own eyes.

18:16Ben Meiselas:You know, a topic that deserves more attention, Venezuela. You know, I know we speak a lot about this catastrophic war in Iran. Donald Trump likes to claim everything is fantastic in Venezuela. Well, with the two back-to-back earthquakes, people there are suffering. You still have Delce Rodriguez in charge with no sign of any elections coming soon. If you actually, you know, listen to what the people are going through there and experiencing, people aren't experiencing any wealth. It's more of the same. In fact, it's worse. It's just an extension, if not worse, than what was going on in the Maduro regime.

18:53Ben Meiselas:the search and rescue efforts were focused more on giving medals than actually doing the immediate search and rescue. Not just, I mean, I want to, anybody who was involved in it, it's a great thing to be involved in search and rescue, but to award yourself medals while there were people who were still trapped to me is just a sick thing. And I know you're very focused on it. What should we be knowing? Because it's just not getting the attention it deserves. Yeah, well, thank you for even asking the question and for highlighting all the things that are going on internationally because we have to be keeping our eyes on all of these balls.

19:30And there's a tragedy happening in Venezuela. We've had these earthquakes that have devastated the country, that have killed people. And normally we would be talking about this and figuring out ways to get search and rescue there to help them. And that has not happened this time, mostly because the State Department, Marco Rubio and Donald Trump are really so focused on, you know, their oil and trying to take this money. We've also turned back into an imperialistic, you know, power where we're trying to colonize countries like Venezuela. So if you remember, we were the ones that went in and snatched Maduro and kept essentially the Maduro regime in power by now working with Delcy, who was his number two, and we've snatched their oil.

20:23But the American people are paying for all of the shenanigans that are going on in Venezuela that we are initiating. And I think the American people want to know what they are getting for their money. Are we selling the oil? Who's getting the oil? Are we taking the oil? How much are we selling it for? Where is the money going? Actually, there's supposed to be a dashboard. We pass a law that said you have to have a dashboard of metrics to show us who's buying this oil, how much they're buying, where the money is going, and none of that is available. And I had Marco Rubio come to the Foreign Affairs Committee and I asked him about this and he was defensive and he was haughty and I don't know, he was trying to come for me.

21:10But ultimately he said, I know where all this stuff is and you don't because you don't know where to look and I'm not going to tell you. And it was like, oh my God. And I need people to know that because this is the guy who tried to run for president before, who's probably thinking about running for president again. And his like number two hatchet man when it comes to Venezuela was a big time donor that tried to help him before. And it's this guy on private planes flying all around Venezuela, talking with oil executives, talking with Delcy. And like, on behalf of who? On behalf of the American people?

21:46On behalf of Marco Rubio? Maybe helping him with his next presidential campaign? We don't know. But all of this is happening, paid for by the American people. And I think that is a travesty.

21:59Ben Meiselas:Yeah, look, and these idiots with their fascist imperialistic agenda, and I call them idiots it's because they ran out of weapons. They had a trillion dollars and they ran out of, who runs out of weapons with a trillion dollars? By the way, and this is a war we should never have been involved in. The US superpower of the world, you know, and not only just a trillion dollars in the budget last year, an accumulation of nine to$10 trillion since 2016 of funding the military. Yes, the guys who bankrupted the casino ran out of weapons in the first 40 days, basically in a war against Iran. And now we just have this, this, this idiot in the Oval Office who goes, we control it.

22:44Ben Meiselas:We won. We control the Strait of Hormuz and the rest of the world looks at this and they go, you know what? They're weak. They're weak. They see, you know, Trump used to say we're the laughingstock. It's beyond laughing. I mean, I'm sure Putin and Xi Jinping laughed, but it's almost going back. I'll give you the final word, which you talked about with that member of a family, you know, who probably needs to be put in some hospice care or something. And, you know, no, it's beyond, you know, it's kind of like, what do I, you know, you know, some are like, what's even going on here with you all? And it's, I wake up, I see, you know, the post and I go, man, what the hell is this?

23:24Ben Meiselas:This is humiliating. This is humiliating. Not as a Democrat, Republican, independent, just as like competent. This is really humiliating. I mean, if this guy was working for you, he would have been fired months ago, right? And you would have had all of the documentation in your performance review before you terminated him and put all his little crap in the little box and thrown it out the window. You were talking about these wars. You know, Pete Hegset, this is a guy who's like, just give me more money. Give me more money. The Pentagon has failed multiple audits. We have run down our munitions in wars where we should not even be in.

24:01This guy is now mandating men to be on testosterone therapy who are in the military. I mean, what is going on? I'll tell you what's going on. Democrats, some Republicans, and independents are pissed off. And they look around and they say to themselves, this is an administration, this is a government that is not working for me. And so we have got to galvanize. We have got to stay united and galvanize on and through November and throw as many of the bums out so that we can control the gavels in November and do all of the things, do all of the things that we have been talking about, show all of the sunlight, investigate all of the madness, bring about subpoenas and charges to as many folks.

24:50The list is as long as a CVS receipt. And then restore these cuts and build budgets that actually reflect the needs of the American people. I was in Brussels about a month or so ago, and I was talking with our European allies. And they said, you know what? I was so worried when you did it the first time. Now, I'm godsmacked that you've done it a second time. And we are only your friends right now because we need to be. But trust us, we are working on figuring out how not to need you. You never want to go in international waters and hear friends tell you that they no longer find you credible.

25:33Ben Meiselas:Yeah, that's why we continue to focus on here on this network, the broadening alliances, Europe, Canada and other places in Asia, even what we're seeing in the Middle East, the Mecca Pact, replacing the U.S. security umbrella, China moving in. And we have a we should we should do a you and I interview just on international affairs because it's there's so much there to unpack. But Congressman Combo, thanks for joining us as always. We we appreciate you. We appreciate the work that you do. And I love seeing you on all the other shows and the different other YouTube channels. Thank you. Thank you.

26:08I saved the best for you and your audience.

26:10Ben Meiselas:Although the Katie Fang was, you know. Wow. I give Katie Fang a slight advantage over me. She's a national hero. She's a national hero. It's okay. She's pretty amazing, but so are you. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million subscribers. Before you go, our book WTF America is available for pre-order now. It's the story of how we got here and how we fight our way back. To pre-order, scan the QR code or click the link in the description. Let's do this.