MAGA Mike in Terror as He Loses Control of House!!

0:00Ever notice how ads always pop up at the worst moments? When the killer's identity is about to be revealed. During that perfect meditation flow. On Amazon Music, we believe in keeping you in the moment. That's why we've got millions of ad-free podcast episodes, so you can stay completely immersed in every story, every reveal, every breath. Download the Amazon Music app and start listening to your favorite podcasts ad-free, included with Prime. 217, the resolution is not adopted. Without objection, a motion to reconsider is laid on the table.

0:43Ben Meiselas:A humiliating defeat for MAGA Mike Johnson. What you just saw right there was a vote where MAGA Mike Johnson lost the vote despite having a majority in the House of Representatives. He lost the vote as GOP members defected. The vote was 217 against to 214 in favor. And the vote was on something called a rule that would create the parameters for a debate on future pieces of potential resolutions and legislation. But what made this a very big deal is that in this so-called rule, Magamike put in a poison pill that would prevent Congress from having any debate or votes on Donald Trump's so-called emergency tariffs against the world, and that Magamike would cut off a vote about whether or not Congress could declare Trump's tariffs against the world illegal.

1:46Ben Meiselas:And Magamike wanted to push that vote off for a year, and he slipped it into this rule to try to get Congress to agree to not even debate a vote on whether or not Trump's tariffs against the world can be declared unlawful. So what happened here was when the GOP defected against Maga Mike, this will allow a resolution to come to the House floor today, declaring Donald Trump's tariffs against Canada and the rest of the world unlawful. If the rule passed, then the rule would have prevented that vote from happening. And I can get really into the weeds of kind of congressional procedure because you may be wondering, well, can't MAGA Mike block a vote that would block Donald Trump's tariffs against the world?

2:35Ben Meiselas:You can't because of something called an National Emergencies Procedures Act. And because what this would be considered, blocking Donald Trump's tariffs against the world would be called a privileged resolution. you're allowed to bring it at any time and any member of Congress, Democrat can bring it and MAGA Mike is unable to block it. So this is a big deal, meaning that what we can expect to happen today is a vote that could come to the House floor, blocking Trump's tariffs against Canada, blocking Donald Trump's tariffs against other countries. It would require a joint resolution though. So once it passes in the House of Representatives, it would then have to go to the United States Senate, and then it would go to Donald Trump's for his signature.

3:24Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump could then try to veto it, but then there would be a super majority to try to overturn Donald Trump's veto. But what MAGA Mike wanted to avoid is that now, because the rule failed, a vote's going to take place. And now the entire country will get to see what Republicans really feel about Donald Trump's tariffs against the world. So they're going to have to take votes. And this is important heading into the midterms that if they're voting in favor of Donald Trump's tariffs against the world, which the American people realize now is a tax on American companies, which are passed through to American consumers.

4:06Ben Meiselas:That's why there are horrible jobs reports right now, that's why inflation is surging again, then Americans can now hold these members of Congress accountable. So MAGA Mike wanted to have this rule to prohibit debate, to allow a vote, to block Donald Trump's tariffs against the world, to protect, you see what I'm saying here, to protect his Republican members from having to take this vote in the first place. And now they all get exposed. You see, we did a little schoolhouse rocks right there. I think that's kind of the graduate school level, Schoolhouse Rock. So here was the big news last night.

4:41Ben Meiselas:The rule fails and the vote right there, 217 against, 214 in favor. As Jake Sherman from Punchbowl New reports, reports, the House has defeated a rule that would have blocked lawmakers' ability to bring up resolutions challenging Trump's tariffs. The vote was 214, yay, 217 against. Thomas Massey, Kevin Kiley and Don Bacon all voted no. These resolutions will now flood the floor in the months running up to the election. So we can expect votes perhaps as early as today in the House blocking Donald Trump's tariffs against Canada and other countries and members are going to have to vote one way or another how they really feel.

5:24Ben Meiselas:They can't hide behind the rule. Now, this rule was kept open, the vote on it, for hours and hours and hours. And MAGA Mike was trying to intimidate Massey and Bacon and Kylie to flip their vote to yes. But the thing is that you have Donald Trump viciously attacking Massey and Massey's wife. And by the way, Don Bacon has been someone who's been very outspoken against Donald Trump's tariffs against the world. And Kylie is a very vulnerable Republican right now in California after Prop 50. So they certainly weren't changing their votes and they all voted against the rule and they could not be coerced by MAGA Mike.

6:09Ben Meiselas:Aaron Frischner says, this was Mike Johnson's third failed rule vote of the 119th Congress, bringing him closer to tying the modern era record for rule failure in the House, which is currently held by Mike Johnson from the 118th Congress. It is so rare for rules to fail. They're basically procedural in nature. You just pass the rule and then you go on and actually vote on the thing. But MAGA Mike can't even get the rules passed. But then again, he slipped into the rule, the poison pill to block Congress from exercising its Article I power to be involved in taxation and be involved in regulating tariffs.

6:54Ben Meiselas:Tariffs are a form of taxation. Congress member Don Bacon said the following, I don't like putting the important work of the House on pause, but Congress needs to be able to debate on tariffs. Tariffs have been a net negative for the economy and are a significant tax that the American consumers, manufacturers, and farmers are paying. Article one of the constitution places authority over taxes and tariffs with Congress for a reason, but for too long, we have handed that authority to the executive branch. It's time for Congress to reclaim that responsibility. I also oppose using the rules votes to legislate.

7:31Ben Meiselas:I want the debate and the right to vote on tariffs. Now, earlier in the day, Maga Mike Johnson was asked about Howard Lutnick, Donald Trump's commerce secretary who testified before the United States Senate yesterday and admitted that he brought his little children back in 2012 to Epstein's Island, but he saw nothing wrong about doing that. And Mag and Mike was asked, well, you know, Howard Lutnick lied and said that he had never been to Epstein Island and only saw Epstein once in 2005. And now he's bringing his children there. Like, do you think he should resign because it shows pretty poor judgment to lie about child sex trafficking, relationships with Epstein and knowing Epstein, and then to bring your children to an island where child sex trafficking is happening.

8:21Ben Meiselas:Not saying that that's what happened at all with his children, but it's pretty bad judgment to bring your children to an island where children get sex trafficked and then tell your friend to bring their children. So Maga Mike, what do you think about that, Maga Mike? Here, play this clip. Mr. Speaker, in part, Ludnick had said that he had cut out ties with Jeffrey Epstein in 2005, the documents that came out contradict that. Democrats and Thomas Massey said he should resign. Do you think that Howard Lutnick should resign? Of course not. It's absurd. Howard Lutnick is a great Commerce Secretary and an extraordinary job for the country.

8:54And Thomas Massey should stop me. Do you have any concerns about Lutnick's ties with that? I don't know anything about that. I know Howard as an individual, and I pressed his word on it. I mean, I don't know of the timing and all that. I'm not sure. You have to ask others about that. Do you have any interest in reviewing the unredacted file search, the FCD file search? Of course I have an interest. For me it's timing. I've got Chairman Comer and many of our colleagues that are going down to comb through that. Chairman Comer will go do it himself. I have a lot of faith in him and his ability and his team.

9:24The lawyers of oversight are going through it and members themselves, as you know, it's unredacted and available to everybody. I intend to go down myself. Right now I'm trying to keep the train on the tracks and we've got to do all this stuff simultaneously. I am convinced the DOJ is complying with everything they're required to do. We still have a pending report where they will give us, where they will formally explain why some of their redactions are made. But I think it's a good move for them to put the millions of documents in the SCIF so that members can go in and see and verify this for themselves.

9:52There's some good work, good review being done on that. I applaud it. It's important. We have to make sure the justice is carried forward for these victims, and we're all committed to that. On reconciliation.

10:17Ben Meiselas:And shortly thereafter, Maga Mike Johnson was seen running away from reporters who were simply asking him his response to Donald Trump using the Department of Justice to try to indict two Democratic senators and four Democratic House members. But ultimately, the grand jury rejected the indictment and Trump was trying to indict them for making a video telling members of the military that they must refuse unlawful orders. So, Magamike, what was your response to that? Or are you just going to run away, try to formulate your thoughts, and then ultimately agree with whatever you think Donald Trump wants you to say?

10:54Ben Meiselas:Here, play this clip. Mr. Speaker, news just broke this evening that federal prosecutors tried to indict the six Democrats in the disobey illegal orders video, but a grand jury in Washington budgeted that. Do you believe that those six Democrats should be indicted?

11:12I'm going to reserve comment on this until I review that. That's the first I've heard of it. I mean, look, I think that anytime you're obstructing law enforcement and getting in the way of these sensitive operations, it's a very serious thing and it probably is a crime and yeah, they probably should be indicted. But they were just reiterating the law that members of the military should not have to obey illegal orders. Yeah, but I think they went further than that. I think they were suggesting that they disobey the orders and I think that crosses the line. So it was very serious. I'm glad the due attention has been paid to it and I hope that they straighten up their eyes.

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13:39Ben Meiselas:Now, we heard from Republican Congress member Thomas Massey, because you heard over there, Maga Mike Johnson saying that Massey needs to stop playing political games with Lutnick. Political games? Maga Mike, you're covering up a child sex trafficking ring. What's the political game to call out Howard Lutnick for bringing his children to Epstein Island, then going into business with Epstein and then accepting donations from Epstein for some award you won in 2017. Here's what Republican from Kentucky, Thomas Massey, who's been very principled on this issue, has to say, play this clip. House Speaker Mike Johnson said today that you should stop playing political games.

14:21And he said that Howard Lutnick is a great commerce secretary. What's your response to that, sir? The Speaker has to do what Donald Trump wants. The Speaker right now, I think we're stalled on a vote in the House because he can't get the bill passed and he can't afford to lose any political capital. So what he's decided to do, instead of siding with the American people or siding with our Republican conference, he's siding with Donald Trump and basically doing whatever Donald Trump wants him to do over here. Republican Congressman Thomas Massey, thank you for joining us again tonight. I appreciate you coming back here on the show.

14:56Thanks, Caitlin. Maybe my voice will come back next time. Yeah, we'll get you some tea. Thank you so much, sir.

15:02Ben Meiselas:More from Massey here on Lutnik. Let's play it. Secretary Lutnick today, as you heard, you'd called on him to resign before he came out today and acknowledged that, yes, he did go to Jeffrey Epstein's island with his family and another couple in 2012. Obviously, he had said that they'd cut off contact back in 2005. Based on what you heard today, did that change your mind at all? It solidified my decision. Look, the problem isn't that he went to Epstein Island. That that's not a crime. time. It's not appropriate, I would say, to take your family to an island where people knew that bad things were happening.

15:38The problem is, how do you have confidence in the Secretary of Commerce who lied about it just recently? Like that podcast wasn't that long ago. He lied about it recently. And then he was forced only when he was sworn in to give a truthful answer. And I think it's a matter of confidence in the people who are leading this country. and I don't have confidence in somebody who will lie like that.

16:03Ben Meiselas:And then Massey talks more about what he saw in going through some of these additional redactions and what he saw with Lutnick. Here, play this clip right here. I believe you went back to the Justice Department today. If you did, what more can you tell us about what you saw? Well, I saw that Lutnick shared his phone number with Epstein and that their assistants were setting up phone calls between them. So there is at least that other connection. I didn't find any new names today. I didn't have a lot of time to spend there. But the main, by the way, it's a room with four computers and it's busy all the time.

16:42There's always at least four congressmen in there. And the main complaint that I hear as we search through these files is that when you unredact some of the files, you encounter more redactions than when we asked the DOJ, why are these files redacted? why can't we remove the redactions? The DOJ says, well, that's the form in which we received the files. Now, here's the problem with that, Caitlin. The legislation that Ro Khanna and I wrote directs the attorney general to produce the documents, but they have to give all the documents that are in the possession, not of the DOJ, but also of the FBI and also of the U.S.

17:20attorneys. So what's happened, it seems, is that the U.S. attorneys and or the FBI have redacted documents, given them to the DOJ, and then the DOJ hasn't done their diligence to go get the original documents.

17:34Ben Meiselas:So then you had Democratic Congress member Joe Neguse from Colorado. He gave a speech on the House floor about how these MAGAs have absolutely zero spine, grow a spine. To be fair, though, You had Bacon, Kylie, and Massey vote against the rule. But this was Negus' speech before that took place. Let's play this clip right here. Now, one could ask, Mr. Chairman, as I suspect you would, well, what's the gentleman from Colorado's suggestion? Lucky for you, Mr. Chairman, I have one. Because we know that one of the reasons that prices are going up across the board in the United States are tariffs. This president's reckless policies with respect to tariffs.

18:26And we have some solutions in that regard. Ways that the Congress can finally stop abdicating its authority and exercise its powers with respect to tariffs. I think the chairman knows that because Speaker Johnson decided to tuck into the rule that we're considering today a measure that would prevent the House from considering any changes to the president's tariff policies for yet another six months. I'm going to read you a quote. quote, it will be the fourth time this rule vote putting a gag on tariff debates has been done. I don't think tariffs are good for the economy, manufacturing jobs and ag industry.

19:24American consumers pay the tariffs and thus it is a big tax. I support giving these authorities back to the Congress. These aren't my words. These are Republican Congressman Don Bacon's words. Your colleague who agrees that what Speaker Johnson is trying to do is yet again gag the United States Congress. So to Mr. Bacon, I say thank you for your honesty. And to the rest of my colleagues, I say, where is your backbone? Where is your spine? Stand up for the Constitution as your colleague is doing. Stand up for the House of Representatives. Stand up for your constituents.

20:07Shameful, Mr. Speaker. And I'm hopeful that perhaps that political courage that Mr. Bacon is showing will be contagious. Maybe a few more of my colleagues will join him.

20:17Ben Meiselas:And just to see how recklessly Donald Trump deals with tariffs, this is what Donald Trump was saying last night on an interview with Larry Kudlow on Fox about why he put additional tariffs on Switzerland because he didn't like the way the prime minister of Switzerland. It was like a lady. I didn't like the way the lady was talking to me. Play this clip. Then I got an emergency call from, I believe, the prime minister of Switzerland, and she was very aggressive, but nice, but very aggressive. Sir, we are a small country. We can't do this. We can't do this. I couldn't get her off the phone. We are a small country.

20:55i said you may be a small country but we have a 42 billion dollar deficit with you no no we are a small country again and again and again i couldn't get off the phone so it was a 30 percent and i didn't really like the way she talked to us and so instead of giving her a reduction i raised it to 39 percent and then they i got inundated by people from switzerland And I figured, you know what, we'll do something that's a little bit more palatable, at least now. But I realized that all these, you know, Switzerland, you think of as, you know, ultra chic, ultra perfect. They're not. They're only that way because we allow them to rip us off and make all this money.

21:42Ben Meiselas:And then there's further evidence of Donald Trump's attack on Congress. I'm sure you've heard the story by now. But yesterday, Donald Trump tried to indict the six members of Congress, two senators and two House of Representatives and two Congress members, for making the video telling our soldiers that they are not allowed to follow unlawful orders, which is a restatement of the law. Well, Donald Trump had Jeanine Pirro, the former Fox host, go after those members of Congress, the two senators and the two representatives, and try to get an indictment against them for seditious conspiracy. You had Senators Kelly and Senator Slotkin, and then you had Congress Member Crow, Congress Member Goodländer, Congress Member Houlihan, Congress Member Deluzio.

22:38Ben Meiselas:We're talking about Navy veterans. We're talking about astronauts. These are the people that Donald Trump was going after yesterday. Fortunately, the grand jury rejected it. Finally, I'll share with you this. Here's what Bernie Sanders had to say yesterday about, you know, we know the jobs report is horrible. But here's what Bernie Sanders said that when Donald Trump keeps bragging about the best economy here, play this clip. In terms of I got to tell you, though, I've seen that tape you just rolled. You wonder whether Trump is completely crazy and delusional or just a pathological liar. But the idea that anybody would believe that this is a great economy when 60 percent of our people are living paycheck to paycheck, when the cost of the health care is going up, people can't afford housing.

23:29People can't afford their basic groceries. Child care system is dysfunctional. People can't afford to go to college.

23:36Ben Meiselas:And if this is the greatest economy in the history of the world, God help us. So now the question is, is MAGA Mike going to try to shut down Congress? Now that the rule has failed, will MAGA Mike try to shut down Congress, especially as they're terrified that Congress is getting deeper and deeper into the Epstein sex trafficking ring information? Like we know Jamie Raskin was at the DOJ yesterday and the day before, as well as many members of the House of Representatives were, and they've uncovered that there were a million references to Donald Trump in the Epstein files. a million references is what raskin said 38 000 in the redacted files a million references in the unredacted files so maga mike may try to shut down congress again we'll keep you posted every step of the way hit subscribe let's get to six million thanks everybody for watching want to stay plugged in become a subscriber to our sub stack at midasplus.com you'll get daily recaps from ron philipkowski add free episodes of our podcast and more exclusive content only available at MidasPlus.com.

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