Mike Johnson Goes Missing as Congress Descends into Chaos

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1:00Ben Meiselas:Maga Mike Johnson, the Republican Speaker of the House, has gone missing during a very critical moment, as I'm sure you're aware by now. Maga Mike Johnson has shut down the House of Representatives for about two weeks now. And this is a very critical time, given that when Donald Trump claims he's removing sanctions against Iran, that requires congressional approval. There's a 2015 law which specifies that the only way to remove these types of sanctions is by an act of Congress. But of course, MAGA Mike Johnson knows that. That's why he's shut down the House of Representatives so Donald Trump can reign like the failed dictator that he is.

1:44Ben Meiselas:You take a look at MAGA Mike Johnson's activity over the past 48 hours. He's not in Washington, D.C. Not clear if he's in his home district in Louisiana. He is posting about the UFC fight and he's posting photos of men fighting with each other on the White House lawn with their shirts off. That's one of the things that Maga Mike's posting. He's also posting about how the FBI foiled the fifth assassination plot against Donald Trump. They were so close to doing a drone swarm against Donald Trump, but Kash Patel saved the day. And now we need a golden ballroom when we return to Washington, D.C. to make the taxpayers pay hundreds of millions of dollars that we promised that they weren't going to pay when Donald Trump tore to shreds the East Wing of the White House unlawfully.

2:38Ben Meiselas:Maga Mike is also attacking former President Biden with conspiracies instead of doing his damn job and being in Washington, D.C. to pass a war powers resolution to strip Donald Trump of this unlawful authority that he's been using that he does not have to engage in this catastrophic and unlawful war, which has now also ended in surrender. Maga Mike's like, did you know that over 450 ,000 migrant children went missing under former President Biden and now 300 ,000 still haven't been accounted for? And we in the Trump regime are the good guys. Yeah, ICE and Border Patrol are out there trying to just help reunite the migrant children with their family.

3:17Ben Meiselas:No, MAGA Mike spreading deranged and heinous conspiracies to attack former President Biden while Donald Trump has destroyed the American economy, destroyed our standing abroad. And while Donald Trump can't even walk or talk in coherent thoughts while he's been in France for the most disastrous G7 in American history. Also, you want to see what's going on in Congress as MAGA Mike Johnson has shut down the House of Representatives. You take a look at what's going on the Senate side right now. You've got MAGA Republican Senator Kennedy from Louisiana holding up pitchforks and he's waving around pitchforks.

3:58Ben Meiselas:Folks, there's serious business that needs to be done right now. You have, as I noted, a 2015 law requiring the President of the United States to submit any Iran nuclear deal to Congress. The president may not waive Iran sanctions during a 30-day congressional review period. You see over here, period for review by Congress of nuclear agreements with Iran, subsection B, sub two, and then another sub two right here. The president may not waive, suspend, reduce, provide relief from, or otherwise limit the application of statutory sanctions with respect to Iran under any provision of law or refrain from applying any such sanctions pursuant to an agreement in subsection A.

4:45Ben Meiselas:Then you go to definitions agreement. The term agreement, it means an agreement related to the nuclear program of Iran that includes the United States, commits the United States to take action or pursuant to which the United States commits or otherwise agrees to take action regardless of the form it takes, whether a political commitment or otherwise. And regardless of whether it is legally binding or not, including any joint comprehensive plan of action entered into or made between Iran and any other parties and any additional materials related there to including annexes, appendices, CODISL, side agreements, implementing materials, documents, and guide as technical or other understandings, and any related agreements, whether entered into or not.

5:24Ben Meiselas:Now, this clearly would bar and ban Donald Trump from doing what he's doing. Also, Donald Trump would be required to submit it to not just the House of Representatives, but the United States Senate. Look at Article 1, Section 8. Remember that, folks, the idea that we have a branch of government called Congress, and there's a House and a Senate. We remember that. Section 8, powers of Congress to regulate commerce with foreign nations. Yes, that includes sanctions. Now, you could potentially delegate authority to the executive branch. But as I just noted, that delegation is limited by this 2015 law that I just read to you.

6:09Ben Meiselas:But MAGA Mike knew that. That's why MAGA Mike has shut down Congress and why he's MIA. And they just want us to, oh no, let's talk about Donald Trump's fifth assassination attempt, this one involving drones. And now we need to build his gogen ballroom all of a sudden. You have MAGA Republican senators on Capitol Hill who are pissed and Republican senator like Bill Cassidy. Here's what he writes about the Iran deal. Reagan is rolling over in his grave. Iran's nuclear ambitions were not curb, and they have learned that threatening the Strait of Hormuz works and will undoubtedly leverage it in the future.

6:45Ben Meiselas:Now Iran gets to build brand new infrastructure under this deal. Before the war, the Strait was open. Iran was being crushed by sanctions, and 13 service members were still alive. Now, 13 Americans are dead. Families have paid billions at the pump. Sanctions will be lifted and the bombing has stopped. This is the worst foreign policy blunder in decades. So what else was Donald Trump doing in the past 24 hours? Well, Donald Trump picked a guy by the name of Jay Clayton, who's the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York to become the director of national intelligence, the DNI.

7:24Ben Meiselas:Remember Donald Trump picked Bill Pulte, that hack who's running the mortgage agency, who's also running Fannie and Freddie with no national intelligence experience whatsoever. Remember Donald Trump picked him to be the acting DNI, the acting director of national intelligence and Democrats and Republicans said, uh-uh, we're not going to have Bill Pulte in this position. The law, remember laws? They require that the DNI, the Director of National Intelligence, actually have national intelligence experience. And Bill Pulte doesn't even have a security clearance, yet alone actual experience in national intelligence.

8:02Ben Meiselas:Also, he's proven just to be a Trump hack and he goes through people's mortgage documents. And he's the guy who works with Donald Trump to leak private information of people who Trump despises and have the DOJ go after them. That's who Bill Pulte is, right? So Democrats and Republicans then are like, we're not going to reauthorize FISA, which is Foreign Intelligence Service Act, unless and until Bill Pulte is gone and you move in Jay Clayton. And Democrats and Republicans on the Senate are like, we'll fast track Jay Clayton. And Democrats are like, we don't like Jay Clayton, but he's better than Bill Pulte.

8:40Ben Meiselas:We at least trust Jay Clayton with this type of information. We don't trust Bill Pulte. So 24 hours ago yesterday, there was supposed to be a hearing involving Jay Clayton, who's already an approved Southern District of New York prosecutor. And then Donald Trump said, nope, I'm canceling that. I want Bill Pulte to be in that position. So then Democrats and Republicans are like, all right, then we're not reauthorizing FAISA. And Democrats have been very clear. We're not reauthorizing FAISA. Now, most mornings I've got five minutes and a full day ahead of me. Mizzenomain means I still walk out the door looking sharp, no ironing, no stress, no thinking about it.

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10:46Ben Meiselas:When we think about FISA, we think a lot about the controversial provision, section 702, which involves warrantless wiretaps that scoop up information on Americans if they're in communications with individuals outside of the country who the government potentially believes could have connections with terrorism. And that's such a loosey-goosey, that's a technical term definition, that a lot of people say, well, you use that to basically wiretap and eavesdrop on Americans without warrants and that there needs to be a warrant requirement. I tend to believe that there should be a warrant requirement personally.

11:24Ben Meiselas:But the broader FISA reauthorization, 60 to 70 percent of the president's daily briefing comes from FISA. It comes from foreign intelligence in the president's brief. So Donald Trump is basically saying, and this just shows you he doesn't read his daily briefs, I don't care about my daily brief. Why would he? He doesn't read the daily intelligence anyway. He doesn't care about American national intelligence. Just think about how careless and reckless he is. And he's saying, nope, then don't have Jay Clayton. I'm going to have Bill Pulte be the acting DNI. And you don't have to reauthorize FISA.

12:03Ben Meiselas:I really don't care. And go ahead. I don't need to see the national. The president's saying, I don't need to see the national intelligence, whatever. Who cares? And I'm willing to put this guy to significantly harm America's national intelligence. Because let's also be clear, foreign countries, allies, if we really have any anymore, I doubt it. They're not going to give us intelligence knowing that Bill Pulte is going to get it. So this harms, cripples the United States and makes us very, very vulnerable. But Donald Trump doesn't give a crap about whether we're vulnerable. This guy is, you know, we know how much he hates America and hates Americans.

12:38Ben Meiselas:That's very clear. So Donald Trump posts, the Republicans agreed with Democrats to remove the very fair and talented William Pulte. And Trump goes, so now I am going to cancel the hearing for the great Jay Clayton. And then Donald Trump says, therefore, I'm going to add a slight bit of intrigue into this. And I will only approve FISA if you add the Save America Act into it. And that's when Donald Trump uses that to like attack transgender people and to have ICE and Border Patrol basically go into elections and to suppress voting. And so FISA will never get passed right now. And so you had in the Republican cloakroom, all hell was breaking loose.

13:25Ben Meiselas:GOP senators were attacking MAGA Republican Senator Mike Lee from Utah during a closed door lunch meeting saying, why are you telling Donald Trump that the Save America Act can be added to FISA? Stop doing that idiot. Senator Cornyn and Kennedy challenged Lee about his strategy and complained that Trump is being led to believe it's possible to pass this in the Senate when it's not going to pass in the Senate. So you had all of a sudden this hearing of Jay Clayton to be the DNI gets canceled. Tom Cotton, MAGA Republican senator says, it's regrettable that the president had directed Jay Clayton not to appear at his confirmation today.

14:03Ben Meiselas:We would have approved Jay Clayton. And so you have all these MAGA Republican senators saying, what the hell is even going on right now? You have MAGA Republican Senator Susan Collins saying, I'm concerned. I'm so deeply concerned. Here, play this clip. I was surprised. I was looking forward to the hearing. I'm concerned that this slows down the renewal of FISA, which is vital to our national security. Then you have MAGA Republican Senator Kennedy with the pitchfork. Let's play it. No sudden movements with that. And then the Midas Touch Network, Scott McFarlane, our DC bureau chief, caught up with Democratic Senator Warner about, you know, about what Trump just did.

14:56Ben Meiselas:And here's what Senator Warner told us, let's play it. But unless my Republican friends are willing to kind of say, you know what, Mr. President, Bill Pulte doesn't have the national security expertise. And also the law says if a DNI leaves, the acting becomes the number two. And there is a Trump appointed number two who's a career intelligence professional. I didn't vote for him. It wouldn't be my choice, but at least he'd be somebody who could be trusted with the nation's secrets. And I think that the president has just decided to blow that off, ignore that. And, you know, the trouble will be we won't know in the short term the damage.

15:39What we will know is that national security leaders that are Trump-appointed are nervous about Pulte coming in. We do know that America's allies, who already were concerned that they might have leaks if they shared with this administration, I fear more of them will start to hold back intelligence, and that makes America weaker.

16:02Ben Meiselas:So you have MAGA Mike disappearing, going missing, shutting down Congress. You have hell breaking loose on the Senate side. You have absolute and total dysfunction right now. America has never been weaker, But folks, this is the golden age, we're told. This is the gold. Do you feel, which do you feel? The golden age, trillions and bajillions of bazillions of dollars. No, it's Donald Trump and his regime manipulating the damn markets every damn day, screwing over the American people who just want healthcare, who just want a good education, who want to be able to buy a home. That's what's going on right now.

16:42Ben Meiselas:while Maga Weasel, little weasel, all these Maga weasels. Let me know what you think. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million. Thanks for watching. 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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17:40We'll be right back.

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