Rep. Gomez Responds to Trump’s Invasion of US Cities

0:00Ben Meiselas:All hell is breaking loose right now across the United States. And Donald Trump says that he really now wants to send all of the armed forces into blue states and blue cities. I'll show you what's going on. And this is in Cicero, Illinois, what is going on throughout Chicago and the surrounding areas. This is at a Menards store. this is what was seen outside as Trump's border patrol agents Gestapo ICE agents are out there just kind of indiscriminately smashing windows, kidnapping people, using chemical warfare on people this is what the United States has become under this despicable Trump regime let me show you

1:11I think you get the point.

1:12Ben Meiselas:And Menards, the store, told its employees apparently to delete any videos they took of today's ICE raid or they would be fired. The manager told contract security guard to delete his recording of the arrest. He refused. And you'll see there the video showing the ICE agents, Border Patrol agents, shattering both truck windows, dragging a man out. Show you another one here that Congress member Gomez posted a repost of Patriot takes who helped us capture this image here. Play this clip.

2:00Get off of him! Get off of him! Get off of him! Stop being recorded! Guys, he's 70 years old.

2:17Ben Meiselas:Let's bring in Democratic Congress member Jimmy Gomez right here in my hometown, Los Angeles, California. Great to see you again, Congress member. You posted this video out of Chicago as a warning. Border Patrol agents dragged a 67-year-old U.S. citizen from his car, breaking six ribs as children in Halloween costumes watched in horror. Trump's deportation machine is out of control. No one's rights are safe. Talk to us about what you're seeing across the country, frankly. We saw it here in L.A. with their invasions, MacArthur Park, other places. Talk to us about it. Well, one of the things we're seeing is that Donald Trump wants to normalize this kind of behavior.

2:58He wants to normalize the National Guard being federalized, sent into Democratic cities. Also wants to normalize the use of Marines and law enforcement for law enforcement purposes. And that's dangerous because what he wants us to do is to be lulled into complacency, not to respond when we see one of our neighbors documented or not when they're dragged out of their car or their house or the hospital or the court. And that it's just another day in America. That's what he wants. And that's why it's so important to show these videos, to say that if it happens in a Democratic city, it will eventually happen in a Republican or a red city.

3:39It's going to spread and it's going to get worse. And especially if Democrats win back the House, he's going to become more aggressive, more belligerent. He's going to use these troops all over the country unless we put a check on his power. And that's why this is winning the House is just the first step. And once we do, we're going to have a trapped wild animal on our hands and we're going to have to figure out how to contain him because he's going to get more belligerent. And this is just a small taste of what we're going to see across the country.

4:14Ben Meiselas:You know, I think Governor Newsom described it aptly. I mean, as you say, trapped wild animal. I think Newsom referred to Trump as an invasive species who is literally destroying the country and the world day by day. it does seem that he thought by now, I mean, if we want to talk about hope out of this, I think he thought by now that through the intimidation, the fear, control of corporate media, that Americans would be suppressed and would be obedient and behave the way you see your Republican colleagues do, that all of our brains would be MAGA mush. But the fact that these No Kings protests keep growing, that he's becoming even more and more unpopular, if that's even possible, historically unpopular.

5:01Ben Meiselas:So he runs to Asia while ripping away people's health care, ripping away people's SNAP, and then sending the ICE Gestapo. And frankly, I don't really see a distinction between those people in military fatigues and the military. There is personal military force invading cities right now, regardless of within the National Guard. Greg Bovino out there throwing gas canisters. It seems like he's lashing out because he thought that everybody would just be obeying at this point. Yeah. No, that's not right. And there is some hope because we see the people speaking up, speaking up. We still need more and more people to do that.

5:41And we also need people who that are going to not only step in front of people, but also to be able to tell their stories, to share and not to leave. I've talked to undocumented immigrants. I talked to people who are citizens and residents who think about leaving this country. And we need people who believe in our ideals to stay and fight, to stay and push back against this guy. Because if not, that's when we lose. That's when he wins. So, right, you're absolutely correct. People are are stepping up, but the CBP ice are dangerous. And most of the money that Trump pushed through in the one big, beautiful bill, that$175 billion still hasn't met its way through the system.

6:28So his national police force that he's trying to create is only a fraction of the size that it could become in the years to come, unless we do something about it.

6:40Ben Meiselas:So talk to us about where we are now as a country. Government shutdown. I don't see a path of it being reopened. Democrats want to negotiate, talk, protect people's health care. MAGA Republicans don't even want to talk, yet alone negotiate. Right. Mag and Mike sent his house members home. Go on vacation. Don't swear in at elite degree. Trump made a comment the other day that based on his big, beautiful bill, which I call a disastrous bill, he says he's got what he wants and he doesn't need government anymore. So to me, I don't think he wants it. And I think Megan might. I don't I just I don't see where this ends other than in what, two days, people start getting the letters saying that premiums will be going up twenty two thousand dollars a year and people get kicked off of snap.

7:33Ben Meiselas:And then we're in like a catastrophic environment. I mean, where does this go, Congressman? Yeah, well, first, Donald Trump and the Republicans have consistently reinforced what their priorities are. One, it's the billionaire establishment that has taken root in D.C. It was tax cuts for them and the largest corporations in the country and to hell with everybody else. And that's what you see when it comes to the fact that people's health care costs are going to skyrocket next month or are skyrocketing. They're not going to be able to afford health insurance. That means people are going to either decide to have health care or not.

8:12And if they do have it, they're going to be paying a lot of money. And if they don't have it, they're going to wait till they go to the emergency room if they get sick or injured. And then when you see Donald Trump saying, oh, and the Republicans, oh, the Democrats don't care about people's SNAP. Well, I want to put this for the record. We're not the party that has been hostile to food assistance for working families. In the spring, they canceled 94 million pounds, 94 million pounds of food that was supposed to go to food banks. In their one big beautiful bill or the one big billionaire bill that they passed, they cut SNAP benefits.

8:49Now they're trying to not use emergency funding that exists to help fill the gap of SNAP benefits when there's a government shutdown or emergency, the reserve funds to keep it going. Well, now they're saying they can't use it. So this party doesn't care about working people, and they don't care if government continues to function because they got what they wanted in July with the one big beautiful bill.

9:14Ben Meiselas:I think it's such an important point because the MAGAs lie about everything. But in the enabling statute, in the law that provides for SNAP and the appropriations, it literally says there is a contingency fund of$3 billion a year. and there's additional monies left over from last year's contingency. So you add it up, it's probably somewhere between five and six billion dollars used precisely for this purpose. The United States Department of Agriculture had on their website that it could be used for this purpose. The first Trump administration said it could be used for this purpose. All the OMB guidance always said it could be used for this purpose.

9:59Ben Meiselas:And now they've changed that to say, nope, we're not going to give it to people, to literally starve people to death. They think starving people to death is a winning issue for them. It's everything though, Congressman. I don't mean to ramble, but also that's what Trump said about comprehensive immigration reform when there was an attempt to do a bipartisan bill to deal with this responsibly and not deal with the issues. He said, kill the responsible bill because a winning issue for him is to watch Americans suffer. When do we snap out of it though? Like when do people go, this guy's an effing Bernie Madoff on steroids, con artist defrauding me.

10:39Ben Meiselas:And why, you know, do people go, but he says he loves me. He says he cares. Like when do people go, no, he doesn't effing hates you. No, that's one thing that I said, when is it going to be enough? When are people going to wake up? And people are slowly waking up to the fact that he doesn't give a shit about them. Every single day I see some former red hatter MAGA person that says, you know, I was down with Donald Trump, but not anymore, either because of the Epstein files that he says don't exist anymore. And he said he was going to be the most transparent president in history. And he was going to drain the swamp.

11:12Well, he know, they see, oh, he is the swamp. He is the swamp. Or when it comes to the fact that the cattle ranchers or the farmers are getting screwed over by his tariff policies and getting sold out for a$40 billion bailout for Argentina, but they're getting screwed. Go down the list and these working people are starting to slowly wake up, slowly wake up. But the way we kind of do that, this is what I've been arguing to Democrats, we can't stay within our bubbles. It's great we had 7 million people on the streets. Perfect. Now I want you to go into the red districts and the red areas to your family who still believe in this con artist, go and have these conversations.

11:56Tell them the facts. Tell them over and over and over again. Because when you tell them the facts and then the reality on the ground meet up, that's when they start coming to our side. And that's where I think we need to go. We've got to go into the David Valadeo's districts. We've got to go into the districts, the Republican-held districts across the country to shed light and facts and the truth of what's going on. Because they're getting their information not from the podcasts that we listen to or watch or our newspapers or cable shows. It is it is they're watching their stuff. So we got to break through.

12:30We got to go into their districts and have those conversations. That's how we we win them over.

12:35Ben Meiselas:Let's do it. Congressman Jimmy Gomez. Appreciate you as always. No, I appreciate you as well. Thanks. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to six 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.

13:19Ben Meiselas:We'll see you next time.