Rep. Moulton Discusses Trump’s Disastrous Shutdown

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1:54Seth Moulton:See terms.

1:55Ben Meiselas:Republican Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson just had a totally disastrous press conference. He went up there again with the whole cast of characters, the other MAGA Republican Congress members. It's part of the morning humiliation ritual that he does. And here he kind of just admits what he's trying to do. He's like, if I just keep repeating this over and over again with the repetition. Maybe you all in the press will start to write what I'm telling you to write. It's like the talking points that Donald Trump gave him here. Play this clip.

2:26Seth Moulton:That's that's plain and simple. And so it's painful for them for us to get up here every single day and relate again the simple truths. We have to do that. The repetition is what makes the truth saturate because most of the mainstream media is giving us headwinds. They're pushing back, as I just demonstrated from you, from the results, the research proves what we know intuitively, that the mainstream media, most of the legacy media is parroting the talking points to the other side. You are not asking Chuck Schumer the hard questions. You're not asking Hakeem Jeffries the hard questions. Not enough of them.

2:59Seth Moulton:They're hiding.

3:00Ben Meiselas:They're literally, they're not hiding. They're working. And the MAGA Republicans, at your order, are not showing up to work. I mean, you've told them to go on a vacation. You keep gaveling out and adjourning. You've worked. You've had the house work 10 or 12 days out of the last 100 days. That's why people are asking, like, what the hell are you actually even doing? And we know that y 'all are the ones who refuse to extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies. Y 'all are the ones who want to get rid of SNAP from 42 million Americans. Then MAGA Mike Johnson is angry that Democratic attorney generals in 22 states have filed the lawsuits to try to protect the emergency fund for SNAP benefits, which still has about five to six billion dollars or so in it that Trump and the Department of Agriculture refused to tap into.

3:55Ben Meiselas:Here, play this clip.

3:56Seth Moulton:SNAP benefits will stop flowing to all those who need it. You're talking about tens of millions of Americans at risk of going hungry if the Senate Democrats can continue this gambit. Instead of taking a simple vote to fund the government, which Senate Democrats have now had more than a dozen opportunities to do, Democrat attorneys general are suing the federal government to try to compel SNAP benefits to flow despite the government being closed and despite the fact that there is no money to do that. Congress hasn't authorized that. The contingency fund for that was something they batted down.

4:30Ben Meiselas:No, it's literally there. There's literally a bank account that has five to six billion dollars in it called a contingency fund that the Department of Agriculture took this advisory point down from its website, but it can give to SNAP. Instead, it wants to give 40 billion dollars to Argentina. So Maga Mike was asked about that. So 40 billion dollars goes to Argentina and you're not tapping into the SNAP contingency fund, which everybody knows you can tap into the SNAP contingency fund. And Trump said that you could do it during the shutdown during his first term as well. But here, play this clip when he's asked about Argentina.

5:13Seth Moulton:All right, questions. Monty, go ahead.

5:15Ben Meiselas:Given how dire the word you expressed to so many Americans right now, how do you justify the administration giving this big, massive bailout to Argentina, as well as calling for an increase in beef and pork from Argentina?

5:28Seth Moulton:Look, we give foreign policy, the execution of foreign policy, to the executive branch. That's what the president is doing right now. There's lots of nuances about that. He's involved in negotiating trade agreements around the country to great success and benefit of the American people right now, dozens of them being worked out. He's overseas right now doing the same thing. And what he accomplished in Japan is a remarkable thing for the American people. And by the way, they've invested, agreed to invest$550 billion into America. And that's good for everyone. So I can't get into the nuances of every single trade agreement with every country around the world.

6:03Seth Moulton:But we're going to trust the president to do what he's doing. He's had a remarkable track record of success for the American people. And nobody in this room can refute it. So I'm going to leave it right there. Let's talk about the government shutdown. It's the main important thing right here. Jack, go ahead.

6:16Ben Meiselas:Let's bring in Democratic Congress member from Massachusetts, Seth Moulton. Congress member Moulton, good to see you as always. He also made the big announcement recently. You're running for that Senate seat in the Democratic primary. We'll talk about that as well. But you hear Maga Mike says nobody can refute it. This has been an incredible track record. He's out there unilaterally doing these trade deals and we're just going to just trust him and just give away our Article One authority as well, apparently. When you see this humiliation ritual that he goes through every morning like this and just the lies, I mean, what's your response to it?

6:54Seth Moulton:He's auditioning to be the weakest speaker in American history. And actually, maybe it's not an audition anymore. He's affirmatively the weakest speaker in American history. He's completely throwing out the Constitution. He might as well not be in Congress because Congress, he's just sent on vacation. You know, we're not doing our jobs. As far as I know, he's still taking a paycheck. i'm not taking a paycheck i'm deferring my pay but but apparently uh most of his republicans are a lot of democrats are too but but point is um it's ridiculous that he refuses to do his job and maybe no one in that room in washington is going to refute his claims i mean he's he's standing amongst a bunch of republicans but guess what you hear from a lot of farmers who are pretty upset about these trade deals because they're getting screwed you hear from a lot of americans who count on food assistance, including veterans, you know, who count on SNAP payments, who are going to go hungry in a few days while they're sending$40 billion to Argentina.

7:54Seth Moulton:I mean, it's just absurd.

7:56Ben Meiselas:Now, Trump made an announcement where he gave away the game when he was in South Korea. We all knew what it was. And he says, I want to go back to the days where you announced good news and the stock market goes up is what he basically said. He said that word for word. And, you know, he, Magamike mentions, you know, Japan has committed to do this. Well, didn't they say that three months ago also? And then, you know, I know Trump's going to be talking to Xi Jinping and there's that aspect of this trip. I went back, there was a framework announced in May with China. Then there was a framework announced in June, then another one over this summer.

8:34Ben Meiselas:Then another one's going to be announced right now. And then the same thing with all these back to South Korea, a deal with South Korea, another deal with South Korea, the same deal with. And no one knows what these terms are. They just keep announcing the same thing because it seems the focus is just pump the crap out of the stock market while American people who are living on Main Street suffer. Yeah.

8:56Seth Moulton:I mean, guess what? A lot of Americans don't care about the stock market because they don't have stocks. They care about the prices at the grocery store. I mean, I looked at the grocery bill from yesterday at my house just to buy hamburger meat for pasta sauce and spaghetti. And I mean, well north of$100 with a little bit of milk and some eggs and some other things thrown in. I mean, it's just, this is what matters to Americans. but it just it's so telling that it's not where the focus of this administration is the the administration and magamike and other republicans they are focused on the stock market they're focused on helping out their billionaire pals they're trying to distract attention from two things the fact that americans are about to go hungry this weekend the troops are barely getting paid and and they're also trying to distract uh from the taco trump president who has to keep renegotiating these deals because he always chickens out on his own threats.

9:59Seth Moulton:That's why they keep getting renegotiated.

10:02Ben Meiselas:You're a veteran. You served four tours. You're overseas in active combat areas. When you see someone like Trump say that he's bringing in$130 million from some reclusive billionaire, part of, I guess, the Mellon family or something like that, which when you actually do the math, pays for six hours of active duty reserve payroll and doesn't address the broader systemic issues. It just feels like it's part of this broader Ponzi scheme going on. Look, the number sounds big. I brought in$130 million from whoever this guy is, but also going around Congress, like why is a billionaire giving 130 million?

10:52Ben Meiselas:Do we get to see the numbers? Is it really going to troops? Is it 100 % tax deductible? Is it part of some other deal? Like where's this money?

11:02Seth Moulton:I mean, the answer is simple because billionaires have bought this government. He's beholden to billionaires. That's the only class of people that Trump cares about. and whether it's the billionaires who get to uh rape you know innocent girls with Jeffrey Epstein and get away with it just like the president or whether it's billionaires who just get tax break after tax break at the cost of working people in America that's that's what matters to this administration in the meantime he's also trying to buy the army I mean he's trying to have a private army which is you know like rule number one in the playbook for authoritarianism uh he wants a military that's completely politicized and completely beholden to him, not the Constitution.

11:46Seth Moulton:And, you know, that part not only makes me angry, it makes me sad because that's not what anyone signed up to do in the military. It's not the oath that we took to protect and defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic.

12:03Ben Meiselas:I know there's going to be a briefing in the armed services committee coming up about what's going on in Venezuela with Trump shooting these fishing boats. You know, we've heard from the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, that these innocent Colombians potentially were individuals who were killed. Then there was individuals who survived one of the bombings by the United States and they just got to go back to their countries. No, no prosecution, apparently, just like. Apparently they're innocent. You know, it's like the hunger. If you survive, you're good. Yeah, exactly. There's nothing that happens.

12:39Ben Meiselas:So I know this is an important issue to a lot of Americans, but I don't think it's getting enough attention. What can you let us know where we are right now in this?

12:48Seth Moulton:Well, sir, it's almost like the best case scenario is that they're just killing innocent people. And not only are innocent people dying, you know, fathers, mothers, whoever, sons, you know, getting killed without any proof of the fact that they're even transporting drugs or didn't just get bamboozled into piloting these boats. We know for a fact that the two of the people who miraculously survived one of these strikes were just released because they apparently weren't guilty of anything. That's like the best case scenario. The worst case scenario is that Trump is going to start a war with Venezuela.

13:26Seth Moulton:And I don't know the answer to that. But we've never had more combat power in the Caribbean than, you know, in the last 50 years or something. So you don't bring in subs and aircraft carriers to intimidate people in little speedboats. I don't know what's going on, but I'm very concerned that Trump right now has the blood of innocent people on his hands. But he's about to have the blood of American troops if this goes forward.

13:57Ben Meiselas:Talk to us, Congressman, about your Senate race. Big announcement there. There'll be a Democratic primary. There's a Democratic Senator Markey in the state. Talk to us about your decision to run. One of the things you expressed is it's just time for new leadership. But can you speak to that? Yeah, absolutely.

14:20Seth Moulton:So I just don't think we can afford to wait six more years for new leadership in our party or in the country. And with all due respect to Senator Markey and his half century of service, the playbook is not working. The status quo is not getting it done. And he's been elected longer than I've been alive. I think it's time for a new generation of leaders in our party. The current generation has got us a second term of Donald Trump, and he's hurting a lot of people all across America. So, you know, as someone who's never been afraid to stand up to my own party when I think we need to change, I'm running to bring a new generation of leadership to our party, to stand up harder to Donald Trump and to show a way forward, to show that Democrats are investing in the future and that we can lead.

15:09Seth Moulton:That's, I think, what we need to do going forward. Where can people find out more about the Senate campaign? Yeah, please go to SethMoulton.com. And some people may ask, okay, why is a Democratic primary happening when we need to focus on the midterms? Look, I set up Serve America a few years ago, back in 2018, the last time we were in this position with Trump in the White House, Republicans controlling the House and the Senate. Serve America accounted for more than half the seats that we flipped as the entire Democratic Party to take back the House. So I know a lot about winning midterms and supporting new leaders like mikey sheryl abigail spamberg they were all in that 2018 serve america class are now running for for governor and two important uh elections just about to come up here so i i know about winning the midterms and i actually think that this primary that's about the future of the democratic party you know are we going to stick with the old playbook and the status quo or are we going to pass the torch to a new generation of leaders this is an essential debate for our success in the midterms.

16:13Seth Moulton:So I'm excited to be running and I invite you to come to SethMoulton.com to find out more.

16:18Ben Meiselas:Congressman Seth Moulton, thanks for joining us as always. Thanks for having me back. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million subscribers.

16:40Ben Meiselas:you