Rep. Ro Khanna Discusses Fighting Back against Trump and MAGA

0:00Ben Meiselas:In business, the best days are when priorities stay on track. For mid-size and large companies, that means managing multiple exposures, from property and liability to cyber and more. The Hartford helps companies plan for risk with insurance and proactive risk solutions, so focus can stay where it belongs. Prepare for risk. Protect success. Smart risk management from the Hartford. Contact your agent or visit thehartford.com slash risk mitigation. This episode is brought to you by Credit Karma. When it comes to your money, Credit Karma keeps you ahead of the game. You can count on Credit Karma to keep up with your financial needs as they evolve, helping you monitor your progress and giving you personalized recommendations so you can make strides towards your goals.

0:49Ben Meiselas:Make sure you're on the right track, no matter where you are on your financial journey. Intuit Credit Karma. Karma you can count on. Download today. This summer, FanDuel is the best place to bet on goals. Including equalizers, balls, headers. Every goal is worth more on FanDuel. So, let there be goals. New customers get$350 in bonus bets guaranteed when you bet$5 for seven days. 21 plus in present and select states. First online real money wager only. Minimum$5 wager required for seven consecutive days. $5 first deposit required. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable bonus bets, which expires seven days after receipt.

1:22Ben Meiselas:Restrictions apply. See full terms at fanduel.com slash sportsbook. Gambling problem? call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MY-RESET.

1:56Ben Meiselas:of Gemini apps. Check responses for accuracy. Choice hotels get you more of what you value. Here's a little tune to help you remember. Same drive, different day. Don't you wish you were getting away? Pack your bags and come on through. Texas, Ohio, Alaska, we're up there too. Comfort Inn. It's calling your name. Save on the stay. Oh, and free waffles are yours to claim. Well, I hope you like my little song book direct at storieshiltales.com. Maga Mike looked off. He looked scared. His voice was cracking. And it was a day where, you know, you would think that maybe he'd be spiking the football.

2:39Ben Meiselas:I don't know. But he refused to answer questions from the press. He like ran away when they were asking basic questions like, what are you going to do on the Affordable Care Act? Are you going to extend? Are you going to do a vote to extend the subsidies? Just watch for yourself, Magda Mike behaving even more odd than normal, if you can believe that. Here, play this clip. And finally, do the right thing and help us to bring an end to the pain of the American people. This has gone on too long. Too many people have suffered and it's long overdue. That's the update I wanted to give you this morning.

3:14Ben Meiselas:There are probably lots of questions, but I'm going to get a lot of my own questions answered later today. So stay tuned for more. Thanks so much.

3:27Ben Meiselas:I mean, you're the Speaker of the House, man. What do you mean you're going to get some of your own questions answered later in the day? Like, aren't you supposed to be like the guy? Aren't you the guy who answers the questions for other people? So then Manu Raju from CNN tried to catch up for him as he was walking to his office. And again, very odd. Here, play this clip. Thank you.

4:32Ben Meiselas:In other words, Magamike, the Speaker of the House, is saying that they will not basically put up a vote on extending the Affordable Care Act subsidies in the House of Representatives. So I'm not really sure what the Democrats in the Senate, those eight Democrats, were thinking he was going to do. Of course, he's taking orders from Donald Trump. But he was asked on Greta Van Sustran. You know, so you guys have a plan. Are the Republicans going to come up with a solution before December 31st because people's premiums are about to spike? Watch what Meg and Mike responds. Let's play this clip. Well, is the Republican idea or solution going to go into effect at midnight on December 31st because people are going to get sticker shock on this insurance?

5:14I mean, this is really sort of an urgent matter for a lot of people.

5:19Ben Meiselas:Yeah, it's an urgent matter for us, and it has been, which is why we put it into the the bill that we passed in the early summer and the Democrats fought to take it out. So we're reintroducing some of these ideas. There's a lot of ideas on how to drive the cost down. And we have November and December to work on that. We're going to have to get a bipartisan consensus on some of this. And so we'll be presenting our ideas and putting them on the table. Okay. So they have concepts of an idea, concepts of a plan. Maybe, I don't know. He's got, tries this again. He goes on Fox and he says, we've got notebooks of full of ideas.

5:53Ben Meiselas:You want you want to share them here? Play this clip. Subsidizing the insurance companies is not the answer because it just drives the cost up even further. So we need to look at the root causes. The Republican Party is the party that is working on that, has been working on it and has more ideas going forward. We've got to bring down the costs and you can do that in a responsible way that also increases access and quality of care. And we've got we've got notebooks full of ideas on how to do that we got a book consensus around it notebooks full of ideas that nobody has seen fake votes that aren't going to happen in the future the hell is going on here i want to bring in democratic congress member roe connor to try to make sense of this congressman con is great to see again so you had these eight democrats in the senate saying woohoo we got the republicans to agree to a vote in the Senate, not that they'll agree to extend the subsidies.

6:47Ben Meiselas:And like the whole time we've been saying, well, even if they did that, they're going to vote against it. And they're not even going to bring it up in the House. And then you hear Mag and Mike just doing the same shtick over and over again. What do you make of it, Congressman? That was quite a collection of clips. And it would be laughable if it weren't so sad. I mean, I was talking to someone whose father is a taxi driver in Arizona. That father has cancer. His premium is going to go up from $44 a month to$2 ,600 a month. This is life and death for folks. And Johnson keeps saying, I've got notebooks full of plans.

7:23Do you notice it never says what the plan is, not even like one sentence. The reality is the plan is basically allow these premiums to spike for 20 million Americans. For some, it's going to be a debt sentence. For others, it's going to mean medical bankruptcy. And look, the eight senators knew that. Come on. Dick Durbin has been in the Senate for, I don't know, 50 years. You don't think he knows that the House was never going to take it up? Give me a break. And then it's awfully convenient that those eight senators happen to be the senators that are not up in 2026. And they're all consulting Schumer.

7:58I mean, people are sick of this. That's why I called on Schumer to step down.

8:04Ben Meiselas:Congressman, this whole thing is so strange because we had this incredible Tuesday. People were animated, excited. There was a blue tsunami. You had all of these areas that were Democrats lost voters. They come back to the Democrats. Finally, it's like we're fighting. We feel good. Every data point is like people want Democrats to fight. and then all of a sudden on Sunday, you know, it almost in a way felt to me like these senators were almost like annoyed that the results reflected the Democratic Party going in, like a kid who you take away their candy almost. It almost felt like they were upset that this was going in and that the Democratic Party was kind of generationally shifting and going back to a lot of its roots.

8:55Ben Meiselas:And they were like, one final trick for you. Here's what we're going to do it. And I'm I'm like, I was in a plane and fortunately it was able to take off decently on time. And as this is going on, I'm like thinking to myself, like, what the hell just happened? We had the greatest day. Why are we acting like losers when we won big and the American people are fighting with us? It's totally mind boggling. But you know what the one thing we had in common on the day we won? We had new voices, fresh, young, bold voices. There are a bunch of folks who've been there 30, 40 years. They proclaim themselves the adult in the rooms.

9:32Well, guess what? The adult in the rooms have screwed over a lot of the American people for the last 30 or 40 years. They've seen wage inequality rise. They've seen rents become unaffordable. They've seen homes be priced out of their ability to buy it. They've seen child care costs skyrocket. They've seen medical bankruptcies happen. 70 % don't believe in the American dream. And they think this governing class needs to go. We need new voices. We need new leaders. If you've been in office for over 20 years, you shouldn't be leading the future of the Democratic Party. This is a time for people like Abigail and Zoran and Mikey and new voices from all parts of our party.

10:11We've got a lot of talent. You know, someone said to me in a joking way or perhaps a serious perhaps. They're like, well, this backbencher from the House is calling for Schumer to step down. And all my supporters started coming to my defense saying Kana is not a backbencher. He talks to Ben. He goes on the media. I said, no, no, no. You know, I don't care. The point is the backbenchers need to come to the front. Those of us in the back, we need to move to the front. And a new generation of leadership needs to emerge.

10:40Ben Meiselas:Look, when I was in basketball camp at Lutheran basketball camp, I was Mr. Hustle, six man off the bench, six man role. Mr. Hustle, summer after summer. But the reality is, is that we do need Mr. Hustle. We do need the person off the bench who can hit the threes. We do need new starters, you know, for this team and to look fresh. And by the way, I don't view that as an insult to the old guard. Well, actually, you know, and I think that's where people personalize this. I think there's a way to say, you know, we tribute and salute the work that was done in the past at a certain period in history and different times in history, call for different things.

11:26Ben Meiselas:And I think that's sometimes what leadership is all about. You know, I'll tell you this. So what my dad told me growing up is he goes, this is like a leadership lesson. He says, any good head coach wants to promote their assistant coach to become a great head coach. A bad head coach wants to keep their assistant coaches as assistants for their life. And I think that there's a parallel here. At some point, part of a legacy is bringing up the new generation to lead in a way that's helpful in this moment. And I don't think it's insulting to the older leadership. I just think we got to recognize new moments, call for new times.

12:06What do you think about that? I love that. I love the analogy of the bad coach, because I think that's unfortunately what we've had in the Democratic Party. Some people have done great, But they haven't cultivated and made way for a new generation. Look, on Senator Schumer, I have given him credit publicly and privately for the chipset, for the infrastructure bill, for IRA, for the American Rescue Plan. Let's not kid ourselves. Most of that stuff would not have passed if it weren't for his leadership. But that doesn't mean that he's the right person to lead now. And I think some of these folks need to, with grace, continue to serve.

12:46They just don't have to be out in front. And what we need out in front is that new energy that excited 100 ,000 volunteers in New York, that excited folks in rural Virginia for Abigail. They got people in suburbs, in Mikey Sherrill's case, turning away from Donald Trump and voting for her in one year, flipped communities. That's who we need out there in front speaking for the Democratic Party. The country is telling us that. They keep telling us just get new leadership. And we, I don't know what we're doing, but I hope now this is a wake up call. You know, unfortunately, I've never had a more viral tweet in my career.

13:26I wish they were listening to my economic policy or my child care policy with the amount that they are listening to my call for new leadership in the Senate. But it shows it struck a nerve.

13:35Ben Meiselas:Well, I do think that the reality is I do think that they listen to that. And I think that's why it went viral. I mean, there's lots of people who make posts about a lot of different topics. But I think that people know that what it's backed up with is these economic policies, these health care policies that are concrete. You list specifics. You're unapologetic. You go into red territories and you speak with all different types of people. You show up in some podcast that I tell my crew, like, why is Ro going on that podcast? That's Ro, that's what you do. That's what you do because you're trying to engage with lots of with lots of audiences.

14:15Ben Meiselas:But it seems also, Congressman, that there's a lot of stuff that's even in this legislation that people like what? What? That's that's in there. Like in one of these bills, the Republican senators put in a provision where they'll each be able to like write themselves checks from the Department of Justice for subpoenaing phone records in connection with the January 6th insurrection for$500 ,000 each. And there's like their own group of eight. It's a group of eight. And they want to pay themselves 500K and settle with themselves the way Trump wants to settle with himself from the DOJ. They built in a provision specifically for senators.

14:54Ben Meiselas:If you are a senator and this happens, it's the craziest thing. What are we doing? It's crazy. I mean, it's corruption in your face. It's sort of like they don't even want to hide it anymore. It's just sort of, what are you going to do about it? We're the senators. We have the power. We can do what we want. Well, you know what? The American people have had it. They've had it with the kind of self-dealing, the enrichment. And that's why they keep voting for change. And I think we just we were on a good note on Tuesday. That to me is the way forward. Finally, just when you see kind of MAGA Mike, Donald Trump saying that, you know, look, everything's great.

15:36Ben Meiselas:There's no inflation. They lie about bringing in twenty two trillion dollars, you know, all of that, you know. And by the way, you see even people like Marjorie Taylor Greene are like, what the hell is this? Like, this isn't America first. There does seem to be something changing in this country, though, notwithstanding this kind of gut punch by what took place. There does seem to be hope and optimism if we can harness it in the right way. I want to give you the final word there. Absolutely. Look, here's their problem. They're now in power. When you're out of power, you can spin, you can put out a viral video, you can attack others, and you can do propaganda and you have an army of influencers.

16:14You know what you can't spin when someone walks into the store and they're paying more for coffee, they're paying more for their burgers, they're paying more for their electricity bill. Suddenly their premiums go up. And I don't care how effective you are and how many influencers you are and how many podcasts you do and whatever your army is, you're not going to convince people that their bills are going down. And so that's the problem. They've got reality staring at them. And the American people are done with them. And that's the opportunity. I hope folks who were disappointed with these eight senators don't get discouraged.

16:50Make it your motivation to run for office. Make it your motivation to support someone for office. Make it your motivation to help take back our party. My view is that Tuesday was a harbinger of bigger victories in 2026, bigger victories in 2028. And we're going to have a political realignment of the likes we haven't seen probably since Barack Obama in 2008. So this should be the fuel for us, not sort of, OK, let's go back and bashing the Democratic Party and all in terms of doomerism. Let's just say, look, we've got a lot going for us. We've got to have some folks make way so we can have an energetic midterm election.

17:32Ben Meiselas:Congressman, as a fake final question, my producer saying I have to ask you a question about the discharge petition, because if there is something that may move along, if the shutdown ends, is the discharge petition that you and Congress member Massey put forward to release the Epstein files. Lots of people are still saying after Adelita Grijal was sworn in that Magamite is going to try to pull something to block the discharge petition by using some procedural maneuver. While I have you on, I got to ask you about that. It's going to be huge. I mean, Adelita Grijalva is probably going to get sworn in Wednesday.

18:06Seven days after that, we will get a vote on the Epstein file. Now, that's seven legislative days. I believe we are going to get that. I'll break some news. We're talking with Mike Massey now of getting another major press conference with the survivors early next week at the Capitol. There's going to be so much momentum left and right to say, out with the Epstein class. rich and powerful people who abused young girls, who think they live by a different set of rules. America is done with you. We're done with that kind of elite impunity and corruption. And I believe we will get this vote. 60 votes, probably 60 Republicans will line up and vote for it.

18:48It's going to be the first day that Donald Trump will be a lame duck when he has 60 Republicans voting against him. So I am committed to this. And that is one silver lining at the House opening back as it takes up this terrible bill, as Adelita Grijalva does get sworn in, and we will get that vote on the Epstein files.

19:07Ben Meiselas:That was the real final question. Thank you, Congressman Kahn. We appreciate it. Thank you. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million subscribers. Thanks so much. 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.

19:32Ben Meiselas:Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same premium wireless for$15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities, so do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of$45 for three-month plan, equivalent to$15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. Default terms at mintmobile.com. Hey guys, finding the perfect gift for the food lover in your life is easy.

20:06Ben Meiselas:Thanks to Gold Belly. Gold Belly ships America's most iconic foods straight from world famous restaurants right to your door. So if you want to treat someone to Joe's Stone Crab from Miami, Franklin Barbecue from Texas, or desserts from famous foodies like Ina Garten or Martha Stewart. Gold Belly has you covered. Just go to goldbelly.com and for a limited time, get 20 % off your first order with promo code GIFT. That's promo code GIFT. Starting a business can seem like a daunting task, unless you have a partner like Shopify. They have the tools you need to start and grow your business. From designing a website, to marketing, to selling and beyond, Shopify can help with everything you need.

20:44Ben Meiselas:There's a reason millions of companies like Mattel, Heinz, and Allbirds continue to trust and use them. With Shopify on your side, turn your big business idea into... Sign up for your$1 per month trial at shopify.com slash special offer. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same premium wireless for$15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities. So do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do at MintMobile.com slash switch.