Senator Gallego on Trump’s Mental Decline During Shutdown

0:00Summer is here, which means we all want to look and feel our best. A GLP-1 may be right for you. Visit orderlymeds.com to learn more about which GLP-1 you could be eligible for. Getting started is fast, easy, and happens virtually through telemedicine from licensed professionals. Check it out for yourself. Go to orderlymeds.com slash podcast. That's orderlymeds.com slash podcast. Taking care of yourself feels great. Compact and medications are not FDA approved. Eligibility required and determined by a licensed provider. individual results may vary. See website for details. As Donald Trump's dark past is surfacing, the House GOP and Donald Trump are keeping the government shut down to protect pedophiles.

0:41It's a direct post from Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego. And the facts bear that out, refusing to swear in Adelita Grijalva, Arizona's Congresswoman-elect from the 7th Congressional District is what MAGA Mike Johnson and the MAGA Republicans are doing now. And at the same time, they refused to swear her. And there was a hearing before the Senate committee where they brought in Attorney General Pam Bondi. Here's what Senator Whitehouse asked her if the FBI found photographs of Donald Trump, that Trump's biographer and someone who was potentially going to be Epstein's biographer, a guy by the name of Michael Wolff, said that Epstein told him that there were these photos of Donald Trump and little girls of indeterminate age or girls of unclear age that potentially were kept in a safe, unclear if those exist or not.

1:30But Wolf said that that's what Epstein told him. So Senator Whitehouse asked the question of Bondi today. Here, play this clip. Did the FBI find those photographs that have been discussed publicly by a witness who claimed Jeffrey Epstein showed them to him? You don't know anything about that. Okay. Senator Durbin then asked this question to Pam Bondi. Let's play it. The quarrel with you is to read somebody that you mentioned I never heard of. Read Hoffman. So who gave the order to flag records related to President Trump?

2:14To flag records for President Trump? To flag any records which included his name. i'm not going to discuss anything about that with you eventually you're going to have to answer for your conduct in this and you won't do it today but eventually you will my pam bondy impression who are you talking about what are you talking about what do we want to talk about anything right there i'm not answering any question reed hoffman i'm just gonna start antifa i'm gonna start saying names and then here when maga mike johnson was asked about swearing in adelita Grijalva from Arizona's 7th Congressional District, who would lend her name to become the 218th signature on that discharge petition to then have a vote to release the Epstein files.

2:56He just walks away. Here, play this clip. Congress and get everybody back to work. I certainly pray and hope that they will do that and they don't drag this on for political purposes. Thank you all so much. Mr. Speaker, what do you say then, Ms. Grijalva?

3:11You saw right there the House floor. they mag and mike sent the people home on vacation he said he said go go take a paid vacation we're not even going to speak with democrats let alone negotiate with them horrible let's bring in arizona senator ruben gallego senator gallego great to see you you wrote house gop is keeping the government shut down to protect pedophiles like an accurate statement sir what do you make of what's going on i mean if this was on the other foot and this this was Democrats doing this, the right would be losing their minds, right? The fact is, Mike Johnson is keeping the government closed to protect some of the most powerful men, not just Donald Trump, in the world from being exposed as pedophiles.

3:59They're willing to also not just keep government shut. What does that mean? They're going to mess with our travel, they're going to mess with pay, they're going to mess with the ACA tax credits to make insurance you know, cheaper for 24 million Americans. And they're doing it because they're afraid what's going to come out. I mean, this is just, it astounds me the sheer amount of bullshit that we're all dealing with right now. And the fact that this guy, you know, Speaker Johnson will go on camera and say that the Democrats are the problem. You have, we have no one to negotiate with, right? Dementia Donald Trump is half the time on the golf course.

4:40Mike Johnson's half the time hiding and or avoiding putting his Congress back into session. And so essentially, we only have the senators to talk about, and we're the problems here. We're the problems here. This is the worst written, you know, West Wing script I've ever seen at this point. Right. You know, it would be parody if it wasn't so real and impacting our lives. I mean, you talk about dementia Donald. I mean, he's yesterday he was pretending that there were negotiations taking place with Democrats. I guess they've they've moved off of their talking points of blaming migrants that wasn't working and transgender people from Peru that wasn't that

5:21Ben Meiselas:wasn't sticking. So now he went with this is about health care. He said yesterday in the Oval Office and we're negotiating very big things about Hamas, you know, health care, Hamas, health care. That's what he said yesterday. He like, I guess the word H went into his mind. So he went there, but he said that they're negotiating. I spoke with Leader Jeffries. I spoke with Leader Schumer. They both did interviews here. They go, we don't know what he's talking about. He's not, he's, they're doing no, they're not even here. What in the world are they talking about? I mean, that in and of itself should be a major three alarm.

5:53I mean, even when Donald Trump is in D.C., he's not really mentally in D.C. So we don't know who to negotiate with. And the fact is we're getting closer to November 1st. Open enrollment happens then. Like Donald Trump has never dealt with insurance personally. He's never bought insurance. He's never had to go and figure out what insurance rates really are. Right. He's always had someone doing that for him. And you have Speaker Johnson and Leader Thune that know that. So they know how to manipulate this man. And they have a goal. They want to destroy the ACA. Russ Vogt also is able to manipulate this president, too.

6:29And the president, really, at the end of the day, all he cares about is destroying the legacy of Obamacare. And 24 million Americans are going to suffer because of that. 24 million Americans are going to see their rate increase doubled. In Arizona, a family of four is going to see their premiums increase by almost$4 ,400. of dollars like if if if you are a swing republican in a swing district in an off-year election why are you falling on this sword for this guy who's clearly checked out and needs to be probably put into some type of treatment program for whatever dementia he has for johnson who comes from one the safest districts in the country who's covering for pedophiles and for john thune who is you know in there for six years and he is not worried about members of congress but you have all these members of Congress are diving themselves on the sword.

7:18For what? At the end of the day, they're going to end up losing their elections for something they could have easily affixed with just a simple compromise.

7:28Ben Meiselas:You know, you hit on something that I hadn't even thought of. The for what? They don't know what they're doing because it also seems that the shutdown has at least either exasperated or it's probably more shed a light on Donald Trump's cognitive decline in the sense that he's not there to provide any kind of guidance or anything. And MAGA Mike is just waiting for his orders. Thune has compromised, you know, the old Thune that he pretended to be, you know, unfortunately. And so they don't know what to do. So they're out there. I mean, Mike Johnson this morning, he's like, I read a headline and I haven't been read in on it.

8:14Ben Meiselas:The headline did say that furloughs may be something. But I did read this. But we're going to have like you just you read a headline. That's your press conference that you read a headline before you gave a press conference. You're the speaker of the House. Like, what the hell are you talking about? But you're right. I mean, it's because Trump's out there, you know, speaking nonsense about Trump 2028 hats in the Oval Office. Yeah, I think they're trying to BS their way through this and hoping that, you know, them being able to kind of keep talking to their MAGA base will actually solve this problem.

8:45The problem is it doesn't. At the end of the day, when people have to sign up to get insured again next year, this is when all reality hits. And the people that get affected the most by, by the way, with these ACA cuts are actually in Trump country. So you could deny, you could lie, and you could even have some of your lies be believed by your base. But fact is, insurance premiums go up. People have got to cut checks. Everything is really damn expensive right now. And your lies then all of a sudden become a liability. And the worst, again, is someone like Mike Johnson is putting his swing seat members in trouble.

9:25Marjorie Taylor Greene, for fuck's sakes, is smarter about this. she literally has said like i hate the aca i wish the cd didn't exist but there's no way i'm going to vote to increase the premiums of my uh constituents smart move and yet you have people like juan siskamani who wins by a couple thousand votes a couple other you know members of congress win by a couple thousand votes that are literally marching themselves into onto the gallows just because they just have zero opportunity nor nor really courage to step away from their leadership from Donald Trump uh and uh you know it's just dumb like in what world are you willingly voting to increase the premiums of your constituents in this year of all years when people are paying extra for everything and you as an elected official are going to actually add more costs to your constituents.

10:22Good luck explaining that. I want to ask you about Donald Trump's speech before the Navy. You're a veteran.

10:30Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump is very, he goes out there and he's like, we were too woke after World War II. And then he, you know, attacks the troops in front of the Navy and starts saying incorrectly that we've lost all of, you lost this war, that war, this war, because of your wokeness. And you posted, the man who never pulled the trigger to defend his country, but sure talks shit like he understands. This is the most dangerous type of military leaders. And he's someone who's famously dodged the draft five times lying that he had bone spurs and he's the one attacking veterans right there. It's deeply personal to you as well.

11:08I think in lots of veterans. Well, personally, cause like I, you know you know, I was in the Marines, I was in combat, in very heavy combat. I had to make some decisions to save myself, save my Marines. I also conducted myself in the best possible way that abided by the honor of being a Marine. And my Marines did too. And we, you know, when you have people like this guy who kind of glamorize the idea of war and think that, you know, we should just be able to, essentially what he's trying to say is just shoot whoever you want and destroy whole cities. I don't want to be part of that military. I don't want to be part of the military that, you know, does that type of warfare.

11:52The reason, you know, I joined the military is because I remember growing up hearing about the Marines of World War II, the army of World War II, the Marines who had some really hard fights in the Vietnam War. And then, you know, the Marines and army of the Persian Gulf War, who, you know, despite some, you know, some glaring examples like the Malak massacre, stuff like that, you know, the U.S. military does and tries to keep its honor, unlike our enemies. And, you know, this guy just doesn't understand the impact of war, the impact of, you know, ordering these young men and women to do some really horrible things that are, you know, against the actual human nature.

12:36It's one thing to protect yourself. It's another thing to cause atrocities. He'll never understand that. Number one, because he's a psychopath and can't really have feelings for other people or thoughts for other people. But number two, because he's never been in that situation. He's a selfish, selfish man. He's never had to have to deal with the idea of self-sacrifice, the idea of a sacrifice for the greater good of a country or a cause. And, you know, I think he looks at our military as a bunch of play toys and we're not play toys. You know, I live with the consequences of the Iraq war, you know, every day.

13:07and people like him will never care about people like me. They don't care about the ground pounders. They don't care about the guys that are door kickers and they care about us in the grand scheme and the idea of it, but they don't understand what we actually usually suffer coming back from wars.

13:24Ben Meiselas:You know, and finally, doesn't it seem like he enjoys this shutdown? It seems that they're like, he, you know, I've always had like a friend in the past who's no longer a friend who seemed to be happy when things were bad in your life. And it was like, are you happy with the suffering? Everybody knows. He seems to find this all funny, the weird sombrero memes, which I know it just, but he seems to be enjoying this. He called it in a post a great opportunity. He's playing golf. He's bragging about the gold that's all over the White House on their TikTok account. The Team Trump account literally posted$100 bills flying around saying Trump is making it rain on the country.

14:09Ben Meiselas:He's talking about$1 commemorative coins. Like while the American people are suffering, not just from the shutdown, but from the rising prices on affordability across the board, he just seems to be like at his most happiness, like at his happy place when people are suffering. It's interesting. I actually look, I think he's actually is not doing, I don't think mentally he's doing well. I really think he's actually in decline. But number two, I actually do not think he's actually doing it with all this because of what I see, you know, dealing with a lot of, you know, men in power my whole life, what I see is the reactions of a very weak man, because he's all over the place with his answers and how to respond to it.

14:51Finally, someone's standing up to him, right? Democratic Party has been unified saying, we're not going to let you cut the insurance to 24 million Americans. And for him, he's very confused the fact that he can't bully his way out of this, that he can't embarrass people out of this, that he can't just snap his finger out of it. And that's why you're seeing him kind of grasp at all these different things to kind of help him feel good, to feel like he has some sort of power. What you're seeing is actual weakness. He's scared. He does not know how to get out of this without compromise. and to him that means that he's going to end up looking weak because he started by such a you know a strong stance that says like you know just open this up and um you know it it for someone like him he it does not come naturally to him like he's always been able to either walk away you know like for all his failed properties all his jobs uh and just kind of like you know bluster his way into the next thing.

15:54And this one, he's going to either have to walk away and reinforce one way or the other, the Affordable Care Act, or he's going to have to shut down. And at some point, some of this starts affecting a lot of what he cares about, right? So he cares about certain things that he wants to execute. And whether or not the government shut down, eventually that starts having an effect on him. So I read this as an absolute show of weakness. and it does not surprise me that you're going to see him kind of lash out. He's going to keep trying different things because he knows that he has no power in this issue and he's just trying to figure out how to figure out how he can still look tough and have control when he really doesn't.

16:34Finally, Senator, where do we go from here? What do you see happening next as one week, two weeks, three weeks, four weeks? No Kings protest. This could end tomorrow very easily. right i have zero trust that these guys are going to listen to a cr or budget right if we put a budget together they're just going to ignore it next year or however long we put a budget together for right they're just going to ignore it what they can't ignore is once we give the tax credit to american citizens and so for me it's very simple give my people the tax credits give my people their tax credits it's their money so they could use it to bring down their premiums at the end of the day.

17:17And, you know, he can push, he can cry, he can do whatever he wants. But at some point, Johnson is going to have to talk to some of his Republican colleagues. Remember, he only controls the House of Representatives by three votes. And the idea that you're about to send some of your, you know, members of Congress into a very hard year after putting a Trump tax on people's insurance, good luck. So if I was them, I would understand that, you know, the, you know, the gig is up, get this deal done and be able to move on to whatever stupid shit they want to do afterward. Senator Ruben Gallego, thanks for joining us.

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