Senator Kim Calls Out Trump and MAGA for the Trump Shutdown

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0:56Ben Meiselas:Discover award-winning cookware at madeincookware.com. Republican Speaker Maga Mike Johnson just got a rude awakening. And whatever staffer convinced him to go on C-SPAN and listen to what the actual people think about his conduct and behavior, well, those staffers need to get a raise. So Maga Mike Johnson was on C-SPAN and he heard how people feel about Donald Trump and his government shutdown as he and Donald Trump are ripping away the Affordable Care Act subsidies for tens of millions of Americans and how he and Donald Trump are continuing just to destroy the country and gaslight us all at the same time.

1:43Ben Meiselas:So I want to show you Maga Mike sitting there as he's being told outside of his bubble what people are really experiencing. There are a number of examples that I want to show you. So in the first clip that you probably haven't seen anywhere else, Maga Mike is asked, I think, the most simple question. OK, Maga Mike, how are you actually going to fix Obamacare? You all say you don't like the Affordable Care Act. You don't like the subsidies. You don't like this. You don't like that. What do you like? What is your plan? And Maga Mike won't be able to answer that. Here, play this clip. So and I also want to know what is your plan to fix the Obamacare?

2:28Great questions. There's a lot of improvements that are needed. Obamacare did not do what was promised. Everybody can acknowledge that, as I mentioned, premiums are up 60 percent since it It became law in 2010. And you have less access to care and in some parts of the country, lower quality of care. So we've got to fix that. Republicans are the party that have the ideas to do that. We have a doctor's caucus inside the Republican conference that works around the clock, putting together these ideas, talking to stakeholders and other providers around the country. We have a lot of ideas to fix it.

2:58Some people say, why can't you just rip Obamacare out at the roots and start over? It's very, very complicated. It affects about 18 percent of the U.S. economy, health care. but there's lots of various improvement we have not this is not a talking point for us we've demonstrated it in the one big beautiful bill the working families tax cuts we added lots of provisions for example to reform Medicaid it was being drained the resources there are intended for US citizens that are in a small number of categories the disabled the elderly young pregnant women in difficult situations etc but what was happening is you had illegal aliens draining the resources who are not allowed to do it under law and you had young able-bodied men, for example, without dependents who were riding the wagon.

3:35We reformed that in our bill. We reduced the cost. And the Congressional Budget Office, the CBO, just analyzed in late August, October, August 25th. And the report, they said it's going to have the desired effect.

3:46Ben Meiselas:And again, as William Melvin noted, the Affordable Care Act became law over 5000 days ago. Since that time, Donald Trump has not put forward a plan. Instead, Donald Trump and MAGA Mike talk about lowering prescription drug prices by 1600%, which is not a real number. Next up, MAGA Mike Johnson hears from another C-SPAN caller. And the caller says, you know, you're out there saying that people are smiling as troops are heading into the cities, blue states, blue cities. People aren't smiling. What are you talking about? What a dystopian and idiotic thing to even say. And this is, I think, so important for MAGA Mike to just be there and hear.

4:32Ben Meiselas:This is what the might is mighty are saying. This is what Americans are saying. I understand Donald Trump's bubble and their talking points. People love this. People don't love ICE ripping people off the streets and putting them into concentration camps. Here, let's play this clip. Hi, I just want to start by saying hearing you say that everyone is smiling in the cities where troops our National Guard has been rolled into feels dystopian and insane to hear you say that watching the response to this. But that's not actually my question. My question, I just needed to say that while hearing you talk about this.

5:08My question is, if Republicans and Democrats can agree to a one-year extension to the ACA subsidies, removing this sort of talking point of illegal immigrants draining our resources as you sit here and lie about this. Would you support that bill and bring it to a vote on the House floor? This is a big question that I have for you. Thank you. Yeah, well, not lying. I'm telling you the truth. And you can go look at all the documents yourself. Don't look at Republican paperwork. Look at the congressional.

5:40Ben Meiselas:Next up, you have Maga Mike saying, he's asked, you may have heard this one before, But the caller, very powerful, left me almost in tears where the caller says, I'm a Republican. And what y 'all are doing with health care and also with veterans and with just people in general, like y 'all are torturing us. Stop it. Cut it out. What are you going to do for us? Listen to this caller. Let's play it. Hi, Mr. Johnson. So my question or comments are related to what you said yesterday about not being open to pass any legislation to ensure that military gets paid. I'm sure you can tell by my voice I'm very shaky.

6:24Ben Meiselas:I just want you to hear a little bit about my family. I have two medically fragile children. I have a husband who actively serves this country. He suffers from PTSD from his two tours in Afghanistan. if we see a lapse in pay come the 15th my children do not get to get the medication that's needed for them to live their life because we live paycheck to paycheck i heard you earlier say that you side with president trump on anything that he says well i just read an article this morning that said he absolutely wholeheartedly believes that there needs to be legislation put in so that we do not miss a paycheck.

7:04Ben Meiselas:You have the power to do that. And as a Republican, I'm very disappointed in my party. And I'm very disappointed in you because you do have the power to call the House back. You did that or you refuse to do that just for a show. I'm begging you to pass this legislation. My kids could die. We don't have the credit because of the medical bills that I have to pay regularly. You could stop this and you could be the one that could say military is getting paid. And I think that it is awful and the audacity of someone who makes six figures a year to do this to military families is insane. All right, Samantha.

7:43Samantha, I'm so sorry to hear about your situation. The reason I've been so angry this week and they've been calling me out on media, Johnson's angry. I am angry because of situations just like yours.

7:51Ben Meiselas:And then next, a C-SPAN caller says to MAGA Mike Johnson, And all right, well, we're hearing you all are doing peace in Gaza. Who knows what you're with what you're telling us is true to begin with. But when are you going to care about America? When are you going to care about what's going on here where you're sending troops against American citizens and against people living in America? When are you going to care? Isn't that what you meant by America first or America first means bail out Argentina and always help Israel over focusing on America? What is your plan? Here, play this clip. Hi. I just want to start by saying, hearing you say that everyone is smiling in the cities where troops, our National Guard, has been rolled into feels dystopian and insane to hear you say that, watching the response to this.

8:41But that's not actually my question. My question, I just needed to say that while hearing you talk about this. My question is, if Republicans and Democrats can agree to a one-year extension to the ACA subsidies, removing this sort of talking point of illegal immigrants draining our resources as you sit here and lie about this. Would you support that bill and bring it to a vote on the House floor? This is a big question that I have for you. Thank you. Yeah, well, not lying. I'm telling you the truth. And you can go look at all the documents yourself. Don't look at Republican paperwork. Look at the Congressional Budget Office, who said that we had at least 1.4 million illegal aliens draining the resources from Medicaid, which is why he put their forms in the law and got it signed July 4th.

9:29Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries counterproposal for the CR.

9:31Ben Meiselas:And then this next caller goes, Megha Mike, have you ever voted against anything that Donald Trump supported? Have you ever taken your own opinion on any issue at all? And Megha Mike's like, no, Why would I ever do that? Here, play this clip. Yes. Good morning. Just wanted to ask the speaker a couple of questions. Have you ever voted against anything that Trump set forth as far as policy? That's one question. The other is what is going on with the swearing in of the congresswoman who will make the 218 vote? I noticed that you were speaking in the hall yesterday with someone regarding the idea that, you know, maybe she would make the 218th vote that would open up the vote for the Epstein files to be released.

10:20This is not something that we are going to forget about.

10:23Ben Meiselas:This is serious business. The other thing is that Trump is a dictator. So it doesn't matter what Johnson does or what the guy over in the Senate does. All the things that have to happen is if Trump says open the government, it will be open tomorrow. We have to understand that. And they keep talking about we're putting names out there about Trump being the dictator. And he continues to call. All right, Alexander. And he's talking about Representative Adelito Grijalva not being sworn in. Yeah, Alexander gave me a lot to answer there. Let me go real quickly. I typically vote with President Trump.

10:58I do because that's my party. And I lead my party in the House. And our agenda is working for the American people. You can make an argument. We had the most productive, successful opening of a Congress and administration in history. The one big, beautiful bill was a massive achievement for the Americans.

11:11Ben Meiselas:Now I want to bring new in New Jersey, Senator Andy Kim. Senator Kim, it's great to see you. You know, you see those clips right there and the American people understand what's going on with this government shutdown. They recognize that Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans control all branches of government. They recognize that they have no plan when it comes to health care. They recognize how important it is to protect Americans health or to extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies. And all of these lies that usually have worked before for Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans blaming immigrants or transgender people or whatever, it's not working this time.

11:54Ben Meiselas:What do you make of this moment, Senator? Well, right now there's a giant spotlight on the Republicans and how they govern. And what we've realized and what the American people see is that they don't govern, that they are, as the caller said to Speaker Johnson, this was a woman who's a Republican, but said she knows that Speaker Johnson is giving House Republicans a paid vacation right now, while she and her family are struggling to make ends meet, worried about getting their next paycheck. and they find it offensive because it is. I mean, they are pissed off, rightfully so, because Speaker Johnson is having, honestly, it's dereliction of duty in my opinion, that fact that he is putting his own job ahead of the job of hundreds of thousands of federal workers, millions of our troops and others.

12:47He's just only trying to protect his own speakership, his own job, and people can't stand that. And the other thing that I'll just share is that in New Jersey, for instance, what I keep hearing from people there is there are a lot of people, including a lot of Republicans, that are pissed off at Trump for saying that he's going to withhold funding to our Gateway Tunnel Project, something that's supposed to transform our state in terms of the ability for hundreds of thousands to be able to commute into New York City, to be able to revitalize our economy. And the fact that Trump is taking these mob boss tactics to punish the American people for political retribution, people find that disgusting.

13:27Ben Meiselas:During that bizarre cabinet meeting he held on Thursday, it was just very strange yet again where he seemed to enjoy saying that he was going after Democrat programs. He's like, I'm coming. He literally said, I'm coming after the Democrat programs. This is what you did. This is an opportunity for me. Yeah. And these are programs that are not Democrat programs. These are American programs. I mean, Republicans live in New Jersey also, and they use tunnels and they want less traffic and they work in the city. And it's just, it's a very strange concept to hear a president of the United States behave like this, but it seems the shutdown is showing a spotlight like we've never seen before.

14:15Yeah, that's right. And look, one of those Republicans that lives in New Jersey He happens to be Secretary Duffy, Transportation Secretary. And in his confirmation hearing, the first question I asked him is, is the Gateway Tunnel Project of national importance? And he said, yes, absolutely. This is important for our nation's economy, that if the train line on the Northeast Corridor breaks down because of a problem with the tunnel, that's going to cause huge economic repercussion to our entire nation. So the fact that they are willing to do national harm to us, to our country, because, again, he's got a gripe with Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, with me and Cory Booker, like, we get it.

14:57But again, the American people can't stand that. And it's just like, you know, just a self-inflicted wound. It's like just self-sabotage, honestly. You know, it seemed that their only idea was like, let's own the libs.

15:14Ben Meiselas:Let's mock liberal people and let's destroy them. And Trump's even taking that. They're the enemy from within. Let's send the military and go after areas that we consider to be liberal areas, whatever that means. And meanwhile, you have the American people saying, I can't afford my groceries right now. You promised me, Donald, that this was going to be cheaper and it's not helping me when you say it's cheaper and it's not cheaper. When you say you brought in$17 trillion, well, if you really did that, shouldn't that be helping everybody? Where's our dividend checks that you promised? Where is our Doge checks and our tariff checks and all of the things that you said?

15:58Ben Meiselas:And we don't want to hear two more weeks, two more weeks. It just feels like whether it's like a Bernie Madoff or people who have been involved in the Ponzi schemes. At the end, people keep saying, all right, I want my money now. Let's go. And they're trying the same most. Oh, I'm trying to get you your money. But the migrants, stop with the migrants this time. I need it. That seems to be the moment we're in. It feels different. It feels different, Senator. It does. And I think because the American people are wising up to this and they're seeing it, I mean, look, you know, whether it's the farmers that got screwed over because of Trump and his tariffs and, you know, him going after and antagonize all these different allies and partners around the world.

16:42And we see that, you know, where they're doing, they're taking that tariff money, they're plowing it right into, you know, getting Black Hawk helicopters for ICE, you know, flying over Chicago. ago I was actually just I just visited with the National Guard in DC to get a sense of of what's going on there we are paying as a nation 1.3 million dollars a day to have the National Guard go around DC and what are they doing they're they're spreading around mulch they're trimming trees uh I kid you not they're they they literally gave me statistics around me trash bags they they lifted up uh is that really the best use of our money by the end of this year it's expected to that cost over$200 million to have these National Guard in DC.

17:22There's much better use to be able to help families be able to afford their health care, be able to afford housing and other things like that, rather than just putting on a show for Donald Trump to pretend like he's the commander in chief, able to just put the US military on the ground in our own streets, like he said to the generals, using American cities as a training ground. Yeah.

17:47Ben Meiselas:Also just like weird moments where I'm watching him and I know he doesn't make sense, but like I'm watching him and I'm thinking to myself, like just in general, like what, what the hell is this guy even talking? What's he legitimately even like, so what's coming out of his mouth, you know, and the thoughts aren't coherent. He was asked a question about suspending habeas corpus and he believed that habeas corpus was a person. He said, who, who's that? Who's, who's that? You know, and, and how long, when I, when I spoke to Senator Gallego, he was like, even when Donald Trump's here in DC, this is what Gallego said to me.

18:27Ben Meiselas:He goes, he's not here. Like, you know, and it just is, he says something. And then the Republicans try to, then he says another thing. It's just a mess. It's not leadership. And the American people see it, Even if corporate news doesn't want to talk about it, what do you make of that? Yeah, look, what I can tell you from my vantage point, seeing how this has unfolded, you know, that there are two people running this government, which is Russell Vogt, the OMB director who's pushing his dangerous agenda all over, creating so much of the mass firings and the destruction of our government, as well as Stephen Miller, who needs no introduction because of just the sheer amount of danger that he poses to our nation, pushing such an extreme agenda.

19:07and is literally running point from his office at the White House in terms of these ICE raids and National Guard efforts. Those are the two that are in charge. And everybody here at the U.S. Senate, they know that, that that's who's running our government. Donald Trump, you know, he'll, you know, give some talking points and a press conference here and there. But, you know, this is what I hope the American people see is that our government is run by some of the most extreme extreme radicals that I've ever seen during my time in government. They are trying to reshape our country, not just for the next three years, but for decades to come.

19:41And I'm a father of an eight-year-old and a 10-year-old, and I refuse to let Stephen Miller, Russell Vogt, and Donald Trump shape the America that my kids are going to grow up in.

19:50Ben Meiselas:Before we go, we talked a little bit about the cancellation of the Holland Tunnel money going there. Can you describe, I mean, just being from New Jersey, what a big deal this is and how venomous and vicious this really is and what it means in terms of just our country in general. Yeah, absolutely. So it's not the Holland Tunnel, but it's a Hudson Tunnel. It's meant to double the number of train lines we have. We have this tunnel that is over 100 years old, very much could pose a huge transportation challenge if it falls apart and continues to crumble. You know, this is something that we need because if we lose that that train line connecting the East Coast, it's going to cause so much economic damage.

20:35It's going to raise prices for so many American families with goods being transported around. It's going to cause enormous disruption. And for my state, it's a lifeline. It is necessary for people to have commute into New York City. You know, the challenges we faced last summer with Penn Station having the problem with New Jersey Transit having problems and tens of thousands of people getting stuck at Penn Station. This is the number one transportation infrastructure in the entire region. And it's something that unifies everybody in the state of New Jersey. And I'll be honest with you, the moment that Donald Trump said he was going to hold back on that funding, I think is the moment that Donald Trump lost the governor's race for the Republicans in New Jersey as we have a race coming up in just a few weeks.

21:20Because people, again, they don't like that. They don't like the idea that Donald Trump is just actually trying to harm the American people. Think of the American people as just collateral damage in his own political retribution and mob boss tactics. So, you know, that's sort of the latest dynamic that we're seeing in New Jersey.

21:37Ben Meiselas:Senator Kim, thanks for joining us as always. We hope you come back. Thank you so much. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million subscribers.