Senator Warnock Discusses Trump’s Attack on Decency

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3:47Ben Meiselas:GoFundMe is the world's number one fundraising platform trusted by over 200 million people. Start your GoFundMe today at GoFundMe.com. That's GoFundMe.com. GoFundMe.com. Donald Trump's approval is crashing in Georgia. as MAGA Republicans are imploding on the Hill as well. You take a look at Donald Trump's net approval rating in some key states and you look in Georgia, for example, negative 13 percent, according to one poll. Another one has a negative four percent. And the issues dominating the national headlines are the reasons why Donald Trump's approval is plummeting. It's promises made and total fraud that has been executed on the American people and the people of Georgia.

4:36Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump ran on a lot of things, but he claimed he was going to bring down prices. We know that's not the case. The only thing he's bringing is taking away people's health care at this point. Let's just take a look at Georgia, for example, about what's going on with their Affordable Care Act subsidies and the fact that it's not being extended by Donald Trump and these MAGA Republicans and what it means to the people there. Let's play it. Georgians are seeing the new cost of insurance now that those federal subsidies are ending. Georgia's insurance commissioner spoke one-on-one today with Channel 2 consumer investigator Justin Gray about what people can do now to find the best price.

5:11Ben Meiselas:Justin is live tonight at the insurance commissioner's office in downtown Atlanta. Yeah, Linda, in 2025, 60 percent of Georgians on the exchange out and rolled instead of shopping for new coverage. Now, Commissioner King and his staff year they say that with the ACA subsidies expiring it is essential to shop around to look at different plans there might be another plan on the exchange that offers you a better price. Her premium was$47.42. But without the expiring federal affordable care act subsidies Ursula Fulgham's daughter Amy's coverage will cost seven times more a month. When I saw the new rates I'm going campy.

5:53Ben Meiselas:$398.10 from$47.42. Amy is battling brain cancer, glioblastoma. Her 82-year-old mother, now also her caregiver. It's a must. How about Georgia farmers? Here's what they're experiencing. Georgia's number one industry, which is agriculture, is getting a major federal boost. The Trump administration has announced a$12 billion farm aid package Georgia leaders say could help stabilize farms, but critics argue the plan leaves too many other farmers behind. Atlanta News first reporter, Abby Kassaris, explains what all this means for families across the state. This is being framed as a lifeline for farm families.

6:31Ben Meiselas:Farmers I spoke with wouldn't go on camera. They say they're still unsure how to feel as uncertainty still hangs over the industry. From corn in South Georgia to cotton across the plains, agriculture fuels one in seven Georgia jobs. Now billions in federal dollars are headed to farmers. Money state leaders say is overdue. Where a lot of our farm families have run out of equity. They've run out of ways to stretch that dollar thin. Georgia's and Commissioner Tyler Harper stresses urgency. Input costs keep climbing. Row crop season is ending and farmers are already making decisions for next year.

7:06Ben Meiselas:The American Bankers Association reports half of U.S. farms will profit this year. Then, of course, two weeks back, there was that big flip in Georgia's House District 121 going to a Democratic candidate there who had previously lost just the year before by about like 40 points. The Democrat flipped it and won that House District. I want to bring in Georgia's Senator Raphael Warnock. Senator Warnock, it's great to be with you. And I want to talk about all of those things that we just mentioned. But the first thing I want to talk is just about the character in the Oval Office, because I think a lot of people saw Donald Trump's Oval Office address or it wasn't all the law for the address in the White House, wherever it was.

7:46Ben Meiselas:And they looked at that and they said, what in the world is what was that? The lies, the anger, the venom, you know, and then the Daily Post that people wake up just saying you were targeted by one of them, obviously, in the past 48 hours where he said that you went on a TV show and you talked about religion. and Donald Trump, one of the most divisive people, if not the most divisive person ever, is like you're weaponizing the church against the people and that's what Donald Trump does every single day. I just think people look at this and go, enough of this. Could we just have characters and adults in the White House?

8:25Ben Meiselas:What do you make of all of it? Let's start with that. What do you make of his attack on you and just character right now? Well, as we say in Georgia, God bless his heart. Look, the people of Georgia are struggling As you show earlier in the segment, I'm talking to a lot of those folks. Can you imagine that young person who's dealing with brain cancer now seeing her insurance premiums go up seven times? Let's be really clear. What that means for a lot of people is that they won't be able to afford the insurance. And we see that all across our state. I personally know folks who started small businesses.

9:07And we're doing pretty good because they were able to get health care on the exchange. And now with these premiums going way up, they're literally having to shutter their businesses. Farmers who say they want trade, not aid, are dealing with Trump's awful tariffs policy. So Georgia is struggling. Folks are trying to make the best of their lives out of Trump's terrible policies. and as they look to the president as you would to do something about the economy if he's not sleeping in cabinet meetings he's watching cable news and tweeting against his political adversaries in the middle of the afternoon man you're the leader of the free world people actually need you to bring relief and i'm not worried about his attacks on me i'm going to keep on doing everything I can for the people of Georgia.

10:04For me, this is a sacred trust to be able to bring their needs to the seat of power in our federal government.

10:10Ben Meiselas:There's only one other thing I would add to the list that you just gave of him sleeping, watching Fox, which I sometimes refer to as state regime media with anger, angry posts. The other thing he's doing is enriching himself and announcing self-dealing. So while people of Georgia suffer and people in the country suffer, He just makes himself richer by using the office to do that. I mean, just think in the past 24 hours, he announced that his media company that's been failing, in my opinion, the social media company, which loses money each quarter. Like, how are they losing that amount of money?

10:47Ben Meiselas:They announced a merger with a private fusion energy company that would require the Department of Energy approvals. because of this merger, the stock price shoots up. And, you know, he's sitting there, you know, I almost think about the cartoonishly evilness, you know, of the money everywhere while the American people, while the farmers in Georgia are like, what the hell's going on? Donald Trump was asked the other day how he would grade the economy. He said that he would give it an A plus, plus, plus, plus, plus. And you're left there scratching your head saying, well, who was he talking about?

11:25clearly he's talking about himself. He's never had it so good. His family has never been as wealthy as it is right now. This is naked corruption in real time. And what I'm concerned about is that we've watched this awful movie so long that we become spiritually and morally numb. And we just say, oh, that's just the way it is. Well, we need to shake ourselves and remember, no, that's not the way it should be. And while he's trying to divide us, we are witnessing literally, we have witnessed the largest transfer of wealth from the bottom to the top in American history, thanks to the one awful and ugly bill.

12:08He's giving tax cuts to his billionaire friends while imposing a tariff tax on everyday goods, which means he's taxing the rest of us. and as you see your utility bills go up, there's a reason for that. Donald Trump told his friends in the oil and gas industry that you give me a billion dollars to get me reelected. I mean, he said that in the mic, give me a billion dollars and I'll give you a good return on your investment. And so as you're watching your utility bills go up, know that he has pulled green energy off of the grid, which by the way, is cheaper these days. So we've witnessed that generational flip, thanks to technology and advancements and investments.

12:57Solar and wind would do us a lot of good right now, but he's pulling all of that off the grid. And that's one of the reasons why you're seeing your utility bills go up. And sadly, it's going to get worse.

13:09Ben Meiselas:You know, you have MAGA Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House, I guess, Speaker in name only at this point, given that he just does whatever Donald Trump does. So I guess his decision today is to yet again go on an early vacation after a discharge petition was signed and four Republicans crossed over to sign a Hakeem Jeffries discharge petition. I think Leader Jeffries did a great job holding the ground three year extension Affordable Care Act. Now it still has to go Affordable Care Act subsidies. It still has to go to the Senate and then it would still have to be signed. Now, Mag and Mike shut down the House to avoid this vote happening before January.

13:50Ben Meiselas:I mean, what a kind of cruel, just a very cruel thing to do. So he wants to wait till the Affordable Care Act subsidies technically expire on the 31st, but then it goes to the Senate and then it has to be signed. So what happens there next? Are there discussions in the Senate? What happens there? Let me just say that what the speaker is doing is shameful. and as a pastor, I would appeal to my Christian brother because he wears his Christian identity on his sleeve. I'm a Matthew 25 Christian, where Jesus said, I was hungry and you fed me. Jesus said, I was sick and you came to see about me. You visited me.

14:30I was a stranger and you welcomed me and someone asked the Lord, when were you hungry? When were you thirsty? When were you sick. And he said, inasmuch as you've done it unto the least of these, you've done it also unto me. You can't claim to love God whom you have not seen and not love your sister or your brother whom you see every day. Public policy is our values made real and come alive in the world. And so he can send the Congress, send the house on vacation. But the people in my state right now who are literally opening up the portal and they're seeing their health care bills double, triple, quadruple.

15:11They don't get a vacation from that kind of misery. We ought to be working overtime in this body to create the conditions for human thriving, to ensure that working people have a path, that they can make it, that every child has a chance. And for me, not only is that an obligation I have to the people who have elected me in political terms, it's a covenant. And we can do so much better than this.

15:43Ben Meiselas:You know, as we reflect on the end of the year, the struggles, Trump, Musk, the whole regime's attack, you know, often people create the list. Who's the person of the year and stuff like that? I think the American people in general are the people of the year because our institutions have been under attack. A lot of them bent the knee. A lot of corporate leaders and people who we once loved and respected early on capitulated at first. But I feel like my message of hope, and I want to hear from you, is just the resiliency of the American people not to break. I think Trump wanted to break us all.

16:28Ben Meiselas:And I think here we stand while our country is harmed and in not a great condition. I think the people have shown resiliency and strength that he never expected and no one really ever expected. And that's what's kept this country together. But I want to give you the final word before we go. Well, they're trying to weaponize despair. I mean, we see the public policy choices that they're making and the misery that it's creating. But the other thing they're trying to do is just flood the zone, putting military boots on our streets. They're trying to convince us that we are at war with one another.

17:03They're trying to convince us that there's no need to fight. They're trying to weaponize despair. But the thing about this holy season is that it is the season of light. For Christians, it's Christmas. For my Jewish sisters and brothers, it's Hanukkah. It's the season of light. And one of my favorite scriptures says that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness overcometh it not. I know I'm talking to folks who may not claim any particular religious tradition, and that's fine. Just hear me out. It is the recognition that there is darkness in the world. It's honest. It's an honest recognition.

17:38And yet the light shines in the darkness. I would call on all of us to be that light shining through the darkness. Don't give up. Don't give in. Don't give up. Straighten up your back. Know that we've seen hard times before we've seen strong men before we've seen tyrants before I think about my parishioner John Lewis crossing that Edmund Pettus bridge with brute force under the color of law on the other side of that bridge he had no reason to think that he could win but he kept on walking and not only did he cross a bridge he built the bridge and many of us in my generation crossed that bridge.

18:16I crossed it over into the United States Senate. And so we have to keep fighting the good fight, keep the faith and draw closer to one another and toward one another rather than on one another.

18:30Ben Meiselas:Senator Raphael Warnock, great to have this conversation with you heading into the new year. And I know your words of hope and perseverance mean a lot to everybody and me as well. So thank you for everything you do. Take care, everybody. and subscribe, let's get to 6 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.

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