Loading summary
Transcript69 lines
- [00:00]
Unknown Host
Sunday, everyone. We are here with congressman Eric Swalwell and we're going to do some MAGA bashing on this Sunday. So fasten your seat belt. This is going to be therapeutic, terrifying, and at the end, hopefully a little bit of grit and hope for all of us. Congressman Swalwell, how are you today?
- [00:18]
Eric Swalwell
I'm doing all right. It's Sunday morning. You can hear Sunday chaos in my house right now with a seven year old, a six year old and a three year old who are just in revolt. But yeah, I'm, I've got my coffee. I'm loaded for bear. So let's go.
- [00:37]
Unknown Host
Kylie put up this tweet yesterday on Twitter. Let's look at this. No, no, no, that's not the one with Elon Musk. Here we go. Yesterday on Twitter, somebody named Gunter Eagleman tweets, it's time to leave NATO and the UN Elon Musk retweets with comment. I agree. Ron Philipkowski says. And there it is. Putin's lifelong dream, after years of relentless Russian propaganda, now fully embraced by the American president in the world's richest oligarch. And I want to add to Ron's description of the world's richest oligarch and say American taxpayer funded billionaire. And that's the what, what we need to start calling Elon Musk is he is an American funded, taxpayer funded billionaire. Are convinced that this is a good plan because Europe is an enemy and Putin is our friend. Congressman.
- [01:35]
Eric Swalwell
He's a welfare king.
- [01:37]
Unknown Host
He is a welfare queen. This is, we are living in the middle of a historical moment right now. And last year my husband and I went to Paris to go to the French open. And while we were at the gate, there were all of these military people there and they had flags and like little drummers. And we were like, what's going on as we're boarding the flight. Well, it was the 80th anniversary of D day and these men were flying over and they were real, you know, very, very elderly and there was so much respect. The captain came on and he said, we have 10 men, men that stormed the beaches in Normandy. We are celebrating the 80th anniversary of D day. How anti military and anti veteran and anti democratic is what Elon Musk just tweeted.
- [02:32]
Eric Swalwell
And it's a complete failure to recognize what that alliance has meant to our country because, because he is a welfare king who relies on U. S. Government dollars to fund his life. He doesn't understand the sacrifice that our servicemender members and our veterans have given. And by the way it was after September 11th when we were hit and those towers fell and those cops and firefighters died, and we had to hit back to make sure it would never happen again. And was the NATO alliance that stood with us and made sure that something like that would never happen again. So all of the countries that Donald Trump is all over right now, those are the ones that went shoulder to shoulder with us in Afghanistan. And so I, and I, I've talked to them. They, they've come to my, many of the leaders from those countries and the representatives have been in my offices in the last couple weeks. And it feels to them like complete betrayal, especially the Canadians. It's, it's just complete betrayal. Like, how, how could you do this? To, like, tariffs, Fine, we'll go back and forth on ter. But when you say that we're going to be your 51st state, they're just like, what the. Like, are you, are you kidding me? And, and it's, and what happened, by the way? The, I guess you would call it the cud.gr of America's reputation in the world with that Zelensky meeting. It will take a hundred years for our best friends in the world to unsee that, 100 years for them to unseat it.
- [04:09]
Unknown Host
I don't think there's any question. And before the election, you heard some people in the French government saying while the election was going on, we need to start focusing on Europe's independence because we can't rely on the state of Wisconsin and the Electoral College to determine the security of Europe at large. And this is what I want to talk about, and this is what I think everybody else is reporting in the world, the other world leaders are reporting, but we're not reporting it. Some of your co workers in 2017, Kevin McCarthy and then speaker of the House Paul Ryan, sat on a hot tape, Trump is on Putin's payroll. And then they made great effort to say, now, this stays between us. We're family. We don't talk about this anywhere else. Then you have the Mueller report. Then you have Donald Trump getting impeached for trying to bribe Zelensky. And I'm sure you voted to impeach him because that's the kind of American you are. And then all the Mueller report, Russian, this war that they have waged against us, an information war, a psychological war, they are winning. And I think it's important to point out to everybody that Russia is right now very weak and very compromised. Their military is depleted, their economy's in a complete recession, and we just wave the white flag to Russia. And these guys who are alpha males and bro podcasters just completely capitol capitulated and castrated themselves to Russia, who is in the weakest international position it has been since the falling of the wall. I, I believe with everything in me, because I believe what, as we've watched the breadcrumbs fall from 2016, that Donald Trump is a Russian asset and he is compromised by Russia. I believe that our allies believe that he is. I believe that his behavior thinks it is. But don't listen to me. We can listen to Kevin McCarthy and Paul Ryan from 2016.
- [06:20]
Eric Swalwell
Donald Trump acts like a Russian asset. I mean you, you, whatever it is that they have on him, or it would be even worse if they didn't. And he acts like this, but you can just say he acts like somebody who wants to help a rush, who wants to help Russia more that he wants to help America. And my, my sweet dad, I talked to him last night. A Republican, he a very conservative Republican, a very Reagan Republican. We were talking about the Zelinsky meeting and he took like a very Republican approach to it. But he still said to me at the end, at the end of our call, he said, I just, I don't understand why, why does Trump like Putin so much like that to like a 78 year old man who has seen a lot of things and has, you know, served, you know, his community as my dad has as a police officer. I think that's what most ordinary people are saying. It's like why the does this guy look to Putin before he looks to us? And I'll just tell you that to me it's Occam's racer. The easiest answer is the right one. It's because Putin likes Trump. Russia has invested in Trump, in the Russians who have invested in his businesses, his properties. Trump has tried to invest in Russia and in the biggest election of his life. No one outside of America did more to help Donald Trump get elected than Russia. And he said, and it was in response to Trump saying Russia, if you're listening, it would help me if you hacked her emails. And then they went to work to hack her emails. And then he looks at Ukraine and he's like, what can these guys do for me? And so now he's kind of circled and landed on this mineral deal like again to him, it's just he has to get something out of this until they're even worth something to him.
- [08:17]
Unknown Host
Right. Vanity Fair put out an article and they interviewed a lot of people close to Elon Musk. In Silicon Valley. And basically a lot of people who know Elon very well said that Elon's goal, now that he has completely gamed American taxpayers to become the world's richest man. And he is a welfare queen. You call him a king, I call him a queen. No disrespect to queens, obviously, but his goal is to be the emperor of the world. And so here we have this. I've seen him speak a lot lately. He seems very incompetent. It seems like he is down a K hole all the time. For listeners. What you don't know, that's like a ketamine hole. We saw him tripping balls in the rotunda, his kids wiping boogers on the Resolute desk. He's running around with his little bro outfits. He's hanging out with some 19 year old kid named Big Balls.
- [09:11]
Eric Swalwell
He's a ketamine. A ketamine. He's a ketamine.
- [09:14]
Unknown Host
He is a ketamine. But we have this situation where we have it. It appears to me like Elon is Trump's full time nanny, because I've never seen Trump so emasculated by somebody than with Elon. And I feel like there is this larger thing going on where you have Putin and Musk. And again, it's so important that the American public understand how weak Russia is right now. Like Putin should have been the one ganged up on in the Oval. I mean, they are so incredibly weak. If, if Russian military is so strong, this war would be over and Putin would be in Kiev. But it's not that strong because their economy's crap right now, the military's weak. But then you have this Elon Musk who comes in, pays $270 million because of stupid Supreme Court and Citizens United. And at this point, $270 million, with all the flea market shit that Trump's selling on his websites, you know, all of his hats and bibles, it's, I mean, it's the biggest Jerry Springer flea market the Oval Office has ever seen. $270 million. Trump would go, here's your $270 million bag, go. But I think they have mutually assured destruction. I think that there are so many secrets between Musk, Trump and Putin. And then J.D. vance is just the biggest pick me eyeliner queen I've ever seen in my life. But I'm really terrified about this. And I feel like we're in a historical moment where bipartisanship is over. This is a moment where it is. We will not work with you all you are dismantling the federal government. You are doing illegal acts as enforced by the federal courts. And you have a man who wasn't elected firing Americans, sucking off the American public. And then you're giving over, you know, 80 years of peace building and millions of American lives lost in war to Vladimir Putin, who's in the weakest position imaginable. I mean, what do you think Democrats should do moving forward with everything that I just said, which is incredibly problematic? And we're six weeks in fight.
- [11:32]
Eric Swalwell
Like, America won't be around tomorrow because right now, that's the direction we're going in. And someone like Musk, he doesn't want a world order. He doesn't want agreements, you know, among nation states that keep us all safe and allow people to work hard, do better, dream bigger. He wants a world that is run and ordered by oligarchs like himself. That. That's what he wants. So he, he has no fidelity to America. In fact, you know, bringing this guy in, you know, for Doge, his fiduciary duty has always been to shareholders and investors, not to people who rely on government services. And so that's why, oops, we broke Ebola. Like, sorry, guys. You know, as he said in the Oval Office, he doesn't have to think about the services you rely on that you need, like health care or retirement security. You know, he called Social Security a Ponzi scheme. He's not going to protect anything you care about because he's not wired that way. He may be one of the most brilliant scientists who has ever wired, walked this earth, I will give him that.
- [12:35]
Unknown Host
But his, I don't think he is. I think that's all smoke and mirrors.
- [12:39]
Eric Swalwell
But his, his duty is to his investors when he's in the private sector. And now as he takes all this money from the federal government, he's just trying to make a fat cat fatter himself. And, and so, yes, Russia is on the ropes, and we had a chance to topple them, and they've. They're stronger than ever. And Putin got everything that he wanted in the first 40 days of the Trump administration. So let me, let me level set us. What can we do? We are not helpless. So your viewers who have gone to these, you know, town halls across the country, that's working. Many of those members who have felt the heat and Deep Red Georgia and other places across the country, they're already publicly changing their tune about Doge. That's working. There's a Wisconsin supreme court race on April 1st. Please help the Wisconsin Democratic Party, whiz Dems. If we win that seat, we have a chance to get rid of the rigged gerrymandering. In a state where you have a Democratic governor, Democratic senator and Democratic lieutenant governor, yet the Republic, the congressional delegation is six Republicans, two Democrats. Those maps could be redrawn in a way that is much more fair for us and can get us two thirds of the way of the seats that we need to win the House in 2026. Then my colleagues, please stay on them. We've got a vote in just a couple days on funding the government. To my Democratic colleagues, I say do not take the bait that we are going to shut down government. Democrats, one, Republicans own this government, Musk owns this government entirely. And two, mommy two, they've already shut down the government people. When you get rid of the people who monitor bird flu, as egg prices are going up, it's shut down. When you get rid of scientists who track diseases, when we have a measles outbreak and people are dying, it's shut down.
- [14:33]
Unknown Host
When you get air traffic controllers, air.
- [14:35]
Eric Swalwell
Traffic controllers, planes are crashing, it's shut down FBI agents, as terrorist attacks are being plotted, it's shut down. This thing is shutting down. So we should not take any bait from the media that like we, you know, can keep it open. No, they need to fund it and keep it open. And if they need our votes to actually protect and help people, then we should insist that they actually put all of this back in place, especially healthcare, retirement security, public safety. And I wouldn't trust them for longer than 30 days. I would not give them a budget for longer than 30 days at a time. Just kind of, my 7 year old just ran across the screen here. I don't trust him for longer than a couple weeks at a time whenever I strike a deal with him. And so I would say, here's your money, come back to me in 30 days. If you keep our deal, I'll give you 30 more days and 30 more days and 30 more days. Because we would be fools if we gave them a nine month budget and believe that they would actually honor any of it. They will. They would absolutely not do it. And, and we would look for tools. So we cannot give away the leverage that we have, which is that they can't get their act together. And by the way, in the last Congress they needed us for the majority of the votes to keep government open every single time. The margins have only gotten thinner because we picked up 10 seats. So they're not going to get better at this. They're going to just continue to, to just show their asses and not be able to pass a budget. Sorry, I'm keeping my.
- [16:00]
Unknown Host
No, no, no.
- [16:02]
Eric Swalwell
With the babies upstairs.
- [16:03]
Unknown Host
I want to ask you something that I think everybody's thinking and let me make the case. Yeah. So you have Trump wins. Elon Musk has a much bigger role than anyone anticipated and appears to be the boss of Trump. You have Trump appointing these crackheads to run the FBI. Completely incompetent. You know, Kristi Noem, who dresses up in all these costumes all the time. I mean, just like Hillary Clinton said, a basket of deplorables. She didn't go far enough. I mean, just bottom feeder cabinet. Everybody sees it, everybody knows it. These guys are wholly disqualified and wholly dangerous. And then you have Pete Heth, the Secretary of Defense, who is an untreated alcoholic and breathtakingly incompetent, starting to fire generals. And I feel like, Eric, I feel like the fix is in. I feel like they are firing people as quickly as possible, making sure there's no integrity, no accountability anywhere. Because what autocrats do when they get power is they make sure they never have to cede it. And I love the idea of getting to the midterms. But what I'm watching, and the alliance with Russia and the dismantling of inspectors and transparency and anybody decent is getting fired and sent down the river. And this crackhead pops up, and this crackhead pops up and these people. I feel like the fix is in. And I feel like it is ambitious and somewhat unrealistic. And we're operating in assumption politics again, like we assume Trump would never get reelected. And that's the error that Democrats make. We, we operate in assumption politics. And right now I feel like we're assuming we're going to make it to the midterms. But from what I'm seeing, and I mean, Trump barely left the White House last time. I mean, he packed his toys up at the very last minute and left. What makes you think that, that we are going to get to these midterms and that they are going to be free and fair? Because myself and all of our listeners were terrified about this.
- [18:20]
Eric Swalwell
I don't trust them one bit. That's why in this government funding vote that we have coming up, like we as Democrats, if we just sign off, co. Sign on what they're doing and give them the votes, to me, forget it. Like they've shown us, they're not honoring what Congress has done in the past. I, I spoke, I was in the Midwest because I Think Democrats need to go everywhere. I was in Missouri on Thursday, and this small business owner told me he had a $20 million contract that he already fulfilled from USAID. And he was told, we're not paying it because of these doge cuts. And he had been making calls all that day to lay off his team. I mean, that's what, that's how up. This is like, what they're doing to people. So we, as Democrats, if they need our votes to keep government open, we should insist, as I said, on the shortest Runway, for them to spend money, make sure they honor their deals before we even give them another round of funding. That's the leverage that we have. And if they don't honor that, then, then, yes, I, I will agree with you. Then we are in a different place. But here's where we're also not helpless. In New York, in Illinois, in California, in Colorado, in some of the big. In Michigan, in some of the biggest states in America, you have Democratic attorneys general who are not powerless. They are the chief law enforcement officers of their states. And if he wants to create a constitutional crisis by not following the law, Donald Trump. I would invite them to do everything they can to invent, to be as inventive as possible, to hold them accountable and say, great, well, anyone in the administration, I invite them to visit our state because there's an arrest warrant waiting for you because you won't follow the law. If that. That's where they want to go, then those attorneys general also have powers. Here's what, what pisses me off about Democrats, we're, like, afraid of power. We get, like, nervous when we have power, and we're like, oh, like, we gotta find consensus and we gotta follow the customs and the norms and the institutions. And the American people are like, we just gave you majorities, so go fight for and deliver the things that the majority of the people want. And so we can't be so afraid to use the power that we have when they're abusing the very little power that they have. They didn't come in with a mandate. They came in with this tiny Trump, Trump. That's what the power is.
- [20:48]
Unknown Host
And here's what irritates me about Democrats as well. It's like this last election, we lost. And so then somebody does a poll and says, don't talk about woke stuff. And it's like, I, I feel like it's the opposite. I live in a red state. I live around all these triple Trumpers. I know what the. I'm outside of the Beltway I know what these people think. They like authenticity. They like for you to say, yeah, if me standing up for not bullying gay kids makes me woke, then I am. That's right. Fuck you. That's why Trump won, because he's authentic about being a nut. He's authentic about being cruel. I knew when Kamala started trotting around with Liz Cheney, I knew, because how desperate is that? Oh, look, look, look. We have a trophy. We have a woman who stood on camera and said that babies are being murdered after they're born. That's what Liz Cheney's stance was. And all of a sudden, we're giving her this profile and courage because she said a crazy person is crazy, that she said a dangerous person is dangerous. Like, the bar for Republicans is so low. All you have to do is say, yeah, I think Trump's dangerous. And then you get to trot around with us. I mean, it's just. It drives me insane.
- [22:03]
Eric Swalwell
I knew ourselves, like, am I totally agree, like, when we put a guy who was judged as a rapist, who had 34 counts, owes hundreds of millions of dollars to a number of different people, when we made him president, you should have been liberated to just be yourself. Let you say what you believe in. Your values will guide you, but don't be so scripted, so polished, so many talking points. Just be yourself. And people want to like you, and they want to trust you, and they don't want you trying to win some Harvard Law School moot court competition when you're making your case, just do it from here.
- [22:40]
Unknown Host
And I think when Kamala and Tim Walls were calling them weird and saying, look at how that's when they were surging in the polls. But I think you've got these people inside the Beltway that do a focus group, and they're scrambling jets and they're pulling stuff out of the parking lot, and they're circling back and doing all this corporate speak, and then it's just like, then you don't seem authentic anym. And I think that's where Democrats really fail. But I feel like we're at a moment right now where it's not. Right now. For me, as somebody who's covering this, my goal is not to say, oh, we all have to support Democrats. It is, we all have to support democracy. And if I see a Democrat voting to confirm some of these crackheads that are going through the Cabinet, they need to be called out as such, it is appeasement. It is very clear that Russia has won. And the weakest men on the Globe musk. Trump and Vance have completely acquiesced and capitulated to a weak Vladimir Putin. And I think anybody who votes that way needs to be called out. And I personally think that every single Senate Democrat needs to have a press conference and say, we regret our vote of Marco Rubio. He's clearly in a trance, Hypnotized hostage, lost his spine, something and put the. Applied the heat there. I mean, I saw where you put this tweet up where you were trolling Marco on Twitter. Love this shit. So Marco tweets after he sat there and was green on the sofa. Thank you, Otus, for standing up for America in a way that no president has ever had the courage to do before. Thank you for putting America first. America is with you. And it's like, okay, North Korea. And then you, Representative Eric Swalwell comes back, bro, did you write this? We all saw you. You tried to shrink in your chair. You looked at Trump like he was some crazy ass pops who was embarrassing you on your first date. Don't bullshit us. Grow a pair. Love it. Love to see it, hearted it. I mean, loved everything about everybody was.
- [24:51]
Eric Swalwell
Thinking, so just say it, I guess is what I'm telling my colleagues. It. I. I told Jasmine Crockett, love her on Thursday as we were leaving the floor. I said, because she had also shined in like a hearing the day before. And I, I think she said, for must off, if you remember. And I told her, I said, you know what I said in five years, like, if we somehow get out of this, I said, none of us are going to look back and say, do you think I was too harsh? Do you think I took it too far? No, we're going to say the opposite. We probably didn't do enough. So if we want to save it, we have to be all in. That. That's. That's it. We have to be all in.
- [25:39]
Unknown Host
Okay, so moving forward, is. Is. What are the. What is the House Democrats plan? Are y'all trying to apply pressure to some Republicans in purple districts? You know, I know Raskin said a couple weeks ago, find me three Republicans and we'll start impeachment hearings immediately. What is the plan to somehow halt this lawless, tyrannical, pro Russian dismantling of the United States? What is the House? What is. What is your plan? Because I've seen your leader, Hakeem Jeff freeze yesterday, and I was kind of hard on him yesterday because he said he was going to urge Republicans to make Trump be more mature. I mean, I might as well you know, sit here and try to look like a 19 year old by exfoliating my face. It's just not ever going to happen. And I feel like we're in a moment where we need the loudest, yeah, meanest, dickish fighter voices imaginable. And if that isn't Hakeem Jeffries, then sit down and let you and Crockett and Raskin and others stand up and lead us. Because there is a. There is this feeling out in the American public where we are looking for leadership. We are looking for people to say, meet us here at this date, at this time. We're going to march. We're going to do this. Here's your steps. And it seems like a very disjointed counter attack to basically this capitulation to Russia. So what do you. Come on, Eric. Come on. We need you, man. Come on. What. What can we do here?
- [27:27]
Eric Swalwell
It's the. We need unity in these next couple weeks on that big vote that's coming up. As I said, Republicans have to keep the government, their government, their government going in the next couple days. They don't have a plan. They don't have their together. They've never been able to do this. They've always needed us. What we're going to see, you know, out of Hakeem is unity. That's been his. That was a strength over the last two years when we fought, when we were the ones that funded Ukraine, we were the ones that kept the government open. We were the ones that prevented the debt collapse from happening. It was unity. And so that's what we need is to show our constituents, to show the American people. We hear you. We are fighting for you. That unity is going to be so important to show that we are not disjointed then where we could use your all your help and where we have to really stand up. We have to start going to the districts where they won't do town halls, because there's kind of a, an order now that. And I've talked to my Republican colleagues this week. They're being told, don't do town halls. Like, don't walk into this, this setup. And so what we should do is we be like, hey, I'll, I'll come to your district. I'll do a town hall. I'm going to Idaho, by the way, on Friday. And I'm gonna.
- [28:44]
Unknown Host
Why don't you come to Oklahoma City? My district is Stephanie Bice. It's purple as we had that seat before. So, yes, Kendra Horn had it. You come Here, I'll set it up. Because Oklahoma City is super purple and Stephanie Bice is. She's always a sycophant, always voting with Trump, and Oklahoma City is very, very, very purple. And so, I mean, we would love to host. And I think that's a great idea where. Because she. I saw. I went to her website and she was doing a phone town hall, which is just so weak. I mean, come on, take it. I mean, I just. That is so typical.
- [29:22]
Eric Swalwell
So, I mean, we should start doing that. And as I said, I'm. I was in Missouri on Thursday. We had a. A house party in the St. Louis suburbs, 100 people, and it was put together 12 hours before. So I'll be in Idaho this weekend and we have a plan to start. And I'm talking to Jasmine, I'm talking to other colleagues who I think can really bring people out and are good listeners and, and good fighters to say, hey, we'll do the town hall. I feel like I'll talk to your constituents.
- [29:53]
Unknown Host
I feel like the clock is ticking and I feel like that feels fix. I talked about earlier how they're dismantling and firing any accountability. The fix is closing in to where they will have it, to where they might do what Putin does, where they have performative elections and they make people feel like it. But I feel like they're getting the fix in. And I feel like there is a need for urgency and a rapid response. But I wanted. You probably seen this clip, but I wanted to show it to our viewers. Here is a guy in a red state district getting completely annihilated. One of your co workers right now, as far as cutting out those jobs, a huge percentage of those people. And I know you care about. The veterans are veterans.
- [30:38]
Eric Swalwell
Yes.
- [30:39]
Unknown Host
And that is a damn shame. Yes.
- [30:41]
Eric Swalwell
Yeah.
- [30:42]
Unknown Host
That is not a Democrat. But I'm worried about the veterans, man. I yielded to one of my. My elders and I appreciate his comments. I think it's a great. I'm not gonna. We don't have time for everyone to stand up. I do got two more commitments today. Appreciate everybody making the drive out and God bless America. Thank.
- [31:15]
Eric Swalwell
Okay, so he's like, someone get me a commitment. Anything. Where can I go?
- [31:20]
Unknown Host
Exactly. Exactly.
- [31:21]
Eric Swalwell
Veterans hall. Like you're in a veterans hall.
- [31:24]
Unknown Host
Moses Mike Johnson. I call the. The speaker of the House Moses Mike, because he says on the, you know, that he. That God told him he was Moses.
- [31:34]
Eric Swalwell
But Moses, I think, also had one of the commandments that said you're not supposed to be in a cult. Right. Like Exactly. No falsehood.
- [31:40]
Unknown Host
I don't know. I'm not religious, but sounds. Sounds okay. So Moses Mike went on Fox, of course, and he said, oh, these are Democratic plants. These people are paid. Everybody saw that audience you saw that was cracker, cracker, cracker, white rural Americans booing the fuck out of that guy. And they're talking about veterans losing their jobs. And they're starting to realize that this was a bait and switch. That's another podcast entirely, how people could be triple trumpers and just now figure it out. And we can figure that out on the autopsy of this if we all survive it. But I think this is. This is the way, one of the ways forward. I think now that the weather's warming up, huge marches in the streets, I think that Trump, the reason why he didn't have his inauguration outside is the same reason that, remember, at the tail end of the election, his arenas weren't filling up. He is not nearly as popular as people think. Elon Musk and Russia have bought farms that go online that give the appearance of people liking him. They give the appearance that he's popular. He is a smoke and mirrors guy. He is a con man. And they are gaming the system because they're too insecure and too corrupt to want people to like them for themselves. But, Congressman, I want our. You, You, I love having you on because you're just like. You'll tell it like it is. You'll take questions from anybody and talk about anything. So, listeners, if you have questions for the congressman, put them in the comment section and then Kylie and Seth will start popping it up. Mr. Swalwell, do you think Trump will call for martial law as people protest more? Great question.
- [33:28]
Eric Swalwell
And he'll tell the generals to shoot the protesters. That that could happen because he wanted to do that last time. He just happened to have a general in General Milley who wasn't going to let him do that. But that's his instinct, that that's how he's wired. So, yes, that we should be prepared for that.
- [33:45]
Unknown Host
Yeah, I think so, too. I remember that. And it's important to remember everybody that worked with Trump in the first term left and wrote books about how dangerous he was. And he told people he wanted to have hit generals like Hitler's generals. Okay, here's from Rome dog. At this point, who is the leader of the resistance and who are our generals?
- [34:10]
Eric Swalwell
Well, well, look, I see right now so many people rising to the occasion. We talked about Jasmine Crockett, Robert Garcia in Long beach beating back Marjorie Taylor Greene and her every single day. Jared Moskowitz, Dan Goldman are now on the Judiciary Committee as well, obviously. Jamie Raskin, every hearing with Jim Jordan, aoc, yeah, aoc, yeah. Alex and Bernie went to the. That we should follow that model. Just go talk to people. And as I said, next week, I, we have the State of the Union and then this budget vote. Watch as Hakeem has to unify 215 of us from all over the country. His strength has always been his ability. And that's, that's the job of a leader, is unity. And so, yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing us really unify as we unified last week, where not a single Democrat gave them a vote to cut $800 billion, not one of us voted. And it wasn't an easy vote for them. And by the way, also, they're all now free. The Republicans are freaking out because they're like, wait, we, we really did this. Now we have to actually go find the cuts. Like, many of them were hoping that they would vote for it, but that it wouldn't pass. And now that it's passed, they're in this like, oh, like we're gonna have to cut Medicaid and Medicare, aren't we? And you think the crowds were big at that protest you just showed, or that town hall you just showed 32% of Americans rely on Medicaid for their health care.
- [35:45]
Unknown Host
Don't you think they've always been chomping at the bit, though, to do this? I mean, they have been chomping at the bit. They want to privatize everything. Privatization is horrible when it comes to public services like this. And I feel like the Democrats have to have a multi throng approach. And I feel like when you see what Trump does right now, like, he literally does something so insane and then he has it tweeted and Instagrammed and they market the presidency at the same time. There was a Democrats did this week, and I put it up yesterday on yesterday's stream and it had like 45 tiny bullet points that you would have to zoom in for. And I think that we need to message this thing constantly. Trump is Putin's puppet. Big. You know, just very simple things. Trump hates veterans.
- [36:38]
Eric Swalwell
Yes.
- [36:38]
Unknown Host
We have the data to back it up and just dumb it.
- [36:42]
Eric Swalwell
Gains are crashing under Trump.
- [36:44]
Unknown Host
Right. People are dying. Our allies hate our guts. Putin is celebrating. And I think that, like, the Democrats haven't really messaged how weak of a standing Russia is in. That should be something that we're like, this country is so weak. Right now, their economy's weak, their military is weak, and we capitulated them, like.
- [37:04]
Eric Swalwell
And by the way, the one thing that we were truly promised, that on day one, costs would go down. They're going up in the economy. We just saw that we're predicted to have the slowest GDP growth in decades. It's a Trump slump.
- [37:22]
Unknown Host
Trump, totally.
- [37:24]
Eric Swalwell
And by the way, he. In the first 40 days, he's gone to the Daytona 500. He's gone to the super bowl, he's gone to the boxing matches, he's gone golfing.
- [37:36]
Unknown Host
He's golfed. One thing 29 of his presidency, he spent on the golf course.
- [37:41]
Eric Swalwell
The one place we need him to go to is a grocery store. Go to a grocery store.
- [37:46]
Unknown Host
I have a better idea, Eric. I have a great. I know where he needs to go. He and Elon Musk need to get on a SpaceX rocket and go to Mars. That's what I think that would be.
- [37:56]
Eric Swalwell
Go run Mars.
- [37:57]
Unknown Host
Go run Mars. Big boys. Go. Okay, let's do a couple more questions for the congressman, and then we'll let you go spend an afternoon with your children. Yeah, okay. Hi, Senator. He's actually. Congressman. Hi, Congressman Swalwell. Do you have a suit, sir? How dare you come dressed to this live stream? And your black hat and then a smiling face emoji.
- [38:21]
Eric Swalwell
He would. Trump was going. Zelinsky should have. Could have shown up in a Zenya suit, like, man tailored. And Trump was going to shit all over him. And what I respect about Zelensky so much is at the end of the day, Zelensky knows that Trump will always side with Putin, so he wasn't going to play the game. And you've seen all of these other European leaders who are saying, oh, you got to walk in there and say one thing and then do the other. That's how it works with Trump. Except that Zelensky is the only one who is actually in a war zone right now. And. And he walked in there because he needed to have the credibility to the people in his country who are going to fight for him, that he wasn't just going to completely roll over and say that every sacrifice they have all made was in vain because Zelensky was going to let their country be a client state to the United States. And. And he will be remembered well for the way he conducted himself in that Oval Office. And Americans will look for centuries in shame at what Donald Trump and J.D. vance did.
- [39:28]
Unknown Host
I agree. I thought it was disgraceful. I sitting there saying, have you said thank you JD Vance sitting there and it's just like hall monitor. You're dying to go home and pop a smokey eye. Sit down and shut up. J.D. vance. I mean, did you see where he went to Vermont yesterday to go skiing? There was a mile long protesters. And again, I think everybody needs to understand this is a smoke and mirror presidency by Trump. He did not have his inauguration outdoors because he knew the crowd would be impotent. He went inside and they have troll farms that promote their stuff. And Elon Musk owns Twitter. They're not as popular as you think. And, and, and you want, you want to.
- [40:11]
Eric Swalwell
The real man was in that picture. So think of that picture that history will remember for 100 years. Where are each of them right now? Trump went golfing, Vance went skiing, and Zelensky went to a war. Yeah, I know who the man is in that trio.
- [40:28]
Unknown Host
And Marco Rubio went home to get in the fetal position and suck on his bottle. I mean, what a titty baby that man is. What an abject disappointment. I thought it was impossible for me to dislike someone more than I dislike Ted Cruz, but Lil Marco. And now I certainly understand why Donald Trump called him that. I mean, he nailed it. That was one thing. He was right about calling him Lil Marco. He is the most unlikable and, pardon my language, Congressman, unfuckable man. Besides J.D. vance, Trump and Musk.
- [40:58]
Eric Swalwell
Mark.
- [40:58]
Unknown Host
Lil Marcos right there. Okay, a couple more questions for the congressman, then we'll let him go. Okay, what happens with Ukraine now? Are there going to be further talks between our piece of shit president and Zelensky or are we at a standstill?
- [41:12]
Eric Swalwell
They're going to continue to fight that. I had Ukrainians in my office just two weeks ago. I mean, they're, they're fighting for their country because the alternative is that they're completely owned by Russia and their freedom is gone. Now, I do believe that they have alliances in Europe, not just because Europeans believe in freedom for Ukraine, but they're smart enough to know from history that if Ukraine falls that they are next. And so they are stepping up. It's just, it feels so shitty, though, you know, to be an American who typically takes on the axis of evil, to see that we've now joined them and last week at the United Nations. Are you kidding me? We voted with Iran and North Korea and Russia and Belarus. Even, even China abstained. Like what? Like China abstained from the crazy ass vote that we went along with when it came to Ukraine. It just. That's not who we are.
- [42:10]
Unknown Host
And Congressman let's talk about this and end on this note because you and I talked about this briefly before we went live for all of this time. We have been trying to form a very strong pro democratic alliance in the world. And then there is the axis of evil on the other side. Russia, North Korea, Iran, China. And within six weeks, you have Trump say, no, we don't want to be in NATO. We just saw that tweet from Elon Musk. I want to remind everybody, appears to be Trump's full time nanny saying, yeah, we should agree, leave NATO. So now, this realignment, this is a historical moment that we're living in right now where the United States of America is realigning with the democracies of the world and then joining the autocrats of the world. And every single time in history that this happens, it ends in a war every single time. And this is the most. You know, I don't like all this kind of nationalism talk, but MAGA does, that's un American, or, you know, we're real Americans and you're fake American. But this is. And Americans understand this kind of language. This is the most un American thing. And for maga, who they like, try to tell me I was born in fucking Texas and live in Oklahoma, you're not a real American. I'm like, what am I? What? My Chinese. But anyway, this is the most insane, insane realignment and it's so wildly dangerous. And I feel like the people who are meeting this and reporting on it are now, and it pains me to say this, our former allies and within the country, it's like the press is like, oh, you know, Trump's approval rating is down a little bit. And it's like, Trump just capitulated to Putin. Hello, if Obama did this, you guys would lose your minds.
- [44:08]
Eric Swalwell
I just saw, I'm reading your comments too, and I, I love that they're so active. Someone said, shut up. Basically, we own Canada, shut down the border. Like, it's so funny that he has also, like, people think that the Canadian border is the problem. Where Justin Trudeau, by the way, told me once in a meeting, he said, we have a real problem, Canada with guns coming through our southern border. And I was like, oh, fuck, he's talking about us like our guns. We're the southern border problem. But, but to your point, do you think that when we align with Russia and we have to go to war with Russia, you know, against the rest of the world, which is where Donald Trump, you know, probably wants to take us, do you think Baron is The one that's gonna go fight now? No, it's poor kids, it's working class kids that are gonna have to fight. You know, the lunacy that Donald Trump has aligned us with. So we're not gonna let that happen. I, I'm fired up when I see what's happening at these town halls. When I look at, you know, the folks I met with in Missouri on a Thursday night with 12 hours notice who were like, tell us what to do, tell us where to go. I told him it's Wisconsin. It's the town halls right now. It's, you know, supporting candidates for the midterms. We're not helpless. And by the way, when we win the midterms, and it means Democratic states have to really hold strong right now to make sure that they use all of their power to make sure people have access to the voting booth. When we win the midterms, we're going to cut our time in hell in half and begin this comeback. Were not helpless at all. Your viewers aren't helpless. I'm watching them. They're. They're all with you on this. And my colleagues, we have to be all in as well.
- [45:49]
Unknown Host
Okay. Okay. Congressman Swalwell, thank you so much for taking your Sunday. And I just want our viewers to know it's important. This is a part of the resistance, is us meeting, talking through these options, talking to the people that represent us, talking to the people that have clarity and don't live in Trump La La land. This is a part of it. And so, Congressman, I'm going to get with you about coming to okc and we'll do a fired up.
- [46:15]
Eric Swalwell
It won't just be to celebrate a Warriors victory. It'll be to actually get some stuff done.
- [46:20]
Unknown Host
The OKC Thunder, I'll take you to a game and I mean, they are too good. They're going to be national champs this year. Listen, you live in California. You have mountains, you have the ocean, you have a handsome blue state governor that doesn't take away rights from people. I live in this red state. I need that basketball team. All right? I need it.
- [46:40]
Eric Swalwell
I get it. All right. Okay.
- [46:42]
Unknown Host
All right. Bye, Congressman. Thank you, everybody, and we'll see you all later.