Marjorie Taylor Greene Says Trump Betrayed MAGA

Summary

The Chris Cuomo Project

Episode: Marjorie Taylor Greene Says Trump Betrayed MAGA
Date: June 23, 2026
Host: Chris Cuomo
Guest: Marjorie Taylor Greene

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Overview

This episode features a candid and often contentious conversation between Chris Cuomo and former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (MTG). The discussion explores Greene’s fallout with Donald Trump, her views on the MAGA movement, insider details on the Epstein files controversy, major issues defining American politics, and her perspective on the dysfunctionality of both political parties. The tone is authentic, at times combative, and deeply revealing of the fractures within the Republican Party and broader American populism.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Initial Perceptions and Mischaracterizations

• MTG’s Entry into Politics:
  • Greene recounts being vilified by mainstream media upon entering Congress, labeled as “a Nazi, a racist, a bigot, antisemitic” (03:31), which she says was far from her actual identity.
  • She claims she was equally critical of Republicans and Democrats, and quickly targeted by what she calls the “political industrial complex.”
• Media Framing:
  • Cuomo and Greene debate how she was covered, with Cuomo recalling, “you were presented to me as a conspiracist…This is a QAnon person…that was the end of the analysis for me” (07:24).

2. Clarifying Past Positions and Conspiracies

• School Shooting Denials:
  • Greene unequivocally denies ever having called Sandy Hook or Parkland false flags: “I would never call any school shooting, say that it was not real. It absolutely was real. That’s horrific” (09:15).
  • She expresses frustration at ongoing accusations, linking them to real-world threats against her and her family, saying “All of those things have brought really serious death threats on me and my family” (09:52).
• Tense Exchange:
  • The conversation becomes heated as Greene resists further ‘clarifications’ about her past, telling Cuomo, “I don't need to clarify. I don't need to clarify lies about me. That’s it.” (12:49)

3. The MAGA Fracture: Trump Changed, Not Greene

• Main Break with Trump:
  • Greene argues that Trump, not she, altered course: “You say I didn’t change. Trump changed, not me. Is that entirely true to you?” (12:53)
  • She insists, “That is breaking a campaign promise … many of the people that supported him for so many years on this issue especially feel this way” (14:36).
• War with Iran / Foreign Policy:
  • Greene highlights that Trump promised “no more foreign wars” but broke this by authorizing a bombing campaign in Iran “to protect Israel.”

    “He went and bombed Iran with Netanyahu in coordination with Israel, and he is on record talking about that.” (15:01)

  • She’s unequivocal: “That is not what the American people represent. The American people do not support killing children” (17:10).

4. Epstein Files Controversy

• Insider Account:
  • Greene reveals direct pressure from Trump to protect his friends regarding the Epstein files:

    “He called me from the White House...he told me that his friends were going to get hurt...I said, I’m not taking my name off that discharge petition. Jeffrey Epstein is a rapist, he's a pedophile. And these files need to come out.” (21:14)

  • She confronted Trump about threats to her son, and claims:

    “He told me it was my fault and that I deserved it.” (22:11)

• Republican Cowardice:
  • Only four Republicans (including herself) signed the discharge petition to release the Epstein files, stating, “All the Republicans were cowards, Chris. All of them.” (26:44)
  • She describes outsized public calls for Epstein transparency versus tepid GOP and Democratic action.

5. Loyalty, Cult Dynamics, and MAGA Identity

• Social Media Attacks:
  • Greene believes most of the backlash against her comes from “bots” and not real constituents (32:05).
• Core Critique:

  “I didn’t serve a man because I’m a Christian and I serve God and I didn’t swear an oath to a man because I swore an oath to the Constitution...I’ll not give my loyalty to any man because I’m not in a cult.” (33:06)

• Distance from MAGA:
  • She asserts the remaining base is mostly “neocons...and baby boomers...that’s pretty much the only thing left of MAGA” (56:08).

6. Systemic Political Dysfunction

• Two-Party Failure:
  • Both parties are blamed for failing the American people, especially on debt, healthcare, and the Social Security “fiscal cliff” (34:09).
  • “I do not regret leaving the institution that has enslaved Americans in nearly $40 trillion in debt that does nothing to fix the health care and health insurance horrific situation...” (34:09)
• Independents and Barriers to Change:
  • Both acknowledge the fastest-growing group are independents, but electoral structures entrench the two-party system.
  • Greene urges: “Voters aren’t really being given any new options yet...If you stop participating in the current system, you force change and you bring about those candidates...” (47:12)
  • Age demographics (boomers, silent generation) are seen as upholding the old system, unlike younger voters (50:51).

7. Domestic Policy: Healthcare, Economy, and The “Mega” Movement

• Healthcare Dysfunction:
  • Greene details the unaffordability of insurance post-ACA, and bipartisan failure to fix it:

    “The damage done from the Affordable Health Care act has been lasting...yet they avoid it like the plague.” (58:12)

  • Both agree affordability is the true crisis for Americans, eclipsing culture war issues in the coming midterms (45:26).
• Economic Anxiety as Driver:
  • Cuomo: “My life economically is...I am underwater. I cannot afford the things that I need to afford. It’s not about my wants, it’s about my needs...I think that’s the midterm and I don’t think anything shakes it.” (45:26)

8. Culture War Issues: Abortion, Trans, and Distractions

• Abortion and Gender:
  • Greene holds hardline, explicit stances:

    “Murdering an unborn child is something that really fires people up...Abortion means killing a baby.” (43:07)

  • Asserts Democrats and Republicans alike are using these issues more for mobilization than real resolution.
• Cuomo's Analysis:
  • Culture war and proxy issues “work really well on the many as proxies for advocacy of a side. And I think that they are getting drowned out right now” (44:26).

9. U.S. Foreign Policy: Iran and Israel

• Cynicism about U.S. Role:
  • Greene: “The quickest way to end that war is to just pull our US Military out and leave the region” (53:33).
  • Suggests U.S. complicity in Israeli actions in Gaza and Lebanon, sharply saying: “That makes us complicit...I can’t agree with hardly any of it” (54:56).
  • Argues Trump is, if anything, “controlled by Netanyahu,” not the other way around (54:27).

10. The Future and Lessons Learned

• Regrets and Achievements:
  • Proud of “standing on principle...against the President of the United States and against the party that I supported” (60:51).
  • Regrets that “the president I campaigned for had [not] stuck with his campaign promises...Make America Great Again...turned into the same old garbage” (61:16).
• Running Again?
  • She is noncommittal, with “no ambitions,” and says she “never had ambitions before either” (35:44).
• Outsider Power, Populism as Both Sides’ Tool:
  • Both agree both parties now need disrupters attached to populist economic grievances, resulting in failure to scrutinize “their own” as long as they are perceived agents of change (62:17, 63:52).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Trump’s Shift:

  “Trump changed, not me. And I think it’s true to many of the people that voted for him.” — Marjorie Taylor Greene (13:09)

• On MAGA and Cult-Like Allegiance:

  "I’ll not give my loyalty to any man because I’m not in a cult." — Marjorie Taylor Greene (33:06)

• Epstein Files Phone Call:

  “He told me that his friends were going to get hurt...and I said, I’m not taking my name off that discharge petition. Jeffrey Epstein is a rapist, he’s a pedophile. And these files need to come out.” — Marjorie Taylor Greene (21:14)

• Trump’s Response to Threats:

  “He told me it was my fault and that I deserved it.” — Marjorie Taylor Greene (22:11)

• On Leaving Congress:

  “I do not regret leaving the institution that has enslaved Americans in nearly $40 trillion in debt...” — Marjorie Taylor Greene (34:09)

• Cuomo on Modern Populism:

  “The populist movement that generated MAGA is every bit as alive and deeper and broader now than it was in 2015. I call it mega instead of MAGA. I don’t think it’s driven by...fear...I think it’s way more affordability based and that this system does not work.” — Chris Cuomo (40:34)

• BLUNT CULTURE WAR LANGUAGE:

  “Abortion means killing a baby. So that is an important issue that I’m sure Americans, I hope, will continue to care about, because I believe it’s immoral.” — Marjorie Taylor Greene (43:07)

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Important Segments & Timestamps

• MTG’s Experience in Office & Early Framing: (03:09–07:24)
• Heated Clarification on Conspiracies/School Shootings: (09:15–12:49)
• On Breaking with Trump / Foreign Policy Schism: (13:09–17:10)
• Epstein Files Deep Dive: (20:34–31:13)
• Loyalty and the “Cult” of MAGA: (32:05–34:04)
• Leaving Congress, Regrets & System Critique: (34:04–35:22)
• Independent Candidacy & Two-Party Critique: (47:12–50:51)
• Healthcare & Economic Crisis: (58:12–60:42)
• Final Reflections on Accomplishments & Regrets: (60:51–61:56)
• Populism, Outsider Candidates, and Both-Party Failure: (62:17–64:26)
• Foreign Policy (Iran, Israel, Withdrawal): (51:06–55:38)

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Summary Tone

The conversation is frank, impassioned, and at times contentious, offering unfiltered access to the thinking of a high-profile political dissenter who shaped and was shaped by the MAGA movement. Cuomo and Greene trade sharp assessments but find some agreement on the failures of the current system and the hunger for independent, issue-based politics.

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Takeaway

Marjorie Taylor Greene, once seen as an avatar of MAGA, now places herself in opposition to both Trump and the two-party system, painting a picture of betrayal, inertia, and cynicism at the core of American politics. The episode is an essential listen for understanding the post-Trump right and the disillusionment animating both sides of the electorate heading toward pivotal midterms.

Transcript

[A]

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[B]

You want to know who can tell you how to beat maga? And this is going to blow your mind. And you're going to be like, give me a. Just hear me out. But more importantly, hear her out. Okay, Marjorie Taylor Greene. I know, I know. And by the way, she's not here for it, okay? She does not want to go back and relitigate. And I was about this and I said that and QAnon this. She doesn't want to do it. She doesn't want to own it. I get. Doesn't really matter. The way she can tell you what went down that, in her opinion, destroyed MAGA and what Trump really is and where his people now are and how much opportunity there is to actually own the best part of that populist movement of all these millions of people, many who used to be Democrats, who are right about what's wrong with aspects of our economy and how available they are. So if you want inside scoop about how this went down and what happened with her and MAGA and what it means for the midterms, welcome to the Chris Cuomo Project. I'm Chris Cuomo, and that's what I'm here for. And look, early on, this interview is going to look like it's about to end, but that's just noise. We get past it and we get into the signal of what you need to hear. If you want to see things change for the better in this country, Marjorie Taylor Greene is absolutely worth listening to. If you want to see MAGA turn into anything that can mean anything for this country. If you want to see Trump gone and better days to come, listen to this. So let's just start with the most interesting thing, which is us. You and I have never spoken directly before. Obviously, I have been covering you since you came into politics because you were very, very emblematic of what the draw and power and scope of MAGA was. So that's how I was introduced to you. You were like the spirit animal of what Donald Trump's populist movement was Supposed to be. And let me guess. Actually, no, I don't have to guess. What did you think I represented in the media landscape? You can be honest.

[A]

Oh, early on I definitely thought you were the fake news media and the, the lying left in the press and the. You, to me, you probably represented the part of the media that I felt lied about me every single day and mischaracterized me.

[B]

And how did you feel that you were being miscast?

[A]

Well, I was name called and I'm not specifically talking about you, but just I'm generalizing. I was, I was called all types of names in the mainstream media. I was called a Nazi, a racist, a big get, anti Semitic. I was called all types of names, names that I had never been called ever in my life before. I ran for Congress in 2020 by all the people that have known me or met me in the real world and know me as a person. And so when I ran for Congress in 2020, the, I call it the political, political industrial complex. They characterize you, basically create a character of you that isn't real and that's the character that gets sold in the media or in your opponent's fundraising emails or your opponent's ads and on the Internet. So that was my experience when I first entered politics and I had never done politics before. I didn't hold a state House position or a state Senate seat. I didn't even go to my local Republican meetings because people didn't know. When I ran for Congress, I was criticizing Republicans just as much as I was criticizing Democrats.

[B]

So when you look back as to the things that you said and how you presented yourself early on, what is your take on what you would have done differently or what you understand about why it went the way it went, positive and negative?

[A]

Well, in all fairness, this is your first time talking to me and you've probably only known me from clips you've seen, short clips. You never talked to me in long form and you probably. Well, I know you never went to any of my campaign stops and heard any of my speeches back then. So the things I was talking about was our national debt, which infuriates me still to this day. I was talking about corruption in Washington D.C. talking about draining the swamp. I was talking about wide open borders, people coming across our border. I was talking about sending money hard earned, American tax dollars overseas and foreign aid. And so these were a lot of the things I was campaigning against. I was, I always have been for term limits. I signed that pledge and co sponsored that bill when I Got to Congress. So many of the things I was talking about I still totally feel and agree with today. So nothing has changed about my opinions, many of them policy wise. What has changed, though, is the tone in which I say it. And that was something that I learned through my time in Washington, D.C. is when I got there. Remember, I had never been in politics before, so I came in very naive, extremely naive. I didn't know anything. And I was one of the most attacked Republicans when I got there. So my defenses were up big time because I was constantly being attacked and mischaracterized and lied about so many times. So naturally, as a normal human being, my defenses were up. So my rhetoric was strong. But I also had learned that style rhetoric from Donald Trump and over time, and I saw Democrats do the exact same thing, harsh rhetoric. And I saw it on both sides of the aisle. And that's what I call toxic politics. That to the point I'm at now, I want nothing to do with it because it doesn't solve problems. It doesn't solve any of the problems that I originally ran for Congress on.

[B]

Well, that's because that's not what gets rewarded. That's not what gets advantage. We've turned our politics into a situation where it's all about which side is worse, which is way easier then. I mean, if you and I are going to have a competition and the key for you to win is to just make me lose, that's a lot easier than showing that you're better than me. I mean, the analogy is our politics, I think, has become like, you know, you and I are on the starting line. You know, you say on your mark, it's set, go, and then you trip me and, you know, then you just kind of like jog along. You don't have to run that fast. You just have to run faster than I do. That's what our politics is. So everybody looks at MTG and says she changed. Change your name. And the word change is always within three steps of each other. So when you look back, what got it for me is I'm not an insulter. Like, you know, if you were to go back and look what I would say when we were covering you, that's I'm not a gotcha guy. I'm not an insulting. I don't do that. I don't give as good as I get in those things because I understand rhetorically. It's like a waste. So that's not what I do. I'll fight outside tv, I love to fight. I train in combatives twice every week. But this is a war of bs. What got it with me with you early on is that you were presented to me as a conspiracist. This is a QAnon person. She's with Alex Jones on Sandy Hook. And it was like that was the end of the analysis for me because that guy is a scumbag. He made up a lie about a tragedy that ruined a community, and he did it for profit. And we know this because his lawyer admitted it in open court. So that's what did it for me with you. What did I have wrong?

[A]

Well, I've been pretty much. Well, first I want to say that that's completely wrong about Sandy Hook. I would never call any school shooting, say that it was not real. It absolutely was real. That's horrific.

[B]

You didn't think Parkland was a false flag?

[A]

No, I did not. And I'm on record over and over talking about it, how horrific it is. And so I'm not going to be put on trial by you right now for things that I never said because then I would be seeing you as the same person I thought you were good years ago.

[B]

I'm just giving you a chance to clarify it for people.

[A]

I don't need to clarify it. You're the only person that I'm having to clarify this with. As a matter of fact, I haven't had a conversation like this in quite a few years, to be honest with you, Chris. But I think you're doing this with me because this is the first time you're talking to me. So you think you have to do this with me, but I'll be very matter of fact with you. I support the second amendment all the way. As a woman, I own many guns because my life has been threatened so many times because of the nasty, harsh rhetoric that's been said about me. And the lies, like calling me a conspiracy theorist and the lies saying that I think school shootings aren't real. All of those things have brought really serious death threats on me and my family. And I believe 100% in my right to defend myself. And if that means I have to unload every single bullet in my magazine because someone is coming to try to kill me, I will absolutely do so. So I just want to be really clear about that. And the other thing is, is a lot of the conspiracy theories that I got so called accused of, guess what? Many of them have turned out to be true. And so I can hang my hat on that. But as far as, you know, differences and Differences of political opinions. Here's where. Here's the problem in our country. Politics is treated like a team sport, and it's not a team sport. And many Americans, as a matter of fact, most Americans I talk to are absolutely sick and tired and fed up with it. They're tired of the blue jerseys and the red jerseys because it's all a bunch of bullshit and it hasn't fixed anything in this country. So I bet you and I can on that. But if we have to walk down the entire road of Marjorie Taylor Greene's history, because I could pull out garbage, I've heard about you, and pull it up and say, well, what about you, Chris? Then I don't think we're doing anything productive here today. Now, if you want to have an. Have an interview about things that are current and ask me legitimate questions instead of trying to run me back down the trail of, you said this or you said that, then I don't want to do this at all today. But I will have an engaging, productive conversation with you if you are willing to do that.

[B]

I get it. I get it. You just. Little context. I am.

[A]

We didn't need the context.

[B]

Well, but my audience. No, no, no. My audience.

[A]

No, your audience didn't need it. No, your audience didn't need it. I've been on your network.

[B]

You got to trust me on this.

[A]

I don't. I don't believe you. Because I walk around in my own skin every fucking day, and I have not had to have this type of behavior.

[B]

I understand that. I understand. I'm just telling you that.

[A]

No, I think you maybe understand it now because I had to tell you this.

[B]

No, I. Look, Marjorie, I get a lot of the same things that you're talking about. You know what I mean? I'm a little bit of a hybrid in this. You know, I've been complaining. I've had a lot of people say

[A]

no not to do it to other people. How about that?

[B]

But I'm not doing it. I didn't accuse.

[A]

Yeah, you know, you have done it. Yes, you have.

[B]

No, I'm not. I'm asking you to clarify. All right. Anyway, look, I get why.

[A]

I don't need to clarify. I don't need to clarify lies about me.

[B]

I get it.

[A]

That's it.

[B]

I get it. I get it. So let me ask you this, because this was the point of it, the change. You say I didn't change. Trump changed, not me. Is that entirely true to you?

[A]

Yes. And I think it's true to many of the people that voted for him. We've watched that unfold literally right in front of our eyes over the past year. I would say, especially the past year, he campaigned, I campaigned with him. He campaigned on no more foreign wars, no more regime change.

[B]

Wait, hold on. So on that one, he says, so let's, you know, he says that we're doing to him what you say I'm doing to you. And I say he's done to me. He says, no, no, no, no, no. I said no more forever wars. But I also said, which he didn't say, but he does argue this, that Iran can never have a nuke. So I'm only doing what I said I would do, which everybody else was afraid to do, including Marjorie Taylor Greene, which is, I stood up to Iran. Nothing changed. Do you believe that?

[A]

Well, months ago, former DNI Tulsi Gabbard testified before Congress that Iran was nowhere near having a nuclear weapon, and so did many other nuclear regulatory agencies.

[B]

That's true.

[A]

On record.

[B]

That is true.

[A]

And so President Trump was also informed of this. He was briefed on it many times by many different people. So he still, if he is saying Iran can never have a nuclear weapon, he was told that Iran is nowhere near having a nuclear weapon, but he still chose to go to war.

[B]

Why do you think so?

[A]

In. In my opinion, that is breaking a campaign promise. That. That is breaking a campaign promise. And that's my opinion. And that's also the way many of the people that supported him for so many years on this issue especially feel this way. And I'm not Donald Trump. I, I can't say why he. But I can guess and give you my opinion.

[B]

What's your guess?

[A]

But he's also, well, he said it himself. He went to protect Israel. He, he went and bombed Iran with Netanyahu in coordination with Israel, and he is on record talking about that.

[B]

Do you think that the people around him told him things that were untrue, or do you think at least part of it was, wow, it's going really shitty at home and this Venezuela thing worked really well? I think. So let's stick with that and let's beat up the bad guys abroad because it's not working at home. Do you think that was any part of it?

[A]

I have no idea. That's not something that I've speculated on exactly. I think based on what he said and information that I've read, is that he did this in coordination on behalf of Israel because Israel really wanted the United States to attack Iran. And then the excuse became, we're freeing the Iranian people, and they're not freeing the Iranian people at all. As a matter of fact, they've murdered the Iranian people, including children at an all girls school. And that's horrific. And I would call that a war crime. And he's done this in coordination with Israel.

[B]

And they kind of lied to us about the girls school. They didn't tell us the IDF was quiet about it. I think they were quiet about it because they knew we did it and they didn't want to get on Trump's bad side, so they just said nothing. And then Hegseth kind of slow walked it. And I wonder initially, initially I was kind of forgiving of Hegseth because I was like, look, he's over his head. You're working for Trump. You gotta say what he wants you to say, otherwise you're gonna be out. So you have to understand that. But now I feel like Hegseth deserves this scrutiny because he is going out of his way to say things that are just not true about the situation in Iran. Do you see him that way in the mix or no? Do I have him wrong?

[A]

Of course, I haven't watched all of his press conferences and his public statements, so I would. I'm not fully informed on everything he said. What I did see him say is that that situation remains under investigation. And I think that's unacceptable, completely unacceptable. Because everyone knows and there's been proof shown that that school was bombed by the United States. And they have of. I think it was a Tomahawk missile that bombed the school, and it was also a double tap. And so in my mind, it's unforgivable to sweep that under the rug and claim that it's still under investigation. And that's not the country that we are. That is not what the American people represent. The American people do not support killing children, which is also why so many Americans, including myself, have spoken out to the thousands of innocent people that were murdered in Gaza and the thousands of innocent people that are now being murdered in Lebanon and children. When you come to the point where you're murdering children and unwilling to, to address the issue that you've completely lost the plot, There is no, I don't think there's any room. There's no place to stand on solid ground when that's something that you're doing.

[B]

Support for the Chris Cuomo project comes from quo. That's Q U o a business communication system that is built so you never miss a call. Boy, oh boy, is it easy for different forms of communication to slip through the cracks and have you miss potential customers, potential clients, potential sales. Quo is the number one rated business phone system on G2, with over 3,000 reviews built for how modern teams work. More than 90,000 businesses, from solo operators to growing teams, rely on it to stay connected, professional and consistently reachable. Okay, money is on the line. Your comms have to be tight, and that's where Quo comes in. Money is on the line. Always say hello with Quo. Try Quo for free. Plus, you'll get 20% off your first six months when you go to quo.comquomo that's quo. Q u o.com cuomo c u o mo. So Donald Trump's response to us is, boy, are you guys naive. I think you, you change, you change for the worse. Israel is an easy analysis for him, right? They're under attack. I'm with them right now. He's in a tough spot because Bibi doesn't want to get out of the Iran situation and Trump's going to have to use his leverage. I think that's actually the easiest part of this for him. But he says, I didn't change. I am maga. Maga's whatever I say it is in the moment. Marjorie Taylor Greene isn't with it. She bought into bullshit about Epstein and she bought into bullshit about me for her own popularity, but I'm still me. Trump is always Trump. You've changed.

[A]

I don't think I bought into any bullshit about Jeffrey Epstein. He's a convicted pedophile. And my entire political career was sacrificed on fighting against the President himself to release the Epstein files. So nothing ever changed about me.

[B]

Wait, I want to give you a chance on that. His people say to me all the time, and this is not going back to put you. This is something you're going to want to address where they say, yeah, yeah. He never said anything to her about Epstein files and his friends and people going to get exposed that he didn't want. He never said anything like that. What is the truth?

[A]

The truth is he called me from the White House and I was in my office in the Rayburn Building, and I had a very tough phone call with the President where he told me that his friends were going to get hurt. He said, people that, you know, Marjorie in Palm beach, he said, they're my friends and they're going to get hurt if these files come out. And I said, I'm sorry, Mr. President, I'm not taking my name off that discharge petition. Jeffrey Epstein is a rapist, He's a pedophile. And these files need to come out. This is what we campaigned on. This is transparency, and the victims deserve it. I actually told him, also, I asked him to have these women to the White House, to the Oval Office. He has all kinds of people in the Oval Office. He has sports teams. He has the new leader of Syria, who is a former terrorist.

[B]

Yeah. Isis.

[A]

He. He isis. He had Mamdani, the new mayor of New York, who he constantly attacked and criticized. He will have anybody in the Oval Office, but he will not have victims that were raped as teenage girls by Jeffrey Epstein and other men to the Oval Office. And I asked him to do that, and he absolutely refused. So I don't care what his people say. I will tell the truth over and over again about that phone call, just as I will tell the truth about the text messages where he said. And I informed him about the death threats that we had coming in on my own son. And I told him that it's. You know, I said, no matter the disagreement in politics, no one's children should ever be threatened or murdered. It's. It's totally unacceptable. And he told me it was my fault and that I deserved it.

[B]

Yeah, I got the same message when. When I said to him, look, I know what I signed up for. I know what my brother signed up for. I get it. I get the Fredo shit. I think it's ethnically insulting. And you should know that as a guy who grew up around a lot of Italians, which he did, but I get all that. But you're making my kids own this, and it's not right. I don't go after his kids. And they're all adults now. Now he's forced my hand because the sons getting involved with these businesses that are getting government contracts is just stupid. I don't know why they're doing this. They don't need to do this. But I never went after his kids. Never. Even though they're adults. And he. I got the same message. This is on you. Be nice, and then you don't have to worry about it.

[A]

Wow. So, see, there's. If he said the same thing to you that he said to me about the death threats on my son, then he has a clear pattern of saying that. So he doesn't care if anyone's children die because. Because we're disagreeing with him, which shows this is why he doesn't care that children were bombed and murdered in Iran. He wouldn't care. He. He would say, I would deserve it if my son were murdered because he's calling me a traitor for standing with women who were raped as teenagers. And he's saying the same thing to you, that if something terrible were to happen to your children, well, you shouldn't have said what you said, and you deserve it.

[B]

Well, look, I'm sure he would say, I don't want to see kids get hurt. His higher value is, though, you're against him if you're against him.

[A]

But he doesn't say that, Chris. He never said that. He never said to me, no, he didn't say that.

[B]

Oh, I believe if he had have

[A]

said that, if he had said, I don't want to see kids get hurt, then I would be saying, he said he didn't want to see kids. But he did not say that. He said, it's your fault. You deserve it. He said, you deserve it. You deserve for your son to be killed for going against him to release Epstein files. That's what he said to me.

[B]

So why do you think he allowed the Epstein transparency crowd? And remember, he put Cash Patel and Dan Bongino in positions of extraordinary power on the basis of this, that they were out front saying, oh, there's a lot in there. There's a lot in there. There's a lot in there. And then he never delivered. Why did he make it a part of the MAGA campaign if he didn't ever intend to allow it to come out?

[A]

I have no idea. I can't even begin to answer that question.

[B]

I mean, isn't that crazy? If somebody came to you and said, hey, part of your next campaign is gonna be like, the three things that you hate about yourself, you would say, no, I don't want anything to do with that. I don't want. That's not helpful to me. Why did he do it?

[A]

I have no idea. I can't even begin to speculate.

[B]

You know, I often think when I was reviewing for this, there are people in your position. Now you got Nancy. I think, look, on Epstein, you have high ground. I mean, there's just no other way to see it, in my opinion. I'm not saying that people should be, you know, pilloried or canceled or whatever, but the idea of transparency is really simple. And that's what you guys were about. You, Nancy, Mace, apl, Anna, Paulina, Luna.

[A]

No, she didn't. She didn't sign her name on the discharge petition. There were only four of us. Thomas Massie, myself, Nancy Mason, Lauren Boebert, and Lauren Boebert.

[B]

That's who I'm picking up. Lauren Boebert. Yeah.

[A]

Anna Paulina Luna. She refused to sign her name on the discharge petition.

[B]

But do you see her as an ally in the Epstein transparency calls overall or. No?

[A]

No, I see her completely obedient to whatever the White House tells her to be, which is why she didn't sign the discharge petition. She was just like the rest of the. All the Republicans were cowards, Chris. All of them. They were. So, first off, let's be clear. The Democrats never cared about the Epstein files. If they had, they would have gone hard charging into that during the four years they had control.

[B]

Fair. You don't believe the Ghislaine Maxwell excuse where they say, oh, well, there was an ongoing litigation?

[A]

No, no, I don't believe any of it because I never heard one single Democrat that I served with, and I served under Nancy Pelosi when she was speaker. I served all four years under President Biden, and I never, ever heard a Democrat bring up the Epstein files. They only latched onto it when they found out, oh, my gosh, people really care about this. This is a big deal. Then they heard us. They heard us talking about it, and then they latched onto it, and all of a sudden they were all for it. So when it came to the discharge petition, you can only get a resolution or a bill to the floor for a vote in only two ways. The speaker says, let's. Let's move this bill through committee and bring it to the floor for a vote. And then the second way is if the speaker refuses, which Mike Johnson had a lock on that resolution because he was being told by the White House and by Trump, do not let that bill, do not let it get a vote. So we had to create a discharge petition. Well, all the Democrats jumped on immediately because it was an attack on Trump in their eyes. But there were only four Republicans, Massie, myself, Mace and Boebert, that. That had the courage to sign onto it. And the rest of the Republicans were straight up cowards, even though they had campaigned on release the Epstein files. They only voted for it because the public outrage was so immense. For months through the government shutdown and all the months leading into that, it was the number one call that came into my office. And we received thousands of calls every single day. God bless my staff that had to go through all the voicemails and answer the phones. But it was the number one call for months and months and months. And the Republicans that finally did vote for it because four of us held on on the front lines as we were being attacked and yelled at and being threatened by Donald Trump and threatened by the White House and threatened by Speaker Johnson, and threatened by everybody because we signed our name on there. Well, finally, when we passed that discharge petition and the resolution did come to the floor for a vote, oh, all of a sudden, all these Republicans found their courage and voted to release Trump, signed it. He had to. That was the one place we forced his hand. He had to, because he couldn't politically survive it. And he also signed it, Chris. And let's be honest, because look at what has happened. All the files have not been released because he is in charge of the doj, he's in charge of the FBI, he's in charge of the entire executive branch that controls that, that key function.

[B]

And do you have any question in your mind whether Todd Blanche and all these other people are being straight with the American people when they say, no, we've given you.

[A]

There is, I'll say this very clearly. Every single one of them, whether their intentions are good or bad or indifferent, every single one of them serve at the pleasure of President Donald Trump. Therefore, every single one of them are under his directive and what he commands them to do. And that is the most significant thing that everyone needs to keep in mind when, when they are seeing a Todd Blanche or a Pam Bondi or a Cash Patel or whomever it is. All of those people have their jobs because they were appointed those jobs by President Trump. Therefore, they are not going to cross him. They. They are not the only. I mean, look at the only people that have crossed him. You can. There's only a handful of us. You've got Joe Kent, he resigned. You've got myself, Thomas Massie. Thomas Massie, who just got taken out in his election. You've got Nancy Mace, who just lost her election. And you've got Lauren Boebert, who President Trump has said he's calling for a primary on her. So there's not a name.

[B]

You put Tulsi on that list.

[A]

Well, Tulsi, she resigned with her husband's cancer. I think Tulsi did a very honorable job. But I wouldn't say Tulsi crossed the president.

[B]

Well, I don't think it's crossing either. You don't take an oath to the president. You know, you take an oath of service. And his name's not even in it in terms of, you know, even in the office isn't in it. So when MAGA folks say to you, oh, you left us, Marjorie, I know that that's super frustrating to you because you believe you're still fighting for exactly what you thought it was about. But how do you explain the support of the President within MAGA when a lot of the things that were supposed to be fundamental to MAGA have either been ignored or actually counteracted?

[A]

Well, the only place where I see those type of comments, interestingly, are on X and on Facebook. I only see those in my comments. I never run across that in person. I'm not kidding you. In person, where I go to the grocery store, I go to restaurants, I go to the gym, I go everywhere like a normal human being. And I never have anyone come up and say that to me. And so I think that's significant that the only place that exists is in the comments on social media. I also know that there's a prevalent bot problem on social media. And so I'm not saying all of these accounts are bots, but I do think a significant portion of them are bots. Because it's amazing to me, I can post something and I can instantly watch in less than a minute all these comments all of a sudden just line up. And it's shocking to me. I'm like, I don't think anybody could have watched that video and commented within 33 seconds. It just doesn't happen. And so that's a, that's. I don't really consider that reality. I consider the reality that I live in every day where I really enjoy talking to regular people. And most of them all say that I did the right thing because I held true to my beliefs and my positions. I didn't serve a man because I'm a Christian and I serve God and I didn't swear an oath to a man because I swore an oath to the Constitution. And the people I served were the people in my district. And that's the problem in MAGA to where. And it, it comes from the top where it's, it's a, a loyalty test constantly and it's a loyalty demand. And I'll give my. I'll. I'll not give my loyalty to any man because I'm not in a cult. I'm not in a cult. I don't serve some sort of weird religion where I have to do whatever some man says I have to do.

[B]

Do you regret leaving public service and do you expect to return to it?

[A]

I do not regret leaving the institution that has enslaved Americans in nearly $40 trillion in debt that does nothing to fix the health care and health insurance horrific situation that Americans are living in. I do not regret leaving the institution that refuses to do anything about the fiscal cliff that is approaching in just a few years with Social Security. And I do not regret resigning after being called a traitor and having my life threatened and my son's life threatened because I stood up for women who were victims of rape as teenagers. And I don't regret leaving a party that did that didn't even lift a finger or utter even word of support for me when I was being treated that way. So, no, I don't regret it. Not one bit. I'm a normal person that actually fell for the fantasy and the lie that you can run for Congress and actually make changes. I tried to do that and I got there and found out this is a system that you can't change, you can't fix because the system is completely broken. So, no, I don't regret it one single bit.

[B]

Is Trump just a feature of this? Well, do you think you'll run again?

[A]

I have no idea what the future holds.

[B]

So you're not, you're not closed off 100%. You'll see what happens.

[A]

I'm just the type of person that in every area of my life, I go, I have no idea what I'll do in the future.

[B]

So this is just like anything else. There are no ambitions right now.

[A]

No. No ambitions. But I never had ambitions before either.

[B]

Support for the Chris Cuomo project comes from Seoul. Look, booze doesn't work for me anymore. I'll drink occasionally, but I never feel good about it. Certainly not the day after. So what do I do when I want a brain vacation? When I want to relax like an adult, When I want to get a buzz? I use hemp derived THC products. Sol does a great job with their gummies and with their thc. CBD infused drinks. They are non psychotropic in my experience. Meaning what? Well, they have a lot of specificity in terms of dosage and experience, so that's helpful. And I have never had what we used to call a bad trip. I don't have where I think everybody hates me. I just know that they do because of my comment section. And the soul products help me be like everybody else, get my buzz on. And I'm doing it in a way that works for me. And I know that a lot of people are making the same switch. Especially, you know, you get over 40, you get over 50, you got like responsibilities. You gotta wake up, you gotta be, you know, you gotta start taking care of yourself better and in a different way. Sole is a wellness brand that makes delicious hemp derived CBD and THC products that are designed to make feeling good simple. Sole's new mood gummies have precise dosing, clean ingredients and formulations designed for predictable effects so you can choose how you want to feel while staying in control. I agree with all of that. They have three different formulations of the mood gummies that are of increasing intensity. I've never had to take anything more than the lightest one, but I am a little bit of a lightweight when it comes to my chemical sensitivity. But I do know this. I use sol, and I use it because it works, and I use it because I believe in the company. And if you do your research the way I have, you'll see they deserve that kind of regard. Make today a good day. Get yourself some soul gummies. Soul is offering my audience 30% off your entire order. All you have to do is go to getsoul.com and use the code Cuomo. Go to getsoul.com, use the code Cuomo, and get 30% off. You will thank me later. Is Donald Trump just an echo of the system, or do you think that he has changed the culture, changed the way it is, and if so, for better or worse?

[A]

Oh, I think both. I think the. I call it the political industrial complex because the whole system is disgusting to me. And I. I think both parties are terrible. I mean, look at the Democrats. They got completely destroyed in 2024 on several key issues. One of them was wide open borders. Americans don't want wide open borders. That's a pretty simple one. Another one was the trans issue. Biological men and women's sports. Women really want our own sports. We. We want our own places of privacy, like bathrooms, dorms, places where we're vulnerable, where men don't belong. It was also the trans issue on children. This was an over 70% issue across the political aisle where parents and most Americans believe that kids just need to grow up before they do anything different to their body. It's not about being gay or straight. It's about let them grow up before they make permanent changes to their body. So these were key issues that Democrats lost on, as well as inflation. After Covid, however, the Democrats, they didn't go back to the drawing board and change anything. They didn't say, you know, maybe we were wrong to flood the country with millions of people, or, you know, maybe we should respect parents and what they want their children to learn in school about gender and sex. And, you know, maybe men do need to stay out of women's sports. They didn't go back and do that. They changed nothing. So we have this Democrat Party that hasn't come up with any new solutions. And then we have the Republican Party that has gone completely back on campaign promises, that's repeating the same mistakes as the Democrats, that has gone into a foreign war that is, that has driven inflation instead of reducing it, driven gas prices instead of reducing it and is not doing anything productive to help Americans lives. So in my mind is, is Trump, you ask, is Trump, is he just a part of it? They're all a part of it. They're all a part of it and they all refuse to change. And I think the American people are the victims of it because the American people are the taxpayers. And, and it's. I just think the whole thing is a disaster.

[B]

I think he's taken advantage of it and I think he's taken it to a new low stylistically and performatively in terms of how he does it. But this is what the system rewards. I don't agree about trans as a key issue. I think it's a no brainer issue for parents and for Americans especially where the kids and who should be invested with authority over their bodies. That was a no brainer. I also think that the issue though was a distraction from bigger issues that do matter. Immigration, that issue transcended. I'm old enough to remember when that issue, everybody was basically on the same page. They would and both sides were just holding the dreamers hostage because each side wanted things in exchange for fixing the problem with the dreamers. Even Trump used to talk about that. I'm going to take care of the dreamers. I'm going to take care of the dreamers because it's a no brainer. Everybody knows that they deserve better treatment from the system. But that issue transcended and the Democrats fucked it up and they paid for it. I do see them though doing things differently now to win. I believe that the populist movement that generated MAGA is every bit as alive and deeper and broader now than it was in 2015. I call it mega instead of maga. I don't think it's driven by the same kind of fear and these ancillary issues. I think it's way more affordability based and that this system does not work and the people it does work for are the wrong people. And I think that's what's coming in the midterms and that's what the Democrats are trying to speak to.

[A]

Well, on. Just go back on the trans issue. I don't know if you're aware, it was the number one ad in 2024. Oh, definitely for Kamala Harris. She is for they. Them. And Trump is for you.

[B]

That was a great ad.

[A]

Yeah. Both political parties do recognize that was the number one ad. So it really was the top three issues.

[B]

Right. But that doesn't mean that it's. That doesn't mean that it's a key issue for Americans. You know, like, for years it was

[A]

in the top three. Chris. No, no, no, I'm just telling you.

[B]

I get it. I get it. You're right.

[A]

It was. It's only an issue. It's a recent issue. Because it was a recent issue that was shoved down everyone's throat during the. During four years.

[B]

But I feel the same thing was done with what used to be called abortion or was called pro life or pro choice.

[A]

Yeah, those were top issues. Yeah.

[B]

But it was made one. And then once it became a reproductive rights issue, we have the first time in American history a right has been taken from people. When you got rid of Roe v.

[A]

Wade, murdering a child, A child has. An unborn child has rights. And so I'm unapologetically pro life, I'm for women. But murdering an unborn child is something that really fires people up. So that's why it was. Abortion was a top issue. And this is. When you talk about children having mastectomies or castration, of course that's a top issue. So we're saying issues that fire up Americans, like, like murdering an unborn baby. You know, I voted on a bill when Nancy Pelosi was Speaker of the House. I voted no, because this Democrat bill that she voted, she brought to the floor twice, by the way, would have. Would have made abortion legal on the federal level up until birth, up until nine months. So there's a pretty good reason why people get fired up about the issue of abortion. It's not a reproductive right. Reproductive means having a baby. That's. Abortion means killing a baby. So that is an important issue that I'm sure Americans, I hope, will continue to care about, because I believe it's immoral, just like I believe it's immoral to tell a child that, no, you're not a boy, you're a little girl, or vice versa. And so these are important issues, and I, I totally understand why it's important.

[B]

I think they. If you. If you look at just the raw score, I mean, look, you can argue the morality, you can argue what it really is. You can argue when a fetus is a person under the law and has recognized with rights or not, but any way you cut it, the nature of these issues don't affect the many, but they work really well on the many as proxies for advocacy of a side. And I think that they are getting drowned out right now. Like I do not think the midterms will become about any ancillary issue. There will be no culture war issue in the midterms. It's going to be. My life economically is. I am underwater. I cannot afford the things that I need to afford. It's not about my wants, it's about my needs. And you're not gonna get to tell me it's not as bad as I think it is. Cause it's probably worse. I think that's the midterm and I don't think anything shakes it.

[A]

I agree with you. It's not. The social issues are not the issues of the day. It is 100% the economy. And it's, it's. People want America first. And you're right, they are doing a good job of saying that on the left where they weren't before. I find it interesting. I've watched Democrats pick up the same talking points that I used in 2024 and they're picking them up and they're doing a good job with them. But I'll go back to this, Chris. They haven't changed any of their policies to make that rhetoric become a reality. Just like Republicans had the same rhetoric. And then they haven't produced any bills or policies that have made that rhetoric become a reality. So I give both parties a total failure. And I'm, I'm in that middle lane with many Americans that are just saying no one is doing anything to help Americans. And that's, that's the reality where people are. So I agree with you. I think issues that affect Americans, those, those are the issues of the day.

[B]

So what's the fix? The political landscape right now is the fastest growing part of the electorate. And you, and look, you and I understand this probably better than most cuz we see how it plays out is that yeah, you say you're independent, but then you wind up voting for the same party that you have most of your life. But it is proof that they're pissed off. So the fastest growing part of the electorate are people who are saying I will not be a member of either party. So that's good. But nothing really is changing systemically to empower independence because the states control the elections and they give the power to the parties because they're all in parties. So they give the powers to the parties. What could change that would make it better.

[A]

I think that's the best conversation that's, that can coming up with ideas there is, how you produce change and results. So in all fairness, voters aren't really giving, given any new options yet. So if there are to be more independent candidates that aren't beholden to the party, there's going to have to be a lot more of them step out and run for office. Is that an easy thing to do? No, no.

[B]

Because how do you win? How do you beat me if I have a party behind me and you don't and we're in a primary structure? But you know, so let's say you're super rich, okay. Let's say, you know, even you with all your name recognition and stuff like that. Let's say, you know, you and your husband invent something and you make a grajillion dollars and you want to spend it all on a campaign. But I have the party apparatus, so. And I'm just, I'm coming at you with all these resources and everybody's on one of the two teams except you. So.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

And I may not even let you in the primary. You may not even get in to run against me unless it's like a, you know, California or Alaska where there's a jungle primary. How do you change those state level things that have such national implications?

[A]

Well, at first it'll require people just refusing to vote for the party. They just have to refuse to vote for the party. If you stop participating in the current system, you force change and you bring about those candidates, it is very difficult. Look, when I ran for in 2020, I didn't have the endorsement of Donald Trump. I don't know if you knew that or not. He never endorsed me. He didn't endorse me until I beat my primary opponent by, by over 20 points. And then a Democrat just couldn't win in my district. So he did the same thing he does with everyone. He just puts his name on a winner so he can claim that he created the victory, which is so ridiculous. But I didn't have the endorsement of Republicans in my state either. So it's possible for, for people to win. It's possible for people to do it, but it's going to have, there's going to just have to be a flow of candidates created and it's going to require the American people to make the change. That's where I'm at. That's what I really realized, Chris, is I could have spent the rest of my life in Congress and could Just kept on having my conservative voting record because I came from a conservative district. But nothing would have changed because the American people aren't forcing it. And I think the harsh reality that people need to have the conversation as well, you know, you know why Lindsey Graham continues to get reelected? Because you people keep voting for him. And if you want, if you expect different results from Washington, D.C. and you expect different results from your leaders, you have to stop voting for these people. And I think that we'll see a break, and that will become more of a reality in the years to come, because the baby boomers and the silent generation, they are the most prominent voters out of all generations, and they're the ones that refuse to change. They, they will continue voting for their Democrat candidates. They will continue voting for their Republican candidates because they continue to watch news every single day that continues them staunchly in their Democrat lane or staunchly in their Republican lane. And. But the younger generations are not that way. So I think it's going to take time and it'll take some years for that process to develop.

[B]

Let me ask you about some of the things that are going on as big concerns of the moment. Do you think we have a deal with the regime in Iran that will be equal to or better than the jcpoa?

[A]

I'm not sure that we even have a deal, and I hate to sound pessimistic that way because I'm very much against that war. I spoke out against it back in June of 2025 when he first bombed Iran. That was also, by the way, one of the things that got me in trouble with the president and the White House, me and Charlie Kirk and a few others, we got on the naughty list real quick for saying it was wrong. But do I believe he said there's a deal like 38 or 40 times or something? I know they've signed the MOU, which I think is a great step in the right direction. However, Israel has come out and said that they will not stop their campaign in Lebanon, and that is a red line for Iran. So how do we see this, this peace deal, so to speak, be successful if Israel is, is not willing to cooperate and they won't stop bombing in Lebanon, they won't pull out. And then Iran says, well, that's their red line. So I don't, I don't see how it'll be sustainable.

[B]

Well, Trump has leverage with Bibi that he does not have on the regime, so we'll see if he wants to flex it or not. You heard what he said at the G7. There is no Israel without me. And look, I get why. And my phone blew up with people being insulted by that, but that's. This guy's style sucks. So, you know, to me, that's the noise. That's not the signal. Yeah. He's gonna say obnoxious things. He has control over Bibi Netanyahu in a way he does not have with this regime. My concern is as soon as you. And this is why I could never be in elected office. I get that this is hypocritical, what I'm about to say. You said you wouldn't remove the regime as soon as you said that, the only place you could wind up is making a deal with the regime, which hates you. So the only way to do this is to go in and remove the regime. I'm not saying go in and remove the regime because I don't know that we can do. Never works out that way. I spent a lot of my life watching American troops try to make changes in Middle Eastern countries, and it didn't work. So I'm not saying that I didn't ask for this, but it would never work otherwise. Marjorie, there's no way you'll ever make it better with a group of people who hate you.

[A]

Yeah. In my opinion, the quickest way to end that war is to just pull our US Military out.

[B]

But then he has to say he

[A]

lost and leave the region.

[B]

But then they'll say you lost.

[A]

Well, he hasn't really won, in my opinion.

[B]

But then.

[A]

Then. But, you know, I fully support. I fully support our US Military, but I don't think this has been. I think this has just been like every other Middle Eastern war. It hasn't been successful. There is no regime change in Iran. The Iranian people have not been freed, and the Strait of Hormuz has been shut down because Iran shut it down. It wasn't any. Nothing happened there that I would call great success. And do I think that Trump controls Bibi Netanyahu? I actually don't believe that. I actually see it more the other way around, and. Which is a problem.

[B]

That's a huge problem. Huge, yes, huge.

[A]

And if he's. If he can control Israel. If he. I mean, what a ridiculous statement that Israel exists because of him. That's a ridiculous statement. You know, but if he controls Israel, then Israel wouldn't be killing children nearly every single day in Gaza and Lebanon. Rapid 47. And another one of their accounts put out the president saying himself, you don't

[B]

have to blow up an apartment building. Every time you're looking for someone who lives in it.

[A]

Yep, that's right. So he knows it's happening, but he's not stopping it. And a lot of Israel's military, everything they do, they coordinate with the United States, so that makes us complicit. And they're bombing apartment buildings and killing innocent children while they're telling us they're targeting terrorists. And I can't agree with hardly any of it. And should we have. Yes, there should be peace, but the biggest thing the Trump administration should do is just leave. Just leave and focus on domestic issues

[B]

that Americans care about. If you do it, MAGA would be so pissed if he just got up and left. You're allowing yourself to be criticized by the Democrats for this, having been a waste of money and a waste of blood and a waste of this. And now the regime is bolder than ever. He has to make it a win. That's why they lie so much about this. That's why he has to say, we just had a great deal. We just signed a great deal.

[A]

Marjorie, when you say maga, there's a major break in. What was maga?

[B]

I think so.

[A]

Oh, yeah. The only thing left of MAGA is neocons, people that like basically are spoon fed propaganda on Fox News all day long, and baby boomers. That's. That's pretty much the only thing left of maga. People like the America first lane and a lot of Maha has totally split off. So if Trump just said that's it, we don't want anything to do with the Middle east and he pulled our military out, all of us would be thrilled. We wouldn't see it as a loss. We would see that as a victory for America and returning back to America. First principles for people like me. I don't want to have anything to do with foreign countries and wars, and I don't want them to have a single penny. I want all of those resources to be focused at home because this is where everyone I know lives. And so, you know, I think. But is he going to? No, he's for himself and for his ego. He wants to declare victory and he wants to be the harbinger of peace, but he's not because he's the one that declared war.

[B]

Hmm. And when you look at the domestic agenda and healthcare, he. He said two things that I thought were awesome and I wanted your insight into why you think they died the way they did. The first one was he said one day, these credit card rates, these interest rates are way too high, man. I'M gonna. I'm gonna call these banks and tell them I'm gonna cap them at 10%. The usury laws. We have laws. This is terrible. I'm going to the banks. Three days later, he meets with Mike Johnson, and we never hear about it again. Then he says, hey, these healthcare companies, I'm calling in the healthcare bigs, and when I call them, they'll come, and I'm gonna sit them all down and we're gonna do it on camera. And I'm gonna say, you guys are making too much money and you're too vertically integrated. You're absorbing all the profit centers, and we're gonna make changes with you or without you. And they're gonna listen to me. I loved those two ideas. Both of them died an early death. Why?

[A]

Well, Mike Johnson is not a successful speaker. Oftentimes he gives all these excuses as to why he can't get anything passed in the House. So that's. That's one of the problems. But, like, when you talk about health insurance, this is. This should be the issue. That should be the war they're fighting. And, you know, Democrats passed the Affordable Health Care act back in 2010, and I'll never forget what it did to our. Our premium. Our family of five premium went from just a little over $800 a month to over $2,400 a month. It was more than our mortgage payment. Completely unsustainable. So the changes and the damages done from the Affordable Health Care act have been lasting. And now we have the Republicans who constantly campaign and running on fixing health insurance never fix it. They just lie on the campaign trail constantly. And so it's. It is the. In my opinion, it's. This is in the top three, because it. I. This is what I heard constantly from my constituents, both sides of the aisle, also across every income level. It was amazing to me. I would hear from people that were in the lower income levels who struggled horrifically when. When the tax credits expired, many of them said, I won't even be able to afford to have health insurance anymore. But I also heard from very wealthy people in my district, business owners, successful people who were furious about the fact that they were also paying, like $2,000 a month for their health insurance premium. I don't know why he dropped the ball on that. I don't know why Republicans dropped the ball on it, because whoever comes up with the magical solution that fixes this problem is going to be the most popular person in the country. And. But yet they avoid it like the plague. We Saw who it was. You probably saw this, Chris. There was a video of a Republican congressman last week that the press at the Capitol, they were asking him questions. They were asking him about health insurance. And he faked a phone call. Like, picked up his phone and you could see the screen, and it was on Facebook, of all stupid things. And he faked a phone call to avoid answering that question. So, I don't know, it's just shocking to me.

[B]

What is your biggest point of pride in your time in Congress?

[A]

One is standing on principle against every. The President of the United States and against the party that I supported, that I'm very proud of, that I left with my soul intact. And that's something I'll always have with me.

[B]

And what do you wish had been different?

[A]

What do I. I wish that the president that I campaigned for had stuck with his campaign promises. I wish that I could have. I wish that he would have been successful there. Make America great again, I always thought was a worthy cause. And I thought that it meant truly that for America first, for Americans, draining the swamp, stopping corruption, that's what I believed in. And I wish that that had been successful, but it's not. It turned into the same old garbage that perpetuates, and I think it's a shame.

[B]

You think J.D. vance can do better?

[A]

You know, I don't know who is going to do it better. I again will point back to what I call the political industrial complex of both political parties. So I don't know if anyone is capable of doing it better with that system in place.

[B]

Do you think you have to be an outsider? Like, you know, when I talk to people about my analysis of Graham Platner, it was the same analysis with Trump. In a way, it was the same analysis with you. Once you are adopted by a populist movement, once a group of people say, here's what matters most to us, any level of scrutiny of the person that they pick as their agent, you know, as someone to run. And on this belief system, they're not gonna scrutinize that person the way I want them to in the media. Because you're not part of the establishment. You're with them. So, yeah, you can say this about Marjorie Taylor Greene, you can say this about Trump, you can say this about Graham Platner or Mamdani or Cuomo, whoever you want. We don't care, because all of you are flawed. But this is our person who gets what we want done. And that's why Graham Platner, now that it's the Pendulum swinging the other way now. Right, because that's how binary power works. He has tons of shit that you wouldn't want to own in your personal life, but it's not resonating even with the Democrats who are the cancel party. Right. They can't cancel him. Why? They need their own disruptor that is attached to a populist movement of economic grievance. So they may cancel a Cuomo, you know, they may cancel my brother, who's an establishment guy, but they're not going to cancel Graham Platner because they need his constituency and they need that Senate seat. Is that just cynical or is that the way to win?

[A]

I think that's the reality for both parties. I think the voter base of both parties have become so disillusioned and unsatisfied with both parties. I think the fact that the Democrat Party is now having to embrace Graham Platner just shows that they have the same problem that Republicans have. And I think that's just the. I think that's where we are today is many Americans are starting to hate both parties because both parties are a failure. And so I think that's why we're seeing that happen.

[B]

Hate is good. Indifference and insistence on change is better. So, you know, hopefully they'll go through the same process. We'll go through the same process that you do on an individual basis collectively, which is you. You get down, something bad happens, you hate everything. You hate everybody. And then you get burned out on that, and you just start to figure out how to do different going forward. And hopefully we can get through transit, through the hate and outrage phase and get into the phase of, well, all right, it's got to be different. What's different? Hopefully we get there. And I'll tell you what, I enjoy talking to you about it, and I look forward to doing it again. You're always welcome on any of my platforms to discuss how you see the state of play of what's going on. And I appreciate you taking the opportunity today.

[A]

Thank you. Thank you, Chris.

[B]

Nothing like the cure. That is conversation. Okay. Didn't like me before, didn't like me in the beginning, but there's so much more ground for understanding what everybody's got to see is wrong and what everybody should want to get better. And that's what a conversation like this is about. And you know, what I think of her or her past or her future or her rationales, none of that really matters. What matters is her experience, the change, and what it says about the state of play and what has to change. And I think that's all super, super important. And we'll see what you take from it as critical thinkers. I can't wait to see what the comments are. I'm Chris Cuomo. Thank you so much for subscribing and following Checking me out in Sirius Radio every morning, Channel 1 2, the Potish Channel, from 7 to 9, the Chris Cuomo Project twice a week, of course, News Nation every weekday night at 8p Eastern. And of course, Cuomo Crime Time, which I hope you're subscribing to. Why crime? Why am I doing crime? Because I wanted to use up as much of my. Of my day as I could? No, because crime is really the bastion of our connective tissue right now. Politics has been so cheapened, so much is so phony and so fake. I really believe that the justice system is our last, best hope right now for where we can come together and have legitimate disagreements, but agree on respect for due process and for how it's supposed to be done. And that there are rules and there are right ways and there are wrong ways. And these stories all matter in society. People are dying. People are being victimized. They're people like you, they're communities like yours, and they demand justice. And I think that's a really important space for us as a society right now. And that's why I'm getting into it. So please subscribe to the Chris Cuomo Crime Time Channel. Check out the podcast and subscribe and follow and let me know what you think. And thank you so much for wearing your independence. This isn't one of mine. I gave away all my swag. I gave away all my stuff. My Critical Thinker shirt, my free agent shirts, my free agent hats, my Fix America first hat. People see it and they want it. And I'm hope. I'm glad. I'm glad. I want you to wear your independence. And we gotta brand ourselves. It's a big part of our political reality in our. In our society today. You gotta show people what you want them to know. I'm not you. I'm different. I'm a critical thinker, man. I'm not for just some party, okay? I am a free agent. It's a really important message. I know it's the key to us getting to a better place. So thank you for being part of it with me. The challenge is are real. Let's get after it.