GOP Leaders CRASH AND BURN on Weekend Shows

Summary

Summary of "GOP Leaders CRASH AND BURN on Weekend Shows" – The MeidasTouch Podcast

Release Date: January 27, 2025

In this episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast, hosts Ben, Brett, and Jordy Meiselas delve into the turbulent actions and rhetoric of GOP leaders over the recent weekend shows. The discussion is marked by incisive critiques of MAGA Republicans' unwavering support for former President Donald Trump, particularly concerning controversial political maneuvers and policy implementations. The episode is structured around several key themes, each explored with detailed analysis and supporting evidence from various clips and interviews.

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1. Defense of Trump's Unlawful Actions by GOP Leaders

The podcast opens with a strong condemnation of MAGA Republican Senators and Congress members who have been defending Donald Trump's questionable orders and behavior. The hosts emphasize the lengths to which these politicians go to justify Trump's actions, highlighting a perceived erosion of ethical standards within the party.

• Senator Tom Cotton's Justification of Firing Inspectors General:

  The hosts discuss Senator Tom Cotton's support for Trump's decision to terminate inspectors general from various agencies. These inspectors are vital for overseeing government operations and preventing misconduct.

  "MAGA Republicans in the Senate and the House think there should be no guardrails at all. Trump should do whatever he wants." [00:45]

  The elimination of these watchdogs raises alarms about potential abuses of power and lack of accountability within the administration.

• Senator Lindsey Graham's Stance on Executive Power:

  Lindsey Graham is criticized for supporting Trump's ability to dismiss inspectors general without adhering to the legally mandated 30-day notice period to Congress.

  "You have to provide 30 days notice to the House and the Senate prior to termination." [02:09]

  This disregard for legal protocols is portrayed as indicative of a broader trend towards authoritarianism.

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2. Legal Perspectives on Presidential Authority

A legal expert provides insight into the constitutional debates surrounding the president's power to remove officials. The Supreme Court's stance that Congress cannot restrict the president's removal powers is discussed, though the hosts remain skeptical about the practical implications of these rulings.

• Supreme Court Decisions on Removal Power:

  The expert explains that the Supreme Court has upheld the president's authority to remove executive officers, reinforcing Trump's ability to appoint individuals aligned with his agenda.

  "He has a right to get in there who he wants." [01:34]

  Despite legal justifications, the podcast underscores the potential dangers of unchecked executive power.

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3. Controversial Border Policies and Raids

A significant portion of the episode focuses on President Trump's border policies, specifically the implementation of raids in educational institutions aimed at deporting undocumented individuals.

• Tom Holman's Defense of School Raids:

  Trump's border czar, Tom Holman, defends raids in schools by categorizing targets as potential national security threats.

  "If it's a national security threat, public safety threat, ... officers should have the discretion to make the arrest." [04:32]

  The hosts critique this stance, arguing that such actions infringe on personal freedoms and violate ethical standards.

• Public Reaction and Support Base Contradictions:

  The podcast highlights conflicting sentiments within Trump's support base, including testimonials from Latino voters who oppose mass deportations yet continue to support Trump.

  "He still is rooting for Trump even though he doesn't like mass deportations." [06:31]

  This contradiction underscores the complexity and divisiveness of Trump's immigration policies.

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4. JD Vance's Controversial Statements and Alliances

JD Vance, a prominent GOP figure, is scrutinized for his positions on the January 6th insurrection and his relationships with big tech companies.

• Pardons and Commutations of January 6th Participants:

  Vance's justification for pardoning individuals involved in the January 6th events is examined, particularly his stance that violence against police officers was unwarranted yet his actions suggest leniency.

  "Violence against a police officer is not justified... weaponized Department of Justice expose you to unfair process." [09:55]

• Critique of Vance's Relationship with Big Tech:

  The hosts question Vance's commitment to dismantling big tech, given his financial ties to tech oligarchs and substantial campaign donations from the industry.

  "Hundreds of millions of dollars. They're there. So are you with them now?" [15:28]

  This criticism highlights perceived hypocrisy and raises concerns about potential conflicts of interest.

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5. Broken Promises and Authoritarian Tendencies

The episode concludes with a powerful assertion that MAGA Republicans are prioritizing authoritarianism and personal interests over the welfare of the American people. The hosts argue that broken promises and shifting goalposts exemplify the party's detachment from democratic principles.

• Unfulfilled Campaign Promises:

  JD Vance's inability to deliver on campaign promises, such as rapidly lowering consumer prices through executive orders, is highlighted.

  "Starting the day I take the oath of office, I will rapidly drive prices down..." [11:52]

  The hosts contrast these promises with the delayed and often vague implementations by current GOP leaders.

• Call to Action:

  The podcast ends with a rallying cry for listeners to recognize and oppose the detrimental actions of MAGA Republicans, emphasizing the need to uphold constitutional values and protect democracy.

  "Their focus is on authoritarianism. Their focus is on breaking our Constitution." [15:28]

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Conclusion

This episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast offers a critical examination of GOP leaders' recent actions and rhetoric, emphasizing concerns over executive overreach, flawed immigration policies, and the erosion of democratic safeguards. Through detailed analysis and selective use of audio clips, the hosts present a compelling narrative that urges listeners to scrutinize and challenge the current trajectory of the Republican party.

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Notable Quotes:

• "MAGA Republicans in the Senate and the House think there should be no guardrails at all. Trump should do whatever he wants." — [00:45]

• "He has a right to get in there who he wants." — Legal Expert, [01:34]

• "If it's a national security threat, public safety threat, ... officers should have the discretion to make the arrest." — Law Enforcement Official, [04:32]

• "He still is rooting for Trump even though he doesn't like mass deportations." — Supporter, [06:31]

• "Violence against a police officer is not justified... weaponized Department of Justice expose you to unfair process." — Political Analyst, [09:55]

• "Hundreds of millions of dollars. They're there. So are you with them now?" — [15:28]

• "Starting the day I take the oath of office, I will rapidly drive prices down..." — JD Vance, [11:52]

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This comprehensive summary captures the essence of the episode, providing listeners and non-listeners alike with a clear understanding of the critical discussions and viewpoints presented by The MeidasTouch Network.

Transcript

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[Commentator]

Watching these MAGA Republican Senators and Congress members over the weekend shows try to justify Donald Trump's unlawful orders and Donald Trump's unlawful behavior. It just goes to show you there's no depths to their depravity. They will justify anything for their cult leader. I want to give you some key exhibits here to show you what went down. For example, MAGA Republican Senator Tom Cotton justifying Donald Trump terminating the inspectors general from the various agencies and departments many of whom Donald Trump appointed during the first Trump administration. These are the watch dogs who are supposed to guard over crimes, fraud, waste, mismanagement. And now apparently the MAGA Republicans in the Senate and the House think there should be no guardrails at all. Trump should do whatever he wants. Here, watch this.

[Interviewer]

I've talked to, I've heard of some from some of your GOP colleagues who are concerned about this, saying it didn't give the proper notification, even if ultimately it would be the notice wasn't there. And is President Trump signaling he's just going to, you know, observe which laws he wants to and not others?

[Legal Expert]

Well, Shannon, time and time again, the Supreme Court has said that Congress can't impose restrictions on the president's power to remove officers. In President Trump's first term, he removed the director of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau despite limitations on the president's constitutional power to remove officers. That was litigated at the Supreme Court and the president won. So ultimately, these inspectors general serve at the pleasure pleasure of the president. He wants new people in there. He wants people focused on getting out waste and fraud and abuse and reforming these agencies. He has a right to get in there who he wants.

[Interviewer]

Do you think he will?

[Commentator]

Next up, I want to share with you MAGA Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. Also justifying anything, essentially saying, yeah, Donald Trump should be able to fire the inspectors general despite the fact that there is a law that quite literally prevents Trump from doing it. The law states that Donald Trump would have to provide 30 days notice to the House of Representatives and the Senate prior to a termination of the inspectors general. And in that notice give a very detailed reasons why there's a termination with specific instances. What the inspector general did to justify a termination. Now, if you are a senator or a House of Representative member, you are a co equal branch, CO equal. And our founders expected you to protect your turf. Not with these MAGA Republicans. Watch this. The law says that 30 days before a president fires an inspector general, which.

[Interviewer]

Of course is an internal watchdog for.

[Commentator]

Government agencies, he must tell Congress, tell you why that didn't happen.

[Supporter]

He broke the law. Yeah, I think, you know, yeah, he should have done that. But the question is, is it okay for him to put people in place that he thinks can carry out his agenda? Yeah, he won the election. What do you expect him to do? Just leave everybody in place in Washington before he got elected? This makes perfect sense to me. Get new people. He feels like the government hasn't worked very well for the American people. These watchdog folks did a pretty lousy job. He wants some new eyes on Washington, and that makes sense to me.

[Commentator]

Even so, as you see, folks, there is no law, no, no anything that they actually care about at all. In my opinion, they're fine with dictatorship, authoritarianism. Speaking of which, here's Tom Holman, Donald Trump's border czar. And here he's asked about these raids that are taking place in schools, mass deportation raids in elementary schools, high schools, middle schools, that we're now learning about across the country. And what Tom Holman says here, Donald Trump's borders are as well. They may be ms.13, they may be gang members. These people here play this clip to avoid arrest.

[Interviewer]

What criminals are hiding in schools? Middle schools, elementary schools, you going to go into Those?

[Law Enforcement Official]

How many MS.13 members are age 14, 17, many of them. So look, if it's a national security threat, public safety threat, and what you need to understand is a case by case. Name another agency, another law enforcement agency that has those type of requirements that they can't walk into a school or doctor's office or a medical campus. No, other agencies have little standards. These are well trained officers with a lot of discretion. And when it comes to sense of location, there's still going to be supervised review. So it's not like it's an open, open issue, but ISIS officers should have discretion to decide if a national security threat or public safety threats in one of these facilities, then it should be an option for them to make the arrest.

[Interviewer]

But someday you could go into those schools and grab people who are just in the country illegally on a case.

[Law Enforcement Official]

By case basis, depending who they are, what the circumstances are.

[Commentator]

Look, we all agree that gang members should be deported, prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. That was the Biden policy. Donald Trump killed a bipartisan border deal that would have provided more funding to cops, more funding to border patrol agents to deal with this. They killed it because they wanted to say that there's this emergency and that there's all of this chaos. By the way, border crossings were down under President Biden objective data. We still care about that at the minus touch network. Just as low if not lower than they were under Biden's fir under Trump's first term. Trump's border crossings down the lowest in the Trump term April 2020 because of COVID Otherwise Biden had lower border crossings than Trump at the end of the Biden administration. I just, I got to show you this and perhaps it's me being a little bit petty, but this is a Latino who voted for Trump saying that he's against Trump's anti immigration rhetoric and his mass deportation. But he still is rooting for Trump even though he doesn't like mass deportations and he may get deported. Here, watch this.

[Interviewer]

You don't support the anti immigrant rhetoric?

[Law Enforcement Official]

I'm not support the interim action.

[Interviewer]

Do you support his mass deportations?

[Commentator]

No.

[Law Enforcement Official]

It's not human.

[Interviewer]

Are you afraid that you could be deported in this mass deportation?

[Commentator]

I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid.

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[Commentator]

To explain that one. You have to go down to the depths of psychiatry to explain that one pathology. Going back to this MAGA Republican Senator J.D. vance here, he justifies the pardoning and commutations of January 6th insurrection as many who tried to kill police officers. And J.D. van says, look, violence against police officers is not justified. But he has a but. And if you're law enforcement and you're watching this but, but, but, but, there may be some times, if it helps Trump but here, play this clip does.

[Politician]

Use an electroshock shock weapon against a policeman who was dragged out of the defensive line by plunging it into the officer's neck. He was in prison, sentenced to 12 years, seven months. He got a pardon. Ronald McAbee hit a cop while wearing reinforced brass knuckle gloves and he held one down on the ground as other rioters assailed the officer for over 20 seconds, causing a concussion. If you stand with law enforcement, how can you call these people unjustly imprisoned?

[Political Analyst]

Margaret, you're separating. There's an important issue here. There's what the people actually did on January 6th, and we're not saying that everybody did everything perfectly. And then what did Merrick Garland's Department of Justice do in unjustly prosecuting well over a third thousand Americans in a way that was politically meaningful?

[Politician]

Was violence like that against a police officer ever justified?

[Political Analyst]

Violence against a police officer is not justified. But that doesn't mean that you should have Merrick Garland's weaponized Department of justice expose you to incredibly unfair process.

[Commentator]

How, I mean, how pathetic is that? Then as part of this interview with JD Vance on Face the Nation, Margaret Brennan did a good job in this interview. She said, okay, well, your campaign promise was lowering prices. Are you going to, you're going to do that, JD, you're going to lower the prices? And what's JD's response? JD goes, We've, we've done a lot. And she's like. Like what? I don't see any executive orders. And JD Goes, it's going to take time. We need time. It's going to take time. Here, play the cliff.

[Politician]

You campaigned on lowering prices for consumers. We've seen all of these executive orders. Which one lowers prices?

[Political Analyst]

We have done a lot. And there have been a number of executive order of orders that have caused already jobs to start coming back into our country, which is a core part of lowering prices. More capital investment, more job creation in our economy is one of the things that's going to drive down prices for all consumers, but also raise wages so that people can afford to buy the things that they need. If you look at our price of executive orders, no, Margaret, prices are going to come down, but it's going to take a little bit of time. Right. The president has been president for all of five days. I think that in those five days, he's accomplished more than Joe Biden did in four years. It's been an incredible breakneck pace of activity. We're going to work with Congress. We're of course going to have more executive orders and we're going to try the way that your lower prices is that you encourage more capital investment into our country. And yes.

[Commentator]

Oh, so now the goalposts are changing because Donald Trump said it was going to happen on day one. Right away, instantly. Just so we all know, I mean, here's what Trump said about that. Play this clip. Starting the day I take the oath of office, I will rapidly drive prices down and we will make America affordable again. We're going to make it affordable again. Oh, but I guess just like peace in Ukraine, that's now pushed some indefinite timeline in the future. Lowering prices, that's pushed to some indefinite timeline in the future. But like Donald Trump has time to sell meme coins. Isn't that what y'all wanted? Meme coins. And Donald Trump has time to post weird AI images of himself. Also, you have J.D. vance attacking the Conference of Catholic Bishops. And J.D. vance says that, oh, the fact that they're out there trying to protect LGBTQ and marginalized community and migrant rights, that they're. That really what they're doing is that they're greedy and they're money hungry. The Conference of Catholic bishops. And J.D. vance goes, he converted to Catholicism because as a devote Catholic, I am ashamed of these groups that are saying that we need to show mercy. Here, play this clip.

[Politician]

U.S. conference of Catholic Bishops this week condemned some of the executive orders signed by President Trump, specifically those allowing immigration and customs Enforcement to enter churches and to enter schools. Do you personally support the idea of conducting a raid or enforcement action in a church service at a school?

[Political Analyst]

Well, let me, let me address this. Of course, if you have a person who is convicted of a violent crime, whether they're an illegal immigrant or a non illegal immigrant, you have to go and get that person to protect the public safety. That's not unique to immigration. But let me just address the this particular issue, Margaret, because as a practicing Catholic, I was actually heartbroken by that statement. And I think that the U.S. conference of Catholic Bishops needs to actually look in the mirror a little bit and recognize that when they receive over $100 million to help resettle illegal immigrants, are they worried about humanitarian concerns or are they actually worried about their bottom line?

[Commentator]

And finally right here, J.D. vance has asked. Okay, well you've always said that big tech needs to be broken up and big tech needs to be stopped. But you had all the big tech boligarchs there after they gave money to you and Donald Trump. Hundreds of millions of dollars. They're there. So are you with them now? And watch J.D. vance's Word Selling.

[Politician]

U.S. conference of Catholic Bishops this week condemned some of the executive orders signed by President Trump, specifically those allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement to enter churches and to enter schools. Do you personally support the idea of conducting a raid or enforcement action in a church service at a school?

[Political Analyst]

Well, let me, let me address this. Of course, if you have a person who is convicted of a violent crime, whether they're an illegal immigrant or a non illegal immigrant, you have to go and get that person to protect the public safety. That's not unique to immigrants immigration. But let me just address this particular issue, Margaret, because as a practicing Catholic, I was actually heartbroken by that statement. And I think that the U.S. conference of Catholic Bishops needs to actually look in the mirror a little bit and recognize that when they receive over $100 million to help resettle illegal immigrants, are they worried about humanitarian concerns or are they actually worried about their bottom line?

[Commentator]

And folks, I want to highlight these videos. I could have showed you more. You get the point. Because these are promises broken my maga Republicans and they're not looking out for the interests of we the people. Objectively, their focus is on the Brolig Arch. Their focus is on authoritarianism. Their focus is on breaking our Constitution. And we need to highlight what they're doing here. Tell me what you think. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 4 million subscribers. Thanks for watching.

[Host]

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