Rep. Morelle Discusses Fighting Back against GOP Madness

Summary

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Podcast Summary: The MeidasTouch Podcast

Episode: Rep. Morelle Discusses Fighting Back Against GOP Madness
Air Date: November 23, 2025
Guests: Rep. Joe Morelli (D-NY)
Hosts: Ben Meiselas, Brett Meiselas, Jordy Meiselas

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Overview

This episode of the MeidasTouch Podcast dives deep into the dysfunction and absurdities plaguing the current MAGA-dominated GOP, as highlighted through recent media appearances and legislative actions. The hosts bring on Rep. Joe Morelli of New York for a candid discussion about the challenges Democrats face amid Republican chaos, focusing on government incompetence, economic issues, and the threats to American democracy. Throughout, the brothers’ signature wit and pointed commentary keep the discussion lively and accessible.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. GOP Dysfunction and Media Absurdity

• [02:19 - 03:48] The show opens with clips of MAGA Republicans making bizarre statements, including Rep. Warren Davidson's comments on Jeffrey Epstein files and Rep. Hinson's fear-mongering about "Chinese baby monitor spies," illustrating the party’s descent into conspiratorial theatrics.
• The hosts point out the lack of seriousness among GOP lawmakers, noting, “Each one [of their TV appearances] weirder than the next.” (Host, [02:19])

2. Republican Hypocrisy on Surveillance and Accountability

• [04:37 - 06:10] The podcast skewers GOP outrage over subpoenaed phone records obtained during January 6th investigations, mocking their claims of being “wiretapped” when, in reality, only call logs were examined.
• Ben Meiselas lampoons the self-pity:
  “You’re whining about a phone bill being produced in 2022 in connection with the subpoena relating to the insurrection because you were calling Trump when the insurrection was happening.” (Host, [05:35])

3. Rep. Joe Morelli on GOP Chaos

• [06:10 - 08:38] Rep. Morelli enters with trademark candor:
  “I have to correct you, first of all... I can make no sense of this. If that’s what you’re looking for, you’ve come to the wrong guy.” (Morelli, [06:10])
• He compares MAGA lawmakers to “Looney Tunes neighbors” you ignore at a campfire, emphasizing how this fringe behavior now infects Republican leadership.
• Morelli highlights that rational Republicans are marginalized:
  “They twist themselves into pretzels... because they gotta follow something that is crazy... They all have to make it sound like it’s rational policy when it’s just the ravings of... a lunatic.” (Morelli, [08:03])

4. Corruption, Self-Dealing, and Legislative Outrage

• [08:38 - 10:45] The hosts dissect a Republican Senate move to retroactively change the law, allowing themselves to sue the government for having phone records subpoenaed—potentially winning “tens of millions of dollars.”
• Morelli finds this “disgraceful” and unprecedented:
  “No other American citizen outside these senators will have this privilege because it only changed it for them.” (Morelli, [09:33])

5. Economic Hardship Versus GOP Priorities

• [10:45 - 13:07] The episode pivots to economic anxiety, with consumer confidence at record lows and Americans struggling during Thanksgiving. The hosts ridicule Trump’s late, self-congratulatory tariff executive orders, which caused more harm than good.
• Morelli is scathing:
  “Donald Trump gets up in the morning, he’s mad at Canada for some reason. So he puts tariffs on. He gets mad at this other country—before you know it, you got tariffs everywhere. They have a profound impact. They’re, first of all, unconstitutional.” (Morelli, [11:50])
• They address how former Trump officials and allies (notably Commerce Secretary Lutnick’s company) are now profiteering from the very tariffs they imposed, buying future refunds at a discount to profit when courts overturn the tariffs.

6. Damage to US-Canada Relations

• [13:33 - 15:18] The conversation shifts to the Canadian border, with Morelli apologizing for the “behavior of our administration” affecting US-Canada ties.
• He details economic losses in upstate New York from reduced cross-border trade and tourism:
  “It is having a profound negative impact on the economy of all throughout upstate New York.” (Morelli, [14:45])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On GOP Media Circus:
  “These are not serious people. Some of the people you just played... they would be like sitting around a campfire with all your neighbors, and there’s a couple of, like, really Looney Tunes neighbors who say strange things... That’s kind of what is now infiltrating the House Republican majority.” (Morelli, [06:10])
• On Republican Self-Dealing:
  “They first of all change the rules and retroactively change the rules so it applies to these eight senators... and now they want to be paid at least, Lindsey Graham, tens of millions of dollars for that. It is disgraceful.” (Morelli, [09:33])
• On Trump’s Leadership:
  “He doesn’t understand affordability. Let’s face it. Here’s a guy who doesn’t have to worry about where his next paycheck is coming from, because he’s filling his pockets every day with millions and millions... The guy’s making money. So he doesn’t understand affordability. He doesn’t understand what American families are going through, sadly.” (Morelli, [11:50])
• On Economic Impact:
  “We’ve seen dramatic reduction in our ability to export to Canada... You see a lot of people who come from Canada for holidays, for the summer. We’re not seeing that. And it is having a profound negative impact on the economy...” (Morelli, [14:45])

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [02:19] – Mockery of recent MAGA Republicans’ media exploits
• [04:37] – Discussion of GOP surveillance self-victimization
• [06:10] – Rep. Joe Morelli joins the podcast
• [08:38] – Dissecting the Senate’s self-serving suit law
• [10:45] – Economic worries vs. GOP priorities
• [13:33] – Tariff profiteering explained
• [14:45] – Impact on US-Canada trade and upstate NY

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Tone and Language

The hosts maintain their trademark sharp, sarcastic, and humorous tone, often using biting commentary to highlight the absurdity of MAGA talking points and Republican policy moves. Rep. Morelli matches this candor with blunt, relatable language, often expressing disbelief or exasperation, but also injecting some laughs and perspective for listeners.

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This episode paints a vivid picture of a government in chaos, contrasts it with the very real economic struggles of Americans, and spotlights the importance of fighting for democracy and accountability—reminding listeners just how high the stakes are heading into the next election.

Transcript

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[Congressmember Joe Morelli]

You know.

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[Podcast Host / Political Commentator]

The Maga Republicans in the House and Senate are utterly lost. I mean, the government shutdown may be technically over, but they're Behaving like they don't even know what their jobs require them to do. And so they've all been making these TV appearances, each one weirder than the next. To conclude the week, case in point, MAGA Republican Congressmember Warren Davidson. And he had a important message about those Epstein files being released.

[Podcast Guest / Political Commentator]

Let's play it is all files related to Jeffrey Epstein. Again, we don't know exactly what we're going to see out of these files. How much is going to be redacted? But what would you like to see or maybe either side of the aisle really need to see for it to be satisfactory?

[Podcast Host / Political Commentator]

I need to see evidence presented at trial and people being convicted. I don't really need more rage bait in terms of public documents. I want to know, when are the prosecutions underway?

[Podcast Guest / Political Commentator]

Yeah, yeah, fantastic answer there. Yes, sir.

[Podcast Host / Political Commentator]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fantastic answer there, sir. Don't release the documents or what a wonderful answer, sir. It's the strangest media in the fricking world. Then they bring on MAGA Republican Congresswoman Henson, and she's got the biggest issue confronting her constituent now. Let's play the clip.

[MAGA Republican Congresswoman]

And then just from my perspective as a mom, I think about, you know, watching baby monitor. That's a very intimate moment with you and your baby at home. And to think that the Chinese could be spying on your morning routine or what's going on with your family. It is certainly very, very concerning.

[Podcast Host / Political Commentator]

Okay, let's talk about MAGA Republican Congresswoman Maria Salazar. As these immigration raids, these ICE Gestapo invasions are taking place and rounding up American citizens, people without criminal records, anybody who has brown skin. And she promised that she did the Liberty Bill, or whatever she calls it, this was never going to happen. That's what she guaranteed everybody in the election. And right after the election, Trump promised her because she wrote the bill, she said, here's what she's got to say. Let's play it. Which you introduced.

[Congressmember Joe Morelli]

Is that socialism what he just talked about? Is he still avoiding it?

[Podcast Guest / Political Commentator]

Of course not. You know, they don't have the moral high ground, the conservatives. GOP is also a morally sound, morally sound party. The problem with the Dems is that they have been infiltrated.

[Podcast Host / Political Commentator]

And I understand that you can't make this stuff up. By the way, even Jim Jordan had to fact check FOX because they were saying that he was wiretapped. And that's why all these Republican senators are crying and want to be paid $500,000 when it wasn't a wiretap. Their phone numbers showed up in connection with validly authorized subpoenas, literally the digits. And Lindsey Graham is crying and saying, my God. In connection with an investigation relating to the January 6th insurrection, where a federal judge authorized subpoenas. The digits showed up. Even Jim Jordan's like, yeah, it wasn't a wiretap. Here, play this clip you about it.

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Well, understand, they didn't. They didn't have. But they got all the records, they got all your text messages, not the contents, but every time you text someone, every time someone text you, every time you call someone, every time they call.

[Podcast Host / Political Commentator]

You, they got a phone bill. They got the phone bill in connection with the subpoena. Oh, you're going to cry right now when Americans are having their health care ripped away as 42 million Americans are losing their snap, could have lost their SNAP benefits, as Americans are psychologically tortured, living paycheck to paycheck. You're whining about a phone bill being produced in 2022 in connection with the subpoena relating to the insurrection because you were calling Trump when the insurrection was happening. To make sense of this all, let's bring a Democratic congressmember, Joe Morelli of New York. Great to see you, Congressmember. I don't even know how do you do your job?

[Congressmember Joe Morelli]

I have to correct you, first of all. It's great to be with you. Thank you for the invitation to come back, but I can make no sense of this. So if that's what you're looking for, you've come to the wrong guy, because I. And, you know, I started the year with anger at everything they do. Anger and frustration. That's still there. But I'm laughing more than almost anything else beyond anger and frustration, because the. The level of incompetence and the level of. I mean, these are not serious people. And I think the American public is starting to, like, question what's going on there. I mean, this is. Some of the people you just which are members of Congress. They would be like sitting around a campfire with all your neighbors, and there's a couple of, like, really Looney Tunes neighbors who say strange things, and you're like, okay, let's move on. That's kind of what is now infiltrating the House Republican majority.

[Podcast Host / Political Commentator]

Right? I mean, I want to get into the issues. I want to talk about specific policies. And I think the American people do as well, because. But I think at some point, what the American people are seeing, and it's why I show these clips as being illustrative, is there's got to be like some floor of like serious human beings and adult behavior. Because in this cult of Trump, and they have to wait to see what he's going to social media post today. Is it going to be kill the Democrats because George Washington would want to hang them? Are we going to have to support that today? Do we not support the release of the Epstein files? Because Trump says that that would be like the worst thing you could possibly do to him, but then he takes credit for it. Where are we at now? Is Trump meeting with Kirill Dmitry of the kind of Russian head of their sovereign wealth fund? Because America is going to force Ukraine to capitulate. Like, where do we go today? And then they just go on there and talk about Chinese baby monitors. I don't want to even talk. I don't know what they're talking about.

[Congressmember Joe Morelli]

It must be so hard to be. And there are rational Republicans both within the House and obviously around the country. Must be so hard for them to make sense of what's happening to their party because to your point, they twist themselves into pretzels, many of the MAGA folks, because they got to follow something that is crazy. But it just, you know, the President woke up off the wrong side of the bed and decided to do some nutty thing. And they all have to make it sound like it's rational policy when it's just the ravings of, I hate to say a lunatic, but he's acting more and more like a lunatic.

[Podcast Host / Political Commentator]

So when the Senate actually puts something forward, it's what to pay themselves $500,000. At least I referenced that before because the digits of their phone number showed up invalidly authorized subpoenas. And not only did they give themselves a cause of action, as these Republican senators who were calling Trump during the insurrection, they stopped any of the affirmative defenses that could be asserted by the Department of Justice. So in other words, the moment they file the lawsuit, they could request summary judgment and get automatically paid because there's no defense. And then the American people are out there suffering and they're like, what? What are you. What are you doing? And then you saw Democratic Senator Heinrich try to get a unanimous consent. And then Lindsey Graham goes, nah, I'm suing the hell out of the Biden doj. It's like, dude, Biden, was the president along? You can't just keep calling Biden as we're in Thanksgiving 2025. It's your DOJ. What are you talking about?

[Congressmember Joe Morelli]

It's. What they did was so incredibly outrageous. Americans should be beside themselves with anger. To your point, they first of all change the rules and retroactively change the rules so it applies to these eight senators. Lindsey Graham has said publicly he intends to sue the United States government for tens of millions of dollars. And what was it that the DOJ did? They looked at, by the way, senators who seem to have some role or had some connection to the January 6th attempted to overthrow the United States government. Their phone records were looked at and to the point you raised earlier, not the contents of their conversations. This has not. All it did was say which numbers, called which numbers on which date, so that the Department of Justice, which uses this tool on literally for every investigation they're ever engaged in, could get a sense of whether or not they were colluding or conspiring to help overthrow the government. And now they want to be paid at least, Lindsey Graham, tens of millions of dollars to do that. It is disgraceful. No other American citizen outside these senators will have this privilege because it only changed it for them.

[Podcast Host / Political Commentator]

Saw consumer confidence at a all time low. The University of Michigan put it literally, since the study started, it's never been lower. Americans are heading into Thanksgiving feeling very scared, not able to afford things, while Trump's saying, but I was told that Thanksgiving is 25% cheaper this year. And everyone's like, no, it's not. So Trump comes up with the brilliant idea. He's like, okay, here's how we're going to address affordability. And he says it like that, the new word, affordability. He goes, I'm doing an executive order where I'm going to remove some of the tariffs. I did it. And everyone's like, first off, you did it too late. Second off, you put the tariffs like, you did it. You caused the damage and now you waited too long. Where you know, when it comes to all the retaliation, it's not like China can buy the soybeans from our farmers even if they wanted to. They already bought it from Argentina and Brazil. And you see that across the world of how they've responded. So you're too late, as Donald Trump would like to call the chairman of the Federal Reserve. You're too late, Trump, and you did it. It's you who did it.

[Congressmember Joe Morelli]

Well, you made the right point, though, at the beginning, which is there's like no theory of governance here at all. Donald Trump gets up in the morning, he's mad at Canada for some reason. So he puts tariffs on. He gets mad at this other country before, you know, you got tariffs everywhere. They have a profound impact. They're, first of all unconstitutional. I think the Supreme Court's about to tell him he's trying to get rid of the money so he can destroy the paper trail, because he's going to have to rebate the money back. But American consumers are paying for it. He's rebating them back the money that he legally took from them. But you're right, he doesn't understand affordability. Let's face it. Here's a guy who doesn't have to worry about where his next paycheck is coming from, because he's filling his pockets every day with millions and millions of money based on his job. He's the first president, I think, in American history to be so engaged in economic. He just bought half a million to a million dollars worth of Warner Brothers stock. And Warner Brothers has a merger pending in front of the fcc. I mean, the guy's making money. So he doesn't understand affordability. He doesn't understand what American families are going through, sadly. And we have to keep making the case, we have to keep pushing, because this, this election next year is going to be one of the most critical in American history, in my view. Right.

[Podcast Host / Political Commentator]

By the way, you have Trump's Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick's company that's being run by his kids are going to companies and saying, let us buy the right to recover the tariff refunds. We'll pay you now at a discount. And then we'll use our relationship with the Commerce Secretary in order to get 100%, and we'll profit off the Delta, which is a wild concept to me.

[Congressmember Joe Morelli]

I mean, honestly, you should just take what you just said. Every American should understand that the Commerce Secretary who's been part and parcel of putting these illegal tariffs in place, his family's not going to benefit from the tariffs being declared unconstitutional and being rebated back. You couldn't make it up because I.

[Podcast Host / Political Commentator]

Don'T want everyone to understand how they're doing it. So they're going out to companies that are suffering right now who need the cash flow. Now, going into the next year, we'll go, we'll buy it, but we'll buy it for 75% or 60. They'll try to buy it as low as they can. And then when the Supreme Court overturns the tariffs, then they'll go to their dad, they'll go to Commerce Secretary Lutnick and say now we get 100%. So they profit off of the difference between what they just bought it from and they make billions and billions of dollars off of that. Before we go, I just want to ask you because of, you know, your district, your neighbors to the north in Canada, you know, we see Prime Minister Carney, it seems every day he's saying goodbye to America. Unfortunately, we saw the Sweden delegation show up. We saw others, given the relationship that existed there, like, what do you see now? We have a big Canadian following here.

[Congressmember Joe Morelli]

Yeah, look, I mean, first of all, we want to apologize to our neighbors to the north for the behavior of our administration. But the impact that's had just on my district in Rochester. And this is also in the north country. Buffalo, Syracuse, we've seen dramatic reduction in our ability to export to Canada. It's hundreds of million dollars a year to Rochester companies. But you also see tourism. You see a lot of people who come from Canada for holidays, for the summer. We're not seeing that. And it is having a profound negative impact on the economy of all throughout upstate New York.

[Podcast Host / Political Commentator]

Congressmember Morelli, great to see you as always. If I don't speak to you before Thanksgiving. Wishing you a happy Thanksgiving to you and everyone in your district.

[Congressmember Joe Morelli]

You too, you and your family. Thanks for having me.

[Podcast Host / Political Commentator]

Absolutely. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million subscribers.

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[Congressmember Joe Morelli]

Is that guy with the binoculars watching us?

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[Podcast Host / Political Commentator]

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[Congressmember Joe Morelli]

I know.

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[Podcast Host / Political Commentator]

That's what counts.

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[Podcast Host / Political Commentator]

Hmm.