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Political Commentator
O-O o.com Republicans did not see this coming. Essentially, the Democrats in the Senate hijacked the MAGA Republican senators hearings and then brilliantly cross examined these either Trump Cabinet member or Trump's picks to be judges. Let me show you what went down here. You had Democratic Senator Welch cross examining Emil Beauvais, one of the top Justice Department lawyers. He was Donald Trump's personal lawyer. And Trump wants to make this guy who's the subject of a whistleblower complaint for saying everybody in the Justice Department should like f the federal judges and not listen to federal judges orders. But watch as Senator Welch cross examines this guy, Emil Beauvais, who was sitting at this Senate hearing to be appointed as one of the top judges in our country to become a Judge for the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. Watch this.
Senator Tammy Baldwin
All right.
Senator
Who won the 2020 election for president of the United States?
Witness
President Biden was certified as the winner of that election.
Senator
So you give the standard answer. You can't say that he won because he got the majority of votes and also got the Electoral College victory.
Witness
I think the characterizations that you just made, Senator, are both political, and so I can't address them under the cannons. And they're also tied up in ongoing.
Senator
Help me understand how it's political to state who got the most votes in any election.
Witness
Senator. I'm just trying to be precise. The process by which our country declares the victor in an election is a certification process. President Biden was certified.
Senator Tammy Baldwin
Thank you, Senator Wells, Senator Black.
Political Commentator
Next, I want to show you this moment of Democratic Senator Whitehouse. And here he looks at some of the MAGA Republicans on the Judiciary Committee and says, like, do you see what the problem is with this Bove guy right here? It's pretty pathetic. And this, this is a stain on our August committee. Play this clip Take place.
Senator
Did you contact them?
Witness
I refer you to my prior answer. Senator.
Senator
Did you let them know that the effort by interim U.S. attorney Martin had been shot down?
Witness
I apologize, Senator. I'm not trying to be difficult, but I must refer you to my prior answer.
Senator
Senator Kennedy, just if I may. Yes, Chairman. Proceed. This is not further questioning.
Political Commentator
I know my time is expired.
Senator
Do you see my point?
Now.
I have.
We have an individual here who is here seeking confirmation to one of the highest judicial offices in the land. I'm asking quite legitimate questions about potential misconduct in office. Some of it has nothing to do with the substance of pleadings, but has to do with administrative matters like seeking the removal of a criminal career Chief Prosecutor. Some of it has to do with administrative matters like case assignment. And the fact that I can't get anything resembling a straight answer in the circumstances that we're in right now, I think is signals a really bad moment for this committee and I hope we can reconsider. Would be glad to discuss that with you. Can we get him back then? Once the rules are clear.
Political Commentator
Senator Kennedy.
Senator Tammy Baldwin
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Political Commentator
Next up, you have Democratic Senator Murray here. She is cross examining Russell Vote, the architect of Project 2025 who now runs the Office of Management and Budget. And she just basically shows that he and the Trump regime are just unlawfully impounding funds and will try to use procedural tricks to violate the law. Play this clip.
Senator
President does not have a line item veto, much less a retroactive line item veto. Your notion of this pocket rescission defies common sense and by the way, the plain text of the law. Director Vogt, will you commit to this committee that you will not attempt to do an end run around Congress with this so called pocket rescission, something members on both sides of this dais have made clear is outright illegal.
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Senator, there's a lot of mischaracterizations into my previous comments. I would just say that we believe that we have under the law numerous options with regard to how to achieve savings, including rescissions that are timed at the end of the fiscal year. General Accounting Office has articulated that earlier, earlier in the life of the incumbent controller.
Senator
Yes or no. And what I hear you is all kinds of word salad to make sure that you are letting us know that you intend to do things that are outside the intent of the law. And it has also been reported that you are considering sending Congress a massive deferral package under the ICA in an attempt to run out the clock and avoid legal scrutiny of this administration's illegal freeze before ultimately impounding the funds at the end of the fiscal year.
Political Commentator
And then you have Democratic Senator Van Hollen tries to cross examine Pam Bondi, the attorney general. And you'll see how she basically says how I can't tell you my views about Emil Bove or other people. It's all subject to pending litigation. So I'm just not going to answer your question here. Play this clip. I assume you agree that zealous advocacy does not mean telling untruths to courts of law. And second, if that's not the case, what did you mean by saying he was not a zealous advocate?
Senator
Senator Van Hollen, this is all pending litigation, as you're well aware. And the timing of it. I can't discuss pending litigation. This is a whistleblower lawsuit pending within my office. But I will say the timing of it I find suspect as he takes hits at Amel Bovey, who is one of the best human beings I know, one of the smartest brain brilliant men I know who will soon become a federal judge. And his hearing happens to be today. And I find the irony of the timing of it pretty remarkable, the lawsuit.
Political Commentator
But I also like how Senator Patty Murray is like basically mocking her Republican colleagues. And she goes, GOP's big ugly bill kicks people off healthcare and food assistance. Oh, she goes, this is how I'm going to try to communicate. Maybe they'll listen to me. And then she puts it all in caps and just writes it the way Donald Trump would write a message. He goes, GOP's big ugly bill kicks people off healthcare and food assistance. Hospitals will close, kids with disabilities will lose, caregivers. Big winners, billionaires, total fraud. Polls like garbage. Because it is. GOP should drop it. Thank you for your attention to this matter. I mean, and that's true. I mean, apparently that's what works with the gop. And you see right there how a lot of these MAGA Republic Republicans who show up for as witnesses to these hearings not even answering the question. So let me bring in Democratic Senator from Wisconsin, Tammy Baldwin. And now I'm joined by Senator Tammy Baldwin from the great state of Wisconsin. I want to show your cross exam to our audience of the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Doug Collins. Let's just play it and I want to get your reaction to it. Let's play the exchange.
Senator Tammy Baldwin
I would just add one comment about the recruitment and retention of physicians and nurses. I've heard from a lot of the practitioners, VA practitioners in my state that when they begin to be doing the jobs of Several others who have been dismissed. Nurses doing the work of CNAs and if they want to start an IV, having to also do the logistics of getting the IV poll and the IV, they're doing the work of several people beyond the additional overtime implications of their job. And so working conditions as well as salaries need to be looked at. I just. You don't have to comment. No, I just wanted you to hear that.
Secretary of Veterans Affairs
And I appreciate that, Senator, but I need to comment because it's not been let go. We're not firing anyone.
Senator Tammy Baldwin
So I mean, for them to firing the people underneath.
Secretary of Veterans Affairs
No, we're not firing anybody. I mean, it's not from riff.
Political Commentator
It's not.
Secretary of Veterans Affairs
If they're being fired, they're being fired for, you know, a cause issue in the facility they're at.
Senator Tammy Baldwin
They were let go and I'm talking.
Secretary of Veterans Affairs
To them, but they're not from. From this, from things we've done since you started. No, I mean, tell me where they were because it's not happening. I mean, the riff was follow up.
Senator Tammy Baldwin
With you with the examples.
Secretary of Veterans Affairs
If they've taken earlier time, and that's not firing.
Senator Tammy Baldwin
They're not there. And so you have to face that in order to keep your nurses. Doctors are being supported.
Secretary of Veterans Affairs
I'll be happy to work with you, but there's no one being fired. They may have left for other reason, but they're not being fired.
Political Commentator
You know, it's the gaslighting for me and the lying. And they show up in front of you and they say they haven't been fired. And you go, well, I've speak to them. I know they've been fired. Trust me, they've been fired. And then these Trump cabinet members said, well, you know, it may be that they left on their own and they just. Or they just got a letter and the letter happened to say, you gotta go, but that's not firing. What do you make of that exchange? And just in general, the exchanges you're having with these witnesses as they come before you in the Senate.
Senator Tammy Baldwin
Yeah, well, as you say, there's a lot of gaslighting going on. But I have to say that they're trying to do revisionist history. I think we all remember the Valentine's Day massacre when all these people were let go and got their probationary employees who got their letters saying, your service is no longer in the public interest and your work wasn't good. It was just lies. And we saw a huge percentage of the federal workforce let go. And then we got all the early retirement and deferred resignation I don't know. It was just, we know this happened. They try to cover it up. And when we asked the Department of Veterans affairs and when we asked the Department of Health and Human Services and we asked the Department of Agriculture, how many people were let go under any circumstances, how many are no longer there than were there the day that Trump was installed and inaugurated and Doge was set up? They will not answer letters. I remember my cross examination of Secretary Kennedy for hhs and he said, we will have radical transparency and they have had radical opaqueness. They never answer a letter, they never answer a question. It is one of the ways that democracy begins to degrade when there is no sense of responsibility on the part of the administration to tell us the truth.
Political Commentator
Gotta ask you about the disastrous budget bill now as it works its way into the Senate. There's a lot to talk about, of course, the Senate Republicans even taking more people off of Medicaid. We covered that a lot. I want to focus with you, though, on women's reproductive rights, because within this Senate budget bill, there's a massive attack on women's reproductive rights, especially as we are now at the third year anniversary of the horrific Dobbs decision. I wanna talk about that, both, I guess, a bigger middle finger to women's reproductive rights in this budget bill and what you're doing to kind of push back on the three year anniversary of Dobson.
Senator Tammy Baldwin
Yeah, well, thank you. I appreciate the question. So this week we observed the third anniversary of Dobbs. And I want to start just by saying that the overturning of Roe v. Wade has caused real harm to women across the United States. And it's varied from state to state because when Roe was overturned, there was no longer a law of the land. Right. We reverted to state law in Wisconsin. It was particularly harmful. It still is because we have a law on the book that was written in 1849, one year after statehood, before the Civil War, before women had the right to vote. That is widely viewed as a criminal abortion ban. And for 15 months in Wisconsin, there were no services available at all unless you were on the brink of death. And then a trial court judge in Wisconsin said, oh, that 1849 statute was never intended to cover abortion. It was meant to be a feticide bill. And relying on that trial court, county court decision, three counties in Wisconsin started offering services, which still means they're unavailable in the remaining 69 counties in our state. But this is what the result of Dobbs is. And we had President Trump, when he was campaigning, try to distance himself from the idea of a national abortion ban. Oh, I don't support a national abortion ban. He said this should be left to the states as though one's rights and freedoms should rely on their zip code, their county or their state. But that aside, he is now acting in a way in this budget reconciliation measure and through other executive actions, he's making it into a national ban. What do I mean by that? You limit the availability of mifepristone, you defund Planned Parenthood, you reverse Biden era guidance on what the responsibilities of an emergency room is when somebody comes in with a partial miscarriage. And each of those steps, adding one after another, begins to equal a national abortion ban. That's what we're facing right now. And it could get much worse if this budget reconciliation bill that's pending in the Senate right now comes to pass.
Political Commentator
We know the American people hate this disastrous budget bill. I think if there's a positive story that's come out of this, it does feel like the attention, it has reached the population. I mean, any one of the polls, whether it's a Fox poll, a Quinnipiac poll, whatever, it has this thing at 32% max approval, and often it's in the 20s, which is as low as you get, you know, but still you have, you know, your Republican colleagues know that this will kill the people in their state. You have the House members of Republican members of Congress. They know they're going to take away jobs and health. They know they're going to kill their people and throw them on the street. Yet they do it for their dear leader, because he calls it a big, beautiful bowel and he uses it. It's a crazy thing to observe. I want to give you the final word in this interview, but how do you, how do you go, how do they go along with it? You know, these people, I mean, you know, and the people who are like, oh, I'm so concerned. I'm just so concerned.
Senator Tammy Baldwin
They do it for their dear leader, but they're also doing it for their dear donors. Because the big beneficiaries of this bill, this big beautiful betrayal, as some of us call it, is that they are taking away 15 million people's health care and 3 million people's food security. And they're doing that to make room in their budget to partially pay for enormous tax breaks for big corporations and the very wealthy. That's the net effect of this bill. And they need, you know, I'm so glad that the, that we're informing the public of what's in here. Because it is the voices of the people that will ultimately help us prevail.
Political Commentator
Want to thank you so much, Senator Tammy Baldwin, for joining us. As always, thank you for introducing the legislation as well.
Senator Tammy Baldwin
The Women's Health Protection Act. Yes. Which would restore Roe v. Wade across the land.
Political Commentator
Before we go about it, just talk to our viewers about that quickly.
Senator Tammy Baldwin
Absolutely. So once the Dobbs decision came out, it became very important for us to reintroduce a bill that's been around for a while called the Women's Health Protection Act. This would restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land. But most most importantly, at a time when every state is interfering with reproductive freedom in different ways, it would allow us to stop these medically unnecessary laws from being in effect. In Wisconsin, before Roe came down, everybody who was seeking an abortion had to have a 24 hour waiting period. They had to have an invasive mandatory ultrasound, whether medically necessary or not. They had to have counseling that included some things that doctors had to tell their patients that were medically inaccurate, all because the state legislature said that must happen. In other states, there's different burdens and hurdles, et cetera. The Women's Health Protection act would not only restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land, but it would prevent states from enacting these medically unnecessary hurdles to accessing full comprehensive reproductive care.
Political Commentator
Glad we got that in. I think it's so important, and again, not that we should be dictated and guided by polling, but this is an issue that Americans overwhelmingly support and we're being dragged by extremists and right wing demagogues into attacking women's reproductive rights over and over again. It's absolutely ridiculous. And it's something that with all of the distractions that the Trump regime throws our ways, we shouldn't forget about the ultimate portrayal these MAGA Republicans did in women's reproductive rights. And thank you for championing and as always, you've done throughout your career. Senator Tammy Baldwin, thanks for joining us. Thank you for having me and everybody Hit Subscribe. Let's get to 6 million subscribers. The truth is more important than ever. Check out our new Truth over lies collection@store.midas touch.com all 100% USA union made.
The MeidasTouch Podcast: Episode Summary
Episode Title: Sen. Baldwin Blasts Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Betrayal’
Release Date: June 29, 2025
In this compelling episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast, hosts Ben, Brett, and Jordy Meiselas delve into the intense political landscape surrounding recent Senate hearings. The episode, titled "Sen. Baldwin Blasts Trump’s 'Big, Beautiful Betrayal'," features a thorough analysis of Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin's critique of Republican budget proposals and their implications on democracy, healthcare, and women's reproductive rights.
The podcast begins by highlighting a pivotal moment in the Senate, where Democratic Senators have taken a firm stance against Republican nominees and policies. The hosts emphasize how Democrats are adeptly navigating the hearings to hold Trump-appointed officials accountable.
Political Commentator (03:28): "Republicans did not see this coming. Essentially, the Democrats in the Senate hijacked the MAGA Republican senators' hearings..."
Democratic Senators, including Welch, Whitehouse, Murray, and Van Hollen, are showcased for their strategic cross-examinations of Trump’s nominees. The podcast underscores the effectiveness of their questioning in exposing potential misconduct and policy misalignments.
Senator Tammy Baldwin (04:30): "Who won the 2020 election for president of the United States?"
(04:30)
A substantial portion of the episode is dedicated to Senator Baldwin's critique of the Republican-led budget reconciliation bill, derogatorily termed the "Big, Beautiful Betrayal." Baldwin articulates the bill's detrimental effects on millions of Americans, particularly targeting healthcare and food assistance programs.
Senator Tammy Baldwin (19:28): "They are taking away 15 million people's health care and 3 million people's food security... to make room in their budget to partially pay for enormous tax breaks for big corporations and the very wealthy."
Senator Baldwin passionately discusses the ongoing assault on women's reproductive rights, especially in the wake of the Dobbs decision's third anniversary. She connects the budget bill's provisions to a broader national strategy that effectively constitutes a de facto abortion ban.
Senator Tammy Baldwin (15:47): "Each of those steps, adding one after another, begins to equal a national abortion ban. That's what we're facing right now."
The podcast highlights Baldwin's introduction of the Women's Health Protection Act, aimed at restoring Roe v. Wade and preventing states from enacting medically unnecessary restrictions on reproductive care.
Senator Tammy Baldwin (20:37): "The Women's Health Protection Act would not only restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land, but it would prevent states from enacting these medically unnecessary hurdles to accessing full comprehensive reproductive care."
Wrapping up, the hosts commend Senator Baldwin for her unwavering stance against the budget bill and her efforts to safeguard healthcare and reproductive rights. They urge listeners to support the Women's Health Protection Act and stay informed about legislative developments.
Political Commentator (21:58): "It's something that with all of the distractions that the Trump regime throws our ways, we shouldn't forget about the ultimate portrayal these MAGA Republicans did in women's reproductive rights."
The episode closes with a call to action, encouraging listeners to subscribe and support the podcast's mission to promote democracy and expose political betrayals.
This episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast serves as a crucial analysis of current political maneuvers affecting American democracy, healthcare, and women's rights. By providing detailed insights and powerful quotes, the podcast ensures that listeners are well-informed and motivated to support democratic values.