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Jeff Bridges
Morning Zoe. Got donuts.
Zoe
Jeff Bridges why are you still living above our garage?
Jeff Bridges
Well I dig the mattress and I want to be in a T mobile commercial like you teach me.
Zoe
So Dana oh no, I'm not really prepared. I couldn't possibly at t mobile get the new iPhone 17 Pro on them. It's designed to be the most powerful iPhone yet and has the ultimate pro camera system.
Jeff Bridges
Wow, impressive. Let me try. T Mobile is the best place to get iPhone 17 Pro because they've got the best network.
Senator Ruben Gallego
Nice. You heard them.
Podcast Host
T Mobile is the best place to get the new iPhone 17 Pro on.
Senator Ruben Gallego
Us with eligible traded in any condition.
Jeff Bridges
So what are we having for lunch?
Zoe
Dude, my work here is done.
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Zoe
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Podcast Host
As Donald Trump's dark past is surfacing, the House GOP and Donald Trump are keeping the government shut down to protect pedophiles. It's a direct post from Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego, and the facts bear that out. Refusing to swear in Adelita Grijalva, Arizona's congresswoman elect from the 7th congressional district is what MAGA Mike Johnson and the MAGA Republicans are doing now. And at the same time they refused to swear her in, there was a hearing before the Senate committee where they brought in Attorney General Pam Bondi. Here's what Senator Whitehouse asked her. If the FBI found photographs of Donald Trump, that Trump's biographer and someone who was potentially going to be Epstein's biographer, guy by the name of Michael Wolf, said that Epstein told him that there were these photos of Donald Trump and little girls of indeterminate age or girls of unclear age that potentially were kept in a safe, unclear if those exist or not. But Wolf said that that's what Epstein told him. So Senator Whitehouse asked the question of Bondi today. Here, play this clip. Did the FBI find those photographs that have been discussed publicly by a witness who claimed Jeffrey Epstein showed them to him? You don't know anything about that.
Senator Ruben Gallego
Okay.
Podcast Host
Senator Durbin, then ask this question to Pam Bondi. Let's play it with you.
Jeff Bridges
Is to read somebody that you mentioned. I never heard of Reid Hoffman. So who gave the order to flag records related to President Trump?
Senator Ruben Gallego
To flag records for President Trump to.
Jeff Bridges
Flag any records which included his name?
Zoe
I'm not going to discuss anything about that with you.
Jeff Bridges
Eventually you're going to have to answer for your conduct in this. You won't do it today, but eventually you will.
Podcast Host
My Pam Bondi impression. Who are you talking about? What are you talking about? What do we want to talk about? Anything. Right there. I'm not answering any question. Reid Hoffman. I'm just gonna start.
Senator Ruben Gallego
Antifa.
Podcast Host
I'm gonna start saying names. And then here, when MAGA Mike Johnson was asked about swearing in Adelita Grijalva from Arizona's 7th congressional district, who would lend her name to become the 218 signature on that discharge petition to then have A vote to release the Epstein files. He just walks away. Here, play this clip, Congress, and get everybody back to work. I certainly pray and hope that they.
Senator Ruben Gallego
Will do that and they don't drag.
Podcast Host
This on for political purposes.
Senator Ruben Gallego
Thank you all so much.
Jeff Bridges
Speaker, where will you slur in?
Senator Ruben Gallego
Mr. Halva?
Podcast Host
You saw right there the House floor mag, and Mike sent the people home on vacation. He said. He said, go take a paid vacation. We're not even going to speak with Democrats yet alone. Negotiate with them. Horrible. Let's bring in Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego. Senator Gallego, great to see you. You wrote, House GOP is keeping the government shut down to protect pedophiles. Seems like an accurate statement, sir. What do you make of what's going on?
Senator Ruben Gallego
I mean, if this was on the other foot and this was Democrats doing this, the right would be losing their minds. Right. The fact is Mike Johnson is keeping the government closed to protect some of the most powerful men, not just Donald Trump in the world, from being exposed as pedophiles. They're willing to also not just keep government shut. What does that mean? They're gonna mess with our travel, they're gonna mess with pay, they're gonna mess with the ACA tax credits to make insurance cheaper for 24 million Americans. And they're doing it because they're afraid what's going to come out. I mean, this is just. It astounds me, the sheer amount of bullshit that we're all dealing with right now and the fact that this guy, you know, Speaker Johnson, will go on camera and say that the Democrats are the problem. We have no one to negotiate with. Right. Dementia. Donald Trump is half the time on the golf course. Mike Johnson's half the time hiding and, or avoiding putting his Congress, the Congress back into session. And so essentially, we only have the senators to talk about. And we're the problems here. We're the problems here. This is, this is, this is the worst written, you know, West Wing script I've ever seen at this point.
Podcast Host
Right. You know, it would be parody if it wasn't so real and impacting our lives. I mean, you talk about dementia. Donald. I mean, he's. Yesterday he was pretending that there were negotiations taking place with Democrats. I guess they've. They've moved off of their talking points of blaming migrants that wasn't working and transgender people from Peru that wasn't. That wasn't sticking. So now he went with. This is about health care, he said yesterday in the Oval Office. And we're negotiating very big things about Hamas. You know, health care, Hamas health care. That's what he said yesterday. He like, I guess the word H went into his mind. So he went there. But he said that they're negotiating. I spoke with Leader Jeffries, I spoke with Leader Schumer. They both did interviews.
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Here they go.
Podcast Host
We don't know what he's talking. He's not, he's. They're doing no negotiation. They're not even here. What in the world are they talking about? I mean, that in and of itself should be a major three alarm.
Senator Ruben Gallego
I mean, even when Donald Trump is in D.C. he's not really mentally in D.C. so we don't know who to negotiate with. And fact is we're getting closer to November 1st. Open enrollment happens then like Donald Trump has never dealt with insurance personally. He's never bought insurance. He's never had to go and figure out what insurance rates really are. Right. He's always had someone doing, doing that from. And you have Speaker Johnson and Leader Thune that know that. So they know how to manipulate this man. They, they have a goal. They want to destroy the aca. You know, Russ Vode also has and is able to manipulate this president too. And the president really, at the end of the day, you know, all he cares about is destroying a legacy of Obamacare. And 24 million Americans are going to suffer because of that. 24 million Americans are going to see their rate increase doubled in Arizona, a family of four is going to see their premiums increase by almost $4,400. If you are a swing Republican in a swing district in an off year election, why are you falling on this sword for this guy who's clearly checked out and needs to be probably put into some type of treatment program for whatever dementia he has. For Johnson, who comes from one of the safest districts in the country, who's covering for pedophiles, and for John Thune, who is in there for six years and he is not worried about members of Congress. But you have all these members of Congress are diving themselves on the sword for what? At the end of the day, they're going to end up losing their elections for something they could have easily affixed with just a simple compromise.
Podcast Host
You know, you hit on something that I hadn't even thought of the. For what? They don't know what they're doing. Because it also seems that the shutdown has at least either exasperated or it's probably more shed a light on Donald Trump's cognitive decline in the sense that he's not there to provide any kind of guidance or anything. And MAGA Mike is just waiting for his orders. Thune has compromised, you know, the old Thune that he pretended to be, you know, unfortunately. And so they don't know what to do. So they're out there. I mean, Mike Johnson this morning, he's like, I read a headline, and I haven't been read in on it. The headline did say that furloughs may be something, but I did read this. But we're going to have, like, you just. You read a headline. That's your press conference, that you read a headline before you gave a press conference. You're the speaker of the House. Like, what the hell are you talking about? But you're right. I mean, it's because Trump's out there, you know, speaking nonsense about Trump, 20, 28 hats in the Oval Office.
Senator Ruben Gallego
Yeah. I think they're trying to be asked their way through this and hoping that them being able to kind of keep talking to their MAGA base will actually solve this problem. The problem is it doesn't. At the end of the day, when people have to sign up to get insured again next year, this is when all reality hits. And the people that get affected the most, by the way, with these ACA cuts are actually in Trump country. So you could deny, you could lie, and you could even have some of your lies be believed by your base, but fact is, insurance premiums go up, people got to cut checks, Everything's really damn expensive right now. And your lies and all of a sudden become a liability. And you know, the worst again is someone like Mike Johnson is putting his swing seat members in trouble. Marjorie Taylor Greene, for fuck's sakes, is smarter about this. She literally has said, like, I hate the aca. I wish they say didn't exist, but there's no way I'm going to vote to increase the premiums of my constituents. Smart move. And yet you have people like Juan Siskamani, who wins by a couple thousand votes, couple other members of Congress win by a couple thousand votes that are literally marching themselves onto the gallows just because they just have zero opportunity nor really courage to step away from their leadership, from Donald Trump. And, you know, it's just dumb. In what world are you willingly voting to increase the premiums of your constituents in this year of all years, when people are paying extra for everything and you as an elected official, are going to actually add more costs to your constituents? Good luck explaining that.
Podcast Host
Want to ask you about Donald Trump's speech before the Navy. You're a veteran, Donald Trump is very cr. He goes out there and he's like, we were too woke after World War II. And then he, you know, attacks the troops in front of the Navy and starts saying incorrectly though, that we've lost. All of you lost this war, that war, this war because of your wokeness. And you posted the man who never pulled the trigger to defend his country, but sure talks shit like he understands this is the most dangerous type of military leaders. And he's someone who's famously dodged the draft five times lying that he had bone spurs and he's the one attacking veterans right there. It's deeply personal to you as well, I think in lots of veterans.
Senator Ruben Gallego
Well, do it personally because like I, you know, you know, I was in the Marines. I was in combat in very heavy combat. I had to make some decisions to save myself, save my Marines. I also conducted myself in the best possible ways that abided by the honor of being a Marine and my Marines did too. And when you have people like this guy who kind of glamorize the idea of war and think that we should just be able to, essentially what he's trying to say is just shoot whoever you want and destroy whole cities. I don't want to be part of that military. I don't want to be part of the military that does that type of warfare. The reason I joined the military is because I remember growing up hearing about the Marines of World War II, the Army of World War II, the Marines who had some really hard fights in the Vietnam War, and then, you know, the Marines and Army of the Persian Gulf War who, you know, despite some, you know, some glaring examples like the my like massacre, stuff like that, you know, the US Military does and tries to keep its honor, unlike our enemies. And you know, this guy just doesn't understand the impact of war, the impact of ordering these young men and women to do some really horrible things that are against the action, human nature. It's one thing to protect yourself, it's another thing to cause atrocities. He'll never understand that, number one, because he's a psychopath and can't really have feelings for other people or thoughts for other people. But number two, because he's never been in that situation, he's a selfish, selfish man. He's never have to ever deal with the idea of self sacrificing, the idea of a sacrifice for the greater good of a country or a cause. And I think he looks at our military as a bunch of play toys. And we're not play toys. I live with the consequences of the Iraq war every day. And people like him will never care about people like me. They don't care about the Ground Pounders. They don't care about the guys that are door kickers. They care about us in the grand scheme and the idea of it, but they don't understand what we actually usually suffer coming back from wars, you know?
Podcast Host
And finally, doesn't it seem like he enjoys this shutdown? It seems that they're like, he. You know, I've always had, like, a friend in the past who's no longer a friend, who seemed to be happy when things were bad in your life, and it was like, are you. Are you happy with the suffering? Everybody knows that. He seems to find this all funny, you know, the weird sombrero memes, which I just. But he seems to be enjoying this. He called it in a post a great opportunity. He's playing golf. He's bragging about the gold that's all over the White house on their TikTok account. The Team Trump account literally posted $100 bills flying around saying, Trump is making it rain on the country. He's talking about $1 commemorative coins, like, while the American people are suffering not just from the shutdown, but from the rising prices on affordability across the board. He just seems to be, like, at his most happiness at his happy place when people are suffering.
Senator Ruben Gallego
It's interesting. I actually, look, I think he's actually is not doing. Only mentally. He's doing well. I really think he's actually in decline. But number two, I actually do not think he's actually doing well with all this, because what I see, you know, dealing with a lot of, you know, men in power my whole life, what I see is the reactions of a very weak man because he's all over the place with his answers and how to respond to it. Finally, someone standing up to him, right? Democratic Party has been unified, saying, we're not going to let you cut the insurance of 24 million Americans. And for him, he's very confused. The fact that he can't bully his way out of this, that he can't embarrass people out of this if he can't just snap his finger out of it. And that's why you're seeing him kind of grasp at all these different things, to kind of help him feel good, to feel like he has some sort of power. What you're seeing is actual weakness. He's scared. He does not know how to get out of this without compromise. And to him, that means that he's going to end up looking weak because he started by such a strong stance that says, just open this up. And it. For someone like him, he, it does not come naturally to him. Like, he's always been able to either walk away, you know, like for all his failed properties or his jobs and just kind of like, you know, bluster his way into the next thing. And this one, he's going to either have to walk away and reinforce one way or the other the Affordable Care act, or he's going to have to shut down. And at some point, some of this starts affecting a lot of what he cares about. Right? So he cares about certain things that he wants to execute and whether or not the government shut down, eventually that starts having an effect on him. So I read this as an absolute show of weakness. And it does not surprise me that you're going to see him kind of lash out and he's going to keep trying different things because he knows that he has no power in this issue. And he's just trying to figure out how to figure out how he could still look tough and have control when he really doesn't.
Podcast Host
Finally, Senator, where do we go from here? What do you see happening next as one week, two weeks, three weeks, four weeks? You know, no, King, this could end.
Senator Ruben Gallego
Tomorrow very easily, right? I have zero trust that these guys are going to listen to a CR or budget. Right. If we put a budget together, they're just going to ignore it next year or however long we put a budget together for, right? They're just going to ignore it. What they can't ignore is once we give the tax credit to American citizens. And so for me, it's very simple. Give my people the tax credits. Give my people their tax credits. It's their money, so they could use it to bring down their premiums at the end of the day. And, you know, he can push, he can cry, he could do whatever he wants. But at some point, Johnson is going to have to talk to some of his Republican colleagues. Remember, he only controls the House representatives by three votes. And the idea that you're about to send some of your members of Congress into a very hard year after putting a Trump tax on people's insurance. Good luck. So if I was them, I would understand that the gig is up, get this deal done, and be able to move on to whatever stupid shit they want to do afterward.
Podcast Host
Senator Ruben Gallego, thanks for joining us. Have a good one, everybody hit subscribe. Let's hit that 6 million subscriber mark this month. Thanks for watching Be sure to add the Midas Touch podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcast for new updates every single day.
Date: October 7, 2025
Host: MeidasTouch Network (Ben, Brett & Jordy Meiselas)
Guest: Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ)
In this episode, the Meiselas brothers sit down with Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego to dissect the ongoing government shutdown, alleging that House Republicans and Speaker Mike Johnson are keeping the government closed to "protect pedophiles" tied to the Epstein scandal—including potentially Donald Trump. The conversation covers the real-world impact of the shutdown, the mental decline of former President Trump, the fecklessness of current GOP leaders, and Trump’s derogatory comments toward the military. Gallego's firsthand experiences as a veteran add a deeply personal touch to the discussion.
“The fact is Mike Johnson is keeping the government closed to protect some of the most powerful men, not just Donald Trump in the world, from being exposed as pedophiles.”
— Senator Ruben Gallego (05:53)
“Donald Trump is half the time on the golf course. Mike Johnson’s half the time hiding… This is the worst written, you know, West Wing script I’ve ever seen at this point.”
— Senator Ruben Gallego (05:53)
“Even when Donald Trump is in D.C., he’s not really mentally in D.C.… he’s clearly checked out and needs to be probably put into some type of treatment program for whatever dementia he has.”
— Senator Ruben Gallego (08:09)
“Marjorie Taylor Greene, for fuck’s sakes, is smarter about this… ‘there’s no way I’m going to vote to increase the premiums of my constituents.’ Smart move.”
— Senator Ruben Gallego (11:38)
“I had to make some decisions to save myself, save my Marines… When you have people like this guy who glamorizes the idea of war… I don’t want to be part of that military.”
— Senator Ruben Gallego (13:26)
“What I see is the reactions of a very weak man because he’s all over the place with his answers… He does not know how to get out of this without compromise.”
— Senator Ruben Gallego (16:41)
“Give my people the tax credits. Give my people their tax credits. It’s their money…”
— Senator Ruben Gallego (19:28)
This episode pulls back the curtain on the political drama of the government shutdown, presenting it as a choreographed crisis masking a deeper scandal and leadership void. Senator Gallego’s candor spotlights the stakes for ordinary Americans—especially on healthcare—and skewers both Trump’s mental fitness and the cravenness of House GOP leadership. Far from mere political gamesmanship, the episode paints the shutdown as a dire moment for democracy, with consequences for millions.