Transcript
Ben Meiselis (0:00)
Another Republican Congress member just abruptly resigned. MAGA Republican Congress member Troy Nels over the weekend announced his resignation from the House of Representatives. So that would make the sixth MAGA Republican House of Representative member to announce their resignation. Now, Nel says he's going to serve out the remainder of his term. For now, we'll see about that. But we are expecting there to be other resignations. A wave of resignations we've been talking about and we've heard are coming. And the question is, will some of these additional resignations take place before the midterms, thus switching the speakership from MAGA Mike Johnson to Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffrey? So here's what we learned about Troy Nels. This MAGA Republican from Texas. He says he's not seeking reelection. He's from Richmond in Texas. He's been MAGA through and through. I mean, just take a look at the outfits that he would wear in the House of Representatives and in the Capitol building. He'd wear these weird Trump shirts that never surrender, the weird American flag bow ties. This is a real human being, folks, who is a member of Congress or was a member of Congress. He writes the following in announcing his resignation. After more than 30 years in law enforcement, serving and protecting my community as a police officer, constable for Bend county sheriff and army veteran, and six years representing this district in Congress, I have made the decision after conversations with my beautiful bride and my girls over the Thanksgiving holiday to focus on my family and return home after this Congress. Now, these MAGA Republican Congress members seem to be realizing that they will be in the minority soon and that there is about to be a blue tsunami that will wipe them out of the House of Representatives. Accountability is coming to them. Accountability is coming to this Trump regime. And we see these rats abandoning the sinking ship that is maga. Just a notable fact about Troy Nels, though, by the way, is that he was fired from his position as a police officer by the Richmond Police Department in Texas on January 28, 1998. There was a termination letter on January 28, around that period from Bill Whitworth, who cited 19 policy violations committed by Nels over the prior year, including destruction of evidence after being instructed to log it as found property, improper arrest, disobeying orders, making false statements, charging personal items to the department, and failing to perform required duties. While he appealed that and claimed that it was arbitrary and capricious, the termination was upheld. Just to give you a sense of who these MAGA people are, more on Nels in a moment. But I want to remind you of the reporting by Punchbowl News. They cover the happenings in the House of Representatives before Punchbowl News reported on this the prior weekend. The Midas Touch Network was the first to report this. But Punchbowl News has excellent sourcing on the Hill and they spoke to a lot of people as well and here's what they wrote last week. They said a few other GOP members messaged us over the weekend saying that they too are considering retiring in the middle of the term, not even waiting until the end of the term is over. Here's one particularly exercised senior House Republican. Here's a off MAGA member. This entire White House team has treated all members like garbage and Mike Johnson has let it happen because he wanted it to happen. This is the sentiment of nearly all appropriators. Authorizers haw hawks, doves, rank and file. The arrogance of this White House team is off putting to members who are run roughshod and threatened. They don't even allow little wins like announcing small grants or even responding from agencies. Not even the high profile. The regular rank and file random members are more upset than ever. Members know they are going into the minority after the midterms. More explosive early resignations are coming. It's a tinderbox. Morale has never been lower. Mike Johnson will be stripped of his gavel and they will lose the majority before his term is out. That's coming from Republicans senior Republican sources in the House of Representatives. Now I should also mention that over this past weekend we've been hearing from MAGA Republican state representatives, like state senators in Indiana, who are absolutely livid at the Trump regime tactics of trying to intimidate them. For example, in the state of Indiana to try to gerrymander their maps before the decade redistricting is supposed to begin. So we heard very publicly from two MAGA Republican senators in Indiana this past weekend and they called out Donald Trump's despicable tactics. Both those Indiana Republican state senators were also victims of swatting attempts after Donald Trump essentially threatened them and the other Republican state senators who didn't want to go along with Donald Trump's gerrymander plan. For example, Indiana MAGA Republican State Senator Greg Walker said, I'm not coming to the Oval Office. I don't want to meet Donald Trump. I've made my decision. I'm not agreeing to his gerrymander plan in Indiana. Specifically, Greg Walker from Columbus in Indiana said the following I refuse the invitation, but the underling of Trump who reached out to me is trying to influence the election on my dime. That individual works for me. He works for you. He's on my payroll. He's on your payroll, and he's campaigning on company time. That's a violation of the Hatch Act. He's a federal employee. He works in the White House. But does anyone care about the rules anymore? Not that I can tell. How does Trump even have the time to mess with a nobody like me? With all the important matters that are to take his attention as the leader of the executive branch in this nation, there is no way that he should have to have a conversation with me about Indiana map making when that's not his business, for starters. But secondly, doesn't he have anything better to do? I can make a big list of things that are more important for him to focus on. Then Walker went on to say, what this is really about is Donald Trump's afraid he's gonna lose in the midterms and then be impeached. Now, Michael Boask, who's also an Indiana state senator, he reacted very strongly to Donald Trump using the R word. Donald Trump called the governor of Minnesot. Want to repeat the word. But just so you know, for the idea of just saying what it is, he called Governor Walls retarded and said he's seriously retarded. And Michael Bowen, I'm sorry for using the language. I'm just repeating what Trump had said. So there's no confusion what I mean. So this Indiana Republican state senator says, many of you have asked me my position on redistricting. I have been unapologetic advocate for people with intellectual disabilities since the birth of my second daughter. Those of you that don't know me or my family might not know that my daughter has syndrome. This is not the first time our president has used these insulting and derogatory references. And his choices of words have consequences. I will be voting no on redistricting. Perhaps he can use the next 10 months to convince voters that his policies and behavior deserve a congressional majority. Now, of course, you know about Marjorie Taylor Greene's resignation, which is going to be taking place, of course, the first week of January. We have the big special election in Tennessee's 7th congressional district with Afton Bain, who you've seen a lot on the Midas Touch Network. I've interviewed her. Numerous other hosts have interviewed her. She's running against Matt Van Epstein. I mean, Matt Van Epps, the MAGA Republican who wants to continue to cover up the child sex trafficking ring that is the Epstein files. He's MAGA through and through. He supports Trump's tariffs. He hates Tennessee. He hates Americans. He's the worst candidate imaginable. We'll see what happens. It's a plus 22 district in 10. But Afton Bain, the pro democracy Democratic candidate, is showing signs that she's making this a very close race. And I mean, it's, it's a dead heat right now. It's maybe it's within the margin of error. It would be one of the biggest upsets in the history of politics if Afton Bain can pull it off. But she's got the momentum right now. Hey, everybody, Ben Meiselis here from the Midas Touch Network.