Brett Meiselas (28:11)
I just want to explain the framework of how a bill becomes a law and then I'm going to show you these Biden clips because I think it's important. Right? Remember the school House Rocks videos? I just think there isn't like civics understanding at all right now, right that there are two chambers in Congress. There's the House of Representatives, there's the Senate. They both have to pass a bill. It has to be reconciled so the language is agreed to by both. The bill then goes once it's passed on the desk of the President. The President then signs it into law. Right now the Democrats for at least a short period of time will continue to control the Senate. Chuck Schumer is the Majority Leader. On the other hand, the MAGA Republicans control the House of Representatives through maga. Mike Johnson and because MAGA Mike Johnson in the House blocks anything and everything. President Biden, who got all of his agenda done when he controlled all three chambers at the beginning of his presidency, has been unable to do that since the MAGA Republicans took over the House of representatives. So the MAGAs have blocked everything from bipartisan immigration bills to, you know, other aspects that would help workers. All of that was being blocked. Heck, the House of Representatives is unable to even basically pass disaster relief. You have a lot of MAGA Republicans saying, why would we be given. So it's probably a bad impression of them because I'll do it again though. Why would we be given our, you know, hard earned taxpayer dollars to the people in North Carolina and the people in Florida and the people in, you know, in all these areas that have been hit with the hurricanes, you know, because they, when FEMA's out there doing this, because they go and they just spread all of Donald Trump, Trump's conspiracy. So here's the thing. One of the most basic functions in the House of Representatives, because they have the power of the purse, is to put forward a budget, right? And to basically pass spending omnibus bills that deal with all of the major agencies and departments for the year. But they couldn't pass a budget under MAGA Mike Johnson. So instead they do these, what are called CRS Continuing resolutions, which basically says, all right, four more months in extension, six more months in extension, three more months, we need an extension. And it basically keeps the government just running without actually doing their job of passing a budget. And these MAGA Republicans, like the student who the night before an exam goes, oh, crap, I haven't even studied for this thing, they try to like scramble and put it all together kind of very quickly. And so that's what MAGA Mike Johnson was doing this week. Because they're out there, you know, focusing on, oh, we gotta ban a transgender congresswoman from the bathroom and we got to get on Sean Hannity and we got to do all of these things. But they don't do their most basic job, which is to just pass the budget so that our government can actually run. They don't want to do that. So that's why we always get right to this point with Republicans. It's not a both sides issue. It's Republicans who run it this way. This was not the case with Democrats, at least in recent history. And the Republicans run it and then it's like, oh my God, there's about to be, you know, government shutdown, which could cause a recession. And all of these Things are going to happen if they don't do this. So then they scramble, they manufacture a crisis. They start tweeting at each other and attacking each other. And this happens over and over again. There's no, you know, there's a reason why 75% of Americans have a unfavorable view of Congress. Think about this. That 75%, Congress's approval ratings, 25%, and it's run by the magas. But because of gerrymandering, these people keep getting put into these positions because these districts are carved out in such ways that it's hard to not elect the people who are causing these problems to begin with. And it was one of the things in my interview with President Biden that he talked about wanting to fix and dedicate his time and career to after he leaves the Oval Office, which is to try to focusing on making government function again. President Biden was there not to be like a disruptor, but to be a calm, confident, normalizing voice. And one of the things that President Biden told me is, look, what I want my legacy to be is that I kept my word and I did everything that I said that I was going to do. I didn't lie, I didn't exaggerate. I did the things I said I was going to do. I brought us out of the cataclysmic condition our country was in as a result of Trump's mishandling, or you could say malicious handling of COVID I got us to a place where we brought inflation under control, which was caused by Donald Trump adding $8 trillion of debt. And we were able to, you know, be in a position where I'm handing over the country. I'm passing the baton in a good condition. That was my job as the president of all Americans, Red state or blue state. That's what he said in the interview. Now Donald Trump's out there already acting erratically and, and saying, you know, I'm tariffing this, I'm tariffing that. I'm doing mass deportations, all these things that are, frankly, just very bad for the economy, and the economy is reacting a certain way. Brett will talk about that, you know, that part in a little bit. But let's talk about this Biden interview, shall we? Brett? Jordy Midas. Mighty. Let me give you my thesis before showing you some of the clips right here. I thought it was important that I gave a tough interview, that I did the interview in a way that was fair, that I did it in a dignified way that was respectful of the Oval office and a President Biden's position that I would push back appropriately where there were areas and questions that Americans were concerned about. But ultimately, my job, I thought, as the interviewer, was to do a throwback to what journalism once was, which was me, as the journalist, shouldn't be the center of attention. I'm not trying to hog the limelight and be, me, me, me, look at me, look at me. I asked that question. I did a good gotcha question. No, to me, it was to ask President Biden a series of insightful, difficult, controversial, but informative questions and listen. It's an important skill. Listen to what he was saying. He's the President of the United States. And allow him to speak, and you could hear his plans, his philosophies, without me interrupting. By the way, for those who watch my interview style with governors and Congress members and senators, that's how my approach is in general. And I feel a sense of pride for the whole Midas Mighty in how I think we ultimately implemented that strategy and really did an insightful, informative, personal interview where you got to see the side of him. And I don't think really people got to see in the past four years because we allowed him or any of our subjects in an interview to speak and to talk and to explain their positions not in sound bites, but from the heart. So that was my philosophy right there. Doing it.
