Transcript of Andy Kim on Fighting Trump and Fighting for Americans New

Total mayhem is erupting in Congress as Donald Trump's catastrophic and unlawful war continues to backfire, as Donald Trump now trying to surreptitiously evacuate US bases in the Middle East, moving all of the equipment over to Israel while having our troops remain very vulnerable to Iranian strikes in these containerized barracks after Iran has been able to strike the early detection systems, the radar systems, arms and some of the other interceptor devices as well. Also, the US running low on to having no interceptors at this point, as lots of top military officials are now leaking to the press. But we've been warning about that for months and months and months. Let me show you what was going down on Capitol Hill before Pete Hegseth was set to testify in Congress. Of course, we're covering that as well. You've got MAGA Republican Senator Jim Banks of Indiana saying that Donald Trump has brought peace to the Middle East and that he's done so much for lasting peace with the Abraham Accords. Things have never been better in the Middle East according to the MAGA Republicans right now, as articulated or not articulated by Jim Banks. Let's play it.

Uh, President Trump has done so much to bring long-term lasting peace to the Middle East. The Abraham Accords, the first Trump term, and now what he's doing in this term to wipe out Iran's military, to wipe out their ability to have a nuclear weapon and to prevent them from funneling money to Hezbollah and Hamas and terrorist proxy groups.

And you go from MAGA Jim Banks to MAGA Mike Johnson. MAGA Mike Johnson was asked by a reporter, all right, we're 5 months in, there have been tons of casualties. Uh, we know the death toll now around 18 killed in action. Uh, the injuries, I believe, by the way, the fatalities is more.

Um, injuries being reported about 447.

By the way, I believe that number's closer to 3,000 to 5,000, uh, and I believe there's a lot of serious traumatic brain injury.

So MAGA Mike, do you think that Congress should assert its job with respect to blocking this war? That's what Article 1 of the Constitution says, that the right to declare war, it's Congress Not Donald. You wanna do your damn job, MAGA Mike, or you wanna act like a fricking loser, MAGA Mike, like a war criminal, aider and abettor, MAGA Mike, while trying to quote the scripture here. Play this clip.

The, the administration's working very hard. The Commander-in-Chief and the, and the whole, uh, Department of War, they're working very hard to bring this to a resolution. There's a lot of discussions about how that will be done. We're, we're all, uh, closely watching those developments. Of course, I don't think an AUMF is in order right now. I think we need to bring this to, to a resolution. Look, I, I think it's important for all of our international partners— is my personal view— to, to have a role in this. I mean, we've got all of our allied nations through NATO, we've got the Arab countries over there, the Gulf states that are in closest proximity to Iran. Iran has now fired on all of its neighbors and they're turning everybody in the world into an enemy. And I think this is an important moment of history for, for all of the world community to decide how they want to handle this. It's— it shouldn't just be America's obligation. My view is that everybody needs to play a role. So we'll see how that develops. I think we have to allow the space to do that. And I know that this administration is working around the clock to resolve that in a way so that we don't suffer any more troop losses.

This is a great tragedy. It shouldn't happen. But it is a very important, very important objective that I believe we've achieved to ensure that the largest sponsor of state— of terrorism does not have a nuclear weapon. That would be a disaster for everybody, and everybody around the world understands that. Now we've got to wrap it up. Yes, ma'am. Fourth row.

Going to another MAGA Republican, Pete Sessions.

I'm very happy with what I'm seeing right now, he said. I'm very happy, he says. This will make Iran want to negotiate with us. We bomb 'em more. That will make them want to do a deal. Are y'all idiots? I mean, are you really that stupid or that malicious or both? You believe your lesson from the last 5 months, bomb them more and Iran's gonna be like, you know, I'm gonna negotiate with them and also stop pretending that you've obliterated them? What are you even destroying if you claim that they were totally obliterated 5 months ago? Nothing that these Trump MAGA losers say makes any sense at all because they are liars and they are vile scum. Just be getting our troops killed, aiding and abetting genocide. The hell are these people doing here? Play this clip.

They are now moving forward to hit key rail sites. Key sites of traffic. I'm very happy with what I see from a perspective of instead of just fighting this war, hoping that, that the Iranians would sooner come to the table or later, we now are going to force this issue and it is not going to be easy. But we're now going way deeper. A series of at least one B-52 came and delivered what would have been an entire armament from an aircraft carrier in one, one opportunity. They flew from the United States to do this. So the administration is taking the steps that will be necessary to put a real pinch on the Iranians. And I am very supportive of this.

Then you got MAGA Republican Senator Jim Banks right here. He goes, and here's the thing. Momdani's the problem.

Okay?

We are engaged right now in a major international war, and Israel is our friend. They are the closest friend that we have. As we attack Canada and as we attack everybody else in the world, Israel's our friend right now. And Momdani is saying that the International Criminal Court issuing a warrant for Netanyahu's arrest is something that should be in Divorced?

No way.

Here's what Banks says.

Play it. We're engaged in, in a major international war, and Israel is our ally to take out the bad guys in Iran and make sure that they never have a nuclear weapon. And because we know what will happen if they do, and we— Israel is our cherished ally and import— an important part of that, uh, strategy to accomplish that. So it just goes to show how, how, how radical this mayor is who is the leader of the Democrat Party. Today. And we can't, uh, we can't ignore what he's saying, but we have to recognize that this, this shows the cancer that has infected the Democrat Party today.

More MAGA Mike over here who's asked, hey, MAGA Mike, MAGA Mike, do you think this is a good strategy for Donald Trump to spend now until midterms relitigating the 2020 election that he lost? Oh, I didn't hear that he did that at all. I just heard that he said that he wants integrity in the election. You know who the force For no integrity in the election, it's Donald Trump. You wanna know, in my opinion, where the election fraud comes from? You, MAGA Mike, your party, Donald Trump, insurrectionist. That's the issue. What are you talking about? You know, oh, Donald Trump, he's just raised. You thought that national address was normal? Well, actually, if you thought that national address was normal and you believe that that was America at its best, Which is what these MAGAs say. No wonder you think the war in Iran is going well. However, for people who care about objective facts, for people who go WTF America, what the hell is going on?

By the way, preorder WTF America right now. It comes out in October, but if you preorder it now, it's really helpful. Um, so please preorder right now, hit the QR code, or we have a link in the description below. But I digress.

We care about facts, MAGA Mike, and you are a liar and a liar that is killing us.

Play this clip.

President Trump stopped relitigating the 2020 election and moved on from that.

Well, I didn't hear him in that address say he wasn't relitigating the 2020 election. What he did was— I got a couple of notes here, but some of the things that he announced: 280,000 noncitizens have been found to be on voter rolls in America. I mean, if that doesn't cry for the passage of the Save America Act into law, I don't know what does. He announced that foreign adversaries have compromised American election data. And that our election system is vulnerable to threats. I mean, that should concern every American citizen. This isn't about relitigating 2020. This is about making sure that people have faith in our election system. If you do not have a free and fair election—

And then of course, Steve Scalise, the other top Republican in the House, is like, the Bolsheviks, you know, every American wakes up and you know what they care about? The Bolsheviks are crushing America. The Bolsheviks. The bullshit, the Bolsheviks are doing it. How about you're the Bolshevik? How about you and Donald Trump behave like the Duma, that you all behave like Stalin, that you all behave actually as Donald Trump said, I'd be the greatest communist like Lenin. Like, well, you take over corporations, okay? The modes and methods of construction and development and production. Y'all take over. Trump, I would just promise everything and never deliver. Yeah. That's what you all do. You promise miracle cures, miracle fixes, most favored nations healthcare, which you don't deliver. Doge dividend checks. You said healthcare would be available and cheaper than ever, that everything would be affordable, electricity would be half off. Y'all lie about everything. But here, the Bolsheviks.

Let's play it.

Look, the Bolshevik takeover of the Democrat Party is in full swing. And communism is on the ballot this November against freedom. Make no mistake about that. The lines have never been more clear in an election.

Now I want to bring in Senator Andy Kim from New Jersey. Senator Kim, great to see you as always. And sadly, as always, you see Donald Trump doing things here and abroad with absolutely no plan, with malice, with recklessness. It is causing massive pain and suffering and psychological torture of people here in the United States with the suffering economy, with healthcare being ripped away, with the government that not only doesn't care but is affirmatively attacking the people. And that is of course related to what's going on abroad with this never-ending war and with it being very obvious that when you have a con artist in chief saying, deal, deal, deal, I did the greatest deal, I did a deal, war, war, war, war, war, it's really disturbing and damaging and devastating. What do you make of this moment?

Oh, I mean, this is such a dangerous moment, and I am just so furious that we're here. I mean, the fact that we are months into this war. I'm somebody who worked in national security. I was a diplomat. I served in Afghanistan. I've been in combat areas, and war zones. And the idea that a president is just sending our service members into harm's way without a plan, without a strategy— we've seen the loss of life, we've seen the loss of tens of billions of dollars of money from American families' pockets. And for what purpose? I mean, the president is delusional about this war in the same way he's delusional about the 2020 election that he lost. And, and we're paying the price for this. And it's just getting worse and worse. So I hope the American people see this for what it is, which is a strategic failure by a president who is putting his own reputation, his own legacy ahead of being commander-in-chief, and is putting our service members in harm's way with no objectives, no end in sight. And that is the absolute wrong thing to be doing at a time when the American people are begging for relief when it comes to high prices and affordability.

Right.

And it's shattering everything.

It's shattering what's going on here. It's shattering whatever was left of a potential legacy, which I thought really didn't even exist to the, you know, to the first place. And talk about that, though, because of your national intelligence background, the level of, you know, intelligence that would go into making assessments. And it just genuinely seems on a day-to-day basis that Donald Trump posts these things on social media and just kind of— and he's— and it's just kind of winging it. And his North Star is— tends to be always doing the exact wrong thing. I mean, right now it's let's bomb them more. The lesson from Trump is, you know what we learned for the past 5 months?

Bomb more. Then let's announce it on CENTCOM like an episode, like we're starting, we're ending.

Hey, guys, You want to do a deal now? And meanwhile, our troops are in harm's way. We don't have the THAAD and Patriot interceptors really anymore, seems to even be able to stop, you know, or, or, or, or— right. So, so what's going on?

Yeah, I mean, look, we're immensely exposed right now. Our service members are in harm's way, and we have a president that is just living in a fantasy. I mean, he's delusional about this, and there's no National Security Council anymore in any real way to be able to give real updates about what's happening. You know, we have Secretary Hagseth running around the halls of Congress right now trying to pretend like this is all part of the plan, that we need to just give them more money to then just throw into the bottomless pit of this new forever war that we seem to be involved in. Meanwhile, Iran is just watching us flailing. You know, we are at such a moment of weakness. And the other thing I want to just contrast this is while, while the president's you know, launching these new attacks on Iran. He is literally going after our— some of our closest allies, through, you know, throwing up a 50% tariff against Canada. I mean, we are so alone as a country right now. You know, he has done his best to be able to burn these bridges, you know, insulting our NATO allies and then going right back into this war that is raising prices again.

Over $75 billion that American families have had to spend more when it came to gas and diesel since the beginning of this war, not to mention the tens of billions of dollars more when it comes to our defense expenditures. I mean, this is costing us a fortune and raising our prices. Meanwhile, he doesn't even want to sign his name on the housing law. Like, good for him. You know what? I didn't even want him to sign that housing law because then now he can't take any credit for it because he did nothing for for it. All he's doing is making things worse.

Yeah.

And with all of these things that he's doing, we're losing. I mean, we are losing. Everything he does, and you know, what else would you expect from a lifelong loser? But he's, he's losing. But we could always talk about, you know, that because he loses every day, and it is, it's, it's tough right now to wake up and see the person who's supposed to be in charge putting the entire country through humiliation. Rachel, but you made a big You made a big announcement, you know, earlier today, because as I've always been saying, yes, we need to make sure we oppose this guy and this regime with every inch and with every ounce of energy that we have. But we also have to be saying, well, here's what we're for. So talk to us about, you know, I think an important thing is that when you're doing— when you're seeing and you're speaking to your constituents and they're talking about the cost of living, they're talking about health care, they're talking about what their families are going through. So talk about your next—

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, top of list right now, when we see the guts to gutting of Medicaid, uh, you know, the Affordable Care Act, you know, some of the hardest conversations I had are parents worried about what kind of care their kid's gonna get, you know, a kid with disabilities or a kid that needs support for chronic illnesses like asthma and others. Uh, what I put forward, uh, is a vision for this country that is going to guarantee healthcare for every child. I call it MediKids. In the same way that we have this pillar of universal care for our seniors, we need it for our children. You know, this is something that would automatically enroll every child born in this country into healthcare to be able to provide that guarantee. Right now, 4.4 million kids, 4.4 million American kids in this country do not have health insurance, and a staggering 23 million kids are underinsured, which means that their healthcare doesn't meet their needs. I mean, that is outrageous in the richest, most powerful country in the world. And we can do this. We can ensure every single child for a fraction of our defense budget.

I mean, this is something that is absolutely necessary, needs to fulfill that promise as we build towards universal care. I think this argument here focusing on the kids can really spark the kind of debate and discussion we need in this nation about what we're for, about how we can save people money and how we can ensure that we're making sure that our children, our most precious children, are protected.

You know, so for our listeners and our viewers who are watching this, though, you know, they'll say, you know, great, but with the Republicans and MAGA seem to be focusing more on how do we take taxpayer dollars or increase the debt for never-ending wars and for Donald Trump's vanity projects and ballrooms and whatever the hell he's, you know, wakes up and putting his face on money or whatever it is, you know, what's, what's your message to the people? Because I think people will say, great, you know, Senator Kim is fighting for us. And there are a lot of people, you know, out there you know, who would join Senator Kim in this effort. But what do we do now when you have this maniac out there saying, here's— you know what I feel that he'll say, look, he'll go out and he'll say, look, you have a concrete plan. But Trump will say, you know, look, I've done a most favored nations provision and everybody's health care right now is 700,000% less than what yours is. And people are like, no, no, it isn't. What are you talking about?

Yeah, I mean, look, what we can say about what Trump has done is that because of the Medicaid cuts, there are 2 million fewer kids on Medicaid and CHIP now than there were in January 2025 when he came into office. That's what he's accomplished— 2 million fewer kids. And that's going to add on top of the 4.4 million that we said are, are uninsured. We're going to continue to see that number skyrocket. But again, as you pointed out, and I agree with you, like, we can't just be talking about what we're against. Yes, I will fight with tooth, every tooth and nail against these cuts, as I have been, and I will push for it. But as someone who ran in a midterm election when Trump was in his first term, what I, what I know is you got to show people what you're for. You got to show what that vision is, what that change is, because I'll be honest, Just restoring Medicaid to where it was before Trump came into office again, that's not good enough. You know, again, there are over 4 million kids without insurance. What is our vision? How are we actually going to solve these problems and try to prevent someone like Trump in the future from dismantling it again?

And so I really do believe that we need to show the voters, show the American people what it is that we want to be pushing forward on. I don't think we've done that enough. And I think that that's going to be critical for us to create the contrast and not just build off of the outrage and the anger, but channel that frustration into energy towards actually building something. I think that's where we're going to have to go through the midterms leading up to the 2028 election. And I want a central part of that to be about Medicaid. This idea that we can provide this guarantee, that we can take that weight and that concern and anxiety off of the shoulders of parents. And be able to look all these kids in the eye and say, you will get to be able to see a doctor whenever you need to. You will get treated whenever you need to. You know, that is something I believe our country needs to do.

Senator Andy Kim, senator from New Jersey, thanks for joining us.

Thanks again.

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