Transcript of GOP Leaders Lose Control on Live TV Over Trump’s Behavior

Gop leaders are absolutely losing it as they and Donald Trump have sent the United States government into a shutdown. Now they're pretending like they haven't even heard the things that Donald Trump's been saying. Hear no evil, see no evil. I guess that it doesn't even exist. Let me explain to you and show you what they're actually doing. You have MAGA Republican Senator Ron Johnson. He was asked on CNN how he feels about Donald Trump using AI images of Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffrey, wearing a sombrero and putting a mustache on him and putting AI words into the mouth of Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer. Do you think that is a good faith way to deal with very serious negotiations about the shutdown? And Republican Senator Ron Johnson from Wisconsin says, I don't know. I didn't see it. I have no clue what you're talking about. First time I'm hearing about it. I can't comment. Here, play this clip. President Trump posted an AI-generated depiction of minority leader, Hakeem Jeffrey, in a sombrero and mustache. Hakeem Jeffrey, the Democratic House leader, responded saying, Bigotry will get you nowhere. What was your response to this? If you saw it, are you comfortable with your party leader posting things like this?

I honestly haven't seen it. Don't know what you're talking about. Okay.

That's the thing. These people are so pathetic where you confront them with what Donald Trump says, and they go, I don't hear it, or they try to make a joke about it. I mean, you have Senator John Thune from South Dakota, the leader of the Republicans in the Senate, used to be viewed as a serious guy, moderate guy. Now, he's full-fledged mega. He was asked by Jesse Waters, Have you heard them ever talk so much about a sombrero? Then Senator Thune is like, We're getting great content out of it. We never thought we can get this vibe. We're getting real good content. You're getting good content? The American people are suffering and you are bragging about getting social media content for your weirdo dystopian right-wing magosphere? That's what you're talking about as the leader of the... You're getting good content? It's about Americans dying, and you're talking about sombrero content? Here, play this clip. Have you heard them ever talk so much about a sombrero? I Yeah, it's been a subject and really overused subject all day up here today. So who knew, right? You could get this content and get this vibe going about it.

So you see a theme here developing, right? Then you have MAGA Republican Mike Turner, who used to not be a MAGA guy. He was always viewed, Arm Services Committee. He was removed by MAGA, by Donald Trump and MAGA Mike Johnson from his position there. This guy was viewed as like a serious centrist, smart guy. He was asked by Kaitlyn Collins, Well, why do you think Trump didn't mean what he said at his speech in front of the military general Generals and Admirals, where he said, We're going to invade American cities, and he listed the cities. Mike Turner goes, He doesn't mean it. He doesn't mean it in the manner that you say. She goes, I'm directly quoting what he's saying. He's saying that he wants the generals and admirals to invade American cities. He's very specific. Oh, no, no, no, you don't get it. He meant something different. He meant something different. I didn't hear it. We're harvesting good content. Do you see what they're saying here? Again, this is why I say, I don't care what political party you're from. This is not normal behavior, of course, by Donald, but this justification is weak, cowardly, pathetic.

Here, play this clip.

Why do you think he didn't mean that? Because he said this could be an issue for the people in this room in terms of... He referenced very specific cities here in the United States, mostly Democratic-led cities.

Well, I think he doesn't mean it in the manner in which you said it. I think he certainly means it-I was just quoting him. Overall, he's raised it before in the issue of public safety, and he certainly has raised it before in that manner.

Yeah. No, I'm just quoting him. He said what they've done to San Francisco, Chicago, New York, LA, they're very unsafe places, and we're going to straighten them out one by one. This is going to a major part for some of the people in this room. That's a war, too. It's a war from within.

Right. It's a common theme of his, and it certainly is an important issue, certainly for the people who live there. I think across the country, everybody understands, and it pulls, I think certainly even if your viewers understand that our cities have an issue of crime, and I think that is an issue that people know impacts our daily lives. It certainly impacts our economy and people daily. I think the President has rightly identified that as important. That certainly is equally important. Public safety and national security safety are equally important issues. They impact our lives daily.

Now, back to Mike Turner. You heard him try to recast what Donald Trump said at that horrific meeting in front of our military generals and admirals in Quantico. Here, he tries to, I guess, repackage what Pete Hegsith was saying, what Donald Trump was saying also. Mike Turner, again, he was supposed to be one of the leaders of the armed services This community is supposed to be a serious guy. He's like, Yeah, but what Donald Trump and Hegsith really meant was peace through strength. That's what they meant. This is a peace through strength approach. Peace through strength, that was one of the weakest most pathetic things that you talked about Donald Trump talked about sending the military against American cities. Here, play this clip.

What was your reaction to what you heard from Secretary Hegg Seth and President Trump to those military leaders today?

Right, Kayla, thank you for having me. The Part of the speech that you didn't play, which I think is probably the most important, which was the crux of really his message, is that he's returning the focus to peace through strength and the fact that we really do have adversaries who mean us harm. There was a period of time where the Department of Defense went through this whole concept.

So going from Mike Turner to MAGA Republican leader, the Agriculture Secretary, Brook Rollins. Eric Rollin says, Look, Donald Trump, he's the most pro-farmer president in history. Obviously, there are major problems that our farmers are going through now, and the economic uncertainty is real. But Donald Trump loves the farmers. Why? Because he says, Love. He goes, I love you. I'm going to make you so rich. You're not even going to know what to do with it. How rich you are. No horrible Trump impression, but I didn't want to do a good Trump impression because he's a horrible guy, and he's killing farmers right now. This is what the Agriculture Secretary says. Here, play this clip. Farmers are getting a little angry, a little antsy here. It's pretty clear they support the administration. They understand what's going on, but they're caught in the middle. China is specifically trying to hurt them in this terror war.

So what should they expect from the White House?

Well, thanks so much for having me on, Charles. I loved your introduction. I think it told the story perfectly. For so long, this country has been basically built on the backs of our farmers and our ranchers. President Trump has been the most pro-farmer President, perhaps in our lifetimes, perhaps in history. But this moment of uncertainty in the farm economy is real. And there are many reasons for that. Obviously, the ongoing trade negotiations with China and others, but it goes way before that. Under Joe Biden, the cost of inputs went up 30%, no new trade deals, which you showed in that chart, which was actually a great chart. It's pretty remarkable that in four years under Joe Biden, there was not one new trade deal, and we went from an ag trade surplus under Trump I to a $50 billion ag deficit under Joe Biden, and we're now just beginning to crawl our way back out of that. But the times are changing. Listen, it is a golden age. It's around the corner. But this President on Liberation Day at the White House, we were all watching when he announced this new tariff and trade world realignment, that it was going to take a little bit of time.

But in that time, we've already struck seven or eight deals, Japan, the UK, the EU, Indonesia, the Philippines. I was in the UK two weeks ago selling ethanol. Supposed to be in Japan tomorrow talking rice and other road crops. We'll see with the government shutdown if that happens. But it is going to be gangbusters. But right now, the farm economy is not in a good place. We're working around the clock. The President has committed to supporting our farmers, and we'll have an announcement on that very soon, likely next week.

She's asked another question. She goes, Okay, can you tell us more about Trump's plan to bail out the farmers? What's the plan? She goes, It's a very elegant solution, right? The amount of tariff money that's coming into our country is stunning. The whole entire world economy is now realigning around American products. Here, play this clip.

Can you tell us a little bit more about President Trump's plan to use tariff money to pay farmers? What does that look like? How much are we talking about? How long will that program last?

It is a very elegant solution, right? The amount of tariff money that coming into our country is stunning. The President had a vision. He's effectuating the vision. The vision is pretty remarkable. The whole entire world economy is now realigning around American products, which is incredible. But again, to this moment of uncertainty, the ability to offset any payments to the farmers through potential tariff revenue is really where the President wants us to head, and that's what we're looking at very soon. One more.

Brook Rollins, quite the opposite. They are unaligning. They are disaligning, whatever the right phraseology is. They are decoupling. I know that was a word that the regime liked to use. Decoupling. They're decoupling from the United States. As you said, the United States wanted to decouple from all of these countries. American farmers are not able to sell their produce anywhere because no one wants to do business with America. American manufacturers are suffering for the same reason. Construction workers workers are suffering. All American workers are suffering. No one wants to do business with us, brook. That's the reality right now. Donald Trump is so focused on his own personal deals with Saudi Arabia and Qatar and all these countries, and he doesn't give a crap about what's happening to our country. That's what you should care about when you're the president. Our country. We the people.

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Then you have MAGA Republican Senator Kramer. He's asked, Do you think that this is all just really about stuff like men playing in women's sports? Is that why we're doing this sole shutdown? Men playing women's sports, transgender people. Let's watch this clip their plate. They want open borders. They want men playing in women's sports.

Senator Kramer, just in a moment like this of such seriousness, is this really about stuff like men playing in women's sports?

Well, I don't know whether it is or it isn't, but the issue at the moment is keeping the government open, and the Democrats have chosen not to do that. This is not complicated, Aaron. This is a clean CR, something Democrats voted for 13 times in the Biden administration when Chuck Chuck Schumer was a majority leader. This isn't unknown territory to anybody. This has become far too common, quite honestly. The other thing that's discouraging about it is we actually have real momentum in regular order in the appropriations process. Last year, Chuck Schumer didn't allow one appropriations bill to come to the Senate floor. We've already passed three of them on the Senate floor and on our way to passing just about all of the rest of them, and with agreement, by the way, with the House in many cases. All of that momentum is being closed up now because Chuck Schumer is afraid of AOC more than he is afraid of the consequences of a government shutdown.

Then I'm going to do a whole other video on Maggie Mike Johnson, which you may have seen already, but he was worried about Donald Trump getting impeached. Let's play it.

Speaker Johnson, you have a very, very, very narrow majority. At a scale of 1-10, how likely is it that the Republicans build on this very slim majority next year?

We're going to win the midterms. Absolutely. We're going to have a big victory, and I think we can expand that majority so we can keep going. We have to give President Trump four years and not two. Imagine if the Democrats took over the House, they'd impede them.

They're getting ready for the investigations.

They're already ramping it up.

Then you get Senator Katie Brett. Oh, remember when she gave that awful, awful, what was it, the rebuttal speech that she gave? In the State of the Union that one time anyway. Here's Katie Brett saying, Donald Trump won the hearts and minds of the American people. He won their confidence, and we're going to enact the Envision. He is a con man. He is a confidence man. He's a con man who told people that he would solve all these problems on day one. Now he's posting videos of Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffrey, wearing a sombrero when he's also posting AI Slop videos of secret technology from outer space used by aliens, like UFOs, called the MedBed that cures everybody's cancer if you just go in the MedBed, and that that's his health care plan. Qanon, conspiracy is called MedBed. Here's Katie Brett. Let's play it.

The only reason they're making a different change here is because of Donald Trump. Donald Trump won the hearts and minds of the American people.

He won their confidence, and we're going to enact his vision.

We're ready to get going, and we'll be here when they finally get to do that, too.

Then Russ Vot, who's the Director of Office of Management and Budget, who was the author of Project 2025. He's gitty right now at the idea of just cutting all government services. They love to cut government services and they're looking forward to firing hundreds and thousands of government workers. Here, play this clip.

We're going to manage this shutdown and try to keep the American people from the havoc that the Democrats have caused with their crazy demands. But let it be said, there are all manner of authorities to be able to keep this administration's policy agenda moving forward, and that includes reducing the size and scope of the federal government, and we will be looking for the opportunities to do that.

Now, I'll just show you just a bit of some of the response by people who care about our democracy. Here you have Senator Bernie Sanders, and he's asked by Caitlin Collins. Are you going to vote no every time to support, I guess, funding this authoritarian regime? Watch Bernie Sanders' response. Let's play it.

But these guys have said, It's my way or the highway. This is the way it's going to be. That is what Trumpism is about. That's that authoritarian tendency that we're seeing in America right now.

So are you telling me you're willing to vote no every time leader Thinam writes this up.

I am not going to allow. Let me be clear. You can quote me on this. You can quote me on this. We say in Vermont, to the cows, come home. I will not let tens of thousands of fellow Americans die because they're thrown off of health care. In my state, people cannot afford a doubling in the health care premise. We are already paying the highest prices in the country for health care. People just can't afford it. What the Republicans have got to do is go into their hearts and go back into their constituents, ask their constituents. In Louisiana, Indiana, where Johnson is from, do you think it's a good idea to give a trillion dollars in tax breaks to people like Bezos and Musk and Zuckerberg, the richest people in this country, in order to cut, throw people off the health care they have? I think the answer will be a resounding no. I hope the Republicans develop a sense of morality, listen to the people of America, and do the right thing.

Aoc with a powerful response as well. Aoc says, Look, we know Donald Trump's authoritarian machinations. We get But there's two things going on at the same time. They're weak. The Trump regime, they're weak, they're unpopular, they're despised, but they want to project confidence and inevitability. But that's why you got to fight back, because these are weak, pathetic people, she says. Here, play this clip.

I think there's two things that are happening at once, and this is something that's very important for people to understand. One, there absolutely is an unprecedented abuse of power, destruction of norms, erosion of our government and our democracy in order to prop up an authoritarian style of governance. That is happening. However, they are weaker than they look. It is important that we remember that because what they rely on is the impression of power, the perception of inevitability in us giving up in in advance to say, Oh, what's going to happen if I stand up, et cetera? Nothing's going to happen. They rely on that perception of inevitability and power so that people comply in advance and acquiesce in advance and give up in advance. At the end of the day, Donald Trump is at record levels of unpopular in his tenure. The Republican House is at record levels of unpopular. They are their water across the board, and they know it, and that is causing them to double down in public, but it is backfiring. That is why, whether it's a shutdown, whether it's all of this, they want us to blink first, and we have too much to save.

Protecting people is too important a task for us to give up before anything even starts. They may want to send people in, but these National Guardsmen do not want to be turned against their fellow Americans. We're seeing this here in Washington, DC. It is an insult. Donald Trump is insulting the service members of this country by putting them on these silly tasks that they themselves do not want to be enforcing. We have to understand that standing up matters, that our voice matters, to not give in to this cynicism because that is what they rely on in order to perpetuate perpetuate this idea that they have total immunity from consequence. They will experience the consequences of this, but we have to be the consequence, which is why we have to stand tall right now alongside everyday Americans who want us to be standing up right now as well.

Here she is again saying that Donald Trump's trying to play this bluff game. Aoc perfectly gets what's going on right now. Here, play this clip.

Donald Trump is trying to play this bluffing game of, well, maybe what we're going to do is hold all the federal workforce hostage and fire everybody. Donald Trump has been firing everybody. We saw this with Doge. We've seen this at the State Department. We've seen this at the Department of Justice. They are firing everybody. They are completely eliminating the federal workforce. In order for us to stop this madness, we have to put a stop to it, and we have to stop enabling entabling their abuse of power, including their use of recisions. When we're fighting on their health care, it forces them to act in ways in accordance with the law and other ways, too.

But folks, according to Kevin Hassett, Donald Trump's top national economic advisor, We are all in a golden age. It is here. Play this clip. The golden age that President Trump promised us is really on the way. Are we in a golden age? Because when we actually hear what MAGA Republicans, just listen to what this MAGA Republican, Senator Roger Marshall had to say. Play it. It seems very disingenuous for the Democrats to be blaming President Trump for these rural hospitals struggles.

The reason rural hospitals are struggling is because of the bad economy, because they've lost 30 or 50% of their population.

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