Transcript of Senator Kim Calls Out Trump and MAGA for the Trump Shutdown

Republican Speaker, Maga Mike Johnson, just got a rude awakening. And whatever staffer convinced him to go on C-Span and listen to what the actual people think about his conduct and behavior, well, those staffers need to get a raise. So Maga Mike Johnson was on C-Span, and he heard how people feel about Donald Trump and his government shutdown as he and Donald Trump are ripping away the Affordable Care Act for tens of millions of Americans and how he and Donald Trump are continuing just to destroy the country and gaslight us all at the same time. I want to show you, Maga Mike, sitting there as he's being told outside of his bubble what people are really experiencing. There are a number of examples that I want to show you. In the first clip that you probably haven't seen anywhere else, This. Maga Mike has asked, I think, the most simple question. Okay, Maga Mike, how are you actually going to fix Obamacare? You all say you don't like the Affordable Care Act, you don't like the subsidies, you don't like this, you don't like that. What do you like? What is your plan? And Mag and Mike won't be able to answer that.

Here, play this clip.

And also want to know, what is you all's plan to fix the Obamacare?

Great question. There's a lot of improvements that are needed. Obamacare did not do what was promised. Everybody can acknowledge that. As I mentioned, premiums are up 60% since it became law in 2010. And you have less access to care, and in some parts of the country, lower quality of care. So we got to fix that. Republicans are the party that have the ideas to do that. We have a doctor's caucus inside the Republican conference that works around the clock, putting together these ideas, talking to stakeholders and other providers around the country. We have a lot of ideas to fix it. Some people say, Why can't you just rip Obamacare out at the roots and start over? It's very, very complicated. It affects about 18% of the US economy, health care, but there's lots of areas of improvement. This is not a talking point for us. We've demonstrated it in the one big, beautiful bill, the Working Families Tax Cuts. We added lots of provisions, for example, to reform Medicaid. It was being drained. The resources there are intended for US citizens that are in a small number of categories, the disabled, the elderly, young pregnant women in difficult situations, et cetera.

But what was happening is you had illegal aliens draining the resources who are not allowed to do it under law, and you had young, able-bodied men, for example, without dependents who were riding the wagon. We reformed that in our bill. We reduced the cost. The Congressional Budget Office, the CBO, just analyzed in late August, August 25th, in the report, they said it's going to have the desired effect.

Again, as William Melvin noted, the Affordable Care Act became law over 5,000 days ago. Since that time, Donald Trump has not put forward a plan. Instead, Donald Trump and Maggie Mike talk about lowering prescription drug This is by 1,600%, which is not a real number. Next up, Maggie Mike Johnson here is from another C-Span caller, and the caller says, You're out there saying that people are smiling as troops are heading into the cities, blue states, blue cities. People aren't smiling. What are you talking about? What a dystopian and idiotic thing to even say. This is, I think, so important for Maga Mike to just be there and hear, this is what the Midas Mighty are saying. This is what Americans are saying. I understand Donald Trump's bubble and their talking points. People love this. People don't love ICE, ripping people off the streets and putting them into concentration camps. Here, let's play this clip.

Hi. I just want to start by saying, hearing you say that everyone is smiling in the cities where troops, our National Guard has been rolled into, feels dystopian and insane to hear you say that, watching the response to this. But that's not actually my question. My question, I just needed to say that while hearing you talk about this. My question is, if Republicans and Democrats can agree to a one-year extension to the ACA subsidies, removing this talking point of illegal immigrants draining our resources as you sit here and lie about this, would you support that bill and bring it to a vote on the House floor? This is This is a big question that I have for you. Thank you.

Yeah, well, not lying. I'm telling you the truth, and you can go look at all the documents yourself. Don't look at Republican paperwork. Look at the Congressional.

Next up, you have Maga Mike saying, he's asked, you may I heard this one before, but the caller, very powerful, left me almost in tears, where the caller says, I'm a Republican, and what you all are doing with health care and also with veterans and with just people in general, you all are torturing us. Stop it. Cut it out. What are you going to do for us? Listen to this caller. Let's play it.

Hi, Mr. Johnson. My question or comments are related to what you said yesterday about not being open to pass any legislation to ensure that military gets paid. I'm sure you can tell by my voice, I'm very shaky. Just want you to hear a little bit about my family. I have two medically fragile children. I have a husband who actively serves this country. He suffers from PTSD from his two tours in Afghanistan. If we see a lapse in pay come the 15th, my children do not get to get the medication that's needed for them to live their life because we live paycheck to paycheck. I heard you earlier say that you sided with President Trump on anything that he says, well, I just read an article this morning that said he absolutely, wholeheartedly believes that there needs to be legislation can put in so that we do not miss a paycheck. You have the power to do that. And as a Republican, I'm very disappointed in my party. And I'm very disappointed in you because you do have the power to call the House back. You did that or you refuse to do that just for a show.

I'm begging you to pass this legislation. My kids could die. We don't have the credit because of the medical bills that I have to pay regularly. You could stop this and you could be the one that could say military is getting paid. I think that it is awful. The audacity of someone who makes six figures a year to do this to military family is insane. All right, Samantha.

Samantha, I'm so sorry to hear about your situation. The reason I've been so angry this week, and they've been calling me out on media. Johnson's angry. I am angry because of situations just like yours.

Then next, a C-Span caller says to Maggie Mike Johnson, All right, well, we're hearing you all are doing peace in Gaza. Who knows with what you're telling us is true to begin with, but when are you going to care about America? When are you going to care about what's going on here where you're sending troops against American citizens and against people living in America? When are you going to care? Isn't that what you meant by America first? Or America First, or America First means bail out Argentina and always help Israel over-focusing on America. What is your plan? Here we're going to play this clip.

Hi. I just want to start by saying, hearing you say that everyone is smiling in the cities where troops, our National Guard has been rolled into, feels dystopian and insane to hear you say that, watching the response to this. But that's not actually my question. My question, I just needed to say that while hearing you talk about this. My question is, if Republicans and Democrats can agree to a one-year extension to the ACA subsidies, removing this talking point of illegal immigrants draining our resources as you sit here and lie about this, would you support that bill and bring it to a vote on the House floor? This is a big question that I have for you. Thank you.

Yeah, well, not lying. I'm telling you the truth, and you can go look at all the documents yourself. Don't look at Republican paperwork. Look at the Congressional Budget Office, who said that we had at least 1. 4 million illegal aliens draining the resources from Medicaid, which is why you put their forms in the law and got it signed July fourth. Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffrey's counter proposal for the CR.

Then this next caller goes, Megan Mike, have you ever voted against anything that Donald Trump supported? Have you ever taken your own opinion on any issue at all? And Megan Mike is like, No, I would ever do that. I'm here to play this clip.

Yes. Good morning. Just wanted to ask the speaker a couple of questions. Have you ever voted against anything that Trump set forth as far as policy? That's one question. The other is, what is going on with the swearing in of the Congresswoman who would make the 218 vote. I noticed that you were speaking in the hall yesterday with someone regarding the idea that maybe she would make the 218 vote that would open up the vote for the Epstein files to be released. This is not something that we are going to forget about. This is serious business. The other thing is that Trump is a dictator, so it doesn't matter what Johnson does or what the guy over in the Senate does. All the things that have to happen is if Trump says, open the government, it will be open tomorrow. We have to understand that. They keep talking about we're putting names out there about Trump being the dictator in this net. You just called, and he continues to call the deal with it.

All right, Alexander.

He's talking about Representative Adalita Grijalva not being sworn in.

Alexander gave me a lot to answer there. Let me go real quickly. I typically vote with President Trump. I do because that's my party, and I lead my party in the House, and in our agenda is working for the American people, you can make an argument. We had the most productive, successful opening of a Congress and administration in history. The one big, beautiful bill was a massive achievement for the American people.

Now I want to bring in New Jersey Senator Andy Kim. Senator Kim, it's great to see you. You see those clips right there. The American people understand what's going on with this government shutdown. They recognize that Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans control all branches of government. They recognize that they have no plan when it comes to health care. They recognize how important it is to protect Americans' health or to extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies. All of these lies that usually have worked before for Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans blaming immigrants or transgender people or whatever, it's not working this time. What do you make of this moment, Senator?

Well, right now, there's a giant spotlight on the Republicans and how they govern What we realized and what the American people see is that they don't govern, that they are, as the caller said to Speaker Johnson, this was a woman who's a Republican, but said she knows that Speaker Johnson is giving House Republicans a paid vacation right now while she and her family are struggling to make ends meet, worried about getting their next paycheck. They find it offensive because it is. I mean, they are pissed off, rightfully so, because Speaker Johnson is, honestly, it's dereliction of duty, in my opinion, that fact that he is putting his own job ahead of the job of hundreds of thousands of federal workers, millions of our troops and others. He's just only trying to protect his own speakership, his own job, and people can't stand that. The other thing that I'll just share is that in New Jersey, for instance, what I keep hearing from people there is there are a lot of people, including a lot of Republicans, that are pissed off at for saying that he's going to withhold funding to our Gateway Tunnel Project, something that's supposed to transform our state in terms of the ability for hundreds of thousands to be able to commute into New York City, to be able to revitalize our economy.

The fact that Trump is taking these mob boss tactics to punish the American people for political retribution, people find that disgusting.

During that bizarre cabinet meeting he held on Thursday, it was just very strange yet, again, where he seemed to enjoy saying that he was going after Democrat programs. He's like, I'm coming. He literally said, I'm coming after the Democrat programs. This is what you did. This is an opportunity for me. And these are programs that are not Democrat programs. These are American programs. I mean, Republicans live in New Jersey also, and they use tunnels, and they want less traffic, and they work in the city. And it's a very strange concept to hear a President of the United States behave like this. But it seems the shutdown is showing a spotlight like we've never seen before.

Yeah, that's right. And One of those Republicans that lives in New Jersey happens to be Secretary Duffy, Transportation Secretary. In his confirmation hearing, the first question I asked him is, Is the Gateway Tunnel Project of national importance? He said, Yes, absolutely. This is important for our nation's economy, that if the train line on the northeast corridor breaks down because of a problem with the tunnel, that's going to cause huge economic repercussion to our entire nation. The fact that they are willing to do national harm to us, to our country, because, again, he's got a gripe with Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffrey, with me and Cory Booker. We get it. But again, the American people can't stand that. It's just like, just a self-inflicted wound. It's just self-sabotage, honestly.

It seemed that their only idea was like, let's own the libs, let's mock liberal people, and let's destroy them. Trump's even taking that, They're the enemy from within. Let's send them military and go after areas that we consider to be liberal areas, whatever that means. And meanwhile, you have the American people saying, I can't afford my groceries right now. You promised me, Donald, that this was going to be cheaper, and it's not helping me when you say it's cheaper and it's not cheaper. When you say you brought in $17 trillion, well, if you really did that, shouldn't that be helping everybody? Where's our dividend checks that you promised? Where is our DOGE checks and our tariff checks and all of the things that you said? We don't want to hear two more weeks, two more It just feels like, whether it's a Bernie Madoff or people who have been involved in the Ponzi schemes, at the end, people keep saying, All right, I want my money now. Let's go. They're trying the same, Oh, I'm trying to get you your money, but the migrants, Stop with the migrants this time. I need it. That seems to be the moment we're in.

It feels different. It feels different, Senator.

It does. I think because the American people are wising up to this and they're I mean, look, whether it's the farmers that got screwed over because of Trump and his tariffs and him going after and antagonize all these different allies and partners around the world. We see that. Where they're doing, they're taking that tariff money, they're plowing it right into getting Black Hawk helicopters for ICE flying over Chicago. I just visited with the National Guard in DC to get a sense of what's going on there. We are paying as a nation $1. 3 million a day to have the National Guard go around DC. And what are they doing? They're spreading around mulch. They're trimming trees. I kid you not. They literally gave me statistics around how many trash bags they lifted up. Is that really the best use of our money? By the end of this year, is It's expected to have cost over $200 million to have these National Guard in DC. There's much better use to be able to help families be able to afford their health care, be able to afford housing and other things like that, rather than just putting on a show for Donald Trump to pretend like he's the Commander-in-Chief, able to just put the US military on the ground in our own streets, like he said to the generals, using American cities as a training ground.

Also just weird moments where I'm watching him, and I know he doesn't make sense, but I'm watching him and I'm thinking to myself, just in general, what the hell is this guy even talking? What's legitimately even what's coming out of his mouth? The thoughts aren't coherent. He was asked a question about suspending habeas corpus, and he believed that habeas corpus was a person. He said, Who's that? Who's Who's that? When I spoke to Senator Gallego, he was like, even when Donald Trump's here in DC, this is what Gallego said to me, he goes, He's not here. He says something, and then the Republicans try to... Then he says another thing. It's just a mess. It's not leadership. The American people see it even if corporate news doesn't want to talk about it. What are you making of that?

Yeah, look, what I can tell you from my vantage point, seeing how this has unfolded, there are two people running this government, which is Russell Vaud, the OMB director who's pushing his dangerous agenda all over, creating so much of the mass firings and the destruction of our government, as well as Steven Miller, who needs no introduction because of just the sheer amount of danger that he poses to our nation, pushing such an extreme agenda and is literally running point from his office at the White House in terms of these ICE raids and National Guard efforts. Those are the two that are in charge. Everybody here at the US Senate, they know that, that that's who's running our government. Donald Trump, he'll give some talking points and a press conference here and there. But this is what I hope the American people see, is that our government is run by some of the most extreme radicals that I've ever seen during my time in government. They are trying to reshape our country, not just for the next three years, but for decades to come. I'm a father of an eight-year-old and a 10-year-old, and I refuse to let Steven Miller, Russell Vaud, and Donald Trump shape the America that my kids are going to grow up in.

Before we go, we talked a little bit about the cancelation of the Holland Tunnel, money going there. Can you describe, just being from New Jersey, what a big deal this is and how venomous and vicious this really is and what it means in terms of just our country in general?

Yeah, absolutely. It's not the Holland Tunnel, but it's a Hudson Tunnel. It's meant to double the number of train lines we have. We have this tunnel that is over 100 years old, very much could pose a huge transportation challenge if it falls apart and continues to crumble. This is something that we need because if we lose that train connecting the East Coast, it's going to cause so much economic damage. It's going to raise prices for so many American families with goods being transported around. It's going to cause enormous disruption. For my state, it's a lifeline. It is necessary for people to commute into New York City. The challenges we faced last summer with Penn Station having the problem, New Jersey transit having problems, and tens of thousands of people getting stuck at Penn Station. This is the number one transportation infrastructure in the entire region. It's something that unifies everybody in the state of New Jersey. I'll be honest with you, the moment that Donald Trump said he was going to hold back on that funding, I think is the moment that Donald Trump lost the governor's race for the Republicans in New Jersey as we have a race coming up in just a few weeks.

Because people, again, they don't like that. They don't like the idea that Donald Trump is just actually trying to harm the American people. Think of the American people as just collateral damage in his own political retribution. Distribution and mob boss tactics. So that's the latest dynamic that we're seeing in New Jersey.

Senator Kim, thanks for joining us as always. We hope you come back.

Thank you so much.

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