Trump Panics As Congress Prepares for Major Reckoning; His Time Is Up
55m 47s
The transcript blends multiple themes: a promotional ad for Carvana and BJ’s Wholesale Club, which highlight ease and savings in car sales and grocery shopping. However, the central focus is a political critique by Representative Ro Khanna, who exposes deep-seated racism, corruption, and economic inequality within the MAGA movement and U.S. political leadership. He condemns the promotion of white, Christian heritage as a standard for American identity, citing examples like Dinesh D’Souza and political figures who downplay racial diversity. Khanna details how powerful figures—Trump, Pete Hegseth, and Todd Blanche—have enabled cover-ups of abuse, suppressed Epstein-related documents, and undermined accountability. He argues that the Republican Party’s policies foster racial nativism and economic inequality, with wealth concentrated among a few. He calls for aggressive congressional action, including subpoenas, criminal contempt proceedings, and impeachment, to hold powerful individuals accountable. The discussion also addresses AI ethics, warning that unchecked development by tech billionaires risks harming public safety and jobs. Khanna concludes that a transformative, equitable economy is needed—one built on universal access to healthcare, childcare, and education—through taxation of the ultra-wealthy. This vision, he says, requires a bold, ethical Democratic agenda rooted in public good, not elite profit.
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Trump is terrified that there's going to be an Epstein 2.0 that's going to further force
release of these documents. And he's terrified that these documents may be released with
Democrats controlling Congress.
I'm here with Representative Ro Khanna. Congressman, how are you?
It's really a pleasure to be here.
I know. It's always a pleasure. Let's talk about the racism in the MAGA party right now.
Over the weekend, there was a tweet that you chimed in on. And this is, let's just pop it
up and read it. So you have this Robert Gill, Brandon Gill, and he says he's married to Dinesh
D'Souza's daughter. And her dad chimes in and says, she's Christian, born in America, and her
mom is white. And he says, she's white. So that's just really weird to me that you have to say, well, I may be brown, but my wife is white.
And then you responded to that and said, Dinesh, like your daughter, I was born in America,
and I have an Indian immigrant father. I am Hindu, and my mom is not white. Does that make me any
less American or matter in any sense? What do you have to say to all this weirdness and racism?
I was a little bit sad for Dinesh that he felt the need to put up a picture of his daughter
showing that she was more white. Like this is what people had to do under British colonialism,
that Indians under the British Raj would say, well, I'm more fair skinned. I'm actually not as dark.
And the fact that Dinesh D'Souza, who came here, and actually had a very successful immigrant
success story, right? He was a very successful immigrant. There's this Indian American who gets hired by Ronald Reagan at like the age of 30,
and that he is so embarrassed about his heritage and his race. It just shows where we're at.
And then the fact that, you know, basically, he's saying that if you're white, or if you're
Christian, it gives you a more standing or a greater claim to being American. And you know,
if you look at the chat, you'll see that Dinesh D'Souza, who came here, and he's a very successful
immigrant. And he's a very successful immigrant. And he's a
not that it's indicative, but sometimes you get a sense. The folks, some of these folks in MAGA
really believe that they get to decide what it means to be an American. Like, well, you know,
these folks, they're assimilating, and they're appreciating us. So we'll make, we'll let them in.
We'll, we'll be, they're fine. Like, who are you? I mean, you know, you don't, just because you're
white, or just because you've been here multiple generations, doesn't mean you have any more say
than I do in who America is, in what America is. And, and that just drives them bonkers.
And the president, the vice president of the United States participates in this quite a bit
as well. He has said before, like, Usha can't help it that she's not white. And he's refused
to condemn racist Nazi group chats. He recently gave a speech where he spoke about immigrants
being dirty. And as a white person, I know what that means, that brown-skinned people,
people are dirty. I mean, when he threw that out there. So you have the racism coming from the
highest levers of government, combined with the fact that you have Pete Hegseth, who is
intentionally not promoting people of color who are a million times smarter, better, sharper,
all of the things that Pete wishes he was. And I'm very concerned about, you know, Republicans lie,
you know, trickle-down wealth never happened. But this trickle-down racism is something that
very, very, very much concerns me. And as a person who really loves that America is a melting pot,
and that anybody can come here and be an American and have this dream, they're really dismantling
that. Well, I met with C.Q. Brown recently. He was the Joint Chiefs who was fired. And he was
fired because and part of his race. I mean, he was incredibly qualified.
And you look at the people that Pete Hegseth has fired, and they've been disproportionately
African-American generals and women. And he's not just doing a disservice to them. He's doing
a disservice to the country because he's firing people who are doing extraordinary work. But look,
I think one of the biggest underrated negatives of Donald Trump and damage is the cultural damage.
He is basically giving people a story of America,
which is that what matters is how long your family has been here, how white they are,
how Christian they are, and that the more proximate you can get to those
metrics, the more you're on the team, the more you're on the MAGA team, the more you're on the
American team. And this has been going on now for 10 years. And to think that that's not going to
seep in to young people growing up,
to people running for political office is just naive. And so he has really accelerated
this kind of nativism. And then Vance is trying to give it some paper-thin intellectual
justification. I mean, there's just like a false logic, but it's sad.
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safe for his mixed race children is something I fundamentally will never, ever understand.
Likewise, all of these MAGA men who are basically child sex rings apologists and the cover-up in the
Epstein stuff still continues. You have been a trailblazer and even found bipartisanship support
with Thomas Massey. A federal judge just ruled recently that the, what was it, Kylie? Can we put
that up?
Yes.
A federal judge orders DOJ to release the FBI notes regarding a woman's claim Trump sexually
assaulted her at 14 years of age by September 24. And the poster here says, this is why Trump is
banning certain news outlets from the White House. It's another distraction. So clearly, this is not
going away. And it's very pesky. And what do you have to say about Todd Blanche and him running
cover for this? And the fact that the. Sitting president of the United States has claims of a 14-year-old girl against him.
And we still don't have those documents. I mean, we've had millions of files released,
but those documents need to be released under the Epstein Transparency Act Massey and I
passed. Now, we just got 218 signatures for this Epstein 2.0 that would allow state attorney
generals to start prosecuting the Epstein class and give survivors a claim to all of these
documents.
It's one of the reasons Johnson shut down Congress. So Johnson doesn't want us talking about
Epstein heading into the midterms. And he doesn't want Massey's bill to impeach Hegseth heading into
the midterms. Can you imagine that if you have friends or you yourself
are possibly guilty of heinous acts, now you know that there's a mechanism to get all these
documents out and you may not be in charge? This is why they have hit the panic button
on the midterm elections. Let's talk about the hypocrisy of the Speaker of the House.
Where do you even start? Right. He's this big pro-life guy, big Christian. Where's his faith?
I mean, very overt religiosity. And here he is every single day, goes to work and does the
exact opposite of what the central character of the faith of Christianity, Jesus Christ, would want to
do.
Jesus Christ spoke out, and I'm not a Christian, but Jesus spoke out explicitly against the
accumulation of wealth.
The Republican Party is about very few people accumulating a lot of wealth, and Moses Mike
Johnson is the biggest assister in that.
But what's so fundamentally disgusting to me about these MAGA Christians, the MAGA Christian
Republicans that are governing us, the Christian nationalists, is they want to lecture everybody
about traditional family values, and they're so worried about kids and drag queens and
books and all of these things.
And yet, when there is real live evidence of little girls that were raped by rich men,
these MAGA Christian men race as fast as they can to cover it up.
The elected politicians, actually, with a MAGA base, this is one issue that has broken
through because a lot of them.
They really are horrified by rich and powerful men who raped or abused young girls.
And so, when you look at the polling, it shows that this is the number one issue for swing
voters, more than the war in Iraq.
I was shocked.
More than the cost of living.
Number one issue that moves Trump voters to the Democratic side.
In fact, some people call me in to campaign for them.
I won't mention the names.
And they say, Roe, you'll come in.
You'll talk about Epstein.
I don't want to hear your Medicare for all and all the rest.
You talk about Epstein and you leave.
And the point is, this is the one issue that has broken through.
Now, you know, Mike Johnson is a Greek tragedy in a deeper sense than even Vance, because
we have to really understand what's going on.
I came to Congress with Mike Johnson.
I know Mike Johnson's family.
He's actually a decent person when he came in.
He actually. I don't think his faith. Some people, you think, okay, are they just saying that for politics?
I actually think he grew up, his family, it's a family of faith.
He led in our freshman class, the civility pledge.
And for the first few terms, he was one of the nicest, most decent guys who you talk
to.
But what happened?
He became the lawyer for Donald Trump when Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.
And it was Mike Johnson filing briefs across America saying,
the election was stolen.
And at that point, Mike made a decision.
And he made a decision saying, I see where the puck is going.
I see this Republican Party.
My way up in power is to do the bidding of Donald Trump.
And he really gave up his soul, his decency.
And it's not that he's not a fundamentally decent person.
It is that he has chosen to be an appendage of Donald Trump as Speaker of the House.
And it's a tragedy, because at the end of the day, he's going to lose.
He's not going to be. He's not going to be a good Speaker, and he's going to look back at it, and he's going to
say, was that really worth it?
I was covering up the Epstein files.
I got us into a war in Iraq.
Food and gas prices went up under my watch.
What did I achieve?
And, you know, J.D. Vance has a similar trajectory.
He was actually with Tim Ryan and me in Ohio in de-industrialized towns talking about an
industrial policy, criticizing Donald Trump in 2017 or 18.
But the lure of power.
But the lure of power has corrupted that party, and they're going to have their comeuppance
in November.
All right.
Now I want to talk about Republican lies and propaganda that incubated long before Donald
Trump descended on the escalator.
And I have some polling that is really good for us.
Pop this up.
So the Marquette polling, this came out recently.
Which party is better at handling the following issues?
So the Democrats are at plus 25 on health care, plus 22 on Medicare.
Plus 22 on Medicare.
Plus 22 on Medicare.
Plus 22 on Medicare.
So the Democrats are at plus 25 on health care.
are standing around the world.
I mean, what has happened there was
a genocide with war crimes. People still are not willing to say that. I was in, physically in the
West Bank. I said, I've never felt my race more acutely than being there. I mean, in Hebron,
you have Palestinian shopkeepers on the street, settlers living over them. They have a metal
sort of a top that blocks rotten vegetables from coming down. But the settlers are throwing acid
and urine at these Palestinians. It's just, it is dehumanizing. It is sick. And we need,
we are complicit in it. We're providing aid to it. The next administration needs to have a change.
They need to day one, recognize a Palestinian state. They need to cut off the aid. They need
to cut off the military sales. And if we're not willing to be clear about that, we're never going
to get the moral trust of so many people in our own country. And we're
not going to get it around the world. I completely agree. Okay. Now this is
something that is, occupies a lot of time in my brain. So it is fast forward to a Democratic
Congress is sworn in. A Democratic Senate is sworn in, right? Yes. I need that. We need that. We need
that. Okay. So you're on the oversight committee. Yes. A reckoning, accountability. Like I really,
really speak for everybody in the country. We need this. Maggie Haberman,
was asked, um, about how she expects the Trump administration will respond to oversight if
Republicans lose the house. Let's play the clip. We've seen administrations not respond to subpoenas
before, not just this one, but others. I don't know what it looks like when potentially an entire
government slow walks or just ignores subpoenas. And, and I have every expectation that they will
try to delay as much as possible if they engage at all. I think that you will see a lot of subpoenas
that are sent to people outside the White House, like the Trump sons, like Howard Lutnick's sons,
the commerce secretary's children who are making a lot of money, uh, like Steve Witkoff's children
who are making a lot of money. And I also think that Democrats can't decide exactly what targets
they want to go at right now. And that is a struggle they're having. Are you struggling to
decide which targets to go after? No, we're going to aggressively go after people who have ripped off
American taxpayer, who have doged this country and fired people, uh, who were doing incredible work,
uh, who have shot fishermen in the Caribbean, who have killed American citizens as rogue ice
officers or killed, uh, fathers who were immigrants, uh, who have dragged us into an illegal war.
Among that list, as you know, are people like Elon Musk and others on Doge, which created a huge hub,
hubba boo. And I said that before on your show, but yeah, he got real mad at us, you know, but I,
I was just saying what we're going to do with that power. This is no longer going to be a
democratic party saying, Kumbaya, let's move on. Let's just, uh, forget all the illegality. Why?
Because when you create that culture of impunity, you allow for people to say, you know what,
we'll just do whatever we want with AI. What's going to happen? What's the worst case? Because
Washington never does anything. So what,
if we make a mistake, we've created a culture of impunity. We never went after the people
who got us into Iraq. We didn't go after the people who crashed the economy in 2008. So this
time we're not going to make that mistake. We're going to have a comprehensive list. It's not out
of vindictiveness. It's not going to be, you know, Robert Garcia saying, okay, who went against me
politically or who, uh, opposed me. I'm not going to say, oh, these billionaires didn't like that.
I wanted to tax them and they funded my campaign. Let's subpoena them. Of course not. Why? Because
Democrats are ethical. But what we are going to do is make sure that the law is followed,
that if you are engaged in a crypto business where you're making money on the backs of the
American people, that needs to be exposed. If you're a corporation paying Donald Trump to get
contracts, that needs to be exposed. If you're a foreign country trying to give the Trump family
money because you want to get chips, that needs to be exposed. And Jamie Raskin,
uh, and Robert Garcia are not going to, uh, pull any punches. They are going to go where the facts
and the law lead. And they're two of the best members of Congress. Jamie knows the law better
than anyone in the Congress. Uh, and Robert Garcia just has a, uh, energy and ethical energy.
I love him. I love both. Yeah. Okay. So let's play the tape through it. What happens if you
send Elon Musk a subpoena about Doge and all of the, what I believe these are my words, not yours
is probably crimes and illegal things he did once he got the keys to the government and he just
refuses to come in. What happens? Well, Leon Black just did that, right? Leon Black, one of the
Epstein, uh, survive, uh, Epstein, uh, class people who has engaged in allegedly horrific abuse.
He refused to come in for a subpoena and the oversight committee just voted to hold him in
contempt. That will go to the house floor. The house could vote to hold them in criminal contempt.
And you remember Steve Bannon was in jail because of the contempt of Congress. The Clintons agreed
to testify because they knew how powerful it would be if actually the house voted to hold
someone in criminal contempt. So, uh, if, if someone, Musk or others just kept defying the,
uh, subpoena, they literally could face criminal contempt and judges have, have sent marshals to
put someone in jail on that. So here's where I get concerned. So you have like,
ultimately the DOJ, which is Todd Blanche is in charge of, and there's going to be such a,
an effort to collude, to protect all of the people that have committed crimes for this regime or done
things that are not on the up and up that are not legal, that are brazenly corrupt.
And what if he calls the marshals, Todd Blanche and says, do not go arrest them.
Then, and because I think that that's kind of the resistance that they're going to do. I think that
we never, the problem with the progressives brain is we project our own logic. We would never do
that. We would follow the rules. We project our own logic onto these people because we don't as
a default setting, have a criminal brain. And so what happens if every single guardrail that's
supposed to go arrest Musk or arrest somebody because they're not doing this, what do you do
then impeach Todd Blanche? I mean, I want a Congress that is like, okay, then we're going
to the next step, the next step, the next step. I think we need to talk about that.
Talk about this because I think they're going to do every single thing they can do.
I agree. And it would be unprecedented what you're saying because the
marshals are at the direction of the judge, but you're saying, let's say a judge gives an order
to one of the Doge officials or one of the DOD officials saying,
you're in criminal contempt to Congress. We're going to hold you in jail. And unlike Steve
Bannon, who to his credit on that actually submitted to the jail sentence, you have someone
saying, oh, well, we're just not going to show up. Now the judge would order the marshals to
arrest them. And you're saying, what if Todd Blanche intervenes in a totally illegal or
unconstitutional way and orders them not to? You'd then literally have a constitutional crisis in
this country. It would go up to the Supreme Court. Oh, they'll do what's right, won't they?
Well, you know, it depends on what day they wake up. They're about 20% or something when they
decide to wake up. But the Congress has to be assertive, right? We need to be
assertive, saying, OK, we will impeach Blanche if that happens. We're not going to fund. I mean,
we fund the Justice Department. We have the power of the purse. If you really want to play
hardball, we have the ability to withhold funding. But we can't allow them to break down
the entire legal system. And remember, Trump will be at about 35% approval. A lame duck
will be looking forward. So our leverage,
is going to be very high. And there'll be people like me and Robert Garcia and Pramila and Greg
Kassar and others who are going to say, we are in here to get something done for accountability.
And we're not going to compromise and just say, let's move on. And especially the new people who
are getting elected. Yeah, yeah. What if Jeffries kind of Merrick Garland's this? Because I don't
trust that he has the. Fight that the people that you just mentioned do. Garcia and Greg Kassar and others. I feel like he
sometimes likes to centrist it, Merrick Garland it a little bit. Are you all able to say to speaker,
if he is speaker, to Jeffries, no, we're doing this? Do you have independence outside of the
speaker's blessing? I do. Look, I know there's a lot of opinions on Hakeem Jeffries. I think
you're right, that he's more of a consensus builder, whereas the times call for people who
are going to hold Donald Trump accountable and all the crimes accountable. But I think to his credit,
he doesn't have an ego in it. And he has given Garcia and Jamie Raskin and others free reign.
If Garcia wants to subpoena someone or bring them in or pursue him, I don't see Hakeem Jeffries
saying, no, you can't. I don't see Hakeem Jeffries saying, no, you can't. I don't see Hakeem Jeffries
saying, no, you can't do it. And so what we really need to do is recognize everyone has a
strength. And the two people, I honestly,
You asked me who are people that we should have in those positions other than Raskin or Garcia.
I couldn't think of a different person.
They're both fantastic.
And, you know, you have to – that's under Hakeem's leadership, right?
So it's not like he engineered something where he pulled punches and said, let's just have some person who's not going to make waves.
And so I have full confidence that we will be very, very assertive on these dimensions.
And he can lead on where we also need to be assertive is on a positive agenda for the American people.
Taxing billionaires, my view is we need Medicare for all, free childcare, paid family leave, $25 living wage.
No military aid to Israel.
No aid to Israel.
Okay, I want to ask you about something about this oversight thing.
I want to stick with this a second because I think about it a lot.
The Supreme Court justices, it seems like oftentimes I'm reading my news, absorbing it for this show,
and then it's –
John Roberts' wife's law firm's receiving millions and millions and millions here because that case is going to appear in front of her husband's Supreme Court.
Or you have basically Clarence Thomas has taken all this money.
Does Congress have oversight over the judges to investigate the complete corruption that we're all seeing that good journalists are actually investigating?
Is there any oversight?
Is there any oversight over these people?
Yes.
I mean the procedure is impeachment, right?
I mean you could bring –
I want that to happen.
Impeachment hearings.
I mean you could start with Clarence Thomas because that's not ideological.
There's just so much out there.
And you could start it by investigation.
And Jamie could in the Judiciary Committee to do that.
Now, at the same time, we need to pursue court reform, term limits, and expand the court when we have the branches.
But there's also the question of ethics.
Yes, let's have an ethics.
Code of conduct.
But let's hold people accountable where there has been blatant evidence of corruption or allegations of corruption.
Look, I can't – you couldn't go out tonight and just buy me a fancy dinner, let alone give me a plane to go take a trip to California to raise money or to take a vacation.
And these folks have basically as justices admitted that they've done some of this.
I mean they've admitted that they've had billionaire friends who have done this.
And then their argument is, well, they were friends of mine.
Well, the test for a member of Congress is, was this person a friend of mine before I got to be a congressperson?
Did they actually do things before I became a congressperson?
And then it's not like they're taking me on some plane somewhere.
It's like, okay, they buy you dinner.
And here you've got people who became friends with these people after they became justices or while they were in powerful positions.
And they're taking them on fancy vacations.
And you wonder why the trust.
It has been broken.
And this is the way I see it.
If Sonia Sotomayor or Kataji Brown Jackson had anything like this, anything like this, the Republicans, Mitch McConnell, when he was more alive than he is now, everybody would have absolutely moved at ripcord lightning speed, light speed to get these people to be accountable.
They would be hauled in.
And I think that there is.
There is this mistake of the Democrats where we capitulate to patriarchal traditions at large a little bit, where I call it merit garlanding, making that a verb.
They merit garland it.
Like, oh, well, that's the court.
I would love to see you guys go in and immediately do what the Republicans would do.
If Kataji Brown Jackson, who they hate because she's a brilliant black woman, and they hate her for both that she's black.
And they hate her because she's black.
And they hate her because she's so smart, much smarter than all of them.
But if she were taking trips and doing all this stuff, they would have her ass hauled in and impeached immediately.
And I feel like this court needs to be reckoned with immediately because they're a part to blame, Merrick Garland, Mitch McConnell, and this court for allowing a convicted felon, an adjudicated rapist, a man who's in the epicenter of the Epstein files, who's dumber than a box.
And I feel like this court needs to be reckoned with immediately because they're a part to blame, Merrick Garland, Mitch McConnell, and this court for allowing a convicted felon, an adjudicated rapist, a man who's dumber than a box.
is a company that has information from different types of coding for different people.
And it was recently bought by NVIDIA.
They did nothing wrong.
They're just a company that has all different kinds of information from different coders,
from different tools.
And so these agents said, oh, Hugging Face, their servers have a lot of information that
would help us solve our problems.
Let's go hack into them.
Get this information and complete our task.
It would be like if you thought there was a lot of information for something you needed
and you hired 1,100 people and they went and they hacked into something, got the information
and completed the task.
You'd be investigated to possibly be in jail or at least face liability for hacking into
someone else's site.
So the first thing is that there needs to be the enforcement of existing liability in
criminal laws.
If you are creating a model, if you are creating some program that is going to go and do harm,
you need to be liable.
If you're living next to a neighbor, if you're in the basement, you make some robot, the
robot ends up going and cutting down the trees of your neighbor.
You can't just say, oh, the robot did it.
No, the neighbor is going to sue you.
Why did you build that robot?
So there has to be liability for what they're building.
For the humans.
For the humans.
For the humans that are building the AI.
They need to be held liable either through civil law or criminal law, both for the founders
of these companies, the executives and the builders, which would be the case if these
companies were hiring people to do illegal things, right?
So if the agent is doing illegal things, they need to be held liable.
Now, if it's criminal, there has to be some knowing harm that they did and that's why
we need to be liable.
There is an insatiable right now need or demand for data, but all of the cash flow positive.
So NVIDIA's cash flow positive, Google's cash flow positive, Microsoft, Amazon, they're
cash flow positive, and they're putting basically all of that cash into building chips and data
centers.
And so it is at a place where they have put all of the money into the expansion of data
centers.
And what we don't know is. Are people. Put aside the issue of data centers in residential communities, which I'm opposed to, but what
we don't know is are people really going to be paying the amount that they need to pay
for these tokens to make that a worthwhile bet?
So there is risk there.
There's some companies that they're taking a dollar.
This is the circular financing.
So they're taking a dollar and they're saying, okay, I'm going to buy a data center.
Now, you're going to take that money and you're going to buy the chip.
From me, right?
So I buy the data center from you.
You give me the dollar.
I give you the chip.
Now, because you've given me the dollar back, it's considered revenue.
In the past, it wasn't revenue.
It was just sitting in my bank account.
I gave it to you.
I bought the data center.
You gave it back to me.
Now it's revenue.
Well, now the stock market is saying, oh, the company's revenue went up, so we're going
to do 30x the valuation.
So that's what people are saying in terms of circular financing, that they are moving
things from what's. just sitting in their account to revenue, and that's having a market amplification.
Now, no one is smart enough to know what all of this is going to end in.
My view is that there's genuine economic value out of AI.
It would be naive to say that there's not.
There need to be guardrails to it, that there is genuine speculation there, and that there
needs to be regulation, both regulation.
There needs to be regulation on the circular financing and regulation on the safety.
So it's not like they're settling a Ponzi scheme.
They're actually selling real things that are storing data and doing things.
The question, though, is, are they doing things for the public good, or are they just doing
things for privatized profits?
And right now, too much of it is in the hands of these billionaires.
And that's. Okay, so all of that, I'm so glad that we have a congressman who understands all of
that and knows. I approach it in a really simple way.
Oh, you're a pro, yeah.
So when I look at these guys that are in charge of AI, Altman, complete nut.
Yeah.
Peter Till, lunatic, who has a side hustle where he gives speaking conferences about
the Antichrist, which that's some really weird shit.
You go on to Elon Musk, shows up to the White House with a black eye, tripping on ketamine,
acting like a nut.
And then you get to Alex.
You get to Alex Karp.
You get to all of these people.
The more they're on TV, the worse it is for them.
They are a constant walking, talking, breathing advertisement against AI.
These are not trustworthy people.
They, on top of everything, are some of the richest people in the world.
And they feel so aggrieved.
I mean, just. It's unbelievable.
So when I look at it, I'm like, these guys are our best foot forward on all of this?
Like. Yeah.
This can't be it.
All of AI and the future of the race with China and all that is with these guys?
And then you start diving into their past and diving into the beliefs that they hold.
They have decided.
It gets really dark really fast.
Yeah.
That they want to do away with all governments, basically, and that we are governed by technology.
And then Elon Musk talks about everybody having this high universal income, all this stuff.
I'm like, what about all the companies?
Tell me shit.
Y'all are trying to throw around about all of us.
But the more they speak, the more I think, oh, my God, we have to do a halt, race with
China, be damned, all of those things.
We have really bad actors in the United States in charge of it.
And then just this.
This is my litmus test for anything.
If, after you saw everything that Trump did in Trump 1.0, and you witnessed January 6th,
and you're aware of 20%, 10%.
Of what has been dropped in the Epstein files, and you bent the knee to him, I'm talking about
Marco Rubio, I'm talking about Tim Cook, I'm talking about Jeff Bezos, you're a morally
depraved person.
You shouldn't be in charge of anything that involves public safety for the greater good,
because you've proven that you prefer to collude with a criminal, Donald Trump.
So, first of all, I share your experience.
I share your assessment of a lot of these people.
I know them.
Your constituents?
My constituents are still a lot of the engineers, of the nurses, of the teachers.
In fact, they went against me, these tech billionaires.
They put up a candidate against me, gave him a million dollars, because I had said we should
tax these folks at 5%.
And I won 63 to 6 in Silicon Valley.
So, even a lot of the engineers and people at these tech companies have a problem with
them.
Look, they think they're carrying civilization on their backs.
I mean, one of them said,
to me, you know, Roe, I really don't like this idea of one person, one vote.
I said, why is that?
He said, it's too easy for you guys.
You just say tax the billionaires more.
I think we should vote based on net worth.
It should be based on your contribution to society.
And the guy said it with a straight face, right?
I mean, so these are the people who are thinking that they're determining the future, and they
want to write the rules.
Now, the first thing, you know, we need is people who actually understand.
We need people who understand it enough to stand up to them and say, no, the American
people are going to call the shots.
No, you're not going to get away with building these AI models without criminal and civil
liability.
We're going to stop this self-improvement AI.
We're going to make sure that you're not going to eliminate truck driver jobs.
And we're going to stand with truck drivers.
And you're not just going to eliminate people's jobs, but you're going to have to engage in
collective bargaining and pay them profits.
And understand that.
And I think that's what we're going to do.
And I think the American people and people in general, they want folks who understand
the economy, but then they want folks who are on their side.
And right now, they've had a struggle on both, because I don't want to criticize any of my
colleagues, but they say, OK, this person's on my side, but I'm not sure they really understand
what's going on.
And they want people who understand what's going on, but then they're like, yeah, but
they're not on my side.
And all they're asking for is, how about we understand what's going on and be on our side,
right?
Right.
I mean, that's the irony with Donald Trump.
Like, he's going to be, like, conquering Greenland and tariffs.
And it's just like he's in a different century.
And here, all the wealth that's actually being generated, he's not doing anything.
He's not generating wealth for Pennsylvania or Ohio.
He's just giving the keys.
You go keep building your wealth.
Jennifer, one third of the nation's wealth is in my district.
How have we allowed that?
One third of the nation's wealth is sitting in a 50-mile radius around me, when people
around America can't get jobs and can't get a home.
And my point. The point is, it's time.
that we get the future economy working for everyone.
Tax these billionaires, start by taxing them.
That would pay for free childcare for every American.
It would pay for free college for every American.
You could extend Medicare to 50
just by a 5% tax every year on 989 billionaires.
And they're still gonna be billionaires.
And they'll still be worth the same
because their market value keeps going up.
Stop their putting money into elections.
I mean, right now they're basically buying elections.
Billionaire spending has gone up from 0.3% to 19%.
Make sure that you actually have an FDA AI agency
that makes this safe.
Have a public purpose.
If there's AI that's gonna be used
to research for curing cancer, fine.
I mean, I'm not against technology.
I'm against technology being monetized
to give political power and wealth
in the hands of the few.
And to me, this is almost bigger than Trump.
Yeah, Trump has made a mess.
He's made a mess of our democracy and it's horrific.
But what comes after Trump?
Is it just gonna be ruled by these tech billionaires?
Is it just gonna be an America
that continues to produce economic wealth
in the hands of the few?
We need a social and economic total change of the system,
not just rhetorically.
Everyone's like, oh, we gotta change things.
Well, what does that mean?
Are you willing to tax them at the start?
If you're not, it's not gonna change.
Are you willing to say that we're gonna stand up for jobs
and we're gonna make a difference?
Not have them eliminate those jobs.
Are you willing to say that there should be free childcare
and free healthcare in America?
We're producing more wealth than ever before.
Like, it's the irony of it.
And yet, kids I grew up with in Pennsylvania
have less of a shot than my parents thought I did
as a son of immigrants.
And that's the anger in this country.
And that's what we need to solve.
Okay, final question.
Yeah.
Yes or no?
Yeah.
Do you think you'll run for president in 28?
Who knows?
Maybe I'll come here and tell you.
I always want to ask those questions
and it's a really legitimate thing with you.
So it really made me feel like a big podcaster to ask.
Well, I'll tell you what,
the 28 primary is gonna come through your studio right here.
I hope so.
I hope so.
Congressman, it's always a pleasure.
And just so my audience knows,
like there's no, when he comes to interview,
there's no like, don't ask me this.
What are you gonna ask me?
This is a politician that comes in
without any prep from what we're gonna talk about
and we'll answer it.
We'll answer it.
We'll answer any question.
Every politician should do the Ro Khanna style circuit
where you can go to the left, you can go to the right,
you go to the center, you go to some fringy podcasts
and it doesn't matter because your story doesn't change
because you're not bought and paid for.
Well, and I appreciate it.
I often learn and listen from the podcast.
You look, we're a country of 330 million people
and it's an incredible place from a place
where you know one person has a monopoly
on the answers or the truth.
And I find it incredible.
So I have engagement.
Now, when I come on with you,
I always get in trouble afterwards
because there's someone you or I have offended
who then goes after me.
So I'm just waiting.
I'll have to see who is it today that we've called out.
Isn't that good trouble?
That is good trouble.
It is good trouble.
You know, it's an ugly world
because I don't go after people personally.
There are families I keep out of it.
There's no lines.
People come after you in very ugly ways.
But I'll tell you something,
that the anger in this country is just,
it's justified.
And Trump directed all that anger
because I saw in Bucks County,
I saw the steel mill shut down.
I saw the people who voted for him.
They said, yeah, my life sucks.
I built this country and I don't see my life improving.
My kids can't get a job.
I can't get a house.
I don't recognize myself.
And he said, blame the immigrants
and blame other countries.
And he's been telling that story.
But if we get in there in the fall
and we just say, okay, you know,
we're going to,
I have ACA subsidies.
I like ACA subsidies.
We'll get rid of the bad tariffs.
Okay, is that going to help someone get a job
or get a house?
Is that going to check this unbridled wealth
and power in the hands of the few?
No, we need an FDR-like moment.
FDR built America for the industrial age.
We need as a Democratic Party
to build this for the modern economic age
where every American has a stake.
I actually think that project
is harder than even winning.
It's a Herculean task.
To get this country
to be in the right direction.
I think the electorate is ready for it.
But I can also tell you at the same time,
you've got to walk and chew gum
because we're ready for the Democrats
to be the law and order party
and take down this criminal crime syndicate
in the White House.
Jennifer Welch is Attorney General.
Oh my gosh.
Problem is I don't have a law degree.
I'll be White House Press Secretary.
There you go.
Okay, all right.
Thank you, Congressman.
My pleasure.
Thank you.
The Supergallon for six months.
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Limited time offer.
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Podcast Summary
Key Points:
Selling a car on Carvana is quick, hassle-free, and eliminates negotiation and lowballing with online listings.
BJ’s Wholesale Club offers members up to 25% savings on groceries and gas, with a limited-time $20 join offer and savings on fuel for six months.
Representative Ro Khanna criticizes the MAGA Party for racial insensitivity, including claims that children of immigrants are "less American" and for promoting white Christian supremacy.
He highlights systemic racism in political leadership, citing the Trump administration’s cover-up of Epstein-related documents and the targeting of minority officers like African-American generals.
Khanna argues that current leadership undermines American ideals of diversity and inclusion, replacing them with a narrow, racially exclusive definition of citizenship.
He calls for strong congressional oversight of powerful figures, including Elon Musk and others involved in AI, demanding accountability and civil/criminal liability.
A major concern is the lack of ethics oversight in the judiciary, with allegations of corruption and ties to billionaires, which must be addressed through impeachment and reform.
Khanna urges a fundamental economic shift—taxing billionaires to fund universal benefits like free childcare, healthcare, and education—so wealth serves the public good, not just the elite.
Summary:
The transcript blends multiple themes: a promotional ad for Carvana and BJ’s Wholesale Club, which highlight ease and savings in car sales and grocery shopping. S. political leadership.
He condemns the promotion of white, Christian heritage as a standard for American identity, citing examples like Dinesh D’Souza and political figures who downplay racial diversity. Khanna details how powerful figures—Trump, Pete Hegseth, and Todd Blanche—have enabled cover-ups of abuse, suppressed Epstein-related documents, and undermined accountability. He argues that the Republican Party’s policies foster racial nativism and economic inequality, with wealth concentrated among a few.
He calls for aggressive congressional action, including subpoenas, criminal contempt proceedings, and impeachment, to hold powerful individuals accountable. The discussion also addresses AI ethics, warning that unchecked development by tech billionaires risks harming public safety and jobs. Khanna concludes that a transformative, equitable economy is needed—one built on universal access to healthcare, childcare, and education—through taxation of the ultra-wealthy.
This vision, he says, requires a bold, ethical Democratic agenda rooted in public good, not elite profit.
FAQs
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Yes, pickup fees may apply when selling your car on Carvana. These fees are typically outlined during the vehicle valuation process.
Carvana stands out by offering a no-negotiation, transparent process with instant offers, eliminating the need for lengthy negotiations or interactions with untrustworthy online listing representatives.
Members save up to 25% off grocery store prices, enjoy 10 cents per gallon on gas for six months, and get access to discounts on items like pasta, protein bars, and laundry pods.
New members can join BJ's Wholesale Club for $20 and receive a 10-cent-per-gallon savings on gas for six months, available only during a limited-time offer.
There is concern that MAGA leaders promote racist narratives, such as defining whiteness or Christianity as essential to being American, and that this undermines the country's diverse, melting-pot identity.
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