The MeidasTouch Podcast
Senator Adam Schiff Discusses War Powers Resolution against Trump
09 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Nyt kun se pahin on takana, niin mä odotan tulevaisuudelta sitä, että mulla ei ole semmosia elämää uhkaavia huolia ja murheita. Yhdessä syöpää vastaan, koska meillä on elämä tehtävänä. Dokrates Mehiläinen syöpäsairaala. Yksi elonviisaus tähän väliin.
Muistathan, että arki maistuu paremmalta, kun sitä jota liian vakavasti. Silloinkin, kun puuro palaa pohjaan. Eloveena. Sata vuotta täyttä eloa.
Klaas Olssonin asiakaskuulutus. Meillä on uutinen, joka koskee kaikkia asiakaitamme. Viikko, kaksi ja kolme eivät ole vuoden synkimmät viikot. Päinvastoin tarjoamme nyt 30 prosentin alennuksen Northlightin kato- ja pöytävalaisimista. Ja kaiken lisäksi lampuista miinus 20 prosenttia.
Donald Trump is losing it after Republicans in the Senate seem to have turned against him on a vote about a War Powers Resolution Act preventing Donald Trump from further action in Venezuela without congressional approval. This War Powers vote leads to another vote that needs to take place, but it was a 52-47 vote, a bipartisan vote.
Chapter 2: What is the War Powers Resolution and why is it relevant to Trump?
Here's what Donald Trump posted. Republicans should be ashamed of the senators that just voted with Democrats in attempting to take away our powers to fight and defend the United States of America. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Rand Paul, Josh Hawley and Todd Young should never be elected to office again. This vote greatly hampers American self-defense and national security, impeding the president's authority as commander-in-chief.
In any event, and despite their stupidity, the War Powers Act is unconstitutional, totally violating Article 2 of the Constitution, as all presidents and their Department of Justice have determined before me. Nevertheless, a more important Senate vote will be taking place next week on this very subject. And then thereafter, Donald Trump sent his architect, his new architect for the White House East Wing, to talk about demolishing the West Wing or rebuilding the West Wing now, and that...
Those are with their priorities there and I guess also oil companies subsidizing, being subsidized by the taxpayers to the tune of like 100 billion dollars or something like that. Let's bring in Senator Adam Schiff of California. Senator Schiff, you were the principal co-sponsor of Tim Kaine's resolution here in this bill, this War Powers Act resolution.
Kerro meille, miksi se on niin tärkeä, erityisesti kun se on käynyt monipuolisen tasolle. Ja jos voit, vastaa Trumpiin siitä, että tämä on epävarmuus, epävarmuus, ja että hän on epävarmuus taitoja Artikkelissa 2. Tiedän, että se vaikuttaa kaikille. Mitä ajattelet siitä kaikesta?
Well, first of all, this began, as you know, with attacks on ships in the Caribbean. It was claimed by the administration that this was just about stopping drugs from coming to this country, stopping fentanyl from coming here, even though fentanyl is not a drug transported by Venezuela, by both the United States. It comes predominantly from Mexico with precursors made in China. But nevertheless, this was supposedly about drugs.
I introduced the first War Powers resolution to put a stop to that. It got bipartisan support, but not enough. This is now the third resolution Tim Kaine introduced, I was principal co-sponsor on, to put an end to further military involvement in Venezuela, because it's clear now
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Chapter 3: How did Trump react to Republican senators voting against him?
This claim that this was about narcotics was a ruse. This is about oil. This is about oil. This is about seizing the oil reserves of a country that has some of the largest, if not the largest oil reserve in the world. And now the president is saying we could be there for years running that country. And I think, frankly, what the president has been saying is largely responsible for why Republican support for our resolution has grown.
Because Republicans are deeply concerned that we're going to get bogged down in another endless war about oil. And that is not what we want to see happen. It's not what the American people want to see happen. And for the president now to respond this way, basically threatening Republican members who supported this with...
defeat at the polls is at the one hand, typical Donald Trump. At the same time, it is not working because we're seeing an increasing number of Republicans in the Senate and actually today in the House on a different issue on the ACA tax credits. We're seeing them willing to depart from the president.
Because I think frankly they're hearing from their voters and they're responding to the concerns over another endless war in the case of the War Powers Resolution in the Senate and high healthcare costs that Republicans are voting to address in the House.
Chapter 4: Why is Senator Schiff advocating for the War Powers Resolution?
You don't even have to search for the needle in the haystack to figure out, oh, this was about oil. I mean, Trump in the press conference said, this is about oil. We want their natural resources. I've heard some of your MAGA-Republican colleagues, the big Trumpers, say, we're the predators. This is what predators do in the Western Hemisphere. We need to dominate. And then when Donald Trump's been asked, do you have a plan for democracy?
What are we going to do with the opposition leader, Maria Carina Machado, anything there? Donald Trump's like, she doesn't have the respect of the people. He's hoisting up Delcy Rodriguez, Maduro's kind of right hand, and Díaz Dado, the henchman of Maduro. And the regime right now with the colectivos on the street are engaged in a massive repression campaign against any pro-opposition voices, and they're cementing their control. And so you look at it, it's like,
So the outcome was basically to keep a Maduro person in power, just one you like better than Maduro who would give you the resources. And isn't that even clear? She seems to still be saying that she's going to have a relationship with Iran and China. And they certainly looked happy at her swearing in. So talk to us about that as well.
Luulen, että olet täysin oikeassa siitä, että tämä ei ollut välttämättä droogia, vaan myös demokraattia. He eivät edes tehneet mitään, että tämä oli rakentamista oikeudellista hallintoa, hallintoa, jota olemme tunneet.
government or potential government of Maria Karina Machado, who won that election, her surrogate, won that election, Oscar Gonzalez. That is who should be brought back to Venezuela, but they have no intention of doing so. Instead, they're going to rely on the same corrupt regime, just a different corrupt actor. So instead of the number one corrupt actor, Maduro, they're going to rely on his number two
Rodriguez, vice president, now acting president. Because again, this was only about the oil, access to the oil.
The idea that somehow we're going to run this country at a distance by constraining their ability to sell oil, that they're going to go through some transition, that they're going to become a different kind of government, that all of the drug gangs and the muscle of the regime, Iran and Cuba and all the other foreign actors, are simply going to dissipate
is fanciful. It isn't going to happen. And you can just see us getting mired down in Venezuela, initially maybe putting diplomats on the ground and then they need protection for the diplomats and then all of a sudden we have boots on the ground. And, you know, if anything,
One of the commonalities within the public, a deeply divided public, but one of the commonalities between the Democratic base and the MAGA base is neither side wants to engage in another endless war that's about regime change, that's about nation building, and most particularly not if it's about oil. So I think we're going to see over time this has very little public support, and I think that's what you're seeing Republican members react to in the Senate today.
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Chapter 5: What are the implications of U.S. involvement in Venezuela?
Eikö minulla pitäisi olla puolustusryhmä? Minulle se on myös... Kuka tietää, mitä juuri Hellerstein tekee siinä tapauksessa, mutta minulle se ei ole kuitenkaan mietitty kaikkien muiden alueiden kohdalla. Ja sitten mitä, Trump vain huomaa, että öljyryhmät ovat olleet, että kyllä, Donald, haluamme mennä
Silloin sieltä mennään tuollaiselle hienolle öljylle, joka tarvitsee 100 miljardia investointeja, mutta nyt taloudelliset suosittelevat tämän. Ei kuitenkaan ole mitään ajatuksia tähän. Tällaiset päätökset tarvitsevat ajatuksia. Hän järjestää sitä niin, että opiskelija, joka näyttää, ettei ole lukenut työtä, tulee kutsumaan. Se ei ole sellaista, miten meidän hallitus pitäisi toimia.
Ei, ei kuitenkaan. Olet nähnyt näitä vaihtoehtoja ja rationalisoituksia. Suurin osa niistä oli se, että tämä oli vain lainsäädäntökohtainen toiminta. Tämä ei ollut sotilaskäytäntöä, tämä ei ollut sotilaskäytäntöä. Tämä oli vain sotilaskäytäntöä, joka käytettiin, jotta pystyttäisiin järjestämään juurikuntaa Maduroista.
Tietenkin, jos se olisi tapahtunut, jos se järjestelmä olisi ollut oikeastaan se, mitä tapahtui, tämä olisi loppunut nyt. Maduro on saapunut, hän on saapunut järjestöön, joten varo on tehty, ja ei tarvitse lisää sotilaallista liiketoimintaa. Mutta tietenkin tämä ei ole siitä, vaan öljyä.
As we were saying it's not about democratic governance, otherwise, and I think I said Oscar, but Edmund Gonzalez, the one that we have recognized as having won the last election, would be brought back to lead the government, but that is obviously not happening. And I will say this.
for a president who dissembles all the time, who has no loyalty, obedience or understanding of the truth. He's nevertheless been transparent about one thing, and that is he has talked about oil, I think, more than two dozen times since this military operation and made it very clear what this is about. So I take him at his word on this, that it's about the oil
that he intends to try to run that country, that this is going to be a long term commitment. He also made that clear that we're not talking about months, we're talking about years. I just think that the administration's expectation that all of this can happen magically without the necessity of Americans being fully involved, without putting our service members at risk, without putting our Treasury at risk, I think is just
a farce, and sadly we have failed to learn from the experience that we suffered in Iraq and have suffered other places.
Luulen, että hän on puhunut öljyä enemmän kuin öljyryhmät ovat puhuneet olleensa. Luulen, että he sanovat, että jos haluaa meidät menemään sisään, meidän on tarvetta, koska kuka toimii paikallaan? Onko siellä pitkäaikainen turvallisuus? Kuka on pitkäaikainen? Ja Trump sanoo, että kyllä, me saamme pois teidän tarvittavista Care Act-suosituksista Amerikassa. Me vahvistamme ihmisten terveydenhuoltoa, mutta 100 miljoonia dollaria öljyryhmille, miksi ei?
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Chapter 6: How does the public perceive another potential war in Venezuela?
It's just so heartbreaking, so traumatizing to see this 37-year-old mother gunned down. There she is, and all I can judge from is the video that I think most of us have seen now. Initially she's waving on other cars to go drive past. She wants to make sure her car is not in the way. And then things escalate and she's shot and killed. And this is, I think, yet another vivid demonstration
of how the administration's deployment of ICE and the tactics being used by ICE are endangering our communities. And now they're doubling down. They're sending more ICE agents to Minnesota. They want the provocation, and this is not going to end. They're going to continue doing this, wreaking havoc in our cities. They want the confrontation.
What a horrible disservice and what a horrible tragedy. And I hope Minnesota will insist on being part of that investigation. You certainly cannot trust Kristi Noem or anything she says or does. Sadly, you can't trust an FBI investigation led by Kash Patel. Minnesota needs to have its own role in that investigation. It needs to have access to the witnesses and the evidence.
I think it's the only way that we're going to get a just conclusion and make sure that if that investigation confirms that this agent used excessive deadly force, that there are real consequences for that. Sorry, Senator, before we go really quickly, as a federal prosecutor, I got to get your take on
what they're doing by covering up these epstein files because the you've dealt with large document productions and this doj isn't even speaking the language of esi electronically started from like like nothing that they even said from the beginning with a few hundred thousand records just never made sense to me given the size of cases i handled where there were terabytes of documents and financials and all of these things what do you make of the latest round of cover-up and the violation of the epstein transparency act
and the way the DOJ is going about it as someone who was a former federal prosecutor. Well, I think what they've decided to do is make sure that they go through whatever materials they have
and insulate the president in every way that they can. And they will draw this out and they are drawing it out. The idea that they suddenly discovered that there were hundreds and hundreds of thousands of more documents that were in the possession of the Southern District of New York as if they hadn't done that inventory. And look, maybe it is the fact that they, to some degree,
Just didn't want to look, didn't want to see, didn't want to find out. Now they're legally required to, and they're stonewalling. And we're just going to keep forcing this issue and pressing this issue to make sure the truth comes out. The victims deserve nothing less, and the law requires it.
Senator Schiff, thanks for joining us. Thank you. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million subscribers. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our sub stack at MidasPlus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, ad-free episodes of our podcast and more exclusive content only available at MidasPlus.com.
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