December 1, 2023
President Joe Biden conducted a brief interview with Ben Meiselas, Founder of The Meidas Touch Network at the CS Wind Factory in Pueblo, CO. They discussed Lauren Boebert’s response to Biden’s Build Back America plan, as well as the positive impact it has had on Colorodans as well as Americans around the country.
President Biden also warned that democracy is not inevitable and reminded us that we “have to put a stamp of democracy on everything we do.”
The following is a transcript of an interview conducted by the founder of the Meidas Touch Network, Ben Meiselas with President Biden in Pueblo, CO.
Ben Meiselas: I’m Ben Meiselas from the Meidas Touch network. We are joined by President Joe Biden. Mr. President, it is such an honor.
President Biden: Well, you’re doing a great job, you know. Sometimes the, in my view, my best politics is truth, and you’re telling the truth.
Ben Meiselas: “Truth is golden” is our slogan.
President Biden: Oh is it?
Ben Meiselas: I’ve heard you say, “Don’t compare me to the Almighty compare me to the alternative.” So we’re here in Pueblo, CO, you gave an incredible speech. We’re at the CS wind turbine factory, the largest wind turbine factory in the world. You were talking about the inflation Reduction Act and jobs being brought to cities and communities across the United States of America and here in Pueblo, and the MAGA Republican representative, though of Pueblo, Co, is MAGA Republican Lauren Boebert, and she gives the alternative position there on the Inflation Reduction Act. And she says that the Inflation Reduction Act is a massive failure and she said that it is another con by the Democrats. If I can, I want to show you a video of MAGA Republican Lauren Bobert talking. I apologize in advance for showing this to you, but.
(Shows video clip to President Biden)
Lauren Boebert: And it does the exact opposite of what Americans need right now. This is just another con game by the Democrats calling something one thing and saying another. This is making the IRS with armed agents larger than the Pentagon, the State Department, FBI.
Speaker: Woman’s time has expired. Gentlemen’s time has expired. The woman gentleman is no longer recognized. The gentleman from Missouri reserves the ba…
Lauren Boebert: …robbery on American….
Speaker (Overlapping): How much time do you…
(Boebert continues overlapping)
Speaker: …you need? The gentlewoman is no longer recognized.
Ben Meiselas: I’m sorry.
President Biden: No, that’s OK. If it weren’t so important, it would be humorous. What’d she call it? “A massive failure?” The only massive failure occurs in her thinking. The idea that in her own district, we’ve created so many new good-paying jobs. And by the way, it’s generating economic growth across the board. Across the board! And when people get a good job, what they do is they have an opportunity to spend on things that are basic needs for themselves. And by the way, we cut the deficit by $7 billion in our first year, okay?
The idea that she’s talking about this being a “massive failure,” I don’t get it. I- I don’t know whether they just don’t understand anything or whether or not they in fact are… I hope she comes back here and tells the people in this factory, the largest wind turbine factory in the world, that this is a “massive failure.” It’s her district. Invite her to come back. Come back and tell the folks back home this is a “massive failure.” Tell the folks back home that all that we’ve done to generate economic growth is not worth it, and I’d like to ask and explain how she supports not taxing billionaires more than 8%. I have trouble explaining it, but then again, I probably shouldn’t waste my time trying to.
Ben Meiselas: Well what do you make of just the MAGA Republican influence over the Republican Party in general with, She’s saying that she’s “Ultra Maga.”
(Video plays)
Lauren Boebert: You know, we are addressed as MAGA extremist, extreme MAGA Republicans and I would like to make just a clarification point. It’s ULTRA MAGA!
President Biden: She’s an “Ultra MAGA, all right. Look, for years I served in the Senate. Some of my friends, and that’s not hyperbole, were people I disagreed with, Republicans. There are 7 Republicans still in the United States Senate come up to me since I’ve been President saying, “Joe, I agree with you, but if I if I vote at all, I’m going to be primaried and lose my election.” There’s a lot of really solid, solid people. But this makes up, I don’t know what, 35 percent, 30% in the Republican Party? There’s a lot of really decent, honorable conservatives who move from a position of trying to figure out how we can do the most for the most people in a way that’s fair to everybody. But she’s clearly not one of them.
Ben Meiselas: So we might have touched supporters of people who watch our network call themselves the Meidas Mighty. We here at the Meidas Touch network say that we’re unapologetically pro democracy. What’s your message to the Meidas Mighty out there and those watching right now, who fear for our democracy and who just care about our democracy?
President Biden: You know, I made a speech at Independence Hall saying that our democracy is at risk. And even the press said, “What are you talking about?”
Well guess what? The vast majority of American people thought it was, too. The idea that they have a former president who may be the nominee, saying that he thinks they should be able to essentially walk away from the Constitution. I mean, the things they’re saying are just off the wall. And it’s, we better step up. I taught at the University of Pennsylvania for four years, and I also taught in law school. And the idea that democracy is inevitable, it’s not true. It’s under siege, and they have to put a stamp of democracy on everything we do.
Ben Meiselas: Absolutely. And GDP was revised up to. 5.2%.
President Biden: Yeah, two things. America has been the most strong and the most vibrant when we’ve built from the middle out and bottom up. It’s still when the wealthy still do very well, the poor have a shot, and the middle class builds this country. Well, what’s happening now is it’s all this trickle-down economics, and they’ve even gone way beyond what they usually do they’re making sure that people who should be paying more in taxes… I’m not- look the highest tax rates about 36% to 37%, not talking 90%. The idea that someone making a billion dollars a year pays 8-8 ½%? It’s outrageous! And they’re defending these things. We are the most prosperous nation in the world, our economy is stronger than any nation of the world, and we have more freedom up until this group came along. But what’s at stake now is freedom, not just freedom of choice. You know, the idea that the young girl who has been raped and Ohio has to sneak out on the state?
(Video clip Plays)
Chris Matthews: How do you ban abortion? How do you actually, do it?
Donald Trump: Well, you know, you’ll go back to a-a position like they had where people will perhaps go to illegal places…
Chris Matthews: Yeah..
Donald Trump …but you have to ban it. No, but but you, you.
Chris Matthews: Do you believe in punishment for abortion? Yes or no, as a principle.
Donald Trump: The answer is that, there has to be some form of punishment.
Chris Matthews: For the woman? Yeah, there has to some form.
(Another clip plays)
Donald Trump: Well, I’m the one that got rid of Roe V Wade.
President Biden: Yeah, I never thought I’d see it get this dangerous and this bad, but it is. And we have to put a stamp on democracy. Unrelated to me, we’ve got to stand up for our freedoms.
Ben Meiselas: Well, thank you, Mr. President. We saw the Bidennomics working right here in Pueblo, CO,. I got to speak to the workers, and I want to thank you for everything that you’re doing. Our democracy.
President Biden: Thank you, man!
Ben Meiselas: Appreciate you.
President Biden: The American people are doing it.