Catherine Rampell on Trump’s Economic Policies

The Al Franken Podcast

Government, Progressive, Politics, Senate, Liberal, Senator, Minnesota, Franken, News, Saturday Night Live, Comedy, Snl

4.6 • 7.7K Ratings

🗓️ 20 July 2025

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We’re joined by Washington Post columnist and co-host of MSNBC's The Weekend, Catherine Rampell!

Catherine breaks down what the Big, Beautiful Bill means for Americans and why it's been so important for Trump and the Republicans to get it done. It will balloon our deficit and gut the social safety net. And for what? Tax breaks for the richest Americans.

We also discuss immigration and why immigrants are so important to the economy. Catherine delves into how Trump is rounding up immigrants with NO criminal record and, in many cases, disappearing them without a trace.

Plus, the latest on the inflationary damage of Trump’s tariffs.

READ Catherine's opinion pieces in The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/catherine-rampell/

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, everybody, we've got a great one today.
0:07.1	You know, for a change, the brilliant Catherine Rampel is back.
0:11.5	Catherine writes her opinion column for The Washington Post and is now co-host of MSNBC's weekend primetime show.
0:19.8	And if you're a regular listener to this podcast, you know she always delivers.
0:25.5	Well, it seems that Trump has figured out that Putin is not so trustworthy, and he's decided to arm Ukraine.
0:34.6	This is not too popular with Trump's MAGA base, even though the Europeans are going to
0:40.8	pay for it. And of course, they weren't very happy with bombing Iran. Nobody, including the base,
0:48.6	seems to like the terrorists. But the MAGA crowd is really upset about Epstein. I mean, I guess they feel Trump's
0:56.5	kind of strung them along, you know, nothing to see here, move on, but they won't move on.
1:02.2	Peter? Yeah, Al. Yeah. So what do you think? Is Trump named in the Epstein files?
1:09.6	I don't think we will ever know.
1:12.6	They'll never release the files.
1:14.6	Well, not if he's in them.
1:15.9	So you think he's in them?
1:17.7	I didn't say that.
1:19.3	Well, then he might release them.
1:22.0	I think there's a reason that he won't release them.
1:25.6	Which is that he's in them.
1:27.5	Well, look, I just don't think that the official position of the show should be that Trump is definitely, definitely in the Epstein files.
1:36.7	Well, that's why I was trying to get you to say it.
1:40.1	I just think that the official position of the Al Franken podcast should be that it's awfully
1:46.7	suspicious that Trump won't release the files.
	...

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