Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Murdoch TURNS AGAINST Trump over Latest Moves

Episode Date: December 7, 2024

Trump’s failed transition and hiring and firing lunacy has gotten the attention of Right winger Rupert Murdoch who’s Wall Street Journal is regularly criticizing Trump and he doesn’t like it. Michael Popok connects the dots of the almost hourly firing and quitting of Trump’s cabinet picks even before any Senate confirmation process begins, and how this chaos carried over to the incoming administration may provide a blueprint on how to beat Trump and shoot down his unAmerican policies. Smalls: Head to https://Smalls.com/LEGALAF and use promo code: LEGALAF at checkout for 50% off your first order PLUS free shipping! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Wall Street Journal and Donald Trump, who's not happy with their reporting that his transition team and his picks for various offices are in complete disarray. I don't know what else you would call it, but Donald Trump doesn't like it, and he's taken to social media to lambast the Wall Street Journal because they're not reporting about his election three weeks ago.

They're reporting about all of the people that are being effectively taken out in the back and shot by Donald Trump before they even take office after he's nominated them. Fierings, quiddings, revolving doors. We haven't even got to January 20th yet. I'm Michael Popak on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal AF. Let's talk about it. Rupert Murdoch likes to be the kingmaker. There's a reason that succession on HBO is based on the Murdoch family.

He wants to manipulate public opinion. If he goes thumbs up, it's like the emperor or whatever in Gladiator. Thumbs up, person lives, thumbs down, he doesn't. He's going after Donald Trump and Donald Trump doesn't like it. The Wall Street Journal, a conservative right-wing paper, you know, business-oriented paper, but it's been reporting negatively, as has everyone else, including here on the Might of a Touch Network, about what we're observing with our own two eyes about the chaos and disarray and lunacy

and farce that is the transition team's efforts. Let's start and then I'll give you what Donald Trump is saying about Rupert Murdoch. Let's just give you the stats. Donald Trump decides with his team that it would be a good idea to avoid the confirmation normal vetting process by using the Federal Bureau of Investigation, you know, consistent with their theory that the FBI is the deep state, it can't be trusted, it's a mole. Tulsi Gabbard, who wants to be the National Intelligence Director, I'm not sure that's happening, Tulsi, but she said three weeks ago, we're not going to use the FBI. We don't want a mole from the Biden administration inside of our transition team. We'll do it ourselves.

We'll DIY. Like they're going to Home Depot. We'll DIY the background checks. All right, well, how did that go? Well, let's do the numbers, the hirings, the firings, and the quiddings, and we haven't even gotten to the confirmation process. Let me remind everybody,

the 119th Congress hasn't even been seated yet. That's on Jan 3. The inauguration hasn't happened yet. That's on Jan 20. We're only in mid-December. And what you're normally, for those that don't follow us that closely, let me tell you what's normally supposed to happen.

Like in the Clinton days or Biden days or Obama days, you announce your cabinet, two or three or five at a time. Clinton did it like eight or nine at a time. You stand together with a photo opportunity. People go look up their bios on Wiki. They're usually credible states people or they have they have value. They've made valuable contributions to public service.

It sort of makes sense if you showed it to somebody who came down off of another planet like a UFO and you showed them the credentials and the job, they'd be like, yeah, I get it. That's what normally is supposed to happen. And you rarely, if ever, have a pick for a cabinet position or a federal office flame out a month before or so the inauguration. And it happens occasionally, like you can count

on half a hand how many times it's happened before. But with this transition team, who decided not to vet and everything, it's happening every 12 to 18 hours. It's almost, it's less than a news cycle. We have trouble keeping up with it here on the Midas Touch Network and Legal AF. So let's start from the top.

Matt Gaetz, Matt Gaetz lasted eight days. The third fastest cabinet pick, boom. But that's an unforced error for the transition team. Matt Gaetz had a sexual predator and sex trafficking set of allegations and charges against him. They thought that was going to heal itself and get better with time. It didn't. And if you're going to create a vacuum and you're're not gonna do your proper FBI vetting. Nature abhors a vacuum.

We'll fill it. The media will fill it. We're looking at everything we can about these people to do the job that the vetting team should have done. This transition team is going to go down in history as the worst transition team ever, ever. They don't sign their ethics obligations. They don't sign their ethics resolution plan

because they don't have any plan to resolve all the ethical crises. I'm surprised they can see the presidential transition committee through their ethical dilemmas and financial entanglements with the government. So they're not doing their job. I can't believe that was one. Next one, boom, fired. Donald Trump says, oh, I'm gonna pick Chad Chronister,

who's a sheriff down in Hillsborough County and also the brother in law, the son-in-law of Ed DiBartolo, the infamous owner of the San Francisco 49ers caught in a gambling scandal and was pardoned by Donald Trump. I'm gonna make him head of the drug enforcement agency. You know, he's a solid citizen. Yeah, fired, fired.

They figured out somewhere along the way that Chad Chronister was in favor of lockdowns and didn't want churches meeting during COVID for the spread of COVID. No, he's gone. Fire him too. We're only, they're only 24 hours in. And then, then we're not done.

Hegseth, Department of Defense, New Yorker article, New York Times article, all these women who say he sexually assaulted them, that he was drunk in public, alleging that his financial mismanagement put two veterans group out of business, you know? The multiple marriages, the cheating on his wives, the out of wedlock children, was this going to get better with time? This was going to heal? No, Hegseth's going to be out. He'll probably be out by the time this hot take comes up. So you got Hegseth out, Gates is out, right? Others that they're floating, right? Other names, they're called, Chad, DEA guy out, you know, White House counsel, White House counsel out, right?

And so, like, what do you have at the end of the day? You've got all of these public, public firings and quitting, whatever they may be, it doesn't matter. It is sheer chaos. If this is how they're running their transition team, God help us on how they're going to run the country. That's why I'm starting to have, I'm getting a little bit happy. Can you see this? Get a little bit enthusiastic here. Because now the hangover is over, right? After the giddiness, the headiness of winning the election, whoa, we won the election, let's do crazy things. the headiness of winning the election. Whoa, we won the election. Let's do crazy things.

It's over. Take the lampshade off your head. Okay. Whatever happens in Washington doesn't stay in Washington. It goes everywhere, including through the media. And these Jack, you know what, are gonna screw this up. They are overplaying their hand. They're like the gang that can't shoot straight.

And that bodes well for the future. You know, we originally thought they're going to be very professional on the way in. This was the talking points before, after the election. Oh, we're in trouble. They're going to be very professional in the Trump administration. They're going to get real adults there. Susie Wiles for chief of staff, she's an adult. They learn their lesson. They're going to follow the guidebook of Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation and the America First Policy Institute, they've all been in their leadership training

academies, they're ready to go on day one, are they? Forget that narrative, that narrative is out. Now let me tell you what Donald Trump is saying about his buddy, used to be his buddy, Rupert Murdoch, because he's pissed. So he says, the Wall Street Journal, this is from Donald Trump, is becoming more and more obnoxious and unreadable.

But of course, Donald Trump read it. Today's main headline is Trump's DEA pick pulls out in latest setback. That's Trump writing about Chad Chronister either being fired or pulling out. Today's main headline is Trump's DEA pick pulls out in latest setback. That's Trump writing about Chad Chronister either being fired or pulling out. It really doesn't matter. With all that's happening in the world, Trump continues, this is their number one story of the day, he complained about it.

As the gravity of this very important responsibility set in, I've concluded that I must respectfully withdraw from consideration. That was Chronister quitting. But Trump says, he didn't pull out, I pulled him out. Okay, we'll leave insert joke there, because I did not like what he said to my pastors and other supporters. I think he's referring to the fact that he was arresting and criticizing a mega church pastor in 2020 for violating COVID-19 lockdown policies. And that led to like, MAGA not being happy with him.

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for 50% off your first order. One last time, that's promo code LegalAF for 50% off your first order plus free shipping. Further, Trump went on to criticize the journal, therefore Rupert Murdoch, by saying, why are you reporting on my latest challenge? But more importantly, what's my latest setback? I just won the presidency of the United States. They haven't written a good story about me in years. I'm not sure that's exactly true. Rupert Murdoch also owns Fox News and the Fox Media Company. And so between Gates and Hegseth and the firing at the White

House Counsel's Office before it even started, what else can you make of this? If you could get your vote back, I think there would be a fair number of people, maybe numbering five million, that would say, yeah, no, this is not what I wanted. I want to re-trade. Can I get my vote back? Can I make a return? No, that's the problem. You can't make a return. But look at this disastrous lack of leadership, lack of organization. But there is a silver lining, as I said in the middle of the hot take, there is a silver lining here. They can't get out of their own way.

They keep stepping on their crank. They keep wrapping themselves around their axle and whatever metaphor or analogy you wanna use. That's a good thing. That means when we see executive orders, they're gonna not be compliant with the law that they're based on, and we're gonna have the ability to challenge it in court

I mean get ready everybody because we're gonna watch a you think the transition team is is is sheer madness and Anarchy wait till you see them in action when they take office We as a people are gonna be lurching from one constitutional crisis to another as of people are going to be lurching from one constitutional crisis to another as Donald Trump does not respect the separation of powers, the balance of powers, the co-equal branches of government. He thinks the other two co-equal branches of government sit on his lap and are his lap dogs and he's going to be testing over and over again how far he can go with presidential power, meaning lawsuits are going to be filed all the way up to the United States Supreme Court over and over and over again. His executive orders aren't

going to match the laws, and therefore they're going to be illegal and unconstitutional, and so on and so on. He's going to delegate too much authority to doge the Department of Government Efficiency with Elon Musk. That's going to be challenged as an improper delegation of executive power to a non-agency agency or department that hasn't been approved by Congress. You see where the lawsuits are going? This is why we formed with Midas Touch Network, Legal AF, the YouTube channel, about a month before the election, not necessarily to help the Democrats win. We wanted that was the byproduct. We wanted that to happen, but to be here if they didn't and all the

lawsuits that are going to be filed almost within a day or a week of Jan 20. So Donald Trump's least concern is about what Rupert Murdoch is saying today and how he's pissed off about the journal. Just like he's pissed off at the journal, just like he's pissed off at times with Fox News. You think, here's another thing, he's chastising the Wall Street Journal like, don't they have anything better to write about? Don't you have anything better to do than to worry about how you're being portrayed

in the press? What about making appropriate picks that are not obscenely unqualified and unfit, both by character and otherwise for the jobs that you want to put them in? How about that? The American people expect at least that, demand at least that, including the people that voted for you. Do your job. I don't know how else to put this.

And this is not the last report we're going gonna do in the Midas Touch Network or Legal AF about a change in the cabinet. So first wave is he changes his mind, right? He's flip-flopping on all of his cabinet picks and federal officers, moving around, firing them, making them quit, all doing that before we even get to the new Congress and the confirmation process.

That's wave one, boom. We're not done with it. Hexest is going to be gone. I'm not sure RFK Jr. makes it even to the confirmation process and anybody that makes it to the next level, this is like a video game from the 1980s, you get to level two and you get into the confirmation process, I'm not sure half of his picks make it through the confirmation process. I'm not sure half of his picks make it through the confirmation process. RFK Jr. for Health and Human Services, Tulsi Gabbard, rumored to be a Russian asset for a national intelligence director, Dr. Oz for anything. You know, I'm not sure. So I think a lot of them get their heads lopped off at the Senate confirmation time.

And the senators, having been challenged, I guess that's the right word, by Donald Trump to do their job under Article 1 to give advice and consent to confirm these picks, I think Donald Trump thought they were just going to go fishing for 10 days, give him a recess so he could make appointments while they turn the other way. They're not doing that because they're an institution. They've been there forever. They have no term limits. They're there for six-year periods. They don't give a crap about Donald Trump because they're going to outlive and outlast Donald Trump. And so Thune, who just became majority leader to take over for McConnell, but he takes over

on Jan 3, I don't know what he promised Donald Trump, well, don't worry, boss, we'll take a holiday for 10 days or more and you can appoint all these crazies. That's not happening. There's a four-seat lead in the Senate for the Republicans, and that's quickly evaporating because there are still moderates and Republicans and quote unquote conservatives and Reagan-like Republicans in the Senate. Even though the House is a crazy bat shit crazy, the Senate is a little bit more sober about their dealings and about their legacy and about their institutions. So that's what we're watching. So forget Trump. I mean, you are

concerned about what we say. I know that. I mean, Midas Touch and Popok and Cohen just ended up in the recent filing Donald Trump's lawyers did to try to get rid of his convictions, his 34 felony count convictions in New York. Second or third page, Midas Touch in a footnote, Popok in a footnote. We joked internally that if we're not covering the news and doing commentary, we're making it. We're part of it. So don't worry about podcasts so much. Don't worry about Wall Street Journal and Fox News and Fox and Friends, where you're getting most of your cabinet from. Worry about making a transition that keeps America safe and secure, so you are ready on day one. If there's a pandemic on day one, if there's a war,

an incursion on day one, or anything else, be ready. We live in trying and troubling times. I live in New York and in and around New York. Yesterday, the CEO of United Healthcare was assassinated with marked bullets with words on them showing that somebody was disgruntled about something about insurance and insurance practices and they took out this 50-year-old chairman of UnitedHealthcare on the streets of New York while he was heading inside to the Hilton on Sixth Avenue to attend meetings, annual meetings, board meetings, chair-older meetings for UnitedHealthcare. This is the world that we now live in. Can't blame that on Joe Biden. Anything could happen at any moment like that. He's got to be ready,

but his transition team is a joke. Now they're getting around to sign the FBI background check agreement. You're a little late, aren't you? Continue to follow it. Legal AF, I've got a new show, Midas Touch on Midas Touch, called Popak Live at the intersection of law and politics. It's 8 p.m. Tuesdays, Eastern time here on the Midas Touch network. Legal AF, the original brand, Wednesdays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. full length podcast there at the intersection of law and politics. Brand new channel I mentioned, Legal AF, the YouTube channel Legal AF MTN. So until my next contribution to all things Legal AF, I'm Michael Popock, and I'm reporting. In collaboration with the Midas Touch Network, we just launched the Legal AF YouTube channel. Help us build this pro-democracy channel where I'll be curating the top stories, the world.