The MeidasTouch Podcast - Bannon BOOKED and GQP Banning Books

Episode Date: November 16, 2021

On today’s episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast, the brothers speak with the Vice Chair of the DNC, President of ASDC (The State Party Association for Democrats) and Chair of the Minnesota DFL (Democratic Farmer Labor Party), Ken Martin! During the conversation, Ken discusses the importance of the Democratic Party going on the offensive with their messaging and why Democrats have to start owning their wins. Martin also provides his thoughts on Beto O’Rourke’s latest BIG announcement and what we must do in order to hold the House in 2022. The remainder of the episode, the brothers discuss Steve Bannon turning himself in, Republicans attempting to (and succeeding in) BANNING books from school curriculums & a fascinating holiday survey as it relates to Covid-19 vaccinations. If you enjoyed today's episode please be sure to ratfbannone, review and subscribe! As always, thank YOU for listening. SUBSCRIBE to The PoliticsGirl Podcast now! Support our sponsors: BetterHelp -- MeidasTouch listeners get 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com/MEIDAS HoMedics Air Purifier -- Go to HoMedics.com/MEIDAS and use promo code MEIDAS to receive a FREE REPLACEMENT FILTER with the purchase of your Air Purifier Adam & Eve -- Go check out https://AdamandEve.com today, select one item and get 50% off including FREE shipping when you enter offer code MEIDAS Remember to subscribe to ALL the Meidas Media Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://pod.link/1510240831 Legal AF: https://pod.link/1580828595 The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://pod.link/1595408601 Kremlin File: https://pod.link/1575837599 Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://pod.link/1530639447 Zoomed In: https://pod.link/1580828633 #podcasts #fullepisode #meidastouch Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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datemyage.com Welcome to the Midas Touch Podcast. Ben Micellus with Brett and Jordy Micellus. We've got an incredible episode for you. Ken Martin, current vice chair of the DNC, president of the State Party Association for Democrats and also chair of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor Party will be joining the podcast today. Excited to ask Ken about what the DNC is doing message-wise, what can the DNC do message-wise, and how Democrats who believe in democracy can go on the offensive against, frankly, these radical maniacs on the right who only know how to hurl insults, burn books, and take away the rights of Americans, and particularly women,

LGBTQ, and anyone who's not a radical right white nationalist seems to be the case. Brett Jordy, how you doing? See, Ben, that's the kind of language we need to be hearing from the DNC. That's the kind of language we need to be hearing from all you guys and all the Democrats. That's what I'm talking about right there. But Ben, I'm doing good.

Jordy, how are you doing? Had a good weekend, had a busy weekend. We got a lot of incredible developments right now. A lot of great- You can't ask me how I'm doing and then not let me at least say like, hey, I'm doing well. I was thinking, Jordy, how are you? Great to talk to you, Jordy. Fantastic.

I wasn't done. I was still in the toss. I was still in the mid-toss. Yeah. Well, if that just isn't a microcosm of the show, I don't know what else is. My arm was still back. I didn't throw the ball yet to you. Okay. Let me throw the ball to you. Jordy, how was your weekend? Tell us all about it. What's new with your life? We're doing well. I'm really excited to be on the show today. We got a great show. I love when folks from the DNC come on here because, look, quite frankly and quite candidly, I think the members of the DNC are well aware of the criticisms that they receive, especially on socials, especially on Twitter from fellow Democrats that the messaging isn't hard enough, that they're not doing enough.

And when the members of the DNC come on here, they know that we're not going to lob them easy questions. We're going to get to the grassroots of it and they come prepared. And it's really awesome to see. So I'm really excited for this interview. Boom, exactly. Like an expression, getting to the grassroots of it, Jordy. It's a good new expression that you just made up there. That's why Jordy's the marketing guy, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Grassroots tired, grassroots wired. Well, I think, look, I think it's two things. I think on the one hand, I don't think people know really what the DNC is and thinks that the DNC somehow control, like actually is like empower to implement policy, which is not what the DNC does. I think some people think the DNC could like lock people up.

Why is the DNC doing it? Why are these people running free? Come on, DNC. That's like, that's not what they do. But look, Democrats, though, do need to speak with a unified voice on issues. And one of the things I'm excited, you know, to talk about during our interview is Democrats are a big tent party where we welcome diverse views and divergent views.

And we have debate and discussions of how we can make a more perfect union. But within that, we shouldn't cannibalize ourselves and our party to allow the polar extreme of what we want, whereas we may have differences over degree and implementation on our side. The other side wants to destroy us. So can we not allow those people to be elected so you have no rights? And I want to put the responsibility also on our listeners, on you, because here's the deal. The messaging, yes, there's messaging that comes from the DNC. There's messaging that comes from the White House. There's messaging that comes from the House and

the Senate. All that is true. But there's also messaging that comes from you and you play a role in this. You know, you are also responsible for getting the message out and you are also responsible for putting forward positive messaging and not tearing down other people in our party and not tearing down other people that are working hard to save our democracy.

And I know we get frustrated at times and there's a lot of developments and various things and various people who are attacking our democracy. And I know we get frustrated at times and there's a lot of developments and various things and various people who are attacking our democracy. But to me, I don't think it's super healthy always to be like attacking the January 6th committee and act like they have some sort of ulterior motives. Like I think the January 6th committee, while we get frustrated at times, I think they are a force for good that is working to preserve our democracy and things like that like we need to remember that we are on a team right now unfortunately politics is a team sport and but guess what our team is our team isn't the Democrats our team

is America our team is democracy so that's why not because of a party not because of one man not because of a president but that's why we have to stick together and that's why we need to be screaming from the rooftops the good things we want to do for people. And that's why we need to break it down so clearly like how Ben did when he opened the podcast about what Republicans are doing. And in that way, that presents the issue in these culture war terms that voters understand on an emotional level. But I want to kick things off also by going through just the good news that we had today. I mean, today was a great day for democracy overall, a lot of incredibly positive developments. We got Sloppy Steve, guys, Sloppy Steve being booked by the feds. That is an incredible development. We have Alex Jones. he was found liable for his vicious lies on the families of the Sandy Hook victims and we have Joe Biden

signing into law the infrastructure bill a monumental achievement that would not be possible without your votes and I'd also be remiss if I did not mention that Beto O'Rourke is officially running for governor of Texas. That's right, Beto O'Rourke for governor. I am rocking right now my Dallas shirt because I am, that's why I'm rocking it, because I am excited about Texas. I think Beto O'Rourke is the kind of candidate that could mobilize an entire electorate

that extends even beyond Texas. I think the more we get people like Beto in there running for office, the more we get people like Tim Ryan running for office, maybe Stacey Abrams throws her out in the ring. The more we get Stacey Abrams in the world out there front and center, that is going to electrify the electorate in a brand new way. And did you guys catch Beto's video this morning? I thought it was terrific. Why don't we play the video? Let's play it.

I'm running for governor, and I want to tell you why. This past February, when the electricity grid failed and millions of our fellow Texans were without power, which meant that the lights wouldn't turn on, the heat wouldn't run, and pretty soon their pipes froze and the water stopped flowing, they were abandoned by those who were elected to serve and look out for them. It's a symptom of a much larger problem that we have in Texas right now. Those in positions of public trust have stopped listening to, serving, and paying attention to and trusting the people of Texas.

And so they're not focused on the things that we really want them to do, like making sure that we have a functioning electricity grid or that we're creating the best jobs in America right here in Texas, or that we have world-class schools or that we make progress on the things that most of us actually agree on, like expanding Medicaid or legalizing marijuana.

Instead, they're focusing on the kind of extremist policies around abortion or permitless carry or even in our schools that really only divide us and keep us apart and stop us from working together on the truly big things that we want to achieve for one another. It's a really small vision for such a big state, but it doesn't have to be that way. And I know that together we can get back to being big again, because I saw that in February when the electricity grid failed and those in power failed all of us.

It was the people of Texas who were willing to put their differences behind them and get to work doing the job at hand, which meant helping our fellow Texans get through that crisis. We did this out of a sense of duty and responsibility to one another. Now, imagine if the governor of Texas felt that same way. Well, there's something that you and I can do about that. I want you to be part of this campaign. And whether that begins today with a campaign contribution or signing up for a volunteer shift

or just committing yourself to talking with your friends and family about how important this election is, I want you on the team. And I want to win this with you and for you and for all the people of Texas. I'm looking forward to seeing you out there on the campaign trail. Thank you. So it's official, guys.

It's official. We had Beto on the podcast a few months ago. I highly recommend that you guys listen to our interview with Beto O'Rourke. A lot of great things that he had to say there about mobilizing the vote in Texas and really how to turn out voters there. And he also called Ted Cruz a fucker, which is always a positive thing on this show and you got to hear it for yourself. One of the things I really liked about the Beto video too is just how like raw it was. It was just Beto O'Rourke staring into the camera, no music, no real edits,

no you know fanfare, just nothing. Just him talking about the issues and also talking about the issues that matter to Texans. Like he focused strongly there, if you heard on the Texas power grid and how their politicians have been fleeing them in Texas and leaving them in the dust while it was picked up for the citizen's responsibility to actually take charge there. So I think that is a brilliant strategy to be focusing on those issues that are affecting Texans on such a grassroots level. And that's what we're saying. And that's why I think Beto is going to be such an impressive candidate. And hey, it's going to be an uphill battle.

It's Texas, right? But things have been moving in our direction and he is an electrifying candidate. And I think going back to my messaging point, you know, I think it's on all of us to be spreading Beto's message. You see that ad of his? Retweet it. Send it to all your friends. Let everybody know.

Call your friends in Texas now and let them know, make sure they're registered. That's where you come in in this aspect of the game. And you could say, oh, but you know, his policy on this, his policy on that. I wonder if it's going to resonate with the Republicans and independents. Cut it, cut it, highlight the good things about him. Talk about issues the way Beto's talking about the issues and get the message out there. I leave that to you. Empower yourself to do that. I have a tagline for Beto. I hope he takes it. Ready? It's, hey, dork, the only sure bet is Beto O'Rourke. We'll workshop that.

No, definitely workshop it. I think he did a fairly good job on his initial video, not going in that direction, but I hear you, Jordy. You hear about the recent poll from one poll from November 2nd, examining how COVID-19 vaccine has impacted people's relationships with their loved ones ahead of the holidays this year. according to the poll, three and five Americans will be banning unvaccinated relatives from family gatherings. I'll ask you how you feel. I would definitely be in that three or five Americans category. And it would be one because they're unvaccinated and because of the health danger that they pose. But two, I don't really want to hear their... Exactly. I don't want to hear their just anti-science, ridiculous conspiracy theories. And this brings

me, Brett, I'm not sure if you saw, lots of people are talking about Joe Rogan this, Joe Rogan, that, you know, recently, but I saw this comedian who just did an incredible job on the Joe Rogan show. His name is Bill Burr and Joe Rogan. Yeah. And Joe wrote, and this is, but this is a learning lesson here. I wouldn't just play Joe Rogan clips if this didn't have a learning lesson, but let me show you Democrats how you stand up to a bully like Joe Rogan. And so Joe Rogan starts going into his views on the show about, you know, why he thinks that vaccines aren't effective. And Bill Berg basically goes, shut the fuck up, Joe Rogan. He goes, you're sitting there in front of this American flag background talking about science. You're not a fucking scientist. I'm not a fucking scientist.

We listen to the scientists. The scientists tell me to wear a mask. I'm going to wear a mask. If the scientists say get a vaccine, I'm going to get a vaccine. Look at you over there. You're smoking a cigar and just shooting shit. I don't need to hear that from you.

Play this clip because it is great. You want people to walk down the street with a mask on? Let's not start this, Joe. Do you, though? Let's not start this. Let's start you, though? Let's not start this. Okay. Let's start it. I don't want to start this bullshit.

I'm not going to sit here with no medical degree, listening to you with no medical degree, with an American flag behind you, smoking a cigar, acting like we know what's up, better than the CDC. All I do is I listen. I watch the news once every two weeks.

I'm like, mask or no mask? Still mask? All right, mask. That's all I give a fuck about. It's really brilliant. I mean, that's how you got Still mask? All right, mask. That's all I give a fuck about. It's really brilliant. I mean, that's how you got to talk to these people, right? That's clear message. By the way, something the Democrats could learn from

and something that all of us listening could learn from. You compare that, Brett, because I want to, this is a teaching moment. I love teaching moments on the Midas Touch podcast. Compare that to Dr. Sanjay Gupta on the same show, because you're going to see, this is a lesson of a democratic pitfall, you know, or just a pitfall within the intellectual community about conveying information.

You're talking about a drug that's been given out to billions and billions of people, a drug that was responsible for one of the inventors of it making the Nobel Prize in 2015. Yeah, a drug that has been shown to stop viral replication in vitro. You know that, right? Why would they lie and say that's horse dewormer? I can afford people medicine, motherfucker. This is ridiculous. It's just a lie.

I don't think anyone is thick. But don't you think that a lie like that is dangerous on a news network when you know that they know they're lying? You know that they know that I took medicine. Like, like here it is this is ivermectin you got it right here somebody gave it to me all right hang on i do the thing is we're like going so fast like i feel like i'm missing i'm missing you think that's a problem that your news network lies well i don't i don't dude what did they say? They lied.

They said I was taking horse dewormer. First of all, you can cut off the clip right there, but yet the point is though, why are you letting Rogan get away with that in that setting? Yeah. Just say, look,

we have the CDC. We have the top health experts in the world. We have, we train our scientists to be the best. If you want to take the drug that they're saying, don't take, don't take it. Sure.

There may be usage of ivermectin that possibly makes sense, but it ain't here. And whether you're talking about the one that treats horses, which kills people or could harm people, that one should be- People are buying from veterinarian shops across the country and it's selling out. Or you're talking about the other form of ivermectin, which is used for like parasites. The point here, Joe, is we need to be spreading the truth, which is the vaccine. And we need people to be vaccinated. The fact that you're politicizing the issue of the vaccine is absurd. Go to any hospital in the United States and ask them statistically, who are the people who are dying? 95% plus will

be from unvaccinated people. Yeah. And that, by the way, and that's the difference between speaking like a human being and speaking like a robot and people tune out one and people listen to the other. And by the way, it's exactly why so many people listen to Joe Rogan because he might say some fucked up shit and he might make no sense by actually what is true and factual, but he says it like a normal person and he delivers it as if he's speaking directly to you.

And when Sanjay Gupta is like, yeah, well actually though, if you, that's funny, Joe, if you check the studies though, and look at the, look at the, look at the footnotes on the FDA studies that they recently released, because you'll say it's Joe, you're so right. But let me show you, like you get nowhere with people like stop intellectualizing everything and cut right to the point. And then you will get your point across. We need to be able to deliver our message in a few words, not in long diatribes, not in footnotes on scientific literature. We need to be able to be as direct as Ben just was.

Yeah, just that. Okay, Joe. Joe, lead your lemurs or your lemmings to go over the cliff. Go for it. You want them to die. I'm telling you as a scientist, here's what the best scientists say. Jody, what are we saying? No, I was just going to say this, the Bill Burr clip going back to that really quickly. It's so frustrating. Not Bill Burr because Bill Burr crushes it. Joe Rogan's reaction, that giggle, because that giggle tells you everything you need to know about Rogan.

He knows exactly what he's, he doesn't buy this bullshit. He's preaching to an audience that does for his own fucking. It was such a telling moment, Jordy. And you're so right. It's almost like remember those video games growing up? I'm thinking about like Mike Tyson boxing, where you kind of hit him in there like they have like one spot like that. If you hit him there like they get crushed.

Yeah. And then they get crushed and then they kind of get dizzy. That's exactly what Bill Burr did. Bill Burr cut through the bullshit. Rogan wasn't ready for it. He punched him right in that spot. And then the response by Rogan was to laugh because he knew he was exposed in that minute, and he knew he was an asshole.

It's like a little kid when he's called out. It's the perfect summation of this strategy and the strategy working and somebody just being caught, just totally caught. On another subject, I think let's talk about Sloppy Steve for a little bit. Sloppy Steve Bannon, who was booked by the feds this morning. I think one of the joys that I have,

aside from watching Steve have to turn himself into the fedss is knowing the next thing that's going to happen because I listened to legally F podcast and I listened to you and Popak, so my expectations were set and I was actually amazed by, I mean, I shouldn't be amazed. You guys are always right. But by how accurate everything that you and Popak said would happen, how all that did happen and come to fruition. Like literally step by step as to what happened with him surrendering himself today is exactly how we had described it.

And so Bannon booked himself and then he was released under certain conditions, which is really what you and Popak have been saying this whole time. And here are the conditions under Bannon's release. He has to check in weekly with pretrial services. He has to live at his stated address. He has to surrender his passport. He cannot travel outside of DC without knowing, without notifying pretrial services. And he cannot travel outside of the continental US without court approval. And so what did Bannon do? Bannon tried to be defiant. Bannon came out there swinging like he always does. I think he was

live streaming him turning himself in on Gab and on his podcast network or whatever it is he's doing these days. And here's the thing. I believe that everything that he said today could and will be used against him by prosecutors. And I think that he is constantly digging a deeper and deeper hole with his words. I mean, today he said that these are his words, that there's gonna be a misdemeanor from hell for Merrick Garland, Nancy Pelosi, and Joe Biden. He said, Joe Biden ordered Garland to prosecute me. Nancy Pelosi has taken on Donald Trump and Steve Bannon. She should ask Hillary Clinton how that turned out. I think that's a not so veiled threat by Steve Bannon. Bannon also saying that we're going on the offense, stand by, immediately making me think of when Trump told the Proud Boys to stand back and stand

by. I mean, he is trying to now incite violence. He is being so brazen and is going on the attack against the rule of law when at the end of the day, all you had to do was follow the law and this wouldn't have happened. But Bannon likes this fight. But here's what I'll say about that also. I don't give a shit what Bannon likes. I don't care if he likes this, if he doesn't like this, if he's going to be able to fundraise off it. If he's not, I really don't care. All I care about is I want to see the law carried out. I want to see this man held responsible. And I want to see Steve Bannon be made an example of so that other people now know that they have to cooperate with the January 6th committee

or they will suffer this sort of legal action, two years in prison, whatever else is coming Steve Bannon's way. And I hope Steve Bannon does keep talking. Keep spouting your mouth because every time you keep talking, you're going to make things worse for yourself. Absolutely. Look, we told you on Legal AF he was not going to go and be locked up today. I mean, we knew that. We just knew the procedure about how these things typically go down. But as Brett said, there are some significant conditions. And if we know people like Bannon don't really follow rules. So let's see if he's able to comport.

Here's the one, why couldn't they do this one condition though, guys? Can't they make the guy take a shower? Have you seen the way this man looks? The guy's got it. When do you think the last time Bannon showered? Like weeks, months? I'm not even like being facetious here. Like the guy looks absolutely disgusting. Did you see the guy behind him, Jordy, holding the sign? What did the sign say? It said, uh, well, it said, uh, coup plotter, but there was someone's head. Can you pull up the image? There's someone's head obstructing, uh, the photo. And so it says, uh, coup otter. And so I think we have a new nickname for Steve Bannon, and he is now officially the coup otter. I just want to say no offense to otters.

Otters are very cute, but picture Steve Bannon as like a disgusting otter who's let himself go and has no friends. If an otter threw his life away, He becomes the co-otter. The co-otter. I think the co-otter name can stick. Anyway, this podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. That's H-E-L-P. Is there something interfering with your happiness or preventing you from achieving your goals? Life can be stressful, fellas. You know, we could act, you know, no matter how tough you want to act, we should always say, hey, we need that mental health pause to take care of ourselves. Better health assesses your needs,

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they are recruiting additional therapists in all 50 states. And here's the important thing. There is a special offer for Midas Touch listeners. Get 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com slash Midas. That's betterhelp.com slash Midas. Let's bring in our guest for the show, Ken Martin. Ken Martin is the vice chair of the DNC, president of the State Party Association for Democrats and chair of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor Party. In other words, a very busy guy. Ken, welcome to the Midas Touch podcast. Thanks so much for having me on. I really appreciate it. You guys are busy. Thanks for all the work you've been doing. Oh, anytime, Ken. We're just doing our small part here. Before we brought you on, we were talking about this interview between Joe Rogan and Bill Burr. And Bill Burr's retort to Joe Rogan's insanity on COVID, we just thought was so succinct. Let me read it to you. This is what Bill Burr says. He goes, Joe, I'm not going to sit here with no medical degree, listening to you with no medical degree, with an American flag behind you, smoking a cigar, acting like we know what's up better than the CDC.

And Rogan was really put on his heels there, you know, and we were talking about like Democrat messaging. Why can't it just be that simple, Ken? Well, it needs to be that simple. The reality is, is we've allowed a bunch of these jokers from the far right to act like they know better than the CDC and medical professionals and local public health professionals around this country. We've allowed them to act like experts to define this issue, and we need to punch back. You know, it's exactly what we need to be saying. You know, we've got candidates running for office here in Minnesota who, you know, are basically pushing some of the craziest conspiracy theories around vaccines. So these anti-vaxxers who are running for office up and down the ticket throughout the country need to be held to account. We need to speak very clearly with one voice. We need to listen to science. We need to listen to facts. We need to listen to doctors and public health professionals, not a bunch of politicians who think they know best. You say we need to speak with one voice. And I think one of the problems we see is what the kind of right wing, we never

call them conservative because I don't think they're conservative people, but they seem to speak their craziness, though, with one voice, whatever their message of the day is, they're all doing it from even DeSantis, who we call Death Santas, you know, saying stuff like, let's go. We have names for everything, you know, who says, let's go, Brandon, you know, to the people in the churches, you know, these GQP right wing, you know, you know, churches saying, let's go, Brandon. And it seems on the Democrat side, like we have this group saying this and this group saying, hey, you need to say it this way. Like, how could what could we do? And with your position in these various organizations, like how do we unite the message, though,

and just say, hey, these these right wingers, they're radical. These are crazy people who want to ban books, who want to kill your families. Like, how do we get on the same message here? First off, we need to be willing to throw a punch. And I'll come back to that in a second. But we also need to acknowledge the challenge within the Democratic Party, right? We are a big tent party. We are not homogenous, both as it relates to ideological diversity, both as it relates to racial and ethnic diversity, both as it relates to geography. We as a Democratic Party, our greatest strength is the fact that we're a big tent. It is also our greatest weakness because it does not allow our party to very quickly and easily come to one specific message point or one specific talking point. It's much more

complicated. Although I would say it should not be complicated for us to throw a punch back. And when these people lie and spread misinformation and disinformation to call them on their bullshit, call it out loud and make sure that we're throwing back and not allowing them to define us. And I think one of the critical lessons from this last election cycle in Virginia, New Jersey, throughout the country is that the Republicans, because they have been better adept at messaging, have been able to define the Democratic Party on cultural issues, CRT as an example, policing as an example. We cannot allow them to do that. And so we need to punch back. We need to punch back aggressively. It's one of the things I appreciate about the work that you guys do.

We need more Democrats to follow your lead. We need to stand up and not allow them to define us. Now, you know, again, it's a much harder thing to do in practicality because we are a big tent, but we need leadership from the top. We need leadership from the White House, the DNC, from all of our sister committees and others to say, look, we have to come together despite our differences to find who we are, what we're fighting for and why, and then punch the Republicans in the nose. Let's talk about punching them in the nose. So let's pretend we're, you know, in a boardroom together and someone goes, Ken, you talk about throwing punches. What does that mean, though, in practice? What punches should we actually be throwing? I get it. We're good at rapid response sometimes. But what affirmative punches can we lead the news cycle with about our

adversaries, this right radical right wing that truly, in my view, wants to overthrow democracy and would be incredibly harmful to America if they come in power. We've seen it in the places where they control. Well, look at this. The far right in this country is just, you know, January 6th. They're now trying to whitewash the history there and paint a different narrative now about what happened on January 6th, which was a violent attempt by a mob of right-wing extremists to overthrow our government, right? We're not talking about that anymore, right? Democrats want to go on the offensive and talk about Joe Biden and all the great things that he's doing for this country. And we should be doing that. Don't get me wrong. But it doesn't have to come at the expense of holding these Republicans and the right wing accountable for their actions or their lack of action.

But in this case, the insurrection, which has quickly gone out of the consciousness of Americans at this point, because we're not reminding them of the fact that the right wing in this country has engaged in trying to overthrow our government. There's a whole host of issues where I think we could go on the offensive, but when we leave a void in the public discourse, i.e. around some of the issues I mentioned earlier, it allows the Republicans to define those, and we have to be present in those conversations. That means going on the offensive against Republicans and reminding folks what they have or haven't done over the last four or five, six years and longer. And Ken, how much of it do you think is a

messaging issue and how much of it do you think is just the natural ebbs and flow of what's happening in the world right now? I mean, inflation is a global issue. It's pretty typical for a president in his first term for the country to kind of start turning against the party that's in power. So how much of it do you think is a messaging problem coming from the Democrats? And how much of it do you think is just natural trends that always happen? Well, it's both, right? For sure. And, you know, Democrats, it's what Will Rogers once said that he doesn't belong to an organized political party as a Democrat. And there's a lot of truth to that. And particularly as messaging, of truth to that, particularly

as messaging. I'll tell you, it doesn't matter where I go around the country, whoever I talk to, whether it's a candidate, elected official, activists, you name it, they all say that the Democrats have a messaging problem. And I think there's some truth to that. But let me say that, you know, really what we have is a branding and narrative problem. The message should be derived by the candidates and activists on the ground and the issues underneath that to illustrate the message should be local issues. And that's, I think, also a lesson learned from Virginia and New Jersey. We were we're focused way too much on the 100,000 foot message, hoping that it appeals to people. Republicans are really digging into local issues to animate the electorate. I say that because, you know, for us, we have a branding

and narrative problem. People don't know who the Democratic Party is, who we're fighting for, and why. That has to be defined on a local level through local issues that are supported by the candidates and the parties on the ground. All that said, we do generally have a messaging problem. We need to be more aggressive. We need to be more on the offensive. We can't allow the Republicans to define us. So oftentimes we try to pivot to our positive message with the hope that somehow we don't have to engage in these tough conversations. And that's, I think, a bit at our own peril. And we saw that again, this last election cycle, we need to be aggressive in defining who we are as a party and not allow the Republicans to define us. Right. And both you and Ben, I think both mentioned the cultural issues and like this notion of CRT, which came up during the Virginia elections. Now, I feel like

Democrats are always, like you're saying, are on the defensive on these cultural issues and they get too focused on the policy of it all. Well, our policies are going to be better for the average American. But what I would like to see personally, I would like to see Democrats go on the offensive on cultural issues and start setting the cultural conversation in the same way. Like Ted Cruz talks about Big Bird, you know, we can laugh and mock at him all you want. The news media was talking about this Big Bird thing all week long. It was the opening of the, it was the cold open of Saturday night live this weekend. And so like it is going into the cultural consciousness when they do this wacky stuff. I mean, what cultural issues should we be targeting? I'll give you my opinion

kind of out the gate, but I'm curious to get your thoughts on if you think this is effective, but I think the banning books situation, I think that is an incredibly scary thing, seeing these Republicans across the country in these districts banning popular books and burning books in some cases. I think the things we see with Michael Flynn going around the country saying that the United States should be a Christian theocracy and that there should not be any other religions I think run so counter to the United States of America that all believers and non-believers could both get around. I mean, do you think those are powerful issues that we could be mobilizing people on? Like, hey, the Republicans want to ban books from your school district. And not only that,

but not only is that bad because these books have sort of racial overtones to them that they are scared of kids reading, but guess what? Your kid isn't going to even get into college if they didn't read these books. They're not going to know the curriculum. They're not going to be as smart as other kids who are learning these things. They're also not going to be prepared to enter a society that is multicultural society. Our country is becoming more diverse. Our world's becoming more diverse.

And how are we sending our children up to succeed if we've completely whitewashed our own history? Right. And so, you know, look, critical race theory, we all know that's a construct that is a fabrication by the right. There's no such theory being taught in our schools. The reality is, is that we shouldn't allow them to create this manufactured crisis and then use it to essentially enact policies that would be a steady march towards fascism. history, censorship is a big part of it. Censorship of the media, censorship of literature and the arts, and really trying to create an alternative narrative. And there's a real danger in doing that and not teaching our own history. I use an example here in Minnesota, where I'm from. I went to school at the University of Kansas. I did not find out about a period of our own history in Minnesota until I went to school in Kansas. And that is in 18, I think, 64. Abraham Lincoln, actually, the largest mass execution ever by the federal government was 38 Dakota who were hung in Mankato, Minnesota.

And I had to go to school outside of my state to learn about that. Why is that important? Because this is what happens when you whitewash history. This is what happens when you don't teach history. And if we want to really set our children up to be as successful as possible in this global community we live in now, which is becoming more diverse, we need to teach history so that we don't repeat the same mistakes as we have in the past. Now, look, there's a lot of ways to talk about it. Like you said, Brett, the idea of burning books, again, think about all those visuals of book burnings in the past and what that led to around the world in terms of our world history. We need to be reminding folks

that this is all part and parcel of a design by the right wing to censor the media, to censor arts and literature, to censor the public so that they're not getting the true story of where we're heading. It's just despicable. But I think there's a whole host of issues you could use to illustrate that. Let me talk about police reform for a moment, right? The Republicans and the far right have done a wonderful job of defining this as defunding and abolishing the police. But the fact of the matter is here in Minnesota, which we're at the epicenter of it with George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis, right? Here in Minnesota, no one wants to defund or abolish the police, but people want police reform. They want regulation in policing. And that's true of Republicans and Democrats and people throughout our state and throughout the country. Yet we've allowed the Republicans to define us on this issue and saying anyone who wants reform or regulation is for defunding or abolishing the police. That's where we've got to be much more aggressive in defining ourselves on these issues, because when they define us, now we are in the box on the

defensive in their frame, in their narrative. We've got to set the narrative, and Democrats are terrible at that. Yeah, I think you nailed it right there. It's that when we don't go on the offensive because we think something may be silly to go on the offensive for, we leave a vacuum, and then they go on the defensive, And then we have to respond to the issue anyway, but then we're coming at it from a point of weakness, from a point of defense. Switching subjects, Beto O'Rourke running for governor of Texas. We're very excited on this show about it. I wanted to get your thoughts. Well, I got to know Beto real well when he was running for president. I'm a big fan of his, of course.

I'm glad he's running. Did he announce? Did I miss something? Ah, he did an official announcement this morning. Oh, that's fantastic. That's great. I knew he was thinking about it, and he certainly will give us a chance down there. You know, Texas is such a unique state.

It's been trending blue for some time, and I really think it's going to take a candidate like Beto to help put us over the top there. I think we can win that race. The demographic changes down there are significant. And, you know, with a good candidate, the right message, who runs, you know, a high energy campaign as he has in the past, I think he can do it. So that's great news. Yeah, really excited about it. And then before I turn it over to Jordy, just want to get your thoughts on the fact that President Biden signed into law the infrastructure bill. What do you think this means, A, for America and B, what do you think it means for the Democrats and Democratic chances in 2022? Well, it certainly doesn't hurt. But the only way

that we're going to see the benefits of that is if we're talking about it. And frankly, that starts at the White House. It starts with our members of Congress and others. This is a BFD. As Joe Biden said, this is a big fucking deal at the end of the day. The reality is this is the largest infrastructure bill to pass in our nation's history ever, right? At a time when we see crumbling infrastructure throughout this country, roads and bridges and wastewater treatment plants, the impact it would have on broadband, the impact it would have on airports, you know, ports like the Duluth Seaport up on Lake Superior, you know, all of these pieces are huge, huge infrastructure projects that we've been waiting years for. And so this is not only great for the American infrastructure, it's also great for workers. It's going to put thousands of people

across the country to work. Hundreds of thousands of people make these critical investments in our infrastructure that are going to last generations. And it didn't happen under Republicans. How many weeks in a row did we hear Donald Trump and the Republicans say that this was infrastructure week and they couldn't deliver? It didn't even happen under President Obama. It didn't happen under President Bush. It didn't happen under President Clinton. It happened under President Biden because he was focused on bringing together and building a coalition. And it was bipartisan. There were Republicans who supported this as well. But in my home state of Minnesota, every Republican voted against this bill, as in many parts of the country. And we can't let them off the hook on this. As our roads

and bridges are literally crumbling beneath our feet, Republicans voted against a bill that just a few months earlier they supported because it was being pushed by Democrats. And we cannot let them off the hook of that. Will it accrue to our benefit in 2022? It will if we talk about it. And when these projects, which are shovel ready, start to get off the ground, people are going to see the tangible result of Democratic leadership on pushing this bill through. I love that. And I love the fact that right here, this group right here just knows how to how to own the Democrat victories. I feel like that messaging has been missed amongst the party for for quite some time is really owning that victory, because if we don't own it, though, like we talked about

the GQP, the radical right, they're going to go back to their districts and they're going to claim victory for something that they not only, you know, didn't support, but were vocally and voted against. I mean, it's scary. Well, you can bet your bottom dollar that they'll be showing up for photo ops at all the ribbon cutting ceremonies. You know, this is the hypocrisy of the Republican Party of today, which is, you know, they don't want to be part of the solution here, but they'll take all the credit once a bill passes like this. And so we need to hold them to account. Again, to your earlier point, what are Democrats doing? Well, if we don't fill

the void here and we allow the Republicans to say that they helped deliver on this, then they do that without any accountability. We need to hold these folks to account. We need to make sure that people know they voted against these projects. Look, in most rural parts of this country, they are stagnant because they don't have broadband access. They can't attract employers to their town. As a result, there's no jobs and people are leaving in droves. One of the things we can do, much like the rural electrification of the 1920s, which gave a rebirth to small towns throughout this country, the rural electrification of now is bringing broadband to all parts of this country so these small towns can thrive, not just barely survive. Think about who represents most of

those small towns in rural parts of this country. It's Republicans. And they voted against their own constituents when they voted against this infrastructure bill. And we need to remind folks of that. And then just taking a quick step back, and I know you've answered this, but I just want to ask it again a little bit more pointedly. You know, what learnings can we take away from Glenn Youngkin's victory in Virginia

as we head into 2022? Is there, are there any specific takeaways that you're willing to discuss here? Well, first off, two things. One, we need to acknowledge that suburban voters who have been trending and voting with Democrats for years are still a swing voting bloc. And that issues that we don't end up defining and we let the Republicans define us on could actually swing those voters away from us. That means we need to be aggressively engaged in that conversation. I do think that Terry McAuliffe stepped in it when he said that parents shouldn't have a choice or a say in their school,

their kids' education. And look, you know, some of that's about race and CRT for sure. But, you know, another piece we need to acknowledge is that parents for the last two years under COVID have basically been paraprofessionals. They've been involved in getting their kids on Zooms and helping them with their homework and teaching them. And so the idea of saying, look, parents, you shouldn't have a say in your kid's education was not helpful at all. But the second piece of that outside of the suburbs, which we need to figure out is the rural parts of Virginia, the rural parts of New Jersey. You know, I thought we hit a low watermark in 2012 with Obama, with rural voters. And then again, I thought that was a case in 16, but we keep hitting a low watermark and we can't continue

to bleed voters in the rural parts of our state and expect to win statewide. And so that means we have to be present. We have to be engaged in those communities. We can't just assume because it's voted red these last few cycles that it's just perpetually red and we've given up on those voters. And when we're not present, when we're not having conversations with them, when we're not competing for their votes, guess what happens? They vote Republican. So, you know, we have to compete in every zip code. We have to compete for every vote. As I say, every vote matters and every vote should count. And for us, that means we got to compete everywhere. I do think that, unfortunately, some of our campaigns have given up on parts of their

state because they think there's no room to grow there. Well, you may not win this cycle, but if you can shrink the margin there, that could help you win a statewide election. And we need to be doing that. And so tell me, Ken, before we go, the Democratic Farmer Labor Party, I mentioned it, obviously, in the intro. Just tell us, you know, for those not in Minnesota and familiar with Minnesota as the chair of the DFL there that perhaps we can draw national lessons from your, you know, more localized experience there in Minnesota? Yeah, well, let me just, by way of history, give you a brief history of the DFL.

So in 1944, the Democratic Party and the Farmer Labor Party were brought together in this historic merger. The person who did that was a guy who was the mayor of Minneapolis at the time, getting ready to run for the U.S. Senate, Hubert Humphrey. He wanted to run for the U.S. Senate. He realized that without merging these two parties, the Republicans would continue to win statewide. So it was born out of necessity to win statewide. But what it really signified at the time is really what parties should be doing, which is building coalition and bringing people in. I believe that you win elections by actually through addition, not through subtraction. And that's part of, I see what the Republicans have done

around the country becoming more increasingly a shrinking tent party that doesn't welcome ideological diversity, that doesn't welcome dissent or debate. Our party, of course, and the DFL is really endemic of that. Our party is a big tent. We're all about building coalitions and bringing people in and welcoming folks from all spectrums in terms of their ideology and all parts of the state and country. And so I do think the biggest lesson for me as we move forward is that we need to continue to define what we're fighting for and who we're fighting for and why as a Democratic Party. But we also need to continue to bring people in. And that means we need to be welcoming to anyone wherever they're at on their journey. We also can't be peerless. And I will say this. One of the things that's frustrating to me right now in our own state is some of the, you know, I'm a Wellstone progressive. I got started with Paul Wellstone,

but there's a leftist wing in our party right now that is really, you know, very sort of peer on the issues. And, you know, that's not helpful. We need to be unified and focused on beating the Republicans so we can build power around the issues that we care about. And so these divisions in our party are healthy, but they become unhealthy when those divisions exist, when it's a choice between a Democrat and a Republican. As Ann Richards said once, she said famously that she was a yellow dog Democrat. And she said this when she was running against George Bush. And what she said is that there was a yellow dog on the ballot with a D next to its name. She would vote for that

yellow dog over Republican any day of the week. And that's how I am. Right. Because I know there's at the end of the day, any Democrat who is running is going to be far better than any Republican on the ballot for the issues that I care about. And frankly, for folks here in Minnesota and around the country. So, you know, look, there's a lot of lessons to be drawn from the DFL. But the biggest is that we just continue to be a big tent. And we try to bring people in and focus on the things that unite us and the things that divide us. And frankly, Ken, for the issues that the radical right pretends they care about, I mean, if you look at the economy, you know, under the Democratic

administrations is where we have lower deficits and better economies at the end of the day. So even their issues were better on and we just have to, I think, message it better. That's the summary I get from this interview right here. Well, that's exactly right. And, you know, any thoughts, ideas you have on that, please send them our way. We need them desperately. You know, I think there's the last thing I'll say on the messaging piece. There's a lot of, you know, great studies and books and, you know, a lot of hand wringing and always a conversation about messaging. When push comes to shove, it's just about getting in the arena and doing it.

You know, there's no perfect message. But, you know, if people speak with their hearts and they go out there and they fight hard for every vote and they actually have a conversation with the electorate and not just a one-sided affair where we're trying to educate voters, using a lot of stats and facts and reason, if we're really truly engaged in a conversation with voters,

we're speaking from the heart about what our values are as a Democratic Party, then there's no way we lose in that conversation. But we tend to be a little bit elitist in how we talk about issues. We don't engage certain people because we think they're lost forever. And we refuse to go on the offensive and punch someone in the nose because we think we're better than that, right? Instead of trying to win the argument, right? Let's try to really appeal to the hearts and minds of voters in a way that they understand, and most importantly, in a way that they can relate to. And that's our biggest challenge as Democrats right now. There's no doubt about it. I'm glad you guys are doing what you're

doing because you're speaking in real terms to real people about real issues that are impacting their lives. If more Democrats did that, we would win. Ken Martin, we'll leave it at that. Thank you so much for joining the Midas Touch podcast. Thank you for having me. Brett, I love the interview with Ken. And I think some of your ideas there, you know, there was one comment that was made when people rate and give a five-star review of the Midas Touch podcast. And I know Brett and I look at those like religiously every day. So, you know the exact review that I'm talking about. And listen, if you're out there, please give this podcast a five-star review and actually review it.

It helps with the algorithm and the actual algorithm, not like the algorithm that the judge believes exists in the Rittenhouse trial, where he doesn't realize how Apple Zoom in features work. But anyway, there's one person says, look, the Midas touch, we appreciate everything you're saying, but also make sure you realize that you are the messengers, you know,

and help deliver some of these messages affirmatively. And we appreciate when you comment on what the democratic messaging should be, but also tell us the message. And look, I think we do do that. But Brett, I think the way you described it there, you said, look, the GQP is the party of book birding. What I said at the top of the show about the radical right and what they're doing. We need to set that tone and be unified as a party. Enough. Look, I'm looking at everyone here. Enough of Democrats cannibalizing each other.

I noticed this with Midas Touch right away, too. Like right when Midas Touch started to take off, it just seemed like groups that either viewed themselves as, hey, we're more progressive than you, you know, or hey, groups that thought we're more this than you or more that than you, just like trying to take shots at us when it's like, we're not taking shots at you. All I'm trying to do is get Democrats elected, volunteering my time to get Democrats elected. Can I do that, please? So true. So, so true. And I hope you do listen to the language that we use because we do prepare for the show and we do talk about these things internally. And when we do talk about how the GOP is engaging in book burning and book banning, when we do talk about how they want to destroy your children's curriculum so that they're not going to be ready for school,

when we talk about all these things, these are part of the message. It's not just us spouting off at the hip. This is part of the message that we hope you take away with it. We're not just us spouting off at the hip. Like this is part of the message that we hope you take away with it. You know, we're not just saying words. We're not just like commenting on things. Like we also hope that you leave this podcast armed with that sort of thinking so that when you get in the dispute with somebody at your Thanksgiving table, hopefully who's vaccinated, and they say something along the lines of, well, Democrats don't care about education. You go, okay, well, why is the GOP trying to ban books? Like, you know, I want my kid to succeed. I want my kid to go to a good college.

I want my kid to go to a good school. Hey, why won't the GOP, why none of them are gonna pay for universal pre-K? Like, I think that would give our kids such a leg up if we had universal pre-K and we weren't saddled with debt because we wanted to get our kids in early, start with education. Like, why isn't the GOP supporting this?

If they're the party of education, why are they going to school boards? Why are they threatening members of the school boards? Why are they threatening and yelling at teachers? These are the things that we need to be armed with. You need to be armed with knowledge, and we hope that our podcast helps you be armed with knowledge when you have all these various discussions. This podcast is brought to you by Homedics Air Purifier. I love my Homedics. I live in a big city where the air quality is not the best. I also have a lot of pets in my house. I've showed you Taquito, the Maltese, and Chiquito, the poodle. And my allergies before getting this Homedics air purifier were unbearable.

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Anyone? Infrastructure Week is- It's Infrastructure Week. Let's go! Infrastructure Week is here, the long awaited infrastructure week. And as we were speaking about with our fantastic guests, this is not just an infrastructure week, you know, four or five years in the making.

This is an infrastructure week that goes back president after president after president. This is something that so many presidents have been promising now for years and years and years. This is such a long needed upgrade to our roads and bridges, to our broadband, to our water supply. And finally, President Biden and Democrats are the ones who got it done. And you could call this bipartisan all you want, sure, whatever you want to call it. But at the end of the day, remember, Democrats brought you this bill. And we need to be running on the fact that Democrats delivered infrastructure

to a country that needs it so desperately. I mean, we've all been to these airports, we've all ridden on trains occasionally, or we know that we don't even have trains near us because it's not even an option. We all know that we have crappy broadband in our areas. I know I've been dealing with horrible internet in my home these past few weeks. So infrastructure is so incredibly important and do not sell this accomplishment short. This is a monumental accomplishment. This is the biggest infrastructure bill in the history of our country. And it is a jobs bill that is going to be helping our economy in a massive way. It's going to be putting Americans to work and it's going to be approving the things that we use on a daily basis. I cannot tell you how important this is. Looking forward now to working to continue to push forward past the rest of the

Build Back Better agenda, get that human infrastructure. But I don't want people to lose sight of also how big of a deal this accomplishment is. It was great to just see President Biden out there sign this officially into law. And I'm just feeling just the whole batch of good momentum right now for the Democrats and not just for the Democrats, I mean, for America. I also want to remind people what Trump's infrastructure bill was all about. Trump would say infrastructure, infrastructure. He never actually put together a bill because he's utterly incompetent and couldn't get there.

And the but it's deeper than that. Right. Brett, he tried to basically quid pro quo it so that Democrat he made he made a stipulation that the only way that he would consider passing infrastructure, the Democrats stopped investigating him. That's rarely talked about, but he put his own priority of himself over the United States of America's infrastructure. And had he passed that infrastructure bill, it would have been bipartisan supported because the GQP, which really stands for nothing whatsoever, if it would have come from him, they would have agreed to pass it. But, you know, it would have been fine. I wouldn't have not supported it because it was Trump, which is the difference, by the way, between Democrats and Republicans.

If there was a decent infrastructure bill that was going to improve our roads and bridges, I would have been like, sure, fine. Yeah, of course. Great work. Of course. And by the way, Nancy Pelosi was on board with it. Chuck Schumer was on board for it. But what they were not on board for was the quid pro quo of, hey, stop investigating me

and maybe you'll get some infrastructure. I mean, Trump held the country hostage over infrastructure and his bill was a fraction of what President Biden's bill is, a fraction. In the language of the framework for his bill, he expressed something like, oh yeah, it's $200 billion of infrastructure, but that's actually going to create $1.1 trillion worth of actual

and like, like, like things could just be created out of thin air. No, like we are actually finally getting the infrastructure bill that America needs. And now I hope we continue to go further with it. And I hope we continue to message it. And it just seems like now that every day passes, we learn more and more and more just to the horrors of the Trump administration, just some stories that are coming out that are truly, and obviously we all knew that this administration was awful in every single way, just completely corrupt, completely inept, completely malicious.

But the things we're learning now are truly horrifying and speak to just how bad these things are. I mean, we're learning that in the beginning of the pandemic and yes, of course we knew a lot about this, but Trump was actively downplaying the pandemic. He had silenced the CDC. He tried to alter expert scientific reports and tried to delete the evidence that they were doing that. And we all know where that happened.

Every single problem that we have in this country today stemming from the pandemic. And yes, that is the 750,000 plus American deaths. That is our supply chain issues, our inflation issues. That's the year plus of us being unable to see our families, us missing weddings, us missing funerals, all that stuff. It didn't have to be that that stuff, it didn't have to be that way. It really didn't have to be that way. And now we know that the Trump administration was silencing the CDC, silencing the experts when we needed them most, altering documents and trying to delete all evidence of that.

To me, that is absolutely criminal. Talk about the rest of the actual just blatant criminality of just flat out breaking laws and quid pro quos and sketchy deals and all that. This, to me, is the most craven, most criminal activity maybe that the Trump administration engaged in of all. This is why democratic messaging is so important, because here you have someone like Trump who literally wants to destroy the United States of America, but who uses the term make America great again, aligns himself with QAnonism. And all of a sudden there's a group of people who are saying, yeah, this is how you make

America great again. And all these issues are Joe Biden's issues. It's just from such a perspective of ignorance, you know, when it comes to these GQ peers, and worse, kind of willful ignorance of the fact and kind of just the hatred of the truth. Jordy, before we talk about this next one, on the 25th Amendment issue, which is some breaking news regarding Pompeo and others trying to invoke the 25th, tell us about another one of our sponsors. Oh, you know what? Before I do this, let me slip into something a little bit more comfortable, guys. Just give me two seconds. Brett, why don't you lay that track for me?

All right. Let me drop the tunes. And Jordy's now... Jordy is back now with a robe. With a robe? You're wearing a bathrobe? What's happening here? Wearing a bathrobe with...

I just wanted to slide to something a little bit more comfortable before we start talking about one of our great sponsors. That's my sponsor, Dave. Break it down. Go speak about it, Greg. Break it down. Adam and Eve. Hey, Midas Mighty, what's going on?

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Visit canadalife.com slash businessprotection to learn more. Canada Life. Insurance. Investments. Advice. Great read, Jordy. Jordy, are you going to be wearing this outfit the remainder of the podcast? Let's ask the audience real quick. Let's ask everyone on YouTube. All right, Brett, tell us about the 25th Amendment. All right, the answer is yes, Jordy will be.

Jordy will be wearing this outfit. And for the listeners, Jordy is wearing like a literal bathrobe while we do the podcast right now. But anyway, everybody, let's get back into the breaking news, which is that apparently Mike Pompeo and Steve Mnuchin on January 6th were considering invoking the 25th Amendment to force Trump out of office. They dropped it only when they realized that the legal process would take too long for Trump to leave office, who is set to leave office on January 20th. This is another shocking slash not so shocking report.

Often I don't know how to take these reports because let's face it, a lot of these people are trying really hard to rehabilitate their images. A lot of these people, especially like Pompeo, who is looking to do a presidential run in 2024, they know that they need to sort of hedge their bets with Trump they know that the Trump stink is not a good smell to have when you're running for office it's a bad sky it's a bad stank like it's like a Steve Bannon stank you know you don't want that stank on you you know once you get it on you it's not very good so like part of me you know wants to set that

aside and say that's been laughs on that Pompeo and Mnuchin, I don't want to ever allow these people to rehabilitate their images. I mean, anybody who was associated for Trump with that long, anybody who led us into the disasters like them deserve no respect, none whatsoever. But I think it does raise also alarm bells as to what was happening and raises the alarm bells as to the mental state of Trump and what those around him viewed to be Trump's mental state, which is so horrifying because remember, the 25th Amendment is invoked when you think

that a president can no longer perform his duties, when he is unfit to perform his duties as president of the United States. We're finding out that all those people who are closest to him thought that Trump needed to go. Now, I wish only that we could see that same courage in today's Republican Party, who continues to support him, who continues to help him. And yes, I'm including Pompeo and Mnuchin in this mix.

These are people who need to be speaking out now. You do not deserve one iota of respect for leaked stories through the press. You need to be speaking out now and talking about the horrors of Donald Trump and the threats that he still poses to this country. The people that he's still riling up, the violence that he's still causing across this country, the people that he's still riling up, the violence that he's

still causing across this country. You need to be speaking out or I'm not going to give you an ounce of credit at all. I want to say this and I want to be looking directly at Donnie boy over there because I know that Donnie is watching the Midas Touch podcast right this second. I'm speaking to you, Donnie, right now. They're leaking this stuff about you. They saw what happened in Virginia. They saw it all in Virginia. They know that as long as you're gone, the GQP party really can thrive without you and they don't want you associated with them whatsoever. So they're going to continue to leak and leak and leak to make sure you are nowhere near the 2024 candidates they have their man donnie it's not that kind of like it's death

it's death santas that's the man they want to run right there in florida he's right there he's the governor of the state that you're in that you're hiding in your little bunker in. So I just want to let you know, Donnie, they're all conspiring against you. I want to close the show by talking, a winning fight for workers and a winning message that Democrats can and should rally around. Agreed. And this is it. Bernie Sanders tweets out, we must demand that the extremely wealthy pay their fair share, period. Wrote this on November 13th. No names thrown out there. No names thrown out there.

No names thrown out. He didn't mention Elon Musk. He didn't mention Bezos. He didn't message Zuckerberg. He simply said the extremely wealthy should pay their fair share. Should not be a controversial topic. And sure enough, Elon Musk was baited by that. And he responds in a reply, I keep forgetting that you're still alive. And then he responds again, want me to sell more stock, Bernie, just say the word. And so that was the interaction between Bernie and Elon Musk. But frankly, that's that WWE-ish lack of empathy that resonates from the GQP. Want me to sell more stock? You think about this image of like, you know, the Scrooge or who's on the DuckTales, the McScrooge or whatever. Scrooge McDuck.

McScrooge McDuck. You know, just sitting there in their money, want me to sell more stock? No, we want you to pay your fair share. That's all we're saying. We're not saying pay an unfair share. We should just make sure that the same way the workers are paying tax, that you're also paying tax. And then Warren Gunnels, an advisor to Bernie, summed it up great and funny because I'll never forget that you'd be worth zero without billions in corporate welfare while paying zero in federal income tax in 2018

and becoming $260 billion richer during the pandemic. Yes, Elon loves L-O-V-E-S, corporate socialism for himself, rugged capitalism for the rest. And that right there is the final message I want to leave with you, the Midas Mighty, which is every time the GQP throws around the term socialism, this and socialism, that, what they support is corporate socialism for billionaires. Yes. Billionaires are getting welfare at the end of the day. Billionaires are getting all of the benefits and all of the breaks. But our most vulnerable, not even just our most vulnerable, the middle class is getting

screwed over by the GQP who just supports billionaires like Elon Musk. And we could have a balance. And by the way, for the off chance that there is like a GQP who just supports billionaires like Elon Musk. We could have a balance. By the way, for the off chance that there is a GQP person listening or whatever, you could shout, let's go, Brandon, all you want. Sure, have fun. Guess who's laughing at you? Elon Musk is laughing at you. All these people are laughing at you because they are taking advantage of you.

They are using these cultural issues to drive a wedge between you and the rest of America so that they could bleed you dry. They are taking your money, and Elon Musk, to the tune of over $5 billion in federal subsidies, has taken your money to make his business operate. And he is a billionaire while you are out here struggling, blaming all your problems on the liberal media and Joe Biden. So I want you to remember that. And I want you to think about who is fighting for you.

And when we speak about corporate socialism, I think that is the perfect framing. And I think all of you listening to this should frame it in that way. We don't want corporate socialism in this country. We want capitalism that works for the average American. We want Americans to have a chance to succeed and a chance to thrive. And if I could sum up this episode in any other way, we talk about messaging and the responsibility of the messaging and we're messengers and the DNC are messengers and you are messengers. So I just want to leave you with this. Be your own messenger. You be the messenger. Yes, we are messengers. You are messengers as well. And I want want to leave you with this. Be your own messenger. You, be the messenger.

Yes, we are messengers. You are messengers as well. And I want you to know that you have the power to make change in these daily conversations, whether it's at Thanksgiving dinner, whether it's online on Twitter, on Facebook, in our YouTube comments, you are the messenger. Be the messenger and be the change that you want to see and support policies

that help Americans and do it unabashedly and don't tear down others who are fighting in the same direction as you. That is my advice. And that's how I want to end the show here today. Great ending of the show. Thank you to our guest, Ken Martin, for joining the Midas Touch podcast. Also, special thanks to our sponsors, BetterHelp. Use that promo code Midas. Adam and Eve, use that promo code Midas. Home Medics Air, use that promo code Midas. Check out our sponsors, support our sponsors.

It absolutely helps the show when you go shout out the sponsors and talk about your experiences, learning about them on the Midas Touch. We will see you. Oh, I know what I wanted to say. I was going to say Midas Touch is launching a new podcast with Lee McGowan. You know her as Politics Girl. I'm so excited to launch. All you got to do is search Politics Girl wherever you get.

That's one word, Politics Girl. One word, Politics Girl. Yeah. Check that out. Search, subscribe to Lee McGowan's podcast right now. Subscribe to Lee McGowan's podcast, Politics Girl, a Midas Touch original. She has the trailer that's launching. Let's play it.

Let's play the trailer before we go out. Everybody needs to see. Close them out with the trailer. Yeah, this is the trailer for the Politics Girl podcast. Subscribe today, wherever you get your podcast. Check it out. Hey, this is Leigh McGowan, but you probably know me as Politics Girl or Breakfast Rant. And although I'm not against hanging around in my kitchen doing political tirades, and

will continue to do so, I want to talk about bigger stuff and dive into issues in a way that will inspire you to care about them and allow you to go out in the world and talk to others from a place of knowledge and understanding. So I'm doing a podcast. We're going to talk democracy soup to nuts in a way that will not only help us save it,

but hopefully set us on a course to making it better. We'll have interviews with thought leaders and just leader leaders, and we'll talk about the best way to get our very young country, which is currently in the full throes of a teenage meltdown, on a better path. We have so much potential, but we're squandering it and we have to get our very young country, which is currently in the full throes of a teenage meltdown, on a better path.

We have so much potential, but we're squandering it, and we have to get back on track. I know we've been told our whole lives not to talk about politics or religion, but when you think about it, what are the two things that cause the most problems in the world? Politics and religion.

Yeah, maybe we should have been talking about these things way more. So that's what we're gonna do. The only people who don't want us understanding this stuff are the people who benefit from us not paying attention. And they have had more than enough unsupervised time to screw things up. Thank you very much. The more we talk, the more we understand.

The more we understand, the more we care. The more we care, the more we vote. And the more we vote, the more our democracy belongs to us. The Politics Girl podcast is a Midas Touch original podcast launching November 16th, with new episodes dropping every Tuesday. Listen to the show anywhere you get your podcasts. I'm excited. We're in a fight for our country. We sure as hell better know what we're fighting for. Podcast. Woo. That's amazing. See you next time. Shout out to the Midas Mighty.