The MeidasTouch Podcast - Biden Roasts Trump, Trump Grand Jury in Georgia, and MORE!! (Lauren Windsor and Scott Dworkin)

Episode Date: May 3, 2022

On today’s episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast, we have two incredible guests! But first, we break down the latest news from over the weekend and bring you up to speed. We discuss the White House Correspondents' Dinner, Trump’s Rally disaster in Nebraska, our newest video #WeirdGOP & much more. We then dive into our interviews with Lauren Windsor & Scott Dworkin. Lauren Windsor is the creator and executive producer of the political reporting web show The Undercurrent. Lauren’s unique investigative journalism has been responsible for breaking some of the biggest stories of our time. Lauren has a brand new video out in which she got former Attorney General Bill Barr on the record about John Eastman’s memo on alternate electors.. After our conversation with Lauren, we sit down with Scott Dworkin. Dworkin is the co-founder & executive director of The Democratic Coalition and host of the Dworkin Report podcast. His work within the digital & political landscape has been absolutely groundbreaking. If you enjoyed our show today please remember to rate, review & subscribe! As always, thank YOU for listening. DEALS FROM OUR SPONSORS: Athletic Greens: https://athleticgreens.com/meidas ExpressVPN: https://expressvpn.com/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 The Influence Continuum: https://pod.link/1603773245 Kremlin File: https://pod.link/1575837599 Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://pod.link/1530639447 The Weekend Show: https://pod.link/1612691018 The Tony Michaels Podcast: https://pod.link/1561049560 Zoomed In: https://pod.link/1580828633 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. The Democrats pull ahead of Republicans in generic congressional polling. Biden gives a master class in humility and humor and dismantles Fox and the radical right at the White House Correspondents Dinner. This is the Biden we need every day. Donald Trump bombs at a rally in Nebraska and can't even get the name of his Ohio Senate endorsement right. While in Fulton County, Georgia, the special grand jury investigating Trump election crimes

is now officially impaneled. Midas Touch drops a new video, Weird GOP, on its path to one million views. It's time we awaken the exhausted majority. It's time for the Midas Touch podcast. Ben, Brett, and Jordi joining you fighting for democracy. We have a lot to talk about today. We have incredible guests on the pod, the top digital activists,or of The Undercurrent. We've got Scott Dworkin of the Democratic Coalition. He just had an article come out in Newsweek about how he thinks Democrats are going to win. I couldn't agree with Scott Dworkin more in 2022. And the polls are beginning to show that as well. Despite the media's doom and gloom story, we've been saying this over and over again on the Midas Touch podcast that where America is, is America wants members of Congress, wants senators, wants local state politicians who are going to fight for workers, who are going to

fight for healthcare, who are going to fight for their jobs, who are going to fight for their jobs, who are going to fight to make education more affordable and are going to reduce the price of drugs like insulin, people who are going to fight for the average American, not the point. Oh, one percent. If that's even who the Republicans are fighting for anymore. I mean, they're fighting for the point.001% in their fascist agenda. But Brett, tell us about this poll that's optimistic. I think this poll is a big deal. It's from Washington Post, ABC News. And let's just put it in perspective for a second. November 2021, generic Republican candidates held a 10% advantage, 51% to 41%, a 10% advantage. Flash forward to right now, April 22, Democrats now for the first

time in a long time have taken the lead in the same poll are now leading Republicans 46% to 45%. And you see the sharp increase in the polling, the sharp momentum shift. And, you know, I am, once again, I say this all the time, I'm not a huge fan of polls, but I am a fan of momentum and understanding momentum and understanding trends. And the trends here are, you can't deny them, they're undeniable. And I think it shows that as we ramp up to these midterm elections, people are going to start really understanding that this election is going to be a choice. It's going to be a choice between democracy and autocracy. It's going to be a choice between these radical right fascists and Democrats who want to strengthen unions, who want to help workers, who want you to have better health care, who want to lower your taxes and raise taxes on billionaires, who want to keep your Social Security and strengthen Social Security and your Medicare and your Medicaid. That's what Democrats are for. That's what Democrats stand for. And I think right now we see the Republicans becoming increasingly unhinged, increasingly

radical, especially because they are in primary season and they're trying to appeal to the most radical factions of their base. And what they're going to have to try to do in the next few months, we'll see if they even attempt this in a post-Trump world or in just a Trump world in general, I don't know, is usually the move is Republicans then try to shift back to the center and try to act like, oh, all those crazy things that we said about pedophiles and this and that, we were more moderate than that. We just want to do this and that. We'll have to see if they try to make those same adjustments this year. Because I think the more Trumpian they are, the more batshit they are, the weirder they are. And the more we message how weird and batshit they are, I think the worse for

their chances. And I think the more that Trump is out there promoting these candidates also, I think the worse for Republican chances that we know that Donald Trump is not going to be able to resist putting his finger on the scale in this election. I was at an outdoors surprise party last weekend. And obviously, folks in my circle here know what we do as brothers and know our fight. And so if I want to or not, people are always coming up to me talking about politics, which is totally fine. And I had conversation after conversation after conversation of people sort of across the political landscape say, man, I just want people to be normal. And every time I would look at them, I'm like, oh, you're coming to the right place.

Because if you look at those quote unquote politicians on the right, they're not normal. Marjorie Taylor Greene, it's not normal to participate in an insurrection, have these text message leak, go on stand and trial, commit perjury. I know Ben has a hard time calling a perjury, but that's what she did in essence, and not be able to one AOC in her office, making threats, screaming at her in the mailbox loop over her door, or chasing down David Hogg, a gun rights activist who survived a horrible shooting in high school. That's not normal leadership. So they could point to people on the left who are made, quote unquote, fringe leftist. But at the same time, we don't have a single candidate like a Marjorie Taylor Greene, like a Lauren Boebert, like a Matt Gaetz, let alone have them be the face of the party.

People like normal, momentum's on our side. We'll continue to be normal and get the work done. That's why we made the video Weird GOP to really expose those differences. Because what I wanted to do in the Weird GOP video that we made, and if you have not seen weird GOP, go to our YouTube channel right now. It's right there on the front page or search YouTube or check our Twitter feed for weird GOP. What I wanted to do is show the power center of the Republican Party, that these aren't the fringe lunatics of the party. These are the decision makers. These are the most watched cable news anchors. These are the politicians getting the most attention. These are the power centers of the party. And while you have people like Elon Musk out there who try to cherry pick things from like the libs of TikToks account

that have random people in their Democratic Party, I don't even know if they are in the Democratic Party. They take like a random 19-year-old who may not even be a Democrat, who's like at a college yelling. And they're like, you see, I'm like, what? I have no clue who that 19 year old is. And that 19 year old is not the leader of the party. Meanwhile, the leader of your party are people like Jim Jordan, Marjorie Taylor Greene, people like kissing Donald Trump's ass every day, literal QAnon followers. Those are the leaders of your party. And the job of leaders is to lead people who may be extreme, but to tell them, hey, stop it. The same way, frankly, John McCain, when he was challenged that one time by an extremist person who was out there to watch a speech, John McCain said, no, no, no, no, no. Could you even imagine that today?

Could you even imagine one of these Republican candidates going and telling their QAnon base, hey, you know what? That's a little crazy. Don't call Disney pedophile. No, they encourage this behavior. And I saw it was like clear as day when Elon Musk tweeted out that horrific graphic that we were speaking about the other day, acting like, oh, the left has gotten so extreme in this country. And I saw somebody follow up and reply to him and said, hey, just tell me, what is the extreme left that you're talking about? What is the extreme left? And one of the Elon followers posted a reply to this person with a picture of that woman from the 2016 Hillary election, like screaming, that know, that that that gif or

gif or whatever of like the woman screaming at the sky. And I was like, who is this? By the way, she was right. She was she was actually right to be that upset that Trump won. But like that person screaming, that's the Democratic Party. Like, I don't even know who that is. What power does this person have in the party? It's the most ridiculous argument. And meanwhile, you have people actually in the party, congressional leaders, the biggest voices on the radio stations you listen to on the TV channels you watch, espousing batshit lunacy, including Ron DeSantis, who literally referred to the White House correspondence dinner last night or this weekend as the cabal using QAnon language. These people are so weak. They're

so pathetic. They're so far out there. They're such kooks. They're kooks, dangerous, crazy people. And we need to brand them as such. That's why we made this weird GOP video. And that needs to be a big part of our messaging going into these midterms. I want to get into the White House Correspondents Dinner in a second, Brett. I want to address Jordi saying, despite the fact that Ben doesn't want to call what Marjorie Greene did perjury. I knew you weren't going to let that slide. Because I do believe it's perjury. The question, you got to be very careful. The question was, is she going to be prosecuted for perjury? And I said she would not be prosecuted for perjury because I don't lie to

the audience, Jordy. Words matter, people. Words matter. I accurately set expectations. But I do want to mention one more thing, too, before I talk about the White House Correspondents Dinner. Brett, to your point about these Republican candidates, are they even going to try to tilt to the center for the general? This is an interesting one. Ted Cruz on video mocking Republican candidates for having to praise Donald Trump in these debates. Play that clip of Ted Cruz doing that. Every candidate says, I love Donald Trump. No, no, no. I love Donald Trump more. No, no, no. I have Donald Trump tattooed on my rear end. Okay. Isn't that exactly... Wait. Now let's play your clip from the last episode of the Midas Touch podcast of you mocking Republicans for their subservience to Trump. Let's play that.

Republicans have made it about, I love Donald Trump. American first. I'm with this America. My America. Here's the flag. Let me make out with the flag. I'm licking the flag better than you lick the flag. Oh, I love Donald Trump. You love Donald Trump. What the hell is that? Ted Cruz listens to the Modest Touch podcast. He stole your impression. Meanwhile, Ted Cruz, shut the fuck up. Ted Cruz, you do that. That's your move. Didn't Trump call his wife ugly? And he laughed and patted him on the back? Trump called his wife ugly and said his father killed JFK. Ted Cruz sits in front of a portrait of Donald Trump and praises his loyalty to Donald Trump

and does exactly what Donald Trump is doing. But let's talk about the White House Correspondents Dinner. The first time the White House Corents that are met in about six years. And the reason the reason it didn't occur before is because Donald Trump has a very fragile ego. One of the years, you know, I'll give that to COVID or two of the years because of COVID. But the as soon as Donald Trump came into president, he didn't want to have any jokes, bad jokes made about him or funny jokes made about him. So he overall just canceled the White House Correspondents' Dinner. And that's one of the traits of fascist dictators. They can't even handle people like they can't even take a joke. And so part of being a president of the people in a democracy, though, part of this tradition of the White House Correspondents'

Dinner, you can say what you want about the tradition. I agree that the press is out of touch with the people in many sense, but it's a mutual roasting of the press and of powerful people. And one of the strongest attributes of leadership, I feel, is someone who can take a joke. Absolutely. And someone who has a sense of humor about himself, about his poll numbers, about his family members, about all those on fire. Biden was really, really good, too. He was very before we move on, though. But I just want to say really quickly, Trump and how he hates, you know, when people make fun of him or say bad things that carried through all the way to a social platform, truth, social. You can't say anything bad about that platform or Trump or you get kicked off of that platform. You know that? And yeah. And and, you know, the heir apparent to Trumpism,

Governor DeSantis, same way he was asked about the White House Correspondents Dinner and he was like, I will never, ever attend such an event. I will never attend. Brett, play that clip of Governor DeSantis. Sounds so Trumpy. Governor, any response to Trevor Noah's jabs at Florida and yourself and the sort of debate over whether or not you were supposed to attend the Correspondence Center last night? So I never was, I would never attend that. I have no interest in that. I did not watch it. I don't care what they do. But for them to advertise me when that invitation was rejected by my office, that is a lie. But I think it just shows you why that cabal of people in D.C., New York are so reviled by so many Americans. I think it's a reputation that's been well-deserved.

DeSantis, buddy, you're a weirdo. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Just stop it, DeSantis. Stop. The country is healing, kind of. Things are getting back to normal, sort of. We're not wearing masks 24-7 everywhere we go, as long as everyone's vaxxed and boosted. We're able to start living our lives again. When you look at that crowd, people are smiling. At the White House Correspondence Center, people are smiling, laughing, mutually poking fun at each other. That's a nice moment, right? That's not an elitist cabal getting together to plan on how they're going to eat children or some bullshit like that. No, it's just humanity at work. And you may not agree with everything that they have to say. And they may not have to agree with the essence of even doing it to begin with, but it's a funny, just friendly overall event. And to just be so mean about it and angry about it just shows who this guy is. Number two, Ron Jury, Taylor Greene.

I like Ron Jury, Taylor Greene. But I think the better jokes I'll leave to Biden, Brett. Play Biden on McCarthy right now from the White House correspondents there. I'm not really here to roast the GOP. That's not my style. Besides, there's nothing I can say about the GOP that Kevin McCarthy hasn't already put on tape. I mean, it's so good. It's so true, too. And now play Biden on Fox News. We're here to show the country that we're getting through this pandemic. Plus, everyone had to prove they were fully vaccinated and boosted. So if you're at home watching this and you're wondering how to do that, just contact your

favorite Fox News reporter. They're all here, vaccinated and boosted. All of them. Oh, yeah. Deucey did not like that. They've been speaking about that all day. How dare him? They're all just very thin skinned. I think one of the areas where we've shifted, not not Midas touch per se, but like people in a hall is people get scared of people like Ron DeSantis. People get scared of people like Donald Trump. And one of our big things in the 2020 election was let's not hold Trump up as the strongman dictator. Let's instead attack him for being weak, weak, unable to take a joke, pathetic. And I think we need to use those same strategies for these Republicans like Ron DeSantis. Like, this is the epitome of weakness, not being able to take a joke from Trevor Noah. That's the epitome

of weakness. They're lashing out at Disney because he didn't like because they made a statement you didn't like. Oh, you're afraid of Mickey Mouse, Governor DeSantis. These people should be ridiculed as weak and not hoisted up as the strong men who, oh, we can't stop them. No, they are weak, weak, weak. That is part of the message that we need to hammer home. And probably jokes aside, there was a really important message that both Trevor Noah and President Biden both echoed. And I think Trevor Noah did a really good job at speaking directly to the journalists at the end. So let's play a bit of his message to the journalists at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. Every single one of you, whether you like it or not, is a bastion of democracy. And if you ever begin to doubt your responsibilities,

if you ever begin to doubt how meaningful it is, look no further than what's happening in Ukraine. Look at what's happening there. Journalists are risking and even losing their lives to show the world what's really happening. If Russian journalists who are losing their livelihoods, as you were talking about, Steve, and their freedom for daring to report on what their own government is doing, if they had the freedom to write any words, to show any stories, or to ask any questions, if they had basically what you have, would they be using it in the same way that you do? Ask yourself that question every day, because you have one of the most important roles in the world. And that's powerful right there. And you know, he's right. He's right. And it

echoes President Biden's point that this is not a reality show. This is real life. This is American democracy. You have an opportunity right now as journalists to be covering and saving democracy. Don't play into the both sides-isms. Don't play into the fanfare, all the craziness. Tell it straight to the American people. If you were in Russia and could say anything, what would you be saying? You need to take that to America. If you were in the United States, which you are, you are here right now at a pivotal time. If you were looking back at this time, you do not want to regret what could I have done as a journalist to save American democracy. And I think everybody working in the profession needs to take that to heart. That's why I'm excited today to speak to two incredible, incredible journalist, Lauren Windsor. You know Lauren as the creator and executive producer of the political reporting web show, The Undercurrent.

Her incredible investigative journalism has broken some of the most important stories out there. She always gets those undercover videos, including with Bill Barr last week. Let's go to our interview with Lauren Windsor. But before doing that, our next partner has a product I use literally every day, and that is Athletic Greens. I started Athletic Greens

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We are joined by one of our favorite guests, Lauren Windsor, who of course is the creator and executive producer of the political reporting web show, The Undercurrent. And Lauren's unique investigative journalism has been responsible for breaking some of the biggest stories of our time. And that is not hyperbole. Lauren has a brand new video out, which she got former Attorney General Bill Barr. Everyone's talking about this video, on the record, talking about John Eastman's memo on those phony electors. And we are so excited to chat with Lauren. Welcome to the pod. Thanks for having me, guys. Glad to be back. So I think we should start there. Everyone's buzzing about this Bill Barr video. What went into this video? Did you expect the reaction that you got? We're going to play that video first for

everyone who hasn't seen it. If you haven't seen it, you've been living under a rock. So let's play that video first and then love to hear your view of how that video came about. Hi there. I had put my hand up and I was wanting to ask you a question during your speech or lecture or whatever, but I was just wondering, you know, if you had talked to John Eastman and, you know, if you knew about the slate of electors, because I mean, I thought his memo was pretty persuasive. Well, his idea that the vice president could change things is crazy. Yeah. There's nothing inherently wrong with naming an alternative slave.

Electors, there's nothing wrong with that. But you didn't talk to him about it? You weren't aware of their... I had left. I left on December 23rd. Well, right, but weren't they planning this all through that period? I left on December 23rd. Well right, but I mean weren't they planning this? Like all through that period? No one told me about it. Is that why you really resigned though? Because you didn't want to help President Trump overturn the election? Ma'am, there's a line behind you we need to move you on. But thank you for coming. We really appreciate it. You should answer that though, about why you actually resigned. Ma'am, he should have some time with him while he gets his book signed. So thank you for coming. How do you sleep at night?

Seriously. How do you sleep at night? Seriously, how do you sleep at night? Joe, can you help please? You didn't go public with this information. What you did was saved it all for a book. You saved it all for a book, you traitor. You saved it all for a book, you traitor. Lauren Windsor. Is that cathartic?

It was. Tell me about that interaction. Well, you know, he had been doing a lecture before this book signing to discuss, you know, with Ted Olson, who I actually know personally because he was an instructor of mine at an Aspen Institute seminar. You know, they were talking about the various aspects of his tenure at the Justice Department, you know, delving into the book for a packed house, really, at the Reagan Library. And it was just really mind-boggling to me how everyone was eating it up that Bill Barr was some patriot for telling it like it is. And I was actually really disappointed in Ted because he,

you know, like calling Bill Barr a patriot for, for really slinking out of the justice department at a critical time of vulnerability for our country, to me, he was just the antithesis of a patriot. He was a coward. Right. You have someone like a Ted Olson, who in a lot of these constitutional discussions, people say, well, people like Ted Olson, at least he could have an argument with him that's based and rooted in the law and is not an insurrectionist. But, you know, at the end of the day, he still gives comfort and aid to a Bill Barr.

And Bill Barr's hoisted up by Republican establishment who tried to claim that, hey, we're not insurrectionists as still being someone who's like moderate. And there's nothing moderate about Bill Barr. Oh, not at all. And if you could listen to the lecture part of it, and, you know, I may go through and clip out some of the most atrocious segments of it, but it was disgusting. I can't believe that people are giving this man a platform and the most, you know, egregious examples of it are, you know, on mainstream media, you media. Why he should be invited to any political talk shows is a malpractice of journalism. Well, that's why you created the undercurrent, because mainstream media is not asking the tough

questions. So you asked the tough questions in this unique style. Going back to Bill Barr, I want to talk about some of your other videos, but with this specific interaction with Bill Barr, was there anything unexpected about his reaction? Did you expect it to go like that? Tell us about that interaction directly. This guy is a coward. He's slick. He's a creature of Washington. In mean, I, in the context of like having him sign a book when there's, you know, all these people around and it's a very tight, you know, timeframe to be actually able to engage somebody in a conversation, you know, I didn't expect to get some in-depth answers, but I did think that it was interesting that, you know, he claimed to not have any knowledge or contact with John Eastman, but the way that he had framed it,

you know, saying like he dodged the question immediately instead of saying he didn't have any contact with him. You know, I said, you know, did you talk to John Eastman? He didn't say no. He said, I was already gone by then. I said, but you weren't aware of it. Nobody told me about it. So to me, that betrays a bit of, okay, what conversations did you have with John Eastman? Because maybe he didn't tell you about the alternate electors memo, but if you hadn't had any conversations with him, you would have said, no, I never talked to him. Not, I wasn't there. That's the thing.

And that interaction that you had with them, what you're telling us right now, what that interaction demonstrated is far more than I've seen on any Bill Barr interview with any of the mainstream media. And you had to go there essentially undercover with the undercurrent and ask him these questions at a book signing. And let's talk John Eastman now, because your undercover video of John Eastman, I think will go down in the history books. And of course, John Eastman is the Trump attorney who devised the January 6th coup memo, which outlined how to overturn the results of the election.

And through the course of your long conversation with Eastman, he seemed very eager, almost giddy. It was weird, you know, to admit the coup plot to you, just how he was even talking to you. And he blamed Mike Pence for not taking his legal advice, saying Pence was an establishment guy. I want to play the video! We saw your speech.

We saw your speech. Did I incite you to go down to the Capitol and riot? You actually incited us to become supporters of Claremont. Oh good! Very good, very good. But I read your memo and I thought it was solid in all of its legal arguments. I just, I was floored that Mike Pence didn't do anything. I mean, why didn't he act on it? Because you gave him the legal reasoning to do that.

I know, I know. Supported his supporter. Like, why do you think that Mike Pence didn't do it? Well, because Mike Pence is an establishment guy at the end of the day. Going in and talking to Eastman, he was very giddy. He, I think, had been under such attack

from, you know, the mainstream media, from the, you know, folks in Washington that to have someone praising him, you know, was, you know, fan here who's giving me all this praise. And yes, I am a genius. This woman is recognizing my genius. And it was like, I allowed him to just like unleash, like open up how he really felt after, you know, this sort of like trying time of, you know, keep in mind that it was days before he had given an interview to the National Review Online where he had distanced himself from the memo and was saying, oh, this was just something that we wrote and nobody took it seriously. And people thought it was crazy. But then I'm like, I just thought your legal memo was so persuasive. Your legal reasoning was just genius. I don't know how Mike Pence was able to resist. And he was like, you know what? You're right. Mike Pence is an establishment guy. And everyone,

you know, like who, who didn't go along with my corrupt, uh, their corrupt rhinos, we were on a call with 300 state legislators and they're all spineless cowards. They wouldn't do anything. I just, you know, gave him permission to unleash. And he did. And it was very amusing for me. Probably not so much for him in the aftermath. Well, it was the truth. And it was a moment where you got him to let his guard down and actually say what was in his

heart and what is in the heart was very evil. And it was the coup plot that he had talked about. I have to imagine as you've gotten more famous, you've been featured on Rachel Maddow now, your videos have been viewed millions of times. On the one hand, you would think that that makes it difficult for you in that Republicans, these radical right extremists who you interview, that they would recognize you. On the other hand, they're idiots. Strong argument. And that even if they knew it was you, you know, it's kind of like Batman. If he just wears the mask,

it's like, you can't tell who that is. They're like Superman. It's all it takes. Now I get it. Like maybe just putting on a hat, they'd be like, oh, that's not Lauren Windsor. That's someone who looks like Lauren Windsor, but that must be someone who loves me.

So tell us about that dynamic though. Is it more difficult for you now? In some ways, yes, because, you know, people might know my name. And, you know, when you have to use your name for events, anyone who's industrious, you know, can figure out identities. But in terms of, you know, visual ID, you know, you might know somebody's name, but if you saw them in person and in a different context, unless someone's really famous, it's hard to pick them out in a crowd, right?

Think about how many people you know in the political world where you know their name, know a lot about them, but if you saw them maybe 10 feet from you, you wouldn't be able to identify who they are. Here's why I love talking with you, Lauren. And why, when I first met you, I was like, oh, she's incredible. You really love doing this. Like you have an unbridled passion for this line, for this line of work and you're enthusiastic about it, the drive that you have to do it. I love obsessive people who have that kind of, you know, unending goal and just go for it and don't care about anything, but just the truth. So like, where do you get that from? And like, why do you do this? I mean, where do you, every day you wake up and you think about this, it's

not like this is like making a ton of money or anything. Like you do this because you love doing it. And how do you balance that? How do you think, how do you think about that? Yeah. I mean, you know, I'm not like, you know, mincing cash off of, you know, working as a gonzo journalist or through a nonprofit. You know, I make decent money, but if I were driven by money, I certainly wouldn't be, you know, working in political advocacy. But for me, the thing that really fulfills me in all of this work is, you know, being able to make an impact on the political discourse and, you know, so much of the undercover component of this and the work, you know, since really the 2020 election to hold insurrectionists accountable is, you know, we were in a pandemic. We're, you know, about to be in this major election that would determine the future of America. And really, like, this is going to be a huge, like, turning

point in our history if Trump wins a second term. And I just remember, you know, when Biden won the election and we had the like Senate up for grabs and I'm like, seeing all of all of this anti-democracy election overturning sentiment on the right. And I was like, I'm going to do what I can to expose these people for the threat they are to our democracy. And, you know, the, I spent six weeks in Georgia and broke major stories on how Tommy Tuberville, he was then Senator-elect, you know, was going to challenge the Electoral College from the Senate side. And until that point in time, everyone in D.C. had really written off the electoral challenge sort of movement as just

being like a crazy right wing thing that's being led by Mo Brooks. If folks aren't familiar with Mo Brooks, he's a congressman in Alabama, but he was the one that was leading the charge in the House to challenge the Electoral College vote. And the only way, though, that it would be taken seriously is if there was also someone in the Senate to do that. And at that point in time, there wasn't. So breaking that Tommy Tuberville scoop unleashed a lot of animus from the president. Trump retweeted me, which the day that that happened was insane. I remember that vividly. Because I had followed up the Tuberville thing.

I had talked to David Perdue and he said he committed to also challenging the Electoral College, even though technically he couldn't do that because of the way that his term was ending. And so Trump retweeted my Tuberville video. And then the story that I had on Perdue wasn't a video, but it was like a post that I had with a picture with with Purdue. Trump quote tweeted and said, that's because David Purdue is a patriot was in succession, you know, like these two tweets and he had been, you know, amping up, ramping up his pressure on Tuberville and on Purdue and on like everyone in Georgia to overturn the election. And so in short succession after that, you see Josh Hawley step

forward and say, you know, I too am, am going to challenge the Electoral College. And then, you know, Ted Cruz, not one to be left out of the limelight, you know, just like, but I'm going to challenge the Electoral College. And so what has driven me to move forward with this is just spending so much time swimming in this like right wing fringe, like cesspool is that I see the craziest of the crazy. And whereas everyone else is writing it off, I see it like actually like the Republican party is giving lip service and more than lip service to it. It's people in, I think in the mainstream press are like, Oh, they're just, you know, playing the role. It's lip service. But I'm seeing them actually like take action on it. You know, we've been covering everything going on in Arizona, the audits there. And, you know, everyone thinks the audit is dead. But, you know, we have

an upcoming story we haven't published yet, actually, is an interview with Karen Phan, who's the leader of the Senate in Arizona. And they're still moving to to decertify Arizona's results. And they think that they're going to be able to do it through the courts. It's really mind boggling the things that they think that they're going to do ahead of 2024. So you heard it here first. Trump is going to lose Arizona for the 57th time. Just it's unbelievable. But you call them the fringe cesspool. I don't want to get your phrase incorrect, but something to that effect. But this fringe cesspool has become the mainstream Republican Party. And I'm sure you yourself have seen a shift in the Republican Party since you started doing this work. What sort of changes

have you seen since we last spoke, for example? I think you were last on the show last July. Have you seen this become kind of more mainstream rhetoric out there? I don't know that I would say that the decertification is mainstream, but I mean, you see candidates running on decertification. So I was in Georgia, I think it was last month, and talked to Jody Heiss, who Jody Heiss is a congressman and he's running to unseat Brad Raffensperger because it's the infamous call with Donald Trump where, you know, Trump wanted him to find. I think it was eleven thousand seven hundred and eighty votes. That's all I need. You know, one more than, you know, whatever Biden has. What a coincidence. Right. Well, so Heiss is, you know, running to decertify the election. You know, I asked him if he if he wins, if he's elected, if he would work to get the election decertify the election. You know, I asked him if he, if he wins, if he's elected,

if he would work to get the, the election decertified. And he said, you know, yeah, that's, you know, why I'm running, you know, and I said something else about, you know, wish you had been there and in, in the job instead of Brad Raffensperger. And he was like, yeah, we wouldn't be here right now. I was like, I know you would have done the right thing. I wish you had been in there instead of Brad Raffensperger's like, we wouldn't be here right now. I was like, I know you would have done the right thing. I wish you had been in there instead of Brad Raffensperger. He's like, we wouldn't be here right now. Do you think that's the key to it, Lauren? Do you think it's the voice?

Do you think it's the presentation? I mean, you make these people very comfortable. I have to imagine the cycle from like John Eastman, for example, of being like, wow, I got this fan. Somebody loves me. Oh my goodness. To later in the day, seeing you post the video and going, shit, I got this fan. Somebody loves me. Oh, my goodness. To later in the day, seeing you post the video and going, shit, I got. What do you think is it is about you that you get in there and all of a sudden they're just like, OK, everything I'm telling her everything.

I think that it's human nature, one, for anybody to want praise, but particularly people who work in politics, you know, political figures, you know, you're in the public, you know, spotlight. And sometimes that glare can be, it can be a really harsh glare, you know? And so when you have someone that's singing your praises and telling you how amazing you are, you're like, yeah, yeah. Tell me more. I'd love to. Yeah. And you just takes a little bit of digging, you know, to, you know, try to move them down different tracks, but you know, not everyone is that is as responsive to that. I mean, you know, I, I've definitely not, you know, nailed it every time, but it, no one That's what's so great about it is you're really in, you step into the arena and you're in a battle of wits and every situation is different. The person you're talking

to is different. The setting is different. How are you going to ride this wave, you know, to the outcome of uncovering some truth. And, you know, sometimes I go in with like a preconceived notion of how someone will answer something. And it's mind blowing, like in the moment of asking him, asking them whatever question it is. And what comes to mind is the Ron Johnson clip where, you know, he's been kind of at the forefront of, you know, being a proponent for the big lie. And when I asked him why he didn't do more to fight for President Trump, you know, the election, we know the election was stolen. And he really like took time to very rationally and like, give me like an in-depth like analytic response to how Trump actually lost Wisconsin. And so, you know, that to me was incredibly newsy and it, you know, led to a

different profile. Like it was a big reason why the New York Times profiled me. It was a big reason why I got the profile in the Daily Beast, Washingtonian was because, you know, The New York Times profile was incredible. Unbelievable. Thank you. And sometimes you use honey to attract these people, but sometimes you just go straight in, like with Matt Gaetz. And one of my favorite clips of all time of you chasing Matt Gaetz down at a impromptu press conference. Are you a pedophile? Are you a pedophile? Are you a pedophile? Are you a pedophile, Marjorie Gage? Where was he exactly here, Lauren?

Well, so this was in D.C. It was in front of the Department of Justice and they were giving it was it was him, Marjorie Taylor Greene. Greatest hits. Louie Gohmert. And, you know, I use a mix of styles, so it might be undercover in some settings. This was definitely not undercover. I was trying to ask him a question during the press conference, but it got cut short because there were, you know, loud protesters that weren't with us, you know, were sort of disrupting the whole thing. It was quite the circus. But we actually, like through our nonprofit, had brought this Trump puppet who the Trump puppet is a huge like party pleaser.

Everyone loves this street puppet. It's enormous. It's a paper mache like head, like enormous head that sits on top of a person, right? And so the sign on the front said like Trump won. But when you flip it on the other side, it says pedophiles for Trump. So at a key point in time during the press conference, like as they're about to you know call the whole thing off um the guy wearing the the puppet flips the sign and you know the media already had like

figured out that something was going on and so all the cameras were trained over there and all of a sudden it just becomes like absolute mayhem and i just like like i'm like a i swear i must have been like a bloodhound in a past life, but I immediately, I see Gates and I'm going after him. I just like keep hammering him with, you know, are you a pedophile? Are you a pedophile? Are you a pedophile? Congressman, are you a pedophile? And it, you know, it'd be one thing if it weren't a legitimate question, but the guy is being investigated for, you know, trafficking minors across state lines for sex. So I think it's a relevant question. Yet no answer for Matt Gates, right? So I think it's a relevant question.

Yet no answer for Matt Gates, right? On that question. Yes or no question. You would think you'd just stop and say like, no, like unequivocally, no, I am not. End of story. And that would be like, okay, wow. Like, then I look like an asshole if I'm continuing to chase you down. Like you gave me an answer, right? Totally. You're not going to answer, we keep asking. Oh, a hundred percent. And you were relentless as you should be. But from your experience on the ground, what do you think is the message that Democrats need to have with the knowledge that you have in mind going forward into these midterm elections? What do you think they should take away, whether from your work or just in general? Like these are the things that people need to be hearing about. Well, I think that Democrats really need to be driving that wedge in the Republican Party between the people who are traditionally

more rational Republicans, like maybe the establishment types, like the Mitch McConnell crowd, and the faction of the party that's, I think, most exemplified by like Marjorie Taylor Greene. I mean, the fact that there's this like warring, you know, increased tension between them, that's, I think, what really led to Democrats winning the two Senate seats in Georgia. I agree. Yeah. You know, you have that heightened tension. And at the end of the day, like average, the average voter doesn't want to see, you know, the will of the electorate being overturned because of, you know, partisan ideological

maneuvering. So I think that Democrats would be well served to continue to expose that and drive that wedge of, you know, make them all wear the mantle of Marjorie Taylor Greene, because that's what they're enabling. That's what they're empowering. I'm right there with you. And Lauren, we are so grateful for your work. Independent journalism now is more important than ever, as we've seen the incredible void that you have filled with your reporting. It is so, so, so important. But you know what, everybody out there, we got to support independent journalists. We need to support independent reporting. So Lauren, where could our listeners go right now to support your work? Well, the main ways that you can support the work are by

donating to American Family Voices to enable us to hire more people, to do more interviews, to travel to more places. You can do that at AmericanFamilyVoices.org backslash donate. The other way that you can help us out is to amplify our content. So follow me on Twitter and share our videos, share our reporting, and you can follow me at LA Windsor. That's L-A-W-I-N-D-S-O-R. Lauren Windsor, one of the best to ever do it. Thank you so much, guys. I love Lauren Windsor's passion. Unending passion. Unmatched. Unrivaled. Really unmatched passion. The amount of stories that she's broken, that people just talk about and accept as important facts that show and expose the corruption of Republicans. You think about a lot of the scandals that were taking place

around Chicken Perdue in the Georgia elections, in the Senate. You think about looting Loeffler. Lauren went into Georgia. She embeds herself and she exposes all of this corruption. So it's so great to have Lauren on. I'm going to bring Scott Dworkin in in a second. And I do want to talk though quickly about Donald Trump at these rallies in Nebraska before bringing Dworkin in. I don't even want to go through like the whole, it was a utter disaster, you know, and Trump was basically saying how upset he is when people call him stupid. Like what are the point of these things anymore? It's just him going up there like it's a therapy for him. And he just basically says,

I get really upset when people call me stupid, but I'm not stupid. That's like his new talking point. We saw it at the last rally where he wanted to talk about the man, person, chicken, whatever test that he took. That's like his new go-to. By the way, do you know my friend JD McDaniel? Yeah. Here was the full takeaway. Trump went on a whole tirade, if you want to call it that, about how impressive it was that he passed a test made for dementia patients because he was able to say person, woman, man, camera, TV. He's so proud of passing this test that he speaks about it literally every single rally. It's the weirdest thing.

It's the strangest thing in the world. Just imagine, just put yourself at work. Imagine you're sitting in a cubicle, you're an accountant, okay? And you're doing an audit, you're going through the numbers, and then your boss just kind of comes up to the cubicle and goes and goes, Sally, I want to tell you about something. Yes. Yes, boss. Well, Sally, I am the smartest man alive in the United States of America. I mean, the entire GOP power structure, including Trump and all their candidates, are like the crazy person you see on the corner of the street screaming at you that when you're in the car, you're like, leave the window up, lock the doors, lock the doors. Like that's the Republican Party in a nutshell. And immediately after bragging about passing this test, he then proceeds to get the name of the candidate who he endorsed in Ohio. I don't even know why he was talking about Ohio and Nebraska.

Not quite sure he knew where he was. But he proceeds to get the Ohio candidate's name completely wrong. And in fact, says the name of the candidate who he didn't endorse. So, and this is two days prior. He messes up the name of the candidate who didn't endorse, but basically said the letters that seemed to indicate J.D. Vance, but says what? He called him J.D. Mandel.

So the candidate who he did not endorse is Josh Mandel. And he called the candidate J.D. Vance, who he He called him J.D. Mandel. So the candidate who he did not endorse is Josh Mandel. And he called the candidate J.D. Vance, who he did endorse, J.D. Mandel. So he mashed up their two names. Let me just say that. They're two horrible people in their own right. Let's please not make a Frankenstein of them in general, because that would just be the worst. Let's play the clip, Brent. You know, we've endorsed Dr. Oz. We've endorsed JP, right? J.D. Mandel. And he's doing great. They all deserve this. I mean, Josh Vance, who has just sucked up to Trump for so long right now, begged for his endorsement.

J.D. Vance. Now he's getting you. I was like, I was even thinking, I'm like, wait, did he just say Josh? J.D. Vance, Josh Mandel. I called him Josh Vance yesterday. Really, really rough times for Josh Vance. But let's just keep it. Everybody in Ohio, write in J.D. Vandell.

So good. In your... And I do want to touch upon this news because it's big news, needs to be covered. In Fulton County, Georgia today, a special grand jury is being paneled around Trump's election-related crimes. And they're going to be looking into Trump trying to extort the secretary of state saying, please find me the votes and other criminal conduct that Trump tried to tamper with those elections. We will keep you posted on everything that's going

on there. And when, with that special grand jury and with that prosecutor that you have in Fulton County you know, I do feel very strongly there that justice is going to be served in Fulton County. You know, I do feel very strongly there that justice is going to be served in Fulton County, but we will follow the progress of that special grand jury. Let's bring in Mr. Dworkin himself. We are joined by Scott Dworkin, co-founder and executive director of the Democratic Coalition, host of the Dworkin Report. I could list probably a hundred other things that Scott does, but you all know Scott. Scott, welcome to the podcast. What's up, Midas brothers? How are you today? Let's go. Doing great, Scott. So Scott, when people go check out your Twitter account, which has more than 1 million followers. You know, leading the blue wave in past years.

You know, you prominently display blue wave two. Let's do this. The next blue wave is coming in 2022. We believe that to be the case. We believe there are a number of indicators that are out there, both abroad in other countries and here with some local elections that we've seen recently that would indicate that. So so tell us, do you really think that there could be a blue wave in 2022 against what all the critics say? Yeah, I mean, I just wrote a piece for Newsweek and I explained the pro-democracy party is Democrats and it's their election to lose. It's not, you know, Republicans are the ones that are in disarray, not the freaking Democratic Party. What is in disarray in the Democratic Party is the fact that there's not that one cohesive message in simple messaging form of like,

okay, we passed the infrastructure bill and we spent it on X, Y, Z. But instead we're like, okay, we're going to, we have this much money for this state in this specific property we're going to develop.

And it's just too much in the weeds. We need to get broad with it. We need to talk bigger and we need to have those hot retorts that Midas brothers have. You know, we got, we got to have that kind of flashy comeback where we actually have sassy talking points and not just, you know, sitting and taking it or acting like we're above the fray. So we need to be wrestling in the mud with them.

And also, you know, I think that if we don't focus on the fact that we have been winning outside of Virginia, we have been crushing it. And 2018 was just the beginning of the blue wave. 2020 was a great continuation of it. Georgia was a phenomenal two-seat win there in can expand the Senate and hold the House because the implications, if we do not, are just so disgustingly troubling. So I think, yeah, it's Democrats' election to lose, especially with everything with January 6th coming out. But we can't run just on, you know, they did this on January 6th. They're the party of traitors. They're the anti-democracy party. We have to run on, here's what we've done. Here's what we're going to do. We put money in your pockets. We protect your healthcare and they've done shit.

And we need to make that clear every single day and pound it home simply like y'all do in ads, which is just like, boom, boom, boom. If we go on the attack, we have to also go on the offense. We've got to play all sides of it. We dominate the messaging space in most social media, so we need to act like it. And we dominate on social media because the platform is democratized. Then when we speak loudly, it breaks through because it connects with the people. I think one of the problems is that the mainstream media, obviously Fox is a full fascist, but when you start looking at even the CNNs in the world that cover the elections, like it's a basketball game, right? Between two different teams that are both good teams or both bad teams one day. And they don't really focus on,

well, one team's trying to overthrow the United States government. And increasingly, once they adopt a narrative, they cling to it. The narrative of the media is because Biden's the president, the Democrats control the White House. Therefore, the other party can't win that. So that's what they just say, because they're morons and they can't actually have intelligent conversations. So they're like the Democrats are in disarray. It's like the Republicans are like in a full fledged civil war against each other right now. And it's barely being discussed that way in the media. So what do you think's going on there with just the media generally? And would you agree the

Republicans are in complete disarray? Yeah, obviously, Republicans are in complete disarray. And keep in mind that I always wonder, and who I have a problem with are producers and the booking agents on mainstream media outlets, because they keep on booking the same shitbags every single week. And it's people that conspired against the United States of America and haven't been charged yet. And it's just very troubling to see them over and over again lie, just blatantly lie. I remember when it was the day after, I believe, inauguration in 2017, I was in the MSMDC studios sitting next to Joy Reid. And it was the first time we both saw alternative facts, that comment by Kellyanne Conway talking about how the inauguration was

the biggest ever, which it was not. That was a lie. So I sat there and I hear her regurgitate this talking point. And I was just sitting there. I just my stomach turned because I've been politics for 15 years or so. And I'm just like, lies kill people. So I'm sitting there thinking in my head, Joy's just like, so what do you think about that, Scott? And I'm like, resign, resign. And I just sat there and I did not comprehend how she could just lie and then justify the lie and then skew the lie and try to water it down. And I said, you know, these these lies are going to kill people. And obviously they did. You look at coronavirus. We would have not had this many deaths. We would have not had this many illnesses if we had been able to tell the

truth and not have to fight for that, fight for the truth and uncovering that. And Scott, let me just pause you there on just the coronavirus issue, because it wasn't just that. Trump was wrong or that all these radical right extremists were wrong on it. It's how wrong they were and how do they get a pass? You know, the things that they like to attack Fauci for is as science evolves, science, you learn new things and you adapt and you, you know, and the situations change. But when you have the data like Trump had during that critical crisis and you say there are only 15 cases and it is all going to go away, when you make that statement and you are that wrong, and then the media doesn't talk about that. It's not even a conversation. You talk about it.

We talk about it on socials. The groups you lead do. But it's like, they just get a pass for that, the lying to people that it's going to be 15 cases and go away. You were off by a million. And you were off by close to a million. You were off to close to a million deaths, not cases. You were off. You were off by 60 million cases or so. You were off by a million deaths. Yeah. And they did it intentionally. You know, they did it to win. They did it for politics, for personal gain. And you look at people who went to jail for Flint water crisis or other political corruption across the country. And this is one of the worst cases of it that I've ever seen. You know, it led to mass death. It just straight up led to mass death. And then also

spurned conspiracy theories and allowed people to spread these lies and not just these lies, because then it spread from there. Oh, well, your votes don't actually count. Oh, well, you know, you don't actually have a right to do X, Y, or Z. Like, it just, the lies don't stop and they keep on lying on top of lies and it's just hurting people. So there's got to be some kind of reckoning in regards to a reset. And I think making Manchin and Sinema irrelevant in the fall would do that. We need some kind of justification for, or maybe justice for all the people that have died. You know, people like Kirsten Kieser, who runs Marked by COVID, she lost her father, who explicitly listened to Fox News and took those talking points from Tucker Carlson and others and died because of it. And we need to recognize that,

you know, a lot less people would have died if it's not for them. And I just don't think that all these anti-maskers, anti-vaxxers have a place in our society anymore. But it really is disturbing to see people just carry it on over and over again. Just the lies after lie, even after people are dying. And then they justify the dying. They act like it's, they scoff at it. They laugh it off. You have Trump who sat there and made fun of people

who were his friends and supporters who died of COVID, who were political leaders of their party. And then people would get it in our party and they'd laugh at that and they'd hope that they would die. I mean, it is beyond the most messed up messaging wars that we've ever had. I mean, I never thought that I'd be discussing with the White House or debating with the White House about the first death, which they kept on a cruise ship in international waters. And so I said, the first American has died of COVID. And they came back. They said, oh, no, the first American, no, nobody died of COVID in America. And I was like, no, I got your little Trump trick there. The first American has died of COVID. That's what I said. And it's just these

little games and this win-lose mentality. There is such a thing as right and wrong, and they are absolutely in the wrong. And it's glad, luckily, we have groups like Midas Touch to actually be a voice for the voiceless and to loudly call out the liars and to loudly dispel any of these falsehoods. I mean, these lies have killed people and y'all have been a part of a movement to save people's lives. And that's what it's done. And so I'm very thankful for all y'all have done on the effort. Right back at you, Scott, with the great work that you do, the Democratic Coalition does. And some people look at us like we're the OGs now in the space,

and we're not. You're the OG in the space. And you've been doing this for a very, very, very long time before people were really taking to social media, you know, to resist fascism. You led that movement and helped the Democrats take the House and take that and eventually take the Senate. And now as we approach 2022, as kind of the master messenger out there, what do you think the Democrats need to be hitting on as we approach 2022, each and every day to win the House, keep the Senate? Well, again, keep it simple, stupid. That old Carville quote, we need to make sure that we clearly, we don't need build back better, things like that,

words, catchphrases like that. We need to say, we put money into your pockets. We protected you from COVID. We helped save lives from COVID. We need to, the biggest stressor is the fact we put money in people's pockets and we save them money, reminding them of that and reminding them that Republicans were against that. I think repeating that over and over again. But again, people get sick of that. Oh, Republicans did this, Republicans did that. Like, we'll be able to handle the attack on that. But the Democratic Party and its leadership need to tout what they've done, and also what

they're going to do in the future. So you can talk about the American Rescue Plan, and you can talk about the infrastructure bill. You can talk about the fact that you have the most diverse cabinet ever. You can talk about the fact that, obviously, Judge Jackson is going to be on the Supreme Court as the first black woman ever on the Supreme Court. These are gigantic accomplishments on top of the fact that they have pushed some bipartisan reform through, especially supporting Ukraine and then also attacking Russia. So there's been a lot of things that have been good. And then we also have to go on the defensive and offensive to prepare for things like the Afghanistan withdrawal. The fact is, President Biden ended the war in Afghanistan. He ended it. No one else did.

He was left a shit sandwich by Donald Trump, you know, troops surrounded around the country by the Taliban. He made a deal with the Taliban so he could wave a piece of paper around and say, look at what I accomplished. Look what I did. And it was just nonsense. It was BS. And so Biden did it. Biden got the troops out. It wasn't pretty, but there was no pretty exit. There was no way to not leave some stuff there. There was no way to just get out of there unscathed. And we're lucky that there was only one terrorist attack around that time, which was terrible as it was. And obviously the scenes were not pretty, but war is not. And so I think there's a lot of accomplishments of saving American lives, saving American jobs, putting money back into people's pockets, creating jobs. And maybe one of the biggest things is when we talk about the infrastructure bill and we have states, people running for Senate, people running for Congress, they need to go to these sites and stand in front of them and say, these people working right here,

this is because of the infrastructure bill. This is because of the money that we put behind it. And Republicans were against this all. And this is all Democrats right here. And they need to plant the flag and probably do so. We'll be able to talk about treason and everything in January 6th. There will be public hearings.

And obviously, Rep Raskin talked about how it's going to blow the top off the Capitol building, you know, hypothetically. And it really, there's a lot of revelations that will come out that are going to be like, we knew it. We knew it. We knew it the whole time. And it's just, there's more to come on that front. So they're going to have to deal with that. Republicans will have to deal with that reckoning. But we'll have to sell to the American people again. And remember, they're not going to remember everything that's been done

because everyone's dealt with tragedy. Everyone's dealt with COVID. Everyone's dealt with money problems. All normal Americans have dealt with rising prices at the pumps, prices elsewhere, and because of corporate greed and other reasons. But it comes back to the president where people will blame him for it. And he's the leader of the Democratic Party. So we just need to make sure that our message is clear. Luckily, we have people on the bench right now that are stellar communicators, whether it's Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Hillary, we'll have Jill Biden,

Kamala Harris, and Doug Emhoff out there. So we've got some great communicators. And again, I'll stress the fact Barack and Michelle being around and campaigning in the summer into the fall is going to be huge for us. But it's just about focusing on what's local, especially for these swing districts, and pointing out exactly where they're benefiting from everything. Show the people at work. Show them digging in the soil. Show them fixing things, building internet out and things like that, fixing the water quality issues in areas. Show them the hands-on work.

So I think, again, it's Democrats election to lose. And so it's on us to make sure that it's communicated clearly to the American people that they should be voted in again and also expand the Senate. And Scott, you talk about communication. And obviously, one of the biggest ways that we've been able to get our message out has been through social media and Twitter. You built a incredible platform of over a million followers, as Ben has mentioned, on Twitter. And obviously, there are changes afoot with Elon Musk taking over the reins of Twitter if this deal goes through. I feel like we've already seen a bit of the direction where he is heading with it. But how do you think this

is going to affect, you know, Democratic activists? Do you think that we should all be staying on the platform, staying there and fighting? And what is the free speech that the right is missing so much that they can't. So that's, that's their free speech. The idea of free speech is running around with a, you know, a rifle being able to shoot it, shoot it at anyone in any direction and be like, it's your fault. It's your fault that I shot that. And, you know, and it's just like, that's, that's the kind of blame game they want to play. We've all been on all the social media platforms. To me, Twitter is actually the most democratized. And Twitter, to me, is also the one that has the most, quote,

unquote, free speech. I've been suspended briefly on other platforms for saying things that Twitter has no issue with. And so the only free speech that I see them wanting to say are stuff like, you know, about vaccines, get fake information about vaccines that actually result in the deaths of people, threatening people, harassing people. Those are the only real examples that I've seen from these right wingers who say, oh, finally, now I'm going to be able to say I don't even want to say it on the show. Now I'm going to want to say X, Y and Z. You know, is that is that what you're saying? Yeah. I mean, well, one of the keys with Twitter is they have real humans fact checking viral tweets and making sure that it's not false of like us announcing the fact that President Biden

had won. And they're like, well, it's not official until they, whatever, he had won. I think that there is no chance in hell that I'm going to cede any power to Republicans in the right on Twitter, on any social media platform. I'm not getting off of it because it is very terrible idea for us to abandon it because that's how we lose. If everybody leaves Twitter, we lose the midterms, we'll lose 2024 by a landslide. The effect of Twitter on the American voter is massive. It is massive. And so we need to make sure that we keep on pounding home. The fight has been digital. The digital war has started in 2015 or so, and it hasn't ended yet. And the reason why we have all these changes on Twitter is because of

folks like you, Midas Touch, and the democratic coalition and everybody putting the fight public pressure out there to make sure these changes take place. Trump didn't magically leave the platform. I remember the day before Sasha Baron Cohen's people reached out, let's do one more push to remove Trump from Twitter. And I was tired. I think this was, this was right after January 6th. So I was just exhausted. It was like, this is a wasted effort, blah, blah, blah. And so we did one more push and then he was removed from the platform. I don't know what did the final kind of thing. I think it was January 6th, but that didn't magically happen. Yeah, it didn't magically happen. It was years of work

and it was pounding at home and proving that he doesn't deserve to be on the platform. There's a lot of things like that. I think Elon Musk, in regards to him, he's a showboat, and he knows it. But at the same time, he has done some good things for society. What he's doing now is he's playing with fire. He is playing with the right. He is playing with the right. He's playing with the left. And he's toying with way too many people and it's going to

backfire. It's spectacular. It doesn't matter how rich you are. You know, he's either the richest or second richest man in the world, world of Putin or whoever's richer. I'm not sure. At this point, it's probably Elon. But like, you know, what are you doing, dude? Get a damn hobby. Fix the world food supply. Do something good for humanity. Messing with Twitter because you want to kick off a guy from the platform because he was tracking your flights is a teenager. That's pretty ridiculous.

So I mean, we cannot abandon any of this, any social media site for any reason. You know, I wanted to leave Facebook. I wanted to get off there. I didn't want us to use it anymore. We've got like 500,000 followers to the coalition. I've got like 65,000 personally. And it just does not make any sense. It is cutting your arm off and it's just, it's not necessary.

I know that they're corrupt. One of the things is, you know, Facebook likes to monetize things. And so we're like, okay, I don't want to touch their dirty money. So what we do is we'll monetize things and then we'll put it in our fund to defeat Facebook. So it goes back against them. So you're like, we have to come up with the creative ways like that to fight against the system, but it's not going to change if we abandon it. And it's definitely not going to go away. So if we, we can't be a part of it, we can't be a part of that ecosystem to make things better if we're not on

those platforms. So no one should be leaving. I understand if people do leave different social media platforms for their personal beliefs, but I, I beg of you to not abandon, especially Twitter, out of any of the social media platforms. It is essential for winning. We cannot win without it. That's a fact. And so please stay on Twitter for now. In the future, if Jack comes up with something cool or somebody else, I think what will happen is the power of different social media sites is going to spread out because there's going to be so many different social media sites and it's not going to have the effect on people as it used to. Also, people are going to be a little bit smarter, but keep in mind, there's going to be new attack

tactics. We're going to have to be on the ball about this, you know, the fake, fake videos that will come out, deep fake, things like that. Like we're going to have to be on the ball about this, you know, the fake, fake videos that will come out, deep fake, things like that. Like we're going to have to be on top of it. And without people like us on the platform, it starts to spread like a wildfire. Like it will be out of control, disinformation, misinformation constantly, and we won't be able to stop it. We have to keep our defenses up and we cannot abandon the platforms at all. Scott, I got to ask you about this, man. Switching gears a bit here.

So I moved to Pennsylvania about two years ago, coming up my two year anniversary now. Did you see the Republican debate for Senate that unfolded last week and how all of those candidates, Dr. Oz, McCormick and the ilk were all bending over backwards to talk about how Trump loves them. What do you make of that? What does that say about Trump's stronghold on the Republican Party? Let me phrase it this way. The perceived stronghold, because I have a follow up after this. Sure. First of all, I just want to respect your basketball skills. You know, that was that was a great that was a great interaction you had there. Shout out A.G. Shapiro.

I'm wearing the jersey right now. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah, T. Shapiro. Like, he's going to make a great governor. Absolutely. You know, and so I think it's just, it's kissing the ring, but it's beyond cult status because they didn't talk about any of the issues. They didn't talk about anything of the issues they didn't

talk about anything that had what's your guy's name in texas texas larry texas paul texas paul oh sorry yeah so texas paul and he had mentioned that like they actually did there was nothing of substance they were just out trumping each other trying to be like he loves me better he loves me more he gave me this present is just like a cat fight. And it made no sense whatsoever. Debate style, it was non-existent. It was a Trump debate as to who could be more Trumpian and who has more love from Trump. It's disgusting. It's a new low. Obviously, they hit a new low every time. But I just don't think voters are going to be fooled or the people that they need to vote for them are going to be coaxed into voting for them because they were more Trumpy

than the other one. They stand for nothing good. And I think that it reveals the truth. They gave us campaign ads for the fall. Thank you very much. That's all they did here. That's all they accomplished. And that last point is exactly what I'm hinting at there. It's like the perceived perception of

how much power Trump really does have over the party. Because if you look at Georgia, you look at the numbers there happening in Georgia, Brian Kemp is far and away leading that race, that primary race over Chicken Perdue, who Chicken Perdue has been heavily endorsed by Trump there. So, I mean, what do you make of that? I think that there's a lot more common sense, real conservative Republicans coming back in the fold. I have a lot of people telling me in Georgia and in Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, so Southeastern United States that, oh, they're starting to use the excuse. It was never just about Trump. It's like we don't need him to run for

president again. And they're kind of acting like he didn't exist anymore. And I think they don't want him involved because they can't scam the same way anymore. He's not big enough to distraction to distract from their corruption. And so they want to do that silent kind of like, oh, we support these different things while they're robbing you blind. Right. And they can't do that because it's just a distraction and more of a spotlight on that corruption. So I think they don't want to be linked with them anymore. Also, a lot of their tactics are dirty and Perdue's a loser. He really is. Every time I see a picture, I'm like, this guy is a loser. He's never been a really good guy. And now he's just spreading lies, the big lie again, more so. And we got him on tape, obviously,

Lauren Windsor, excellent journalist. It's a place where you cannot, I worked in Georgia in 2006 on the ground. And it's just, it's a place where you can't, you can't bullshit people. You can't, you can't do that. And they're not going to fall for your tricks. Obviously they didn't fall for it in 2021. They didn't fall for it in 2020 with Biden or with Warnock or with Ossoff. Like that's why they won because you have people full of it that were running for office. Nobody believed them. You couldn't trust them. And I think people remember that. People remember like that's why they won because you have people full of it that were running for office. Nobody believed them. You couldn't trust them. And I think people remember that. People remember the hits that Perdue got. And Kemp is trying his best to be more mainstream and obviously be the anti-Trump

without talking about Trump, without trying to attack him. So I think that there's going to be a lot of Trump people who vote for Kemp because they're just not paying attention. And then there will be people who vote for Purdue because they have their head up their ass and they don't care about this country, their state, or anything at all in general. Scott Dworkin, as always, thank you for joining us on the podcast. Thanks for having me, brothers, and keep up the great work. Now, we appreciate you so much, everybody. I'm sure everyone's already following Scott, but follow Scott Dworkin and the Democratic Coalition and the Dworkin Report across all platforms. We will be right back after these messages. For the most important news of the day, massive news dump, handwritten contemporaneous notes,

Treasury needs to hand over Trump's taxes. With the most compelling interviews. Please welcome Congressman Adam Schiff. Molly John Fast. Mike McFaul. Andrew Weissman. Barb McQuaid. Glenn Kirshner.

Colonel Alexander Vindman. Former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. And all the appropriate profanity. Lawsuit to block that s**t. Captain Douche. Bulls**t. Immigration Executive Order. Anyone that's stupid should just not be in Congress.

Renowned cowardly f***** face Kevin McCarthy. The leader of the douche crew. Even Mary Trump agrees. Joining this binder full of women curating the news from the left with appropriate f***** profanity. Listen weekday mornings to The Daily Beans. Left-leaning news from a woman's perspective. We make the news bearable by making it swearable. So put some beans on it with Dana Goldberg, Amy Carrero, and me, Alison Gill. And who doesn't like that?

And great to have Scott Dworkin. And you got to check out Dwork's Newsweek, Scott Dworkin's Newsweek piece today. It's out today. Scott Dworkin, an incredible activist, really one of the OGs in this space who's pioneered the importance of digital activism. Someone who we've always looked to as an important, vital leader in this fight, Scott Dworkin, and just a great friend too. He's an example of what everybody needs to be in this space. When we came up and we rose quickly, he could have not held a grudge, but he could have looked at us as like the new people on the block who were encroaching on his territory and things like that. And he could have pushed back. He could have ignored us. He could have given us the cold shoulder, but instead he embraced us and he said, I like what you guys are doing. Let me amplify you. Let me help you out as much as I can. And so I will always appreciate Scott for that. And I think it's an example that

we always try to do to anybody that we see coming up. We need to all amplify each other. Instead of attacking each other, we need to all support each other and we need to unite and we need to build coalitions as we head into these elections. Final rant. Finish him. Do you like that? World combat? It's going to be your new rant? This is going to be like your- Final rant. Finish him.

What do you think of it? And it goes like that. All right, let's hear the rant. Okay, the rant is the following. Steve Schmidt posted something on Twitter that I thought really resonated with me. And I think which would resonate with all people in America right now, fighting for democracy. And he said that he spoke with a member of Congress who said something that profoundly resonated with him as well. And that is referring to the majority of pro-democracy

loving people in the United States as the exhausted majority. We've sometimes referred to this pro-democratic, pro-democracy coalition as the true silent majority, but this term exhausted majority really resonated with me. And the example that I gave, I saw this TikTok video recently that's been going viral as well. And it's a TikTok of people on the airplane. And it's a group of people on an airplane. And there's an individual who's saying all of these horribly homophobic slurs and just screaming about how this is China and continuing to say these just horrible, horrible, homophobic slurs. The individuals then removed from the plane and then says, why are you removing me? Just because I'm a Trump supporter, I'm going to sue you. That was one person on that

airplane. And, you know, maybe the family members who also agreed with that, who were also saying these horrible things, but everybody else on that plane, they were just exhausted. We're exhausted by this conduct. And we're just like, oh, can you just stop it? I just want to fly to where I want to try to fly here. And I just want to see my family. I just want to go on a vacation. I really just want to live my life. Can you stop it? And sometimes that urge and that exhaustion can be turned into apathy in that, hey, I just don't want to even deal with it. Turn off my TV, shut my eyes, just be quiet. And that is where democracy dies. And so it's our job as activists to awaken the exhausted majority. That is really the most vital and important thing. And explain to the exhausted majority why shutting their eyes, turning off their TV, not voting will have the opposite effect. It will empower individuals like that, not just to be on the airplane, but to become your pilots. Do you want that person to become your pilot? Because that is

what it's like to have someone like Donald Trump lead the country. That is what it's like to have someone like DeSantis lead your country. And that is a pilot who is not steady and not someone you want to be a true leader. This is the Midas Touch podcast. Thank you, Ben and Jordi. Special shout out to our sponsors, Athletic Greens and Express VPN. Thank you all, the Midas Mighty, continuing to fight for our democracy.

We are going to win this for our nation. I promise you that. Wait, Ben, I have a better name though for the final rant. I think we called out the Midas Minute. Shout out to the Midas Minute!