The MeidasTouch Podcast - Combating Neanderthal Disinformation with Ali Velshi

Episode Date: March 5, 2021

MSNBC host Ali Velshi joins the MeidasTouch Podcast to discuss his experiences being attacked, literally and figuratively by the Trump Administration, the responsibility and role of journalists in a post-Trump world and ways we can combat dangerous disinformation. The brothers also discuss promising updates with the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, updates on key legislation making its way to the Senate, the faux outrage about Dr. Seuss and why the Neanderthal caucus cries “cancel culture” to hide the fact that they are actively hurting America — and much more! You can watch Ali Velshi’s MSNBC show Velshi on Saturdays and Sundays from 8-10am EST and you can catch him on The Last Word on Fridays at 10pm ET. New episodes of the MeidasTouch Podcast are released every Tuesday and Friday! Please consider sharing this podcast with a friend and giving us a 5-star rating in the Apple Podcasts app! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/meidastouch/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/meidastouch/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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And Jordy is in a little bit of hot water recently. Yeah, hot water Jordy. Jordy took a dig, rightfully so, at Tim Allen. And it looked like I saw one Twitter user clap back hard at you, Jordy. Oh, yeah. I didn't know we were going to start off the show with this one, but throwing you curveballs, man. Curveballs.

So just to bring the audience up to speed, look, we have a lot of different followers who follow us for a lot of different reasons on Twitter and listen to the podcast for a lot of different reasons. I like to say I'm probably the funny brother of the two. You know, I think I would definitely go as far as to say that. Long story short, Tim Allen was in the news the other day because he's a dick and he was saying things that, you know, were dickish. Tim Allen said that that he liked that Trump annoyed the shit out of

people. He said in a president, I'm looking for someone who just pisses people off, which is the dumbest fucking metric you could ever have in choosing a commander in chief, which I think is what most Trump supporters like about him, that he's just owning the libs. That's their philosophy. They have no platform. So owning the libs is the platform. And Tim Allen voiced that. Especially when owning the libs means owning science, owning health, owning security, owning reality. And I guess when you're desperate and depressed and you hate everything, to have someone just talk shit about everything is what you're looking for. And that's probably the dumbest thing, because what I'm looking for in a president is someone who uplifts me. So, Jordy, any scandal involving you? Thanks, man. Yeah. So then I tweet out Tim Allen is a tool man, comma man.

Like that because he was the tool man, Tim, the tool man, Taylor like that. That's objectively hilarious. And you can't tell me it's not. And then we had a follower tweet back at me and like genuinely likes Midas. And so I just want to have the conversation openly. I'm not going to give you the handle. I'm not going to say it for me. He got canceled. But it was basically like, hey, I'm so confused. why are you using this platform to amplify trump and trump is i've been such a big supporter of midas but like i can't wrap my head around this tim allen what the fuck who cares and so it's like i that was one i like that this stuck with you and now we're talking

about it it is you know why because it's like not jordy was legitimately crying before i wasn't crying hysterically his eyes are really red right now he's tearing baby i wasn't crying i was just frustrated because it's just like look we have our platform and i like to think that we do a good job using it for all the right reasons not every single one of my tweets is gonna be like super you know informative and knowledge. Sometimes I'm just going to say Tim Allen is a tool, man. And you're just going to have to be okay with that, or you can unfollow me. I like it. And something else I like, fellas, is I don't know if you know this, but I kind of have a live audience today from where I'm recording. I'm recording from home

today. My girlfriend, Sochi is in the background And I hear laughs as though I have a live audience. So I think when this pandemic is, and it's making me feel better about these jokes, I'm not going to lie. They're landing. They're landing these jokes. So when we return after everybody gets vaccines, after everybody's being healthy,

we got to take this show on the road. We're doing live shows? We got to take this show on the road. We're doing live shows? We got to do live shows. Let's go. But everybody needs a vaccine. Vaccines, vaccines, vaccines. And look, with the President Biden administration, we are finally in a place of competence. Biden has enacted the Defense Production Act,

which Donald Trump, I'm so good at business, refused to enact and actually compel corporations to do the right thing. Brett, tell me more about that. This is a real breakthrough collaboration. Johnson & Johnson and Merck are now working together. These are two of some of the fiercest competitors in the industry. The concept of these two companies working together could have been baffling a year ago before this pandemic. But President Biden has worked out a deal with the Defense Production Act so that they could work together with the federal government to ramp up vaccine production. And it's working. I mean, right now, we're two months ahead of schedule getting the vaccine in people's arms. In fact, President Biden said that by the end of May, there's going to be enough vaccine supply to vaccinate every American adult. May is like

very soon, guys. I am very excited about this. This is right around the corner. I'm super stoked about it. The thing that I want to be clear about, though, right, we're going to have all of these vaccines. that doesn't necessarily equate to shots in arms. Is that correct, Brett? Yeah, that's correct. Yeah. We're going to have, but still exciting vaccine supply and they need to be distributed. And then you're going to have to get the first shot and you're going to have to get the second shot depending on what vaccine you do. There's a lot of new news too, about the Johnson and vaccine, that it's really increasing in efficacy over time dramatically. I know a lot of people were concerned at first that it maybe was not

as effective as the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, but studies are now showing that the immunity you get over time is just about equal to the other vaccines. So you kind of can't go wrong. And I really, for like the first time, I kind of see the light at the end of the shitty COVID tunnel. And I am through, I don't even know what I'm going to do. I don't even know what, like how to interact with people anymore, guys. I don't leave the house. Look, the headline here is America is back. Okay. Under Donald Trump, we would not have anywhere near the vaccination rate that we have today. And just go look at it. Under Trump, you know, it was it was barely anybody, you know, you knew was being

vaccinated. And now with the implementation of the Defense Production Act, I know a ton of people who have gotten vaccines who are about to get vaccines. We have family members who got vaccines, which is always incredibly heartwarming to know that when your family's getting vaccines. And this is what America is. And Brett, I had teased you before when you were talking about how excited you were about people getting vaccines. But I wasn't mocking you. It was just a sad state of where the country was that accomplishments that America should be obtaining. We felt were miracles and we're so shocked that they happened. This is the way America should be running. But obviously, we are living in a idiocracy right now. And you legitimately have an opposition political party who is anti- They're pro-COVID. They're like the pro-COVID party. Oh, every effort that they make is pro-COVID. So we could outline each and every single way. So as the Senate now is voting and did vote to proceed on the America Rescue Plan,

which is the COVID relief. By the way, thank you, Georgia, for the 51 to 50 vote with Kamala Harris breaking the tie. I mean, that's all possible because we won the Senate. I mean, this is really going to save lives. And look, the Georgia election. I certainly wish, I hope that Joe Manchin sees the light of day and we can get rid of this filibuster and truly pass through an agenda that Americans need and raise the minimum wage and implement all these other legislations that the House are passing to bring America in line with the 21st century. But I'll tell you this, the Georgia vote saved thousands, hundreds of thousands, and millions of lives because this legislation, the COVID relief bills being passed,

vaccines are going to be distributed, and money's going where it needs to be going. And it's a 51 to 50 vote. I would love to play for those listening. It's a sound of Zen, of Kamala Harris breaking the tide. On this vote, the a's are 50, the nays are 50, the Senate being equally divided. The vice president votes in the affirmative and the motion to proceed is agreed to. It's just so incredible to hear that. So as as that's happening today, the Republicans are angry. How dare you pass a covid relief bill that's going to actually give relief to Americans? You have Senator Ron Johnson who's saying, I am going to lead the resistance against COVID relief. And this is his

leading the resistance. He's going to make the Senate read out loud the entire 628 page bill, which will literally do nothing other than delay this for another 10 hours. It's just how selfish can you be? How dumb of a move is that? Especially when what we're talking This is absolutely ludicrous. And in a way, it's like, OK, do it. Do it. Have that be your thing. You're the guy. You're the party who ran against people getting covid relief. Have that be what you run on in 2022. Be my guest. And as Mitch McConnell, I think, has made somewhere in the range of 30 to 40 million dollars while he was a senator, when the Senate salary is about 180 to 200 thousand dollars a year with benefits. McConnell comes out and he is deeply concerned in this awkward, weird interview that he gave

that fourteen hundred dollars to Americans may make people not want to go back to work as though 14 people are going to under Mitch McConnell's view, you give Americans $1,400 of relief and they're suddenly going to retire. I mean, it's such a ridiculous view. Play that clip. Do you believe that these checks prevent some people from wanting to work? Do you believe that? Well, there is a concern about making it more advantageous to stay home and rather than going back to work. Yes, I'm going to buy my mansion with my fourteen hundred dollars on my estate and have my butler Jasper deliver me some tea and joined elite clubs and buy a yacht. Like what does Mitch McConnell think people are going to do with $1,400? Most of the people who would need $1,400 need the $1,400 so that they could pay their rent,

so that they could pay their power bill, so that they could pay their water bill. A lot of people actually don't even have money in the bank, Mitch. It's really ridiculous. It's just so out of touch with the American people to assume that $1,400 in 2021 is going to make people not want to go back to work. I'd like to see Mitch McConnell live on $1,400 and see how he fares. I would love to see that as a reality show, Mitch McConnell with $1,400 and then go and talk to us. We could probably solve the deficit problem with that show right there. Just have all the money go to the federal government. Mitch McConnell, $1,400 one month. It's the new survivor. Exactly. And just to be clear, I mean,

look, we're not laughing at the amount because the amount is much needed for people who need to pay bills and pay rent. What we're really poking here at is Mitch just being a jerk and just being totally unaware of what people can actually do with this money. I think that people get that we're not making fun of the amount. I thought you guys were coming off a little insensitive. We were coming off a little slightly insensitive. Yes. And as vaccinations increase the positive test rates of COVID and U.S. is declining to lower than four point two percent. And just the charts are incredible, man, by the way. Look at any COVID chart and they all take a deep nosedive, literally like starting on January 20th. The numbers come drastically down. And you could say that, yes, you know, there was a holiday rush that probably caused the spike at the end of the year. Okay,

I'll give that a little bit of credit. But we can't discount the fact that starting January 20th, the federal government ramped up vaccine production like crazy, started getting aid out like crazy, started just changing policy and doing everything that the Trump administration wasn't doing. And which was nothing, which was nothing. And now every chart, every chart shows dramatic success in such a short period of time, basically from January 20th on. And oh, no, no, no, no. You know who can't handle success? You know who can't handle health and Americans doing well, the motherfucking Republicans. OK, let me explain to you. I mean, it's it's it is completely ridiculous that it seems that they're pissed off that Biden's doing good.

And they're like, all right, everyone's doing much better now. Everyone's getting much healthier. What can we do to screw this up? Texas, Mississippi, let's scrap the mask mandate and other restrictions. I mean, literally just exercise some degree of self-control and patience for like a few more months while every American gets vaccinated and then take your fucking masks off, do what you want to do. But you really need to take it off now that everything's like about to be under control. You want to let the mutant strands come in and let everybody get it. I think they

legitimately want everybody to be killed. And just days after Texas is hit by one of the deadliest storms in history, by the way, Governor Abbott blamed the Green New Deal on that. He says we're opening Texas 100 percent. But if something goes wrong, if people get covid, it's the immigrants fault. Blame the immigrants. The Biden administration was releasing illegal immigrant illegal immigrants into our communities who had COVID. The Biden administration was spreading COVID in South Texas yesterday because of their lack of constraint of testing and quarantining people who'd come across the border illegally. The Biden administration was exposing Texans to COVID. That is Neanderthal type approach to dealing with the COVID situation.

So it's really troubling though. I mean, it's silly and it's easy to laugh at, but it's really troubling because these are the same tactics that like Nazis used back in the day to dehumanize immigrants that were coming into their country. When you're the one to scapegoat immigrants,

when you're the one easing these restrictions, basically- Not easing it, not easing the restrictions. Getting them away. No restrictions. No restrictions whatsoever. No restrictions, no nothing. While you're on like the final lap of the race, you're stopping.

And by the way, the no restrictions before, there were very little restrictions in Texas. You know, we did the video, Trump kills Texas because Trump and Abbott were one of the first to open it up and kill everybody. And by the way, there's a way to open up intelligently and there's a way to open up stupidly. And at every sense, Abbott has opened up stupidly. And so when it came to the horrible weather and not having power, whose fault is it? Who's the boogeyman? The Green New Deal. It's AOC's fault. OK, now COVID spikes. It's the immigrants fault. It's like Greg Abbott. You are the governor of Texas. You are a fool. You are a despicable human being. And you are to blame for failure after failure, death after death.

And that will be your legacy. Stop blaming it on everybody other than yourself. The buck stops with you because you care about the buck over the people. And Governor Abbott at the end there referenced Neanderthals. And that was in response to Joe Biden calling these policies of eliminating mask mandates right now. Joe Biden referred to it as Neanderthal thinking, which then started. Wait, play the Biden clip. Let's play Biden and then we'll get back to it. These masks make a difference. We are on the cusp of being able to fundamentally change the nature of this disease because of the way in which we're able to get vaccines in people's arms. We've been able to move that all the way up to the end of May to have enough for every American to get every adult American to get a shot.

And the last thing, the last thing we need is the Neanderthal thinking that in the meantime, everything's fine. Take off your mask. Forget it. It still matters. And I want to set this up for a second, Brett. Biden astutely notes Neanderthal thinking. Neanderthal thinking is not a good thing because Neanderthals went extinct because of their thinking. We should be focused on Homo sapien thinking and the evolution of human intelligence. And I'd ask you if you need to know the distinctions between Cro-Magnons and Homo sapiens and Neanderthals. There's a great book out there called Sapiens. Yes, you may you may want to read.

But the bottom line is that we don't want Neanderthal thinking. But because the Republicans have no ideas and it's all just let's go against whatever democrats are saying because we have no plan whatsoever as the gqp the gqp and republicans have now gone on a pro neanderthal well they are for neanderthal they are for neanderthals they're trying so hard to make this their new deplorables moment like they they we this fight so bad. They're embracing Neanderthals. And I'm not joking about this. Play the clip of Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn.

Is Tennessee guilty of Neanderthal thinking, Senator? Well, Stuart, we were called Neanderthals when I led the fight against imposition of a state income tax in Tennessee. So you know what I did? I started the Neanderthal caucus because Neanderthals are hunter gatherers. They're protectors of their family. They are resilient. They're resourceful. They tend to their own. So I think Joe Biden needs to rethink what he is saying about the states that are choosing to move away from these mask mandates. They're also dead and extinct. That was the stupidest fucking comment I've ever heard.

That was the dumbest fucking thing ever. In a sea of stupid people, Marsha Blackburn might be one of the dumbest people in the Senate. I don't even know what to say. It is baffling. But here's what I do want to say. And I gave a reference earlier in this pod to the movie Idiocracy. And I think I'm going to text you a clip now, Brett, that I want you to play of idiocracy that I was watching earlier. And the setup of idiocracy is that the evolution of Americans over time is such that they lose all legitimate thinking because all the smart people don't reproduce and the only people who reproduce are dumb people. And so by the time you hit 2,300, Americans don't know what to do. And even though

Americans have ample access to water, which would save their lives and allow them to farm all of the crops that they want, they are using Gatorade or a Gatorade-like substance because the corporation owns the Gatorade to water the crops. So the crops never water. People are getting sick when they have vast reserves of water to save them right now. And I feel like that's such an incredible analogy to the fact that we have vaccines. There's a clear path. We should be against COVID. We should be for mask wearing. And at the same time, the GQP is basically for large gatherings, no masks, no vaccines, anti-science. Listen to this clip from Idiocracy and tell me this doesn't just sound like the Marsha Blackburn interview we just played. I'm pretty sure what's killing the crops is this Brondo stuff.

The Brondo's got what plants crave. It's got electrolytes. So wait a minute. What you're saying is that you want us to put water on the crops. Yes. Water. Like out the toilet? Well, I mean, it doesn't have to be out of the toilet, but yeah, that's the idea.

But Brondo's got what plants crave. It's got electrolytes. Okay, look. The plants aren't growing, so I'm pretty sure that the Brondo's not working. Now, I'm no botanist, but I do know that if you put water on plants, they grow. Well, I've never seen no plants grow out of no toilet. Idiocracy. Have you never seen Idiocracy, Jordy? I haven't, and I'm too embarrassed to admit it

because we've spoken about it so much that that's why I'm always silent and just nodding my head. No, no, no, you can admit it. It's very funny. I only saw it just recently, like a few months ago, but my whole thing behind it is like, we're somehow dumber than idiocracy. Like we're far dumber than idiocracy ever was. Like they couldn't have even predicted. I watched that. And I was like, I wish America, it was the American idiocracy because what we're in right now, this is some stupid shit we're going through. I wish too. And when we get back, I want to talk more about some idiocracy stuff like the GQP whining about Dr. Seuss, Mr. Potato Head's genitalia. These are real things that are on the GQP's agenda. But when we get back first before all of those great things, I am honored to bring Ali

Velshi onto the Midas Touch podcast to talk about the state of journalism and how we combat disinformation. When we come back, Ali Velshi. Welcome back to the Midas Touch podcast, joined by Ali Velshi, host of Velshi Saturday and Sunday mornings from 8 to 10 p.m. Eastern and the last word on Friday. Ali Velshi, thank you for joining the Midas Touch podcast. It is my pleasure to be with you. So I want to go back to September 2020, you have the Donald Trump rally in Minnesota, and he gives you the call out by name in an experience that you had that was very traumatic. I mean, he says, I remember this guy, Belchi. He got hit with a canister of tear gas. He went down my knee, my knee, he shouted. And Trump said it was the most beautiful thing.

Of course, you responded to it. What law did I break? But as we sit here and reflect on the election, there is a crowd of people cheering him on. Yeah. As he says this, we see how he energized that crowd to attack the Capitol building. Now, reflecting back on what happened there to attack the Capitol building now. Reflecting back on what happened there and at the Capitol building, what is it, knowing that you were a target of that vitriol, of that violence directed at you, what do you

say to that crowd? What do you say to those people who are there like a WWE audience cheering him on? So it was surreal for a few reasons. First of all, I don't typically watch Donald Trump rallies, and we don't cover them generally on MSNBC. Sometimes we would cover something that he would say was specific. But in real time, I didn't know what was going on at those rallies. And it started to, I would see it on references on Twitter, and a couple people texted me to tell me, wow, he's talking about you. And I didn't

really know who the he was. And so I looked it up and I realized that he was telling this strange tale, which is certainly more interesting than what really happened in Minnesota. He was talking about a particular day in Minnesota in which I got struck not by a gas canister, but by a rubber bullet. And it was on TV. So it's one of those things that's so typically Donald Trump to say something contrary to what there was actually proof about. And I was on TV and I actually said, oh shit, I'm hit. And I grabbed my knee and the cameraman who had his camera focused on the police moved to me quickly to sort of confirm what had happened visually and realized, well, you know what had his camera focused on the police, moved to me quickly to sort of confirm what had happened visually and realized, well, you know what, they're still shooting. So I'm going to get off of Valley and go back and look at it. Didn't go down. There was

no such thing. We stayed on camera for, we stayed on and reported for hours later. But Donald Trump was implying that I and others were lying about what was going on, saying that there's nothing going on that was serious in Minneapolis, but it was out of control with rioters and violence, and that he brought the National Guard in, and they took care of it, and they swept guys like me aside, and it was all about law enforcement. So my only criticism, because anybody can say anything they want, we've got a First Amendment, is the implication is that I was breaking some law, that law enforcement. So my only criticism, because anybody can say anything they want, we've got a First Amendment, is the implication is that I was breaking some law that law enforcement, it was beautiful that they were enforcing the law. There is no law against reporting on what's going on. And while authorities would often like reporters like me to be enforced, to be

respecting curfews and not being out on the street, it's not what we do. That is just not what we do. There are only two things that journalists should do. One of them is to bear witness. And you cannot bear witness without being there, having your cameras rolling, having your recorders on, having your notepad out. That is bearing witness. And then you hold power to account

in a way that your viewers and listeners and readers cannot do. Well, you cannot hold anybody to account for something that you cannot bear witness to. I had to be there to say, you all opened fire on a crowd that was marching peacefully because I had been with them for probably an hour before it happened, maybe two. Police just came in and opened fire. I bore witness to that so I can challenge the official narrative when it happens. I was doing my job, didn't break any laws. If I did break laws, probably I should be arrested for them. And we can fight those based on whether I did or didn't.

But Donald Trump's story is more interesting. It's not what actually happened. The good or bad news, as you think about it, is that there's nobody at a Trump rally who's ever seen me on TV or knew who I was. He actually went out of his way to describe me, talking about the bald guy shaves his head, gets the wrong network. He always says I'm from CNN. He calls me Velche or Welcher or something like that, which is interesting because I've met Donald Trump a few times. I've interviewed him a few times. He knows exactly who I am. But it's all part of that shtick. Devalue the media, delegitimize them, get your people all whipped up so that they only believe you and they trust no one else. And guess what? Sort of worked for them. In terms of bearing witness, a common thread throughout your career is you've been in the field, right? From whether it was the turnaround,

speaking to small businesses, whether in election cycles, they have you out, you know, in the field or whether it was here in Minnesota, speaking to people. So as you've toured the country, you know, in the 2000s to now, what is happening out there, though, that allows something like a Trump, a Trumpism that we have now to take hold? What are you seeing out there as you're speaking to Americans across this country? I think there are two or three root causes to it. One of them, and again, I'm formerly an economics reporter, right? So that's where my mind always goes to economics. And I see a world that is increasingly growing disparate, right?

The rich are getting richer. Fewer people hold a lot of wealth, depending on who you listen to. I think Oxfam comes out with a study every year, and it's like the five richest people in the world have as much wealth as the bottom half of the world. Well, America's not flatter than the world. It's actually an exaggerated example of that. We have the richest people in the world and some of the poorest. And so people feel left out of the economic system, which they witness on TV or they see elsewhere. They see this world that is getting richer, and they're right. All measures of the economy are bigger. GDP is bigger. Corporate profitability is bigger. The stock market is bigger. People's

home prices get bigger. So if you're not participating in this, you get angry. And the anger is legitimate, and there are real economic reasons you get angry. And the anger is legitimate, and there are real economic reasons to be angry. But boy, is it easy when you're angry for someone to point at someone. And in our country, we point at refugees, and we point at Blacks, and we point at gays, and sometimes we point at women, and these days we point at Asians. We point at everybody except the people who should have the finger pointed at them. And that is policymakers who do not allow for us to share properly in our wealth. OK, so that's my big spiel about its inequality. But then there's there are other things.

And it's misinformation that really is the other thing, because in addition to politicians pointing you in different directions, the Internet gives you garbage. And I'm a big fan of the Internet. I'm a big fan of the internet. I'm a big fan of social media. And I think it is really helpful to people. But it also gives people easy to comprehend garbage that are excuses for things that are more complicated and going on in society. And so I love nothing more than being out in America. And as you said, I've been doing it for many, many years. I did it at CNN. When there were elections, I got on a bus and I rode around the country on the election bus. Now I do it. I've been out almost every week for the last year. But I am encountering people with whom

we don't have discussions about health care. We don't have discussions about minimum wage and whether it should be $10 or $12 or $15. We have discussions about whether my information is wrong. So when I say, hey, how do you think Donald Trump's, how come you're telling me Donald Trump's doing a good job with coronavirus? We're 4% of the world's population, but 20% of the world's cases. We're 4% of the world's population, but 20% of the world's deaths. In what way do you think that success? And they'd say to me, your information's wrong. Educated people, people who live in the world, that's not a policy discussion.

So that's part of what's going on. People believe the BS that used to be confined to the Thanksgiving table. Now it's all around us all the time and you can actually push out the real news and just consume the BS. But talking about that BS, what obligations do you see as morning hosts in giving platforms, though, to certain people putting out that BS on morning shows? I think you do a good

job in pushing back. But there are other shows on related networks and unrelated networks where you see some of these big live people there. What do you think? I'm the biggest free speech guy I know. I believe in freedom of speech. I believe that our spaces like mine and yours are arenas to compete in terms of ideas. You don't have to give platforms to a liars who are deliberately misleading people. I'm entirely happy to give platforms to people whose views are the opposite of what my viewers are if they are prepared to put forward an honest evaluation and argument. But we have liars. We have people who just lie. And I don't think we need to do that. We have people carrying on about how they're being canceled, except they're on Fox all the time, or they're on the floor of the United States Senate,

or they're writing op-eds in major newspapers. That's not being canceled. And it's actually dangerous because there are countries that really cancel people and they go to jail and they die. That's what canceling is. That's what we actually have to be careful for. We don't have any obligation to put liars on our air, nor should we. Now, there are instances where the lie is so big and significant that there probably is an obligation to cover it so that people who don't subscribe to that lie know why their neighbors might be thinking it, or they might be out there. And I struggle, by the way, when it comes to regular people, because I'm out in the streets talking to people every week. And I don't know what I do when somebody is a victim of those

lies and tells them to me. Am I supposed to push back and argue with them or am I supposed to give voice to them because of their opinions? But purveyors of those lies, politicians and media people who are purveyors of those lies do not have any, I have no obligation to give them space, nor do I want to. One of the criticisms that we've seen and that we've got, and when we've sort of pushed, you know, the media in that direction and said, why are we platforming these people on these shows? Is people said, what, do you want the media to be activists for the Democratic Party? And to me, I'm like, no, I don't want them to be activists for the party, but I do think the media should be activists for democracy, for small d democracy.

I mean, what do you think the media's role is in 2021? Absolutely right. We absolutely should be activists for democracy. We absolutely should take strong positions against certain things. We take strong positions against hurricanes and homicide. We believe those things are bad, right? And we want people to mitigate for them. And we want to warn people that they're coming. And we want people to do the things that keep them safe. It's the same thing about lies on the internet. It's the same thing about people,

right to vote being curtailed. It's also the same thing about free speech being curtailed. I don't think that there's any conflict there. I am not a water carrier for the Democratic Party. I'm not a member of the Democratic Party. And I will hold a Democratic president to account to the degree that is necessary. Now, someone says, are you going to do the same thing that you did with Trump? No, because I don't think Joe Biden is going to cause me to fact check his lies on a several time a day basis that Donald Trump did. But if he does lie, he'll get fact checked. If he does lie, he'll get held

to account. If their policies don't make sense, we'll push them on it. And I've already done so in the early days of the Biden administration. In the Obama administration, when they came out with that Recovery Act, the Stimulus Act, I spent weeks with a team of people phoning the people who received money for an act that was meant to create jobs to ask them whether they created any jobs with their money. Some did, some didn't. The White House hated it. They called my bosses at CNN to ask me to stop doing it. And I said, I don't work for you guys. Not your PR arm. I'm just you said you're creating jobs with taxpayer money. I'm just checking if you created jobs with taxpayer money. That's all. I'll still tell you, I think they did the right thing, but my job is to hold power to account. Same thing. I was phoning people. That was the bearing

of witness. And I was holding them to account by going on TV saying, hey, I called these 10 businesses. Not a single one of them has created a job with the money. They're doing interesting things. So we must not be water carriers for any political party, but we should be water carriers for the truth. We should be water carriers for democracy, and we should be activists for both of those things. And do you think authoritarianism is a real threat to America right now? What an amazing question, because if you had asked me this question a few years ago, I would have thought it was a stupid question. I come from a family of political people and activists. My grandfather was the youngest student at Gandhi's school.

My parents were anti-apartheid activists. It's why they had to leave South Africa. My father ran for office and was the first person of South Asian descent elected anywhere in Canada to a major office. I never thought I would be living in a place where democracy itself was threatened. I just didn't. I thought the beauty of these pluralistic democratic societies is that people get elected, other people get elected, it's fine. The airports don't change names, the schools, the roads don't change names. It's not like the places from which I have come. Democracy itself is at least safe. And now what I've witnessed tells me democracy itself could be imperiled. And that we have obligations as individuals to protect it, not institutional obligations, individual obligations to protect democracy. And as a journalist, the obligation is even greater. So yes, that's why I think I'm an activist about this. Again, a few years ago, if you had asked me, I would have said I'm an activist about nothing. I'm a journalist. All

I'm here to do is tell you the news. I'm not. I've got to bear witness to, in this particular case, the attack on democracy. And then we've got to hold people who will attack that democracy to account. Or we've got to hold our authorities who control power to account to say, are you taking this into account? Are you watching what's going on in the legislatures in Arizona, in Iowa, in Georgia, in Pennsylvania, where they are working to actively take away the right that every single one of us thought we grew up with in this country, the enshrined God-given right to participate in a democracy and have our vote counted. That very thing is currently under threat. So many people now are getting their news off of a Facebook post or a Twitter post, just reading the quick headline

and then going with it and spreading lies that they might not even know that they're spreading the lie. What advice would you give to our listeners to ensure that they're not spreading misinformation? So I think you're really right about the not knowing part. I interviewed people, you know, every week I'd go and I'd try and split my group of people. I'd interview six people at a time in a panel and a few of them would be Republicans and a few of them would be Democrats and a few were independents. Very hard to find independents in the last election. But I had people telling me when I'd say, why are you voting for Donald Trump? And they'd say, because I'm against pedophilia. It's like, I think we all are here. That's not actually a part of the thing. But if you asked them if they were QAnon people, I'm sure they would say, absolutely

not. I don't know. QAnon is nonsense. So they were seeing things and seeing things in social media and having conversations that were fed by conspiracy theories that they didn't even know were conspiracy theories. So when you think about that guy who went and shot up that pizza parlor outside of DC to rescue the kids from Hillary Clinton's, you know, child sex cabal, person had a good heart. He actually thought he was going to save children. Like he was, he was going to do a good thing for society. It was all based on lies and someone could have died, but he thought he was doing something good. And this is, I don't know how you solve for this one. If you look at the QAnon forums online, and I was on Parler, I'm still on Parler, but it's not an app anymore. I was on Parler. I could see the stuff

people were talking about before January 6th, and they meant it with all their heart. They really believed it. So I would say to your listeners who may not be part of the problem, authorities can find where I am because of my cell phone. Because in order to get a cell call, you generally have to ping off of three towers. And as you know, if you know three places in three points in space, you know with accuracy where you are. I like to employ that technique with news, with information, triangulate it. If you find a fascinating story about something you can't imagine to have been true and only this little outlet is reporting it, if it were out there that there was a child sex ring in a pizza parlor in D.C., someone else would have covered it. Like it actually would

have been out there. Just check, you know, even if you're a conservative and you don't really want to watch MSNBC, check somewhere else, find two other places that have it and make sure it's not all the same source of information. Just triangulate a little bit to make sure before you spread garbage that you know what it is. Headline writing is very effective. I'm not particularly good at it, but the people who write Instagram blurbs and Twitter blurbs are very effective. And people click on things and they send it. There's this nice new little thing on Twitter that says, do you want to read this thing before you post it? Yeah, read the thing before you post it. It's some basic Internet information hygiene we need to practice.

And I'm with you. I've talked to people who I respect, who I think are very smart, who are highly educated, who have said to me, I know I can't vote for Democrats because of their pedophiles and X, Y, and Z. And I'm like, where are you getting this stuff from? I think that vilification is brutal right now in American politics. I know you were kind of saying you don't even necessarily know how to handle it, but how do we handle it? How does MSNBC attack disinformation that's coming at you on a daily basis from 4chan, 8chan? How does MSNBC work to combat that? Because the disinformation spreads at such a rapid speed that it's hard to even get the truth out before it gets around the world.

How does MSNBC handle it? How can Midas Touch handle it as our organization? Just how do we kind of proceed in this world? So I think there are several ways that one can do it and there are several ways we're doing it. So first of all, we've employed very rigorous video verification techniques. So user-generated content now has to go through our verification team. They're very effective and they're very fast and they can quickly tell us this is altered video. This is not what it purports to be. They will find the original person who posted it on social media, or if a third party posted it, they'll find them, talk to them. So video verification is really important because

imagery matters more than most stuff. And you'll see these things that go around the internet and we'll get a notice immediately from MSNBC or from NBC to say, do not post this video. Do not circulate it. It's going through. It's old. It's out of date. It's not what it purports to be. It's from 16 years ago, whatever the case is.

So video verification becomes one of those things. Then we have what I call our swamp dwellers. So we have two journalists, Brandy Zabrosny and Ben Collins at MSNBC, who dwell in the swamp. They are on all these forums and in all these chat groups, and they are able to give us some trend of what's going on, what's happening in that world, because it might just explode into our world suddenly. Increasingly, the world between conspiracy theory and the real world are blurring, right? It used to be just crazy stuff

that maybe you heard from your crazy uncle at Thanksgiving. Now it's all out there. And we're understanding the way in which it gets all out there. So it ends up, it starts up on one of these 8chan things, and then it would make it maybe to Rush Limbaugh's show, rest in peace, then it would go somewhere else. It launders it, right?

There's a way of laundering bad information that it ends up on Fox. Nobody really thought Fox is gonna be the purveyor of absolute conspiracy theories until they were. So now we've got this thing where maybe these voting machine companies are gonna be the ones that help clean this up because they're suing them all for so much money that it actually matters that you just can't get on tv and spread lies and i think the final thing that that we can do

is we can be deliberate about talking to our audience about misinformation which i've certainly embraced on my show whether it's with Brandy and Ben or other reporters or with Roger McNamee or Sinan Iral from MIT, the people who really study or Jennifer Greigel, you know, there are experts out there who study this academically. There are researchers, they understand the trends. So just letting lay people like my parents who are viewers understand how this comes to be. And in all of these ways, what ends up happening is your listener and my viewer become a little more sophisticated about how they may be targeted by this or how they can explain to their neighbor or their friend, you know, you're being taken, right? This is not really true.

Because part of it is protecting yourself, the hygiene that I'm talking about, part of it is not spreading it, because it's misinformation when you get it, it's disinformation when you spread it, right? It becomes deliberate. And then the third part is how do you push back on people who have it with authority? How do you actually say to your friend, because I'm the same as everybody else, I get texts from people with stories. And I just say, let me, I'll get the description of the organization that posted the story and send it to them and say, maybe you should do a little research. You think about these things.

Perfect example, by the way, I'm sorry to talk so much. I slept very well last night. You know, the Trump stuff led to a viral clip of me that was going around, a 20-second clip of me in front of a fire in Minneapolis, explaining that this was mostly a peaceful round. It was 20 seconds out of several hours of my TV in which I thought to myself, you know, I just want to make sure the viewer doesn't think Minneapolis is burning down. There's five fires on my block, which I was articulating and enumerating. But I wanted to make the note that this is actually most of the people here are peaceful.

It's very easy to build five fires. And there are some people who are doing that kind of stuff. But most people protesting the death of George Floyd are peaceful. That's the thing that's ricocheting around the internet. It made it to CPAC last week. It made it to the floor of Congress. Everybody uses it all the internet. It made it to CPAC last week. It made it to the floor of Congress. Everybody uses it all the time. So I have published a column and a piece on TV where I've provided the context.

So just this morning, some other crazy right-winger posted the thing, and I just posted my column right back. I said, read this. If you want to get into it with me, I'm happy to do so, but actually read this, then we'll talk. They didn't get back to me. Ali, I want to get back to you on something. And I have a great show idea for us to do together. So the show is called Swamp Dwellers. And it involves those two people whose whole day is to live on those message boards.

It just follows their life. You see them at the bar shooting, having a shot of whiskey after talking about, oh shit, you know what I just went through today? We pitch it to Showtime, HBO Max, me and you executive producer. Are you in? As kids and like, it's like, how do you live in this world and then go back to your normal family?

Like where everybody's not actually lying to you all the time and not full of conspiracy theories. The kids just want to, you know, a nice dinner. I think it's brilliant. I'm buying it. I'm buying it. If Ali buying it. If Ali's in. Ali, are you in? We'll do a soft pitch. If this clip goes viral, we're doing the show. Ali Velshi, thank you for spending the time today

on Midas Touch Podcast. Catch the Ali Velshi Show, Velshi, Saturday and Sunday mornings, 8 to 10 Eastern. Thank you so much for joining the Midas Touch Podcast. Absolutely my pleasure. It's not America. It's not America. Thank you so much for joining the Midas Touch Podcast. Absolutely my pleasure. Welcome back to the Midas Touch Podcast. Great interview with Ali Velshi.

As we talk about some of the key pieces of legislation that the Democrats... First, Ben, I got to say, you're looking good over there today, man. You do look good, man. Are you drinking more water? Are you drinking more tea? Is it the new location that you're shooting the podcast? The carrots? What's going on?

You seem a little more upbeat, a little more energetic. You got a glow about you. Do you guys know about the carrots? Did I talk about the carrots? You can't stop talking about the carrots. We got Bugs Benny over here. Yeah, Bugs Benny. We haven't stopped hearing about him.

You guys know all about the carrots, really. I totally forgot. Did I mention my carrot? Yeah, Bugs Benny. We did a whole thing. I can't talk if you're kidding. Someone did a whole meme about you as Bugs Benny. But did that arise from the fact that I talked about all the carrots I've been eating lately?

Yes, yes, yes. Because you burped in everyone's ear last episode. And then you blamed it on carrots, which I don't think carrots make you burp. But that was the thing that you said. So. Wow. No, I'm very well rested. No, it's not the carrots. It's one fresh pillow. I got the people, you know, the one fresh pillow couple who came on. Yeah. They were the greatest couple ever. So they sent me a pillow, two pillows, actually. And I am just telling you, it's got this like memory foam. It's just unbelievable. Ben can't stop talking about pillows. This is a lot of pillows. I love one French pillow. I don't know if I'm describing right, but by day two and three, I've never had a more comfortable sleep in my life.

All right. So anyway, I still have Brett's one fresh pillow in the office and I gotta give it to you. Yes, I would really like it. Please do not steal it. I love it. They're a great couple. Enough pillow talk, great pillows.

Let's move on to the important issues of the day of the week. As we mentioned earlier, the Dems are furiously passing legislation and the Republicans are talking about Dr. Seuss and Mr. Potato Head's genitalia. It's a very confusing time in America. I am so impressed right now by what the House Democrats are doing. It seems like every day it's like the House Democrats pass this and they pass that and they pass this too. And I'm like, they're doing so much. HR1, the For the People Act just passed. I mean, this is the biggest set of voting reform since the Voting Rights Act of 1965. And it does everything that all Americans should agree on. It increases election security, which Republicans claim to care about, but they really are talking about suppressing the vote.

It expands vote by mail and makes election day a federal holiday, requires states to offline same day voter registration, an automatic voter registration system, requires states to offer early voting, prohibits voter roll purges, eliminates partisan gerrymandering. These are all common sense voting reforms that would make voting much more accessible to more people. So naturally, the GQP is against more people voting. Not only that, the Dems passed the American Rescue Plan, which is the COVID relief bill, as we discussed earlier. And of course, the GQP is against it. Of course, they're against COVID relief for people. The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act,

which tell me how any of this sounds controversial to you. The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which tell me how any of this sounds controversial to you. The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act bans chokeholds at the federal level. It prohibits no-knock warrants in federal drug cases. It outlaws racial profiling and overhauls qualified immunity for police officers and more. So naturally, I feel like it's like a refrain. And the GQP is against it. If we had the live audience, when we have the live audience here. Join in on the chant. Join in.

You could say, and the GQP is against it. If you're listening while you're running or you're walking or in your living room or in your car, are you ready? One, two, three. The GQP is against. There was one who voted for it. Turned out. By accident. By accident.

What the fuck does that even mean? He voted for the Justice and Policing Act. This, I don't even know his name, but he's a representative and then took to Twitter immediately to say, I made a mistake. I was accidentally not racist, but I changed my vote.

Don't worry, I changed it. Please, Republicans, don't get mad at me. And let me just break down quickly for people to know what qualified immunity is. What basically qualified immunity says is that if a police officer does the wrong thing, but what the police officer does is wrong, is viewed as a reasonable mistake that the police officer makes based on what other police officer mistakes would be made, then the police can get off the hook if it's deemed basically to be a reasonable mistake. I'm somewhat oversimplifying the doctrine, but that's basically is in every other area of law. If you're negligent, if you make a mistake, if you do something wrong, you're held accountable. You don't say, well, would someone else like Ben make that same mistake

in that circumstance? Well, if so, let's let Ben off. Ben gets free for that. That's not the way the law works, but for police officers, that's what it works. And oftentimes police officers, yeah, I shot that person, but other cops would see somebody reaching for their waistband and say, hey, I think that that's a gun. So I made a reasonable mistake. I was able to shoot him. That's what qualified immunity is in a nutshell, oversimplified. But that's why we need to overhaul that, because if you do the things that are wrong, you should be held accountable for things, things that are wrong. You shouldn't set a precedent that it's OK if you get away with it.

Like that shouldn't be what happens. Yeah. The Equality Act is something introduced by the Democrats in Congress, extending civil rights protections to the LGBTQ plus community, of course. And the Republican GQP are against. Yes, yes. I hear you now at home. I hear you saying it, even though you're not with me. I hear you saying the GQP is against. Very good.

Good work out there. I could be like that. You know, I'm like the Peloton instructor. Yes. Come on. Let's go. You got this. The GQP is turn up the cadence. Let's go. Let's do this. We got 10 more minutes together. We got 10 more minutes together. All right. I want to talk to you about Britney Spears. Free Britney. You know, you see the guy on the Peloton. Yeah. There's the one guy who always goes viral for just being ridiculous. Ridiculous pro-Britney. And then of course, the GQP is focused on

a decision by a private company, Dr. Seuss Enterprise, to stop publishing certain books that have racial undertones and that are inappropriate and were written at a time where some racial epitaphs and racial stereotypes should never have been profiled that way. And they're reflecting on mistakes they made back then and saying, you know what? These books were wrong. We shouldn't put those out there. And the GQP is for, is for, let's have the racial stereotypes of Dr. Seuss. That's what they're fighting for. If you spent the last week watching Fox News and God bless you, if that's how you spend your weeks. But if you spent the last week doing that, you would think that Joe Biden himself went to like the halls of Congress,

held a State of the Union and said, Dr. Seuss is canceled. And if you like and read Dr. Seuss, then you're going to prison. When a private company decided that six of their, probably their least famous books, I hadn't heard of any of the books that they were even taking off the shelves. And I'm sure none of these conservatives or GQP had heard of them prior to this for them to make their own private decision and act like this is liberals doing something. And meanwhile, the one thing that they neglect to show on all the Tucker Carlson coverage and stuff, they never show the actual racist photos from the book, which are pretty

bad. They're really racist. Yeah, they're terrible. And they always show like cat in the hat and they go, they want to cancel cat in the hat. It's like, no, no, no. If you, if you want to stand by your beliefs that you think the Dr. Seuss enterprises shouldn't have done this, show the picture, show the real picture, show the actual, show the actual picture and then defend it. That's what I want to see, Tucker show the actual photo and defend it. And once again, this is not Joe Biden. This is not liberals. You're still allowed to read Dr. Seuss, obviously. But this is another distraction like Potato Head and like the Muppets. And Brett, that's what while the insurrection hearings, and I'm not sure if you watch the

insurrection hearings. I watched them. I was I was glued to the TV with these hearings. And CNN was playing a live MSNBC. Almost every other major news was cutting to it live, except Fox News. And Fox News was literally, I insurrectionists, of domestic terrorism, the party that attacked America's capital. It's to distract you from the fact that they're trying to take away your healthcare. It's to distract you from the fact that they don't want to give you COVID relief and that they have no discernible policies or platforms and their allegiance is just to one crazy man. That's why they highlight this

cancel culture all the time because they don't have ideas. And when you don't have ideas, you have to rile up your base with bullshit. And that's what they do by going after fake, they make up fake enemies, Dr. Seuss. They go after the Muppets, which is now on the most popular platform of all time, Disney Plus. Somehow that was canceling the Muppets, which is now on the most popular platform of all time, Disney Plus. Somehow that was canceling the Muppets because they put a disclaimer before some of their racially sensitive episodes. Meanwhile, they're like the biggest proponents of cancel culture on the planet. I mean, Ben, I mean, as Colin Kaepernick's attorney, I'm sure you are aware of what they

did to Kaepernick for him voicing his First Amendment rights. Yeah, the president of the United States for someone peacefully protesting says, get that son of a bitch off the field. That's the president using government power to attack a citizen of that's cancel culture. You want to talk about that's what Ali Velshi said. When you want to talk about, you know, what true cancel culture is, it is countries where the government and

authoritarian presidents use government power to attack private individuals. That is true cancel culture. Matt McDermott on Twitter probably showed the greatest side-by-side in the history of Twitter of two tweets by this Republican running for Congress, I guess, or maybe he did run for Congress. I don't even know who this guy is, Tom Norton. But on the one hand, this was at 7.51 p.m. on March 2nd. He said, the government cannot take my Goya beans, my Mr. Potato Head, my Dr. Seuss. This is a real person who wants to run for office. My Dr. Seuss books or my AR-15.

Come and take it. This is America. I'll eat my green eggs and ham on Christmas and drive my pickup truck if I want to. Enough cancel culture. Jeez Louise, the victim culture over here is strong in Tom Norton. And then literally no less than 24 hours, the same guy in response to the fact that Target said that despite the rule changes in Texas, that in their private business, they were going to still require that their customers wear masks when inside their stores. He goes, boycott Target. Boycott. It's like, these people, man. Their brains are literally broken.

And it's simply sad. Like, you don't give them a pass because they're ridiculous and they're dangerous, but their brains are literally broken. And it's simply sad. You don't give them a pass because they're ridiculous and they're dangerous, but their brains are broken. And you got to look no further than Fox News. I mean, Ben, what the hell can we do, man? I think what you proposed a few weeks back, they have to change their name from news. If you argue in legal court cases that you're not a news network, you shouldn't be allowed to have news in your name. You're an entertainment station. There's got to be some disclaimer. What about the electrolytes, Jordy? What about the electrolytes? For the party that acts like, oh, we're against government control,

we're for small government. It sure seems like they want the government to encroach on private business a whole lot by telling Target what to do, by telling Disney what to do. Don't act like you're the party of small government and don't try to throw around the term of socialism when you're the ones trying to bend corporate America to your will. Going to the insurrection hearings, FBI Director Christopher Wray spoke this week, he said very clearly and unequivocally, this was in fact, classic domestic terrorism taking place. Amy Klobuchar, when she asked Jill Sanborn, who was another witness, she's the assistant director of counterterrorism at the FBI, if you would describe in any way the atmosphere at any point in time as festive

on January 6th, Jill Sanborn stated, absolutely not. I just want to play that clip quickly. Do you think there were some very serious violent people involved in this insurrection? 100%. A lot of officers were injured and a lot of damage was done. And would you describe the atmosphere as festive? Absolutely not. Yeah. And that goes directly to Johnson. It goes to Hawley. It goes to all these people. And I thought this was festive. And of course, the Hawleys and the Johnsons and the Cruzes are just gaslighting because they were aiding and abetting. And that was a video that we did because it seemed

like the Hawleys and the Cruzes, it seemed like they wanted to know if they were being geofenced in terms of what information. So if you were to have data on people who are in touch with the insurrectionists, what kind of data would you have? I'm asking for a friend, all right? I have a friend. Listen, it's not me. Listen, it's not for me. But I'm asking for a friend. Say hypothetically, I had a friend who was in the area of the insurrection talking to the president. I don't know the the insurrection is how much information would you have? Would you have actually what the texts are? Would you would you have recordings of the calls? Tell me. I need to know. What do you know? Just hypothetically, why don't you just tell me, FBI Director Wray, please tell me.

FBI Director Wray made it very clear that this was not Antifa. There was no Black Lives Matter protesters, that these were 100% domestic terrorists who were Trump supporters who were there at the behest of Donald Trump. And he said they used very similar tactics to ISIS, which is what Malcolm Nance said on our show recently. And it's what we've been saying. It's like homegrown domestic terrorism that is very similar to the tactics of ISIS. And I've said this online before, and I've had some backlash for some of my tweets saying, oh, you're being hyperbolic. You are exaggerating. And I said, look, the head of the FBI, the director of the FBI is acknowledging that this is the extent of the problem. When I say it, I'm not saying it to be hyperbolic. I'm not saying it to be provocative, but we have to call it out for what it is. It's a danger to America. I personally am more scared of these domestic terrorists because they're in

my backyard than I ever was of ISIS attacking me. And we also learned that acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller, who was installed by the Trump administration in the waning months of the presidency, delayed the deployment of the National Guard by at least five hours. And it appeared, based on all of the questioning and answers that, you know, what we all suspected that it was, you know, basically done intentionally because this was the plan. The plan was to have these insurrectionists attack the Capitol building and try to delay the certification of the vote. And so Chris Miller was likely taking orders from Donald Trump, who was glued to the TV and watching it, although Trump was asked recently if he saw it. And now he

lied and claims he wasn't watching it on TV. But it just goes to show you, you know, you have a party, this GQP, this wacko, crazy psycho party, you know, they're against law enforcement. They're against the FBI. I mean, this is a this is the FBI speaking. And all these Republican senators want to do is attack them for calling out domestic terrorists against the United States. I wonder where Howley, I wonder where Cruz, I wonder where Johnson would have been in Oklahoma City, in the Oklahoma City bombing. In fact, Howley was one of the people who actually defended, it's funny you say that, defended the Oklahoma City bomber. If you look at his history, it was a writing that he wrote early on in his career, defending Oklahoma City. So if you want to know where this guy is, he's who he's been this entire time. And look, I want to wrap this up on a positive note, though, because we got to talk about Flynn briefly, though, that Michael Flynn's brother was involved in the decision making behind

the National Guard on the day. This is what General Walker testified of the other day, that General Charles Flynn and Pyatt, and they were concerned about the optics of sending in the National Guard to help out the situation at the Capitol. What optics were they concerned about? They were probably concerned about the idea of the National Guard tear gassing or trying to get rid of Trump supporters, of MAGA people. I'll go one worse. We have General Michael. Well, I want to call him general. We have felon Michael Flynn at the White House days before and weeks before planning. And then his brother is one of the people responsible for not having

the National Guard where they need to be. Come on. Michael Flynn calling for martial law. I'm not going to say that just because they're brothers means that what Michael Flynn does, Charles Flynn does. I don't think that would be fair for us to be responsible for each other's actions. But- Is that a shot of my OnlyFans account? It's a little bit of a shot of your OnlyFans account. But it is very troubling that Charles Flynn was in charge and that the White House lied about it and said that he was not working on this that day. Extremely troubling. I think it's a storyline to watch and it's just a hunch. I have no inside information, but I think the Flynn story,

I think Michael Flynn might be a guy who got pardoned and gets arrested again and gets put in prison again. And I think his brother possibly will be joining him. And I think we should look out for indictments in the future around this case. Look, it's one of the things, though, that these types of hearings would, again, thank you, Georgia, because these types of hearings would never be taking place ever under a GQP run Senate. These are questions that we need answered as a country. Are we being attacked by domestic terrorists based on what the FBI is saying? And not only does the GQP not give a shit if we're being attacked, but they seem to support it. They are the ones aiding and abetting

it. And again, as we spoke to Ali Velshi, as we spoke time and time again on this podcast, we all have to be zealous advocates and fighters for democracy, pro-democracy, small d democracy, doesn't see political parties. It simply sees the saving and the health of our democracy as a nation, as the United States of America. That is something that Midas touched, that myself, Brett, and Jordi fight for every day, most throughout the day. Me and Brett do it the whole day, and Jordi spends about 75% of the time fighting for it and 25% of the time on OnlyFans or whatever websites Jordan you're on. Thank you for listening to this edition of the Midas Touch podcast. I'm Ben Micellis. You've heard me, Brett Micellis and Jordan Micellis. New episodes every Tuesday,

every Friday morning. Thank you for making the Midas Touch podcast one of the top podcasts in North America. Until next time. Shout out to the Midas Mighty.