The MeidasTouch Podcast - Combating the Radical Right with Fred Guttenberg

Episode Date: January 29, 2021

The first week of the Joe Biden presidency is in the books! The Meidas Brothers kick off the show by revealing the elaborate ways they used to tease each other as kids. Next, the brothers break down the many accomplishments of President Joe Biden just one week in. The brothers discuss their latest initiatives to hold the insurrectionists accountable and bring you up-to-date on all things impeachment. They then move on to discuss the utterly depraved state of the GOP. Next, Fred Guttenberg, an activist against gun violence who lost his daughter Jaime in the Parkland shooting, joins the show to discuss the need for gun reform and the obstruction by the radical right. The brothers finish the show by discussing some absurdities in the news, like the fact that Mike Pence is homeless and couch surfing, and nutjobs who pretend to be Muslim and wear hijabs in order to avoid wearing masks. Really weird stuff.  Buy Fred Guttenberg's book Find The Helpers here. Learn more about Fred's foundation Orange Ribbons for Jaime here. --- 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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welcome to the Midas Touch podcast Ben Mycelcelis here, joined by my younger brothers, the favorite brother, Jordy Mycelis. Congrats, Jordy. And the least favorite, and the least favorite brother, the third, Brad Mycelis. It's just always going to stick with you guys. I just want to say I'm the sleeper pick, though, because the true Midas people know

who actually creates the videos that everybody knows and loves. So every time you see a Midas Touch video and you're the videos that everybody knows and loves. So every time you see a Midas Touch video and you're like, that's a great video, man. That's a vote for Brett as the favorite brother. We all know you're the talent of the group, Brett. Everybody knows that. So for those just listening who didn't listen to the last podcast,

the last podcast, we talked about a poll started by somebody who was Team Ben trying to encourage voters to rally around me as the favorite Midas brother. Jordy ended up winning the poll by overwhelming margins. But Jordy, I've delved deeper into this. I know we throw around the words like rigged, but what you do is really kind of unbelievable. Every morning, Jordy says good morning. I looked at Jordy's replies today. Every morning, Jordy literally says good morning to all 100,000 of his followers.

Those are my people, man. He goes through each one and wishes them good morning each individually. So I have no doubt why Jordy won with that. Well, that's the thing, though. It's what I tell anyone that asks me. People are like, you know, do you even know the people who follow you? I'm like, these relationships aren't artificial.

I genuinely care about every and not saying you guys don't, but I genuinely have an interest in these people's lives. I mean, you must spend hours, Jody, sending these messages. I mean, yeah, you must wake up at 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. and literally do nothing but wish people good mornings and have long involved conversations with people. I got to make sure my people are OK. I've tried to start stepping up my game by waking up in the middle of the night at like 3 a.m. You were disappointed that you lost to send some good morning messages to people.

And like Jordy still called me out in front of everybody, which just gets everybody to love him even more that he's knocking on me. So there's just a no win situation at this point. So everybody knows, though, that if you listen to the Midas Touch podcast, that Brett and I tease Jordy incessantly. So it was kind of a it was a it was a good Disney ass kind of story ending, you know, that the brother who has horrible asthma, the brother who's been picked on his whole life does end up winning the poll at the end of the movie. But for those who kind of want to know, because you hear us, you know, talk, you know, talk to each other about these issues and share these stories about, you know, teasing each other, mostly teasing Geordie. Before Midas Touch was a vehicle, you know, for the making sure we expose Donald Trump, the brothers, when we were growing up, would create incredibly high quality, top level content, exposing Geordie and using our technological prowess to pick on Jordy in ways that like, yeah, you've heard of brothers teasing brothers.

But Brett and I went went in on Jordy way, way over the line. Well, yeah, a lot. So there's this one time just before we get into the news of the day, that's probably worth sharing. Jordy, when he was in high school, Brett was in college. I was in law school. Jordy came back when we were all on break and it appeared from what we saw that Jordy got his first hickey.

What are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing? We talk about all the stories that we're going to tell usually before. What are you doing? You don't, I'm not allowed. I'm going to tell the hickey story

i mean you're the favorite brother this will make your votes go up even more yeah so jordy comes in what appears to be a hickey brett and i start you know cracking up hysterically like jordy is that a hickey you know and jordy's like no it's not a hickey it's not a hickey. So Brett and I, you cry. Jordy was crying. And then Brett and I go into the editing studio and we make an entire musical composition about Jordy's hickey. What? So the fact is, Jordy, we do still have the song and we cut it up.

The full song is like a full three-minute song. We'll play just a minute of it, which is a verse from me and then a verse from Ben. This is the Midas Touch Brothers classic, Give Me a Hickey, inspired by Jordy's hickey. Hey, girl, my name's Jordan. I see you. Oh, my God. I'm having flashbacks.

What are you guys doing? I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you.

I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you.

I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you.

I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you.

I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you. they're pointing right so it's kind of like anyway that was the that was the hit single by Brett and myself. I still remember every word to the song. I could sing the whole song to you, right? You guys teasing. It's so bright and red. It's like lying in. It's so frightening. But it strikes more than once.

This ain't a terrible start. This is what we do for fun. Anyone who's been teased by their siblings, I don't think it's gone this far. Has anyone ever made a song about an embarrassing experience in your life? The fact is, it's a really good song. I think it could have charted. Oh, that could have definitely charted.

We should put out our greatest hits album now that we have Midas Touch. But anyway, we'll save that for another day. What we'll get into today is the news. Not so long ago, the GOP, the party now of terrorism and QAnon, was making all these arguments, sleepy Joe Biden, sleepy Joe. And now as Joe Biden has proceeded in his first week to accomplish more in the first week plus than Donald Trump had in four years. I think they're saying that Sleepy Joe may be doing too much now. Not so sleepy now. What is he, Speedy Joe now? Speedy Joe. Speedy Joe has been accomplishing so much. And you see this

disconnect with the Republican Party. Someone put a side-by-side today of tweets by Marsha Blackburn and obviously in October before the election, she goes, you know, Joe Biden's been in Congress for 47 years, been in politics for 47 years. And what has he accomplished? By the way, if you go to the MidasTouch.com website, we have an article of the multitude of accomplishments that Joe Biden has had throughout his political career. And who's Marsha Blackburn to talk about this? But then she released the tweet just yesterday saying, hold on a second. Why is Joe Biden signing all these executive orders? Make it stop. This is unfair. Not so sleepy anymore, Marsha.

And so let's talk about what Joe Biden has done. Do we have enough time? Do we have enough time on the show to go through the inauguration? I'll go through them really quickly. He's repealed the hateful Muslim ban. He's ended the zero tolerance policy by Trump, which kidnapped children. He's reversed the transgender military ban. He's ordered 200 million more vaccine doses and has already increased the vaccine output to states by approximately 20%. Actually, vaccines are now arriving in states, which was just not happening under Trump. Biden has instituted a federal mask mandate.

He's elevated science. We see Dr. Fauci being able to speak freely. Biden's invoked the Defense Production Act to produce COVID supplies. Biden has ended DOJ contracts with private prisons. The United States has rejoined the World Health Organization. The United States has rejoined the Paris Climate Accords. We've expedited plans to honor Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill. Biden has paused student loan payment and also paused evictions. Biden has defended dreamers. Biden has restored critical ethics rules to government offices. And in foreign policy,

Biden has stood up to Vladimir Putin, something that Donald Trump not only refused to do, but Donald Trump cuddled, coddled, loved, bromance, sold the United States of America out to Vladimir Putin. Ben, would you say that Joe Biden is taking a new tone? Yeah. One of the very strange things, though, is in reference to Biden standing up to Putin, like the article from Politico is written, Biden confronts Russia and Republicans are listening. It's a very weird framing of the issue, because why do we even

care at this point that whether or not Republicans are listening or not? They've foregone any leadership role. And so now we're supposed to care that they're listening. Where were you speaking when Donald Trump basically sold the entire United States of America out as a Soviet Union province. And let me talk about unity for a second, because the media seems so incredibly obsessed with what's Joe Biden doing for Republicans for unity? Why is it always in that direction? Why don't you ask what are the Republicans doing to help achieve unity? Because to me, unity first, we need accountability, but unity is also about getting everybody on the same page as believing in democracy. Democrats have a mandate right now. Let's be clear. Democrats have the House, the Senate, and the White House. Joe Biden won by

millions and millions and millions of votes. Democrats have every right to get their agenda through the Congress and passed into law. That's not going against unity. What's going against unity is attacking the United States of America and all of the institutions. And we should never lower ourselves to their petty demands. And here's what Biden's done with Putin. He confronted Putin during their first phone call this week over Russian activities that were harmful and despicable to the United States of America. Biden confronted Vladimir Putin about Putin putting bounties on the heads of American troops in the Middle East, something Donald Trump didn't even speak about.

Biden confronted Putin about the poisoning of Putin's opposition leader, Alexei Navalny. Biden has confronted Putin about massive cyber attacks led by Russia against the U.S. government. Biden has confronted Russia about all these issues and let them know, unlike Donald Trump, that Vladimir Putin, you are not going to be getting off the hook during these administrations. And one of his first big diplomatic victories already in the Biden administration, he got Vladimir Putin to agree to reengaging on the nuclear start, the Strategic Arms and Reduction Treaty for additional five years, whereas Donald Trump wanted to apparently encourage more nuclear weapons from both the United States and Russia.

I just love it. I love everything Biden's doing. I mean, he's a leader. We've always said this. And now he's just unfucking everything that Trump fucked up. There's actually a great meme going around the Internet where, yeah, there's a bunch of papers on his desk. It's amazing because he's literally doing that. And just thank God, Jordy, that was a moment right there that you just did. I want to call it the Miami Alex moment. Miami Alex, the Twitter follower of Jordy's who Jordy probably wishes good morning, good afternoon, good evening every single day said this about Jordy and it might as touch. Oh my God. I told my mom about you guys. And I was like, you have to see them mom. And the youngest one, that's you, Jordy. The youngest one always looks completely and utterly lost. But when he opens up his mouth, sometimes he knows what he's talking about.

You know, if I told my mama, it's true. Jordy. For clarification, he doesn't say sometimes because when he opens his mouth, he knows what he's talking about. So you add it, you ad-lib the sometimes. And he meant that in like a very nice way. So you relax on my guy, Miami Alex. It was meant as a compliment and I appreciate it.

The reason why I'm so quiet sometimes is I got two older brothers who know what the hell they're talking about. Not to say I don't. And I like to hear them talk. And then I'm going to chime in and come over the top with some color commentary. And that's my role with the team. Another Miami Alex moment there, Jordy. I'm just going to keep calling it Miami Alex moments.

Miami. In addition to Miami Alex Jordy. In addition to confronting Vladimir Putin, Biden is also on a foreign policy front reassessing these horrible arms deals that Trump negotiated, or rather, I wouldn't even say negotiated, completely folded on and gave Saudi Arabia and UAE access to billions of dollars worth of United States weaponry and other war equipment so that Saudi Arabia and UAE could help cause extreme devastation

in the civil war in Yemen. And so we're going to be reassessing those utter bogus contracts that were issued because of Kushner coddling Saudi Arabia. And as we all know, the Prince of Saudi Arabia had previously said that Jared Kushner was in his pocket. Yeah, so not great. I mean, I think the Republican leadership and the party as a whole has completely abdicated their entire ability to claim that they are a party who cares about foreign policy. This is a party who at every opportunity they got sold America out to the highest bidder, sold out our troops literally to the highest bidder. And it's great now that we have a president who's in power, who's actually holding these countries accountable. And that's actually a force to promote democracy and our values

around the world. And look at what these Republicans are now doing in these impeachment proceedings. You know, as this goes from the House of Representatives, which voted to impeach, as we explained a few podcasts ago, impeachment is like the charging document. It charges somebody the same way a prosecutor goes in front of a grand jury and gets a charge and then brings it to a jury.

The Senate hears a trial. They're sworn in, the senators, as if they're a jury, and they receive the evidence and they rule on the evidence whether to convict. And if there is a conviction, the individual who's being impeached is removed from office. Paul orchestrated a vote to try to totally derail the impeachment trial in the Senate by arguing on procedural grounds that it would be unconstitutional to impeach a president who now becomes a private citizen. So I just want to get this straight. You can't sue somebody. This is what we were told before. You can't hold him accountable. You can't sue him when he is a president. And now all of a sudden, because he's left the office,. You can't hold him accountable. You can't sue him when he is a president. And now all of a sudden, because he's left the office, now you can't hold him accountable

because he's a private citizen. Yeah, what would be this imaginary date then that would have been that sweet spot to hold him accountable? Basically what the Republican Party is saying is you could do anything, literally orchestrate a terrorist attack against the United States of America.

And so long as it's somewhat near the end of your term, go at it, have fun, do whatever you want. If this is your way that you want to retain power by attacking your own government, do it because we won't hold you accountable. And ironically, there was a tweet from Matt Gates that has been going around from 2019, where he said, you can impeach a former president for what it's worth because he was saying that he was going to impeach Obama because he's an idiot. And, you know, all these people who have said you could impeach former president, it's not even up for a constitutional debate, is it really, Ben? No, it really isn't up for a constitutional debate. And then you have Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul, a total of 45 members of the Republican Party, you know, basically supported what's called a point of order, which is just a resolution saying that impeaching President Trump would be unconstitutional. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska Susan Callens of Maine Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania

Pat Toomey as you recall says he's not running he's not running again he says I'm basically I'm through with this shit I'm not having anything classic this party's gotten way too crazy for me and it's now the party of you know he didn't say this but the implication is is that it's the party of kind of QAnon and terrorists which is what what we've been saying. He says it's kind of hyper-partisan. But of course, that point of order failed because the Democrats controlled the majority. And now there's going to be an impeachment trial. Although now that we know 45 Republicans will essentially be voting against impeachment, we have, and it requires two-thirds in the senate to actually convict an individual it's unlikely and it's just so crazy because as you said brett then what would it actually take to convict somebody if you can't convict somebody of engaging in a terrorist attack against the

united states of america but that's where we are. The impeachment trial is now set for, people believe, about February 9th. We'll probably wrap up later that week and into the weekend. But I think the writing's on the wall, unfortunately, unless there's other information that comes out. But I don't think the Republicans even give a shit about information. And I don't know what other evidence that could come up, what other stories that could come out that could even convince these Republicans to convict at this point. I mean, we're just learning now that on January 5th, there was a meeting at the Trump Hotel with at least 15 people, including Donald Trump Jr., Kimberly Guilfoyle, Tommy Tuberville, Mike MyPillow, Lindell, who just got banned from Twitter, Peter Navarro, Rudy Giuliani talking about the January 6th event. And there's literally a Facebook post from one of the attendees of the event where he said, we talked about the elections, illegal votes, know what that meeting was other than an event to plan the insurrection and to plan the attack. And that needs to be investigated.

A.S.A.P. Look, as a lawyer, that would be the smoking gun evidence in a murder trial, smoking gun evidence. And so the fact that that's taking place, it just amazes me that you can have all that happening. And the GOP basically just says, just give them a break, give them a break. It's a terrorist insurrection. They've lost total credibility. And guys, that's why our Midas Touch initiatives right now are so important. I mean, think about all we're doing to hold these insurrectionists accountable. We got a jumbotron in DC and I fricking love this thing. It's playing videos and graphics. It's basically like a five to six minute loop of content holding these people responsible that plays outside of the

Senate all day. It's epic. You got to check it out if you didn't see it. We got billboards going up in Missouri and Texas so that we could hold Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz accountable in their home states. Actually, you know, I would say home states, but Josh Hawley, I don't even think lives in Missouri. Josh Hawley lives in Virginia. So where his constituents live, they will be seeing that billboard. We got national ads on CNN. We got ads on Fox News. And we just dropped a brand new ad against Marco Rubio, which I think is one of our

most powerful ads yet to hold him accountable to the state of politics in America today. And we'll play a clip of that now. Why won't Marco Rubio condemn the terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol? Because he is a co-conspirator. The FBI is investigating after a pro-Trump convoy surrounded a Biden campaign bus in Texas. He applauded them. I saw yesterday a video of these people in Texas. Did you see it? We love what they did. He encouraged them. Here's the thing they don't know. We do that in Florida every day. And they heard the message loud and clear. He's responsible for the death of a Capitol Police officer and the attempted murder of hundreds of lawmakers.

Marco Rubio wants to let the domestic terrorists off the hook because he is one. Marco Rubio. Powerfully. Complicit. Weak. On terror. Midas Touch is responsible for the content of this advertising. When does fast grocery delivery through Instacart matter most? When your famous grainy mustard potato salad isn't so famous without the grainy mustard. When the barbecue's lit, but there's nothing to grill. When the in-laws decide that, actually, I love it.

So you can check out that video on our YouTube, on our Twitter. Let us know what you think. We got to hold all these people accountable. The one thing I want to discuss is because the writing seems to be on the wall that we won't be able to convict Donald Trump because 45 Republicans have no spine. There is talks of a censure motion that's been kind of talked about between Senator Kaine and Senator Collins. And Senator Kaine has gotten a lot of backlash for saying that perhaps we should impose a

censure as opposed to going down the impeachment route. But I just want to break that down legally quickly. Tim Kaine believes that under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution that, let me read the language, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States or under any state, having previously taken an oath as a member of Congress or as an officer of the United States or as a member of any state legislature or as an executive or judicial officer of any state to support the Constitution of the United States shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same. And so the strategy with this censure pursuant to Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, would be to try to ban from holding office again. That's what they're trying to do. There are a lot of legal scholars debating it both ways because in that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, it actually doesn't mention the president. It does use the language an officer of the United States. And so lots of people think an officer would obviously be the president that would constitute an officer. But that's the debate there.

In my own view, you got to impeach him, which we did. And you got to convict him in trial. And if the Republicans are going to vote no, I want to see them on the record and I want to hold them accountable for the rest of their lives. We'll be right back. Welcome back to the Midas Touch podcast. I read an article today, Brett and Jordy, that said conservatives group donating 700,000 to Senator Hawley. First off, it's absurd that he's getting any money. But what really bothered me was the framing of conservative, the framing of right versus left. Because this group, this group of Republicans, there is nothing conservative

about them whatsoever. There's nothing right about them whatsoever. It is not a conservative decision to support QAnon, which this Republican Party not only does, but its members are basically drawn from QAnon. It is not conservative to support insurrection and terrorist attacks against the United States of America. It is not a conservative decision when you claim to support life but allow more than 400,000 Americans to needlessly die from COVID. It's not a conservative decision not to wear masks. It would be a very conservative decision to say, hey, there's a huge global pandemic taking place. Let me be a little bit conservative here.

Don't wear a fucking mask. OK, that would be the conservative thing to do right here. You know, the liberal thing, you know, if you're using these terms in the sense and this is why these terms matter, you would think a sense would be like, hey, let me not wear a fucking mask. That's why the framing of issues matter. Conservatives should mean you wear a mask. You're careful. No, the Democratic Party is the party of people who are careful, considerate, who love this country and who are truly patriotic. I don't want to call this current GOP conservative anymore. They're no different in my mind than ISIS.

We call ISIS Islamic terrorists. And as Joe Scarborough said, we either call them the Trump terrorists, the GOP terrorists, the GOP insurrectionists, but they don't earn the title conservative anymore. And just look at what they're doing this week. Kevin McCarthy, we played the clips last week, we might as well play it again, Brett and Jordy, of Kevin McCarthy basically starting out off with a little bit of balls. He had a ball and a half, a little ball and a half. And he starts off by calling it out, the insurrection for what it is and saying that Trump was to blame. And then Trump gets pissed at him for blaming Trump for the insurrection. And McCarthy changes tune. So we have three different clips from three different days from where McCarthy appropriately, Kevin McCarthy,

the GOP leader in the House of Representatives, where he blames Trump appropriately and then goes back to basically blame all Americans for the terrorist attack. Play that clip. The president bears responsibility for Wednesday's attack on Congress by mob rioters. He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding. I don't believe he provoked if you listen to what he said at the rally. Everybody across this country has some responsibility. Think about four years ago after the President Trump was sworn in. What happened the very next day?

The title was resist with people walking in the streets. Let me just comment on that for a second. of people peacefully protesting, wearing fucking pussy hats and walking around D.C. in no way should be compared to a deadly insurrection terrorist attack where people invaded the Capitol, responsible for at least now six deaths, hundreds of injuries, including a lot of law enforcement.

To compare that to somebody marching with signs, wearing pussy hats, walking peacefully to protest, which, by the way, all of their worst fears were realized. Everything they were protesting against came true and then some. So, in fact, the resist movement, the people who took to the streets after Donald Trump was elected, history will look kindly to the fears that they had. Can you say pussy hat just one more time, Brett? So the pussy hat, that's why we got the explicit rating on iTunes. That's true. We do have an explicit rating. You know what McCarthy, when he says everyone

bears responsibility, feels like to me, it feels a little all lives mattery. Yeah. Well, that's what they do. They try to muddy the waters and they try to do false equivalencies. And it's just detrimental to the discourse. And it's just frankly bad for America. So let's talk about where Kevin McCarthy is right now. Kevin McCarthy is at Mar-a-Lago. He's hanging out with Donald Trump. Wait, a private citizen. I thought, why is everyone paying so much attention to a private citizen for impeachment? But wait, Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader, is just hanging with a private citizen at his club. And when you read the articles, it's like, well, Kevin McCarthy just happened to be in the Mar-a-Lago area and so decided to visit because he was doing a fundraiser. It's like, OK, bullshit. I mean, we know they just lie about it. OK, just say you're meeting with him because you want to

support the insurrection. Just like be honest that that's your intent. So Kevin McCarthy is there. And as the leader of the House of Representatives for the Republicans, which makes him the minority minority leader, there's a vicious, disgusting gaslighting going on within the Republican appointment process where they, as the leadership within the House of Representatives, appoint congressional leaders to different committees. And so Madison Cawthorn from North Carolina, who lied about getting accepted into the Naval Academy, he lied about being in the Paralympic Games and qualifying for the Paralympic Games.

This individual, they appointed to the Committee on Veterans Affairs. The man who lied about the Naval Academy is on the Veterans Affairs Committee. Utterly absurd. So offensive to our veterans, too. I've seen a lot of veterans be really upset about this decision. And, you know, like we said before, the Republican fascists should lay no claim to be the party who supports the military after putting Mr. Stolen Valor himself on this committee. But the Republicans have a history of putting the worst possible people for the jobs in positions of power. You don't have to look further than Donald Trump to see that as president. But we had Betsy DeVos, someone who explicitly hates the education system and

hates public education. They put her as the head of the Department of Education. They put DeJoy as the head of the USPS, a guy that hates the public mail system and wants to privatize it. This is the very definition. I don't know if you guys have seen the term of a cacistocracy, which literally means. A cacistocracy? I'm breaking it out, guys. Ben usually says the big words.

Ben usually says the term pussyhat and cacistocracy. That's range, guys. That's range, brothers. And what that is, is that's when a government is run by the most incompetent and inept people. And that's what we see... What's the term? I need to look this up. I think you're pronouncing it wrong. I actually think you're making it up too. Kakistocracy. Kakistocracy? Look it up. Ben's the one that usually does the big words. Google. The stolen valor shit, man, is just, it's absurd. It's so pathetic. When I was in high school,

there was the Facebook page. I'm sure it still exists that I would often frequent and watch people sort of get exposed for stolen valor. And it just is one of the most heinous things that you could do. And just breaking it down, Brett, you mentioned the United States Postal Service. I just want to clarify something for people on the legal side. It's difficult to remove the Postmaster General and the Postmaster's Commission in order to get rid of them, Biden's going to have to basically terminate them for cause based on the way their appointments are and when their appointments come up. So people are saying like, why isn't DeJoy and all of the other people that Trump appointed gone? There would have to be a for-cause termination. I think

that's going to happen because they literally destroyed the mail to try to rig the election for Donald Trump. But I think that when you have these four-cause terminations in a federal bureaucracy, you have to build the case. And just so for those of wondering, that's what's going on there. So in terms of, Jordi, great Miami Alex moment comment there as well. Going to another person who was appointed to a Republican leadership position, the now infamous and disgusting Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. Yeah, the GOP put her on the House Education and Labor Committee, which is so extremely disgusting because this is a woman who, let's be clear, she called the Parkland shooting a lie.

She called the kids involved crisis actors. She called the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in which 20 children and others were killed a lie, a false flag by the government. She called the Las Vegas massacre a lie. She called 9-11 a lie. And she either said these shootings were hoaxes or were staged by the government in order to take away her Second Amendment rights. This is somebody who literally stalked the students of Parkland right in the aftermath of the massacre. She went on social media. She called who's now become a famous activist, David Hogg. She called him a little Hitler on social media and a quote unquote bought and paid little pawn and actor.

And to be clear, David Hogg went to the high school in Parkland where the shooting took place, where 17 people were shot and killed, 17 people were injured. And based on his experience being hunted down and having his friends murdered, David Hogg became an activist for common sense reform of people's rights to have assault weapons and magazines. Ben, we have an incredible guest coming on the show today, Fred Guttenberg. He lost his daughter during the Parkland shootings. And Fred just yesterday released one of these videos that had never been before seen with Marjorie Taylor Greene, basically shouting at David Hogg like a crazy person in D.C. And once again, this is right

in the immediate aftermath of the attack when David Hogg was going to speak with representatives, congresspeople, senators about passing potential gun reform so that more of his peers would not get killed. And so just to set it up, you have Marjorie Taylor Greene. This was before she was elected to Congress. She's holding a pink Michael Kors bag. And as David Hogg is walking to Capitol Hill to speak with these senators, she's following and shouting at him and basically threatening his life as he's walking. David, why are you supporting the red flag laws? You are using your lobby and the money behind it and the kids to try to take away my second amendment rights.

How did you get over 30 appointments with senators? How'd you do that? How did you get major press coverage on this issue? He's got nothing to say. Sad. He has nothing to say because there really isn't anything to say, you guys. David, we saw him inside the Senate building. He had 30 appointments where he ran around and got to talk to senators. I got to talk to none, none. He had media coverage all over the place. I had zero. Guess what? I'm a gun owner. I'm an American citizen and I have nothing. But this guy with his George Soros funding and his major liberal funding has got everything. I want you to think about that. That's where we are. And he's a coward. He can't say one word because he can't

defend his stance. Ladies and gentlemen, that is the Republican Party. That is why we do not call them conservative anymore. We can call them extremists. We can call them the radical right. We can call them terrorists. But that is not a fringe member of the GOP. If you identify as Republican, she is your leader. She is was purposefully trying to breathe on everybody around him in all of the videos. Let's see what Nancy Pelosi has to say this week about Congresswoman Greene's statements. What I'm concerned about is the has mocked the killing of little in high school at the Marjory Stoneham Douglas High School, what could they be thinking or thinking too generous a word for what they might be doing? A really forceful statement from Speaker Pelosi. And I'm happy that she's speaking out so forcefully because it's important to call this out for what it is. Pelosi went on to say that there is an enemy within the House of Representatives. And so the press said, what do you mean there's an enemy within the House of Representatives? And Nancy Pelosi gave

a very direct response to their question. What exactly did you mean when you said that the enemy is within? What exactly did you mean by that? It means that we have members of Congress who want to bring guns on the floor and have threatened violence on other members of Congress. Doesn't get clearer than that. And it's 100% true. She's 1000% right. Let's face it. The fringe of the Republican Party right now is not the Marjorie Taylor Greens, is not the Lauren Boebert. It is Mitt Romney, Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger. They are the fringe of the party. And if you're somebody who considered yourself at one point a Republican, I urge you to consider standing with the party that stands for democracy, because this is an existential threat to our country. Consider becoming a

Democrat or an independent. The party of the GOP is long lost. That's my opinion on it. A thousand percent. And hates one of those words that I think lost some of its meaning. I hate Marjorie Telegram. She is just such a fucking despicable human. For everything that she does, for everything that she did to David Hogg and everything that she continues to do on a daily basis, it is so utterly fucking pathetic. So we have a very special guest, Fred Guttenberg,

who is the father of Jamie Guttenberg and son Jesse. Jamie was killed at the school shooting in Parkland, Florida on February 14th of 2018. When we come back, we will have Fred Guttenberg on the Midas Touch Podcast. Welcome back to the Midas Touch Podcast here with Fred Guttenberg. Fred, thanks for joining the Midas Touch Podcast. Thanks for having me and thanks for the amazing stuff you put out on social media. I appreciate it. Fred, normally I would do an introduction, introduce you as an American activist against gun violence. I don't think that does it justice.

Can you tell our listeners just a bit about your background and what led you to become an activist against gun violence? Because I'm a dad. I mean, that's the really simple answer. I'm a father of two kids. And I visit one of them in a cemetery. I sent my two kids to Margaret Stillman Douglas High School, February 14, 2018. My daughter was killed there that day. My son heard the bullets that did it. And up until that very moment in my life, I was nothing more than just a goofy dad going to hockey games and dance competitions and doing homework and watching television and laughing. And now I'm a dad reacting to what happened to my kids. And Fred, there was a number of alarming warning signs too about the shooter, in and out of schools, mental health issues,

and still managed to purchase a semi-automatic AR-15 style weapon. Legally. Legally. Tons of magazines, which he then inscribed with swastikas. Someone who was vocal on social media, posting anti-Antifa conspiracy theorists, analogous to what we're seeing now becoming mainstream in the Republican Party. How did that lead you to pursue the path you have now as an activist and pursuing these gun reform measures? Everyone remembers, I think, the CNN town hall with me and Rubio.

Guns, the factor. Absolutely in the hunting of our kids. What you're asking about is the assault weapons ban. Yes, sir. So let me be honest with you about that one. If I believed that that law would have prevented this from happening, I would support it. But I want to explain to you why you would not. Senator Rubio, my daughter, running down the hallway at Marjory Stoughton Douglas, was shot in the back with an assault weapon. The weapon of choice. It is too easy to get. It is a weapon of war.

The fact that you can't stand with everybody in this building and say that, I'm sorry. Sir, I do believe what you're saying is true. That week between my daughter getting killed in that town hall, I could not escape the reality that there were people who talked about what happened to my daughter, but never once said the word guns. They wouldn't talk about guns. And Rubio being one of those people, you can't talk about what happened to my daughter and 16 others at that school that day

and not deal with the reality of the gun. And while others wanted to talk about hardening schools or mental health, all important stuff, For me, had we had different laws in this country related to gun safety, my daughter would be alive today. And I'll just give you an example. Three weeks after my daughter was killed in Florida, we passed gun safety. We raised the age to 21. We passed red flag laws. Have those things been in existence before? My daughter wouldn't have been killed. You can't not talk about the role of guns. And Fred, this isn't about abolishing the second amendment. This isn't about banning all forms of guns. This is very specific legislation that you're seeking that deal with these issues of assault weapons, having weapons in the hands of people who have serious mental

health issues, closing loopholes that leave people who have been convicted of crimes to have it right. That's always been the BS. That's always been the big lie. It's never been about an attack on the Second Amendment. It's never been about removing rights of legal lawful gun owners. And again, I'll go back to Florida. There's not a single legal lawful gun owner who thinks about the laws we passed in this state because there's no impact on that. Okay. So it's never been about that. That is the BS lie that has not only been used to prevent gun safety measures. It's actually been used to continue chipping away at any gun safety laws that might have been in place to weaken what was in place to the point where we now have 400 million weapons on the streets of America and a significant portion of a population that thinks it's okay for them to walk around shoving those weapons in our face to say, if I don't agree with you, I might use this on you. I mean, what happened in Washington, D.C.

is the ultimate outcome of that. It was predictable. And here's what's so shocking to me and to some of our listeners may not know this. There are serious gun regulations in hunting, in hunting. There are federal laws that prevent hunters from hunting migratory game birds with more than three shells in a shotgun. That came from Joe Biden's policy positions. Federal law protects ducks more than three shells and a shotgun. That came from Joe Biden's policy positions. Federal law protects ducks more than human beings. And so this whole BS that there are laws out there that preclude access to guns, I mean, it's total BS. And we've talked about this on the show,

which is amongst the right. I don't call them conservatives anymore. There's this second amendment, almost cosplay taking place. And you have these people like Congresswoman Lauren Bobbert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who display their guns in ways that are so inconsistent with the true debate that's really taking place about common sense, you know, gun reform. What do you think is their intent and motivation behind that? I'm not going to comment on their motivation because to me it's irrelevant. What I will say

is this. They are dangerous. They are depraved. They have shown that they are a threat. Listen, what Marjorie Taylor Greene did in the video chasing teenagers around was harass them while telling them, I have a loaded gun. She was telling them that while she was harassing them. She has talked about shooting Speaker Pelosi in the head. and then she shows up in the halls of Congress carrying a loaded gun. She is a threat. And so what I would say is legal lawful gun owners never talk about the Second Amendment because it doesn't affect them. Those who may be afraid of losing their weapons because they are a true threat tend to speak a little bit more loudly. I think Marjorie Taylor Greene knows if she lived in a state with red flag laws,

she wouldn't have her weapons. Speaker Pelosi's come out very strongly today and you've tweeted condemning. It's hard to even believe that Marjorie Taylor Greene, who wasn't a congresswoman when that took place, ascended to the level of a congresswoman. Fred, what do you think should happen to her? I know that there was Kevin McCarthy stated he's going to have a talk with her, whatever that means. But what do you think the consequences are? I mean, there's a video of her stalking and harassing multiple students who attended the school that your daughter and your son went to and threatening their lives and calling them essentially crisis actors. And she's now in Congress. She needs to be removed.

There is no question about it. Listen, Kevin McCarthy right now is busy having cocktails and caviar with the former bully in Palm Beach. But when he gets back to D.C., he needs to deal with this. And talking to isn't enough. Think about it. The GOP made a conscious decision to put her on the education committee. She's on the committee that deals with our kids, and yet she can't come to grips with the truth about the violence that affects our kids.

Kevin McCarthy needs to be in the effort to expel her. She does not belong in Congress. This isn't something that you address with a talking to. And candidly, for a week now, all this news has been breaking. If a talking to was all that was required, I would suspect it already happened. And you would think she would have already said, you know what? I'm sorry. I've evolved. I was wrong. I don't condone violence. I disown this. She hasn't said any of those things. She's letting the intent of those prior comments and those prior words live. She's okay with it. And the fact that

nobody has said, you need to deal with this, makes them complicit as well. Kevin McCarthy either owns this and removes her, or this is the got party. And Fred, what do you think this says about the Republican Party? I think oftentimes right-wing commentators like to claim that people like Marjorie Taylor Greene are on the fringe of the party. But meanwhile, the party at large is censoring people like Liz Cheney and like Governor Ducey, people who were actually supporting not overthrowing an election. So what do you make of just the Republican Party as a whole in 2021? You know, listen, it is no longer dramatic to say if they don't remove her, this is who that party is. This is who they are. It wasn't long ago where we used to all use our voices because of

disagreements on issues. This is no longer two parties that disagree on issues. You have one party that is taking a stand for democracy, a stand for the Constitution, a stand for decency. And you have another party with only a few exceptions that has moved away from democracy, moved away from the Constitution, and that is condoning the use of violence to change our government. And there's only a few exceptions, Liz Cheney being one of them. I never thought I would think of her as so heroic. And, you know, I never thought that I would agree with her so deeply. But she is a hero for this country right now. And I look forward to a day where I can go back to disagreeing with somebody like her on policies, because that's the way this country was

built. But she's fighting for democracy. And right now, you have two parties in this country, a pro-democracy and an anti-democracy. And the Republican Party, formerly Republican Party, seems to be on the side against democracy. When I see Representative Adam Kissinger, he's very outspoken against the current actions of the Republican Party. But he tweeted something the other day, and I'm not sure I agree with it. He tweeted, this isn't the Republican Party. These people, Marjorie Taylor Greene, is not representative of the Republican Party. But then we have 45 members of the Senate vote that it's an illegal impeachment trial.

You have these Republican members of Congress refusing to go through metal detectors and causing a whole fiasco about that. I mean, what do you think of this sort of behavior, like not only taking the gravity of the moment? And by the way, there have been multiple moments now with Parkland, with Vegas, with Sandy Hook, where there were paths that the GOP could have taken. I disagree with him. This is indicative of what appears to be the current iteration of the Republican Party. Maybe not of a prior iteration. Maybe not in days past where there were Republicans who disagreed with Democrats, okay, and there were true policy disagreements. But those Republicans still believed in our Constitution. They still believed in our government structure. They would have defended and fought for democracy. This

current version won't, and this does appear to be who they are. Listen, today is January 28th. So 22 days ago, there was an attack on Washington, D.C. This attack left five people dead. Actually, more than that now because of some police officers who committed suicide. This attack left several police officers beaten to smithereens. This attack almost led to the murder of legislators and the vice president. And the Republican Party has already moved on from that. As if, you know what, kind of, let's just sort of make that go away. You can't. But they want to. That's who they are. This version of this party is no longer a governing party. Fred, where are we now with the legislation, either at federal or state levels, designed to end gun violence?

And what needs to be done to rally the necessary momentum under a Biden administration to see some of the legislation you want passed to be passed? Well, legislation was passing through the House. Now, in a post-impeachment world, which we're going to be at soon, hopefully we'll see the Senate start taking some of that up. This new administration has made it clear that they intend to be a part of solving the gun violence problem. And I'm counting on them to do that. We are currently living in a world where COVID is probably already one, two, three, four, and five. And I understand that. But I hope that the national effort to address gun violence happens before the next big mass shooting. And Fred, can you just tell our listeners what was the House legislation?

And is that what you want to also see passed in the Senate? Well, there's a lot more than what has already happened that I want to see passed, but they were doing background checks. I also believe background checks should be extended to ammunition. You already have 400 million weapons on the streets and the owners of those weapons,

whether they're legal, lawful owners or not, can walk into any store and buy bullets without a background check. So I think we need to extend that to ammunition. We need to raise the age to 21. We need to treat this as a public health issue and get the CDC involved in studying. We need to ban high capacity magazines.

I used to say that I was not on the side of those who said we have to ban assault weapons because I felt like that shut down the conversation on everything else. I've changed my mind because people are now taking their assault weapons to rallies and government buildings to use as a form of intimidation. And next is going to be killing, as we saw happen in Kenosha, Wisconsin. I think we need to repeal PLACA, which prevents people like me from being able to sue the gun manufacturer. And you mentioned hunting, for example. They talk about these weapons as being used for hunting and sport, but they produce them at a rate far beyond the needs of that target market. So the question is why? And the question is,

what are you doing about all these excess weapons that are ending up on the streets that aren't being used for hunting or sport? I want to get those CEOs on the stand. I want to force them to have to talk about the fact that they knew they were promoting to kids. And what did they do about the potential risk, which we all know the answer, nothing. So there's so much we can do to start addressing gun violence, but we have to start. And Fred, I think you're also, you know, I think you're an inspiration for other people who have been through tragedy in their life. You figured out a way to turn your tragedy into action.

You recently released a book called Find the Helpers, what 9-11 and Parkland taught me about recovery, purpose and hope, which for you listening out there, it's available at any bookstore out there. What's your message to anyone who's suffering right now, whether from gun violence or even if they lost a family member to COVID or anything going on in their lives? I'm so glad you asked. Listen, my story is a testament to the fact that I've been able to move forward. And the only reason is because of the amazing grace and decency of other people who have carried me,

who have lifted me, who have been there as my helpers. So my message to anyone who's going through anything right now, know who your helpers are and be okay relying on them. Let them be there for you. And if you're not sure who your people are, go to a place of worship, go to a community center, But get yourself connected to other people. Don't go through anything alone. Also important, anyone who's in a position to be a helper to someone else, even if it means just picking up the phone and letting someone know you're there, you do it. When you're in that position where you can be there to lift someone else, especially someone who's going through something terrible, don't let that minute pass. I think that's incredibly powerful words for everybody

listening. And I hope people who are listening, take that to heart and find a way to either help themselves or help others with that message. One thing before we let you go that I want to talk about is your foundation, Orange Ribbons for Jamie. Could you tell us briefly about it and how could people listening help you out with that? Yeah. So orange was Jamie's favorite color. And the night she was murdered, all of her dance sisters, I call them, made orange ribbons and brought them to our house the next day and took pictures of themselves wearing the orange ribbons. And it went viral through the dance community and through Broadway. And people started dedicating their performances to Jamie. Weeks later, I was wearing my orange ribbon.

Somebody asked me what it was for. When I told them, they said, do you know that's the color of the gun safety movement? And I had not known that. That was the day where I decided I had to start a foundation. That day, really, my only goal was to make the orange ribbon the symbol of the gun safety movement.

However, Orange Ribbons for Jamie has evolved into a foundation that is there to support things that were important to Jamie in life, whether it be anti-bullying programs or kids with special needs. That's my dog squeezing on a toy in the background. I apologize.

Jordy just got a new dog as well, so we know how it goes. My dog is saying, you're done, dad. But we've also started a scholarship program. My daughter will never get to graduate, but she's going to send other kids to school. And we call it the Kids of All Ability Scholarship because it's not just for kids going

to traditional programs, but also kids who have special needs who may go off to some other form of post-high school education. We have scholarships for them as well. Fred Guttenberg, thank you so much for joining the Midas Touch Podcast. Guys, it was a pleasure. Thank you. Welcome back to the Midas Touch Podcast. That was a powerful interview with Fred. I'm just so grateful, Ben, that we have this platform now that we could speak to these important issues and speak with people like Fred, who know all too sadly firsthand why gun reform

is so needed in this country. And that was just really, really great. And it's just the common sense, logical issue to deal with. And it's just so shocking to me that you have people out there on the radical right, on the GOP extremist, on the terrorist wing that just utterly pervert the issues, which is why I go back to the point. I mean, I guess it shouldn't shock me. They're terrorists. They supported an insurrection. Of course, they're going to want AR-15s at schools. They wanted AR-15s in the Capitol building. I mean, that's what they want. They don't want to support the Second Amendment. They want to support insurrection against the United States of America. That's what these terrorist GOP actually want. I think that's what's underlining it, because when we're having a debate about the Second Amendment, Brad, Jordy, I support the Second Amendment. I support your right to hunt. I support your right to own a handgun. What I don't support is your right to carry semi-automatic weapons around schools or in public with magazines that make your armor like a soldier in war in public. I support

background checks so that we're not giving guns to people who have proclivities to become murderers, that we don't give guns to people who can't take care of their own affairs. To me, that's very common sense stuff. So when people push back against that common sense stuff, and it's always from the GOP, it's like, of course, they're going to push back. They supported insurrection. They were trying to kill the vice president. They were trying to kill lawmakers. That's why they want their weapons, because they hate this country. They want their weapons because they want to kill people. Let's just call it what it is. It's not about the Second Amendment. They want to murder our political leaders, these extremist GOP terrorists. That's what they want.

The GOP has just come so increasingly dogmatic that whatever the mainstream is of the party, everybody has to abide by or in their eyes, you're a rhino, you're a rhino, and that's an ever shifting target. But that's why you see they're never willing to give an inch. They're never willing to give an inch because in their mind, once they start giving an inch, it's going to be a slippery slope. Let's be clear what the dogma is. I think the dogma is, and I'm just going to say it, that their whole Second Amendment view is that they want to have military grade weaponry so that they could kill political leaders. That is actually what they want. They don't want actually

the gun rights that were envisioned by our founders because under our system, under what Democrats support, you have those rights. You have those rights. The same way we talked with Fred, though, about when you go hunting, there are federal regulations against the type of ammunition when you hunt ducks. If we're protecting ducks, we could protect human lives. OK. And the reason they don't want to protect human lives on the GOP extremists is because they're terrorists and they want to kill our leaders. Well, exactly. I mean, it's what we say on the show a whole bunch. Right. We have two parties now. We have the pro-democracy party, Democrats, and then we just have a pro fascist party. And it's fucking crazy. Yeah. And the problem with the dogma is that it doesn't allow for dissenting opinions. So the

more radical and radical it gets, everyone is still in that party forced to go along with those radical opinions, no matter how crazy they get. Anyway, guys, I think we should end on it a bit lighter. Just let's point out some of the absurdities that's happening in America right now that we could at least poke a little bit of fun at. Did you guys read that Mike Pence is homeless? Well, I mean, here's the strange thing just about it, because you would think that somebody like a Mike Pence, who's the vice president, who earns significant wage,

would plan for the time when he would be out of office or at the very least to be able to coordinate somewhere to live. But apparently Mike Pence is, quote unquote, couch surfing, according to a number of articles that are out there. Can you imagine Mike Pence being on your freaking couch? Mike Pence on my couch. If Mike Pence was on my couch, I would have to have one of those fly zappers right at the front door so that I could protect it from a total

infestation. The best comment I saw on the Mike Pence situation was somebody said, I guess we always knew he was homophobic. It's really good. mask went to a city council meeting in which she described as full Muslim garb. But what she meant is she was wearing a hijab so that all you could see were her eyes. She wore the hijab because she refused to wear a mask. What are you proving? What are you proving by doing that? Just wear a fucking mask. It's so much easier. You're putting on a full hijab. You can wear a full hijab. I mean, but you shouldn't wear a full hijab to prove the point that you're not going to wear a mask. Let's just say that. Yes. People's brains in this country, man, are just simply broken. It's insanity what they would do just to simply avoid wearing a mask. I think her excuse was, you know, she had a traumatic experience. I mean, they come up with all these ridiculous excuses.

They make up lies. I have allergies. I can't wear a mask. I have trouble breathing. I can't wear a mask. I saw a guy the other day who was wearing a mask, but it was mesh. It had holes in it. And somebody went up to him and said, oh, your mask's holes in it, right? He goes, yeah, I'm able to sneak in and then get into stores by wearing this mask. It's like, why go through all the effort and just not wear the fucking mask? People, please, we have vaccines coming. They're being expedited. Wear a mask, be responsible out there. Let's get this thing under control. Let's just get to fucking normalcy. We really need a mental health evaluation. We need therapy for the entire country. We need to snap people out of just this kookiness and craziness and QAnon. It's just getting too much. Republicans overwhelmingly approving of Joe Biden's initiatives has a very high favorability. And I look forward to his initiatives. I look forward to what we can accomplish as a country.

And most importantly, we will at Midas Touch continue to hold these seditionists accountable. And we want you never to get complacent about holding these seditionists accountable, these extremists, these terrorists who masquerade as conservatives. But as we know, we will never use that word. They are the terrorists, GOP. This was an episode of the Midas Touch podcast with Ben Micellis, Brett Micellis, and Jordy Micellis. You can catch new podcasts every Friday morning and every Tuesday morning. Give us a five-star review. That's always very helpful.

And we'll see you next time on the Midas Touch podcast. Shout out to the Midas Mighty.