The MeidasTouch Podcast - Courage and Guts with Ukrainian Diplomat Olexander Scherba and Glenn Kirschner

Episode Date: March 11, 2022

On today’s episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast we have two INCREDIBLE guests. First up, we sit down with NBC News and MSNBC legal analyst and former 30-year federal prosecutor, Glenn Kirschner. Glenn is also the host of the hit podcast JUSTICE MATTERS. During our interview, Kirschner provides his in-depth legal analysis on the Jan 6. Developments, Trump’s crimes and much more. We then bring in our second guest, Ukrainian diplomat for over 26 years, Olexander Scherba. In this candid interview, Scherba explains exactly what is happening on the ground, what people listening can do to help and his very honest thoughts on Fox “News.” The remainder of the episode, the brothers bring you the latest breaking news of the week in a jam-packed episode you definitely cannot miss! If you enjoyed today’s show please be sure to rate, review and subscribe. As always, thank YOU for listening! DEALS FROM OUR SPONSORS: Listen to Wondery Business Wars Airbnb vs NYC: https://wondery.com/shows/business-wars/ Athletic Greens: https://athleticgreens.com/meidas Better Help: https://betterhelp.com/meidas Listen to Hell & High Water podcast with John Heilemann: https://therecount.com/podcasts/hell-and-high-water Remember to subscribe to ALL the Meidas Media Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://pod.link/1510240831 Legal AF: https://pod.link/1580828595 The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://pod.link/1595408601 The Influence Continuum: https://pod.link/1603773245 Kremlin File: https://pod.link/1575837599 Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://pod.link/1530639447 Zoomed In: https://pod.link/1580828633 The Weekend Show: https://pod.link/1612691018 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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today. We have two guests. First guest is going to be Glenn Kirshner, NBC News, MSNBC legal analyst, former 30 year federal prosecutor and host of the very popular podcast and YouTube series, Justice Matters. Glenn will be breaking down developments in January 6th. What is going on in the New York Attorney General's office? What's going on with developments with the DOJ's prosecution of Jan 6th? The committee will get into all of those issues with Glenn. And then in the second half of this podcast episode, it is an honor to have Alexander Sherba, 26-year diplomatic service member of Ukraine. He was actually the ambassador of Ukraine to Austria from 2014 to 2021 and is the author of the book, Undiplomatic Thoughts, Ukraine vs. Darkness.

In these incredibly difficult times since the unlawful invasion of Ukraine by Russia, Alexander Shcherba has been a major voice out there of truth, of the resistance to the unlawful invasion. It is an honor to have him on the podcast today, and we will get real-time developments of what is going on in Ukraine. Brett and Jordy, how are you doing? Two great guests today, brothers. Oh my goodness. Yeah, no, this is truly an epic show. I mean, and it's an important show. I think we have two guests that are speaking to some of the most important issues of our time. Really excited to chat with Glenn about everything with the DOJ. We had him on just about a year ago to the date. And it was recently after Merrick Garland

was confirmed. So excited to get his thoughts now one year later on how Merrick Garland's doing about the latest updates on DOJ, January 6th, and the prosecutions to come. Alexander Sherbert, he's been one of those guys we've spoken about in the past few episodes, the people who we've been following day in and day out, how we wake up in the middle of the night to check Twitter, to make sure that Keeve still stands, that Zelensky is still okay. And Shcherba is one of those guys who has become one of my most trusted sources of news about what's going on in Ukraine amongst a host of others who are there on the ground. So just, I can't emphasize the importance of this episode and I am thrilled and honored to

have Sherba on the show with us. And Jordy, how are you doing, man? I'm doing well. I'm doing well. I mean, as well as I can be, the news is horrible every day, no matter what platform you're on. But outside of that, I'm doing well. I'm excited to be hosting the show with y'all today. We have an excellent show lined up. So why don't we just get into it? And I would say this, Jordy, this episode can probably be appropriately framed as democracy battles here and abroad.

You're right, Jordy and Brett. Is the news grim? Yes, but it's filled with heroism. I mean, obviously, any unlawful invasion of a country the way Russia's, you know, committing these horrible atrocities in Ukraine, blowing up hospitals, attacking civilians. These images are horrifying. But we do see courage. We do see heroism. We do see optimism in difficult and dark and grim times. And it is important that we have pro-democracy media like Midas Touch and others, though,

who are framing these issues appropriately. War is grim, okay? Fighting for democracy is hard, but fighting for democracy isn't a tweet, folks. It's not an Instagram post, folks. It's not the most convenient thing in the world that we have to make sacrifices to fight for our country and to fight for democracy here and abroad. But that's our obligation as citizens, not just of the United States, but of humanity. You know, Russia chose this path to confront the West, to try to destroy the United States of America to try to destroy Western Europe, their first foray into that outside of what they did in Chechnya, what they've done in Crimea, what they've done in Syria, what they've done across the world. But Ukraine is not where they're going to stop, folks. They're coming for you. And so when I see Russia propaganda

being spread by the GOP, when I see Russia propaganda being spread by Trump and Laura Ingraham and all of these people, and when I see these American GQ peers trying to adopt the personality of flunky despots like Putin, DeSantis modeling himself basically off of that. And all the Ted Cruz, you know, in the truck, I'm standing with the fucking truckers in their AstroTurf bullshit. I don't even know what the fuck they're protesting, trying to, again, continue and perpetuate the insurrection against the United States of America. We've seen this propaganda as Russia is losing in Ukraine. We've seen what they resorted to, their weapon, propaganda and finding a friendly ear and a friendly mouthpiece in the GQP.

And when this all started, like, and I'm going back years ago, talking about 2016 election, when everybody was talking about how Russia played a role in that election, spreading disinformation. I always thought that Russia played a tremendous role in that, but I think I even underestimated how big of a role that they played in that. Because I think for the first time right now, we are actually able to see the inner machinations of the Russian propaganda machine day in and day out, minute by minute. And we're able to see the voices who are amplifying these Russian disinformation efforts and lies. And I got to give credit to the White House and I got to give credit to the U.S. intelligence community who has really stepped

up. I would say the U. the US intelligence community does not have a great reputation with things in the past. Think about WMDs and the like. But right now, under President Biden, this US intelligence community, this White House has been five steps ahead of the Kremlin every step of the way. They've been telling you exactly what the Kremlin was going to say, exactly what they would use as the pretext for the invasion, what they're trying to use right now as the pretext for chemical attacks. And guess what? They also need to stay five steps ahead, sadly, of our own Republican Party in the United States right here, because they are laundering these Russian messages, Ben, like you said, through all their platforms. I've seen this new theory, which I warned people about a few days

ago. And I think the theory actually goes back a few weeks now, but it just started gaining popularity so much so that Jen Psaki had to do a whole Twitter thread about it. This fake news about a Ukrainian biolab that Fauci is using in order to spread the next COVID. And this is why Putin and Trump have teamed up to actually rid the world of this future pandemic. And it's actually a heroic effort that Russia is doing. Yes, this is what they are saying on the right. And it's not just those fringe crazy voices happening in message boards and chat rooms. It's Matt Gaetz. It's Candace Owens. It's J.D. Vance, one of the top candidates

for U.S. Senate in Ohio. It is Charlie Kirk posting videos literally directly from RT onto his account on Rumble. This is coming from the top levels of the Republican Party and these Republican influencers who, Ben, I think you appropriately referred to yesterday as not Republican influencers, but Russian influencers, Russian social media. The Republicans are nothing other than Russian social media influencers like that is are nothing other than Russian social media influencers. That is the perfect framing for that. They want to be Russian TikTok stars. What did you say, Jordy?

I said, that's hilarious. That is the perfect framing. That's exactly who Charlie is. Because they don't want to do policy. They're not serious people. They just want to be Russian. They don't love this country. They don't love America.

What happened was we saw after the war began, after Russia started its war against Ukraine, we saw that there was a moment, a brief moment where the United States came together for a second and people started to get on both sides anti-Russia. And you saw Republicans even start to come. Anti-Putin. Anti-Putin. Anti-Putin. And so you saw that begin to happen. But what you saw was like these people just begging, just itching for an excuse to to go back and and prove that they were right to be hating on Ukraine and hating on the United States for their action. So the second that they got their script from the Kremlin, they ran with it. They filled that void in their hearts and they went, yo, that's what it is. It's the Fauci bio lab in Ukraine. It's a very reminiscent point of post-January 6th. There was this moment of national

unity, a brief moment. Although to be fair, I think the moment right now of Ukrainian, because the world is unified, it really kind of isolates these radical right Republican extremists who are essentially the Republican party. And so it's a slightly different, but it was the same thing. Everyone was condemning Trump after the January 6th insurrection. Everyone said it's horrible. Then they got their talking points that these weren't, it's not an insurrection, it's freedom fighters. They weren't really weapons. These were just peaceful people. The January 6th committee was on a witch hunt, you know, and then they leaned into that narrative. And so they've been looking and actually waiting like, like Putin, Putin, when are you going to give me my talking point? Like, like they didn't know what to do for that

time period. And then, you know, Russia was like, all right, because, you know, NATO helped to try to remove the chemical weapons that Russia was developing like anthrax during the Soviet Union era. Like, let's turn that into the idea of America's developing bioweapons and attaching it to like pigeons. And, you know, it's a theory like that. And then you have Matt Gaetz and others in the radical right tweeting out this stuff. Madison Cawthorn, a video came out today. Madison Cawthorn saying, Zelensky is a thug. Remember that the Ukrainian government is incredibly corrupt and is incredibly evil and has been pushing woke ideology. Madison Cawthorn, wasn't that the one who visited Hitler's vacation home and said it was the greatest day of his life?

Yeah, visiting the girl. vacation home and said it was the greatest day of his life. Yeah. Visiting. He's also the one who claims that the way he met his now ex-wife was he did a trip where he crossed some body of water. It was a very nondescript, was gambling in a casino when they don't really have casinos in Russia, met some individuals there who then introduced them to his wife in a Pilates class in Orlando. The story goes something like that, but it's a very suspicious story. Haven't we all heard about that classic love story? And isn't it also true that Zelensky had parents,

grandparents who had died in the Holocaust? Yeah, I mean, these people are... So we're basically saying here in this one instance, Madison Cawthorne is a Nazi, calling the Ukrainian president, Zelensensky a thug. Yeah, no, it is. It is something that we all need, though. Again, it always goes back to what our mantra is on the Midas Touch podcast, which is that you at home can't be on the sidelines.

You can't be on the sidelines because Putin and Putin's puppets, the GOP, whether you like it or not, are coming after you. There's no other way to say it. We could sit silent. We could act like this isn't happening. We could go about our day and go to the movies and watch this and watch that, although I'm not sure it goes to a movie theater anymore. I went to a movie theater the other day. I digress for a second. I went to a movie theater. I watched the Batman. Oh, I'm so jealous. And I didn't know how to interact in a movie theater anymore. I just, I didn't know what to even do. And so I was just like fidgeting and moving. And then Sochi was like

to me, what do you just sit still? I'm like, this is the weirdest concept. Why am I here? With all the, anyway, I digress, but you could sit there. You could, you know, we could just go about our day, but that isn't going to stop. You know, maybe it'll make it past you. But you could sit there. You could, you know, we could just go about our day, but that isn't going to stop. You know, maybe it'll make it past you. Maybe you'll be able to live through your life and not have to deal with it. But your kids, your grandkids are going to be confronted by these authoritarian in very dangerous ways. If you don't resist these authoritarians, these Matt Gaetz, these Madison Cawthorns,

these Putin puppets that are the GOP, the gang of Putin or the GQP. Let's bring in our guest, Glenn Kirshner, NBC News and MSNBC legal analyst, former 30-year federal prosecutor and host of the podcast and YouTube series Justice Matters. Excited to have Glennon. But first, Jordy, why don't you talk about Wondery Business Wars? This podcast is brought to you by Wondery Business Wars. Brothers, in 2007, two roommates rented out an air mattress to strangers to earn extra money. Their little experiment turned into Airbnb and exploded into a worldwide phenomenon with rentals in over 100,000 cities. But one of those cities didn't want anything to do with the startup, New York.

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New York City officials decided to do something about it. But Airbnb wasn't going anywhere without a fight. What I love about this podcast, man, it has all these twists and turns. And honestly, you don't know who to root for. You want to root for the little guy. You want to then root for the big guy. Ah, twists and turns everywhere. Make sure you check this out. Check out One Dream, Business Wars, Airbnb versus New York City. Thank you for that read, Jordy. Very, very impressive read. The one thing though, too, is what I like about the Wondry business wars is that they're kind of ongoing. The story that you told is still kind of happening. And so it is very interesting to

reflect though on those living historical moments that we're going through right now. And Wondry just does a really incredible job in general. The way they tell the stories, they immerse you in these narratives and you're learning history, but you're feeling a part of it. And I've always been listening to all the different Wondry stuff out there. And so without further ado, let's bring in our interview with Glenn Kirshner. We are joined by Glenn Kirshner, NBC News and MSNBC legal analyst, a former 30-year federal prosecutor and host of the incredibly popular podcast and YouTube series, Justice Matters. Glenn, welcome to the podcast. Hey, Ben, great to be back with y'all. And Glenn, thank you for inviting me. I

had a discussion with you, some of your team members. It was a motivational discussion, just seeing the team that you've assembled. And those discussions was a very inspiring night for me. Well, and I was thrilled to have you as were all of our team justice friends. And of course, now they want to know when can we have Ben back? Just because they're tired of meeting with me every Sunday night. Anytime you want me, I'm there. And Glenn, we had you on the podcast about one year ago, almost to the day in March of 2021. You had a lot of powerful words then in support of Attorney General Merrick Garland. You stated at that time that Merrick Garland is, quote, the perfect marriage of a public corruption prosecutor and a domestic

terrorism prosecutor and, quote, the right man for the moment. One year later, reflecting on these words, do you feel the same way or any differently? I still applaud his background. I know his accomplishments, both as a prosecutor at the D.C. U.S. Attorney's Office, my old home for nearly a quarter of a century, and then going out and heading up some of the most consequential criminal investigations our nation has ever seen, like the Oklahoma City bombing, the Atlanta Olympics bombing, the Unabomber case. He remains sort of the right person by experience. I do think he has proven to be too circumspect, too slow, and not appreciating the imminent danger to our democracy. I am not somebody who is on social media or on MSNBC or NBC News every day calling for his resignation. Let me tell you why.

First of all, having lived inside the Department of Justice for decades, what I can tell you is it's a very slow-moving outfit. Always has been, always will be. My friend Claire McCaskill, who was a former local prosecutor before she became a senator. I was also something of a local prosecutor because in the D.C. U.S. Attorney's Office, we prosecute all the federal crimes and all the local crimes. So we are, in essence, both federal and local prosecutors. What Claire always says is the difference between the Department of Justice and state prosecutors is state prosecutors answer 911 calls and they bring criminal prosecutions in real time, immediately. There's an arrest. They're in court. They're trying cases. That's not the way the

Department of Justice operates. They don't take 911 calls. If they take anything, they take 411 calls about information that perhaps federal crimes may have been committed or perhaps are ongoing. And then they begin to investigate proactively before arrests are ever made. The problem is that that creates a culture of taking one's time and investigating slowly in the grand jury and trying to perfect your case. But the problem is the attack on the Capitol, the attack on our democracy presents an unprecedented series of crimes that represent a very real danger to our society and to the continued health and viability of our democracy. And the Department of Justice is like this big investigative steamer ship that has not been able to alter course even a couple of degrees to respond in real time to this novel series of crimes that have been committed. I hope they're going to get there. I still have faith in Merrick Garland that he's moving the Department of Justice toward accountability for everybody. Now, I have been a very vocal critic of DOJ with respect to some of the decisions they've made,

like supporting Trump in the E. Jean Carroll law defamation suit. That is a dead wrong decision. Happy to talk about it if we get there. I also have criticized them mightily for not moving out on crimes unrelated to the insurrection, like Donald Trump's theft of the 2016 election by being in a campaign finance crimes conspiracy with Michael Cohen, for which Michael Cohen has paid, but Donald Trump has not paid. There are the multiple obstruction of justice offenses years ago documented in the Mueller report that were just packaged up and ready for prosecution the minute Donald Trump left office. That's unrelated to the insurrection. Radio silence on that. There's bribery and extortion of President Zelensky that I believe a novice prosecutor could prove in his or her sleep.

Uncharged remains Donald Trump. So those are areas of criticism. And I hope we're going to get some action or some explanation from the Department of Justice. not to run on ad nauseum, but there are two really important developments just yesterday that I think help shed a little bit of light on what's going on at the Department of Justice. First of all, Guy Reffitt, a so-called leader of the three percenters, was convicted in less than four hours. That jury, and I was in the courtroom for some of the trial watching the evidence, watching my friends, former colleagues prosecute that case. And the evidence was strong. But here's what's really important for people to remember. The jury not only banged him out in less than four hours, barely enough time to choose a four person and begin surveying the evidence. But they convicted him on all counts, including

obstructing an official proceeding, the congressional certification of Joe Biden's win. He didn't even enter the building that day. So he didn't even make his way into the Capitol. And yet he was convicted of the felony of obstructing the official proceeding. That's important. Couple that with another important development yesterday, the indictment of the former leader of the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio. Ben, Tarrio wasn't even in D.C. on the day of the insurrection, and he has now been indicted for conspiracy to violently attack the Capitol. These are some insights into how things are building at the Department of Justice. Remember when Merrick Garland said we will pursue criminal charges of people at any level, whether they were at the Capitol that day or otherwise criminally responsible? Well, we just saw that play out

in real life with yesterday's indictment of Enrique Tarrio. And I believe to my core, DOJ will not stop there. And you saw the Enrique Tarrio arrest and how that went down, you know, the old fashioned perp walk. Now the insurrectionist walk, if you will, you know, and literally taking him out with his shirt off, you know, naked and and making a show of it. Was that intentional? That was probably intentional, but even more than the sort of showmanship aspect. I'm not a fan of the perp walks. I don't think that I don't think that portrays a law enforcement agency at its best.

I understand the reasons it's done. And I'm all for deterrent value. Believe me. But the way we deter future crime is by prosecuting, convicting and harshly sentencing today's criminals. That's how we deter crime, not by prancing them around in their underwear in front of the cameras. But here's the, I think, one of the most important pieces of the way the takedown unfolded yesterday of Enrique Tarrio. Is there one person in this country who predicted two days ago that there would be this really consequential indictment of Enrique Tarrio. No one did. What does that tell us? It tells us that DOJ is doing its business in the most tight-lipped fashion. We don't know what's going on. And that was just proved to us in the Enrique Tarrio case. So let's trust that they're still doing it. And they are. And they're going to begin working their way up the criminal ladder to the command structure of the insurrection. Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, Jeffrey Clark, John Eastman, Rudy Giuliani, Don Jr., Mo Brooks, and of course, the former guy himself.

They all have criminal responsibility. I don't believe for a minute the Department of Justice will stop with Enrique Tarrio. That's why I think there's a lot of import on the seditious conspiracy plea that they got as well of one of the terrorist oath keepers, another big development. And with seditious conspiracy, the next question is, it is a conspiracy between people, between co-conspirators. So the question is, who are those co-conspirators? And that goes to the people who you just mentioned on that list. I cannot conceive of a Department of Justice or a United States of America in which a president can launch an attack against our democracy and try to

unconstitutionally retain the office of the presidency without being held accountable, without being prosecuted for those obvious crimes. Crimes for which proving his criminal content, his guilty mens rea, his corrupt state of mind, will be easier than the vast majority of cases that I handled in my 30 years as a federal prosecutor. And Bill Barr, quite frankly, could be a marquee prosecution witness against Donald Trump, because as much as I believe Bill Barr should be charged with his crimes developed as a cooperating witness and then testify against Donald Trump, he's running his mouth on his reputation rehabilitation tour saying, among other things, I told Donald Trump that your claim that the election was stolen was, quote, BS. Everything after that moment, and even, Ben, frankly, before that moment, it proves Donald Trump's corrupt intent, his guilty state of mind. His own attorney general, not to mention his own executive branch agency, said no fraud undermining the election's results. It wasn't stolen. It wasn't rigged. Let Donald Trump go in and try to present 12 people in a jury box that he had a good faith basis to believe it was. That is BS. And that's why proving his criminal intent, which some people say is so hard. I did it for 30 years with far less evidence than we have against Donald Trump.

Well, I want to go back to something you just said. You said Bill Barr should be charged with a crime. Yeah. And what do you think the crime would be that that they should charge Barr with? How about for starters, lying to Congress, which is a false statement in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1001. That's an easy one. You know why it's easy? Because he did it on video. But here's what he did. Senator Kamala Harris cross-examined him expertly and said, did anybody at the White House, including Donald Trump, tell you to open an investigation into someone. Bill Barr fumbled and mumbled and struggled with words like suggested because that's such a complicated word. And what was his answer under oath? I don't know. Guys, he did know. He just didn't want to say.

And I wish people would accept this as true. I don't know is not a perjury-proof answer, if you do know. Because if I don't know was perjury-proof, guess what? For 30 years, I wouldn't have been able to try anybody, because every bad guy or every associate of the target I was investigating would walk into the grand jury and under oath would say, Mr. Kirshner, I don't know. Nothing you can do about it. Can I leave now? Get out of Jeffrey Card. My friend, they could walk into a court of law, take the witness stand and say, I don't know. Oh, case dismissed. It's absurd that we're going to let an attorney general of the United States lie under oath to the Senate and get away with it. That is but one example. So the whole Bill Barr thing to

me is just it's so baffling because to me, from my perspective, Bill Barr acted as Donald Trump's henchman the entire time that he was in that role. However, at the very end, during this one moment is when he seemed to put his fist down and say, no, I'm not doing this. Why do you think this, the insurrection, everything happening around January 6th, the election fraud claims, why do you think that was Barr's breaking point? Yeah. If it's a bridge too far for Bill Barr when it comes to crime and corruption, boy, you know, it's got to be dramatic. And I think at the end of the day, Bill Barr didn't want to go to prison for treason. I'm going to use treason in a layman's sense for the most egregious crimes against our democracy.

Even Bill Barr is like, look, I will corruptly help out Donald Trump's criminal associates like Roger Stone and Mike Flynn and Paul Manafort and this one and that one. But you know what? This is a bridge too far. I resign. And he was smart to do that. I don't I don't think he's gotten himself out of the criminal mix. I still think he should be charged for his crimes, but he was smart to get in front of it. And what he's saying now, literally, when he says, I told Trump it wasn't stolen. And Donald Trump went out on January 6th and lied to everybody and said, they stole your vote. They stole your presidency. And they're going to steal your country if you don't walk down the street and fight like hell and stop what's going on in that

building. What I've just described is inciting an insurrection. And we know we can prove Donald Trump launched that attack from a place of fraud. And Bill Barr would be prosecution witness number one. Now, as I said the other day, Bill Barr's credibility is lower than whale droppings. And apparently his self-respect is even lower because he said, even though Trump is deranged and dangerous, I vote for him again. So he wouldn't be a fun cooperating witness for me to sponsor as a prosecutor. But you can bet I'd do it. You can bet. But I would do it after charging him, making him accept responsibility for his own crimes

and then making sure he had an incentive to tell the whole truth about Donald Trump. Yeah, I mean, I definitely got to agree with you that that right there in and of itself shows intent of Trump and shows that he knew the election was not stolen. He was being told by everybody that the election was not in fact stolen, that there was and there was no fraud. I thought there was another interesting thing that Barr was going around saying on this quote unquote rehabilitation tour, which is that Trump is so he was so detached from reality. He believed that he would have another term. He was just so out there. Do you think that Trump is so he was so detached from reality. He believed that he would have another term. He was just so out there. Do you think that he is trying to lay a groundwork for some sort of kooky Trump defense? What do you think is happening there with those words?

I don't. I think Trump was less detached from reality and more determined that, you know, he had to convince everybody, regardless of the evidence, that the election was stolen. That's the only way he might be able to retain the presidency and then benefit from the horrific Department of Justice policy that says we don't think it's a good idea to indict a sitting criminal president. Here's the thing. I litigated in the courts of D.C. the longest competency hearing ever conducted. I only know it's the longest competency hearing ever conducted because the judge told me so. And so competency to stand trial, which is what Bill Barr was creeping toward when he was saying, oh, he's so detached from reality, is it's a very, very, very difficult proposition for a defendant to prove to a court that he's so

out of touch with reality that he's not even minimally competent to stand trial. That bar couldn't be any lower. And there's no way Donald Trump, after litigating this issue in front of a judge, would ever be found not competent to stand trial. Insanity defense is another thing, and he wouldn't have an insanity defense either. That's even harder for a defendant to win. So now this is just Bill Barr spouting off whatever Bill Barr thinks is in Bill Barr's interest to spout off at the moment. Another thing I know you've been following with DOJ is we've had so many promising developments in the past week. Like I feel like this week was actually a blockbuster week with, with Tario, with Guy Reffitt. However, you know, there are some things that are right in front of our face that we're seeing

that are just not happening, like Mark Meadows. And I know you've been having Mark Meadows indictment watch on your Twitter feed, which I'm not sure if I enjoying is the right word, but I've been, you know, liking seeing your posts and keeping them accountable for that. At this point, it's been over 80 days since Meadows was referred for criminal indictment. And yet we've seen nothing from DOJ. I mean, what the hell is going on there? So there are multiple potential reasons for it. Okay. One is that Meadows finally saw the light of day, would rather not go to prison and is quietly cooperating now with the J6 committee and with the Department of Justice. Stranger things have happened. You know, pressure bursts pipes. And the more pressure I had to apply to a potential defendant to try to inspire cooperation,

eventually, sometimes that pressure broke that pipe and the person would cooperate even though they were originally determined not to he could be cooperating um it could be that doj is involved in some of their kind of famous legal naval gazing analysis trying to figure out if it's okay to indict a former chief of staff? The answer is it couldn't be more clear. Meadows provided the J6 committee with tons of documentation responsive to a subpoena. Then when he was called in with another subpoena for testimony to be asked about it, he said, I'm not coming. Well, guess what? Sport, you don't have a privilege for the information, the documents you turned over. So the January 6th committee had every reason to subpoena him, to ask him about that. And he has no legal defense. That doesn't mean there's not a lot of analysis. And as I call

it, you know, legal navel gazing at the DOJ trying to figure out, is this something we can do? That could be another reason that they're slow walking this, because let's be clear, the law says once Congress has made a referral of a criminal contempt charge, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia or the relevant jurisdiction shall present it to the grand jury for its action. The law dictates it. Now, it doesn't say the grand jury must indict. That depends on the evidence that's presented. But here's another reason they might be slow walking it. If it were me, I would be investigating Meadows for crimes well beyond just contempt of Congress. He might be involved as part of Donald Trump's emerging, the evidence is emerging, conspiracy to defraud the United States.

And so it could be they don't want to indict a standalone contempt charge. They're rolling it into a larger criminal investigation and ultimately indictment against Meadows. And here's kind of the fourth, if we're up to four possibilities. Fifth, one of the possibilities is they're so darn timid that they're not going to do it. I don't believe that for a minute. I know that the colleague of mine, Matt Graves, is now the U.S. attorney. We work together at the U.S. attorney's office. And mind you, one week after he was confirmed by the Senate, Steve Bannon was banged out, criminally indicted for his contempt of Congress. That gives me some comfort that Matt Graves is doing the job. But the other thing is, once you indict somebody, all kinds of discovery obligations kick in and you got to start giving over documents. So maybe

that's another reason to hold back. And then finally, and this is actually, I think, a really interesting investigative angle. When you indict somebody, you can no longer use that person in a covert capacity. What do I mean by that? We will run defendants as undercover covert sources because once we've got them and we know the evidence will support an indictment, we're like, you want to start working it off right now before you're ever arrested? Well, Mark Meadows, how about we wire you up? Right. That's the old school term.

There's all kinds of electronic ways now to wire people up. But listen, here's the other thing. And I know I'm running on, but this is kind of the bigger picture question about why are they taking so long? If it were me, I would have indicted Trump long ago or asked a grand jury to. But the other thing I would do is because Trump doesn't write, doesn't read, doesn't send emails, doesn't text, doesn't do anything. He operates like a mob boss.

I would probably spend the first part of the investigation investigating covertly. I would have I would be up on T3 wiretaps of every flipping phone that I knew Trump was communicating to, not necessarily his phone, though, if I could get a court to authorize it, I would get it. But because why? Because now you need these statements being made by Trump because he doesn't write stuff down. So I would be working covertly longer than I ordinarily would in this kind of an investigation. And then at some point, you got to start locking people up and subpoenaing people to the grand jury. Yeah, a lot of food for thought. And this is why I so value your

perspective. I mean, I think your perspective is just so important right now. I just want to shift. I know Jordy has a few questions, but first first I just want to shift to the Manhattan DA's office and touch on that for a moment. Obviously chaos there. Mark Pomerantz and Carrie Dunn abruptly resigned allegedly because they were mad that Bragg suggested he would not bring charges against Donald Trump. But Bragg has since hired new attorneys onto the case. He insists it is moving forward. First, what did you make of the news when it dropped? And is Bragg just pulling our leg here? Is this investigation dead in the water? Daily, which has since been published. And the information that we had at that time was there were some rumblings that Pomerantz and Dunn resigned because Bragg was not enthusiastic about pursuing Trump. And then the next development was the New York media tried to use the New York version of the FOIA laws to get Pomerantz and Dunn's resignation

letters. And here's what the DA's office said. They said two things. Investigations ongoing. They said it is, quote, not true that we've abandoned the prosecution against Trump. And they said we've appointed a new lead prosecutor in the investigation. But we're not going to release the resignation letters because it would impact our ongoing investigation. Trust us on this. And it contains too much information. At that point, I put pen to paper and I said, that doesn't make sense to me. That Pomerantz and Dunn would drop into their resignation letters all sorts of intimate,

confidential investigative detail about the case. I said, I think Bragg is covering up because those letters are probably deeply critical of Bragg's inappropriate decision to kill the case. And then the next thing you know, there's more New York Times reporting coming out that, yeah, you're darn right. It was because Bragg was killing the case. So so here's, you know, a lack of action by whether it's by Bragg or the Department of Justice to hold political criminals accountable is horrendous. But when it is coupled with a lack of transparency, it is like the death of public confidence in institutions. But Bragg added on top of inaction and a lack of transparency, deception, because that's not why he was refusing, in my opinion, to release those resignation letters. So Bragg is distinguishing himself as the worst of the worst, and we'll see if he can rally.

And honestly, I think you hit the nail on the head with the frustration of so many people, including myself, which is the lack of transparency across the board. I understand that you can't really speak to an ongoing investigation, that that's generally policy in these prosecutorial offices. However, when you don't say a word, all it does is creates a vacuum for conspiracies and for anger and for discontent amongst the public. And I recommend the article that you had mentioned, New York Times piece was a great read. It's called How the Manhattan DA's Investigation into Donald Trump Unraveled. I think it's an important piece that spells out exactly what's happening, at least as far as what we currently know there.

And I mean, straight up, it's not great. No, it's worse than not great. And maybe this new woman, Suzanne Huffinger, who has been representing white collar criminals for the last couple of decades, is exactly the right person to come in and head up the Trump prosecution. I'll believe it when I see it. And hey, Glenn, earlier in the interview, you mentioned that you were critical of the DOJ and their decision to support the Trump Department of Justice position to join the case as a defendant against E. Jean Carroll, inner defamation. You also were critical of the DOJ, apparently not prosecuting the Presidential Ina inauguration committee, their alleged theft.

Why do you think the DOJ did, and in that last instance, did not do these things? You know, I do believe, I've grown to dislike the word institutionalist. You know, people, well, Merrick Garland is an institutionalist and he's looking, well, you know, you can't be concerned about the reputation of the institution more than you can be concerned about doing what's right based on the facts and the law of each case. So with E. Jean Carroll, for example, that was a discretionary call. Merrick Garland's Department of Justice had a legal basis. There was precedent for him to take Donald Trump's side rather than E. Jean Carroll's side.

That doesn't make it the right thing to do. I also don't buy into, we have to be so careful about taking any position against Donald Trump because the Republicans in the future might take that position against a Democratic president. Well, they already do every minute of every day, and they always have. So you're really only tying one hand behind your back. You're not constraining future Republican behavior. Heck, Newt Gingrich took to the airwaves and said, if the Republicans take control of the House in 2022, we're expecting that the members of the J6 committee will be locked up. Really? And I assume that's because you're going to use you're going to serve them with frivolous subpoenas. And when they fight them, you're going to use the inherent power of congressional contempt that the Democrats refuse to use. I mean, this whole thing is like, you know, we're making decisions in Wonderland.

They're not fact based, reality based decisions. So I appreciate that the Department of Justice, each time it makes a decision, is trying to make the right decision. But here is my fundamental concern. When Merrick Garland says over and over and over again, we will follow the facts and follow the law wherever they lead. I was a prosecutor for 30 years. That's our mantra. That's like saying, as a prosecutor today, I will breathe in, followed by breathing out. And it's just kind of the way it is. What I think the American people need an answer to is, OK, we got you, Mr. Attorney General. But when the facts clearly show people committed crimes and the law clearly supports that they should be charged

for those crimes. So we follow the facts and we follow the law and it should result in an indictment. But it doesn't. What are we, the American people, to think about the reasons for your inaction? Because by your own account, you don't seem to be following the facts and following the law. We would really like to know what you're doing, why you're doing it, and why should we have confidence in your decision or your timetable? And then let me just go back to something you said about, we all agree that you can't compromise an ongoing investigation by spouting out lots of information and evidence, right? How many times did Jim Comey, and I hate to go back to this, as the director of the FBI, tell us every investigative

detail about what was going on with Hillary Clinton, right up to, oh, it just fills me with rage. It's kind of like being a master mathematician, right? And then someone gives you, what's one plus one? It's like, it's two, it You know, we could go into the far more complex analogies, but that's a crime. And by the way, this this actually perfect segue to my last question here. That's finally I mean, Glenn, your podcast is called Justice Matters. After the past six or so years and especially the last year, plus the insurrection, does justice still matter? Oh, it matters.

I think it matters to this to a super majority of the American people. It certainly matters to us. It doesn't matter to some of the Trumpers. And we're not going to be able to persuade them to change their minds or to change their worldview. And we understand that. But but the fact that it matters and the fact that it's not being done or served is what gives us so much anxiety and desperation. We feel despondent. Sometimes we feel hopeless and helpless. And what I tell everybody is that is precisely where Donald Trump and Bill Barr and Rudy Giuliani and Bannon and company want us. They want us hopeless and helpless and desperate and anxious and depressed. I will not give them that satisfaction. But I'll tell you what, if they try to take our democracy away, look out, folks, look out, because some things are

worth fighting for. One thousand percent. That's why I'm proud to be a Democrat. We are the rule of law party. And we need more people to be proud of that. The real rule of law party are Democrats. Yeah, if there's not equal justice, then there is no justice. And I was so heartened when President Biden, in his inaugural address, said a cry of racial equality 400 years in the making, you know, the promise of equal justice for all will be deferred no longer. And yet I don't feel like we're making much progress on that front. Glenn Kirshner, thank you so much for joining us on the Midas Touch podcast. Everybody check out Justice Matters on YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. We so appreciate you coming on the Midas Touch podcast. Everybody check out Justice Matters on YouTube, wherever you get

your podcasts. We so appreciate you coming on the show. Thank you, guys. It was a great interview with Glenn Kirshner, probably the top legal analyst out there right now. Wildly impressive. Wildly impressive. The levels of his analysis, you know, I would tell our listeners and viewers go back and it's almost an interview you need to listen to twice because on a lot of these podcasts where you have legal analysts, and I say this as a lawyer, I told you, but I'm a lawyer. People say a lot of fluff and bullshit to kind of like, like just, just fill the time gap. But Glenn like packs in so much information that sometimes in just a three minute answer, he's hit on so many major, like heavy issues. So go back and listen to that too. And that's also Brett, you know,

we've had two back to back, incredible legal analysts. I mean, you know, the best in the biz. I mean, going from- Who's booking these shows? Right? Going from the Harry Littman interview to Glenn Kirshner. I mean, what more can you ask for? It doesn't get better than that. Doesn't get better than that. It does not. All right. Let us bring in Alexander Sherba. This is, it's going to be an incredible interview. You know, Alexander being really one of the main voices right now out there, you know, of the resistance of the unlawful invasion. Excited to speak with Alexander. Before doing so, I want to mention that this podcast is sponsored by Athletic Greens.

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Look at a podcast from five months ago. And I have a quick tangent. I have a default setting on my YouTube where it defaults me to a podcast we did five months ago. For whatever reason, I always see you, Ben, conducting the interview then. I mean, it is night and day from what you look like then to what you look like now. Yeah. Because what I do with athletic greens is it's this powder, green powder. I scooped it, duped it, I looped it, looped it. I put it in the cup. I shake it, shake it, eat it.

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sure at the end of this pod, you go to athleticgreens.com slash Midas and make sure you go and get Athletic Greens. Also wanna talk about our partner, BetterHelp. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp Online Therapy. Relationships take a lot of work. A lot of us will drop anything to get and help someone we care about.

We'll go out of our way to treat other people well, but how often do we give ourselves the same treatment? This month, BetterHelp Online Therapy wants to remind you to take care of your most important relationship, and that is the one with yourself. I've been using BetterHelp now for the better part of a year. I personally like BetterHelp because for me, it was inconvenient having to go drive to the therapist each day to sit in the waiting room, to wait, to go there. That would actually cause me a great deal of stress.

So being able to do this in a way that I can do it on my computer or I could do it on my smartphone. If I don't want to show myself on the camera in the day, I don't have to do that, which I like. And I found it cheaper and way just more convenient than traditional therapy. It's really been a good way for me to focus on my mental health. BetterHelp is an online therapy that offers video, phone, and even live chat sessions with your therapist. So you don't have to see anyone on camera if you don't want to, just like Ben said. And it's much more affordable than in-person therapy. And you can be matched with a therapist in under 48 hours. Give it a try today

and see why over 2 million people have used BetterHelp online therapy. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. And guess what? Midas Touch listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com slash Midas. That's B-E-T-T-E-R-H-E-L-P dot com slash M-E-I-D-A-S. Please check out Better Help today. I just can't emphasize enough how important mental health is. Everybody talks about going to the gym and the importance of working out, but you need to make sure that your mind is healthy too. That's betterhelp.com slash Midas. And without further ado, let's go and chat with Oleksandr Shcherba from Ukraine. We are so honored to be joined by Oleksandr Shcherba right now, who spent the last 26 years of diplomatic service for Ukraine. He was Ukraine's ambassador to Austria from 2014 to

2021, author of the book, Undiplomatic Thoughts, Ukraine versus Darkness. Welcome to the pod, Oleksandr. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Alexander, first off, where are you right now and how are you doing? I'm in Ukraine. I'm not at my home, but outside of my town. But I'm in Ukraine. I'm doing well, relatively well. It's a western part of the country, So the things are not as tense here as, as everywhere else. So this is where I am. Great. And Alexander, you know, one of the things that I wanted to address with you right away, you know,

and it's been bothering me is as you see the courage, the heroism, frankly, the wins day after day by the brave Ukrainians, the Ukrainian army, all of the people who are chipping in, men, women, everybody. To hear commentators on the West trying to present a dimmer view, It bothers me because they're not necessarily highlighting what's going out there, acting like Ukraine is desperate and all that. What are you seeing? I know you've sent out some tweets about this,

but what are you seeing to that effect? Well, it's tiresome to read this and to hear this tone or undertone when people comment on this war. Ukraine showed its absolutely surprising, amazing side. All Ukrainians are united. We have been nation split and quarreling about the smallest things until two weeks ago. And now we are one. We used to be Russian-speaking,

Ukrainian-speaking, nationalist, internationalist. We are one right now. And it seems like, as Bruce Willis said in Die Hard, Putin must be running out of bad guys. He must be running out of bad guys by now. It doesn't feel like we are desperate. It doesn't feel like we are losing. It feels like it's a fight of our lives. We deserve help. We deserve support. First of all, we deserve to be somehow protected from the sky. I understand that this with respect to the skies and in terms of support, military, humanitarian? What could be done? of poker. You're not allowed to blink first. Unfortunately, the West has been blinking for

the last couple of decades, unfortunately, showing exuding weakness and showing this conviction that any kind of conflict can be resolved over diplomacy. No, it's not. Now we see that not every kind of conflict. Sometimes there is a maniac on the loose and you have to be tough, you have to be strong. And with this no-fly zone over Ukraine, the West has blinked, has shown weakness. So

maybe at this point, the best way would be to give Ukraine weapons to defend her sky, to give Ukraine the anti-air defense, to give Ukraine the fighter jets, just not be so intimidated all the time. And it's the perception that we have, for instance, when we look at this MiG-29 controversy between Ukraine, United States, and Poland over the last couple of days. I don't know whether you have been following it or not. We have been, and it's been strange to kind of watch it and try

to really understand what's going on with Poland saying that they were going to give jets, but they wanted the United States or NATO to give them replacement jets. And then NATO basically saying, we don't think the jets are the right thing. We think that the anti-aircraft defense makes more sense. Like, you're there. Let's not listen to the diplomats trying to use doublespeak. Like, tell us, what do Ukrainians need right now specifically to finally win this thing? Fighter jets. Fighter jets and air defense.

And I know that there are pilots who are ready to fly these fighter jets for Ukraine. I know that just it's possible. It's doable. Just have to have a little bit of courage, a little bit of guts here. Because while at the same hours when this controversy over this, you know, this bickering over this MiG-29 was happening between the United States and Poland, Russians bombarded the maternity hospital in Mariupol.

Our pregnant women were bombarded. Three people died, 17 people were injured, including one child was dead. And it's happening all the time. I mean, the residential areas get shot, get shelled, get bombarded. It seems like, you know, Putin is definitely the new Hitler,

but Russian soldiers at many points, at many instances, don't seem like bloodthirsty Nazis who want to fight and to kill face to face. But if it's not face to face, if it's just a pilot who pushes a button, it's much easier to kill. And this is what they are resorting to. This is what they are doing. They are destroying our infrastructure that they are killing the civilians. That's why the skies are so important. here in the United States, on our media, on social media, of these horrific war crimes by Vladimir Putin and the Russian military playing out on a near daily basis, if not an hourly basis. You just mentioned the bombing of the maternity hospital. Last report I read said over at least

71 children have been killed in Ukraine. What do you think would be an adequate punishment for Vladimir Putin and the Russian leadership at the end of this war? got money in the West. They like, they love the idea that the dear ones can travel to the West whenever they want. So the first thing that comes to mind, make these events really, really broad. I mean, include wives, include children, include friends, mistresses, whoever, of the decision-makers and propagandists and oligarchs in Russia. This would be something that would really, really punish them. Just today, Alexei Navalny Foundation published the photographs of the dear ones of Lavrov who live in London and enjoy life. I saw that in that incredible, you know, apartments and spending a ton of money in the UK. And she doesn't have a source of income herself. And I think her biological father doesn't, but she's getting all this money

from Lavrov, who I believe is her stepdad. Was that the story? Yeah, the same is happening with all these other big guys, decision makers. We have two, three families and mistresses and so on and so forth who fly to London, to their English castles, to Italy, to their villas, and so on and so forth. So this would be something that would hurt. And of course, it would be incredibly painful to see once this war is over, for some Western president to start again some kind of a reset, or, you know, reaching out a friendly hand to Putin's successor, and swiping it under the rug.

Just this political isolation must be there. Economic isolation must be there. Economic isolation must be there. So that would be the consequence that Russia has deserved. I have never been an enemy of Russia. Until the last moment, I wasn't believing in this war. I was, you know, when I was appointed ambassador to Austria, President Poroshenko was criticized for appointing a Russophile ambassador. But right now, it just pains me to say both Putin, the Putin's regime, but also the population who are ecstatic about this war are at guilt.

Do you think Putin should be tried for war crimes? Absolutely, but he won't probably. I think one of the most staggering images, contrasts rather, is what we've seen between President Zelensky and Vladimir Putin. We see the images of heroism of Zelensky. We see Zelensky literally in the trenches with his soldiers, arms around his generals, really just in the fight, inspiring, bringing together the world. Then we see these ridiculous images of Vladimir Putin sitting 50 feet away from his people. He's kind of been hiding like in a bunker this whole time, not really making statements, kind of seems like a raving lunatic and a madman. What do you make of the differences that we are seeing right now between

the leadership of Zelensky and Putin? We call Putin bunker dwarf here. He's just this evil grandpa who is isolated from the whole world, sitting there and meeting only with people who are ready to submit these so-called anal swipes, because that's the safest way to prove you don't have COVID. That's why some people sit right in front of him like Bolsonaro and some people sit very distant from him. So Bolsonaro was ready to submit his his tool probe. But for instance, Macron wasn't, which is ridiculous, which is crazy, which is insane. And he's just going deeper and deeper in this rabbit hole and dragging his country with him.

And on the other side, there is Vladimir Zelensky, who until recently was admired by some, hated by others here in Ukraine. And all of a sudden, like my friend Vladislav Davytson wrote on Twitter, Zelensky is a hero. Who knew? It just, he is. I mean, I'm proud of my country. I'm proud of my nation right now, my military, and I'm extremely proud of my president. He is a hero. I just want to, you know, go on a tangent for a second and say how inspired I am by Ukraine and how inspired we all are by everything you're doing. It's really an example of heroism that we just haven't seen really ever in the wants to have peace talks, they want to call for a ceasefire while they are bombing buildings. You've notably said, you've notably said, there's really no diplomatic solution here with Russia. So what do you make of these, every time that they say that there is a peace talk, every time they say there is an opportunity for diplomacy, and if not diplomacy, how does this war end? I remember how the Soviet Union

ended when the economic situation deteriorated, when people got tired of the long lines, when the Afghanistan war was lost. So I think that Putin is heading in that direction. Russia is heading in that direction. Things can escalate quite quickly as long as Ukraine holds her ground and as long as the West is principled in the economic sanctions. There are very, very good indications and signs of, you know, this 300-something big corporation leaving the Russian market.

There are some not-so-good indications, like Germany refusing to stop importing Russian gas. But in general, I think Putin has lost not only this war, he has lost Russia's future. Everything he, all the gains he made during the last two decades, it all went down the drain. I just, so the question, so he's going down, just the question is at what price, first of all, for Ukraine, second of all, for Russia, third of all, for the question. So he's going down. Just the question is, at what price? First of all, for Ukraine, second of all, for Russia, third of all, for the world.

What do you think the average person sitting at home watching the show can do to help? No, everything counts. Everything counts. You can go to the website of Ukrainian National Bank, look up the account requisites and donate. Just the other day, the tiny, tiny nation of Luxembourg donated 250 million euros to Ukraine. I mean, it's the size of the soul that matters. You can, I don't know, go online and use hashtag StandWithUkraine. You can call your friends in Ukraine and just say good words.

You can hug a Ukrainian who lives next to you and is worried about the family. Just it's everything counts. And I'm amazed at how Ukraine, by resisting to the evil, just woke up the world and woke up the conscience of the world. You know, I was as a diplomat, I was so irritated by this concept. We are pragmatics. We are pragmatics, we are pragmatics. And people hid behind this word pragmatism, their greed, their laziness, their stupidity, sometimes, not every time, but sometimes, very often. And right now, the world all of a sudden isn't pragmatic. The world is just seeing a very clear line between

good and evil, and the line is because Ukraine is fighting. So thank you for supporting Ukraine. Thank you for seeing this war for what it is, just a fight between good and evil, light and darkness. Absolutely. I'm not sure if you know this. In the United States, we actually have a network called Fox News. News in parentheses here. So they've been broadcasting Russian talking points, lies, and disinformation. What would you say to them and the companies that allow them to broadcast their messages? Oh, God, shame on you.

Shame on you. Shame on you, Tucker Carlson. I mean, when you say, why should we support Ukraine and not Russia? Just what's wrong with your moral compass? What's wrong with your soul? I mean, how dead is your soul when you say things like that? When Ukrainian pregnant women get bombarded, when Ukrainian children are rescued from this rubble that used to be their homes. I mean, you ask why Ukraine should be supported? I mean, there is something seriously wrong with this guy. And there is something really

seriously wrong with Fox News if they give him the air. Alexander Sherba, I want to thank you so much for joining us on the Midas Touch podcast. Any other final words you want to get out to anyone listening? Oh, America, I love you so much. I spent four years living in Washington. I always knew that America is one place in the world where people don't smirk when they hear the words freedom and democracy. You, America, were an inspiration for Ukraine. Now Ukraine is an inspiration for many Americans. I want this to be not only during the war, but always, because Ukraine is the natural partner for you guys.

Because we basically, we defied our whole history, our bad karma, our bad decisions from the past and discovered freedom and democracy on our own, just like you did 250, 100 years ago. We should be partners forever. So thank you so much. Alexander Sherba, thank you so much for joining us and we hope you'll be back on the podcast. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. So great having Oleksandr Shcherba on. We are so grateful to him, to the fight of the brave Ukrainian people. And we will keep you updated, of course, as all the developments going on in Ukraine. Just I always like to, as we kind of reach the end of the podcast, talk about podcasts that we enjoy and that we like to listen to. Always important, I think, to make these recommendations because there's a lot of bad content out there. There's a lot of boring content and some people

go, what, Brett, Ben, and Jordy, probably not in that order. They usually start with me first. Ben, Brett and Jordy. Jordy's usually last in the list. They go, what podcasts do you listen to when you're not recording your own podcast? Well, one of them is Hell and High Water by John Heilman. Jordy, Brett, you want to talk about that pod? Yeah. I mean, I love Hell and High Water. And I just also want to emphasize what Ben just said, the importance of uplifting pro-democracy voices. I mean, like I said, we spoke about Charlie Kirk earlier in the show, who is currently spreading the Russian and Chinese propaganda to his followers. That's what he's doing. And he's on like the top 10 of the podcast charts. So let's try to uplift all pro-democracy voices when you see him. Helen Highwater is one of my favorites out there. It features John Heilman, who's one of the most prolific journalists in the country. Love seeing him on MSNBC every day now.

You might know him as the host of The Circus on Showtime, which is one of the most innovative political shows ever made, or from his regular appearances as a national affairs analyst on MSNBC and NBC News. And you probably also recognize him as a guest on this very podcast, the Midas Touch podcast. And on Helen Highwater, John DeSex, our tumultuous times with deep thinkers from around the world of politics, policy and culture. People like Brian Cox, a.k.a. Logan Roy from Succession, former Biden COVID advisor, Andy Slavitt, journalist Anne Applebaum and L.A. mayoral candidate Representative Karen Bass. So if you like in-depth conversations that get at the heart of this apocalyptic moment we're still living through, unfortunately, then Hell and High Water is the podcast for you. Subscribe to Hell and High Water wherever you get your podcasts, wherever you listen to Midas Touch, you can find Hell and High Water. I would say this was one of our best shows of all time. And I hope if you learned

something from it, if you took value in the interviews we had with Glenn, the interviews we had with Alexander Sherba, please share it with everybody you know. Tell them about the show. Give us a five-star rating on the Apple Podcast app and be vigilant out there for disinformation because I am warning you that there is a ton, a ton, a ton of Russian propaganda and Chinese propaganda right now being spread to try to hurt Ukraine, to try to hurt the United States and the same bad actors in the United States on the Republican Party. And those influencers are working in coordination with them to amplify these messages. So be careful when you are reading things online, be vigilant about things that you

like, about things that you retweet. And Ben, you had a really interesting kind of counter message the other day that I want to hit on because there's a lot of concern right now with gas prices. It seems like if you turn on the American news media, sometimes it's like, is there even a war going on in Ukraine or are people more concerned about paying a little bit extra for gas? And I loved your comment, Ben, which I think really resonated with people online because it got like 100,000 likes or 80,000 likes or something like that. But Ben, what was the comment that you made online? The comment that I made is gas is expensive, freedom is priceless. And when I made the statement, I didn't realize it was going to

get 81,000 likes in the first day, but it was generally just an observation that I made the statement, I didn't realize it was going to get 81,000 likes in the first day, but it was generally just an observation that I made. There really wasn't a deeper meaning other than gas is expensive. It is. I'm not judging. It just is expensive. But freedom is priceless at the end of the day, which is the most important thing about what we are fighting for. There's lots of arguments. I wish gas wasn't so expensive. All agreed. I want to holistically address it.

But what we need to all remember, what we need to all focus on is we're fighting for freedom. These are existential battles that we are dealing with. And just because we may feel like we're in safe bubbles or we're kind of avoiding the confrontation, you can't really avoid the confrontation for that. The confrontation will come to you as long as there are people like Madison Cawthorn, Matt Gaetz, Vladimir Putin's, you know, I put them all together. Ted Cruz is Governor DeSantis is out there. They're coming

for you. They're coming to take away your rights. They're coming to tell you what you can and can't do. They're big government. That's the irony of it. They want to take away. They want to restrict your speech. They want to tell you who you can love. They want to regulate your life because they are despotic people. And that's what they do. If you ever hear anybody say, hey, oh, the Republican Party. Oh, I vote for the Republican Party because they're the party of small government conservatives. Bullshit. They are not. The Republican Party is the party of big government fascists, big government authoritarianism,

the biggest possible government you could imagine. They are the opposite of live and let live. They are the opposite of personal responsibility, the opposite of personal freedom. While Democrats are smart government, I would say, you have the Republicans who are big government authoritarians. And Ben, gas is expensive. Freedom is priceless. Immediately when you said that, I saw that Maria Shriver retweeted it and said, this is the messaging that we need. I love this messaging. And a lot of people were immediately also requesting, put this on t-shirts, put this on bumper stickers. So of course, Jordy, our merch guy is trying to spread the message that we need to highlight

freedom above all right now, because it is so important. So Jordy, tell us about the limited edition drop that we have just for our listeners right now. Yeah. Now you guys know we don't play. We've done a couple of limited drops like this in the past. And once it's sold out, it's sold out. So we're running a 100 quantity in total. That's it. That's all the inventory that we have. Bumper sticker. It says gas is expensive. Freedom is priceless. And for every reason that the brothers just laid out so eloquently and so beautifully, go get this sticker today. Store.MidasTouch.com. That's store.M-I-D-A-S-T-O-U-C-H.com. Thank you everybody so much for listening to this episode of MidasTouch.com. That's store.meidastouch.com. Thank you everybody so much for listening to this episode of Midas Touch Podcast. Special thanks to all of our sponsors, Wondry Business

Wars, BetterHelp, Athletic Greens. Everyone check out Hell and High Water Podcast. Glenn Kirshner and Alexander Sherba, thank you so much for joining us as guests. We will see you on the next episode of the Midas Touch podcast. Make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel. YouTube is now the home of the Midas Touch produced. Mayakolpa is on the video streams on the Midas Touch YouTube channel. And the YouTube content is just great. Leave five-star review, please.

That helps with the podcast growth on the charts. See you next time on the Midas Touch podcast. Shout out to the Midas Mighty.