The MeidasTouch Podcast - D-List Impeached President with Tom Arnold

Episode Date: February 9, 2021

The Meidas Brothers start the show with an update about our victory in our lawsuit against QAnon Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. They then discuss the results of the #TeamBrett vs. #TeamBen Twitter poll regarding COVID relief checks and Brett breaks out his best Bernie Sanders impression. The brothers discuss the importance of raising the minimum wage and the popularity of Biden's proposals and actions – in spite of GQP quackery. Next, the Meidas Brothers welcome on comic, actor and host of the Off Topic with Tom Arnold Podcast, Tom Arnold, to dish on the Trump Russia tapes, Trump losing his slipper at the Playboy mansion, Jerry Falwell Jr's predatory behavior, his battle with Mark Burnett and more. The brothers wrap up the show by bringing you the latest on all things impeachment as the Senate trial kicks off. A special thanks to our friends at C-SPAN for sponsoring this show! Watch complete coverage of the Senate trial — from this week’s opening arguments to the Senate’s vote to acquit or convict – LIVE and unfiltered on C-SPAN2, c-span.org or on the FREE C-SPAN Radio app. Please consider rating this podcast 5-stars on Apple Podcast if you enjoy the show and help us continue to climb the charts! --- 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

That's not America, no that's not America. Welcome to the Midas Touch Podcast. Ben Micellis here, joined by my younger brothers, Brett Micellis and Jordy Micellis. Brothers, according to Podboard 100, we are the number one podcast in the United States of America. Let's go! That's unbelievable, guys. Let's go. That's unbelievable, guys.

Let's go. Not only that, the number one in the United States and Canada, North America. Thank you to our listeners in the US and Canada. What an honor. How humbling it is to have your support. And thank you to everybody listening and giving your five-star reviews and talking about us on social media, sharing the clips. You make this all possible. And from the bottom of our hearts, we're so thankful for you. And so being number one on the pod board is incredible. But what was also,

I think, arguably even a better victory this week was Marjorie Taylor Greene. After we sued her for blocking Midas touch on social media in violation of our First Amendment rights. Marjorie Taylor Greene, when confronted with our threat of filing a class action on behalf of everybody who she blocked and violated their First Amendment rights to. She unblocked everybody. We did it, guys. Let's go. The best thing was when I was on Twitter that day and I just saw people just randomly tweeting, why did Marjorie Taylor Greene unfollow me today? And then some of the comments was like, because Midas sued them. So I love that she had to have that conversation with somebody and had to be like, yeah, I guess we have to unblock the thousands of people that we block. But I think the bigger point made here, guys, is how quickly these people fold once actual pressure is applied. Not talk, but once you actually act against the Marjorie Taylor Greene's of the world, suddenly they unblock everybody from their feed.

Once you sue the Fox News of the world, suddenly they fire people like Lou Dobbs. And it just goes to show you that if we want change, we need to hold people accountable, not just with our words, but with our actions. And we need to keep up this momentum. A hundred percent. It was the same thing with Trump's frivolous claims of election fraud. He'd make these claims outside in the public, around the media, on Fox News and OAN. But when he actually stepped into a courtroom and was there to actually argue the case and present evidence,

what would he do? Nothing. He would say that there's no fraud whatsoever because you were confronted with a federal judge right there. Guys, let's just take a brief moment of silence for Lou Dobbs' career. Okay, that's plenty. That's enough time. Lou Dobbs, we won't miss you. Good riddance. Talking about, though, good riddance, Brett, it is good riddance to Team Brett, who gets crushed, just utterly embarrassingly crushed. You got to stop losing the polls. Yeah, Brett, you got to stop making polls. So on the previous podcast, on the previous podcast, we had a question regarding the COVID stimulus checks.

I had a perspective. Brett had a perspective. The hashtag Team Ben perspective is that Team Ben wanted to see targeted checks based on income levels in the COVID stimulus bill. And we would possibly raise the limits on who could receive COVID stimulus survivor checks. The hashtag Team Brett position

is to give stimulus checks to everybody, even if very wealthy people receive. Now, here's the thing. Okay. So yes, you won the poll, but all it taught me is that a wrongly worded poll can easily sway public opinion. And I know, I know before you say it, that I put together the first draft of the wording of the poll. You put together the poll. What do the poll. You put together the poll. What do you mean? You put together the poll. And then you tried to be correcting statements to people.

Like you were fighting for your cause, which was a total violation of the poll. Okay. Okay. Because what's the context that's missed here is that we get the money back from people who don't need it later on. Because guys, it does not make sense to tie COVID relief to 2019 wages. It makes zero sense because so much has happened since then. People have been devastated by the pandemic and we need to give everybody the opportunity to get these checks quickly.

Let me just say, I believe that I have the overriding popular opinion, despite what the poll may say, because just days after the poll, AOC was tweeting, the pandemic hit in 2020. We should not use 2019 income to determine relief eligibility. She said, brutally means testing a $1,400 round of checks is going to hurt so many people. That is the risks we can't afford. Income thresholds already work in reverse and lag behind reality. She said conservative Dems could ask to tax the money back later if they're so concerned. Ben, what say you? Oh, my God. AOC said it. So I guess Ben, I guess Ben, I guess that's your that's your you know, that's your proof. I mean, look, at the end of the day, I am an AOC fan. I'm clearly a Brett fan. You're

my brother. But what I think is critical here is the language and is the messaging. And I think, Brett, with all due respect, I think you fell into a trap that sometimes progressives, liberals, who I identify with, fall into. And I'm not going to blame you for this, liberals, who I identify with fall into. And that, you know, and I'm not going to blame you for this, Brett, but that sometimes the people on the right and the Donald Trumps of the world, you know, exploit. And you talk about that poll embedded in that poll, Brett, when you say, even if the very wealthy receive. Yeah, stimulus and give them back. So I don't get to say this often because Ben always says as a lawyer, as a marketer and as an advertiser, the first thing you learn is you got to catch them in the first four words. So if you're going to say, even though wealthy,

you already lost half your audience, Brett, that's why you guys are going to get killed again on Twitter because of this. Even Bernie Sanders took to Twitter and said, unbelievable. There are some Dems. Let's just trade the word some Dems, unbelievable. There are some Dems. Let's just trade the word some Dems for Ben. There are Ben's who want to lower the income eligibility for direct payments from 75,000 to 50,000 for individuals, 150,000 to 100. In other words, the working class people who get checks from Trump would not get them from Biden. Brilliant. That's a good Bernie. Right. You do impressions from now on, Ben, no impressions. Right. yeah brett who knew that who knew that brett could there are some dems who want to lower the income eligibility for direct payments from 75 000 to 50 000 these people's names are ben my

sellers my sellers be team ben if you want to do that you vote for team ben if you don't want to do that you vote for team brett for the people thank you. I've been on earth for about 35 years, about to be 36. I never knew once that Brett could do impressions. But Brett, here's the problem. And here's the logical fallacy, though, where you mess up. Let's hear it. Bernie Sanders didn't say. Bernie Sanders would not say, we need to defend the billionaires.

The billionaires are our friends and the billionaires should get more money. No, Brett, where the nuance of, yeah, do I think 50 to 75,000, 100 to 150,000 for working class families? I'm totally sold. But where you lose me and where you lose the public is by advocating for billionaires who have every tax shelter, every advantage. But it's not advocating for billionaires. It's advocating. So people who may have made 70,000, 90,000, $100,000 in 2019 advocating so that those

people, if they're out of a job now are still getting the relief they need. And if they still have a great income right now and it had a great 2020 and are having a great 2021, those people should pay back the money based on their upcoming tax returns, but they should not be penalized based on how well they were doing in 2019. And one of our fans actually even sent us a message to agree with me. And let's just play this also. Hi, my name is Karen, and I'm listening to your podcast about the stimulus checks.

And I want to say I'm with billionaire Brett on this one because I think it's not just hundreds of people that would get more checks. I think it's thousands and tens of thousands of more people. And what you can do is you can actually just tax at 100% if you got that stimulus check. And let's face it, the billionaires aren't paying that much in tax anyway.

So if $1,500 goes to them, who cares at this point in time? Let's get the money to the people that need it as badly as we can and as quickly as we can. Thank you. Thank you, Karen. Thank you for the support. Where I agree with Karen

is we need to get the money to the people who need it. I think we all agree on that. I think we are at the end of the day are saying the same thing. But Ben chooses to do this Trumpian route of nicknaming me billionaire Brett and then having this whole false narrative approach. But I do want to show you, though, that what was effective about what I did is by framing the issue of Brett wanting to help billionaires, I undercut your argument. So I would just be a little more sensitive to your marketing approach to these packages. And I think the Democrats can look at this, the typical lawyering, typical lawyer Twist the words of the other side to fit your narrative. Anyway, guys, I think we need to talk more about the COVID relief package that's actually on the table and is passing via reconciliation. Why don't you set the stage? Guys, where are we with this package? I know people are wanting their checks. They're wanting to know what's going on with

reconciliation versus need and cloture. Just tell the people. So with respect to reconciliation, the House introduced and passed their bill on Friday at 530 a.m. Vice President Kamala Harris cast the tie breaking vote 51 to 50, adopting the Democratic resolution in favor of the Democratic reconciliation bill. Biden attempted to reach out to Republicans to see if he can get bipartisan support. He was completely rebuffed and completely rejected. So the Democratic Party went ahead and passed the bill in the Senate. They now will have to meet, they'll have to go through the various language in these bills. With reconciliation, you don't need a filibuster proof majority, which is helpful why you would do it through reconciliation. But because it has to be based on spending and taxation, which is called the Byrd rule, you have to be very careful with the

language because if it deviates from that, it could basically destroy the whole bill. So this bill is moving eventually to be passed into law. That's one of the reasons why with the upcoming impeachment trial, people want the impeachment trial to move quickly. There are two paths going on. It doesn't mean that one prevents the other, but we want to get through the impeachment trial and convict Donald Trump, although we'll talk about the difficulty with that when you have the Republican Party that's been totally overtaken by QAnon. But the Democratic reconciliation plan, I think, will pass. One question remains is, will there be a raising of the minimum wage within this reconciliation package? The Republicans are extremely against it. The public is strongly in favor of raising the minimum wage by significant

majorities. And this isn't raising the minimum wage tomorrow. It's phasing in a raise of the minimum wage by 2024 and 2025. 64% of Americans support increases. I'm so sick of the Republican arguments against the minimum wage. Senator Joni Ertz, she inserted language to prohibit the increase of the federal minimum wage during a global pandemic, using the pandemic as an excuse as to why people should not be getting a $15 minimum wage. Let's be clear. This is going to help people. This money will go straight back into the economy, and it's going to help the people who most need it. I don't buy this argument that it's going to be so devastating for small businesses because this has already been implemented in many states and there's really been no impact. In fact,

businesses are thriving in these states. And if the minimum wage actually kept up with the inflation since 1968, the minimum wage right now would actually be over $24 an hour. So the fact is our workers are more productive than ever, and they're not getting paid for their work. And also, you can constantly hear this argument, oh, well, I hope you like buying a Big Mac for $50. I was just thinking that. Hope you like buying. But it's bullshit. It's total bullshit. In McDonald's in America, employees make on average $9 an hour. In Denmark, employees make $22 an hour

at McDonald's. They get six weeks of annual vacation, one year paid family leave. They get life insurance, a pension. A Big Mac in the USA costs around $5.66. A Big Mac in Denmark costs less, $4.90. So there are much more things than just the wages that are actually going to go into the pricing of things. At worst, things might increase by a few more cents. Ben, we're in California. We have In-N-Out. In-N-Out pays everybody $15 an hour. The burgers are like three bucks each. This argument is bunk. It has no standing. And we should try to, you know, let's figure out how to disassociate healthcare from businesses. Imagine if we took away that expense from businesses, how much that is contributing to the cost of goods. There are other things that are much

more harmful to businesses than paying employees a living wage and don't accept that narrative. And even if the cost of a Big Mac went up by cents on the dollar, right? Just cents. But that meant from a morality standpoint that the person who's working and serving you is now able to live and make a proper wage with proper healthcare and live their life like a normal person should be able to live their life. Wouldn't you as a human being just be like, okay, that's our society. We'd be better. And we just spent an entire year, entire year saying how important we call them essential workers, how important these essential workers are to our economy. If you really believe that these are essential workers, pay them the wage they deserve. Side note, isn't Ernst Q affiliated?

I think she's Q adjacent. She's definitely, she's definitely, she definitely flirts with Q. But this is where, though, as Democrats, we need to seize on language. OK, what we're talking about here is a living wage. What we need to make very clear is that if the QAnon GOP is against the living wage, they're against people living, that they would prefer to see you die, that they are anti-life, that they are anti-living wage. Because at the end of the day, we can talk in nuances about various policies, but what's the point of existing? What's the point of government if you don't have life? Let's be clear. If you don't have a living wage, that means that you can't live. That means that

you are so below the poverty line that you could starve to death, that your children may die because they can't eat food. And so we as a country have to look at that and say, are we the kind of country, are we the kind of people that are okay seeing people die, embracing death. And that's why we need a push that these GQP, the Grand QAnon party, that they are a death cult in every respects. They're the death cult on COVID. They're the death cult when it comes to being against people living with living wages, that they're the death cult with health care, that they don't even understand the purpose of life. Like there was just the news, Brett, that the Republican congressman who was rallying against being careful with a Democratic

plan of being careful with opening schools, not that Democrats don't want to open up schools ever. It's that we want to be careful so people don't die. What was the name of that congressman, Brett? The congressman's name was Representative Ron Wright. And literally just a few days ago, two days before he died of COVID, he posted this. He said, Democrats are choosing teachers unions and special interests over the well-being of our students. What are we waiting for? He said, open the schools. Okay, you're dead now.

Let's be clear. You are dead. You don't live. Let me be very clear. Let me be very clear. You can't hear me because he's dead. But let me be clear to people who are living who may be dead. When you're dead, you're not going to be able to hear me.

When you're dead, whatever arguments you're making, you're not going to be able to hear me. When you're dead, whatever arguments you're making, you're not going to be able to make because you're dead. And we as people should not be pro-dead. And how many times do we have to see this play out with these Republican politicians saying that we need to open everything up? Democrats are fear mongering. And then we see these stories and they genuinely believe this stuff or they just think that, you know what, we got to put profits over people's lives at this point. And they try to twist this false narrative that, oh, Democrats are anti-business and anti-opening up business, anti-opening up schools when it couldn't be further from the truth. If we open the correct way, that's how we're going to get businesses

to thrive, not just for a week, but for years to come. We need to build that foundation, not rush it and let the whole thing come crumbling down. Exactly. The GQP pretends to be pro-life, but like Ben was saying, they're anti-living at the end of the day. I'm sick of this bipartisanship talk. Enough bipartisanship. Let's try to do what the American people want. And 64% of Americans support raising the federal minimum wage. And look, as Jen Psaki, the press secretary said, Biden ran on a platform of unifying the American people, not unifying the Democratic and Republican Party into one party. We're trying to reach out to the Republican Party. But ultimately, if they don't want to pursue policies that Americans want, the Democrats are going to have to move along and do what the

American people want. And as Brett said, all of these Democratic proposals are well supported by the American people. Over two thirds of Americans approve of the Biden COVID response, according to an ABC Ipsos poll, whereas about six of 10 people disapprove of Trump's response. The COVID relief bill that we just spoke about, 68 percent of Americans support that bill. These are significant, almost super majorities. And this is according to the Quinnipiac poll. Biden's approval rating is at 61 percent right now, according to an AP Center for Public Affairs poll. Not only that, but I like this, that Brett, that Biden's polling is he has a higher favorability in Texas than Texas's own governor, Greg Abbott, who's just

been a total disaster there. And as the Democrats are putting forward these positive policies for the people, Brett, let's play the clip of what Jeanine Pirro on Fox News was railing about the other day. You're the weak ones. You're the unfaithful ones. You don't deserve a job with three months off. Okay. She's talking about school teachers at public schools who are concerned about opening up their schools precipitously while COVID is raging. That's who she's yelling at. Now that you know she's talking about teachers, let's just hear it again. Because it's so freaking crazy.

You're the weak ones. You're the unfaithful ones. You don't deserve a job with three months off. Imagine thinking teachers are the problem? What a fucking sociopath. It's truly insane to put the blame on teachers who have had a hellish year trying to figure out how to keep our kids educated. And not only that, every teacher you will talk to will say that they

prefer in-class learning and that they hope to get back to that as quickly as possible. But to be so flippant with our teachers' lives show that you don't really care about them. I don't know what your goal is. I don't know what your goal is. I don't know what Fox News' goal is, but it's not to help teachers and it's not to help American people. And look, President Biden, he's not out there tweeting every second. He's not out there golfing. He's not mocking private citizens through social media accounts. Biden's doing the quiet, silent work that you want of a bureaucrat, of someone who works for the people.

Meanwhile, the GOP is in disarray. According to that ABC Ipsos poll that I mentioned before, 17% more Americans view the Republicans now as the radical extremist party, despite the Republicans saying radical Democrats, nobody's buying that. I mean, look, and how could you buy it when the face of your party is someone who believes that Jewish space lasers are causing wildfires and the victims of school shootings are false flag actors? When you call for the assassinations publicly of political leaders

as the GOP leaders do, of course, you're going to get labeled what you are, which is the radical extremist party. And it's critical. It's vital. In my view, people are like, why do you give Marjorie Taylor Greene even attention? Why are you giving her any, you know, why are you even talking about her? Isn't that like just giving her a platform? No, I want her to be the face of the GQP. I want everybody to know that that is what the GQP stands for. And let's give an example, Brett. This is what Liz Cheney, who's basically been ostracized for the GQP, she's been able to maintain her committee assignments after a vote last week, which was a vote that was done in anonymity. So we wouldn't know who voted what, but she was

overwhelmingly kept in. But meanwhile, she's been chastised and basically pushed out of the Republican Party. We have to make sure that we are able to convey to the American voters we are the party of responsibility. We are the party of truth, that we actually can be trusted to handle the challenges this nation faces like COVID. And that's going to require us to focus on substance and policy and issues going forward. But we should not be embracing the former president. I am thankful for Liz Cheney's voice in this, that she's a voice of reason. And I understand what she's saying.

And, you know, we do need more normalcy in that party. But to me, and I don't know how you guys feel, the party is just like a carton of spoiled milk. And when you have spoiled milk, you got to throw the whole thing out. There's no saving it. So what do you think people in the party, in the Republican Party, who consider themselves to be reasonable conservatives, what do they do now? How do they move forward from here? I think that they become

an independent or they start their own party. We saw Miles Taylor, who was infamously anonymous, who wrote accounts inside the White House, and he was the chief of staff to the Homeland Security Secretary. Miles Taylor basically said that he was thinking about speaking with other former Republicans about starting their own party. But how could you stay in this party? I mean, let's talk about what this is what they're saying. We're going to go and talk about the insurrection and the impeachment trial caused by the insurrection. But like this is the Republican senator from Wisconsin. This is Ron Johnson when he was asked about who should be held accountable from the insurrection. We now know that 45 Republican senators believe it's unconstitutional.

Is this another diversionary operation? Is this meant to deflect away from potentially what the speaker knew and when she knew it? I don't know, but I'm suspicious. I mean, that's just psychotic. He's blaming Nancy Pelosi. Let's be clear what he's saying. First off, he says, I don't know. So if you don't know, shut the fuck up, okay? You don't need to express an opinion and then say, oh, I don't know.

I'm not a scientist, but let me tell you my thoughts on climate change. I don't know this, but it's not real. I don't know this. So you're blaming that this is a diversionary tactic by Nancy Pelosi. Now, it would be one thing if this was Ron Johnson, if he was an aberration from what others were saying. By the way, Ron Johnson beat Russ Feingold in 2010. And Russ Feingold had put forward some incredible bipartisan legislation, McCain-Feingold, which was then overturned by a right-wing Supreme Court, which then allowed dark money to come back into politics. But just think about we had bipartisanship, and now we have Ron Johnson saying that. Now, let's play what Mark Meadows said about who should be held accountable for the insurrection. I can tell you that when we look at Washington, D.C., the Capitol Police, many of them are my friends.

I can tell you they do a tremendous job, but they need to be empowered to do that job. And there were plenty of assets there to assist them in their efforts. And some of those decisions weren't made appropriately, in my opinion. And those decisions did not come from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It came from the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. This is the GQP's talking point. And Mark Meadows was the chief of staff of the Trump administration. It's like a real position, okay? Their talking point is that the Capitol Police and Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats are to blame for the insurrection

by not stopping the Trump terrorists from getting into the Capitol building. That's their defense. It's beyond. Why would they blame the Capitol Police? They're the back of the blue, right? That's the back of the blue party. Well, we're the Capitol Police? They're the back the blue, right? That's the back the blue party. Well, we're blaming teachers.

We're blaming the police. He says, you know, the buck doesn't stop at 1600 Pennsylvania. But the fact is that it does begin and end at the White House because the White House specifically refused to activate the National Guard when they were asked to, which could have saved lives and would have prevented the severity of the attack from being what it was. Remember when Governor Larry Hogan of Maryland spoke about this, he said he was desperately trying to activate the National Guard and the Department of Defense would not give him the approvals that he needed. We were repeatedly

being told by the National Guard at the national level that we did not have authorization. We had multiple times the general was we running up the flagpole. We're ready. Don't have authorization. Don't have authorization. If there's any silver lining here, though, from all of this, Brett, it's that according to recent reporting, more than 30,000 voters have dropped their Republican affiliation since the Capitol riot. That means 10,000 less Republican voters in Pennsylvania, 6,000 less in North Carolina, 5,000 in Arizona. It's why I would sort of understand it all if this was like some grand plan that was just working amazingly, but they lost the house. They lost the Senate. They lost the presidency. The craziest

factions of the party, like the Arizona GOP, have not won a Senate seat in years. They've lost all their seats. So what's the point? It's not working. The point is, like all things with Donald Trump, he wants to bankrupt everything and everything he touches turns to complete shit. Yeah. And before we go, you know, we're going to come back. We're going to talk about impeachment. We have Tom Arnold on the show. We're very excited for it. But I know where I'm excited to catch all my impeachment coverage, and it's going to be live on C-SPAN 2. We have the historic, historic second impeachment trial of Donald Trump. And you can watch complete coverage from this week's opening argument to the

Senate's vote to acquit or convict. Trump, as you know, is being charged with incitement of insurrection for his role in the January 6th attack on the United States Capitol. He is the first ex-president to face an impeachment trial. You could follow it all live and unfiltered on C-SPAN 2, online at c-span.org, or on the free C-SPAN radio app. Tune in, and we'll be right back after this break. That's not America. Discover the magic of Bad MGM Casino, where the excitement is always on deck. Pull up a seat and check out a wide variety of table games with a live dealer.

From roulette to blackjack, watch as a dealer hosts your table game and live chat with them throughout your experience to feel like you're actually at the casino. The excitement doesn't stop there. With over 3,000 games to choose from, including fan favorites like Cash Eruption, UFC Gold Blitz, and more. Make deposits instantly to jump in on the fun. And make same-day withdrawals if you win. Download the BetMGM Ontario app today. You don't want to miss out.

Visit BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. 19 plus to wager Ontario only. Please gamble responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating

agreement with iGaming Ontario. Welcome back to the Midas Touch podcast. We are here with legendary actor, comic, host of the podcast, Off Topic, with Tom Arnold. We are here with Tom Arnold. How are you, Tom? Good, good. It's good to see you guys sort of live in real. And, you know, Ben, you're so much younger, you know, than you appear on Twitter. You know, you come off very grumpy and your picture and you are older than the other guys but yeah you seem much older on twitter i just have to tell you i hope this becomes a new thing every time we have a guest on the first

thing they start to do is roast ben and it's just amazing yeah he's very he's a sourpuss but but i but i do very serious photo all right ben lighting up man lighting up it's excellent well you know before Midas Touch and you know this Tom yes i was i was a litigator um before Midas Touch podcast i used to go on the Corolla podcast sometimes with my partner Mark Garagos and my name there was Boring Cop and so i think what and they called me they called called me boring cop because Garagos was, I guess, the wild and crazy cop. And I'd be the one telling Mark, all right, let's let's focus on this. Let's let you know. And so they would say that was boring.

They would say that's boring. But I like my Midas touch persona better. But, Tom, you've been a Midas touch fan really since the beginning. You've been absolutely like we had like we had almost no followers, you were like follower number three. Right. Well, here's the thing. I realize how important you guys were. I've been unobjective. I'm not a journalist.

But I've always, since before the 2016 election, probably 2011, when Trump started the birther stuff, you know, Trump and I were buds. I mean, we've been to the Playboy Mansion together. You know, he used to come on my sports show. I think I first got really familiar with him in the late 80s when Roseanne and I did a HBO special at the Trump Castle maybe or something. So I did business with him. And I can tell you how that went. He said, first of all, he got on the special. He said, I'll tell you what I'll do.

I have a friend that has like a Dusseldorf. What you need is I'll drive that on the stage. He'll bring it up here from New Jersey. It'll be free. And then I'll drive it on. I'll drive Roseanne on stage. I'll be your chauffeur. And it'll be of no cost. And, you know, HBO is like a legitimate company. So at the end of that, the guy who had a farm in New Jersey, who got this thing out of his barn and hauled it to New York City or Atlantic City and set it up, never got paid. So, you know, I talked to the HBO people and we took it out. It was kind of a ha ha, $40,000 Donald Trump is Donald Trump, but it's how, you know, he's always done business. And it was sort of a, oh, that's sort of funny. And you can see him get out of the car and drive

those agent and sort of how I did do. I wasn't a businessman. It was sort of funny. And you could see him get out of the car and drive to his agent and sort of hop. I didn't do – I wasn't a businessman. It was sort of a funny story. And then, you know, over the years, we'd know him and stuff. We weren't best buddies. And he'd come on my sports show. And then when he came on my sports show, he was in town. So, you know, he said, hey, listen, I want you to meet my girlfriend,

Karen McDougal, with Playboy Mansion. I got a new vodka or tequila. And, you know, somebody does your show, you feel like, okay, I'll go over there with them. And I met Karen, and I didn't realize that Melania was there and his daughter and stuff. And, you know, I love the Playboy. I loved you after.

You have to set that up. So who was at the playboy mansion exactly? Well, Karen McDougal, his girlfriend, who is a playmate, and she became well known too. And, and, uh, you know, I, I, I got to know Karen. I think Karen still supports him. I'm about 99% sure she voted for him. You know, Karen was one of the women that got paid off the David Pecker. I think she was one of the first people that David Pecker stepped in. Because she was having an affair with Trump. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. She was having an affair with Trump. And so David Pecker came in and said she she wanted to sell her story. He said, I will buy your story. It was one of those. I don't know what is not pump and dump. Catch and kill. Catch and kill. And he really did her wrong because he said, I'm going to put you on the cover. He owned several magazines. And I don't know if it was Men's Health or something like that. He said, I'm going to, I'll tell you what, you could write a column for us about health or something.

And I'm going to take your story, but then I'm going to let you do this other thing. And he really did her did her dirty. And I believe it was Keith Davidson who I came to to know, you know, the attorney band who initially represented all of these women, Stormy Daniels and stuff, but also worked for Trump. So he worked both sides of this thing. And he made the initial deal with Karen. And I think he worked with Storm of this thing. And he made the initial deal with Karen. And I think he worked with Stormy Daniels initially, too. And he was a guy that when I would call out somebody that was associated with Trump publicly, like, you know, Chuck LaBella, who went with Trump to

Russia in 2013 and worked on The Apprentice and Miss Universe and people we do in the entertainment business, Trump would have Michael Cohen hire Keith Davidson. We went over there and met Kara. She's a playmate. But Melania was there and the daughter, the favorite daughter. And I believe that Don Jr. was possibly there and Eric. And so, but it's not weird to him, right? And they all posed for pictures together. And so- To have the person he was having the affair with. Oh, yeah.

Melania Trump and his kids there was not, that was not a weird thing in that family. And didn't his shoe end up in the pool? I heard something about that. Yes, his shoe, his slipper, his slip-on. Yeah, he wore slippers. Have you guys been, you've been there, Ben. You were the man.

I have no comment. Go ahead, tell me. I was actually, no, truthfully, I was actually there once after a Grammy party. Brett's laughing. Brett was there too. This was 2012. We were there after a Grammy party that P. Diddy co-hosted with you happener well do you do the invite yeah yeah you were 12 jordy that's when you really needed to be there but you know

heifer you ever used to host a movie screenings on sundays and you know he was really a great guy and you know you know he was an advocate for speech. And I used to write for the magazine and stuff. So I really had a lot of respect for him. So but anyway, went there with Trump and he slipped. Yeah, the grotto was tight quarters, you know, going around there. And, yeah, you kind of had to know your way around like Jimmy Codd and those guys. It was tight quarters. And yeah, Trump had some tough time navigating that area.

And, you know, because Karen was working. I think she was, I don't know if she was Miss Playmate of the Year or whatever. He had to work two sides because he was selling his vodka. And so he had to promote that. So he had to pose for pictures around the grotto. And he got into it. He didn't have the right shoes. And one of his shoes fell.

So his shoe falls in the water. He's promoting Trump vodka, which was utterly bankrupt. There with his mistress, his wife, and his daughter at the same time. And Tom Arnold. Was that a red flag, Tom, when you were running for president to say? Well, no, here's the thing. Everything was a red flag. And to me, the other side of Trump, I went with him and Melania and my third wife, I believe, to the Elton John's Pediatric AIDS Oscar party. So I didn't really go with them but they sat with us at their

table now uh him running for president the first red flag was 2013 at the moscow ritz at the miss universe pageant because the guys that with with him chuck labella they're the guys from the the apprentice are friends of ours right and when they came back and said, you won't believe what happened, man. Trump, you know, he got a call. Trump puts all of his calls on a speakerphone. Putin called Trump. Trump puts it on speakerphone on the guy's laptop.

And he's like, yeah, you should be president. And okay, come over here to the Kremlin. And the only reason Trump didn't go to the Kremlin because they got the car was because, I can't remember if it was the president of, and there may not even be a president of Norway or Holland. I'll get to the exact details, but he went too long with Putin. And then Putin did send women to the hotel. And it was the best night of Chuck LaBelle's life. But he came back and he told all of us, and it was just typical Trump. And Chuck LaBella's life. But he came back and he told all of us and it was just typical Trump. And Chuck LaBella was his body man. You could source all of this. And he was with him

every moment of the entire thing. That's what Chuck did for NBC, for Miss Universe, as well as The Apprentice. So that's a hilarious story because that was on point. Now, the person that produced The Apprentice, the executive producer, Eric Van Wagenen, his brother, Matt Van Wagenen, was my clip producer on my sports show. So the guy that was the closest person to Donald Trump for 10 years, the last guy to talk to him before every take. If you want clips of something fast, you go to a sports show clip producer. So those guys are like this. In fact, they produced, the executive produced Survivor now.

Because after I started talking and Eric was helpful to me, I knew all the things that Trump had said on set. And the fact that they had to film Trump from the moment he got out of his car to the moment he left in the evening because it was a game show. And federal law states you have to film the host because of a game show scandal in the 50s. You have to film the host the entire time, everything he says with the producers, everything he says to everyone. So they have to keep that tape. do as it as it got closer and all of a sudden he's talking about running for president in 2015 i was in russia filming a movie stayed at the ritz carlton and so this is the summer and uh you could go to my twitter on the

fourth of july i'm there and uh red square and i talked to people at the hotel and they're like yeah this is what happened here nobody pe peed on him, by the way. He was just a watcher. He was a blower. Yeah, of course. No, he was like, he had been to. He's not disgusting, Tom. He was just watching.

No, David Korn from Mother Jones and Michael Isikoff had sourced that the summer before he was in Moscow, the summer before he was at the Ritz-Carlton in 2013, he'd been to a pee-pee show in Moscow. He was in Moscow. The summer before he was at the Ritz-Carlton in 2013, he'd been to a PP show in Vegas. And they have a picture of him at the show. And a performer on stage had urinated into a champagne flute in front of him in an act called Hot for Teachers. So he saw that.

Donald Trump saw that and went, boy, that's possible. So when he went to Russia, you know, he hates Obama. We know that he hates everything about him. So when the performers, the entertainers for the evening left the room, they showed him what room Obama had stayed in. He said, hey, last thing as I'm on my way out the door, pee-pee on that bed right there. That's the pee-pee thing that happened. Now, in 2015, as I'm staying there, the producer of the movie that I'm doing, the financier is a friend of Putin's. I mean, you don't get a big movie made like that. I also am aware that I'm probably being filmed in my suite at the Ritz-Carlton.

And so for the first couple of weeks I was there, I put a towel over me to take a dump. But then I'm like, hell, it's all, you know. And, you know, you also like, can I even turn off in here? Then I just don't care. Then I just don't care, Then I just don't care. You know. All right.

So there are Trump tapes. There are Tom Arnold tapes out there. There are a whole bunch of kind of. Except Tom Arnold didn't run for president of the United States. No, I could never. I'm not qualified. But Tom, don't you think it's the same thing? I mean, look, we, you know, you look back on it and go,

I'm in the same circles as this guy. No, that's the point. His enemies like me are D-list he should not be the president so but in 2011 when he went on tv and said that uh that he needed to see the first african-american president's first interview by the way if it was the first jewish president he'd have been shut down because I don't care if you're a conservative, liberal Jew, I'm a Jew. He would never have even been on television again because that is so racist. And I'm disappointed that a third of us Jews voted for Donald Trump the second time. And that's outrageous. And anyway, when he started doing that, I called Mark Burnett. I wrote emails to them at NBC because Mark Burnett and Trump used to call my house and beg me to do that show.

And, you know, you got seventy five thousand dollars favored nation to do the celebrity apprentice. But then NBC would say, I'll give you two hundred fifty thousand dollars to write a script. And that's what they asked me. And as soon as I started, I just break that down for people. What that means legally is they say seventy five favor nations, meaning that they're supposed to match. But they basically say we could only keep it at 75,000. But what they do is to get around it is they offer you a separate side deal, which is the script, so that they could basically lure you to pay you more money, but then tell the other contestants, we're just paying you the same amount of money as everybody. Yeah, it's an old thing they do. Or they'll put it, Oh, uh, for PR,

they'll separate it out. And then they have to, then they tell all the other people, everybody thinks, you know, there are their lawyers think that they're all getting that. And so at 2011, when he went on TV and kept going on TV, you know, I wrote letters to NBC and Mark Burnett, who I knew very well. That's it. If what are you doing about this? They're nothing. That he can't call my house anymore. That's our relationship is terminated. Because, you know, I also had an affinity to Barack Obama, I thought we had so much in common. Because he spent a lot of time in the Midwest. I'm from Iowa, you know, and if you're different and you're in the Midwest, you know, he was black.

I was, I didn't have a mother. And so he probably got picked on a lot. And Barack Obama's grandfather looked exactly like my grandfather. And so I always imagined his grandfather sticking up for him a lot. And so Barack Obama's mother wasn't alive to defend him when Donald

Trump was saying this, or his grandfather. He had no one. And it's so outrageous. And so it was the worst of the worst. And this guy is like a fraternity guy that you're having a little kegger. And so these fraternity guys come in there and say, hey, the party's over. We've decided you guys can't do this. It's over. And the fact that he kept going on television and television and it was OK. Network television. And was that when it clicked for you and you were like, I'm done with this guy. Let me wash my hands. Yeah. Yeah. I've done personally. How is he allowed to still be on television? Then the president thing, which I thought it was a joke like you guys, but when I was in Russia in 2015, Mark Burnett was also in

Russia then. And the questions started coming up about his character and what was on tape. And Mark Burnett was protecting himself as always. And then as it got really close to the 2016 election producers of the show started saying yeah he said the n-word he said all this stuff and then i reached out to my buddies i said you got to get you got to get the because we'd all seen you know how you do compilation tapes of yeah i'm just gonna say this When I was on the Best Dance Sports Show period of Fox, we'd always put together tapes, you know, of everybody. And there's some – we'd have roasts on the show. And let me just say something. There's some nasty stuff that I've said that we would destroy each other.

I'm just going to tell you. I will never – I'm not going to be president. And especially when people would leave the show we would put these packages together for them and you know we also had access to everything on the field that people said in in piles in the huddle and so the people on the apprentice put these tapes together of Trump, like for Christmas, for each other. And so and people also always kept stuff in case they got fired. So I said I reached out to Eric Van Wagenen and go, well, I need all that stuff.

I need this. And he just said, I'm too afraid for my family to Trump people. I said, well, I need to get in there and get access to, I knew which episodes he'd done, this, this, this. I said, I need to get in and let me build that tape again myself. That way you don't have to be responsible for this. I'll get in and edit this for this episode, this, this, this. And everybody just got too afraid. And then right after the election, Mark Burnett and I ran into each other at Arnold Schwarzenegger's Christmas party in December of 2016. And he's like, hey, man, you know, first of all, he shows me his phone. It was his kid as Trump's ring bearer. And he's like,

Trump wants the tapes. Because I still want it. I still felt like this is so important that people see in HD. You know, there's 18 cameras filming his whole family. It's not just him. There's stuff right now is so important to see it. You see how dumb his family is. You see him making Don Jr. cry. You see, you know, there's there's 14 years of this stuff. It's not all in HD. But and I said, I want this. And he said, no, Trump wants it. You want it. I'm not giving it to either of you. He's got to be presidential. And so, of course, that didn't happen. And then 2018, Mark Burnett and I ended up in a fistfight because he sucker choked me. Everything I've done since then, I'm not objective. I just wanted him out as soon as possible. And so journalists, you know,

we come and say, hey, I've got this information. What do you have? And then they take a story this far and I take whatever information they had. So when the next guy came and, you know, I did make recordings of people that perhaps did not meet the standard of, of, uh, other, uh, maybe other journalists. I mean, I recorded Michael Cohen all the time because he recorded everybody all the time. And then I have, you know, but you guys came along and I said, this is new. This is what we need. People need to see this. These are everything you did was a story i said this needs to go out there because fighting this battle it just was it really made the difference because you see the 80 million 81 million people that voted you guys reached an audience that couldn't be reached by by television

because people weren't watching that my kids it was it would just reached a different it helped win the election you guys all said you really knew what you're doing too i'm sorry i give you such a long-winded answer but i saw what you're doing i was like these guys you want to keep praising us yeah i mean the rest of the show it was a game changer because one guy's a pr one guy's an editor so and then the other guy's a boring guy's a lawyer and the funniest the funniest guy's a lawyer the guy's an editor so and then the other guy's a boring guy's a lawyer and the funniest the funniest guy's a lawyer the funniest part to me was when you were on corolla show oh we're talking about us and i heard it and i was dying laughing and corolla was just so confused he was done he was boring i have i have a clip of it if you don't mind. Oh, yeah, yeah, please. Mark Maragos' partner is one of the Midas Touch guys who do those fucking amazing videos.

It's him and his two brothers. His partner? Not Boring Cop, not Ben. Oh, Boring Cop? He is, yeah. But I'll tell you what, his two brothers and him put out the best quality fucking, they're liberals. Hashish? I like that Carolla thought that it was more likely that I was a drug dealer.

I thought everybody was such a good one. Yeah. Yeah. What's so fucking cool? His brother Brett and their other brother. Oh, I didn't know they were putting videos. All the liberal women are after these guys. They are the best, but they're so quality.

Some of those videos are good. I never talked. All I know him is his boring cop. They're brilliant. You've probably seen them. They're everywhere on Twitter. Yeah, they are. They taste something guys.

That was a big moment on Corolla because Corolla is not on our side. I'm going to tell you. As Ben's been doing involved with Corolla for a long time. I have too. I've known him forever. And one of the things about the political environment is people have gone, people that were sort of right center have gone over far more right and same way with people that are left and you know adam carolla you know because i suppose because of his audience has as even towards the election has gone you know to to please his audience has gone over farther right and that but he couldn't deny because of ben being such a long time uh participant yes gary goes and gary, you know, everybody, yeah, and it stopped. He wasn't familiar because he's not paid attention to both.

And I got a lot of responses about that. And so did Carolla a bit. I could never have talked about you guys if Ben hadn't been such a big part of the show before it stopped. And then I heard from the woman on Car Carolla show and stuff. But people, I got to promote you guys on a show that does not promote any of us.

That's how we break through the echo chamber. And we have to break through the echo chamber, Tom. And I think one of the things you mentioned, though, too, is, look, while Trump is gone, I still think it's vital, though, that these tapes that you're aware exist are released. So what would what would you say right now to Mark Burnett? What would you say to NBC right now where we are at the country after an insurrection? While you know that they have tapes that could totally help liberate the minds of some Americans? Well, it's, you know, first of all, MGM is a public company. You know, they are, I think, much like we did with David Pecker and the National Choir is we got together and we went

after the hedge fund, letting them know how it made them uncomfortable. And they sold it. They fired David Pecker because a hedge fund, you know, there's a hedge fund that now owns MGM. And so Anchorage Capital Group bought MGM in 2017. Now, and again, MGM is a public company, and they're the ones that own all this material that's stored in Hutchinson, Kansas, in a salt mine, where MGM Films and Television has every bit of footage the company's ever had. And they just re-syndicated this to a place called 2B, where you can see Donald Trump's celebrity apprentice.

It's so important for the country. It's so important to heal the country because there are a lot of women that were sexually harassed on the show. And the racism and sexual harassment, you know, the lawyers have spent years trying to get this. And instead of protecting Donald Trump, I think like many other companies, they need to step forward. And same with Mark Burnett. He's got a lot of shows. You know, he's got Shark Tank. He's got a singing show.

He's got all these other shows. And NBC, ABC, CBS right now are partners with him. And Donald Trump is making tens of millions of dollars right now with MGM and Mark Burnett after, after he tried to, to destroy our democracy. So it's time to step up and, and, and, you know, Bill Cosby's show is not on anymore and, and it is time to step up and make a stand. And people lost a lot of money with Bill Cosby.

And it's funny because Ari Emanuel, when this first started going down, he owned the Miss Universe. And so I, he owned the Miss Universe. And so he was my agent too. And I called and I said, hey man, you gotta give me the behind the stage Miss Universe tapes of Trump. Cause he's talking about, he went back there and I know bad stuff happened.

And he's like, yeah, they burned up in a fire. I'm like, well, you gotta heal. So we already had a bad, we've had a bad year, you know, Cosby and Roseanne was off the air at the time. They own those shows. And I'm like, well, F that, you know, now you don't want to give the, give up Trump. Cause you got that. And he'd been at the white house with Trump and he go, well, we had a bad year, you you know and then trump would be the third so we're gonna hang on to the miss universe thing i was like that is the worst you know i was in chicago with rob emmanuel at the time too yeah that is bad and so of course i said that to uh on camera and then i got fired from endeavor that day but that's the kind of things you got to do. You got to do if you, if you're

standing up for, for something, but no, we're still, we have to get that. And we still will. And you're right. We have to, we have to come together as soon as, but what I love about you guys is a lot of people just, they did stuff and then they quit. You guys are forever. And you all got a lot of young people involved because we need young people. And, and, uh, you know, there's some very interesting people that are now involved with you guys. And that's what we gotta, we gotta do. And you, you, you, you know, you're, you're broadening out and, and because we've got to keep doing this and we gotta, we gotta just make it, make things better. And we got to bring people into the fold who weren't typically in it. And I think that's one of the effective things that we were able to do.

We brought in a lot of people who previously weren't political into the process and made them passionate about the election and politics. It's better feeding them truth than this crazy QAnon shit. Well, you know, I've worked in a meatpacking plant for three years out of high school in Ottumwa, Iowa. I worked at Hormel on the kill floor. You know, my grandpa had worked there for 45 years. That's what people do. I mean, I'm from Wauplawa, Iowa. I worked at Hormel on the kill floor. You know, my grandpa had worked there for 45 years. That's what people do. I'm from Wapolo County, Iowa, which used to be the most democratic county in America. And it changed. And people, this Trump stuff, you know, my family, there's a lot of Trump people in my family, a lot of Trump people in Iowa, where I'm from. And, you know,

Iowa's kind of the beginning of all the political stuff and, and just so much going on. And, uh, and it's so important that people I went to school with people I know get the truth. And it's so important that people tell them the truth. And when I was a kid, we, we, we had government classes and we had Republicans and Democrats, and then we went to the state Capitol in Iowa, and that was our big school trip, and then we got to play Republicans and Democrats and do legislation, and, you know, it was good, and it was fun, and we had great Republican

governors who I'm friends with, and we had great people like Tom Harkin, who's my hero, who helped pass the Americans with Disabilities Act. And that's just how, you know, rad. And then something's gone very amiss. And then Trump came along, who is nothing. I mean, first of all, we got to keep kicking ass. No, not at all. But then we got to just, we just got to keep going.

You know, another thing about this country, we know how to win and we do know how to accept defeat. You know, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the Super Bowl, right? Kansas City Chiefs lost. I heard Josh Hawley is calling for a recount and everybody to attack the NFL commissioner. But we also know that you don't go, oh, I want you don't talk all year about the Kansas City Chiefs. They can win next year. That's the American way. We do know that you celebrate the winners. And the next year you get another chance to win the Super Bowl that we don't cry babies. I don't know where this cry baby stuff came from Trump. So I believe we had a cry baby in chief as president.

Like we've never had somebody who refused to accept the results. And it's why all these conspiracy theories that used to be in the dark pockets of the internet are suddenly at the forefront of Republican politics. It's why this QAnon is not just a fringe movement, but is the GOP because their leader believes in it, or at least aids and abets everybody who does believe in it and gives it the platform. One thing I did want to touch on that you talked on briefly before, what's the deal with this whole Falwell-Cohen pool boy story? What's going on? Well, first of all, the number one pool boy, pool attendant, Giancarlo Grande is a really great kid. My thing with Falwell was very simple. Michael Cohen and I have spent a lot of time together. He's been very helpful to us.

And Eric Falwell, who is a very good friend, got me my passport recently in one day so I could work out of the country. But he's cooperated a lot, Michael Cohen. He cooperated before prison, during prison. You know, we had a cell phone the whole time he was in prison so we could i could keep his spirits up and and things but uh the jerry falwell aspect of this is very important because jerry falwell was not going to support donald trump for obvious reasons and then suddenly he's like okay the second thought i'm all in on Donald Trump. And the reason was because back in about 2014 or so, there was some pictures of a pool boy and, and Jerry Falwell Jr. and Becky Falwell Jr.

That's his wife. And it's sexual having sex. Let's just cut to the chase. There was a lot. And they were, they were being, they thought extorted by a third and fourth party. And, and Jerry, and Michael Cohen went down to this may be 2012. Michael Cohen flew down to, to Miami to help fix it. And, and he, you know, you can hear us talk about this on tape. You could get the tape off, off the internet or the New York times, I think has it or Wall Street Journal.

I've given it to everybody, Samantha Bee. And when I talked to Michael Cohen, I said, hey, what's the deal with the Jerry Falwell stuff? You know, he's like, it's not what you think, Tom. It's not as sexy. But, you know, I think, you know, I just tried to help with these pictures. I don't know where they are. They just appeared. And the picture I have, but I still have one picture.

He says a Becky follow. So when I heard that I flew to New York to get all the pictures, but the deal is Michael Cohen went to Jerry Falwell after Trump lost Iowa primary in 2016 and said, Hey buddy, I need a favor. You remember when I did the favor with all the naked sex pictures with you and Giancarlo, Giancarlo Grande and your wife? Well, I still have some of those. And by the way, they're kind of horrible, which is what I said on the tape.

So as a favor to me, I need this for Mr. Trump. You need to support Donald Trump immediately and fully. And that's what happened. And he supported, it's like Putin. When Trump came, a friend of Putin's called, Michael Cohen says, there are videotapes over here, but don't worry, I got them under control. Don't worry, they're not gonna get out.

Any of the stuff on Trump is not going to get out before this election. So it's that, that's how they do business. And Michael Cohen and Trump had done that with friends of Donald Trump's wives, had cheated on them and they'd help with that, but they still kept the pictures of the wives. So Jerry Falwell is a bad guy. I never liked him. I, you know, he's anti-Muslim. He's anti-LGBTQ. So I figured this guy's got to go. I befriended the pool boy.

I've only called him pool boy because that rings a bell. And several other pool attendants. But this Giancarlo Grande is really the best because, you know, these Falwells were predators. They prayed. It's not just a sex know, these Falwells were predators. They prayed. It's not just a sex story, which I wouldn't care about, you know, apart from their views, anti-LGBTQ and xenophobia. It's that they prayed on. This young man, he was working as a pool attendant down there at the Fontainebleau, and a 20-year-old kid.

And they came up, and Jerry's like, Hey, what do you want to, what do you want to do with your life? And he says, well, I'd like to, you know, I dream of real estate, but I really like to help people. Jerry's like, Hey, I'll mentor you. Me and my wife here will mentor you, but you got to get rich before you can really help people. And he said, well, what kind of real estate? He goes, well, there's this youth hostel I'm thinking about uh over here well we'll buy it with you you'll be a fourth partner hey let's go have sex in our hotel room i'm gonna i'm gonna watch you uh have uh sex with my wife here let's get a bunch of drinks and

he's like i'm in but the psychological uh and stuff and what jerry didn't just sit in the corner i'm just gonna tell you and uh but the psychological stuff they did to him, you know. Recently, Jerry's been fired from the university. Jerry threatened this kid. He has a video of the kid and his wife having sex. He said, I'm going to send that to your girlfriend, you know. And I'll send you a little something after this to just give you an idea of what Jerry Fall is doing. But but that's how there's a bunch of young men and women right now that they're that they're threatening and they're they're saying, what is it called? where you have, it's illegal, where you have sex videos or something of somebody and you threaten them after a divorce or something, where you threaten to blackmail them. Yeah, it's basically

sex torture and then there's crippling. Yes, yes. And so that's going on. It's just terrible. There are people that go to Liberty University, their school. It's just awful. And they set up fake Facebook accounts, the Falwells. Giancarlo caught them because they were saying things that sounded like old people. He goes, you know, old people like 42, you know, it's like, that's insulting. That's insulting. But anyway, I think he's going to be an advocate, you know, after this is all over. I think he's, you know, I said, you got to keep, and he did a press jacket when he came out publicly in September when Jerry said, oh, I actually, it is true a press jacket when he came out publicly in September when Jerry said, oh, I actually, it is true.

My wife had an affair, just brief, and I had nothing to do with it. And this guy started to extort us. And I said, man, you gotta get your face out there. You gotta tell the truth and defend yourself and tell, and he was really excellent and very proud of him. He has all the receipts.

Let me tell you something about this guy. Because the board was not decided whether they're going to let Jerry Falwell go. And I said, man, you got to show him, you know, the full Monty. You've got to show him that he's lying about everything about this. Because the kid, originally when this story came out,

a journalist journalist even respected ones they want to see jerry falwell blowing the guy that's all they wanted they didn't care about the guy they didn't care about the psychological damage they didn't care about these people that they were so esteemed in this big religious university it's not unlike the priest scandal but what he done to his family they they just wanted to see Jerry Falwell doing a homosexual act. That's all they'd be done with this guy and other people. That wasn't the story. I knew it. It was a story like Weinstein or Jeffrey Epstein, where this couple of grifters went around and got these, kept making all these promises. But the best picture is what Jerry brought, because I know both sides of this.

So Jerry brought Giancarlo to Liberty University on his private jet to meet Trump. And Michael Cohen knows the whole story. So he got so he said to Trump, you got to meet this guy. You know, we could very follow is going to be very important to our business. And, you know, Trump thinks he could get AIDS for this guy by a hug. And but he reaches over. There's a picture that Jimmy Rootberg got. The New York Times at the first moment they met of Giancarlo and Trump. And Jerry follows in the middle of the picture, his head down like, oh, my God. But what's been so incredible about this discussion, though, is that you've been the connectivity that you've had from all of these different touch points,

dating back to the 80s with Trump from Atlantic City and then really being in the center of all of these scandals. And so we're thankful and grateful that you've used your voice to speak out and speak the truth that might as touch truth is golden. We thank you for your support of us, of our podcast, of all of our videos. And we hope to have you, we hope to have you back on. Thank you. I know I talked a lot. It's Tom Arnold, the host of the podcast off topic with Tom Arnold. I think we did a good job staying on topic. I know. Now we know where the name of the podcast is.

I'm sorry. Tom Arnold, thank you for joining the Midas Touch podcast and please come back. Thank you. Sorry, Jordy. Next time you can talk. Yeah, right? This is a theme. Don't worry about it. It's a whole theme.

We'll be right back after this welcome back to the Midas Touch podcast great interview with Tom Arnold we touched it all we stayed on topic we went off topic but we got to talk about the topic of the day, the impeachment trial, which begins today. And let me try to break it down, some of the legal underpinnings of this impeachment, where we go. I'll give you your impeachment cheat sheet. First off, what are the American people saying about impeachment? Well, 56% of Americans say that Trump should be convicted and barred from ever holding office again, according to a new ABC News Ipsos poll that was released over the weekend. So by a significant majority, Americans say.

So impeachment trial starts. Both sides file impeachment trial briefs. They give an opening statement. There's both legal and procedural claims that are made. Trump's attorneys have already tried to get the impeachment dismissed, saying that when you leave, when you are no longer the president, it is unconstitutional to impeach a former president. Let's we can go into the Democratic argument. Ridiculous argument to make, because what that's saying to me is if you lose an election, you basically have around two months, roughly, to do whatever the hell you want to take back that election.

You could start a war, domestic terrorism. And as long as you do it in those final two months after the election happens, it's okay. Because once you're not president, oh, who cares? He's not president anymore. You can't set that standard where any president in their final two months in office could cause chaos and try to overthrow the government. This isn't some sick, twisted reality show. This isn't Survivor, where it's like, for these next two months, American democracy will be on the line. No consequences. You're so right. And it's just weird that that's kind of the argument that they're also clinging to because it's almost in itself like an admission that what he did was

wrong. But they're just saying because he's no's almost in itself like an admission that what he did was wrong. But they're just saying because he's no longer president, you can't impeach him and you can't get me in trouble for what I did when I was president. No, no, no. But that's literally, though, actually what they're saying. So when asked about what they think about the impeachment procedure, a lot of the Republicans, the Marco Rubio is the Lindsey Graham's. What their public facing statement is, is that there should be repercussions. This is what they say, you know, that for repercussions for Trump's actions. You can do that. The public opinion, a public opinion, be negative on Donald Trump. But we as senators can't do anything. But that's just fundamentally untrue because after a president is convicted, one of the other powers the Senate has is to then bar that individual from ever holding office again. That's a lever of accountability. So true, impeachment is indeed a political process.

However, in addition to removing an individual from political office by a separate vote following a conviction, you could preclude that person from ever holding office again, which is an important thing because even if somebody is convicted of a crime, they could potentially run for office again. So actually, the Senate is being called upon to say, is Donald

Trump actually an individual capable of ever holding office again based on his conduct? That should not be the case. So that's fundamentally one of the things at issue here and why the Republican argument misses the mark. There is a single article of impeachment, which talks about on January 6th, 2021, pursuant to the 12th amendment of the United States constitution. Now pause the 12th amendment is basically the amendment that says, this is how you count the votes after an election. The article of impeachment goes on that basically says Trump incited members of the crowd that he addressed to interfere with the joint session's solemn constitutional duties to certify the results of the 2020 election, resulting in injuries and deaths, including

the death of a law enforcement officer. But Brett, that is not the mere damage that was done. I mean, there were 134 police officers, 81 officers from the Capitol Police, another 58 from the on political officials. These police officers were hit with flagpoles and bats and clobbered with wrenches. One we saw on TV was stuck between doors. The acting D.C. police chief, Robert Conte III, this is what he said. I've talked to officers who have done tours of combat in Iraq, and this was scarier for them than the combat duty they did overseas. And of course, we know, Brett, that one Capitol officer, Brian Sick to make a mockery of it. And I've seen this all too often, where they're like, oh, yeah, people just storming capitals and grabbing podiums, real scary, and mocking AOC's story of the horror that she felt. And we had Representative Jimmy Gomez on the show last week, and hearing his tale of being trapped in the Capitol while these insurrectionists terrorized it, him not knowing if he was going to speak to his wife again, him trying to figure out the right tone to speak to his wife, wondering if this was the end of democracy itself.

It's truly harrowing and it's just so disappointing and not at all surprising that these Republican officials are just downplaying what we all witnessed with our own eyes. And let's set aside the initial commands that Trump said. Let's set that aside for a second. We could even set aside the fact that Trump said, I'm going to go with you to the Capitol. Let's say even set that aside. Page 30 and 31 of the trial brief submitted by the House managers to the Senate, to me, is incredibly, incredibly telling. And this was that as the armed insurrectionists breached the Capitol building, as they got in there, so while we know what's going on, while you, me, while you listening, listening were horrified this is what the brief says from the reports around it trump was borderline enthusiastic because it meant that

certification was being derailed enthusiastic people described trump as being delighted walking around the white house confused why other people weren't sharing his sentiments of enthusiasm. Then at 1.49 p.m., after the insurrectionists overcome the Capitol perimeter, after reports of pipe bombs had been confirmed, after President Trump tweets this, and I think this gets forgotten in this discussion, Trump tweets, our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore. And that's what this is all about. You have to be strong. Trump is watching the insurrection take place. He's aware of everything we're aware of as a country. and create creating grievous injuries to them. And while the senators have evacuated the Senate floor, while Vice President Pence is being threatened with hang Mike Pence and he's the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country and our Constitution. Those were his statements in that moment. Even if we set aside everything he said at the time when he encouraged people to go there. That's the president of the United States' response while an insurrection is taking place.

That's like clapping for 9-11 as it's taking place. That would be like as you're aware of what's going on in a war zone and that troops are being killed, clapping for that as the president. This man is entirely unfit. And Ben, if this were a criminal case against Donald Trump, to me, this looks like slam dunk information. This is slam dunk, a smoking gun, if you will, against Donald Trump. Yes. Yeah, I totally agree. The issue that we have here is that it is going to take 67 senators because it has to be by two thirds to convict Trump. And what this means, Brett, is 17 Republicans would need to be on board to convict. Now, already 45 Republicans in the Senate voted to dismiss the

case before it even went to trial, saying that they believed it was procedurally unconstitutional, which we've already debunked already. The five Republicans likely to convict include Mitt Romney from Utah, Ben Sasse from Nebraska, Lisa Murkowski from Alaska, Pat Toomey from Pennsylvania, and Susan Collins from Maine. It is possible, and this is something we should all be looking for, Senator Rob Portman from Ohio. He's not running for re-election. Similarly, Richard Burr from North Carolina is not running for re-election. Today, we learned Richard Shelby, Senator from Alabama, won't be running. It'll be interesting to see how they vote, from Alabama, won't be running. It'll be interesting to see how they vote, knowing that they won't be running for office. But it's going

to be very hard to get those 17 Republicans. But I think we need to watch this play out, though. It's one thing to talk about it in a vacuum, Brett and Jordy. But when you see it on the Senate floor, when you see the evidence come out the way I think it's going to come out, you may not be able to get those 17 Republicans, but sure, is it going to expose them for who they really are and their cowardice if they're not going to vote to convict Trump after this? And at the very least, we're going to have a roadmap to the American people of how Donald Trump aided and abetted the insurrection. And Ben, I know you like telling people you're the attorney in the group. So let me just kind of

toss a couple of quick arguments that they are looking to make at this trial, Trump's attorneys that they're looking to make starting today. Violates Mr. Trump's first amendment rights, freedom of speech. What's your response? Yeah, you don't have the ability to lead an insurrection. It's very similar to, What's your response? One of the things that we can't forget is his close allies were actually deeply involved in the planning, in the financial support of it, in structurally what was going on. And then you actually have the day of Trump encouraging it while it's happening, Trump egging it on to happen, you know, even more. And the intent was known to the people who Trump commanded, who overwhelmingly say they were doing this because they knew exactly what Trump wanted them to do. They say we're following his orders. And again, isn't that another admission of guilt? If your defense is it's my First Amendment, I'm allowed to say whatever I want.

I guess here's the thing. They always keep saying like, well, Nancy Pelosi once said, we need to fight for our rights and we need to expose Republicans. Now, if Nancy Pelosi literally said, you need to show up at a specific restaurant and when you see them at this specific restaurant, I need you to show them that you mean absolute business, that Nancy Pelosi then funds them to go to that specific restaurant. And then while they're at the

restaurant attacking the individual at the restaurant, rather than saying, stop it, you say, oh, you should have, how glorious a site this is. This is what it's all about and taking delight. Every aspect of it was encouraging this specific act of violence. And by the way, if a Democratic politician, what they were saying directly resulted in the death of police officers and directly resulted in attempted murder on people to specific individuals, then they should be held accountable too at the end of the day. But that's not the fact pattern. The fact pattern is what took place on January 6th. And we all saw it. And now let me ask you both this. And it could just be a yes or no. So we

talked about Liz Cheney early on how that was a private vote. And overwhelmingly, you know, she was kept. Now, this is a public vote. If this were to be a private vote, you know, the impeachment trial for Trump, do we hit that 67 number? No, because it's the Senate. And so there's not as many senators as there are Congress people. So I think you'd have a difficulty finding plausible deniability that it was you just because there's less than 50 of you currently in the Senate. So I don't think you could do I don don't think you could in theory do it anonymously. Do you get more than the five that we identified? I think you'd get more than the five.

Yeah, I think you do. And maybe there's a question of who's who. And I think those senators who I mentioned who are no longer gonna be running again, maybe feel more free to. And Ben, I think the last point you made is important because the Trump lawyers are very excited to try to both sides this and muddy the waters by saying once upon a time, Nancy Pelosi said, we need to fight for Black Lives Matter. We need to fight for racial justice. We need to fight. Politicians say that all the time. That's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about directly inciting an insurrection. And you need look no further than have you guys seen this new the New York Times data of people's cell phones who went directly?

It shows in like with lights. It's really a crazy thing to see. They went directly from Trump's speech to storming the Capitol. You just see a flood of these lights go. Of course they did though too, because so you know, the street that Trump's speaking at literally goes directly to the Capitol building. I mean, it's just literally a walk down the Washington walk. And then all the days leading up,

it's gonna be wild. You have Steve Bannon talking on his podcast saying, oh, it's gonna be a bombshell moment. It's gonna be crazy. People don't know what's gonna hit them. You have Roger Stone plotting this. You have Rudy plotting this. I mean, the stuff that was going on behind the scenes by all of Trump's cohorts here is truly devious and screwed up stuff. I mean, there's a lot of people very pessimistic. A lot of people say, well,

look, 45 senators have already voted to dismiss it as unconstitutional before it even took place. So why are we even doing this? I'd say don't be so pessimistic. I say that watch the evidence come out. Those senators are going to have to sit there and they're going to have to watch the most disgusting act that any person to occupy the executive office had ever done. And they're going to be asked this question. Do you think that that man, Donald Trump, is capable of holding office again?

Do you think what that man did represents our democracy? If you're disgusted by his actions, as Republicans claim they are now, if you think that what he did is anti-American, if you think that criminal prosecutors should go after him, and you have the ability right now as a United States senator to take action and you do nothing, you are complicit. So we will be watching that and we will be watching that with you. Follow along on our Twitter channels, follow along on our social media as we continue our

coverage of the impeachment. And by the way, all of our social media, we're on Facebook, we're on Twitter, we're on Instagram, we're on TikTok, we're on YouTube. Follow it all so you don't miss anything. Thank you for listening to the Midas Touch podcast. We did it all today. We will see you back on our next episode, which is released Friday morning. Our new episodes launch Tuesday mornings, Friday mornings. Download this wherever podcasts are available.

Tell your friends. Give us five stars. Thank you for listening to the Midas Touch podcast. Shout out to the Midas Mighty.