The MeidasTouch Podcast - DID YOU HEAR THAT?! with Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi

Episode Date: August 24, 2021

On today’s episode, the brothers have an incredibly special guest, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi. Congressman Krishnamoorthi was the pioneering force behind the NOVID Act, a bill that would dramatically expand U.S. anti-COVID aid to end outbreaks and prevent new strains through vaccinating 60% of the population of the most vulnerable countries. During the interview, the team discusses the latest updates around vaccinations (both global and domestic), as well as the ongoing situation in Afghanistan. The remainder of the episode is rounded out by the brothers discussing Trump’s latest rally fail and the pro-covid GQP. If you enjoyed today’s episode, please be sure to rate, review and subscribe! As always, thank YOU for listening! Get the latest Meidas Merch at store.meidastouch.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At Starbucks, we serve cold coffee just the way you like it. That refreshing chill of ice. That rich, smooth taste you crave. That handcrafted care every time. Your summer ritual is ready at Starbucks. When does fast grocery delivery through Instacart matter most? When your famous grainy mustard potato salad isn't so famous without the grainy mustard. When the barbecue's lit, but there's nothing to grill. When the in-laws decide that, actually, they will stay for dinner.

Instacart has all your groceries covered this summer. So download the app and get delivery in as fast as 60 minutes. Plus, enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. What's up, Midas Mighty, and welcome to the Midas Touch podcast. Ben Micellus, joined by my brothers, Brett and Jordy Micellus. We have an incredible episode for you today. We have raja krishna morthy from the eighth congressional what let's go just saying let's go from the eighth congressional district jordy you are starting off this podcast with just love you jordy. You are truly I know why you're my favorite brother, Jordy.

Hey, you way above myself. But yes, let's go. We have representative Raja Krishnamoorthy on the podcast who's going to be talking to us. We're going to talk to him about infrastructure. We got to talk to him about getting COVID vaccines across the globe. And I just want to know for someone who's so incredibly accomplished like him, just how he deals with these nutcase GQP nut cases, Brett and Jordy, what in the world is going on? Because whatever we've done specifically recently, and we know we always get these crazy emails and these death threats. But like over the last week, some of the nuttiest crackhead GQPers in the world have come out of their basements. And it's been like whack-a-mole with these GQP nutbags. It's not just me, right? This is like another level right now of craziness, of attacks to Midas, to us personally. And some of it is some scary stuff. Some of it is just some wacky shit that you just want to roll your eyes at. But it's all more bizarre than the next.

I feel like this all started, and we don't post, by the way, all the threats we get. If we did, I think our entire Twitter feed would simply be death threats sent to us, unfortunately. We would have a horrible podcast if we just did Midas Touch Death Threats. Although maybe it's a new series. Maybe we'll do a new series, Midas Death Threats, coming to the Midas Media Network. But as of now, we just have a few that we will share with you. And this started off with a really ominous kind of freaky one. I'm not going to say who this one was from. I don't want to give them any sort of credit, but we got somebody who earlier in the week said someone needs to put a hit out on the Micellar Brothers, basically telling people to

kill us. And that one was a little startling to me, I would say. What did you guys feel about that one? Any of the ones where they're that simple and straightforward, those really honestly don't faze me at all. It's when we get the emails. The emails, because then you see into the brain of just the psychotic individual that goes on and on and on. And we'll read a couple of those, but that specific one, yeah, just another day of the week.

Someone needs to put a hit out on the MySellas Brothers. That's what this person said. I immediately called the tweet out on our channels, on my personal channel, on the Midas Touch Twitter feed. And the guy, like a coward, immediately folded and deleted that tweet, not before we got screenshots and not before we reported it to Twitter. And of course, Twitter came back and said, that does not violate our terms. How does that not violate the Twitter terms of service? What is the terms of service? If that doesn't reach the level, then I do not know.

What is the point of even having a terms of service? Yeah. Threatening death is doesn't violate Twitter's terms of service. But Trump, the snake, you've crossed the line. You've crossed the line there. But yeah, Brett, talking about these emails, this guy, Wes Sutton, I like when they use their names and they start incredibly unhinged. Just the mentality of someone like this who goes, you know what? I'm going to write an email that says, hey, you stupid fucks, if truth is golden, then why don't you start telling it? I literally glanced at your info for a total of 30 seconds and all three of the first things I saw are a total and complete lie. Stop intentionally lying and misleading the people. And I wonder what the first thing you saw Brett was because I think if you look at right around

that timing, we released the Governor DeSantis video. Can we play that video please? I don't wanna hear a blip about COVID. I't want to hear a blip about COVID. I don't want to hear a blip about COVID. I don't want to hear a blip, blip, blip, blip, blip, blip, blip. We're a free state. I'm going to stand in your way. I'm going to stand in your way. I'm going to stand in your way.

I'm going to stand in your way. I'm going to stand in your way. Okay, no lies there whatsoever and then we just got after that video right around that time just a slew of weird ones we got one from and they all have names like this like hold on hold on are you going to move on from west because west said something that i we need to dissect because this I don't really understand. He said Florida is not killing anyone from a quote unquote virus that legally doesn't even exist. I don't even know what the fuck that means. I know what that means, Brett. I know what that means. In order for the virus to legally exist, according to the GQP, the GQP has to marry it in a ceremony presided over by Marjorie Taylor

Greene, who blesses the virus. That's how it becomes a legal virus. Oh, okay. So I didn't understand before. I appreciate you, Ben, for clarifying and bringing your legal expertise as to how a virus becomes legal. Currently, Brett, the GQP is in a out of wedlock sexual relationship with COVID, with COVID, with the virus. And for it to become legal, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Bobbert have to wave their GQP fairy dust on it. And then while it becomes legal in this scenario, are the variants their babies?

That's a, I never thought through, Jordy, beyond the joke of that. But I will be prepared on future episodes. I think this is going to start all sorts of fan fiction now that people could really just run wild with. Build your own adventure, make your own story here. Somebody went on a, I'm not even going to humor this for all that long. Yeah, don't even gonna humor this crazy talk about ruben landon dante for like uh who's apparently rolling in mud um yeah what is this bring up this photo all right this guy ruben landed d. He's apparently a dirty magician who rolls around in mud with worms and he wears his

collar like these individuals are sick for those listening and not watching. There is a video. There's a photograph of this person who is apparently the Republican nominee for the Texas 14th congressional district. And it's a photo of him with mud on his face and mud on his hands. And he's holding his hand. Like I guess a magician would with a pop, with a pop collar and a dirty American flag, but it's not,

dude, it's like a half popped collar. One side of the collar is popped. The other side is laying flat. He's making a weird face. Like you said, he's covered in mud. His hair has a lot of hair gel in it. He has vertical stripes

going down his shirt, yet horizontal stripes going on his tie. That has to be some sort of fashion crime. That's a violation. That's a total violation. That's what you picked up, Brett. I'm picking up all the details here. And he's got dirt on his hands also.

Talk about the tweet about comparing us to Nazis. Oh, so yeah. So basically he went on this entire diatribe on Twitter, where else, saying that this is what he said. He said the Holocaust didn't happen overnight. It's important to understand the culture and climate that allowed this to transpire. And then he went on to compare the Jewish people in Nazi Germany under attack from the Nazis, killed and murdered ruthlessly by the Nazis to January 6th insurrectionists. One of the most disgraceful and disgusting comparisons that I have ever seen. He compared the insurrectionists to being

persecuted Jews in Nazi Germany. Yeah. Like these are domestic terrorists who attacked the capital of the United States of America. And so this guy went ahead, he posted our photo, which I think is a great photo. I know Jordy doesn't like this photo. It's the one photo I actually fucking hate. Jordy doesn't like this photo very much. It's the one photo I actually fucking hate. Jordy doesn't like it. This one hit me hard. Yeah, so this stabbed Jordy right in the core of his very being, but I think it's a great photo of us. And he compared us to doing Nazi-style propaganda and said that we were actively contributing to the DOJ singling out and antagonizing the January 6th insurrectionists. And to that, I say, if our work even has had a single ounce in bringing to justice the domestic terrorists

who attacked the Capitol on January 6th, that's a legacy, man. I mean, I am owning that. That's great. I would absolutely love. I hope that every single one of these people at January 6th are arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Absolutely. Going to today's news. Big news this morning. U.S. regulators fully approved Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine. Quote, the public can be very confident that this vaccine meets the high standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality the FDA requires. Do you hear that noise?

Is it just me? Do you hear that noise? What do you hear? It's the sound of the goalpost moving from the anti-vaxxers. Yeah, you definitely got me. You definitely tricked me there. You tricked me there, too. I don't know if you could hear my washer and dryer in the background.

But yes, Brett, that is the goalpost or the milestone, as FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock stated today's milestone puts us one step closer to altering the course of this pandemic in the United States. The U.S. becomes the first country to fully approve the vaccine, according to Pfizer. And so this is incredibly big news today on that front and play the clip of President Biden today and what he said about full approval. Now it has been granted. Those who have been waiting for full approval should go get your shot now. The vaccination is free. It's easy. It's safe and it's effective and it's convenient for 90 percent of Americans. There's a vaccination site less than five miles from your home, and you can get the shot without an appointment. So please get your shot today. There is no time to waste. So Joe Biden here is appealing to the 30% of unvaccinated adults who say they have been

waiting on full FDA approval before getting the vaccine. Are they telling the truth in those polls? Is that just another excuse? That is to be determined. But I do think there are a portion of people out there who have been waiting for this full approval to make their decision. Now, the Pfizer, the Moderna, the Johnson & Johnson, these have already been approved under the emergency use authorization, which is essentially a full approval. But this full FDA approval is really

just a matter of time, a matter of studying it just to make sure that everything is great with these vaccines. But these have always been viewed as incredibly safe due to the data. This is science. And what they've done now is they've reviewed more than 340,000 pages, a record amount of data to come to this FDA approval for the Pfizer vaccine. And this will allow vaccine manufacturers to advertise their products, to allow them to continue selling these vaccines after this public health emergency is lifted. At the end of the day, we hear a lot about vaccine boosters. This is a confidence booster in the vaccine. That is really the biggest aspect of FDA approval at this point. And the irony of it to me, and the sort of funny part is you've had all these people on the right wing saying it's not even fully approved.

It's not even fully approved. How are you going to have these mandates? How are you going to make me take a vaccine that's not fully approved? What this full approval now does is it allows mandates to be done on a much easier level with a higher legal basis as well, I believe. So now you're going to start seeing, like we saw today, the military will be mandating the vaccination. More school boards will have a reason to mandate the vaccination around the country. And so to those people who have been demanding that the FDA fully approve this vaccine before they start mandating anything, I just want to say, guess what? In the words of DJ Khaled, you played yourself. No, that's so true, Brett.

But hold on one second. Seriously, though, do you hear that little ticking noise in the background? Listen, do you hear it? No, are you tricking me again? No. No, no, no, no. Do you hear it? No, I don't hear ticking.

Jordy, did you hear it? No, I don't hear it. Oh, is Brett dropping a truth bomb. That's what I do. I wasn't playing this game. Brett dropping the truth bomb. Oh my gosh, you got me because at first I was like, okay, this is bullshit.

Should we take out a Midas Touch instant replay of the truth bomb? That's my rewind. Last Midas Touch podcast, we dropped one of the first Midas Touch instant replays. We won't use the instant replay there, but let me talk about some polling data. The USA Today Ipsos poll says the following data, 72% to 28% called mask mandates a matter of health and safety, not an infringement on personal liberty. I mean, 72% of America, that number's shifting, Jordy, right? Jordy, you were talking 31, 32%,

huh? Yeah, it's definitely shifting. You'd love to see it. I think it had a lot to do, though, with Trump in Alabama this weekend promoting the shots. You guys see that? That did not go over well for that guy. It did not go over well for him. I mean, Trump did say, well, here's the thing about these Trump rallies. I was being wildly sarcastic, by the way, when I just said it has a lot to do with Trump doing that, just in case that didn't come off clean. It didn't come off clean. Yeah.'t come off clean. Yeah. I think, should we just get rid of Jordy from the chat today, Brian?

I think Jordy's just a full-on Trump supporter at this point. Jordy's gone full MAGA. Trump held this rally in the middle of a manure field underneath a storm in Alabama. They're now doing rallies literally in piles of feces.

So I just want to be clear. I go and on all of these podcasts, I've been telling you, I've been saying it, that the GQP are disgusting and dirty people. They like the virus. They have relationships with the virus. And they do it because they're stinky, smelly people. I've told you, GQ peers don't brush their teeth. Bring up bring up the photo of Rubin again. I told you, bring up our troll. I'm just going to give you data points.

He's healthy. Look at him. Take a shower, Rubin. Look, they roll around in dirt, these people. This is evidence of my theory. And then Donald Trump holds his rally in a feces field. They roll it in a manure rally. And then the GQ peers are rolling around in the manure. They're wiping it all over themselves as donald trump is speaking and the moment he mentions the vaccines they start booing him can we play that clip you know what i believe totally in your freedoms i do agree you got to do what you have to do but i recommend take the vaccines i did it it's good take the vaccines but you got now that's okay that's all right you got your freedoms but i happen to take the vaccine if it doesn't work you'll be the first to know okay of course he can't say it without also stepping on his own message and presenting this false dichotomy that it's either freedom or the vaccine which could not be further from the truth but for the oh shit wait sorry yes

do you guys hear that? That's not true. No, I don't hear anything. Is this another? They were the boo birds that came out after Trump said, take the vaccine.

Can you play that clip back really quickly? It's insane. I recommend take the vaccines. I did it. It's good. Take the vaccines. But you got now.

That's OK. That's all right. You got your freedoms. OK, I'm done with this game. I'm done with this trickery. Do you hear that? Stop the podcast. I know I started this game. I am hereby ending. It's the game, as I said, about these vaxxers who are demanding FDA approval, who are now getting hit with mandates for it. I said you played yourself.

Apparently, I have played myself by making this. And I will let DJ Khaled say it for me. Congratulations. You played yourself. Speaking of polling data, again, also 61% of Americans endorse mandatory vaccinations, except for those people with medical or religious exemptions. And so the support is overwhelmingly there. And you notice today, too, Fox News, though, while it's great news, tried to basically

act like, well, maybe the approvals happened too quickly. And that is, as Brett said, changing the goalposts or moving the goalposts. Play the clip from Fox. News alert for you now. The FDA just giving full approval to Pfizer's COVID vaccine. It's the first vaccine to get that full approval and in record time, too. That has critics asking if the process was rushed, was it? And I want to talk about like what Fox does here, because they did have guests on to like debate the merits of this FDA approval. And at least one of the guests who was on there was saying that the vaccines are safe and that people should be confident to take it.

But by Fox going under the guise of we're just asking questions here. There are many critics out there saying that this was rushed. Are they right? What they're doing is they are spewing disinformation and they're giving themselves this legal cover of, hey, we're just asking questions. for them to spread this information. So I don't want anybody to give Fox cover here. They are willfully spreading disinformation. They knew that this announcement was coming and this is what they decided to do. But hearing all those polls, it really does affirm what we've been saying on this podcast all along. If you remember last episode, I said that we are the majority and we need to start acting like we are the majority. And when you see these videos of these crazy anti-maskers filling these school boardrooms, it gives the illusion, and that's all it is, an illusion that these people are the people who are dominating the discourse.

But like I said, they are not the silent majority. They are the loud as fuck vocal minority i say one thing too brett when they put people if you put a few thousand people in a single file line the line will look long like i don't know why that metric is like oh my god the line is long well it's because they're fucking idiots they don't know how to do double lines or triple lines or quadruple. They haven't figured that out yet. Also, it's like, yes, they were able to get all these crazy people to this one rally or this one event. And they have this line that looks long and they're filling in this school auditorium with 250 people.

Guess what I did while they were doing that? I don't know. I was watching movies. I was working on Midas Touch. I was going to the farmer's market. I was hanging out with my wife and my dog and just enjoying life. You know, like normal people things. That's what we were doing while they are going to anti-vax rallies, anti-mask rallies, and being incredibly vocal about their disinformation and their dangerous viewpoints. Hey, Jordy, do you know what the term skyish is? Have you heard of the term skyish? Where is this going? And we need to follow. You're on guard, apparently, Jordy, but follow the skyish. So at the Trump manure rally or one of the sister or, or brother manure rallies that existed out there. You had anti-maskers holding up signs and Brett put it up here.

That says follow. They meant to say science, but it was spelled squishy S C I E C E. And I liked the fact that they filled in the initial S green, like that probably had some meaning in their GQ. And why did they are in brains? What does it say? S C I E C E.

Sign CCC. Follow the science. And then it looks like three C's early. They look like little snakes. Exactly. It's totally Trump projection gqp snakes and did you see also at the other anti-vaccine anti-mask protests on the steps of the capitol hill there was uh this uh american i don't even know what you call mary calls himself i don't

want to call him what he calls himself it's a ridiculous name he calls himself. I don't want to call him what he calls himself. It's a ridiculous name. He calls himself an American Constitution teacher at the Patriot Academy. I can't think of what the fuck those things even are. But this American Constitution GQ peer apparently doesn't know the words to the Pledge of Allegiance and doesn't know the Texas flag pledge and made a total fool of himself. Just play this clip. To the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible. Wow.

With liberty. What comes next? What comes next? I'm an American Constitution teacher at the Patriot Academy, and I don't know the Pledge of Allegiance. I haven't. Here's the thing. Here's the thing. Here's the thing. These people have celebrated ignorance in a field of feces for the past four years under the pig in chief, Donald Trump. And the issue is he's so harmed our discourse. But you have this group of 25 to 30 percent of the population who don't know the Pledge of Allegiance, who shower in feces, who have relationships with COVID, and who just are out there spewing these untruths.

And we need to fight back with all of the things we've joked about today, but we're serious about is when you hear that. We need truth bombs. We need the truth. We need you out there. We need you doing your part in combating all of this disinfo. And we're going to have someone on right now when we come back from this break, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthy, who typifies the American dream. who had limited means. He was an immigrant. He rose up, could be doing anything right now. And he's working within the United States government as a Congress member to help our country.

Congressman Krishnamoorthy is the type of American we should aspire to be, not the individual that we just played who doesn't even know the words to the Pledge of Allegiance. We'll be right back. 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 joined by Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthy, who represents the 8th District of Illinois. For those who want to know, that includes Chicago's west and northwest suburbs.

The congressman also serves on the Intelligence Committee. Congressman, welcome to the Midas Touch podcast. Hey, great to be on. Thank you so much. Congressman, I got to give you some unsolicited hype here because before we started the podcast, I looked at your background and you may be like the most incredible person ever. So I'm just going to hype your background here and then ask you a question. You served in the Illinois state government on the board of housing development authority. You were the special assistant attorney general in the office of anti-corruption. You were the deputy state treasurer. Before becoming a Congress member,

you ran a small technology company. You worked with Obama in 2000 and 2004 and helped him with his famous keynote speech. You went to Harvard Law School. You went to Princeton, where you got a mechanical engineering degree. So my question for you, Congressman, is when you walk the halls of Congress and you have these Marjorie Taylor Greene's and you have these Lauren Bobberts who are spitting ignorance, how do you deal with colleagues like that? Thank you so much. You know, I have a 16, a 12 and a five year old at home. My wife and I do. So I joke that we have a teenager and a toddler. So I'm ready for anything in Congress. The only thing I wish I had is I wish I could put her in timeout,

like permanently. But, you know, I think in all seriousness, I think you do have to kind of hit the mute button so that you're not constantly having to respond to her nonsense. And then obviously you have to do whatever it takes to make sure she can't do any permanent damage. And that's why we voted to basically take her off committees because she's just, you know, she doesn't deserve that privilege. Absolutely. And Congressman, look, you're leading the push within Congress to get the world vaccinated, which you've stated is one of the most important things that we need as an international effort right now. But with the other party, you know, who we call the GQP, because we think they've completely lost their bearings, politicizing this issue here. I

mean, we saw, you know, you get booed on the GQP if you talk about the vaccine. It's a political issue there. So how do we get through that barrier, though, to lead the world in these true existential efforts? I think we have to do it through reconciliation, Ben. I think that this is one of those priorities that I put forward. Speaker Pelosi is aware of my passion on this subject. You see, back in, I think, late April, early May, I introduced this legislation in part because we lost three members of my extended family to the Delta variant in India. And I basically said, look, you know, this thing

is going to, if we don't vaccinate people in those countries where the variants are emerging, they're going to arrive in the U.S. So it's not only the right thing to do to vaccinate people around the world, but it's the smart thing to do to keep us safe from those variants, which are likely going to defeat our vaccines at some point. So 116 of my colleagues have joined me in requesting and demanding that this particular piece of legislation, we call it the NOVID Act, it's a play on words, no more COVID, is inserted into reconciliation to stand up a program to vaccinate roughly 60% of the population of the world's 92 poorest countries. And so I am going to do everything I can to see it through.

What's so frustrating is these countries want the vaccine. They need the vaccine. They don't have access to it. They don't have the funds for it. And here in the United States, we have all the vaccines. We have access to it. Yet you have a whole entire other political party now who is literally basically spreading disinfo. So Americans who have an abundance of the vaccine can't get it. I mean, that's what's so frustrating and so deeply upsetting even here. They would literally do anything internationally to get their hands on these things. That's right. It is deeply distressing that we have basically, unfortunately, we have a blood vaccine because people here, the 91, 92 million people who are eligible to take a vaccine who have not continue to refuse to do so. And so in a lot of places, those vaccine doses are being thrown away. They're being discarded because their expiration date is passed and so forth. In any case, now we have to do everything we can to end what you could call the Petri dish that is outside of the United States where these variants are developing and where they will eventually come up with a variant that defeats our vaccines.

We just can't allow that to happen. Let's talk infrastructure now. We know the Senate passed their bill, you know, and for me and the layman, we're looking at the House and we're saying, is there going to be an infrastructure bill? And we're reading all of these articles. Well, you know, there is the, you know, three point five trillion dollar budget resolution. There's the one trillion dollar infrastructure plan. What goes first? There's a group of moderate Democrats who want infrastructure to go first. It's a lot to process for the average person who's just asking, I want better roads. I want better bridges. I want Wi-Fi. What is going on? And here's a critique I have that I want to,

we need to speak to people, I think, in a simpler way and say, here's when it's coming and here's what we're doing for you. And so what's going on and how can we message that the right way? You're absolutely right. I think that we need to kind of simplify what the heck is going on here and build momentum. What's going on is there's an infrastructure package that was passed out of the Senate. It basically is meant for fixing what they call hard infrastructure. So roads, bridges, highways, airports, but also there's money for, as you said, Wi-Fi. So expanding access to broadband, which has become basically as important as running water and electricity at this point. Also, literally replacing lead pipes around the country so

that everyone has access to clean drinking water, and upgrading our electric grid so that we can actually transport those clean energy electrons from where they are produced, whether it's from solar panels or wind turbines, to where it's needed across the country. So that's what's in that big infrastructure bill that's coming out of the Senate. However, there are a number of priorities that were excluded from that hard infrastructure bill, which a lot of us feel are important and are necessary to be passed as well. So just as an example of what we just talked about, the NOVID Act, the No More COVID or Global Vaccination Campaign. Also, we're talking about assistance for child care, paid family and medical leave. We're talking about the child tax credit being expanded,

and so forth. Now, you might be wondering, why is that important? Why do we have to talk about those things? Or why do we have to even work on those things? It turns out, folks, that during the pandemic, what we learned is a lot of people, unfortunately, because of the pandemic, left the workforce. And one of the reasons why they left the workforce is because there's a shortage of child care. There's a shortage of elder care. There's a shortage of paid family and medical leave, in some cases, non-existent. Really, as a country, for us to become more productive, for us to be able to get these people back into the workforce.

And I'm primarily talking about women, by the way. Their labor participation rate, labor workforce participation rate is at an all-time low. They've left the workforce. To get them back into the workforce, we need to do all these things. Finally, let me just say one piece that's also missing from the infrastructure package, and that is workforce training. We have a dire need for high-quality post-secondary education that's different than four-year college. Only one-third of the country has a four-year college degree, and two-thirds do not. But for the two-thirds of Americans who do not, they don't have a good system of career technical or vocational education to upgrade their skills to take the jobs of the

future. And so I am leading the charge for that as well in this particular bill. Congressman, in any sense, are all of those things going in the House infrastructure bill, or do those go into the budget that goes through a reconciliation process? And I know we're in the weeds, but what bill do you expect based on the current knowledge is going to go first, and do we expect both will be passed in the next few months? I do expect both to be passed, and you're correct. The non-hard infrastructure items, all the things I talked about, are going into the budget reconciliation bill. And so basically what I anticipate happening is that we vote on some very important rules that will guide the process forward, both for the size of the reconciliation bill, but also the process by which we debate and ultimately vote on that bill. We have a lot of parents who watch the Midas Touch podcast, and whether you're a parent or whether you just have even a niece, a nephew, a loved one,

the issue of vaping is not always listed in the top five or 10 issues when we're dealing with the crisis in Afghanistan, infrastructures falling apart. We have a other political party who leads insurrections against the United States of America. But at a level in the homes of families across the country, children vaping at young ages is a serious issue and getting them hooked on those horrible, harmful substances. And you founded a bipartisan, which is great in this day and age, Congressional Caucus to End Youth youth vaping. Why was this important to you, Congressman? Oh, this is huge, man. We have obviously the global COVID pandemic, but we also have a vaping epidemic at this point among our youth. Just to give you the numbers, roughly

one in five high schoolers are vaping. I think it's now five to 10% of middle schoolers are vaping. And e-cigarettes are very dangerous to young people. It hurts their brain and nervous system. It hurts their pulmonary system. It leads to other problems. And so because I have a high schooler and a middle schooler in my family, this is very personal to me and my wife. My son, my eldest son, in his first month of high school, he was approached between

15 and 20 times to start vaping. You ask why? Because other people make money off of this. This has become a little bit of a cottage industry in high schools and other places. So anyway, I've gone after Juul and the vaping industry for going after our kids. And so I think Time Magazine named me the number one public enemy of the vaping industry with regard to this issue. And I wear that as a badge of honor, Ben, because our kids are not for sale. What we're seeing right now in terms of protecting our kids also is the FDA today announced that they were fully approving the Pfizer vaccine.

And it's still not available for kids under 12. But what the FDA's approval is, it's for children 16 and up. The emergency use authorization is still available for children 12 and up. How do we now confront elected officials across the country who are seemingly doing everything in their power to prevent school boards from taking the necessary action to fill in the gaps in these authorizations and mandate masks and take other common sense steps to protect our children? It is a great question, Brett. I think that we have certain tools, or the Biden administration has certain tools that it's probably looking at using. There's a lot of federal money that goes, obviously, for healthcare purposes, but also some money that goes for educational purposes. And I would not be surprised if the Biden administration starts to look at, okay, well, one of the strings associated with the money that we are providing to X state for the purpose of its secondary or high school education system or elementary school education system is that we're not going to allow the state to take away the

power of these districts and other municipalities to put in place mask mandates or even vaccine mandates. This is so basic, Brett. It's so frustrating what Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, is doing in Florida. I talked to a woman the other day. She happens to be a doctor who is very involved in the school board in the northern Florida area. And she said, you know, it's very interesting. Most of the parents did believe that because of the outbreak that they're seeing right now, a mask mandate makes sense. And yet they're going to lose money from the state and the superintendent is going to lose her salary from the state for doing this. And so that's just wrong. So why aren't Democrats out there, you know, kind of taking a page from the Republican playbook and saying, hey,

Republicans are defunding schools. They'd rather defund the schools than to protect kids. Like, why aren't we using simple messaging like that to get this message across as to what's really going on on the ground? That's a great slogan, Brett. I like what you just came up with. You could use it free of charge, all yours. I might even give you credit. That'd be a true honor. But I agree with you. I think that type of simple messaging can be very effective. I think at this point, we are kind of in a situation where if we don't get more people vaccinated in this country, we're going to be living with this pandemic for a very long time. We know who's to blame for that. Yep. Right there with you. Moving from vaccines to voting rights. We've seen an assault on voting rights and it's scary. We've seen groups like the Cyber Ninjas make a direct assault on our

entire voting system. I know that you are on the House Oversight Committee. The Cyber Ninjas were supposed to give you a breakdown of documents. I think the deadline might've been this morning and they missed the deadline or something to that effect. And I know that, you know, Representative Maloney, Representative Raskin, they wrote a letter threatening legal action against the cyber ninjas for missing this deadline. Why threaten legal action? Why not? The worst ninjas ever, by the way. Are we agreeing, Congressman, that these ninjas are the worst ninjas? I can't disagree with you, Ben. I think the long and the short is that usually on the oversight committee and these different committees, remember, I went four years through the oversight and intelligence committee with the impeachment

process and everything else. And one of the things that I believe might be baked into our rules is that we first have to ask for voluntary compliance. Elijah Cummings pioneered this where you do it once, you do it twice, you do it a third time, and that builds up the case for a court then issuing a subpoena. And so I think that that's probably what the oversight committee has decided to embark on right now. I think that's super helpful for our viewers and listeners to know, because I think a lot of people see that and they're like, just subpoena them already. What is going on? Why are you taking so long? But there is a

methodical process, a legal strategy to it in the background that is taking place to get there and to make sure that when we get there, everything, every I is dotted, every T is crossed, et cetera. Moving to foreign affairs now, we got a lot to cover. There's a lot going on in the world, Representative. Let's talk Afghanistan briefly. Obviously, an incredible, complicated issue, but I feel like we've seen now spurts of good news coming from Afghanistan. We've evacuated now 37,000 people, which I think is very impressive on the scope of things. How do you think right now President Biden is handling Afghanistan?

What do you think, looking back on this at the end, months from now or even years from now, looking back, what would it take you to look back and say, you know what, that was a success. We did a good job. We did what we needed to do, given a really tough hand. We get all of the Americans out and we get our Afghan allies and partners out. That will be the mark of, you know, a decent withdrawal. We also, you know, obviously have to credit our men and women in the armed forces who are right now putting themselves on the line to protect all these people. And so I also would say we need to get them out of harm's way without incident, especially from these terrorist groups like ISIS, Khorasan, and so forth. But I am glad that within the last 24 hours, we really hustled and we need to show

more of that going forward as we process people's applications and so forth and get them out of harm's way. Representative, you famously helped Obama write his 2004 convention speech about bringing Americans together. Now, it seems like all the GQP wants to do now is divide us. Can we bring the country together? And if so, how do you think we do that? It's a great question, Jordy. I think you've probably given me way too much credit. I didn't really help them to write the speech. He wrote it on his own. Believe it or not, he wrote it on his own laptop and then he presented it to us. The only thing that I can take credit for is that, you know, the convention that year was run by John Kerry's

campaign and they wanted to really put in a lot of slogans into his speech that matched up with then Senator Kerry's speeches. And the only thing that I did, which I take credit for, is I said, you know, I ixnayed the red lines from the Kerry campaign, because it just, it really took away from then Senator Obama, State Senator Obama's voice. The way forward, you know, I'm kind of naive about this. Look, I'm an immigrant. I'm a member of a racial, religious, and ethnic minority with 29 letters in my name. So I definitely am not, you know, the person that some of my colleagues on the other side are most fondest of or their

base is fondest of. But I think the vast majority of Americans still believe in at least two concepts, which I think we have to rally around. One, we want to get everyone on the up escalator of the economy, regardless of whether you're working poor, whether you're middle class or you're trying to grow a business. And then two, we want everyone to have access to that up escalator, regardless of where you come from or how you pray or whom you love. I think the vast majority of Americans are in favor of that. The more that we can kind of talk about those issues and try to connect with people on the

other side on those particular issues, I think the better off we are. Let me just point out workforce training. It's not the sexiest issue. It's not the one that's going to grab the headlines of any newspaper or magazine. But it is something that I have been able to collaborate with my Republican colleagues on. And I find that that is actually going to be key for, you know, the economic success of the country in the future. If we can just put a little more money into people's pockets and give them a positive outlook on their place in the economy, this globalizing economy, a place where the technology revolution is happening as well, and if we can make them feel like they're part of it, I think that their horizon's open. They're more optimistic. They look on immigration more fondly.

They look at foreign aid a different way. They brought in their perspectives so that they are more inclusive of progressive ones. That's my naive, maybe my naive outlook, but I'm just trying to get people more incorporated into the global economy as fast as possible. And my vehicle is through career technical, vocational, and skills-based education. But Congressman, I don't think that's naive looking at your story because your story reflects that in a lot of ways. For our viewers who don't know, your family had economic hardships early on. You were on public housing and food assistance early on, and that helped your family get to a middle-class living

that then allowed you to become a United States representative. And so I so appreciate the work that you're doing now, not to then take that ladder that helped you get up and pull it away like we see so much from the other side, but to try to figure out ways to lift people up and help people experience the American dream the same way you had. So I'm just really right about that. And let me just say, I'm just reminded of that old Native American saying, which is that inside of each of us is a good wolf and a bad wolf. And the wolf that you become is the wolf you feed. You know, I think that Donald Trump and his lookalikes or wannabes fed the bad wolf in a lot of people. They said the reason why you are struggling economically, the reason why you're not advancing and prospering is because of that brown guy over there. It could be a Mexican, it could be a Muslim, it could be an Indian American, it could be whatever. And it's up to us as progressives and Democrats to appeal to the good wolf in people, the best angels in people, and say, look, you know, you're struggling.

I struggled too. I know it's really hard. This is how I want to help you. Will you come with me? And let's partner together to climb that ladder and get to a better place. I just think that that is the best of America if we can just appeal to that. Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthy, thank you so much for joining us on the Midas Touch podcast. Thank you, Ben, Jordi and Brett. You guys are amazing. Thank you. We'll be right back after these messages. What's up, Midas Mighty? Do you like Midas Touch podcast? Yes, you're listening to it now and you're watching it now, but you need to check out all our other podcasts, The Kremlin File,

Mya Culpa by Michael Cohen, Zoomed In, but I want to talk to you specifically about Legal AF, a breakdown of all of today's legal issues hosted by myself and my co-host, Michael Popock. Legal AF by Midas Touch is the premier legal podcast across platforms. It's funny. It's smart. We break down the facts, no BS whatsoever, and we are fighting for democracy by telling you about what the law truly is and the outcomes of these cases at the federal, state, and local levels. Make sure right now to subscribe to Legal AF by Midas Touch. Legal AF by Midas Touch. Check out that podcast. Welcome back to the Midas Touch podcast. Great interview with Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthy. Super, super impressive person. Yeah, he's great. Let's talk briefly about Afghanistan and some updates there. Brett, you mentioned this in the interview, that about 37,000 people have been evacuated from Afghanistan after the United States forces had left. like where Afghanistan is listed in terms of like American concerns and priorities.

You know, at the top, you have economy and jobs at 26 percent, COVID at 7 percent, health care in the 5 percent range. Afghanistan doesn't even show up in this NBC poll as a thing that Americans list as a priority. As Biden said, this was a tough decision to make. History will look back at this decision as the right decision. But look, at the end of the day, what Biden could have done and what I think a lot of other presidents would have done, knowing that this could adversely impact their poll numbers, is that they could have just put more troops into Afghanistan and continue the never ending war. Right. They could have had a surge in troops in Afghanistan and they could have repelled the Taliban for what? Another five years, another 10 years, 50 years as more bloodshed rains down on Afghanistan when we're not even there for the underlying decision here. He was dealt a hand of cards that Trump engaged in a messy, sloppy, precipitous, abrupt deal with the Taliban, where Taliban soldiers were released and the Taliban was basically given free reign. Trump put this

poison pill in there. It certainly could have been dealt with more methodically. And I think if Biden was president before, he would have. But he made the right call. I agree a thousand percent. And you see Trump out there at this horse manure, cow manure rally, whatever it was in Alabama, bragging about how impressed he is by the Taliban. Taliban, great negotiators, tough fighters, great negotiators. These are the people who he decided to negotiate with. He completely surrendered Afghanistan to the Taliban. President Biden came in there in a situation where the Afghan government was already cut out of all these negotiations by the Trump administration. There was a date set. Biden was able to push that date back slightly. And now Biden just realized

that, you know, I could be like all these past presidents who have been here. And then what you said is not hypothetical. That's what past presidents did. They had surges. They kept troops there. They were too afraid to rip off this bandaid because they knew that the consequences could be disastrous no matter what you did, no matter how much preparation you take. But I think what is really bothering me right now is the postmorts being ridden by the news networks who are looking at this while the event is still going on and is trying to trash the efforts of the American government during this process. To me, what we're seeing right now is a massive undertaking, and it seems incredibly successful. As of now, there have been zero, not a single American casualty in this transition of getting out of Afghanistan. I think that is an incredible

feat given all the chaos that is going on there right now. In the past 24 hours alone. Think about that. In the past 24 hours, we've taken out, evacuated 16,000 people from Afghanistan. And then you have CNN writing articles saying stuff like, President Biden and America are abandoning their allies out there. How is evacuating 16,000 people? How is evacuating 37,000 people in the past few weeks abandoning people? In fact, CNN's own reporting says that this is the biggest evacuation effort in the history of the world, in the history. So how do you write an article saying that, and then by the same token, go and start saying, oh, President Biden, is he abandoning our allies? No, we are working on it. They are obviously being very diligent on the ground. They are working to protect Americans.

They are working on helping refugees. And I, for one, am incredibly proud of what I'm seeing there on the ground by American troops, by our government, who is really taking this seriously and is also viewing the human aspect of this with great priority and is making sure that refugees, that our interpreters who helped us are getting out there in a safe and effective manner. Absolutely. There is no easy solution there, but the difficult decision, the decision in America's best interest, though, is exactly what Biden is doing now. You know, one other thing just to note as well, you know, just switching gears for a quick moment, I want to give props to many of the Florida school districts out there, Leon County and others, who are standing up

against Death Santas DeSantis, who is affirmatively intervening to prevent schools from implementing common sense mask mandates. You know, it's one thing for a governor like a Death Santas to not put forward policies that require mask mandates or that make their population safer. But it's another thing for a governor to affirmatively intervene into decisions that are being made in private businesses and at local school board levels who in their own, in the private sector business judgment and in the sense of local government and local school boards, their own judgment based on the circumstances on the ground there, to affirmatively intervene, to imperil the lives of citizens, of children, is something that is just completely, completely

unforgivable. And the threats of financial harm that Governor DeSantis has engaged in with these various groups that don't follow. His unhealthy attempts at killing them is something that is so impressive that these school boards and private companies and others who are standing up against his authoritarianism and fascism. So special shout out there. A great episode of the Midas Touch

podcast. As always, it's so much fun to be joined by my brothers Brett and Jordy to see at the same time, same place. All the viewers out there who support the Midas Touch, who have given donations and contributions on this during this podcast, thank you all so much. A great guest and representative Raja Krishnamoorthy from Illinois' 8th Congressional District, and an incredible time with you all, the Midas Mighty, from myself, from Brett, from Jordi. We wish you all the best. Keep fighting for democracy. And Jordy, shout out to the Midas Mighty!