The MeidasTouch Podcast - Dissecting the MAGA meltdown as we stack up wins for America

Episode Date: December 9, 2022

On today’s episode of the MeidasTouch Podcast, hosts Ben and Brett Meiselas are back to cover the most newsworthy moments of the week including: Sen. Raphael Warnock defeating Republican Herschel Walker to win re-election to the US Senate and the ensuing right wing meltdown, the Trump Organization being found guilty on 17 felony counts in the New York criminal trial, more stolen classified documents discovered at a Trump storage unit in Florida, the DOJ asking a judge to hold the Trump team in contempt over the stolen documents case, Brittney Griner’s release from a Russian prison and much more!  Shop Meidas Merch at: https://store.meidastouch.com Join us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/meidastouch Remember to subscribe to ALL the Meidas Media Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://pod.link/1510240831 Legal AF: https://pod.link/1580828595 The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://pod.link/1595408601 The Influence Continuum: https://pod.link/1603773245 Kremlin File: https://pod.link/1575837599 Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://pod.link/1530639447 The Weekend Show: https://pod.link/1612691018 The Tony Michaels Podcast: https://pod.link/1561049560 American Psyop: https://pod.link/1652143101 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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defeated MAGA extremist and just all-around bizarre dude and candidate Herschel Walker in the Senate runoff election in Georgia. Republicans freaked out about Senator Warnock's victory. And with that pesky felony conviction of the Trump organization, well, MAGA world is just pretending it didn't even happen. This just in, we are now learning the Department of Justice under special counsel, Jack Smith has filed a motion for contempt against Donald Trump in the federal court in Washington, D.C., overseeing the criminal grand jury, investigating Trump's criminal theft of government records and obstruction thereto. Get this. No one at the Trump Organization wants to be named a custodian of records to attest under oath that Donald Trump returned all of the records to the Department of Justice.

I wonder why no one wants to sign under penalty of perjury and be a custodian of records about everything. Also, Donald Trump did not appeal the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling from December 1st, holding that Judge Eileen Cannon did not have jurisdiction in the Mar-a-Lago search warrant case. So, what does that mean? That case is over and will now be dismissed. I have one question for you, Judge Eileen Cannon. Was it worth it? Was it worth it? Vladimir Zelensky is named Time Magazine's Person of the Year. And the pro-Russian Putin puppet regime of Republicans are angry about that.

And they're also angry about the prisoner swap by President Biden to return WNBA star Brittany Griner back to America from a Russian penal colony where she was imprisoned. And meanwhile, Biden keeps winning. America keeps winning. And the Republicans keep losing and are losing their minds. This is the Midas touch. Jordy is still on indefinite leave for his never ending honeymoon. Must be nice, huh?

I've decided, though, that I need to like take Jordy's place a little bit. So now I'm wearing like funny beanies and things. The way Jordy mixes up the fashion look. I got to bring some flair to the show now that we don't have Jordy to bring that flair and that swagger. So that's what I'm doing here. But oh my gosh, I can't believe how much has happened since our Tuesday show. The news cycle is just incredible. And it just seems like the more success that President Biden and Democrats have, even go past that, the more success that just America has in general, the more enraged MAGA gets, the more enraged these Republicans get. It's like a Pavlovian response

to good things happening for America. They can't help themselves. They just become full of rage, full of anger, but we are full of love here at the Midas Touch Podcast and positivity, and that's what we are here to spread and to let you know about all the bad guys and everything that's going on. So Benjamin, where shall we even begin? Where do we even start? Well, since we last left off on the last episode of the Midas Touch podcast, the brothers were talking about, no, what happened was the Trump organization was convicted of 17 felony counts, 17 in a criminal case in New York State Court. When we were live on Monday, the jury had just started their deliberations. Brett, it took less than 10 hours of jury deliberations on each of the 17 felony counts. The jury went count by count, asked a lot of

very smart questions to the presiding judge over the case and then came back with a guilty verdict on all counts. That means the Trump organization is officially now a felon organization. Now the wind is at the back of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who's brought on Matthew Colangelo, formerly the number three at the Department of Justice. He was the acting associate attorney general at the time. He also worked at the New York attorney general's office, now a senior counsel at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, and has a history of prosecuting Donald Trump.

He was the one who led the efforts to shut down the Trump charity and the Trump foundation. This is Colangelo who's now- Just think about how many things- I mean, his business is a felon. He's not allowed to run a charity. I can't do anything without doing it corruptly. It's truly something to see. And I just want to just pause for one second and just emphasize this fact because it's very obvious, but I don't think people are appreciating enough. I don't think the news is appreciating enough. The former president of the United States Corporation is a felon and was convicted of 17 felony counts in criminal court. That is a massive, massive deal. And I'll tell the media right now, yes, that is a bigger deal

than President Biden serving lobster to the French president at a steak dinner. Those don't deserve equal coverage is all I'm going to say. This is absolutely historic. And you could feel it, right, Ben? The floodgates have certainly opened. I think everybody right now is ready to pounce. Jack Smith, man, Jack Smith is not messing around. He is not wasting any time. He is in there. He is taking action. It is a sight to behold. So, I mean, just think about what's going on right now across the country, right? So you've got the civil fraud lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James seeking to shut down. It's an injunction that they're seeking to shut down

the Trump organization essentially from ever doing business again in New York and at least a $250 million fine. That's set to go to trial early October of 2023. You've got Fawnie Willis, Fulton County District Attorney, with a special grand jury in Fulton County, subpoenaing all of these witnesses in Trump's inner circle as part of her criminal investigation into 2020 election interference. You have the Manhattan district attorney, which just secured a guilty verdict on 17 felony counts against the Trump organization, who just brought in Matthew Colangelo to investigate Donald Trump individually. We had Michael Cohen on earlier today,

whose predictions have been spot on. Cohen predicts that Trump himself will be indicted in January of 2023. I don't think that Cohen is that far off. I think that we will see before May of 23. And if you go back and look at the videos, that's the date I've kind of always been saying, April or May of 2023. I think we will see a criminal indictment of Donald Trump individually there. And then Matthew Colangelo out of the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. And then we have Jack Smith, of course, the special counsel. Colangelo was one of the top prosecutors at the Department of Justice, probably only second to Jack Smith in terms of reputation. And so you've literally assembled the dream team of people who you would want on this case.

And then even behind Jack Smith, you've got someone like Tom Windham, who's a prosecutor who's been handling all the grand jury proceedings, who's like a superstar prosecutor. It's the A-team of the A-team. Like any of these people could go to private practice and make tens of millions of dollars, but they do this work because they love it. They know the wheels of justice need to move in the right direction. And look at the news we heard today, Brett, that the special counsel in the Department of Justice has sought to hold Donald Trump and his team in contempt for not producing a custodian of records. I just want to let people know what that means. So

when you subpoena an organization, there's usually one person, just one, one person, who works at the organization who can attest under penalty of perjury that in response to a subpoena that the documents have been turned over. I am a representative of Company X, and I can swear and attest under penalty of perjury that all documents have been turned over in response to the subpoena. That happens in every case. So back on June 3rd of this year, apparently on June 2nd, Donald Trump's lawyers, Corcoran and Epstein, call in Christina Bob. And I don't know to feel bad for her, but she's complicit. I have such mixed feelings about Christina Bob. You can't feel bad for Christina Bob, dude.

You can't feel bad. I'm sorry. So Trump's real kind of evil lawyers call in Christina Bob, who's also evil and complicit, but doesn't really know what's going on. And they say to her, you need to be the custodian of records. And we want you to tell the Department of Justice, the top counterintelligence official, that hand them this Redwell and tell them that these are all the remaining classified records. So she does that. And she acts as a custodian of records and says on June 3rd, all of the records have been turned over. And she was the custodian of records then.

And she wanted to make that point very clear because she then went on Fox and said that she was his lawyer. But then at one of these weird rallies, she said, I was never his lawyer, even though I was in court and saying I was his lawyer, I was only the custodian of records. But, but, and she said that while she was moonlighting as a reporter for the network, like it wasn't like she was being interviewed at the time, right? Like she wasn't actually acting as a host for the show. It was like, you know, RSBN or OAN or one of those networks covering the Trump rally. Or maybe she's just moonlighting as a lawyer. I may have it backwards, but yeah. So she signs that declaration on June 3rd. And then obviously the Department of Justice executes the search warrant on August 8th. They didn't do a – obviously Christina Bob didn't do a diligent search because the Department of Justice goes in and finds thousands, thousands of government records, including 103 top secret classified records just like lying around basically like in his office desk

downstairs in the storage room. And then even now we're learning that more classified records were in this like West Palm Beach storage facility. And so nobody wants to sign under penalty of perjury that all of the records, there's Christina Bobber pulling her up right there. You may remember all of those bizarre interviews she gave with fox where laura ingraham and by the way it's pronounced ingraham i someone called me today and they were like it's ingram ben we had laura ingraham's brother on the podcast so i said i know from the brother that it's actually ingraham and not you get called out of that a lot and sometimes i do go through the comments one-on-one and go actually curtis ingraham told us that the family actually all calls it

all calls it ingraham so we're gonna call it what curtis prefers and uh we'll we'll run with that and if you haven't by the way seen or or listened to the our podcast with curtis ingraham it was at this point what do you think then a year year, year and a half ago? Not to totally digress. Two Augusts ago. But phenomenal and provides a lot of insight into his sister and really kind of lets you know what's going on up there and why she is the way she is. So I recommend it's a great kind of evergreen listen if you have a chance. Maybe we'll replay it at some point. It's great. So no one wants to sign on and be the custodian of records because they all think Trump is

lying to them. Trump doesn't want to be the custodian of records because they all think Trump is lying to them. Trump doesn't want to be the custodian of records. So in the Department of Justice and Jack Smith's motion for contempt, they're like they can't play games. They are an organization. They need to have a custodian of records, certify under penalty of perjury that they've returned all of the records. Jack Smith knows what he's doing. He's baiting them right now. And so what are the repercussions of contempt? Contempt could have a financial penalty and contempt can be criminal. But what

Jack Smith's really doing is baiting the Trump organization to try to compel somebody to commit perjury. Because here's the thing. The Department of Justice with top secret records, all top secret records have handlers who keep track of them. So the Department of Justice knows each and every document that hasn't been returned. They're not telling us that. They're not saying that, but they have the log. So they're waiting to try something. They're waiting for- It's that classic lawyer thing, right, Ben? You never ask a question as an attorney in a trial that you don't know the answer to, right? That's kind of common knowledge of what you do when you're doing one of those things. And this is that kind of in this form of, hey, just asking, do you have any more? Do you

have any more documents? Just tell us. Does anyone want to sign that document and let us know? Perhaps somebody wants to sign. I'm sure somebody wants to sign. And the hilarious thing about it is that no one wants to sign it because they have to rely on their client's word that he hasn't stolen the documents. Even if Trump says that they haven't seen it and they go ahead on Trump's word and sign it, they are liable for that as the custodian of records on that document. So they themselves are terrified of getting in this perjury situation where they are lying because they have a fool and a liar

and a criminal for a client who can't help himself and keeps digging his hole deeper day in and day out. I feel like you, after watching all my legal takes and editing them with our credible editor, Salty, I feel like you're becoming like a little lawyer over there.

I feel like the mightiest, mighty... That was a good analysis right there, custodian. Thank you. Should I take the LSAT for fun and just see how I do? There's nothing fun about the LSAT. Don't do that. But there is a lot fun about Senator Raphael Warnock destroying the bizarre MAGA extremist candidate, Herschel Walker. And just leading up to the election, the runoff election, okay, Saturday Night Live just did the funniest opening skit with Herschel Walker, where after Herschel Walker spent hours trying to tell them about all the things he still hasn't told them, they're like, all right, Herschel, you'd have to stay in that room. There was like a mirror in the room and

Herschel walks in and he goes, I'm already in the room. And the things that Herschel said, though, were not like that far off. Leading up to the runoff, Herschel Walker didn't realize that he was even running for the Senate. He thought he was running for the house of representatives. He called himself a creepy old man, like just randomly be what, what was he saying that he unprovoked called himself a creepy old man. He was saying that he occasionally liked to go to the movies and see children's movies like the jungle book. And then he made some weird comment, like, you know, that feeling when you feel like you got to rent a kid, it's like, you know, you know that feeling anybody,

anybody when you got to rent a kid to go to the movies to see the jungle book, because you don't want to be a creepy old man. I'm like, no, that's how he finished the speech. I just got to close. I got to close this door. Anybody ever see the jungle book and you just go there and you feel like you have to rent a child because you feel super creepy? You ever get that sense that you're a creepy old man? What are you talking? What are you talking about? I mean, Brett, so bizarre. But look, Senator Raphael Warnock ran a great campaign. Tell us about it, Brett. I thought he ran a great campaign.

I think he ran a campaign of dignity, a campaign that was heavy on the substance, that didn't go into kind of ugly attack mode. Everything was based on the facts. He had a track record of helping the people. He was talking not about werewolves and vampires, but about how people are going to put food on the table, how he's going to preserve Social Security, how he's going to increase voting rights and the like. And he ended up winning.

Right now, he's up about 3%, which is going to give Democrats a 51 to 49 advantage in the U.S. Senate. I know a lot of people are like, I can't believe it's only 3%. How could Georgia do this? How could it be this close? I just want to emphasize for everybody just how incredible that is. First off, Raphael Warnock has won four elections in the past two years. I just need to emphasize that. These guys won four elections in the past two years. And Georgia, if you look through the years in Georgia at the elections, I mean, this is like the first time in American history in a very long time that Democrats are even winning Georgia to begin with.

We lost by a pretty sizable margin in 2016, in 2012, and now we're winning. We're into 2012, Brett. We were talking about this earlier. Like, didn't Obama get like, like Romney beat Obama in 2012 by like 11 points. It was such an interesting data point as well about Georgia. Yeah, I'm pulling it up now. So in Georgia, Romney won 53.4% to Obama's 45.4%. So that's like an eight point swing right there, plus eight R. So we went from in 20, which year was this, 2012, we went from plus eight R to now plus three D in Georgia.

And I just wanna emphasize that fact. And I also wanna give a huge shout out to all the activists out there, everybody who made phone calls, everybody who sent text messages, everyone who knocked on doors, just everybody who shared our videos, everybody who shared just any of their knowledge with their neighbors, with their friends, with their family. Because you don't dig into those margins like that and turn a state blue like that without the work of every single person involved. So I just want to make sure that all y'all get the credit for that,

all the activists, just everybody. It's such an incredible job. And the 51 to 49 advantage is nothing to scoff at. I mean, that's a huge deal in the US Senate because it makes things so easier. Democrats are going to be able to unilaterally issue subpoenas in the Senate for investigations. You know that the Republicans in the House are going to be doing these BS investigations nonstop. So that's nice that we'll have that power in the Senate. It's going to make everything way quicker too if President Biden needs to nominate everybody. I want to also emphasize judicial nominees. It's going to make the process for getting through judicial nominees that much faster. Biden right now is already at an incredible pace, like the

fastest in modern history of electing judges. This is only going to increase that pace. Democrats are going to control the committees outright. So you could say bye-bye to those power sharing agreements that we currently have with the Republicans. They will no longer be even on those committees. The Manchin cinema power, it's diluted. I mean, you can't go wrong with that. That's nice. And also it gives us a leg up heading into 2024. I know you're like, oh, I can't believe I have to think of the next election, but it's important to have that Senate seat going into 2024. That's not going to be easy. None of these elections are going to be easy. But all in all, we just have to be proud of that. We've got to be proud of that performance.

And you also got to look at the other side too and see the utter complete meltdown from the right wing and Fox. There's unlike anything I've ever seen. I mean, they're melted and they just miss the point at every turn, huh? They absolutely miss the point. And so one of the things that we saw, and I always love seeing Fox have to call the races for Democrats because they're just palpably, incredibly angry. But now what Fox does, because if you call the race for a Democrat on Fox, you get fired, like the person who got fired for calling it for Biden in Arizona. So now Fox, which actually had a great data desk to call elections, like they no longer rely on their own data. So just think about that. The one aspect of things that they actually did well, which was assemble a

sophisticated data operation to determine, to call the results on the night of, they basically scrapped that. And now they have to sheepishly go, well, according to the AP's results, we just want to let you know, this is the Associated Press. It's not us. The AP called it. It's not us. Please don't get mad at us. Please don't get mad at us. Don't blame us for reporting facts. And Ben, it's like, because numbers don't lie, right? It's hard to twist numbers, especially when they're coming in live and you don't have time to figure out, okay, how could we spin this thing? They could spin whatever other stories they want. They can't spin just the direct loss. So Fox News calling it. First off, it sounds as if they're announcing somebody died or something. They sound so somber about it. And like you said, the first thing they do is it's basically like,

viewers, please don't get mad at us. Please, please don't get mad at us. Please, please. The AP, the AP told us this. The AP made the call. It wasn't us. It wasn't us. Just watch when the moment Fox News calls Georgia and listen to every word that they say here. OK. And Laura, right now we're relying on the Associated Press to give us these numbers. And right now, the Associated Press is just giving the checkmark to Raphael Warnock. He's going back to the U.S. Senate as the winner of this runoff against Herschel Walker, right now at 50.4 percent to Walker's 49.6. Raphael Warnock has won the runoff in Georgia four weeks after we held the midterms in 2022, which in effect, Laura, gives you the balance of power now in the Senate.

Democrats at 51, Republicans at 49. Let me gather up the courage to say this. That gives the Democrats in the Senate 51 to 49. They've created a monster in their viewers by lying and gaslighting and spreading all this propaganda. And they are terrified of the monster they created. And you could just see it on his face. Absolutely terrified. So now Laura Ingraham, after hearing that news, she talks about she goes, I am so pissed. I am so mad right now. Here, play the clip.

You and I talked about this about a week ago. We felt this coming. To me, it never felt like the Senate Republicans wanted this guy in office. He was a Trump pick. They didn't like that. They probably like him as a person, Herschel as a person. But there wasn't the intensity on the part of the Republicans as there was on the part of the Democrats. I felt it. You felt it. But we don't change anything.

We have the same people in place in leadership, same people in place, apparently, at the RNC. Perhaps that's not changing. We just keep doing the same thing over and over again. I'm pissed tonight, frankly. Go ahead. Yeah, it's really offensive. I'm mad. While she's talking to two Republican strategists

who are responsible for the loss, by the way, especially Kellyanne Conway, who invented this whole alternative facts concept, which has left Fox completely in the dark as to what Americans actually care about as they focus on things like Hunter Biden's laptop and testicle tanning and whatever else is their topic du jour. But also, talk about these figures who have always been there, who are doing bad things for the party. She has no self-awareness of herself. Laura Ingraham, you are to blame.

Fox News is to blame. You are trying to hit all these side issues, like I just said, and you will not even acknowledge reality. And it is to your detriment. So all I say, with all these investigations, Hunter, whatever you want, just do it. Have fun. Go crazy. It's going to be annoying. Okay. You're just going to keep losing. Americans are done with the craziness. And like we said, after the midterms, they're going to learn all the wrong lessons and they continue every single day to show us how they are learning all the wrong lessons. They can't gaslight their way out of this one.

Well, the very next day. So this is Wednesday. So what happens on Tuesday? The Trump organization is convicted of 17 felonies. Senator Raphael Warnock wins in the Senate runoff elections in Georgia. Now, this was the main story that was on Fox in the morning. It was about the 2009 fast andious story that they tried to conjure up, like that whole thing. So this is what they were talking about on Fox and Friends in the morning. Fault over Obama era Fast and Furious scandal. I mean, first off, like they always love those two terms, Fast and Furious, Strike Force, Twitter files. You know, it's so true true give them two words and they

will get you a scandal they are like it's their two words is all it takes like yeah you get two words or like one word with like multiple syllables like benghazi it's three syllables and they like they like that aspect of it. But you give them three syllables or two words and a MAGA Republican's like, oh, there must be a scandal. There must be a scandal there. So that's where we're focused, Fast and Furious there. And then on their website, right, is the main thing. Some Twitter lawyer is terminated, like not Raphael Warnock, not Trump organization convicted. Do we have the cover? Yeah, and then they did it on the website and then right after the website, then they also, it was like a full court press. They also had it on Fox, Twitter lawyer terminated

in big writing. And this whole scandal that they're creating is that Elon Musk discovered that Twitter had internal- Yeah, you told me about it before. I didn't even understand the Twitter lawyer terminated. And not only did I not understand it, I'll just admit it. I knew enough about it to be like, okay, my mind can't deal with this stupidity that this is even a thing. But I was like, Brett, can you explain this to me? And then you explained it to me. I was like, I know my first instinct was my mind just didn't even want to even try to wrap around this stupidity. So just talk about this for a second. This whole thing that they ginned up about the Twitter lawyers terminated. Well, we already spoke about the Twitter, the whole files thing on the previous episode. So

I'm not going to belabor the point there. But in terms of the attorney, what the whole new scandal they tried to conjure up and Elon Musk had fired Twitter's in-house counsel was that Twitter had an in-house lawyer who thought it was best to review documents before they released them to the public for legal compliance. That was literally the scandal. And he happened to have high-profile jobs at other places. use Twitter as a disinformation social media platform. My job is to review it. Then Elon Musk fired that lawyer. And then that was like their front page story on Wednesday. That was their issue. Twitter files. Then on the New York Post, for those listening on just audio, not just audio, but those listening on audio, for the YouTube viewers, Brett's putting up right now, the New York Post, which purports to be like the main paper for Manhattan, for New York City. And what big event

may have happened in Manhattan on Tuesday? Could it be the former president's company was found guilty on 17 felony counts? But that's not something that they put on their front cover at all. Instead, it's some, go put it back up again. Inside job, Democratic lawyer secretly blocked release of internal Twitter files. And there was the one commentator, I think it was Matthew Gertz, or whose name sounds like Gates from Media Matters. He was like, does any American who just picks up this cover knows what the hell they're even trying? What are they talking about, Brett? I've said this recently, but it's like, whenever I'm going down these right wing rabbit holes to see what's going on there, I know the words are in English, but I can't understand them,

like their sentences when they're put together. I really have to try to decipher it and be like, oh, okay, this is what they're trying to say. I don't know why that matters. It seems like they just, most of these things come to, if they were being honest, and they're not, would be they must not understand how things work. They must not understand how corporations work. They must not understand what the first amendment means. They must, but it's obviously far more nefarious than that. They are purposely selectively releasing certain information that sounds provocative, but doesn't have any actual anything behind it. And they're trying to create scandals and they try to time the drops at specific times. So whenever bad news hits them to try to flip the script. So Fox doesn't want to talk about Trump. If they don't have to talk about Trump, they don't want to have to talk about Trump. So what do they do? Oh, Twitter, Twitter, lawyers, this, that, that was their front

page the day after the former president of the United States company was guilty on 17 felony counts. I mean, give me a break. It's just pure, pure, unadulterated propaganda. Yeah. Twitter files, 2009, fast and furious. By the way, I still, I'm going to be honest. I still don't know what the fast and furious thing is. I truthfully, I don't even know what the scandal was. I don't know what it is. They said it so many times. It's like one of those things that is pump out there into the world that my brain just shuts off because I'm like, what are these people talking? Can I tell you what? Here's what I know that when they tried to gin up and make a whole Benghazi

thing to like focus on impeachment and all that. Here's what I do know that unlike all of these MAGA Republican cowards out there that Hillary Clinton sat before a congressional idiotic committee and spoke for 12 hours nonstop, did not invoke the Fifth Amendment once, answered every single question. Now compare that. Compare that to when the New York Attorney General Letitia James called Trump in for a deposition in connection with the special proceeding that led to the fraud lawsuit that was filed. Here were the questions that Donald Trump was asked. Donald Trump, what is the valuation of Trump Towers? What was the appraised value of Trump Towers? Why was the valuation and appraised value different? Now let's talk about Ben Minster. What was the valuation you provided on your statement of financial condition of Ben Minster? What was the appraised value?

Can you explain the difference there? You would think for all the bluster and bravado, right? To those questions, kind of softballs to someone who wants to brag about it, right? Coward Donald Trump, I plead the fifth. I plead the fifth. I plead the fifth. I plead the fifth. I plead the fifth. And all of these MAGA extremists who were integrally involved in the January 6th insurrection, all trying to avoid the grand jury. They're appealing to their state Supreme Courts, like Mark Meadows' appeal to the South Carolina Supreme Court,

which said that it was completely and utterly without merit. You got people like Mike Flynn who plead the fifth before the January 6th committee. You got Steve Bannon who's like, I'm going to go in there and I'm going to go give them hell in the contempt of Congress. I'm going to give them hell, you know, and refuses to take the stand. You know, that's, I have so much problems with MAGA, that they're fraud, that they're criminals, but at a deeper level too, their cowardice is something that I always want to go back to, that their bravado and bluster is to their echo chamber to try to immediately divide the country. But when they are called to task to speak in a place where truth actually matters, they cower from it each and every time. And to me, that is an undisputed fact. So when I have debates from time to time with people who are still kind of MAGA-ish, even though I think a lot of people are leaving when

I have those debates, I point that out. Okay. You mentioned Hillary Clinton. Guess what? She showed up and she spoke for 12 hours. I go, why wouldn't Donald Trump speak to Letitia James and answer the question? They go, oh, it's a witch hunt. Okay. So it should be really easy. If it's a witch hunt, there's just go in and just and you're a tough guy just go in there and say leticia james here's what you need to do the same way nancy pelosi rolled into the white house with her finger at him and was like look you idiot that's my rant hi i'm harry lichman host of talking feds a round table that brings together prominent figures from government law and journalism for a dynamic discussion of the most important topics of the day.

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free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. I thought that was a stellar rant. Then I'll say witch hunts don't end in 17 guilty convictions unless there is, in fact, a witch at the end of that hunt. And we found a witch in Donald Trump and the Trump organization. Guilty as charged. Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty. And Brett, when we talk about-

14 more times. It could have kept going to get it to 17. When we talk about though, I think, you know, let's follow that point there about the kind of disinformation, the hate, the attempt to try to divide Americans right away with the Brittany Griner situation. So of course it's reported earlier that Brittany Griner, an American basketball star who had been imprisoned in Russia on really trumped up, I guess, pun intended or no pun intended, drug charges, was traded for Victor Bout, a Russian arms dealer. He was previously known as one of his names was like the merchant of death. And he would go on. He was caught in Thailand, I think, in a sting that was set up by the FBI, you know, and he was posing as,

I think he was posing as part of like a Colombian rebel group and selling weapons and trying to sell weapon systems. And so he was caught back in 2008. He was tried and charged and convicted, I think in 2012. So he served about 10 years and he was set to be released in 2029 to begin with. Greiner- Yeah, I don't think that's being talked about enough also, that this guy is set to be released 2029 or earlier. It's not like he was in there for life. He's going to be released in a few years anyway. So he was able to be used as leverage for this trade this week. Yeah. And so Greiner had been sentenced to nine years and she was sentenced on this Russian penal colony

on these cannabis possession charges. I think there were trace amounts inside of it. It was like CBD oil in a vape. It was nothing, nothing, nothing. And they sentenced her to nine years in a Russian prison for that. Just think about how BS that is, just how over the top it is. And the thing that, you know, back then and now that I've still seen is Republicans going by and large, by the way, like at least a large portion of the loud ones who are online going, she deserved it. You break the rules. That's what happened. She had trace amounts of CBD oil in a vape pen. And they think that it's okay for her to be sentenced to nine years in prison. I mean, that is just disgraceful. And it shows you

the way that Republicans, how they would love to run a country like that. When Donald Trump says things like, we're going to execute all drug dealers, we're going to execute them, he's speaking about people who he could, basically any enemy who he could do, like Putin does here, who he could stick something on and give them the maximum punishment. This is like if you were caught speeding five miles an hour over the speed limit. And instead of getting a ticket, you were locked up for nine years. That is basically the punishment that was levied here on Brittany Griner. Let's play the video of President Biden earlier in the day announcing that he spoke with Brittany

Griner. She's safe and she will be returning home. Moments ago, standing together with her wife, Sherelle, in the Oval Office, I spoke with Brittany Griner, she's safe and she will be returning home. Moments ago, standing together with her wife, Sherelle, in the Oval Office, I spoke with Brittany Griner. She's safe. She's on a plane. She's on her way home. After months of being unjustly detained in Russia, held under intolerable circumstances,

Brittany will soon be back in the arms of her loved ones, and she should have been there all along. And so what is the response from Magaville? What is the response from Fox? What is the response from all of the Republicans? They trash Britney Greiner. I mean, they literally say in these statements, and I could show you 100 of these statements, but if you just want to pull up something that Trump said, or I could just tell you about it, you know, Trump just

said, he goes, what kind of deal is this? And he says that, that she hates our country. And then they, you know, focused on this. And then Don Trump Jr. also said that she hates the country. Awful American-hating WNBA player. I mean, all of the usual kind of right-wing dog whistles that are all there. And who they're also referring to in these statements is an individual named Paul Whelan, an ex-US Marine who's serving a 16-year sentence in Russia on espionage charges. And his sentence began, Brett, was it in 2018? I believe he was detained during the Trump administration. Yeah, it was in 2018. And Trump, if people want to ask, well, if Trump was there, he would have got wheeling out. Trump would have got wheeling out. Well, he didn't. Trump was in office. This is a quote from Mueller. She

wrote, to those insisting Trump would have brought Paul Whelan home, explain to me why Trump didn't bring Paul Whelan home. Instead, the deal that Trump cut was with the Taliban and he released, there's a photo right there of a secretary of State at the time with a Taliban leader where 5,000, 5,000 Taliban terrorists were freed, frankly, over the objection of the Afghan government. This was like a side deal cut between the United States and the Taliban directly. And all of those 5,000 people then united to take over Afghanistan. They're running, they're literally running. Because of the release of those 5,000 people. And so one of the things that I look to though, is what did the Whelan family say? And the Whelan family's response to Brittany Griner was a very humbling,

a very appropriate, what the Whelan family's gone through is so horrific. But they recognize, let's just read the statement. They go, as the family member of a Russian hostage, I can literally only imagine the joy she will have being reunited with her loved ones and in time for the holidays. There is no greater success than for a wrongful detainee to be freed and for them to go home. The Biden administration made the right decision to bring Ms. Greiner home and to make the deal that was possible rather than waiting for one that wasn't going to happen. And so all of the right wing was saying, oh, the Biden administration left a Marine there alone, and the Biden administration abandoned our troops. They abandoned a veteran. And the way

they frame this whole thing as how do we attack Biden versus this is great that Brittany Griner's returned. And we should still say we need to also get Paul Whelan home. But does it make sense if a deal could be had where, by the way, and Brett, we said it before, which is not being reported a lot, that Victor Bout is going to be released in the next six years or less anyway at this point to cut the deal that you can make now versus do no deal? Yeah. And these are incredibly difficult situations. I will never pretend to be an expert on geopolitical negotiations of this kind. It seems a lot of people online like to play expert on this subject, but I can only imagine that it is incredibly intricate. There are so many moving

parts. Every situation is completely different. And by the way, I don't knock the Trump administration for not getting wheeling out. I don't knock them for it. It's a very hard decision, but let's acknowledge he could have gotten them out over two years and they didn't. He failed. I mean, that's just the fact. I don't necessarily blame him for that. It's a very difficult thing, but it's clearly a very complicated thing. I mean, he's charged with much higher charges than Brittany Griner there. It's a much more complicated and much more intricate situation. So you're kind of left with, as a leader, you are forced to make difficult decisions. And in this case, the decision for President Biden was, do we get one American home or are we able to get other Americans home as well? And do we get zero or do we get one or do we get none at all? And President Biden went ahead and he made a deal to get Brittany Greiner. I think that is the right choice. I think the Whelan families, I think what they said was absolutely spot on. Of course, there's going to be disappointment that their son is not coming home, that their family member is

not coming home, who wouldn't be disappointed about it. But President Biden also made sure to mention him and mentioned that he was still working hard to ensure his freedom as well. And so I think everybody should just take a moment to appreciate the fact that Brittany Griner is coming home. And I think all the people who spent all day today just denigrating Brittany Griner, calling her anti-American, mocking her, belittling her as just, oh, she's just some spoiled brat. She's just some celebrity. She's just some basketball player. I mean, this is an American citizen we are talking about that was being held in despicable conditions for what trace amounts of CBD, THC, and a vape pen. I mean, it's absolutely insane. And I, for one, am so happy for her and

so happy for her family. And I'm happy for our country. I'm honestly, I'm happy for our country that this happened. I mean, what a nice moment right before the holidays. And I long for a time as a nation where we could together as a nation celebrate things like this and not immediately go on the attack. And in this case, what the Republicans are doing and what they seem to be doing frequently, just completely take Russia's side and completely spread Russian propaganda, which is mega propaganda. It is mega. Changeable. So I guess you could say the two. But the way they behaved, it's not only disrespectful to Brittany Griner, it's disrespectful to Whelan also. I mean, they're just using both of them as like these tools in their sick has protested systemic oppression in this country. And if you are a MAGA Republican, that is everything you hate. That is everything you stand against. the room here that Republicans really don't, they love the idea of a Russian society. They love the

idea of this sort of Christo-fascist nationalist society that treats gay people like crap, that looks down on them, that imprisons them, that is racist against African-Americans. That's the society they want, a society in which they could tell their oligarch friends that they could put them and elevate them into positions of power to control the media, to control things. And if they go sideways and don't support the party line 100%, they could execute them and kill them. This is the society that Trump openly speaks about during his speeches. So why would they want anything different? When they look at Russia and a horrible story about Russia comes out, like the other day I saw online, Fox News posted a story about how Russia was implementing maximum punishments for people who, quote, spread LGBTQ propaganda,

basically criminalizing being gay in Russia. At the end of the day. Think about all the things that MAGA calls LGBTQ propaganda. It's nothing at the end of the day. All the MAGA people in the comments, most of the comments on the Fox thing were celebrating that and was like, that's what I'm talking about. That's what I want in a leader here. That's not the country I want here. That's what I know. I want a country that actually has freedom. I want a country that actually acknowledges everybody and is inclusive. And it's just amazing these two visions of America and how you have this Republican Party who pretends to be the party of freedom, who is completely opposite, who truly wants America to be Russia. And that's why they're

so dangerous. And look, that's why what we talk about here on the Midas Touch podcast is always the contrast, right? So what we bring up is here is what the MAGA extremists are doing. And here education more affordable. We're talking about access to healthcare and making healthcare more affordable and reducing prescription drug prices, right? We're talking about jobs. How do we get all Americans to have jobs with dignity and better working conditions? How do we improve our infrastructure? How do we bring more manufacturing jobs right here into the United States? How do we stand for actual freedoms? A woman's freedom over her body, the freedom of LGBTQ plus members in the community to marry who they want to marry without a MAGA Republican jumping in between their marriage and saying you can't marry each other. That's something I want to talk about in a little bit too, the landmark Marriage Equality Act that passed in the House, but not before a major GOP MAGA breakdown. Literally, they were crying hysterically, these MAGA Republicans, telling people not to vote for the Marriage Equality Act. We're going to tell you about that in one moment. But first, I want to tell you all, if you like independent journalism

like this, if you want to support more independent media like this, check out our Patreon site by going to patreon.com slash Midas Touch. That's P-A-T-R-E-O-N.com slash Midas Touch. We have lots of exclusive content, exclusive podcasts, behind the scenes footage, exclusive merch drops. There's even one membership tier there where you could become an honorary producer of this Midas Touch podcast. Your name appears at the end of the show. You get a poster commemorating that you are an honorary producer of this Midas Touch podcast. Your name appears at the end of the show. You get a poster commemorating that you are an honorary producer. We also have a number of postcards that get sent out to certain members. There's so much great exclusive content, but here's what I want to say. We are not funded here by any outside investors at all. Zero. So none of the millionaire or billionaire investors who fund

the both sides media, the pro-fascist media, all of that problematic stuff that's occurred, we've tried to address this and redress it by being 100% crowdfunded. And not only that, but you're seeing right now for those in the YouTube chat and for those listening who know about the number of views that we get on YouTube and elsewhere, we not only compete with the major networks, we get more views and more engagement right here on our news coverage. And our news coverage is rapidly becoming a more trusted source than all of the other media out there. And we are 100% accountable to you and 100% independent. And the way we do that is through our Patreon. can. No worries if you can. I know you subscribe to a lot of things, and so no worries if you can't become a member. But if you can, either right now or at the end of this podcast, please go to patreon.com slash MidasTouch. Become a member of one of the membership tiers there. You will love

the exclusive content, and let's grow this community together. And I also want to tell you about our new true crime thriller podcast that is rapidly climbing all of the charts. It's called American Psy Op, and it focuses on General Wesley Clark's son, Wes Clark Jr., as he is being targeted by all of these outside influence groups and cults and all of these right-wing extremist groups. Do we have a quick clip, Brett, of the promo from American PSYOP? You're on mute, Brett, but I assume you're saying, yes, we do have it. Yes, we do. Yes, we do. Here is Wes Jr. talking about American PSYOP. You got to check this out.

I'm Wes Clark Jr. My father is General Wesley Clark and he ran for president. I'm not a very important person myself, but because of my relationship with my dad, I got targeted. I got targeted by a cult, by foreign nation states, by extremely wealthy individuals,

all kind of working together. I'm not the only person this has happened to. Through this targeting, I came into contact with Ghislaine Maxwell. I came into contact with all kinds of shady people from around the world. I led 4,000 veterans on a protest at Standing Rock, and my brain was completely destroyed. I'm not the only person this has happened to. I'm not the only veteran this has happened to.

There's been a program that's been going on for years, and most people who fall victim to it, they can't tell the story. I describe it in a podcast I did for Midas Touch called American Psyop. It explains how it works, who's behind it, and the effects it has both on individuals and on our society at large. So if you can, please listen to American Psyop, but go into it and understand you may not look at the world the same way again.

So you got to watch. It's an unbelievable true story, true crime series, American Psyop. That's P-S-Y-O-P, anywhere you find podcasts. And I got to say, when we were told about the story and when we started to hear some of these interviews and people approached us and said, hey, do you want to be part of this project? And, you know, at first we were Ben and I were like, this is insane. Like, how is any of this true? Like, there's no way. There's no way. Marking on was a more than six month legal review to confirm the veracity of the stories that you hear in this podcast. And it is truly mind blowing stuff. And in some of the episodes also, you'll

see where he'll speak about specific moments in time and Wes will speak about specific tweets that he had many years ago. And all that stuff is still up. Like if you go to his Twitter account, you could find all those moments that he's speaking about. You could find press photos of him at Standing Rock next to the people who he said he was next to. And there are so many familiar faces and names that come up and you start to really wonder and think, oh, okay, maybe that's why Tulsi Gabbard is like that.

Maybe that's why Elon Musk is doing whatever he's doing. It's a real mind bending thriller and just enjoy it. You're going to get hooked if you're into that. So gas prices are now lower than they were one year ago with Biden taking decisive action, despite the fact that you literally had like Saudi Arabia and all of these foreign countries tried to like manipulate the results of the election and try to jack up the prices right before the election. Rasmussen, Rasmussen of all places. By the way, all of these polls I think are bullshit. Yeah, Rasmussen.

They're all fake, right? They're all fake. Honestly, if they ask the question, is there one thing you actually agree with Donald Trump on? The polls are bullshit. They have Biden's approval rating at 49% to 50% approved to disapprove. And why I cite that one is because they normally try to skew it anti-democracy. And so here, the fact that they basically have it 50-50. One of the predictions I have too, Brett, is by February or March, I think as the Republicans

devolve into more insanity in the House and you have that contrast with the steady leadership of Biden, I think we're going to see consistently Biden breaking 50% approval ratings very soon. Secretary of State Blinken said on Thursday that he is convinced the U.S. will be able to call Sweden and Finland our NATO allies. And at the time that is also taking place, the landmark Marriage Equality Act passed in the House. It passed 258 to 169. All of the 169 who voted against the landmark Marriage Equality Act were Republicans. Can I say something for one sec while you're on that note? You know what kind of bothers me? When people and politicians, and sometimes President Biden does this also, the media does it all the time. They will call that bill.

How many people, how many Republicans voted against it? We have 169. They will go, in a bipartisan, a bipartisan bill, pass the House granting marriage equality. You're like, you're counting that as bipartisan now because 30 Republicans voted for it and 160 plus voted against it? I think that whole bipartisan framing is a little unfair and gives Republicans way too much credit for something that they are vehemently and overwhelmingly against. To the point where you should have seen some of these speeches. I mean, even knowing that this was going to be voted down, you had people go on the house floor and make the most deranged, disgusting, bigoted speeches just because they had to get it out.

You don't have to say those things. They know that they're not going to convince anybody, but they felt the need to do it. And one of the ones specifically that caught my eye today was this representative Vicki Hartzler from Missouri. She straight up cried on the house floor, or at least pretended to cry. I'm going to say I did not see any tears. I did not see any waterworks, but she sure put on an Oscar-worthy show. Should we play this insane? To be against gay marriage and interracial marriage. Yeah, because she was so upset that other people were going to have equality.

Or that they were going to get to keep the equal rights that they already have and not have them be able to be stripped away. Here is this deranged, deranged Republican. Mr. Speaker, I'll tell you my priority. Protect religious liberty, protect people of faith, and protect Americans who believe in the true meaning of marriage. I hope and pray that my colleagues will find the courage to join me in opposing this misguided and this dangerous bill. I yield back.

General Owens, time has expired. Yo. Brett. Brett. I mean, at the same time you have that, you have Kevin McCarthy is threatening not to pay military members and their families if he can't remove the military's vaccine mandate. Like, that's what he's focused on. Like, all of the people in the military talk about, like, okay, the reason that we need vaccines is because if the military gets sick, then Americans will die. And so we've always had vaccines. And Kevin McCarthy's big issue, the Republicans' big issue right now, all their

investigations, not a lot of their investigations, will be focusing on stopping vaccines generally. I wrote a tweet about this yesterday. I'm like, it is the weirdest thing in the world to me that literally one of the Republican party's positions, like a formal position. Okay. I'm a Republican. I'm against the concept of vaccines. Like, what are you talking about? Isn't that's what it means to be.

And that's why we always say here on the Midas Touch podcast, like Do not call these radical extremists, MAGA people, conservative at all. They support insurrections. They cheer on the pandemic. They're election deniers. There's nothing conservative about any of their views. And I want to compare that video that we just showed, though, with Representative Vicki Hartzler, who is fake crying about or crying because of the marriage. This is a good time, by the way, Ben, for me to show our new Maga Tears mug, which you can get at store.mitastouch. Go and drink up those Maga Tears at store.mitastouch.com with our new. The best part of waking up is Maga Tears in my cup mug. That's store. Midas touch.com with our new, the best part of waking up is Maga tears in my cup mug. That's store.

Midas touch.com. I'm not making this up. You could actually, we got that. And we also got the conflict 45 or the convict 45 shirts on store. Midas touch as well. I have stored on Midas touch.com. Yeah.

The convict or convict 45. We have an up there in person, woman, man, camera prison. When Trump is indicted, this is get ready for Trump to be indicted with your convict 45 or your 45 shirts, but compare representative Vicki Hartzler to Kevin, uh, to, uh, Biden. Um, I want to compare it to Kevin

McCarthy because they're both the same, but compare it to president Biden inviting the world war two veterans to the white house House. Think about the insanity scene of the fake tears and the real tears here of Biden inviting World War II veterans to the White House on Pearl Harbor Day. Play this clip. It's incredible. Biden in a room with a bunch of World War II veterans. My name is Joe Biden. What was that again? My name's Joe Biden. What was that again? My name's Joe Biden.

Who are you? I'm from Scranton, Pennsylvania. I'm so excited to see you. I'm really enjoying it. You really are. You represent the greatest generation in the American history. Do you mind coming in and taking a look at my office? No, let's go to the Oval Office.

This is a proudest moment of my life. American history. Do you mind coming in and taking a look at my office? Come on, let's go to the Oval Office. Because of what you did, the rest of the world still looks to the United States. They look to us. They look to us to be the answer. Not to carry all the weight, but to lead the way. And you guys did it better than any group, any group ever in American history. And I don't know you, but I love you. You guys have any questions for me at all? Are you busy this morning?

I am not too busy to be with you. There you go. I really mean it. This is a big deal for me to be able to see. It's a big deal for us, too. And then we see them applauding as they get wheeled around the White House. I mean, what a moment. What humility also for a president to show and the deference to show to these World War II heroes.

Just that respect. for a president to show and the deference to show to these World War II heroes, just that respect. And to have a president who no longer calls our fallen soldiers suckers and losers, but actually who looks up to them as heroes and gives them that platform. I just thought that was such an incredibly beautiful moment right there. Then you show the contrast. I had to show our viewers and listeners this. So this is Ben Shapiro on his show, arguing that the government should not stop private businesses from, and Ben Shapiro is Jewish. And he's wearing a yarmulke when he's like giving this rant, you know, and he's ostensibly a religious Jew.

We're Jewish. Mysella's family is Jewish. But you have Ben Shapiro here saying that the government should prevent people, should not prevent businesses from banning Jews at country clubs or banning black people from restaurants. And so you got to play this clip because it's the strangest thing. Like after you see like a moment of Zen, like a president with the troops, like, you know, a president with our veterans, a president doing presidential duty, Democrats talking about policy and issues. And by the way, after you see our podcast, like the things that we talk about here on the Midas Touch podcast, because, you know, on the one hand, on the radical right extreme, you have

people like Ben Shapiro who call themselves conservative and they like label us. Oh, look at these radical lefties. Look at these lefties. Like, because I want people to have healthcare. I want people to have education because I believe in our democracy, because I believe that we shouldn't cheer on global pandemics, because I believe in science, because I believe that we shouldn't just ban all books and burn books, because I believe that Americans should have good paying jobs. That makes me a rat. No, you're radical for saying the things that you say. So this is what their main right wing influencer, Ben Shapiro, is saying. And I want to I want to talk about it briefly, though, because I want to show you just how disingenuous like his argument

style is. And again, you can make the case in 1965 that on a temporary basis, the federal government as a practical matter needed to be able to cudgel people away from bigotry. You can make that case. I don't make that case. I think that the federal government was perfectly justified in going to the states and obliterating all of the segregation regimes that existed in the states. I do not think that the federal government had the power constitutionally or morally or philosophically to compel individuals not to engage in constitutionally protected behavior, even behavior I don't particularly like. Like, for example, banning Jews at country clubs. I'm a Jew. Not in favor of banning Jews at country clubs. I'm not in favor of banning black people from restaurants. Do I think that the government, the federal government, had the power to compel the individual bed and breakfast owner to determine

that the federal government could override that person's priorities in terms of who they had in their house? No, I don't think the federal government had that power. However, you could at least make the temporary moral case that this is something that had to be done in order to get over several centuries of blatant and evil racial discrimination. You can make that case. But the problem is that essentially that exception has now eaten the entire system of law

and the left knows it. And they are pushing this all the way to its limit. And if it were not for a conservative Supreme Court majority, they would get what they want, which is to obliterate all traditional religion from the public square to shift it and mold it into basically a version of secularism with a tiny little cross on the side maybe a little jewish star over here and basically all of the secular precepts except you say god once in a while you say god once in a while it's the biggest non- sequitur in the world. I mean, it's a horrific argument.

I mean, he's out there on his podcast justifying discrimination and saying public accommodations, places that are open to the public should be able to discriminate against Jewish people and against black people and whoever that they want to discriminate. But like, do you see the style, though, Brett? One can make the argument. One can make the argument that. But however, and then what he kind of links it to at the end equally makes no sense. And what he's saying is that there shouldn't be a separation of church and state. And what does that have to do with the right to, he's arguing that businesses should be able to discriminate who they want to discriminate against. But then he's also arguing in favor of actual government arms like

public schools to have to force to teach religions and somehow linking those concepts to each other in a way that makes no sense. Well, he gets you in the beginning, right? To agree with like an overall premise that most people should agree with. I don't know about all people in Ben Shapiro's world, but he, he begins by sort of acquiescing and being like, well, we all know that discrimination is bad, right?

We all know that that's bad, right? We can all, we can all agree on that, right? We can, we can, we can agree on that.

Yep. Okay. Okay. So moving on to the next thing, and then he kind of gets more and more extreme as he goes on. So maybe at one point the federal government had to say, yeah, one of the things that we all say, the federal government had to- Also say, yeah, one of the things that we all say

is that the federal government had the right to force states not to have discriminatory regimes and they could have cajoled, like he used the word like cajoled, controlled the states not to have discriminatory regimes. However, where it gets to

the fundamental constitutional principles of whether or not you could force a private business, whether you could force a private business to discriminate against Jews. Look, I'm a Jew. Whether you could force a private business to discriminate against black. Look, I'm a Jew. Whether you could force a private business to discriminate against black people. Look, I think that the government overstretched, and that is why the government should also teach

religion. That is why thanks to a conservative Supreme Court without it, and lefties know this, the lefties all know this, that the lefties would have allowed the separation of church and state to remain in fact. But however, there should be no separation of church and state. Thank you. I'm Ben Shapiro. That's how we, that's literally his show. And his listeners are like, oh my gosh, what an intellectual, what an intellectual guy. The guy just speaks quickly and speaks in like syncopated tones. Like he really never says anything of value and he has done more damage. And I will say this as a member of the Jewish community, more damage for the Jewish community than most people.

I mean, he platforms people like Candace Owens, who have been universally nonstop praising people like Kanye West. And the worse Kanye West got, the more anti-Semitic he got, the more people like Candace Owens doubled down in support of, oh, look, they're trying to cancel him now. They're trying to cancel him now they're trying to cancel him because they can't handle the truth and ben shapiro propped these people up and then at the end when the shit hits the fan and kanye goes full crazy and just flat out goes yeah i love hitler which is what ultimately the point where kanye west ended up at ben shapiro then

goes i denounce that that is bad that is. It's like, dude, you created that monster. You let that monster thrive. And I'm not even getting into- Shapiro said that. And then he said, however, I think because Kanye is showing that he's an idiot, that therefore we should allow him to be on all the platforms to spew it because the fact that he's an idiot undermines his seriousness. So that's how he justified that Kanye should be able to- Listen, he's clearly going through a mental breakdown. So people shouldn't have him on the air. But if he wants to be on the air, if he wants to be on Twitter, should he be? I'm not going to say no. But listen, he's clearly, it's probably just a mental breakdown. It's not him. I don't know. I think what he's saying is wrong, but I'm Ben Shapiro. It's kind of like how

everything goes. And I'm not even getting into his enabling of this incredibly bigoted, racist, and anti-Semitic Republican party that he has propped up. And when confronted about the damage that he has done to this country, I think it was on Bill Maher, somebody asked him basically, how do you live with yourself? How do you live with yourself, man? And Ben Shapiro goes, on a pile of money. I live on a pile of money. That's how. And so that's Ben Shapiro for you. And he also kind of gives away the game of all these kind of right-wing influencers who just want to stoke fear and stoke hate and stoke division, whether it harms people, whether people die, they don't care. Because at the end of the day, Ben Shapiro,

I'm sleeping on a bed of money, and that's all that that guy cares about. One thing I want to mention also, we talked about at the top, but I want to make sure I hit the point, is that Donald Trump has not filed any emergency applications or appealed the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals order, ruling that Judge Eileen Cannon has no jurisdiction. So that means the mandate officially issues from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. And as I said at the outset, that means goodbye, Judge Eileen Cannon. That case gets missed. The special master process ends. A big L for Donald Trump. And one of the reasons I think he didn't appeal to the Supreme Court is I think his more serious lawyers are telling him how close he is to being indicted in the other places.

And they're like, the more you piss off the Supreme Court, you may actually need them for some of your criminal indictment stuff. So just stop filing stupid motions before the Supreme Court. That's what I think they were advising him there. Now I got a special treat though, Brett, for all the mightiest, mighty, a real special treat that we're going to play right now to take everybody out of this podcast, this great episode of today. We had a great crowd today. First, I want to tell everybody to check out our Patreon at the end of this, because after this, I'm going to play this video, this special video for all of you that I want you to hear.

And it's an incredible song I want you all to hear. And then I'm going to give the shout out to the Midas Mighty right after it. But remember to check out patreon.com slash Midas Touch as soon as the show is over. P-A-T-R-E-O-N.com slash MidasTouch. Remember, we're not funded by any of the millionaires or billionaires who fund the Shapiro show or the Daily Wire or any of that. We're 100% crowdfunded by you. So if you can, you'll love the exclusive content on Patreon.com slash MidasTouch. But most importantly, let's grow this community together. Let's stay 100% independent. Let's stay 100% independent and let's stay 100% accountable to the community. No matter what, we'd stay 100% accountable to the

community, but it's a really cool model of how the media should be done. Go to patreon.com slash Midas Touch, no matter where you are in the world. All right, the special treat, we got to play you this video. Some of you may remember it, but this is Grammy award-winning artist Patty Austin. And during the previous runoff election, Patty Austin did a video with Midas Touch. We came up with a song together called Georgia, You're Voting For Me Too. And for all of those who haven't heard this, who are new to the Midas Mighty, you are going to love this song from Patty Austin. This was from the 2020 election and the 2021 runoff. It went mega viral.

It was such an incredible song. I wanted to share it again with you all. So Patty Austin, take it away to close out our show. Georgia, you're not just voting for you. No, you're voting for me too. Georgia, I got you on my mind. You have got a chance today to keep a U in USA. Oh, Georgia, say can you see?

You could save my democracy. Oh, Georgia, you're not just voting for you. No, you're voting for me too. Georgia, you're not just voting for you. No, you're voting for me too. I know you've got to be tired of washing hands and wearing masks, but you could save the planet's ass. Oh, Georgia, we're all waiting to see if you've left the Confederacy. Well, welcome to the 21st century.

Now you're voting for me too You could sit around and mope and say, oh What's the difference? Or you could just get out and vote Just two senators in blue Georgia, you know what to do Georgia, you're not just voting for you No, you're voting for me too no Georgia put love back in the world who better than a for me too yes you're voting for me too may january 5th

a belated christmas gift georgia you know you know what to do georgia oh my goodness i have the absolute chills that made me literally bring tears to my eyes too i get the chills every time i watch that one. I'm so proud to be a part of that with Patty Austin. And I'm so proud to share that moment with all of the Midas Mighty out there. Whenever I'm asked about what makes Midas Touch work, like how did you build this network? I go, we built it with the community. All of you out there are the secret sauce that makes this work. We are so grateful for all of you. That's what I get so motivated about waking up knowing that we're going to be

working hard together and you are all a part of this. So thank you all so much. And we'll see you next week on the Midas Touch podcast. Shout out to the Midas Mighty.