The MeidasTouch Podcast - Don’t Mess with Democracy with Debra Messing

Episode Date: January 26, 2021

The Meidas Brothers kick off the show by discussing the Twitter poll that gripped America and crowned Jordy the fan favorite. They then talk the about fact that Stupid Season has returned to the media highlight the false-equivalencies that equate a GOP-led insurrection to President Biden wearing a nice watch, and the toxic framing of stories that pollutes our political discourse. The brothers then discuss how the GOP is broken beyond repair, after fully embracing fascism and the conspiracies of QAnon over American democracy. The Meidas Brothers then welcome the legendary actress, social justice advocate and host of The Dissenters Podcast Debra Messing to the program to discuss the need for accountability in our politics. Ben also breaks out his best Ricky Ricardo impression. The brothers close out the show by discussing the new $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Systems against Rudy Giuliani, the “redemption” tour of Dr. Deborah Birx, and decide whether or not they will sue Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. Thank you for making the MeidasTouch Podcast one of the top podcasts in the world! Please rate this podcast 5 stars on the Apple Podcasts app and tell your friends to subscribe! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/meidastouch/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/meidastouch/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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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 to the Midas Touch podcast, where we are more than a podcast. You are joining the Midas Mighty movement. Welcome. We have an incredible show today. We have Deborah Messing as a guest, actress, political advocate, social justice warrior, host of her own podcast. We're going to hear her takes on the current political situation, what it means to be an advocate with Trump out of office, and what she learned during the presidency of Donald Trump and

why she fought back. But first, let me turn this over to my younger brothers, Jordy and Brett. Jordy, how are you doing today? How am I doing? How am I doing? Oh, God, here we go. Are you really playing We Are the Champions? This is what's happening right now. For those listening, Jordy right now is singing We Are The Champions. He's lip syncing it and is dancing. I am doing great, guys. Why, Jordy? Tell the people why. Because we're not going to start off this podcast with you guys making fun of my asthma,

making fun of my nebulizer. No, not this one. This time around, shout out Midas Ali on the greatest poll ever. We are here with the brothers. You got Ben, the oldest, the legal expert, Brett, the two-time Emmy award-winning editor. And based on Midas Ali's poll, me, the youngest, and apparently guys, the fan favorite. For those wondering on January 22nd, one of our followers, Midas Ali, did a poll- A date that will live in infamy. Did a poll that said,

I know how the Micellas brothers love competition. So let's see how the Midas Mighty weigh in on our Midas Touch brothers. And the final results of the poll were Team Jordy, 57%. Ben, 22%. And me, Team Brett, eking out a third point.

21% for guys. 21%. Alright. So for those who don't know why Jordy's playing, we are the champions. When we were growing up and we used to have various competitions against each other, we would have knock hockey competitions,

Mario Kart competitions, home run derbies in our backyard, which we called Three Brothers Stadium. Whoever would win would blast We Are the Champions. Usually growing up, that was me. I put on We Are the Champions, and my brothers, Brett and Jordyy would cry hysterically as the music blasted and so Jordy

is playing We Are The Champions to remind us that we lost in this. It should be noted too that Midas Ali who started this poll was Team Ben. That's okay. The poll was supposed to be rigged in your favor to start,

which should actually make you feel worse about how things ended up. I have to say, this is a rigged poll. This is a rigged election. These results are fraudulent. Everybody saw what Ben did because Ben was straggling in third place for a very long time. And then Ben shot out a quote tweet with comment saying, I need you to find me

11,780 votes. And you guys found the votes for him and put him over me. And that's not true, Brett. You I was crushing it the night before I wake up at like 4 a.m. or some ridiculous time. You do a quote tweet telling people, hey guys, I really need this. You need to vote for me. And then Jordy says, I feel bad for you, Brett, for even having to write that. So I voted for you. But I think Brett pulled away the Ben votes.

Jordy got the sympathy votes by saying he was voting for Brett, which caused people to vote for Jordy. And that's why I only came in second place. But by the time I tweeted out, I feel bad for Brett. I was already just like at 55%. Yeah, it's easy to say I'm going to give my vote over to one of the other brothers when you're already like the prohibitive favorite of sure.

I was sitting on my vote. I was going to look at the end of the day, though. Let me be clear about one thing. I'll handle my defeat with grace. I'm not going to be a cry baby like jordy was growing up i'm not going to cry to my mommy and my daddy because i hear we are the champions i'm just going to move on and start to talk about this and let's just say this this is the brother who if you heard some of our previous shows ben used to actually

turn off the games before he was delivered a loss, which is why he didn't frequently lose. Because if Jordy or I were actually beating him in a competition, he would end the game and run away. So that's Ben Friedman. The PlayStation was defective, and that's why he turned it off. Okay, okay. All right, moving to politics. Jordy, congrats.

Something that shouldn't shock us, that as Joe Biden has assumed the presidency and has put forward some policies already that have done more for this country than Donald Trump did in four years, the media now wants to hold Joe Biden to new standards while they let Donald Trump get away with sedition and treasonous behavior for four years. So much so that if you remember that one time when Obama wore a tan suit and there was all of these scandals about him wearing tan suit, it became tan suit gate. Well, we had all of the media jumping on Joe Biden this week for wearing a Rolex and them trying to act like it was inappropriate for someone who's been working for 50 years to wear a Rolex. And then we recently discovered that that Rolex was actually likely the watch that his son who died of cancer was wearing and that Joe was wearing it in honor of Beau Biden,

which makes the story equally despicable. And it's why we posted after that story came on, I am just tired of media silly season. We need to start the Midas News Network immediately because I'm just am just tired of media silly season. We need to start the Midas News Network immediately because I'm just sick and tired of these dumb stories. I'm sick of it. I mean, it's a ridiculous sort of both sides is in that they have to kind of get Joe Biden for something and they choose to go after people for these inane things. Like, let's talk about policy. Let's talk about all the things that Joe Biden is actually doing to improve people's lives.

And like you said, he's reversed so many just damaging Trump era policies. We're coming out of nearly escaping fascism in America. And the news media has the gall to talk about Rolex watches and stuff. Honestly, I don't even want to talk about it and give it much more air. Even with the Paris Climate Accords, Brett, there was an ABC headline that says one third of Americans do not support reentry into the Paris Climate Accords. Well, why would you frame the headline like that? The headline is, is that overwhelmingly by two thirds Americans support going into the Paris Climate Accords. And so it's just one of those things that are completely baffling. And it's just so strange that while the GOP is completely broken,

while they're having this death spiral of epic proportions, which should be the focus of all media as it should be the focus of ours and will be the focus of ours, that the old media is doing these, you know, what about isms and two side isms that elevate sedition to the same level of what type

of watch Joe Biden is. But I guess conflict sells is the thing, right? Because why else would you possibly frame a poll in which more than two thirds of Americans support a Joe Biden policy as one third of Americans oppose a policy that framing is just so damaging to the discourse and the political discourse in America? Well, I think public shaming works in the sense that when everyone saw that headline and reacted the way that we all did, I believe they ended up correcting the tweet. So good on everyone who pushed them to do that because it's important. Framing does matter. And they know, you know, let me get some likes with this low hanging fruit headline. And, you know, we keep them honest. But it's about time we start speaking out when we

see things like that. And we take the media to account just as we take other politicians to account. And let's talk about what's really going on here in the nation, not these bullshit stories of Rolex watches. Let's talk about the fact that Donald Trump has stated to sources that he wants to start a MAGA and Patriot Party, which is actually just a political action committee that he's starting, which is just another way for him to further grift and try to make money off people as he can't do anything with his businesses anymore. But let's also talk about the fact that why do you even need to start a MAGA or a Patriot Party when the GOP at this point has fully embraced not only MAGA, but QAnon philosophies. And we've seen this recently in just some of the most

bizarre ways. We've seen it this past week with the Arizona GOP at their annual meeting censoring Cindy McCain, Governor Ducey, former Senator Jeff Flake for not supporting Donald Trump. We've seen the Hawaii GOP put out statements this past week that were very sympathetic of QAnon. Let me just pause you there for a second. It wasn't that they weren't supporting Donald Trump. It's that they weren't supporting Donald Trump's baseless claims to overthrow the election and try to make Trump a dictator. And the Arizona Republican Party was mad that Cindy McCain, Ducey, and Jeff Flake did not go along with this scheme.

Yeah, and you have the Hawaii GOP saying that people who subscribe to Q were motivated by sincere and deep love for America. Well, let's look at the most public face of Q, an actual congresswoman, Marjorie Taylor Greene. And what she's largely motivated is by bullshit conspiracy theories, for example, saying that the Sandy Hook massacre where 26 people were killed, including 20 children, was a hoax. She's out there saying Sandy Hook was a hoax. And we have the official GOP accounts with blue check marks saying that this philosophy is motivated by a sincere and deep love for patriotism, that is totally beyond the pale. Forget censuring Cindy McCain and Jeff Flake. You need to censure somebody like Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Speak out, Republicans. Say that this isn't your party. The only reason why you're not is because this is your party and you know it and you accept it. And your complicity shows that this is who you are. You are the party of conspiracy theories, of QAnon slogan. That's not a dog whistle. That is a full fledged dog trombone at this point. And we see just very odd behavior in the in the GOP leadership, which is now exemplified by people like Rand Paul and people like Senator Josh Howley, both senators. Senator Howley in the New York Post got a front cover article calling the muzzling of America complaining about cancel culture and comparing facing consequences of his actions to being under the rule of communist China. Making that comparison

just shows you the despicable views these people have towards our democracy. Nothing says I'm being silenced like getting a front page New York post cover with your face on it and then tweeting your article out to the masses. They're just losers, man man he's such a fucking he's such a loser it's like the irony is lost on them it's so pathetic holly's like a boxer who just keeps like throwing haymakers but keeps managing to punch himself in the balls like he's just a glutton for punishment like ever since the insurrection and and before the insurrection him spreading the big lie him going out him raising his fist thinking he's such a fucking badass and then that being the defining moment of his life right now, his fucking being a traitor that everybody gets to look at and just mock. And now he's facing calls for expulsion.

This guy's a glutton for punishment. He's a total clown. And ironically, the party of personal responsibility no longer wants to, or maybe never has ever wanted to be held responsible for their actions. And now it's just so in our faces that it's just a ridiculous thing. We want to talk about cancel culture. The Republicans, the Josh Hawleys, the Rand Pauls, the Lefflers, the Perdues, the Marco Rubios. You want to cancel democracy. You wanted authoritarianism. You are the number one cancel culture people because our culture is a culture of democratic values and you're trying to cancel that. So for Americans to push back and say, we're not going to buy products from companies like MyPillow that support authoritarianism and support fascism and support QAnonism, that's

not cancel culture. That's people peacefully resisting and protesting fascist strains in America. What cancel culture is, is when the GOP tries to, and this was something personal to me, when Colin Kaepernick got his deal with Nike, the GOP were the first people to start burning their Nike socks because Colin Kaepernick took a knee to peacefully protest systemic racism in the United States of America, and they burned their socks. They are the kings and queens of cancel culture, the GOP, and it's beyond inexplicable for them to make analogies comparing holding fascists accountable to communist China. And you know

what? It's so easy just to say words. And I think because there's just such a lack of intellectual curiosity and just name calling it just, yeah, communist China, communist China. But when you just take a second and push back, what the hell does that even mean? You mean communist China who Donald Trump's daughter cuddled up to and got all of these patents from? You mean communist China who Donald Trump's daughter, you know, cuddled up to and got all of these patents from? You mean communist China who Donald Trump's stupid sons talked, bragged about doing deals with? That communist China? It's beyond the pale, Brett. And let's just do a comparison here. Colin Kaepernick peacefully protesting on the sidelines before a game during the national anthem. He is a villain to these people.

Then you have people who literally stormed the Capitol or incited a terrorist attack against the United States Capitol. Two police officers are now dead, among others. 81 Capitol police officers were injured, along with 58 D.C. police officers. And there is not a person at this point who's willing to really speak out and blame this on the president, save for like Mitt Romney and Mitch McConnell. There's various levels of kind of cowardice and oddity and stupidity. I guess let's go with cowardice first. Let's talk about Senator Rand Paul. Cowardice and evilness, I'll say, for Senator Rand Paul.

My next one I want to talk about is Rubio, who's just a freaking coward. Senator Rand Paul was on the weekend shows, and he was confronted about election irregularities and was asked whether or not there was voter fraud or whether he can simply say that there was no voter fraud that substantially impacted the election at all. And this is what he said. There were 86 challenges filed by President Trump and his allies in court. All were dismissed.

Every state certified the results after investigation counts, after investigations counts and recounts. The Department of Justice, led by William Barr, said there's no widespread evidence of fraud. Can't you just say the words this election was not stolen? What I would suggest is that if we want greater confidence in our elections, and 75% of Republicans agree with me, is that we do need to look at election integrity. George, where you make a mistake is that people coming from the liberal side like you, you immediately say everything's a lie instead of saying there are two sides to everything. Historically, what would happen is if I said that I thought there was fraud, you would interview someone else who said there wasn't. But now you insert yourself in the middle and say the absolute fact is that everything I'm saying is a lie.

So I want you to listen very carefully to what happened there. It was George Stephanopoulos who was giving the interview. And George Stephanopoulos says, not I think that you're lying or this person's lying. George Stephanopoulos says the United States Attorney General, including many, many, many Republican judges and judges who Donald Trump appointed, including the United States Supreme Court, who said there was no fraud in the election. And he said, are you willing to agree, not with any liberal position, are you willing to agree with the attorney general and the judges that there was no fraud. Trump's judges, Trump's attorney general. And then Rand Paul turns it into this is a liberal thing. We need to hear both sides of everything. No. When one side is false, you don't need to hear both sides of it. And the

question and the framing by George Stephanopoulos, I think was perfect. And Senator Rand Paul's reaction just shows you the evilness and cowardness of one, just how he even interrupts Stephanopoulos to not even let the question happen, but then basically turns it into something that the question is not. Because there's no facts to stand on here. And the fact is we got to get to a point. And we were saying this earlier the other day. And I think Mary Trump actually echoed our sentiments here that what we need to do is everybody who comes on one of these morning shows or any of these shows, if they are invited. And I think there are arguments of both directions as to whether they should be getting a voice at all on these shows. But if they're invited on these shows, the first question they should be asked is, do you accept the results of the election? Do you believe that it was a free and fair election? If they continue to spread the big lie that the election was rigged, then you should just kick them off the

show right then and there, because you know that everything from that point will be bullshit. You know that they will not be telling you the truth about anything. That should be a litmus test for all interviewers. And none of these people should be taken seriously if they're still going to spread the big lie that led to the attack on our country. I can agree with you more. That has to be the first question going forward in any interview with these guys. Totally. And then let's look though, because when they're confronted with the question, we have representative Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina. This is the individual who claims he was accepted to the Naval Academy. I mean, he literally made that representation and claimed that based on a tragic car accident that he did, in fact, have, that that's what prevented him from getting into the Naval Academy.

That story is false. He did not get into the Naval Academy. He was rejected before he got into a horrible car accident. And so he's been engaging in what's commonly referred to as stolen valor. He's also been engaged in what's commonly known as stupid. And this is what he's that's a scientific term for it, Ben. Yeah. And this is what he said when confronted by a CNN journalist about election fraud. But but can you now say that the election was not stolen, that it wasn't a fraudulent election? Yes, I think I would say that the election was not fraudulent.

You know, the Constitution allowed for us to be able to push back as much as we could. And I did that to the amount of the constitutional limits that I had at my disposal. So now I would say that Joseph R. Biden is our president. And you have no regrets? No, I do not have any regrets. Okay. Okay. And just, again, look at what the response was and really break it down.

The first question was, was there any fraud? And the answer is no. The next question was, well, then why did you do what you did if there was no fraud? And his response was basically word salad. But he basically said the Constitution allowed us to push back. And so that's what we did. And so basically, what he's admitting to was despite knowing that the election was not fraudulent, that he engaged in frivolous behavior purely to be a dick, to be a seditionist. That's what when he's saying push back, that's what he's referring to. And there needs to be general real accountability here. People like Madison Cawthorn helped inspire him. Pushing back was one of the factors that helped inspire, that encouraged the traitorous attack on the Capitol building, the terrorist attack on the Capitol building on January 6th. So it should come, it should not be controversial that if indeed you engage in sedition, if you inspire a terrorist attack,

if the terrorist attack takes place, and indeed people die, including a police officer, that people should be held accountable, in this case, Donald Trump. But what does coward little Marco Rubio have to say? I think the president bears responsibility for some of what happened. It was most certainly a foreseeable consequence of everything that was going on. And I think that's widely understood. It may be even better understood with the perspective of time. I think that's separate from the notion of let's revisit this all and stir it up again. Would you support ending this trial, if you can, on procedural grounds, that it's unconstitutional to try a president who's left office

without ever getting to the issue of the guilt or innocence of Donald Trump? Yeah, the first chance I get to vote to end this trial, I'll do it, because I think it's really bad for America. If you want to hold people accountable, there's other ways to do it, particularly for presidents. The trial is stupid. I think it's counterproductive. We already have a flaming fire in this country and it's like taking a bunch of gasoline and pouring it on top of the fire. So let's talk about that and let's break down what he says. And what's really stupid is what Marco Rubio says. He says, one of the reasons why not to impeach is that we have a flaming fire in the country. Well, Marco Rubio, you created the flaming fire. Donald Trump created the flaming

fire. Just because you create the flaming fire, you're the arsonist, doesn't mean that you now shouldn't be charged for arson because you created the flaming fire. He also says that it was a foreseeable consequence of Donald Trump's actions that what took place took place. Interesting language there because foreseeable consequence actually is a of the Capitol police officers and attempted murder of lawmakers, but doesn't think that it should be in the province of senators who have a power to convict, to convict Donald Trump. And apparently it should just be left to other people. But the question is, is who, who do you leave it to? Sure. You can say, leave it to the criminal apparatus. Sure. You can say, leave it to civil lawsuits, criminal cases. But at the end of the day, if you're in a position of power, if you have the ability to hold accountable, if not who, if not you, then who? And you as a senator should be holding people accountable who under your watch commit murder and attempted murder, period. End of story.

One of the most bizarre things he says there, too, is he makes a point to say impeachment isn't the right route for this as a president. It's like, that's exactly what impeachment is for. What else is impeachment for if not to remove elected officials from power and to have them face consequences going forward in the future? Marco Rubio wants to have it both ways. And it's not pouring gasoline on the fire to hold somebody accountable. It's pouring water on the fire. It's extinguishing the fire to hold people accountable. The thing that's continuing to pour gasoline on it is letting people continuously get away from these crimes. Because what you do is you take that one fire and you allow it to spread to every house in the neighborhood once you let the arsonists, which in this case is you, Marco Rubio,

get away with it. And then I quickly want to play, Brett, the clip of Kevin McCarthy, the GOP leader in the House of Representatives, who's basically cycled through every excuse from first Trump did it to basically every America, every American is to blame. It's just so absurd. Yeah. So this clip, it starts off. The first clip is from January 13th and then goes to one of his statements on January 21st. And then the final statement is most recent one on January 23 different statements that he's made. The president bears responsibility for Wednesday's attack on Congress by mob rioters he should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding I don't believe he provoked if you listen to what he said at the rally everybody

across this country has some responsibility think about four years ago after the president Trump was sworn in what happened the very next day? The title was Resist with People Walking in the Streets. Everybody across this country bears responsibility. Ben, Jordy, do you guys bear responsibility for the terrorist attack on the Capitol? What do you think changed in those days, knowing that there were different statements? Did he get his talking points from Fox News

and he decided, okay, this is what I'm going to lean into now? I think they get their talking points, they get their polling, and they try to figure out what's going to keep their base. And right now, the base they're appealing to are the domestic terrorists who attack the Capitol. So they find out that people are upset with them, that they're going against them, and they pull back. And this is one of the dangers that I think a lot of people are scared about in having this trial not be so immediate, having another extra couple of weeks to go by,

because you're going to get more of these people who start to peel away and start to whitewash history in this way. And Kevin McCarthy, reportedly, he's saying, we've been eating shit for breakfast, lunch, and dinner right now. Well, Kevin, if you are sick of eating shit, stop ordering shit off the menu. I mean, be a leader, be a leader, encourage people to do the right thing, tell the truth and don't let QAnonism and Trumpism and the perversion of truth.

You don't follow all of that. I mean, hold people accountable and run your party appropriately and professionally. And I really want to have a conversation about accountability, accountability from what happened in the past and accountability moving forward. I think that there is no one better to have that conversation with than a social justice advocate, actress. We have Deborah Messing, who will be joining us after the break. She's someone who has transcended her role as an actress to become an incredible advocate. Her social media platform that she's built and the advocacy online has been incredible. She's done incredible service

for this country. I'm excited to talk to her. We'll get back after this break. No, that's not America. That's not America. Welcome back to the Midas Touch podcast. Wow. It is so amazing.

We are joined by the Deborah Messing, actress, social justice advocate, host of the incredible Dissenters podcast, which I love and listen to. Definitely check that out after you listen to the Midas Touch podcast, for sure. Debra, thank you so much for joining the Midas Touch podcast today. And just thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all of the advocacy that you've done during these crucial months. And even when Midas Touch first started, and we didn't have that many followers and before we became the Midas Touch today, I mean, you were out there looking at the videos, retweeting them. And so we're very, very grateful for you, Debra, and the country's grateful for you. Well, thank you so much. I mean, as you know,

this is this has been a monumental effort from thousands, hundreds of thousands of millions of people working together. And and your videos were undeniable. They were so powerful. And I just was always excited for the next one to come out that I could share. So thank you for using your artistry in such a powerful way. Debra, what got you involved in the advocacy that you've been involved in? For us, we kind of consider ourselves accidental activists. We had no background in politics really before everything happened with the coronavirus. And we were quarantined at home and we saw these press conferences Trump was giving. And so how did you get involved? Well, I'm an actress.

That's what I do. But I grew up with a brother who was very interested in politics, and he ran for state representative when he was 19. And so at 15, I knocked on all the doors with him in Rhode Island. So that's where it began. And starting in, I think, 2000, I started working all of the presidential campaigns, but nothing like what was inspired five years ago. I had worked on the Hillary Clinton campaign and obviously was just devastated when she lost. And then very quickly, when I saw all the abuses and the stripping of rights, I knew that I just, I had to do something and to speak up for what was right and what is American, really. And so I think that's where it began. And honestly, it got so much worse than I ever imagined it could. I mean, even just up until Inauguration Day, just looking at the last month, you know, I honestly think that that, you know, we found our people, that there is a, you know, almost physical and psychic

trauma derived from the Trump presidency that we may not even fully appreciate the long ramifications of, but that we as a nation are suffering from and need to kind of get out of? I have no doubt that it is a very real physical, emotional, mental trauma that I'm sure years from now will be the focus of college courses. You know, I think that what we have gone through, including the coronavirus and, you know, the loss of life and everything that has come out of the last four years. It's an existential crisis. And the loss and the suffering that so many different pockets of Americans have, have survived. Um, I just, there's no question that, that, that lives in your body. And, um, look, I, I talked to my therapist about it.

I'm like, you know, I am not the same person I was four years ago and I need to understand what happened in me and how I can sort of process it all so that, you know, we can move forward and be effective and efficient activists. What do you think we do with, you know, I've seen on the news and in social media, people who, some people who were previously Trump supporters, even some QAnon who are now saying we were lied to, you know, we feel like we were taken advantage of. What do we, what do we do? Is there a way that you think that you give some of them kind of a soft landing? You know, do we, how do we balance accountability with recognizing that we do need to, I think, bring some people into the fold? Well, my first response is you welcome people back. I do think that there's a large percentage of people who were tricked and who were, for lack of a better word, brainwashed. And out of deep need, saw something that they thought was going to be the great white hope.

And I think that, you know, Joe Biden talks about unity. There is no possibility for unity without accountability first. So I think we need to see accountability on a national level. We need to see the insurrectionists, you know, expelled from Congress and from the Senate. We need to was an anomaly and it was a shot to the heart of our democracy. And we have to take it seriously and we have to make sure it never happens again. And the only way to do that is to have a very public reckoning. And I think once that happens, I think Americans will start to exhale a little bit and feel like, okay, there are boundaries, there are rules in place and rules matter. And now we're going to move forward with that in mind. I do think a lot, you know, the QAnon people,

I think a lot of them were tricked. And I think a lot of them were traumatized. And I want unity. I want equality. I want decency. And if any former Trump supporters come and say, you know what? I voted for him. I supported him over the years. I realized that he was not what I thought he was.

And now I see that that was wrong. And now I want to put my focus on bringing people together versus ripping them apart. And I think if there's acknowledgement of the commitment and acknowledgement of the change of heart, then I think you welcome people back. I think one of the challenges to public reckoning, though, is the GOP party itself seems to have been so captured by QAnon ideology. We see the Arizona GOP censuring Cindy McCain. We see the Hawaii GOP saying very positive things about QAnon.

And we see people like Marco Rubio saying, while what Trump did may have been wrong, let history judge that. Let's not have any impeachment trials. I think that politicizes it is basically what Rubio said this weekend with the GOP kind of mutating itself into kind of a further arm of QAnon. How do we combat that the party itself is captured? The first thing that we all have to remember is that what those Republicans did, trying to throw away millions of votes and change the result of the election, that is against the law and it is against our Constitution. And if we start from that place and we respond accordingly, then people will see that there are repercussions. You can't be a member of Congress or be a senator and, you know, make a swear on a Bible or a Quran or whatever your faith is and say that you are going to uphold and protect the Constitution and then do the absolute opposite and try to destroy it.

These Republicans who are saying, oh, you know, just let it go. Let's move on. That's self-serving because then they don't have to be held accountable. I also feel like it's kind of like you see a house on fire and it's burned two members of a big family. And afterwards, the rest of the family says to the burn victims, you know what? The fire is out. Let's just let don't worry about the arsonist. Let him go. Let's not arrest him. Let's not put him in jail. You know, we're alive. And so that's good, right? Isn't that good enough? It's the same thing. It's like, no, that's not enough. There has to be justice. There was an

assassination attempt. You know, I mean, the fact that he stood by the man who incited it is really something that just tells me that the Republican Party is more about power than about principle. Did it surprise you that Trump didn't pardon himself and his children? Did you expect that that was going to happen? I did expect it. I also understood why that was a very ill-advised thing to do. But I had assumed that Trump would be so scared that he would do it anyway. So yeah, I'm surprised. I'm surprised that he didn't. And one of the ill-advised aspects of it, right, and as a lawyer, I always surprised that he didn't. daughter and is a sociopath, pardoning yourself is an admission of wrongdoing that, you know, and as a narcissist and sociopath, he's someone who probably believes in his mind that he can again rally a mob in the event that he's criminally prosecuted and charged and try to stave off criminal prosecutions, you know, through that. Do you think he's going to start? There's been

rumors, you know, that he may be starting a patriot party or a MAGA party. Do you think that's going to happen? Well, it doesn't surprise me. And, you know, from what I understand, it's not an easy thing to do and you can't do it very easily and quickly. But I do think that he is a vengeful person. And I think he knows that if he starts this far right party, that it will destroy the Republican Party. And I think that it would be a way for him to assert his power. And so it definitely it does not surprise me that that he is talking about that, as well as a media company that's even more far right than Fox. After everything you saw with Trump over these past four years and especially in the past few weeks, what is your dream scenario? What does accountability look like for Donald Trump to you? Oh, boy. I want him in prison.

I want him in prison. I want him barred from ever holding a position of power ever again. I want all of his children in prison. I want Bill Barr in prison. I want, you know, every person who abused their power, I want to see repercussions. It's just how I'm built. I'm, you know, it's like you do something wrong, there needs to be a punishment. You know, so for me, it's really, it's all about seeing him going to prison and, and being there for the rest of his life. And something in, in us speaking with experts on, on culty programming and things like that, a lot of experts have actually told us that that image might be the most important thing that people who have bought into everything Trump has said and

done might be the most important thing, that they have to see this guy destroyed in that way in order for them to realize that there are consequences to what they're doing. How does it make you feel when you see, I'm not sure if you've been following the protests in Russia at all right now, but I mean, in Russia, we're sort of seeing the opposite of what we just saw in America. We're seeing people taking to the streets to fight for democracy, to fight for human rights, to fight for the release of a political prisoner. I mean, how does it make you feel just seeing these images in Russia and then seeing the images of America of essentially protesters fighting in favor of fascism in America? Those images in Russia are so powerful. And when I look at them, I see that unless we are vigilant and intentional,

that could be us in 10 years. If we do not stand by the Constitution and protect our domain, that's where we're going. And that's also why I want to see him held accountable. Because, you know, it was funny, like the first impeachment, Senator Collins afterwards said, you know, that she believed that he learned his lesson lesson and it's clear he didn't. And so he did something worse. And so that's what happens with people who are, are sociopaths, narcissistic, malignant narcissists. They, they believe they're right. And, and it will happen again and it will happen again. And it will happen with a smarter president. And that will be far more destructive. And I just hope people are watching those images on television from Russia and really looking and seeing, you know, what is happening there. They are fighting for what we have, you know, and then there are people inside the House who are trying to burn it down. You have Alexei Navalny, who's in prison for BS charges that every democratic institution said was totally outrageous and fabricated by Putin.

There have been three assassination attempts on his life and he went back to Russia. And so all of these things we've heard from Trump are not merely rhetoric. These are the foundations to what now exists in Russia. When Trump is saying lock up Hillary Clinton, lock up political opponents. What Trump wanted was exactly what is happening in Russia. Guys, let's not forget what happened in Portland so recently over the summer. I mean, there was a time period when in America, we had unmarked federal officers whisking people away, throwing them into vehicles.

I mean, it's easy to forget about this because so much has happened since then. But these images are very similar actually to what we're currently seeing in Russia where they're whisking away children, Melvaney's family members. I mean, that was happening right here in America. It was. And as you said, because there were so many just atrocities happening on a daily basis here, it's very easy to just forget about them. And it's like, who ordered that? Who said that was okay? You know, that, we need a hearing to talk about that person. Yeah, there's so much to investigate. And one of the,

and listening to your podcast, The Dissenters, one of my favorite quotes that Hillary Clinton said on your show was, we have to keep standing up for dissidents. We have to keep protecting the right to dissent because it is such a fundamental human right. What do you think now the Biden administration needs to do? And we started to see them siding with the pro-democracy factions in Russia. But how could the Biden administration now counter the last four years of this kind of anti-democratic leadership? Well, I'm very happy to see just how quickly he is reversing policies that were order to stand by our allies that we are hopefully being welcomed back into the fore with again. I mean, I honestly think that Biden has such a long history that he knows what will hurt Putin. And I don't think that he has any fear about taking the important steps. very foolish to, to equate his, his soft heart and emotionality with not having a, a very strong backbone and a, and a fighter's, you know, soul.

You can tell, you can tell why Geordie my cellist or younger brother is the fan favorite based on this interview. Geordie's, you know, routinely wins all the polls of who's the best brother. You can tell based on those interview skills thus far, why he's number one. So they're jealous. There was a recent poll that, that apparently I'm the favorite brother that came out. They're still really upset by it, but they do this to me every episode. They make fun of me. I sit here patiently, just let them ask their questions. They're great questions. I don't want to interrupt.

And then, you know, they always make fun of their youngest brother. But I do have a good question for you. At least I think it's a good question. Yes, please. A lot of pressure now, Jordy. I'm just saying. So you've been able to use a lot of different outlets to have your voice heard, to fight for a democracy, to resist. Trump is gone, but Trumpism still exists and it will continue to exist. No, there have been people who have joined the fight the last four years who may be thinking to themselves, okay, Trump is out of the White House. My job here is done. What would you say to our work is just beginning. You know, Trumpism is something that grew over the last four years. And unfortunately, I think it activists who are fighting on behalf of democracy to never stop, to never stop working. There are so many organizations, you know, whether or not it's the ACLU or, I mean, there's so many places that you can go and you can help the helpers. You don't

have to create your own foundation or organization. There are people out there doing it full time. And we all have to commit because, you know, there's an election in two years and we have to start now because, God forbid, you know, we lose the House and the Senate. You know, Trumpism is going to be back in power. Well, let's move away from politics for one second. I love the interview, but I want to ask you something that I, so I think that the Lucille Ball part should have gone to you.

They're doing a Lucille Ball biopic. I had my vote for you. Maybe if Geordie came through as the favorite brother, you know, there could have been more clout behind it. But I would love, Debra, if I could do in my own way, a quick read, if you can play Lucy and I'll play Ricky. Oh my God. I'm so nervous for what's about to happen.

Oh my God, I have to hear your Ricky I'm so nervous Lucy Lucy A breakfast is ready Now you gotta do Lucy You can't just leave me stranded Oh my god you didn't even have an accent

Ben Lucy Lucy A breakfast is ready I didn't even have an accent, Ben. I mean, you know, it's a- Come on, Lucy. Lucy, breakfast is ready. Ricky. Are you hungry this morning? Oh my God, you are hilarious. You know what?

I don't think that you playing Ricky is in your future. Yikes. I'm sad to say, but you know what? Playing Luke Lucy isn't in my, it's all good. I'll say Ben has not been known for his impressions. He's also been doing a Trump impression, which we don't have to rehash in this interview.

The fans are brought down. I've read those ratings. The fans don't like my impressions I'm aware oh no Debra Messing thank you so much for joining the Midas Touch podcast actress social justice advocate take a listen to Debra's podcast

host of the Dissenters podcast after you listen to this listen to the Dissenters podcast Debra Messing thanks for joining us on the podcast thank you so much you guys rock and when can we listen to new episodes of the dissenters um we are just putting our our new list together and we will make the announcement when it's going to um it's going to premiere but uh we are we are deep into it and very excited yeah yeah we have some guests hillary clinton jane fonda congressman shift i mean the

dissenters get some of the best guests around there and you get to listen to the great legendary deborah messing deborah thank you so much for joining the podcast lucy we'll be right back welcome back to the Midas Touch podcast ben Mycelis here joined by my younger brothers Brett and the fan favorite apparently Jordy Mycelis favorite Jordy why why did you laugh when you said it it's true it's a true statement twitter voted I'm it's factually favorite yeah don't make me should I play the song again no No, no, no. You're the fan favorite. You're the fan favorite. Okay. Let's talk about Jordy's the fan favorite. Let's talk about some other fan favorites.

Rudy Giuliani. What? That's a smooth transition. Sure. Rudy. No, Rudy Giuliani is not a fan favorite, but we are a fan favorite of suing Rudy Giuliani. Stinky poopy Rudy Giuliani.

It was stupid. Rudy Giuliani was, I mean, he literally had shit down his face and he like farts in public all the time. And sometimes the brothers can be a little immature. Don't hold it against us in the ratings. We'll get serious right now. Very sensitive, very sensitive, Ben. Okay. Rudy was just sued by Dominion for $1.3 billion. With a B. He might as well be sued by $10 trillion. I mean, Rudy's going to lose this lawsuit. Rudy was the one spreading all of these bullshit lies

that Dominion had a deal with Hugo Chavez from Venezuela and created this massive conspiracy to steal votes, all of which was completely false, all of which Rudy Giuliani had the opportunity to go in front of court to present facts in front of and utterly failed. But this lawsuit, Brett, is just hilarious. Do you have some of the highlights of it? The funny thing about this lawsuit, Ben, is they used photos and things like that from Rudy's Twitter feed and Rudy's YouTube channel. And I think, Ben, you really pioneered this whole way of putting together a case. And I don't think a lot of people listening know that.

But Ben famously in cases like against Fyre Festival back in the day, Ben was the lawyer who took on the Fyre Festival. Ben was the one who put in the complaint in the complaint. I'd put the photographs of the different scenes. So on the Fyre Festival, I put photographs of like the cheese sandwiches when the lawsuit, true story, but then we'll get right back to politics against Snapchat, where Snapchat had this partnership page where they were putting these horrible stories about all sexual in nature, but children could access them. And there was, under the Communications Decency Act, there was a provision about having purient conduct

or content in front of minors. And so on my Snapchat complaint, you know, I put these, these photographs of these stories and they were like the most absurd, like fucking headlines in the world. It was like sex acts by Disney characters. And I won't even get into what they were, but I would actually put the photos of the sex acts and i'll just even get a little more explicit and then i'll and then i'll move on so in my sexual assault cases and sexual harassment cases okay true fucking story here where the men who were sexually harassing the women would send dick pics i would put photographs of the dick that they sent to the women in the federal complaints. Many a federal, I don't think any other lawyer in the nation.

And these get publicly filed, right? Publicly filed, exhibit A, see attached, see the attached dick. No joke. And I would just put it in front of very serious judges. And then the other side would flip out. Oh my God, you put a dick. I'm like, you put a dick. I'm like, you sent the dick to her. Don't blame me for filing it publicly when he sexually harassed her. How the fuck do you think she felt? He should. Yeah. How do you think she felt? He should have

thought through the steps. And so, yeah, his dick is exhibiting to bring it full circle. Dominion also put dick pics inside their complaints by putting pictures of Rudy Giuliani inside the complaint. And the way they just contrast the lies that Rudy told with his sort of just scammy requests for people to buy products and things that he's selling is just so hilarious and also embarrassing. Here's an example where they have a photo of Rudy Giuliani with his arms thrown up in the air, looking up to the sky, reminiscent of what he did outside of Four Seasons Total Landscaping, not to be confused with the Four Seasons Hotel. And it says, along with the false accusation that the minion had stolen the

election technologically, Giuliani warned viewers about, quote unquote, cyber thieves stealing home titles online and threw his arms in the air as if to emphasize the danger of entrusting important matters to technology. He then pitched his viewers on a service they could buy to protect themselves for $596 for the four-year service if they use the promo code Rudy when ordering. Going back to dick pics for a second, it wasn't just one complaint where I filed a sexual harassing man's dick pics to my female client. It's been like 10. That's like my modus operandi, which is like, okay, you did it. I'm filing your dick in federal court. Boom, exhibit a. And then I really would get the comments back like, holy shit, you filed that. And it goes, it's there to look up, look up, look up the ECF cases, look up.

I won't say, I won't say what the cases are because, you know, but, but if you look at some of the cases I've handled, um, you can see some of the dick pics that, um, that, that are exhibits to complain. Here's another Rudy, a dick pic exhibit after decrying how an American election has been fixed by a Venezuelan owned company. Giuliani marketed cigars from a quote unquote American owned company offering $20 off orders over a hundred dollars. If viewers use the code Rudy 21 ordering, I like how Rudy tied the things together to like Hugo Chavez influenced the election and the minion machines. You know, what Venezuela has a lot of cigars, by the way, why don't you buy your cigars from me with code Rudy 20 at check app? You know, it's interesting because Rudy's just leaning right into it. Like

I think Rudy knows the writings on the wall and he's just going to go so crazy that eventually he's just going to claim, you know, insanity or just he's not really thinking many steps ahead here. But what I am, I wouldn't say enjoying because these people have fucked up America so badly. Let me just ask one thing before we move on to any other subject. Who's buying supplements from Rudy Giuliani? Who looks at Rudy Giuliani as the pinnacle of health and says, whatever he's doing, I got to do. Whatever caused that duty to come out of his head, that's what I need. Some of that. I think that Rudy is the perfect spokesperson for achy joints and curing achy joints. Really? That's what you're going to Rudy Giuliani for. Look, if you believe that Rudy Giuliani can cure achy joints, there's no doubt why you believe

that there's a pedophilia cult run out of a pizza parlor on eighth street in Washington, D.C. That's run by Hollywood elites. That's only Donald Trump can combat. So I guess you're preaching to the choir here. If you're Rudy Giuliani, I mean, talk about a fall from grace, man. He went from America's merit to whatever the hell he's booked. I want to talk about another fall from grace because I can't stand talking about Rudy without getting really sick. Dr. Birx, talk about a real fall from grace, though, because Dr. Birx was a respectable scientist who went up there with Donald Trump and started lying, started basically being Trump's mouthpiece. it pushed back as much as he wanted. At least he was speaking the truth and wasn't the propaganda arm of all of Trump's bullshit about COVID. But now to watch Dr. Birx kind of squirm and try to

rehabilitate her image is kind of sickening and ironic. And no one is buying it, Dr. Birx. Brett, play the clip that Dr. Birx said recently when she went on the Sunday shows. I am convinced there were parallel data streams because I saw the president presenting graphs that I never made. So I know that someone or someone out there or someone inside was creating a parallel set of data and graphics that were shown to the president. I don't know to this day who, but I know what I sent up and I know that what was in his hands was different from that. As the White House coronavirus response coordinator, if you see that fake data is being shown to the president and then being amplified by the president to the public. It's your duty to speak out. And we called this guys back in March, I think. We actually wrote an article on MidasTouch.com.

One of the first pieces that we wrote at the very beginning of Midas Touch was an article called, Is Dr. Birx Compromised? And it went into all these aspects of the way she was promoting this disinformation because there were clips even at the time that showed that what she was saying was clearly inaccurate. How would you describe the job President Trump is doing behind the scenes and in front of the cameras during these daily briefings that we're seeing? What's been your perspective, Dr. Birx? He's been so attentive to the scientific literature and the details and the data. And I think his ability to analyze and integrate data that Let's say I'm not exaggerating at all. When Dr. Birx made statements like that, she is directly responsible for hundreds and thousands of deaths of Americans. It's absolutely shameful what she did, both as somebody in the administration, somebody who takes the Hippocratic oath as a doctor and somebody who has obligations to the general public.

Anybody who does a job interview with her, the moment she tries to spin that she was trying to be helpful, just play that clip that Britches played for you. But it's not just Dr. Burke's Politico is reporting that many of Trump's aides, a ton of them are basically finding that, well, I guess by a ton of them, I mean, all of them are all screwed at this point. All right. I feel really bad for them not. They've all been tainted by Trump's reputation, they all say, and for them sticking with Trump until the end.

And it's not just low and mid-level staffers getting pinched. People are saying that Trump's higher lever people, his chief of staff, other people are basically saying no one wants to hire us anymore. And rightfully so. You were a member of one of the most horrible periods. You were a player in one of the most horrible periods of American history. And you are responsible for the deaths of people. So I don't really give a shit that you're having trouble finding work. That's the least of my concern. What I do care about is President Biden's agenda, pushing forward actual initiatives that are favored by Americans. Nearly 70% support his handling of COVID-19. The majority of Americans support him rejoining the World Health Organization. The majority of Americans support holding construction of the border wall.

Only 37% oppose that initiative. That's kind of a common number we see, about 35% to 37%. 68% support a federal mask mandate. Just some important policies. He's reversed the transgender military ban. Those who are part of the trans community who have bravely fought for our country can continue to bravely fight for our country. And by the way, vaccine distributions are increasing significantly, although I don't think that even this administration has fully appreciated that there was literally no plan whatsoever. If we have the clip, Brett, of the new press secretary, Jen Psaki, Biden's press secretary, talking about the mess Trump left him on vaccination plans. Is there at least a ballpark amount that officials are aware of how much vaccine there is?

Well, our team is working right now. We've been here for five days to evaluate the supply so that we can release the maximum amount, while also ensuring that everyone can get the second dose on the FDA recommended schedule. So the confusion around this issue, which we acknowledge there is some confusion, speaks to a larger problem, which is what we're inheriting from the prior administration, which is much worse than we could have imagined. So we are assessing now what we have access to and ensuring that we have more of a rapid engagement with states so that they have more of a heads up on what to expect in the weeks ahead. Well, here's what happened. It turned out when Kayleigh McEnany said, here's our plan and handed over to journalists her giant empty binder. That was actually their plan. A bunch of blank pieces of paper. They didn't actually have a plan on anything. They went, they would just all talk. Trump would just get out there, speak bullshit. Kayleigh would

spin lies. And they actually had no way of actually distributing vaccines to the public. And so now the Biden administration's coming in. It's a total disaster and they're doing everything that they can to clean up. And they're doing it as quickly as they can. But this is a tall task. The Trump administration really just kneecap them in every which way, even from not allowing them to move ahead with cabinet appointments and such. You got to understand how far behind the Biden administration is now starting from because of everything Trump and the Republican fascist party has done to hold them back. Before we close out the show, I think it's only appropriate that we hear from Jordy's

fans. The Midas, the Midas mighty team Jordy. Yeah. Let's hear from a few people, Brett, before we wrap this. It's one of my favorite episodes, probably my favorite episodes so far, other than the fact that the Jordy part. But it really hurts you guys. Let's hear what Susan has to say. America has needed the Midas touch for so long. And thankfully, you guys came along at the right time. Some of the videos you guys have created, in fact, probably all of them are so amazing. Thank you so much.

Oh my gosh. Jordy, you want to address that, Jordy? Thank you. That wasn't a question, but thank you. That was so sweet. That was really nice. Thank you so much for the kind words, Susan. And the part that I think got cut off at the end

is when she said, and Brett is my favorite Midas brother. I don't think it came through in the podcast feed. Look, we could do another poll, but I don't think your egos could take it. Let's listen to the next question from one of Jordy's friends. Hey, guys. Just listened to the podcast. Loved it.

It was one of the best ever for sure. Regarding Green of Georgia 14, absolutely, positively, no discussion, sewer. Absolutely. That woman needs to be buried one way or another. So, yes, absolutely sewer. OK, I made my point. Anyway, love all of you guys. Love your work, and we'll continue listening and supporting. Thanks. So I think, Brett, I could tie this episode up

with a really neat bow here. What if in the lawsuit of Marjorie Taylor Greene, I make the exhibit, the dick pic of Lauren Bobbert's husband who exposed himself to the 16 year old girls at the bowling alley so for those uh who may have heard uh last week's show uh laurie was referring to we uh put it out to the listeners um if we should sue marjorie taylor green of georgia if we should sue her because she blocked us on Twitter, which has been proven time and time again

to be an unconstitutional action from an elected official. And Lori says, go for it. Sue her. Sue her big time. And Ben says, I know what my exhibit A is going to be because if you're a Midas Touch podcaster, you know that Lauren Bobbert's husband was arrested for exposing his penis to 16-year-old girls at a bowling alley. And I'm going to somehow make that as an exhibit to the lawsuit against Marjorie Taylor Greene.

All right. So it's decided. We're going to sue Marjorie Taylor Greene. We're doing it. We're going to move forward. We're doing it. We're doing it. Hands in, brothers. Hands in. One, two, three.'re going to move forward. We're doing it. Hands in, brothers. Hands in. One, two, three.

Midas. So we're going to sue her. That's how decisions are made. That's how decisions are made at Midas Touch. Don't you dare come after the Midas Mighty Marjorie Taylor Greene without having to suffer the consequences for your action. Yes, the cancel culture of the Midas Mighty is coming for you.

Thank you for listening to the Midas Touch podcast. We accept the fact that Jordy is your favorite Midas brother. You can listen to us every week, Tuesdays and Fridays, everywhere that podcasts can be downloaded. Thank you so much for listening to this week's Midas Touch podcast. Thank you, Deborah Messing, for being an incredible guest. We're back on Friday with more incredible guests. We'll see you soon.

Shout out to the Midas Mighty. Suck up.