The MeidasTouch Podcast - Getting FIRED UP for democracy!! (Feat. Rep. Ted Lieu) | The MeidasTouch Podcast

Episode Date: March 18, 2022

On today's episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast, we have an incredible guest, Congressman Ted Lieu! Congressman Lieu represents California’s 33rd Congressional District & currently sits on the House Judiciary and House Foreign Affairs committees. During the interview, Rep. Lieu gives us his thoughts on Ukraine, what the United States must do to combat anti-democratic forces within our own country & a magnificent breakdown of the kitchen table issues we NEED to start focusing on. The remainder of the episode, we bring you the latest breaking news of the week! From President Zelenskyy’s address to Congress, the immature and downright awful behavior exhibited from House Republicans & a public service dissertation with clear cut examples on how & why the media must do better. If you enjoyed today’s show please be sure to rate, review & subscribe! As always thank YOU for listening! DEALS FROM OUR SPONSORS: Athletic Greens: https://athleticgreens.com/meidas Buck Mason: https://buckmason.com/meidas Thesis: https://takethesis.com/meidas Remember to subscribe to ALL the Meidas Media Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://pod.link/1510240831 Legal AF: https://pod.link/1580828595 The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://pod.link/1595408601 The Influence Continuum: https://pod.link/1603773245 Kremlin File: https://pod.link/1575837599 Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://pod.link/1530639447 Zoomed In: https://pod.link/1580828633 The Weekend Show: https://pod.link/1612691018 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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And make same-day withdrawals if you win. Download the BetMGM Ontario app today. You don't want to miss out. Visit BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. 19 plus to wager Ontario only. Please gamble responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, Welcome to the Midas Touch podcast. Ben, Brett, and Jordy fighting for democracy with you each and every day, each and every pod. We have a great guest for you today. We have Congressman

Ted Lieu. Wow. Let's go for the January 6th impeachment. There were two impeachments of Donald Trump. Yes, he was that bad. Congressman Lew represents California's 33rd congressional district, sits on the House Judiciary Committee, House Foreign Affairs Committee. He was also in the United States Air Force, recently retired as a colonel. So his military experience will be specifically interesting here based on everything that's going on in Ukraine. And of course, Congressman Lew was there yesterday to the joint address of Congress by President Zelensky. Let's just get right into it because I am fired up. I am fired up. And let me tell you why. Why are you fired up? Tell us all about it. Let me tell you why. So yesterday, President

Zelensky gives a rousing address to a joint session of Congress. Really one of the most incredible pro-democracy, pro-freedom speeches that I've ever seen in my lifetime and that I think we've ever seen in history. There was a moment in the clip when President Zelensky comes out to address Congress. Remember, President Zelensky has a mark on his head for Putin. They are actively trying to kill him right now as he's addressing Congress. And as he walks out, he receives a standing ovation from all members of Congress, other than Marjorie Taylor Greene, who's looking at her phone or looking around. And so the Midas Touch account, the main account tweets very, very specifically because words matter and words have meaning. And guess what people? Words have definitions and words carry with it weight and Midas Touch cares about words. And so Brett, I want you to

very specifically state what the tweet that Midas Touch account said. I feel like you're deposing Brett right now. I love it. Let's do this. And I'm going to, let me pull the tweet directly because I don't want to parse any words. I don't want to paraphrase. I want to say exactly, exactly what I said. No taking the fifth on this one, Brett.

Definitely. Just go pull it up. I would expect that you would have it open. It's not like this was a surprise podcast. Yeah. Jordy makes the outlines and I don't see it. Why do I have to get thrown under the bus? I rewrote this tweet multiple times. We rewrote the tweet. Yes. Yeah. We rewrote the tweet. And so it said, as Zelensky is greeted by the US Congress to a standing ovation. Marjorie Taylor Greene refuses to applaud and instead appears to grab her cell phone. So as we said, during the moment that Zelensky is

greeted by the U.S. Congress to a standing ovation, meaning while everybody at that moment is standing up and applauding, giving a standing ovation, Marjorie Taylor Greene was at that moment refusing to applaud and instead appeared to grab her cell phone, which she was grabbing her cell phone. So that was a clip that was a clip that occurred on C-SPAN. You could all watch it with your eyes for those watching it on YouTube. Yeah. And it wasn't an edited clip or anything. It was literally, it was pulled from the C-SPAN feed. So anybody watching C-SPAN at that time, this is what you saw with the C-SPAN feed. So anybody watching C-SPAN at that time, this is what you saw with the C-SPAN cameras. You saw everybody respectfully giving a standing ovation to President

Zelensky. And you saw Marjorie Taylor Greene kind of get up, check her cell phone and kind of look around. Also the definition of applause, what applause means, a demonstration of approval that is also going to be important. We go about our day. That was one of a thousand things that we did yesterday. I mean, not joking. So we produced in the morning, the Maya Culpa, Michael Cohen podcast, which is nearly at a hundred thousand views on YouTube where him and Glenn Kirshner were talking about issues. They're like the biggest experts in the world on the prosecutions, potential prosecutions of Trump.

So we get them on our network early on. Our partner who we work with, Patriot Takes, they put the video on later in the day of Marjorie Taylor Greene giving a rebuttal speech, more on that in a moment moment to President Zelensky. We also have the Kremlin File podcast that goes yesterday where we had like the foremost expert on Russian disinformation on who debunks like a thousand Putin lines. I want to pause there for a sec because this was an incredible episode of Kremlin File. So

Kremlin File is really, it's like the preeminent podcast on Russia and the rise of autocracy in Russia. Produced by Midas Touch. Produced by Midas Touch. And so this episode yesterday, they had on a Ukrainian researcher who has set up a website to debunk all of Russia's disinformation campaigns. And so it's incredible hearing the insight from this guy in Ukraine who has dedicated his life to building this platform to combat Russian, you know, these fake news stories, like actual fake news stories, fake news stories and fake videos that Russia's releasing and all their propaganda. So I just thought it was incredibly fascinating. And yeah, sorry to interrupt, but that was a, no, it was, and it was, it was absolutely great

to have that. And we produced probably, you know, hundreds of tweets yesterday, a thousand data points of content from us and from our kind of creative partners out there who were working diligently to fight for democracy. And one of them actually was, we focused on the fact that, and this was not focused on by mostly all of the mainstream media, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is not a fringe figure in the Republican Party, the Republican leadership, people who are prominent Republican figures say that if they take over the House, Marjorie Taylor Greene is going to get major prominent positions. She's basically the voice, the mouthpiece for the Republican Party. They don't condemn her. They don't say negative things about her. And they let her have these platforms. She gave a prescripted rebuttal, a rebuttal to President Zelensky, where she gave misinformation after misinformation. She states falsely that Obama created Ukraine. She spouts the propaganda that Ukraine has Nazis and engages

in Nazism at a high level. False fact after false. She says that the United States should not fund Ukraine with military aid, with weapons, with supplies. She says that Putin is going to win. This wasn't some random off the rail speech. This was a scripted formal speech that she that she gave on her official account. And her message was Ukraine should surrender. That was the message of her speech after hearing this riveting speech by President Zelensky. Ukraine should surrender was her message. Where's the mainstream media covering that? Traitorous conduct. And Midas Touch covered that. So we go about our day. And then in the evening, the first newspaper, if you want to call it a news newspapers anymore, the first digital magazine, it's a digital magazine now. Newsweek did like a fact check and basically said that our video from earlier in the day that, frankly, I even forgot about at this point was even a thing because it was such a minor video in the swing of all of the pro- she touched her hands very tepidly.

I thought, you know, this is stupid, but, you know, whatever. I was going to joke with the brothers. I say, you wait. Daniel Dale's going to come with a fact check. I definitely made a joke about it to somebody. I think I made a joke about it to Jordy. Just wait for Daniel Dale to get his hands on this blockbuster of a story. Right? Dale to get his hands on this blockbuster of a story. Right. And then sure enough, we wake up

this morning and Daniel Dale gives a message that what he's been working on is a story that's going to fact check Midas touch for saying exactly the quote that Brett read that when Zelinsky came out that Marjorie Taylor Greene refused to applaud. And he goes out, he says, well, I'll give you some time to respond. And then he like posts it right away. Yeah, that's the weird thing. He said, I got a message out and I'll read you like the times. I got a message from him at 6.53 a.m. Hey, I'm doing this story. Would like some clarity on this at 6.53 a.m. However, he posted a tweet about it at 6.36 AM, about 20 minutes prior to even reaching out for our response and our context of it. So he posted without even getting

our comment on it. And so at that point I said, I guess, you know, I said, Daniel, I'm happy to speak to you about this and provide you context and like, let you know what's going on here. But I see you already like went on Twitter, you know, with like a six tweet rant. So like, I guess we'll talk about it on there. And he said, OK, sounds good. Remember when the right wing media spread the Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib is giving a response, a rebuttal to Biden. And then remember all the like the other press, like not the radical right press, like mainstream press bought that hunk line and sinker and wrote, oh, there's a progressive rebuttal and the progressives are eating each other up because progressive just buy into this right wing

garbage talking points. And here, here we actually have a Republican member of Congress giving a rebuttal to President Zelensky at a pivotal moment when Ukraine is winning the war. Crickets. You don't hear a thing from mainstream media. And the first thing that we hear is this is what Daniel Dale wants to focus on is whether or not she collapsed. And he's going to write a story saying that Midas Touch put disinformation out there. Let's be clear, though, if we want to talk about actual, actual facts here for a second, because when we break down what applause are and the

timing, Brett was very specific about the actual tweet. She refused to applaud as Zelensky was going out. And then he even wrote in his tweet, like it was a tepid. She was a pretty tepid clapper, but full footage showed that she clapped four times. She clapped four times later, later in the speech, she clapped four times.

He said, when Zelensky and Pelosi appear, he said, green claps, three to four seconds stops Graham's phone. So that was his clap. And I'll play, I'm playing the video right now for the viewers of what he is counting as applause. And I just want you to look at this with your own eyes and say, if that's applause. And I'll also say this, okay, say this was your wedding or something. Say you just told your

friend that you got married, that you're getting engaged. Okay. And this was their response. How would you feel? I feel like it's like a Larry David, like curb your enthusiasm episode where he has a friend where he has like a friend who is the star of a play. And the friend looks out into the audience. He sees everybody else standing up. And then he sees Larry looking down at his phone, getting up and kind of like playing patty cake with his hands for two seconds and sitting down. Like that would be the plot of an entire episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Actually sounds like a great episode of Curb. I got to be honest with you. And here's the thing, though. Do I want to be talking about the applause?

No. Is it a clap? No. And you know how you know I don't want to talk about? Because that was one little tiny freaking thing we did yesterday out of a thousand things that we did yesterday. And where we focused on yesterday was Marjorie Taylor Greene being a traitor to the United States of America and Republicans being traitors to the United States of America and Fox News being traitors. And you have a choice when you are media.

You have a choice of what you're going to cover. And you're going to cover pro-democracy. Are you going to cover Ukrainian bravery? Or are you going to rush to the defense of Marjorie Taylor Greene and claim that later claps having nothing to do with the clip that we showed, shows that she is applauding and fact check. The biggest power the media has is the stories that they focus on. And so the reason that I'm focused on this, on the beginning of the show, because in many ways, diverting attention and focusing on these issues and putting the resources of a powerful platform like Daniel

Dale has into this type of issue when he should be fact checking everything she said that was false in her rebuttal to Zelensky, that Obama created Ukraine, that Putin is winning the war, that this is a both sides issue where both sides are to blame for Russia's unlawful invasion. That's what you should be spending your time fact checking. You should spend your time fact checking everything and the lies that are spewed every single night on Fox News by Tucker Carlson, by Laura Ingraham. And this is what you choose to spend your time. This was his main story of the day. Are you kidding me? Mainstream media.

And I go back to the rebuttal on the progressive rebuttal to Biden because this highlights exactly what is wrong with our media today. Because on the right wing, you have radical right fascists who know exactly what the fuck they're doing. Tucker Carlson knows what he's doing. Rupert Murdoch knows what he's doing. They're out there to manipulate minds every single night and to radicalize a portion of our country with false and disgusting information every single night. And on the other hand, you have people like Daniel Dale, who are focused on fact-checking applause versus a clap, and the clip that we have, which was very specific, and then tried to say, that's disinfo. That's not disinfo.

And I'm tired of it. I'm sick and tired of this media being pathetic. It's pathetic. And this is why Midas Touch exists. And you know what also bothers me? I would say truthfully in response to us, we corrected Daniel Dale because we're fighters. I'm not going to sit on the sideline as someone lies about me, my brothers and our movement. So we pointed out everything that we said here. We're like, Daniel, we said at the beginning, this was applause is different than clapping later. It's applause at the beginning.

We were very specific in our words when President Zelensky goes out. But then you have people who identify, I suppose, as progressives or are on the left saying, you know, leave Daniel alone. Leave Dino. He's a good guy. Can't stand that. Can't stand. This is a movement where we fight for democracy. This is a movement of life or death. That's what it is, because those are what the stakes are right now. This is a movement where life or death. That's what it is, because those are what the stakes are right now. This is a movement where I'm going to fight every single day for everyone who's a Midas Mighty, everybody who cares about democracy. I don't care if that's liberal.

I don't care if that's progressive. I don't care if that's conservative. If you care about democracy, I am going to fight for you. And if you don't like fighters, if you don't like people who are going to punch back at lies and stupidity, I'll tell you what. Midas Touch may not be the movement for you. You may not want to be a part of a pro-democracy movement. I have no clue what you're pointing at. There's the door. Get out if you're not ready to fight for democracy. Jordy's pointing at the green wall, I think, and his open closet. But I mean it, and I'm fired up, and I'm fired up because the stakes are so high. This isn't watching a basketball match of the Raptors versus the Lakers and covering it as an announcer. Oh, LeBron James is dribbling the ball down the court. Oh, and then the Raptors take the ball. He shoots a three-pointer. Oh, he shoots a foul shot. This is life or death. Hospitals are being bombed in the Ukraine. A school building is being bombed in Ukraine, being intentionally targeted by Vladimir Putin. Vladimir Putin has talked about

ethnic cleansing within his states, which we'll talk about in a second. So enough of the pathetic media. You're either fighting for democracy or frankly, you're just as bad as Tucker Carlson. I don't know, Ben. Daniel Dale is a pretty good clap timeline. He put a clap timeline, pretty good clap timeline just think about that he's getting a real salary from a real network and i think and he's done he's done great work in the past with trump and stuff but i honestly just think i don't think he knows what the cover he did the same thing yeah i just remembered he did the same thing during the january 6th insurrection where we called out marco rubio and we called that marco rubio for supporting the insurrection, where we called out Marco Rubio and we called that Marco Rubio

for supporting the insurrection. He goes, fact check, false. It's like Marco Rubio supported all of Trump's bogus, big lie stuff. Marco Rubio, like encouraged the trucker convoy to like knock Biden's bus off the road. Yeah then because marco rubio was like yeah that was not a good insurrection i'm against that marco rubio said it fact check cleared it cleared of all prior wrongdoing on context you have to focus on what's at stake here it's not this isn't this isn't some this isn't just some silly i I wake up and I just, you know, what should I write about today? Let's write about clapping. No, this is democracy on the line here and abroad with Ukrainians bravely fighting for our democracy each and every day as we have American traitors

in the Republican Party, leaders who are out there rooting for Putin, as we have those same lines being parroted. Play the clip that same night. They get their talking points from the same people. Play the clip of Laura Ingraham that night, essentially saying verbatim, and I'll give Tom Cotton credit here. He deserves credit here because Tom Cotton actually was like, no, you're absolutely wrong here. But Laura Ingraham was saying to him, using the other talking points, isn't it just a waste of time to give the Ukrainians money

when it's inevitable Putin's going to win? And I give Tom Cotton credit, but she used the exact same talking points that morning from that part of the Republican Party. I just looked today, they announced the transfer of $800 million of weapons to Ukraine. That's welcome. Should have been done a month ago or two months ago. And it's still just a fraction of what Congress proposed last week. Look, the Ukrainian people and army have proven that they are capable of fighting the Russians. We need to encourage them to do so. And we need to provide weapons that they need to fight the Russians. Now, you don't think you don't think we're giving the Ukrainians at this point and the rest of the world false

hope? You think given the fact that Russia is closing in on Ukraine at this moment, you heard the air raid sirens outside of Lviv, that we're not building people up to this false hope at this point? I'm worried about that, given the fact that still so many people are in those cities. I'm worried. Laura, I really don't. given the fact that still so many people are in those cities. I'm worried. Laura, I really don't.

You know what, though? I don't want to give, you know, I don't want to let Tom Cotton off the hook, though, because I'll tell you what, too, that like literally within hours after Zelensky's speech. Republicans. In the Senate, block the confirmation of officials who were tasked with leading the U.S. efforts to support Ukraine. And let me just quote from U.S. Senator Democrat from New Jersey, Bob Menendez, quote, It is amazing to me, my colleagues who got up to applaud President Zelensky, my colleagues who came on the Senate floor to talk about both the need to help Ukraine and the humanitarian realities that are compounding every day.

They get up and clap and then come to the floor to object to the very things that come to help Ukraine. And these are what Republican Senator Rick Scott, he blocked Chairman Menendez's efforts for the Senate to confirm Jim O'Brien to be coordinator of sanctions, Juliette Evols to be assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration, Elliot Kang to be assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation. And I'll tell you what would happen in this case. So now, you know, if we were to say these Republicans don't support Ukraine, they don't. I mean, they're they're not voting for aid. They're.S. stands with Ukraine. So they must stand with looking the other direction, whatever, that's not an applause.

And it's so silly that we're like talking about your whole story is about a clap versus an applause. And this is what you decided to make your cause du jour. But let's talk about really Republican support of Ukraine. Who is really standing with Ukraine? Who is not? Who is pushing, directly pushing Russian propaganda that is then literally being aired by the Kremlin on Russian TV channels. Don't give me that. Don't give me that these people support Ukraine. Don't give me that that was an applause which denotes approval of what was going on, approval of Zelensky when she did it for a couple seconds at a time, a couple minor, as you said,

tepid claps, and then went on to say that Ukraine was a Nazi country created by Barack Obama and Joe Biden and that they should give up. Just don't give me that. It's garbage. It's insanity. Day in, day out, we're having the top experts inside Ukraine, living in Europe, people who have fled Ukraine, give the truthful information and the accurate information of what is going on there every single day. And we do it because a lot of this, sadly, is not being covered by the mainstream media, with the mainstream media being focused on stories like applause versus clap. And to that, I give the thumbs down. Ooh, the thumbs down. The dreaded thumbs down.

It's a very, very impassioned opening. So it's- I loved it, I loved it. Do we bring in Ted Lieu now or do we, should we cover some more news? I mean, I'm fired up. I mean, where do I go next? I think you're fired up, though, because I think maybe you took some thesis this morning, Ben.

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entrepreneurs, lawyers, engineers, busy professionals, and parents have used thesis to get better results at work, at home. So imagine what you could do with thesis. And right now thesis is offering our listeners 10% off your first starter kit. When you visit takethesis.com slash Midas, go to takethesis.com slash Midas to take this quiz and discover your unique nootropic combination and save 10% on your first starter kit. That's takethesis.com slash M-E-I-D-A-S. Make sure to use our URL to let them know we sent you. I know Jordy took his thesis today. Maybe, Jordy, that will give you the motivation,

the energy to ask not one, but multiple questions. I've been preparing for that. I've been preparing for our interview with Congressman Lewis. Big interview. You got to get that thesis in. I love it. Thank you to all of our sponsors for making the show happen. And before we bring in Ted Lieu, let me go to Jordy first. Jordy, have you prepared for this interview?

I'm prepared. I got my eyes checked yesterday and I have 20-20 vision. These glasses are fake. Really? No contacts? No glasses? Nothing. I'm the only brother that... Yeah, yeah. So just in case anyone was wondering out there, I've been like, like what prescription are you? No, no, no. This is just for show. It's, it's, it's, it's a style thing. It gives me confidence during the interviews. And wearing your pro-democracy, that gives you confidence during the interviews? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's like a cape. It's like my Superman cape.

Okay. That's okay. Yeah. What an interesting episode this is you're wearing you're wearing your Midas touch pro democracy I am I'm wearing my Midas touch pro democracy hat too you can pick this up at store.midastouch.com that's store.midastouch.com we have some really incredible merch out there it really helps keep the show going so make sure you check out store.midastouch.com get one of these pro democracy hats man they're awesome. They're awesome. Oh, we got to just pull up this tweet from Marjorie Taylor Greene, though, to Bill Kristol before we bring in Ted Lieu. I'm just seeing this now and it's hilarious. So Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote to Bill Kristol, who was obviously criticizing her for being a traitor. I tell you what, pumpkin, how about you suit up and report to your commander

and chief yourself and tell him you're reporting for duty. You might want to train a little first. The only thing in shape on you and prepared for war is your litter, is your little Twitter thumbs at Bill Kristol. I like that she adds him too, which has no clue how Twitter works. If you're quote tweeting him, he will see that tweet. To highlight what you said, she said commander and chief, not commander in chief on the tweet. Put this scary Larry

who actually did a real grammar check on her and pointed out that literally in three sentences, she got four things wrong. And to me, that goes to the broader point. We talked about this on, I think, the last pod or maybe when we were on the Stuttering John podcast. But I love honest, intellectual, high-level conversation.

You should know that by now. And I don't like labels. You're a now. And I don't like labels anymore. I didn't like it before, but I particularly don't like it now. And Daniel Dale, when he was like, liberal PAC, blah, blah, blah. That was also very intentional. When you know about Midas Touch, you know that we're a pro-democracy media company and we also have a PAC, but we are first and foremost, a pro-democracy group. I don't use the labels. If you line up all of my views, you will probably find that I'm very progressive and that I'm liberal, but as those are traditionally defined. But if there's a day

where Democrats tell me that you should start injecting bleach and we should start supporting Putin, I am going to not support those people. Supporting affordable housing, supporting getting people medication at cheaper prices and making healthcare a right for everyone, getting people food, making food something that all people should have, making the living wage a thriving wage, making people be able to celebrating workers. Those issues are my issues. So don't put me in a box of where I even am. And I support democracy. I support democracy here and abroad. And I like tough debates over this economic policy or that economic policy, this tax policy over that tax policy. I'm super interested in that. And you may find

that there's a Republican, quote unquote, policy that I'm like, that one may make more sense, in which case that's fine. But at the end of the day, what I don't like is just intellectual dishonesty, stupidity, buffoonery, all of this that's embodied in these, what's the guy? Gobert? What's the guy? Gobert? Yeah, Louie Gobert. Gobert. What's the guy? Louie Gobert. Gobert. Gobert. Gobert. Gobert. Gobert, Gomer, Gomer. I made him into a Gomer. It's not. Man, that would be a horrible Frankenstein right there. Boebert and a Gomer.

Matt Gaetz, you know, all all of these people, you know, anyway, that's where I stand. Anyway, let's bring in Congressman Ted Lieu representing my home state, California's 33rd Congressional District. Ted currently. It's OK. I call you Ted. I feel like I'm very informed about the Congressman. Lou currently sits on the House Judiciary Committee and House Foreign Affairs Committee. He's a former active duty officer in the U.S. Air Force, was an impeachment manager in the January 6th insurrection impeachment proceedings. Welcome to the podcast, Congressman. Thank you, Ben, Brett, and Jordy. And totally feel free to call me Ted.

I want to be so presumptuous. You know, you're a fan favorite on the pod, but that doesn't necessarily mean I could just go about calling Congressman, you know, Ted. But Congressman, I just want to note, I'm totally OK that two of you are wearing T-shirts, too. Well, here's the problem, Congressman. I'm a lawyer by. I'm supposed to be wearing suits. So this is my kind of rebellion to the profession. So but getting into the heart of it, you know, you were there yesterday. You were at the joint session where President Zelensky addressed members of Congress? What was your reaction to what he had to say? And what are you and other members of Congress doing in response to President Zelensky's address? I thought President Zelensky gave a very powerful speech, and the video he showed was very compelling. Ukraine has done an amazing job with the kind of what we used to call in the

Air Force information warfare. And they have definitely been better than the Russians at this. They really have galvanized a lot of support for them, partly because of the kind of information they've been able to put out. And I commend President Zelensky for also his courage for staying in Kiev during this war. And I support giving Ukraine the weapons they need to defend themselves. And you say, you know, information in this has been key from the very outset, President Biden providing step by step of what Putin was doing in real time when Putin was trying to create a pretext and create and gin up some lies at Donbass and what was happening there. But what strikes me over and over again is you see these right wing extremists.

I don't know how else to call them congressmen who call themselves Republicans, though, who are trying to do the bidding, it appears, for Putin. And I mean, was I watching? I was. But it shocked me, a Republican and Marjorie Taylor Greene issuing like a rebuttal to Zelensky afterwards, saying that there shouldn't be a Ukraine. I was horrified yesterday. I mean, what what do you think when you see that? And we shouldn't, I think, view her as some fringe figure. She's who the Republicans hoist up as a major prominent person in their party. You're watching a radicalization of the GOP base. Marjorie Taylor Greene just went off the rails yesterday and basically is simply repeating Russian propaganda. And GOP leader Kevin McCarthy is going to do nothing about that. And that's because he is scared of his own base.

And they watch Tucker Carlson. They see him say the same Russian propaganda and no one pushes back because you have now a Republican Party that every passing day becomes more and more radical. And Congressman, former active duty officer, retired as a colonel recently in 2021. So you know a thing or two about no-fly zones and airspace and things like that. This debate over the no-fly zone in Ukraine, I think I understand it, but I think a lot of our viewers out there and listeners think it's a little complex in the weeds. You have some people saying we need to close airspace, others saying if you close the airspace, it'll be looked at as a furtive move. What's your view on that? And how

do you kind of describe this issue to the listener out there who's not really in the weeds? So every time you hear the three words, no fly zone, you should, in your mind, replace it with the following three words, declaration of war. That's what it would be. It would essentially be the United States and NATO forces shooting down Russian jets. That is what a no-fly zone because I do not believe the U.S. and NATO should be directly engaging Russian forces. At the same time, I believe we need to give the Ukrainian military everything they ask for, everything they need to defend themselves. So earlier during this conflict, Congresswoman Houlihan, who is also an Air Force veteran, we wrote a letter to administration and to the Secretary of Air Force asking them to provide air assets to Ukraine, including drones, U.S. drones. And we're very pleased that the package that President Biden announced recently does include U.S. drones going to Ukraine.

What's your view of how President Biden's been handling everything? I think President Biden has done an amazing job. He's built a worldwide coalition in terms of economic sanctions. He's also built a worldwide coalition to push back against Russian aggression and to deliver different aid and types of equipment to Ukraine. And President Biden is really the kind of adult we need at this exact moment. And I really commend him as administration for everything they've done. Let's talk about the midterms. I know Brett and Jordy may have some questions on some issues. An issue that I'm heavily focused on, Congressman, is seeing in radical right state after state that are run by radical right governors taking away a woman's right to choose and kind of escalating

this from a 14 week abortion ban to you can't even leave the state to get an abortion. In other states, a Missouri legislator introduced an amendment to a bill that said that. We have Dobbs v. Mississippi that's coming for a written ruling soon, probably May or June. Based on oral argument, it seems that the Supreme Court's going to uphold the 15-week abortion ban and maybe even overturn Roe v. Wade. You know, I think this is such a paramount fundamental issue, the right to choose a constitutionally enshrined right, and that government should not be telling women what they should be doing here. Is this an issue that, I mean, one, fundamentally, we need to be talking about more as Democrats and supporting women and

childbearing persons. But do you see this as a major issue going into the midterms? I think their answer is yes. We're seeing really some pretty horrific bills being introduced. Recently, a Republican state legislator actually introduced a bill to give the death penalty for women who seek abortions. And you also have Republican state officials saying that women shouldn't get abortions even when their own health and lives are at risk. And so you see this very extreme agenda come forward in a number of these red states. And I think the American public is going to see this more and more. I mean, the war in Ukraine is taking a lot of public attention. But at some point, I think many people across America are going to realize, oh, my goodness, this fundamental right is going to

go away in a number of states. And I do think that's going to be an issue coming into this campaign in November. Do you think Democrats should prioritize running on that issue to try to galvanize people to just understand how important that this election really is? So I'm very pleased my House colleagues elected me to House leadership. And I'm co-chair of their Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, and we focus on messaging and long term messaging. So we're looking at that exact issue, in fact, right now. And what we do know is kitchen table issues continue to predominate at this exact moment in time. People are concerned about the economy and about jobs and also about inflation. So we are looking at all the issues.

We're in a very different cycle now than we were three decades ago because of how quickly new cycles change. So part of what's going to happen is I think, where are the major issues and where is the public in about September of this year? And I think that will affect the November elections. And it's really hard to know in know, six months is an eternity. Right. Yeah. It is interesting, right? People do tend to base their opinions based on that specific time. We saw after President Biden's State of the Union speech, we saw a bump in his approval ratings because people saw him, you know, looking strong as a leader covering all the issues. But how do we keep that momentum? And you mentioned messaging. I think Democrats are knocked a lot for messaging. I think you are one of the best messengers in the party. I think you're always spot on with what you do. So how do we talk to the public about these kitchen table issues when they're looking around and they're seeing high gas prices, when they're seeing inflation, when they're seeing these things, which I understand why you'd be upset about that. And we have to level with people and be there. But how do we also explain to them, you know, that these are global issues facing everybody? Like, how do we just message that, you know, in a world where we have these high prices

and gas prices and things like that? That's a great question. So one thing we should do is to talk about what we've already done. So Democrats passed American Rescue Plan that helped schools reopen and remain open. It helped get stimulus checks out to people who needed it at that moment in time. It also helped get vaccines to a lot more folks, and it created a lot of jobs. And if you look at the numbers in the first 13 months of the Biden administration, 7.4 million jobs were created, the most in US history. GDP growth is at near record highs. Wagers are up. And so that's a story we have to keep telling. At the same time, inflation is a problem. It's also a problem worldwide. Certainly the US is not immune to this.

Last month, Turkey had an inflation rate of about 48%. And so all the countries are getting hit with this. And there's basically two ways to solve inflation. You can make everybody poorer, right? Because it's basically a supply and demand issue. Or you can make sure we increase supply of products. And that's what we're working on. So the infrastructure law we passed will help ease some of the supply chain issues. We're looking at legislation now to make sure we incentivize the production of chips in the United States. One of the reasons that car prices are high is because there's not enough cars. And one of the reasons for that is because they need these microchips that there's just not enough of right now. We're also working on making sure that companies that illegally engage in price gouging are prosecuted by the Federal Trade Commission.

If you look at gas prices, for example, oil is now down to below $100 a barrel. And gas prices haven't dropped very much. And that's because these oil companies are making record profits. And what we see is essentially companies taking advantage of different crises to enlarge their profits at expense of the American consumer. And we have to point that out as well. Totally. And I can guarantee when those gas and oil company profits come in, I can guarantee they will be record highs despite everything that is going on. I want to go back to January 6th because, Congressman, last time you were here was actually

right in the aftermath of January 6th. I believe you were here like January 14th, 2021, sometime around then. And you said, you basically gave a message to the Republican Party. You said, simply say the election was not stolen. Joe Biden won the election. Now, all this time later, do you think that Republicans have heeded your calls? Most have not. A few have.

So Senator Mike Rounds, for example, in fact, basically said that. But there's not a lot of folks that have done what he did. It is feeding this big lie that is increasing the chances of political violence. And you have a number of folks in the Republican base who continue to believe this election was stolen, even though even now they still can't identify who purportedly stole the election, nor how it was done. And that's because the election wasn't stolen. Donald Trump got crushed in the popular vote. And he won multiple, I'm sorry, he lost multiple states to Joe Biden. And what we do see,

unfortunately, is this continued radicalization of the Republican base. And it's also very harmful to our democracy if you have a segment of the population that doesn't trust electoral results. That's why Congress, in fact, is now working on, in fact, a bipartisan basis to reform the Electoral College Act so that we don't have state legislatures just overturn the vote for president. I'm not sure if you caught this morning Arnold Schwarzenegger's message that he delivered. I thought it was incredibly powerful. He gave a message to the Russian people, addressed them, really made it very personal about his experience in Russia. I just wanted to get your thoughts on what Schwarzenegger had to say. I had the opportunity to work with

Governor Schwarzenegger when I was in California state legislature. I commend Governor Schwarzenegger when I was in California State Legislature. I commend Governor Schwarzenegger for his message in that video. I agree with you. It is compelling. It is powerful. The hope is that we can have people in Russia see it. And we don't know exactly how strong Putin's disinformation is in Russia right now. We do know that some people are getting information, but for the vast majority of the public, it's not clear they're getting any information other than what's coming from state propaganda sources. Do you see parallels between that? I can't help but see parallels between the Russians watching Russian state TV and the people here in America who are only watching things like Fox News and OAN. And, you know, when you look at the polls, you know, you see 70, 80 percent of people support Putin.

And they think that they're defeating the Nazis in Ukraine because they're brainwashed to think like that. And it reminded me immediately of the polls that we see of the Republican Party here. And I'm like, oh, my God, these are the same thing. I was wondering if you have the same perspective or if I'm just going out of there. you could go from Fox to, you know, MSNBC or Fox. And that makes a huge difference that we do have freedom of the press United States. And we do have the ability to give people choices if they want to look at alternative views. That's something Russians do not have. Absolutely. Yesterday, President Biden, in an impromptu moment, he referred to Putin as a war criminal. And Jen Psaki kind of walked it back a little bit, saying that he was just speaking from his heart.

Would you unequivocally say that Putin is a war criminal in your perspective? He absolutely is a war criminal. I don't see how anyone can see these attacks by the Russians on civilians and not say he's a war criminal. So let's be clear here. Russia bombed a building that was housing children and on the outside of the building was written in Russian that it's children. They also bombed a children and women's maternities hospital. They also struck a public pool that was sheltering women and children. They also admitted to using thermal barrack bombs, which are these devastating bombs that basically explode people's lungs,

and they're shelling apartment buildings. So I have no idea why anyone right now would be saying that Putin isn't a war criminal. The evidence is so clear. And Congressman Liu, going back to an earlier theme that we were discussing, do you even recognize the Republican Party anymore? Like one of the things we say here at Midas Touch is, you know, we shouldn't even be calling them conservative because they don't even want to conserve democracy. What happened? I don't recognize a Republican base. Now, there are, for example, never Trumpers who are Republican. Those folks I recognize. You do see some moderate Republicans. I mean, Liz Cheney, for example, is still a Republican. Yeah. But I completely understand what you're saying. Same with Adam Kin cannot understand where Marjorie Taylor Greene is coming from, for example. It's completely alien to me. Terrifying. Absolutely. And I'm really curious to pick your brain on this one specifically. What are the issues that you think Americans should be focused on that aren't getting enough attention? So again, the major issues are the kitchen table issues, such as jobs and the economy,

and also addressing inflation. In terms of what I think we really need to do to not have the world go into major catastrophe would be climate change. We absolutely have to address that issue. And also our dependence on fossil fuels is what gives countries like Russia their power. If Europe wasn't so dependent on fossil fuels from Russia, Europe would be even more engaged in cracking down on Russia. Now, European countries have actually done quite a good job right now in what they've done so far, but they'd be even freer to really sanction Russia if they weren't so dependent on fossil fuels coming from Russia. And then lastly, how do you think the January 6th committee is doing

overall? Do you think we're progressing well over there? I do. I talked to a number of the January 6th committee members. They're doing a fantastic job. And they have gotten just a ton of documents, interviewed hundreds of witnesses. When I was a House impeachment manager, and I always have to clarify, I was for the second impeachment trial because the former president was just that bad that he needed to. We knew that January 6th was more than just a one-day thing. There was a lot of buildup to it. You had the president repeatedly talking about the big lie, but you had also different folks who were putting in place essentially the mechanisms to try to overturn the election.

We also know that there was a lot of things done after January 6th to, again, try to throw the election into doubt. We could never get all that information, one, because of time. We were concerned with how much time we had in order to do the trial. So very pleased the January 6th committee is delving into those issues very deeply and also figuring out exactly what the president of the United States was doing during those critical three to four hours when he was watching an attack on the Capitol and nothing was coming from the White House and nothing was happening. And my view is that he was actually cheering on the protesters and taking actions to want to make them succeed. Now, I have a habit, bad habit of saying last

question, then actually following up with yet another question. So apologies on this one, but I really need to hear your thoughts here as well, because I'm just so curious. From what you've seen, do you think there's enough evidence for the DOJ or the state attorney general to criminally indict Trump? So let me sort of give you my view. There are a whole range of things that are very bad things. And the foreign president did a lot of very bad things. That's different from a very bad thing being illegal. It might be illegal. It might not be illegal. So there's a difference there. And then there's another difference between a very bad thing, which is also legal, and you can prove it in court, right?

So there are multiple steps before you would, in fact, indict someone. Because not only does that be a very bad thing, it has to be a very bad thing that violates the law and that you believe a jury would convict on. I can't tell what all their evidence is. I don't have access to that. The Department of Justice would really be the ones that would. And so I trust them to go through their process to see if they can go from a very bad thing to proving it in court. And we'll see what they do. Congressman Ted Lieu, you're already asking the hard-hitting questions today, huh?

You know, I was coming forward today. I was so excited to have Congressman Liu on the podcast. I really prepared. Congressman Liu, we so appreciate you coming on the Midas Touch podcast and for all your work fighting for democracy. Thank you. Appreciate it. Great interview with Congressman Ted Liu. When you have Congressman Ted Lieu, you have the foremost expert in Congress on just spitting truth bombs. Jordy's raising his hand. I think, does that mean you want to speak, Jordy? Yeah.

I'm trying this new thing where if I raise my hand, maybe I could get a word in. You're pointing at me, talking to me? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I told you guys I was going to bring it, that interview. I really prepared. I was really excited to interview the Congressman. He really prepared. It was the first time Jordy's prepared for me.

It was the glasses. How many was it? Three questions? Was it four questions? I don't know. I lost track. I was really excited to interview the congressman. He really prepared. It was the first time Jordy's prepared for me. It was the glasses. How many was it? Three questions? Was it four questions? I don't know. I lost track. I lost track. That is a hat trick right there. More news to report. Some brief news on the ongoing courageous efforts by Ukraine and their winning efforts right now to repel the unlawful Russian invasion. Demoralized Russian soldiers now are parking their vehicles and just kind of walking off into the woods in significant numbers. And this was tweeted by the open source intelligence monitor, OSINT, OSINT defender, and the Ukraine information army show destroyed equipment they say belongs to the Russian army.

We also have this coming from American intelligence that Russia's military has lost over 7000 soldiers. I mean, just think about that number. And war is horrific. I mean, we know that. But, you know, these, these are, well, we'll put it in perspective. That number is greater than the amount of American troops who were killed in over 20 years in Iraq and Afghanistan combined in what matter of a month, 20 days, 20 days. And, you know, these are young soldiers, you know, a lot of them were just

were completely lied to and who didn't even know why they were there, you know, who lost their lives invading a sovereign nation like Ukraine. And the blood is on Putin's hands. The blood is on Lavrov's hands. Frankly, the blood is on the hands of American propagandists who try to support them. We should also not just talk about the Russian military. I mean, horrific, horrific human rights violations. And Congressman Lew talked about it in the interview in Mary Pole, bombing of locations known to be inhabited by women and children and as I mentioned at the outset, the Russian invaders on all fronts doing a great job. The Russians thought within three hours they were going to take Kiev. Three hours, Kiev. In the first 10 to 15 days, Russians, the Russian plan was they were going to be controlling the whole government.

Not even close. And so that's just why, you know, and it's the bravery controlling the whole government. Not even close. And so that's just why. And it's the bravery of the Ukrainians, the spirit, the soldiers, the citizens, everybody there. That's just why I was so amped up and so passionate at the beginning of the show, because we're so blessed to have these platforms. Absolutely. Right? We're so blessed to have these platforms. Absolutely. Right. I mean, here in the United States, like where I could be in my living room and converted

into a studio, Brett could be in the, like star Wars, like the deaths, the death star, wherever Brett shoots from, you know, Jordy is on Mars, you know, we could all be in our different locations and, but, but in all seriousness from the comfort of our homes. Yeah. And it's very easy. If you want to play to people's fears, to pay, to play to people's lowest base denominators, to be unsophisticated, to fight for people who already have power and privilege. That shit's easy. And so it's using platforms and building platforms to help the people who are truly the courageous people. That's not us. I mean, I like to think that I work my ass off, but being

in this living room, that's nothing compared to what people are out there, community groups go through every day in the United States fighting for their rights. What Ukrainians are going through right now, not just Ukrainians, what democracy people are fighting for in Myanmar. I've been speaking with some groups who fled Myanmar where a military dictatorship took over. And these are brave people who are losing their lives every day there. We shouldn't also not focus on areas like that and what's going on in Yemen and the Russians killing Syrians. There are so many courageous people each and every day who risk their lives. And I'm just honored to have a small part of trying to use the platform that we have to

fight for them. And Brett, you want to talk a little bit about some domestic news, but before doing that, let me tell you about our partner, Athletic Greens. Everybody knows that I love Athletic Greens. I'm going to have you do something right now, Brett. All right. Put the photo. Was it Jordy who sent me the photo? Jordy sent it. Jordy sent me a photo after the last one. Jordy was like, you actually really do lose a lot of weight. Well, I mentioned on the last show, whenever I open up YouTube, it brings me back to before we had Athletic Greens, even as a sponsor, before you even started taking it. This one episode. It's supposed to work like that.

Yeah. YouTube is definitely not supposed to work like that. And it always takes me to this one rant that you do. I'm like, whew, this is a different human being. Show the photo. And for people watching, I was overweight and I lost a lot of weight as a result of using athletic greens and not just me, but all the Midas mighty. Like I would say, I get dozens of DMS every day when we talk about athletic greens and I've seen hundreds of posts

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Love it, Brett. If you read this news about Kristen Cinema. The Axios story. Yeah, yeah. We got to talk about the Axios story on Kristen Sinema. And it's in connection with a book, right, Brett, that is coming out? Yeah. So it's like the first book that's coming out about the Biden administration. We all remember all these books that have come out throughout the Trump administration and stuff. This is the first book that is coming out detailing some of the things that have happened inside the Biden administration in the first year. A few things came out of the story that Axios reported. And if you had mixed feelings on

Kyrsten Sinema, I don't think you'll have after this. And if you did not like Kyrsten Sinema before this, this is not going to make you like her anymore, I assure you. I guess here's, so this is where I kind of get torn, honestly, when we do the Kristen Sinema and Joe Manchin coverage, because since it is a 50-50 split right now, the importance of the 50-50 split with the vice president being the tiebreaker, the amount of positive things we've been able to accomplish though with judges and appointing judges on the bench is like one of the most important things. And all of this would have been blocked if we didn't have cinema and mansion, unfortunately, I hate to break it to you,

but that's just the reality. And I encourage people to, so, okay. So, you know, we, we hit on political a lot for their kind of more gossipy rag part, like the Politico playbook and stuff, but Politico did actually an excellent article and it's called Schumer's Senate Shocker, Bills Are Passing, Seriously. And it's about the fact that the Democratic Senate has actually passed more bills than Senates have in recent history, including an anti-lynching bill that passed recently, including all this aid to Ukraine. Schumer is quietly doing the work behind the scenes to pass all these bills, but they're not being publicized good enough. I know people have mixed feelings on Schumer. I think Schumer's biggest weakness is his ability to message. And so we need other people

to message on his behalf. I even see when when he's asked by the media to like comment on stories, he speaks with these like very like flowery phrases and words that like take like six sentences to get a point when you could just say like Republicans are against your healthcare. He's too smart. I mean, the reality is he's too smart and his messaging is probably great and A plus if you were kind of giving like a lecture in like an advanced philosophy course. But sometimes you just kind of have to break down his accomplishments of all of the jobs that have been created with the legislation that Democrats have passed. Let me give you an example of a Schumer. This is like a classic Schumer response. I just dug it up. This is Chuck Schumer talking about Ron Johnson and Rick Scott. And he goes, perhaps the Senator from Wisconsin should join the Senator from Florida in creating a new hurting working families caucus so he could more easily track

their truly repressive vision for the American people. I get what he's saying. Good. But can't you just say Republicans are against working families?, but can't you just say like Republicans are against working families? If you can't put it on a bumper sticker, you lose half your audience. Yeah. Republicans want to hurt Americans done. Like, like it just doesn't need that extra elaboration, but you have to give Schumer credit that he's able to pass these bills. And I know we got here, we took a little detour that we're going to talk about the cinema, cinema stuff, and we'll, we'll get there in a sec, But I just you have to acknowledge and I highly recommend that you read this Politico piece about Schumer's accomplishments because the Senate is getting stuff done, getting important stuff done.

Yeah. I mean, look, the bipartisan infrastructure bill, though, gigantic, right? The 14 billion dollars for Ukraine, gigantic. The reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, right? Gigantic. The anti-lynching bill, gigantic. And he's hoping, this is what the political article says, to get a few more bipartisan wins under his belt, such as expanding semiconductor manufacturing as part of a China competitiveness measure, as well as limiting the cost of insulin to $35. You know, like these are, these are important pieces of legislation that, um, that he's passing, you know, on the cinema side, it was, it was funny. I think Biden compared her to like a TikToker. He's like, I just don't understand even like where she's coming from. Like I'm really lost in what, what's her point

because this is where I'm confused about her more than Manchin because she purported to be identifying with ideas that would normally be associated with progressive ideas. But when you read the story about what's coming out in the book about her, she seemed to be very supportive of Andy Biggs. She said he she was, like she said, he's misunderstood. Like he's one of the most like right wing radical extremists that there are. She seemed to kind of go down this conspiracy rabbit hole a little bit over the past few years. And you've seen that transformation in a lot of kind of not a lot, but in some of the friends that I have, maybe she's just kind of gone down that kind of rabbit hole that a lot of people have been sucked down. Unfortunately, you know, during that COVID period, I don't know, I'm not trying to make excuses for

her, but it's just been one of the most disappointing things because there really was so much momentum around her and so much promise and what she could deliver. And so like when someone who you, and we know people, we know people who work their asses off writing postcards, doing phone calls for her to get her elected. So it's so sad and disheartening. Like what do you say to someone you respect and admire kind of lets you down most? It's kind of like that just that hurts the heart even a little more. And let me read some of these bits from the book. So the book says that Biden aides complain that Sinema sounded more like a Republican than a Democrat. And at a private fundraiser in D.C. with a Republican heavy group of lobbyists, which has this has not been reported before, she portrayed herself as anti-tax and anti-government. She mocked Biden while speaking

warmly about House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy and even defended far right representative Andy Biggs, who denied the election results and claimed Antifa had infiltrated the Capitol riot. Sinema said, I love Andy Biggs. I know some people think he's crazy, but that's just because they don't know him. Andy Biggs is literally one of the craziest of the crazy Congress people, one of the biggest insurrectionists in our government. And here she is praising him and mocking Biden. Separately, Sinema told colleagues five or six other Senate Dem moderates were, quote, hiding behind my skirt as she pushed back on the left, I guess trying to say that there were other people who maybe supported her in the party that were hiding and taking cover behind her. The book goes on to say in the spring of 2021,

Sinema became the first ever lawmaker to argue with White House aides when they asked her to wear a face mask in the company of the president, repeatedly asking why that was necessary when she had been vaccinated. And Sinema discouraged Biden from coming to Arizona after the president signed the COVID rescue plan in 2021. So that just shows you really from day one, because Biden signed with the COVID rescue plan in March, I think. It was very early on in his presidency. And so from day one because Biden signed with the COVID rescue plan in March. I think it was very early on in his presidency. And so from like day one of the presidency, Sinema was anti-Biden and anti-Democrats and made it her mission to oppose Democrats and support lunatics like Andy Biggs.

I mean, my trust issues are acting up right now. My trust issues. Look, she played us. She played everyone that's actually got elected. That's my personal opinion on it. Not too long ago, we had a guest on the show. I won't say the guest name. And I asked them because I think they had a close working relationship. Hey, is Kirsten Sinema a Republican, like a like a DL Republican? I a little bit because of this, this 50, 50 Senate, which is so annoying. And like, you know, but it's like, we got to call out bullshit on both sides. I mean, you know, that's why when we call that Marjorie Taylor green yesterday, we also called out Joe mansion for being on his iPad during the Zelensky speech. And it's like, Oh, well, if you know, I keep going back to Dale. I mean, it's just infuriating. It's like, if's like if we said like, do it, let me just go. It's like if we said during the speech,

you know, during the speech with Zelensky, Joe Manchin was seen, you know, scrolling on his iPad and he was like, well, from seconds 44 to 87, during that time, he was not scrolling on his iPad and this. So fact check false

because he was not doing it during the whole speech. He was just doing it in the part that you showed. Fact check false. This is a lot. Fact check false. It was a Microsoft Surface. It's like, dude, what are you doing, Daniel? What are you doing? But here's the thing. And this is why, though, to me, it's a learning tool. It's not so much him, but it's a reflection of, I think, broader issues of what's wrong with the media and why we need an unapologetically pro-democracy media. Because we don't have two sides here of both Democrats and Republicans loving democracy and fighting for democracy.

We have a political party that supports democracy or people who support democracy. And we have people who are giving aid and comfort to Putin, like Marjorie Taylor Greene is. And we have to call it out and we have to be nuanced about it. And so one of the things I pride ourselves on in the work we do at Midas Touch, and I know this is what you like about listening to these podcasts and watching it, is that we spend hours and hours and hours painstakingly researching things, giving nuance, not just kind of doing a post that's an inflammatory post and that's it. And so when people with major platforms try to pigeonhole you into certain labels and then try to kind of call you out when the efforts, when one, they're wrong, but two, their efforts could be spent and their talents could be spent fact-checking, working hard, researching, reporting on issues that truly matter and that truly

are life and death. That is ultimately where I net out on all of these issues, which is why we always tell you on this podcast, it's not just informational. It's not just educational. It's also motivational. And we're a team, might as might. We're a team. We're all in this together. I fight for my team. I fight every day for my team and we got to work. This isn't just listen to a podcast and then we go on about our day, right? We listen to this podcast and then we take action. And so we tell each and every one of you to try to do something, even if it's a little something each and every day to make this country safer, to make this country a pro-democracy country, to elect representatives to Congress, to state legislators,

to school boards, Congress, wherever, that are pro-democracy, and to fight, to fight in your own way each and every day. Jordy's pointing to the bumper sticker, vote blue over Q. Jordy just does things and expects me to understand like what his messaging is. But I want to thank each and every one of you. This is how you could help Midas Touch though too in a small, in a very, very small way. Subscribe to the Midas Touch podcast channel. Subscribe to the Midas Touch YouTube channel. The YouTube channels have undergone some rapid growth over the past few weeks, and we appreciate everybody who watches these on the YouTube. And do me a favor, leave a five-star review, please a five-star review and write about what you like about these podcasts that helps with the algorithms. It helps with the rankings. And so all

you got to do is wherever you get your podcast, go to the Midas touch page. And if it allows you to do a review, write the review, give it a five-star review. Thank you all in the bottom of my heart for listening, supporting, fighting with us here at Midas Touch. Brett, any final words before we toss it to Jordi? Yes. I want to say, just be on the lookout. We got some exciting new Midas Touch videos on the way. We got some exciting new billboard campaigns on the way and just a lot coming down the pipeline. We've been working really, really hard. Midterms are fast approaching and we are working our ass up and I'm excited to start sharing some of the new things with you

guys. So thank you very much. And Jordy, I'll let you take us away. Next week is our two year anniversary. Shout out to the Midas Mighty.