The MeidasTouch Podcast - GOP covers for Trump STEALING Nuclear Docs, Bannon SURRENDERS, GOP freak out over Newsom + MORE (Charlie Crist)

Episode Date: September 9, 2022

On today’s MeidasTouch Podcast, we welcome back Democratic candidate for governor of Florida, Charlie Crist! Crist chats with us about his platform for the Sunshine State, how he plans to confront Ron DeSantis’s brand of fascism head-on, his plan to protect reproductive freedom in the state, and so much more.  Ben and Brett also discuss the latest criminality pervading the Republican Party. The brothers discuss how the GOP is continuing to cover for Donald Trump’s crimes, even if it means putting the security of the entire world at risk, the surrender of Steve Bannon to the Manhattan DA, the Republican Party’s doubling down on their anti-freedom, authoritarian policies and much more. Ben and Brett also discuss how the GOP is seemingly allergic to competence, and dissect the right wing freakout over California Gov. Gavin Newsom taking proactive measures to avoid problems in the state. The brothers are also excited to announce a new way for the Meidas Mighty to join this movement on PATREON! Sign up today for access to exclusive posts, bonus podcasts, and much more and keep our unapologetically pro-democracy movement growing! https://patreon.com/meidastouch New episodes of The MeidasTouch Podcast release every Tuesday & Friday at 5am ET/2am PT. The rest of the week, enjoy our bite-sized episodes we call ‘The Mighty.’ If you enjoyed today’s episode please be sure to rate, review and subscribe! As always, thank YOU for listening. Shop Meidas Merch at: https://store.meidastouch.com Remember to subscribe to ALL the Meidas Media Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://pod.link/1510240831 Legal AF: https://pod.link/1580828595 The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://pod.link/1595408601 The Influence Continuum: https://pod.link/1603773245 Kremlin File: https://pod.link/1575837599 Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://pod.link/1530639447 The Weekend Show: https://pod.link/1612691018 The Tony Michaels Podcast: https://pod.link/1561049560 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Discover the magic of Bad MGM Casino, where the excitement is always on deck. Pull up a seat and check out a wide variety of table games with a live dealer. From roulette to blackjack, watch as a dealer hosts your table game and live chat with them throughout your experience to feel like you're actually at the casino. The excitement doesn't stop there. With over 3,000 games to choose from, including fan favorites like Cash Eruption, UFC Gold Blitz, and more. Make deposits instantly to jump in on the fun.

And make same-day withdrawals if you win. Download the BetMGM Ontario app today. You don't want to miss out. Visit BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. 19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please gamble responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge.

BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Offer valid on standard browsers, U.S. only. When I heard about Date My Age, I thought, really? But there I was in my empty, quiet house, my laptop on the kitchen counter, and I typed in my name. Looking for a man between the ages of 40 to 60? Sure, why not? Date My Age is different. With verified profiles, you can feel safe and secure to explore meaningful connections with interesting and mature singles. Date My Age made it really easy. I could join and view online profiles for free.

All of a sudden, my empty house wasn't so quiet anymore. I got so much attention, it just made me feel seen and alive. Date My Age helped me start a totally new chapter in my life. Find a friend, a lover, a partner at Date My Age. Get 60% off when you join at datemyage.com today. That's datemyage.com to connect with thousands of singles worldwide. datemyage.com Donald Trump steals nuclear secrets and Republicans don't care. The January 6th grand jury has issued a half a dozen subpoenas into Trump's Save America

PAC and the possible illegal conduct, probable illegal conduct. Can we just say it? It's all a thing is a big freaking scam. We'll discuss more about it here on the Midas Touch podcast. Steve Bannon is indicted on six felonies for the We Build a Wall scam. I'm seeing a theme of criminality right here. Oh my goodness. Not surprisingly, most Americans think MAGA

is a threat to democracy and to the rule of law. And in the face of all of that, Republicans are doubling down on their radical agenda. They're going on radical extremist propaganda networks and saying that if they are elected and put in power, we could expect total abortion bans, repealing Social Security, repealing Medicare, you know, the types of things that America is really looking to in leadership. I mean, these people are out of their mind, Brett. And then Governor Newsom actually showed how to handle a crisis with the record heat we had in California,

asked for immediate urgent action that was taken. It was taken. And our power grid survived, unlike Republican power grids where they just pretend the problems don't exist. And Republicans can't cope. Like when you try to confront the problem and try to solve the problem, Republicans really can't handle that. They freak out, Ben. They lose their minds. They lose their mind. This is the Midas Touch podcast. Ben Micellis joined by Brett Jordy is not with us today, but he'll be back on the next podcast. He's traveling. Brett, how are you doing?

Jordy is indeed traveling. I'm doing good. And Ben, I'm excited about our guest. Speaking of governors, we have the Democratic Florida gubernatorial candidate coming on the show. That's right. Charlie Crist coming on to chat with us about his election against Governor Ron DeSantis. And I'm really excited

about this race. I think people really thought that this was going to be an impossible race to win. And the tides have shifted along with the tides of the overall country with now Charlie Crist and Governor Ron DeSantis in a statistical dead heat in the polls. We could win Florida, you guys. We can win Florida. I'm so excited to get into it. I was going to say, I never thought it was an impossible election to win. The media just makes stupid narratives up that they have no clue what they're talking about. What are they based

on? They base it on that Ron DeSantis does stupid ads where he freaking cosplays as a fighter pilot. There was no statistical data that was genuinely reflective with good polling data that this was going to be some sort of blowout or that DeSantis was going to win. DeSantis is a fairly unpopular guy. He's done nothing for the state of Florida. He narrowly won

the previous race in 2018. And so it's not surprising that it's 0.4 percent. I mean, think about that. And it really is. You know, the thing is, it's not surprising that it's- 0.4%, 0.4%. I mean, think about that. And it really is, the thing is, it's either that they buy into these right-wing narratives or they are a part of, willingly a part of spreading these right-wing narratives. And it's like, the more I hear about the media and the more we start hearing about the behind the scenes

of these media companies, I think the clearer it starts to become. I mean, we spoke in depth about CNN and the changes to CNN last week or earlier this week. And now, Ben, did you see the story about Politico, the Politico CEO? Because I think this is really important also for our listeners to be aware of because this is some pretty screwed up stuff. Yeah. Tell me about it, Brett. Yeah. So Politico's parent company is this German company named Axel Springer. And the CEO apparently was revealed to have emailed his top executive shortly before the 2020 election to ask any of them if they would, quote, want to get together for an hour in the morning on November 3rd, 2020, and pray that Donald Trump will again become president of the United States of America. That's a real email that he sent. The CEO Politico was

asking his fellow executives to pray with him, pray that Donald Trump was reelected president. How could you possibly trust media when they are literally praying for Donald Trump to be president? And isn't that thing, too? So so then reporting came out right after that. He had said that, right, like shortly after. Yeah. And then he denied it. And then he had said that right like shortly after yeah and then he denied it and then he said no no no i never said it and then the emails came up and surfaced recently and then when confronted with like the actual emails after denying it he was like oh i was just joking that's just my sarcastic that's just my sarcastic humor i mean the ultimate the ultimate gaslighting 101 i mean mean, by the you know,

but here's the thing where because there's a lot of money in it and there's outside investors and, you know, they're beholden to billionaire interests who want to get oligarchical style benefits. You know, who do you think benefits from trickle down economics? Billionaires like that CEO and that parent company that that bought that bought it. They want all the tax cuts. They want all the benefits. And they're intimidated by the fact that someone like a Biden has middle up economics. God forbid you actually support the middle class. You invest in the middle class and not. And I do this. I do this kind of joke, but it's very serious where I talk about trickle down economics. And I think to myself, how do you have a situation where you have like MAGA extremists doing a rally, you know, to purportedly people who are not billionaires in the crowd? Let's just say that are not decamillionaires in the crowd. I'll leave it at that. I can take a safe bet that those are not.

I can take a safe bet that government programs like Social Security and Medicare are actually a lifeline to the people who root against those very things. But to root for trickle down economics. And what I always say is I was like, let's give the money to the billionaires and then let it trickle down, trickle down. And hopefully I get a little trickle from, you know, that that just falls, graces me with the little trickle of a billionaire.

And I go, oh, thank you, billionaire, for that trickle. Thanks for trickling on me. I got thanks for trickling on me. I was taking it in a weird direction. I was taking it in a weird direction. And you call it. I think that's my role here while you're doing the trickle down. But, but that's, but that's what you're rooting for versus, okay. That's what I always say. Like, so we could give you the money, sir, or, or ma'am or whoever, or we can give it to your boss. Let's

give, who would you rather give it to you and your family, your CEO? You know what? Give it to my CEO. He deserves it better than me. That's what you're arguing for. Give it to you and your family, your CEO? You know what? Give it to my CEO. He deserves it better than me. That's what you're arguing for. Give it to the CEO. He needs another, he needs another Mercedes or another Bentley. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's, it's insane that they just want to make these rich people richer. And it just shows you though, this, this rot in the media and not all media is bad.

Like I said, I really think that the media is incredibly important. I want a strong media, but that's why I get so honestly nervous about the state of things when I see things like the Politico story about a person, a CEO of a media company praying for Donald Trump. And it shows you that it is time for a new way of doing things. And that's why I'm excited today to make a huge announcement to our Midas Mighty supporters here, because we are building the most unapologetically pro-democracy movement out there. And all of you have joined us along the way. And we are tired of this both sides-ism. There are no both sides to fascism and democracy, and we will always stand on the side

of democracy. So today, we are proud to announce that Midas Touch Network is on Patreon, and you could support our unapologetically pro-democracy movement right now by going to patreon.com slash Midas Touch. And not only will you be supporting the fastest growing pro-democracy movement in the world, but depending on your tier that you select, you'll also get access to a private Discord chat where you could chat with fellow members of the Midas Mighty. You get bonus podcast episodes you won't hear anywhere else. We'll send you some exclusive postcards from the brothers. You'll get access to some exclusive merch and so much more. You'll even have the option if you want to become a producer of this podcast and see your name in the end credits, depending on which tier you choose. So you right

now have an opportunity to help build this pro-democracy movement with us. We've always said this is more than a network. This is a community. And this is a way for you to engage with us on a daily basis to really be fully involved in this movement. Go to patreon.com slash Midas Touch right now and help supercharge our pro-democracy movement. We cannot do it without you. Yeah. And don't worry for those who, you know, who don't do it. We still have the

podcast and the YouTube and nothing's going to change there. It's just another way you can support with some enhanced benefits. So go to Patreon dot com slash Midas touch and check it out. And Brett, I like you doing that announcement right at the top, right at the top. I'm excited about it because I'm honestly, I'm so stressed about I'm so just bothered by the corporate media right now. And I know that we have to do something about it. So, you know, what do they say? You know, if you build it, they will come. We are building the most unapologetically pro-democracy network where we call a fascist a fascist and we don't both sides fascism. And that's our promise to you. Because, Brett, you have a situation where Donald Trump is stealing nuclear secrets and not denying it like we haven't seen in any of Donald Trump's court filings the following. The allegations

against me are false. At no point in time did I ever steal top secret sensitive departmented information. Any accusation or allegation that I have nuclear information is utterly false. And what the government actually did was simply take my personal and private belongings. And perhaps was there a document belonging to a letter that I got in the office? Sure. But it was a gift. There's none of that. Like that's what you would normally do in a situation like this. You would prepare a declaration or an affidavit. You would submit that to the court instead of writing a judge that you appointed a love letter just saying nuclear secrets, top secret, sensitive, compartmented information.

That's mine. You know, and there's a lot of conversation, too, about. So he goes, well, even though even though the crimes, Espionage Act, obstruction, the concealment, immunization charges, all very, very, very serious felonies that carry would be would be life in prison for Donald Trump when when you add it all up. They don't require the classification status. Does it matter if you steal those government records and you conceal and mutilate and obstruct?

You're guilty regardless of classification or non-classification. But doesn't it almost make it worse if he haphazardly just declassified nuclear secrets that would destroy the world? I mean, like his legal team goes on TV and acts like that's a defense, like, oh, I declassified it. Well, if you declassified nuclear secrets and top sensitive compartmented information and wave the magic wand and don't know what's in the records and didn't tell our agencies in many ways, that's that's beyond reckless. And that's like if you take the most generous interpretation, which he would still be criminally convicted for life. Republicans are OK that any president should just declassify all that information. I mean, that right there is one of the absurd things. And then his other defense, of course,

is, oh, the FBI took messy photos. They made me look messy. And I never took the photos like, you know, I never had the folders out there. They took the folders and made me look messy. And it's like we've talked about this before. No one thinks that the photographs were found at that location except you and the people who are spreading those lies. It's the dumbest thing in the world. We know that there's an evidence marker there. The FBI would have taken photos first where they found it. And then for scale, they put the evidence marker to show where it is the same way they do that for drug busts or other busts where there's contraband. These are fruits of a crime. They take the photos. And by the way, when they took those photos, they had no clue you were going to file a motion for judicial oversight and related relief, which is a made up motion.

Nor do they know you are going to have a judge that you appointed who is going to grant relief that's never even been contemplated before ever. And what you're going to have some special master make determinations over the executive branch's power. It's the dumbest thing in the world. But the media is the media even covering this anymore? Have they moved on? Are they on to whether or not Biden's joke was a good joke or a bad joke yesterday about the photograph? Like, have they have they moved on? Like, this is not just the biggest story of the year. It's like the biggest story in American history. A president stole top secret compartmented information. Other information appears to be missing. And what's the media

focused on? Both sides in the issues. Yeah. And, you know, they and they accept like the Trump lines of defense and they amplify the Trump lines of defense rather than just saying these people are criminals and they're wrong and they clearly committed crimes and they got caught doing it. Like I got to say is like they got caught doing it. All these excuses are ridiculous. They got caught red handed. This is clearly criminal violation, multiple criminal violations. And there's no excuse. There is no other side to this. There's no excuse. When Donald Trump's lawyers come out and they say, oh, it's the leaks that are the problem. The same way, by the way, that Republicans said it was the leaks that were the problem when the Roe v. Wade decision came out. You know, it's always the distraction. It was the leaks. It was the leaks. It's not the actual information about the fact that Donald Trump stole nuclear secrets of foreign countries and hid them in his country club in Florida. I mean, it's the craziest thing on the planet. And the most dispiriting thing, but unsurprising, is the fact that it's not only Donald Trump's corrupt and horrible attorneys who are spreading this disinformation, but it's people like Marco Rubio, people like actual Republican senators who sit on the Senate Intelligence Committee, people responsible for our most sensitive intelligence secrets, spreading this lie, disparaging the FBI. You have Marsha Blackburn

going out there saying that the FBI is the one who needs to be investigated. It's the most corrupt FBI on the planet. And you just got to sit there and you got to say, no, you are defending a criminal. There is no excuse for this conduct whatsoever. I mean, these people will stop at nothing to defend this man, even if it means nuclear annihilation on a global scale. They will stop at absolutely nothing to defend this man. And it is disgraceful. You can't get a more clear cut example where you go. There's really no bottom to these radical Republicans when we're talking about the stealing of top sensitive compartmented information and nuclear secrets of foreign nations that are brought to his resort that he lies about and obstructs.

And then Republicans defend that like there is they've given up on the rule of law. They've given up on democracy. They simply don't care anymore. And they're willing to pledge allegiance not to the United States of America. They're willing to pledge allegiance to a dictator. They've given up on democracy. Let's face it. That's why Biden called him out as fascist. They're willing to overthrow by violent means democratic systems, small d democratic systems, because they believe that the way for them to maintain oligarchical style power is via a fascist ruler. And so that's what it is. That's what that's who they want to support. And Americans 60 percent of respondents, including one fourth of

Republicans, said that MAGA is threatening Americans democratic foundations. So, you know, that's that's strong. But we did you know, not that we conducted a scientific poll, but I mean, the amount of comments by the thousands on our YouTube and Twitter of people who were former Republicans now when you look because when you look at a lot of the data out there, what it reflects is that Democrats, Republicans and now independents, lots of people leaving Republicans becoming independents, that there's basically all all equal at this point, and a lot of the old polling mechanisms use traditional prior turnout, pre Dobbs, pre Roe v. Wade being overturned turnout models. Number one, typical Democratic and Republican paradigms, and they don't reflect that there's really a third party right now, which is pro-democracy and supports Democrats. And it's an overwhelming group of people who go, you stole our top secret information and y'all

are defending that. I mean, look at this news today, too, like like Steve Bannon is, you know, you know, people like Steve Bannon are the heads of this ultra MAGA party. I mean, someone who. Demanded 20, what is it? They raised 25 or 30 million dollars for we build the wall efforts where they wanted to privately fund the the the wall that Trump never was able to even build because the mere Mexico is supposed to pay for that wall. That's what I remember. Mexico is supposed to pay for that wall. That's what I remember. Mexico is supposed to pay for it. Yeah. Trump took money out of our defense budget, like out of like actually like helping America's

interests at home and abroad to build a wall that was never completed. And even if it was completed, it's you could dig under walls. You could climb walls. You can go through walls. It totally missed these giant gaps in them as well. It totally like misunderstands just that the way the world is and like, what are we like medieval times? Like when you want to defend the nation from foreign invaders, you have to build you build a wall like that. That's going to stop a jet from coming in or like it's such a strange view and it's purely based on xenophobic view of how to handle actual policy. But yeah the money. Bannon was previously criminally

prosecuted from the feds for this out of the Southern District of New York. He would likely have been found guilty there. Trump gave him a pardon on January 19th, 2021, because that's what you do. Trump gave all his criminal inner circle pardons, and one of them he gave was Steve Bannon. Steve Bannon was also recently convicted of contempt of Congress, found guilty about a month ago or a month and a half ago for not responding to the January 6th sub the Wall scam because Trump's pardon does not impact state law claims, only federal claims. Only a state governor can pardon state law claims. But then Bannon turned himself in. He surrendered earlier today. And you just look at these people like they're all criminals, every one of them. Like they're just a group. It's just a group of criminal and con artists. And I want to emphasize also how intertwined Donald Trump and the Trump family was

in this We Build the Wall scheme. I mean, you literally had Don Jr. showing up at these We Build the Wall events. Don Jr. is featured on the We Build the Wall website as one of the endorsers of We Build the Wall. And it was obviously all just a corrupt grift to line the pockets of Steve Bannon and his cronies. Wouldn't be surprised if some of that money went to Don Jr. and other members of the Trump family. And so now Bannon is charged with two counts of money laundering, three counts of conspiracy, and one count of scheming to defraud. And let's be real about who he was defrauding here. He was defrauding MAGA supporters, and they love him for it. As we were saying earlier, like they, the more that they get stolen from the more that billionaires and

millionaires try to rip them off, the more they love it. Like they just love it. They love throwing their money at this people. And it is absolutely, absolutely insane. And it's no wonder why all these normal Republicans feel like the MAGA movement has completely left them. I would love to even share some of the comments that we got, Ben, when we asked MA in, and it gave me a lot of hope then about the future of our country that we could come together and build and continue to build this pro-democracy coalition. So a commenter by the name of David Wallace told us, he said this, lifelong registered Republican Marine Corps veteran and proud American Bar Association member in good standing. You are right. My former party has failed America and brought shame to the Reagan Bush legacy. I'll be changing my party affiliation soon. I will never vote Republican

again after they showed zero courage to stand up to Trump after January 6th. Kathleen Phelps said, I was a registered Republican for 50 years, live in Mississippi to attend a Southern Baptist church. I'm sorry to say I voted for Trump in 2016, but never again. I've changed my voter registration to Democrat and will never be pressured into voting for what in my heart I know is wrong. And the stories just go on and on and on like that. And I think it's on us to be accepting of this people who have finally escaped this movement, who realized that MAGA extremism is not the way forward. Because at this perilous time in our history, it is extremely important that we come together, continue to

build these pro-democracy coalitions, because our country is on the line. I look forward to a future, Ben, when we get to start talking to people about tax policy again, and why I think our way of doing taxes, taxing billionaires, is better than giving billionaires tax breaks and saddling the working class. I look forward to those days where we get to have honest discussions about health care and education. But the fact is, we are so far removed from that because we have a literal fascist movement who has infiltrated the Republican Party and the Republican Party has been willingly infiltrated by this party.

The people who opposed it, the Lindsey Grahams, the Marco Rubio, they have all went along with it because they are cowards and craven political opportunists. But the people are wising up, and the people are ready to vote blue this November because they want nothing to do with this MAGA extremism. Yeah, and it's reflecting again in other polls. I spoke earlier about the poll about close to 60 percent of the population believes that MAGA is a threat to democracy. New NPR, PBS NewsHour Marist poll has Democrats plus four in the battle for Congress, 48 percent to 44 percent with the remaining unsure and undecided. In Michigan, a state where abortion voting rights have been at the forefront,

Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer is leading her MAGA opponent, Tudor Dixon, 48% to 35% in the recent Detroit News poll. And meanwhile, in Michigan, the Court of Claims just ruled that the state's 1931 abortion ban that's still on the books is unconstitutional and permitting

the right to choose in Michigan is just a footnote to the Michigan poll there. But, you know, especially when I see, though, that the remaining are unsure and undecided, you know, I feel comfortable and confident that those will also lean towards democracy, you know, setting aside. I mean, Democrats are the only major party that supports democracy. So I believe that the undecideds will will tip there. And Brett, this was a lot of the same momentum, frankly, that we saw with the data that we've looked at leading up to the Asaf and Warnock races in Georgia. This is the same data that we saw leading to the Biden Trump in 2020, where we started

getting inundated with these comments of people saying, yeah, I look, I was a Republican. Now I'm an independent voting Democrat or I was a Republican. Now I'm a Democrat. And, you know, and it's OK to be whatever it was for you, whether it was, you know, as late as January 6th, whether it was the nuclear secrets part about it. If you're watching this and you leave that cult of MAGA and you're ready to leave that cult, we're here to tell you that there's a place for you still. I can't support anybody who's like, hey, we still want violent overthrows of our election.

But if you recognize that, hey, I got caught up in some crazy shit and this MAGA stuff was horrible and I realize it's a scam, I'm telling you, there's a big tent here of pro-democracy people who care about issues that actually matter to you. We want to fight for your social security. We want to fight for you to keep your Medicare, to lower prescription drug prices, to make education accessible and affordable to you, to make sure that you earn a living wage and you're paid fairly at the bare minimum, that you have all the rights that you deserve as a human being, as a worker in all areas and aspects of your life. We want to make sure you have control over your body,

that you can love who you want to love, that that's not the place of the government. And if you think anything that I just said there was radical or extreme, you don't. That's one of the other big lies that's been perpetrated by the right wing to confuse and scare and deflect and misdirect by just labeling all those positions as those.

There's nothing that I said there that was radical or extreme. And I wasn't a political person until all those issues, which I thought were very nonpolitical. People are like, oh, you must be a radical person for believing those things. When the people on the right said that, I go, wait a minute. No, these are very foundational beliefs. Wait a minute. You're telling me that there's political parties that are just against all of those things and want to take away the rights of people. I go, okay, I'm a Democrat. I'm clearly a Democrat and I'm going to fight my ass off for this because y'all are threatening the lives of people who I love and my life, my family's life, my community's life, the community of people who we work with lives. I can't let that happen

at all. And just look at this, you know, if you want more evidence, I mean, look at, you know, what's going on with Trump's pack is Save America is what's it called, right? The Save America, Save America pack. We heard about this during the January 6th committee, of course, that this group raised over two hundred and fifty million dollars, which they claim was actually going to support litigation efforts and to support a legal defense fund that never existed. And basically it just went into Trump's pocket, it seems right. I mean, we spoke about Steve Bannon. This is the same thing, right? I mean, this is the same exact thing. They said they were taking this money for a purpose

and the purpose was a deceptive purpose in general. And they used it to spread lies. We are going to overturn the results of the 2020 election, but we need your money to do it. Donald Trump, Mr. Billionaire, we need your money to do it. And not a single penny of that money actually went towards, quote unquote, stopping this deal. But where did it go? It went to Donald Trump's pockets to Donald Trump's pockets, Donald Trump's properties. And it went also to these attorneys who were representing several January six witnesses to try to influence their testimony, including none other than Cassidy Hutchinson. Cassidy Hutchinson's first attorney was somebody who Trump was paying for

until Cassidy Hutchinson kind of realized what was going on and dropped that attorney in favor of her new attorney and then became one of the star witnesses of the January 6th hearings who really changed the tide of those hearings entirely. At first, Donald Trump was using this PAC to obstruct justice. And so I think we're going to see a lot about the obstruction of justice here with the Save America PAC, all these deceptive messages, all this kind of threatening their political opponents, this ability to pay for attorneys to try to hide testimony from the committee, from the Department of Justice. And now the grand jury that is investigating January 6th has reportedly expanded its probe to seek information specifically about Trump's PAC.

Here they are investigating Donald Trump's PAC. I mean, Donald Trump is in a whole host of legal troubles. And at a certain point, all this is just going to come tumbling down on him. He's just so legally. So, I mean, it's so put it this way, so legally consistent with his unlawful behavior his entire life. There's literally nothing different than how he's run all of his other things, how he's bankrupted all of his things, how he's defrauded

everybody in his life. Yet he's managed to convince about 10 million Americans who represent the radical MAGA movement that he's the only one who has all of the answers and literally everybody, no matter who it is. He appoints the FBI director. Well, the FBI must be part of a deep state and against them. He appoints the attorney general. Oh, the FBI must be part of a deep state and against them. He appoints the attorney general. Oh, Bill Barr must be the rhino for saying that everything I've said is bullshit. Like even as you get to the people who he appointed who are by themselves fairly extreme people, even then Donald Trump goes, no, no, no. They're rhinos. They're fake. And actually, Bill Barr had a good point. And I know it's always wild when I find myself agreeing with Bill Barr.

Bill Barr just basically goes for Donald Trump. Anyone's a rhino who doesn't support Donald Trump's view that the election was stolen. If you don't support the big lie, you are a rhino. If you don't support any Donald Trump's lie, you're a rhino. And that's why people who are Republicans are going. I don't I'm not I'm not with this MAGA extremist thing anymore. But Brett, Republicans are doubling down on their radical agenda. They are not they're not saying, you know, they're not pivoting away. They're saying, no, you elect us. We're going more extreme. We're going more extreme. And that's where you have. I could go into this now. Should we bring in Charlie Crist first, though, because I feel like it's a good pivot to bring in Charlie Crist right now and have him discussed because he's running against the fascists. I mean, he's running against Ron DeSantis. Ron DeSantis doesn't even stand for

anything. I mean, Ron DeSantis is essentially, I guess if you elect me, I'll be mean to children and the media. That's what he's running on. I will bully kids and I will bully the media. And is that what people want? Is that really like, that's what you're running on. I will bully kids and I will bully the media. And is that what people want? Is that really like, that's what you're running on? That's what your campaign? I will make up words. I will say the word woke over and over again and say the word CRT. And I'll just say words, but how am I actually going to help you? I don't really have any policies to help you. Well, Charlie Crist does have policies to help you. And so I'm excited to bring in Charlie Chris. Before that, I do want to remind people to go check out, as Brett mentioned at the top of the show, the new Midas Touch Patreon website. That's patreon.com slash Midas

Touch. Also, you can check out store.midastouch.com. Both ways to support independent media, independent journalism. We're not funded by billionaires. We're not funded by outside investors. You're looking at it right here. You got Ben, Brett, and Jordy. We do this show. We bootstrap this operation with your support. So go check out Patreon, P-A-T-R-E-O-N.com slash Midas Touch, or go check out store.midastouch.com.

Two ways you can be supportive of the Midas Touch independent media movement. Now let's bring in our interview with Charlie Crist. And welcome back to the Midas Touch podcast. We are joined by none other than Charlie Crist, the Democratic candidate for governor of Florida. Charlie Crist served as the U.S. representative for Florida's 13th congressional district from 2017 through 2022, was previously governor from 2007 to 2011. Of course, he's running against the radical fascist Ron DeSantis. And I'm not afraid to use the F word, Charlie Crist, because you used it and he is a fascist. So we just got to call out a spade a spade, huh?

Welcome to the podcast. Hey, it's great to be with you guys. Thanks again for having me. I really appreciate it. Y'all doing all right? We're doing great. And what I really appreciated about your campaign is that you've just been kind of unfiltered in the well-deserved criticism of your opponent,

Ron DeSantis. And you said, look, what he's doing is fascism, period, full stop. Why did you say that? Because it's true. I mean, it's terrible. He's firing state attorneys in Florida. He's firing school board members in the Sunshine State, taking away a woman's right to choose and signing a bill that doesn't even have an exception for rape or incest. It is barbaric what's going on here. And we need more decency in Florida. And he's not delivering it. And we will. You know, and he seems afraid to even stand by his position. It's like I think this is why Biden called it semi-fascism in a way, because we're like, it's definitely fascist. But why do you say semi-fascism in a way, because we're like, it's definitely fascist.

But why do you say semi-fascist? Because they're cowards, like they're fascist to their base. But then when they're confronted with the media, they can't even articulate what their positions is. And DeSantis is just running away from all his positions when he speaks to the public, huh? Well, I think they know they're on the wrong side. He's on the wrong side of history. You know, when you try to take away a woman's right to choose and disrespect women in that way, this is 2022 and he acts like it's 1952 or 1932. I mean, you know, what's next? Take away the right to vote? I mean, it's just it's unconscionable what's going on here. And he's the guy, you know, that's the point of the spear on all this stuff.

And, you know, Floridians deserve better. That's why I'm running for governor, to give them a governor who has a decency about them, that wants to do what's right for all people, wants to support education, support our teachers, make sure that we have a state where our economy can grow and not be crippled, as he's done with Walt Disney World, with our cruise industry. I mean, he's the most anti-business Republican I've ever seen. I was going to say, I mean, if his whole position really seems to follow the authoritarian playbook also as it relates not just to marginalized groups and also in the business world as well, you know, and, you know, for someone who claims to be small government,

I can't imagine anyone less small government. He's literally used his government to pick and choose the oligarchs in Florida he likes and then shut down other businesses. There's no question about it. That's exactly what's happening. That's a great description. I mean, he is supporting the wealthy, the millionaires and the billionaires. That's who he hangs out with. That's all he cares about. And he doesn he is supporting the wealthy, the millionaires and the billionaires. That's who he hangs out with. That's all he cares about. And he doesn't care about the middle class in Florida. And they're being crushed by our economy right now. Our property insurance is through the roof. He called a special session on property insurance itself. It was special, all right,

for the property insurance company. I mean, didn't lower the rates one bit, not one iota, zilch. I did the same thing when I was governor, a special session on property insurance because it was going up. We lowered rates by 10%. That's what a Crist administration will do. A DeSantis administration will be a disaster. So walk us through, if you can,

the first 100 days in office. What do you plan to do to kind of right the ship that Governor DeSantis, you know, basically sunk in Florida? Well, I think the very first thing I do is sign an executive order that will protect a woman's right to choose. I mean, the fact that that's being taken away from them, that the Supreme Court did what it did, and then DeSantis backs it up with the law that he signed with the legislature is hard to believe. So that's number one. Number two, we've got to make sure that we get education right in Florida.

We are the third largest state in America, the third largest. And we pay our teachers 48th or 49th out of 50 states. That's embarrassing. And it's wrong. And teachers are leaving the state because not only is their pay low, the respect for them is low. You know, telling them how to teach that they can't teach actual history. They can't talk about things that happened in America's history because it might make some people feel uncomfortable. What is that? The head in the sand education approach? It doesn't make any sense. You know what I really like about our interviews, Charlie, Chris, what I really like about them is you and I speak to a lot of politicians.

And a lot of times I feel when we talk, they're filibuster and they answer my questions forever. Like when I ask you the questions you have, here's what I'm going to do. Boo, boo, boo. Why not? I mean, you know, you're asking a question because you'd like an answer. I can appreciate that. And I try to do one to others as you have done unto you, the golden rule. And that's how I'm trying to treat you guys because you're good people and you're doing the right thing. And we need the right thing done in Florida. And I appreciate your helping us. And what's the status of debates coming up? You know, I heard some things that he's,

he wants to, you know, either, you know, change the rules to make it favorable to him or he doesn't want to debate. What's the what's the latest and greatest there? Well, that's a great question, too. So I've agreed to do a traditional governor's debate in Florida, you know, before you vote, it's called and it's sponsored. It's very bipartisan. It goes to over 20 stations throughout the Sunshine State. I think it's sponsored. It's very bipartisan. It goes to over 20 stations throughout the Sunshine State. I think it's live streamed at the same time and also on NPR. I mean, it gets fast, wide coverage. He won't agree to that. He's agreed to one out of West Palm Beach by Sinclair Media that I think is on two television stations, maybe in the state. Nobody will see it or hardly anybody will see it. You know, what is he, Chicken Ron?

I mean, he made a video not long ago. You probably saw this kind of trying to portray Top Gun, you know, putting on the flight jacket and all that stuff. Big, tough guy. When it comes to debating me and he's running for the hills. I mean, it's it's just unbelievable. But if people want to help, I ought to go to Charlie Chris dot com. We could use the help. But that's the thing about these people. It's like, if you're going out there, you know, in your ridiculous top gun outfit, by the way, we had an actual Navy vet comment on it and basically say how offensive that cosplay was to him. But then you do that and then it's like, okay, well, let's go. Let's just speak in front of people. We'll discuss the issues. And then Ron DeSantis is like, no, no, no, no, no. I'm afraid to debate Charlie Crist. I mean, that's the insane part. That's where I think Biden was jabbing him with the semi-fascist because it's like, you don't even deserve the label because you're weak, you're cosplaying it. But what your policies

are doing are having the impact, and you don't even know what you're doing. You're just saying woke, and it's CRT, and it's this and that. It's like, well, what are you doing to actually help my family? That's what I care about. Exactly. I mean, they call it public service, right? And my point of view is that if you want to be in public service, you ought to serve with a servant's heart and not serve your own political ambitions to run for president in 2024, which is exactly what he's doing. And he's forgetting the rest of Florida in the process. And it's heartbreaking to watch. That's why I'm running for governor, because I love Florida so much. And I know that we deserve better. And the bar is low.

So, you know, getting better is going to be a great thing for my fellow Floridians. And what I need to dig into now is because you brought it up, I got to talk about more of this Top Gun ad because it's just so ridiculous. One of the things I noticed about Rhonda Sandis' ads is that he's never really speaking about what he does for the people. He's talking about the disruption that he causes. And in that ad, he wasn't highlighting his policies. He was mostly highlighting his ability to scream at the media. It was just a bunch of insults hurled at the media to try to make himself feel like a tough guy. I mean, what are you doing like in terms of to combat that and to show like, listen, we need a free press here. We need to actually be open with the people and to be fighting for people and not just yelling at them and screaming at them all the time.

Well, that's a great point. And, you know, what is the expression? Democracy dies in darkness. And so he screams at the press. He goes after the media all the time. And what we actually need is a good, honest discourse about two different points of view about what the future of Florida should be. And the fact that he's running away from the main debate that's been in place for over 20 years that actually is broadcast to the entire state, you know, we're 22 million people, is very telling. I mean, it shows what

my parents taught me and my three sisters growing up, that bullies are actually cowards. And so, you know, he doesn't just bully the media, though. He bullies children. There was a video that went viral not long ago in Florida, where he was doing a press conference with children, children behind him that were wearing a mask simply to protect their health. It got under his skin. He berated them. It was appalling to see. And not long after, I was at a reception in Miami. Gentleman comes up to me and he says, aren't you Charlie Criss? And I said, yeah. He said, well, I want you to know this. I'm a Republican and I am voting for you because I've seen the character of this guy and it is not the kind of example I want for my children. It is absolutely wrong. We need a change. It's interesting that you bring that up because we

recently asked the question on Twitter that was in that vein. We basically said, you know, regular Republicans out there who have felt that this MAGA movement has left you behind. Tell us your stories and why are you voting blue? And what we found was just an incredible chorus of people who came to us saying, yeah, the MAGA Republican Party is far too extreme. This is not the Republican Party I grew up with. Is that a theme that you are seeing throughout Florida when people are looking at the extremism of the modern day GOP? Absolutely. Everywhere in the state. And there's plenty of good Republicans out there. And so how must they feel, you know, when they have a governor in Florida that's doing the kind

of things he is to children, not respecting women and their right to choose, making it harder for African-Americans to cast their ballot, one thing after another like that. And, you know, what they really do need is somebody who wants a Florida for all. And that's a theme of my campaign for everybody. We're all children of God, for crying out loud. And it seems to me if that's the case and that's your belief in your heart, then you ought to comport yourself that way. Governor DeSantis is doing exactly the opposite. And that's why we're going to get a change November the 8th. I want to go back to the issue of public schools for a second. I know you spoke about it earlier, but I think it's really important. And I don't think that people across the country really understand what is going on there. And by the way, in other

red states and red states across the country with red governors, DeSantis has specifically taken aim at these public schools. I mean, he banned math books, for God's sakes, because he said there was CRT in it. I mean, how ridiculous is that? He signed the don't say gay bill. He's erasing American history from textbooks. And the result is a massive teachers and staffing shortage. And our kids are the ones at the end of the day being harmed. So could you just explain the problem a little bit as to what's going on in Florida and how are you able to fix it? Well, frankly, you laid it out very well. I must kudos to you. And I think that deliberation on what he's doing to our schools is another great example of why we need a difference.

I used to be commissioner of education for Florida. I'm a public school kid. Two of my three sisters were public school teachers in Pinellas County, my home in St. Petersburg. And so this is in my DNA. I mean, my dad, even though it was a family doctor, he was on the school board. And so, you know, understanding how precious and how important public education is. My lieutenant governor running mate that I just picked over a week ago is a former special ed teacher. And I'm very proud of her, Carla Hernandez. And she's doing a great job on the campaign trail because she has a wonderful heart. She cares about children, obviously cares deeply, a special ed teacher after all. And all of this is just a crystal clear distinction for the voter. This is not going to be a confusing race. I mean, if you want good, if you want decency, you want somebody who cares about people,

then you'll vote for Charlie Crist and Carla Hernandez instead of Rhonda Santos. Yeah. At the end of the day, those aren't Democratic issues or Republican issues. They should be issues that all Americans want, or in this case, what all are a good indicator. How do you plan now to take that momentum and get across the finish line in these next couple of months? Well, talking to you isn't a bad thing. So that's part of it. But seriously, you have to be continuing to get the message out.

Talk about what you want to do for people, not to people. Make sure that they understand that you're running for governor of Florida to fight for their children in school, to make sure that we have safe neighborhoods, that you support our law enforcement and better training for them. And doing the kinds of things that common sense approach really does bring to the fore. And that's what I'm doing in this campaign. And we will keep doing it. And I feel the momentum picking up all the time. And you're right. I'm in a dead heat with a guy that everybody thought was Goliath. Well, if he's Goliath, I'm David. And I know who won that race. And where can they find out more about this David and Goliath race, Charlie Chris?

Just go to charliechris.com. It's C-H-A-R-L-I-E-C-R-I-S-T.com. Give us help. Volunteer. Sign up. Make sure your friends in Florida register to vote. And Charlie, Chris, what's up with these football photos? Looking good in some of these photos that are circulating around. I never knew. I saw those. I saw those. Well, I'm an old quarterback. I played at St. Petersburg High School, and then I walked on at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, played there for two years, And then I missed Florida so much, I transferred to Florida State. But, you know, I think I actually learned more playing football about politics than any book I probably read about teamwork, about sacrifice, about discipline, about winning, about getting in the end zone, and particularly playing quarterback. You know, you're the leader of the team, you're calling the

plays, you're trying to involve everybody and make sure that you have a winning combination that does the right thing and make sure you have a winning season. And I'm working for that winning season right now. Well, we're rooting for your winning season. Everybody go and support Charlie, Chris, Charlie, Chris, Democratic candidate for governor of Florida. Thank you so much for coming on the Midas Touch podcast. Appreciate you. Have a great day. You too. We'll be right back after these messages. It was great having Charlie Crist on the program. I mean, as I mentioned during the interview, I like direct answers. Boom, boom, boom. Here's what I'm going to do. No BS, no filibustering. I was going to say, usually, Ben, we just like we ask the question, then we're able to just sit

back for a little bit as they go on and on. But he was just like, got got right to it. I I love that we need somebody who's direct and isn't just bullshitting us. I think we're just sick of politicians bullshitting us constantly. And that's what we see from Ron DeSantis. It's just all bullshit, bullshit, bullshit, distraction, distraction, distraction, all while he is basically taking money out of your pocket, taking away your freedoms, making things worse for Floridians. Every single problem has gotten worse under Ron DeSantis. He's overseeing a bunch of crises and he's not doing anything about it except screaming the word woke, apparently. That's his strategy to solve the teacher shortage. That's his strategy to solve the rent crisis, the property insurance crisis. It's ridiculous. There's no leadership there. And I think, you know, it's a good segue probably also to talk about what's going on in California. Let's see, like the flip side of Ron DeSantis, which I would say is Gavin Newsom in California. You know, there's a heat wave in California. Unprecedented heat wave. Unprecedented.

The heat wave that's never occurred, like in the history of like California. That hot. Yeah. And so what did Gavin Newsom do? He decided, you know what I'm going to do? I'm not going to just let this heat wave destroy our power grid. I am going to take proactive measures in order to prevent catastrophe in our power grid. So what does Gavin Newsom do? He basically tells our residents, he asks them, he says, hey, can everybody just do their part

and lower your electricity use every now and then. Help us avoid outages. And Republicans just went into a spiral. They just spiraled out of control from this. And they are just so allergic to competence and to having to make the bare minimum sacrifices, voluntarily, by the way, the bare minimum sacrifices. And we saw this, by the way, during COVID. We've seen this during every single crisis. They are so unwilling to make a sacrifice for the rest of the population that they view this as an assault on their rights. Meanwhile, it worked tremendously. I mean, the California they said these radical right Republicans in California, they were like, I'm going to use more electricity. Fuck you, Gavin Newsom. I'm going to, you know, and it's just like, it's just like the response to the pandemic. It's like, okay, not only am I, I'm not going

to wear a mask. I'm going to, I'm going to cough all over you. I'm going to like, I'm going to spread this virus everywhere. You know, like, like I'm going to arrest Dr. Fauci. Did you see this clip read from Alex Michelson, a friend of the Midas Touch podcast, where he spoke with Gavin Newsom at a press conference where Gavin Newsom told Alex Michelson he's a reporter for the Fox affiliate here. It's not Fox News. It's the local California Fox. So there's a distinction.

But this is what Alex Michelson said. He said, Gavin Newsom told me that California sent out an emergency alert to 27 million cell phones during the height of the power demand last night, and it worked. And in the 45 minutes after that, there was a 2600 megawatt reduction on the grid and California narrowly avoided rolling blackouts. So not only did he first say to reduce it, but then the moment the grid was about to be overrun, boom, he took decisive leadership action, confronted the situation, didn't pretend that it was magically going to disappear, which is like the Republican line. He didn't just basically, you know, wish to, you know, whatever.

Oh, please, please make a difference. He didn't go and blame China. He didn't go and blame immigrants. He didn't go and blame immigrants. He did. And he said, look, this is me. I'm the freaking leader of this state. And I'm going to ask for a short term, just a very, very, very short, the smallest of sacrifices in the world. Turn your lights off for a little bit. Let's not overuse the electric grid, please. Don't go crazy with your electric. I mean, what's of a least sacrifice that we can do to that? And because of that, we got through what could have been a serious crisis.

You compare that to what's going on in Mississippi with their idiot Republican governor. They run out of freaking water. They can't drink water. The most basic of elements. They can't run out of water. You look what happens in Texas with Greg Abbott. That power grid in the number one energy state. They're like the energy state in Texas, and they can't keep their power grid functioning. They're so incompetent that they don't just have

rolling blackouts. They literally are blacked out, period. And then what they do when they have the rolling blackouts or when they're blacked out, when their electric it goes down, the politicians then go to Cancun. They then leave. They flee the country as people die. Hundreds and hundreds of people die. You know, you have a situation in Puerto Rico where literally thousands of people died and Trump went there and just freaking through towels at them rather than actually invested in and made fun of Puerto Rico. I mean, these people are callous, despicable idiots, and they don't know how to function at the bare minimum.

Government has to do things for freaking people. They have to do things for people. And Republicans are just all about freaking being podcasters, you know, and going on and going on these radical TV shows and saying, my pronouns are shut the hell up. Yeah. Fist bump, fist bump. Like we need people who are in leadership who can actually help us. And I'm thankful for Gavin Newsom. And then they want to go, oh, Gavin Newsom was wearing a fleece. Oh, he's wearing a fleece. You know what? He could wear a fleece if he kept my energy on. I'm happy he could wear a fleece. He could wear a hat. And it's this weird jealousy. They hate that California is an incredibly successful state. They hate that California goes against everything they say about democratic leadership because California really is. I mean, California is not absolved of its problems. It certainly has its issues. But above all, California is probably one of the best run, if not the best run states in the nation. And so you have Ted

Cruz, you're speaking of Cancun Cruz, who fled to Cancun and let his Texans literally die while he had his little vacation during one of the most horrific storms in Texas history. He had the nerve to go to Fox News and say, oh, Gavin Newsom wants to let them eat cake. Oh, look at, I mean, you, Ted Cruz, are the one who are going to criticize Gavin Newsom, who's actually a leader stepping up to handle this problem. They are just so incredibly shameless. I haven't got a friend from, I haven't got a text from an old friend of mine who I had went to college with who had fallen into the MAGA movement. And this guy texts me and he goes, oh, how are you? Are you Californians going to charge your electric cars?

Good luck in California. Well, I'm like, we're doing just fine, my man. We are doing absolutely fine. We have a governor who's actually taking proactive measures. It's not going to affect anybody charging their electric vehicles one bit. All they're asking for is common decency, and Republicans are allergic to common decency. They are allergic to doing anything that helps their fellow man, even if that means shooting themselves in the foot. They would rather use the shit out of their electricity and have the power grid go out, which would affect them, then take a small sacrifice of

saying, oh, you know what? Maybe I won't run the AC at full blast for an hour today. I mean, it's just absolutely ridiculous. And, you know, like or their view on like COVID, it's like they'd rather die and just not take the thing seriously to try to own Dr. Fauci and claim that, you know, and it's like, OK, fine. Like you don't want to you know, you don't want to take a vaccine. We'll get tested.

Like don't go to like very crowded places during the peak of the peak of it. Like they do things that literally killed themselves. And Brett, to your point, like cruelty is the point with them. Right. They're not running on any issues. They're talking about, you know, radically extreme total abortion bans. They're leaning in on that. Jim Jordan goes on Fox calling for, you know, we need to be for total abortion bans. You have to lean into it, lean into this and our message, lean into it. You have Greg, Greg Gutfeld on Fox,

who calls the Democratic Party angry young single women party. So like just they hate women. I make the most like they're the most offensive, despicable people in the world. You have people on the radical right saying that they're going to overturn Obergefell, which is allow same sex marriage. And so they're going to like the government wants to dictate who you can love and who you can marry and when you can marry. And then just to kind of, you know, to top it off where cruelty is the point where you have I don't't know if you saw this, one of the big things that like these Republicans are pushing as well is they're trying to still attack Obamacare. And so the Obamacare, which has given the Affordable Care Act, which has given like 20 plus million

Americans health care and ability to actually get affordable health care and live. Republicans still want to get rid of that. You know, as Dr. Oz said, health care is not your right. And they believe that Dr. Oz said this as well, that health care should be delivered in festival like settings where you could for 15 minutes get delivered your health care. And that's basically it for the people. And that as opposed to like meaningful, actual health care, because he believes it's not actually right. And that's what Republicans believe. And so they've still actually been pushing ways to take away your health care because they want to remove Medicare. They want to remove Social Security. They want to take all of that away. And they just want to remove your health care

in general. So this one ruling out in Texas where the PrEP HIV preventive medication was being covered under the Affordable Care Act. And these radical Republican extremists businesses filed a lawsuit and they said that affects my religious rights because it helps and promotes homosexuality is what literally the lawsuit said. And a and a radical right Republican judge struck down a requirement that HIV preventive medication, this PrEP medication, that it shouldn't be covered under Obamacare anymore. And so based on this ruling, we know what they're coming for next, though, too. They're coming for contraception with that same ruling. They're coming for like vaccines for HPV. They're coming for I mean, they're coming for the whole panoply of of health care that

like saves lives every day. And so and cruelty is the point. Why would you you're fighting a battle to make sure that people aren't able to afford drugs that could prevent themselves from getting HIV? That's the Republican death cult position. That is what they are running on midterm. And of course, they're running on the midterms that Donald Trump can steal nuclear secrets and they're absolutely cool with it.

And that's why we're fighting for you each and every day here on the Midas touch podcast. And that's why we're growing this movement. We're growing this community together. Remember everybody to check out patrion.com slash Midas touch P A T R E O N dot com slash Midas touch. Subscribe to the tier that best fits you. But however you want to support us is always great. And don't feel any pressure, but go to Patreon dot com slash Midas touch.

But that is a way you can help out and go to store dot Midas touch dot com as well. Get the Midas touch gear. Brett, any final words? No, I think, you know, I think we have good momentum. I just want to say how nice it was also to see the Obamas yesterday, just like normal people with grace, with poise, with a sense of humor. And once again, that drove the Republicans crazy because they cannot tolerate normalcy. It was just such a window into this pre-MAGA Republican, pre-Trump era of just hope and decency and just the idea that we are progressing and moving forward. And I think that's really what Obama represents. So I thought it was just so great to see that ceremony, a ceremony that Trump had blocked. Honestly, I'm happy that Trump blocked it because I don't want Obama to be alongside Donald Trump presenting those portraits.

But, you know, Obama coming out there with his typical self-deprecating humor, Michelle Obama really setting the tone for the importance of the event, saying what we are looking at today, a portrait of a biracial kid with an unusual name and the daughter of a water pump operator and stay-at-home mom. What we are seeing is a reminder that there is a place for everyone in this country. And I know that is the America that we are fighting for here every single day at Midas Touch. Couldn't agree more with you, Brett. Thank you everybody for listening and watching this episode of the Midas Touch podcast. Don't forget to subscribe. Don't forget to leave five-star reviews. That's another way you can help.

Remember patreon.com slash Midas Touch and store.midastouch dot com. We'll see you next time on the MidasTouch podcast. Shout out to the Midas Mighty. Midas Touch is unapologetically pro-democracy. And look, we know you are too. So please make sure you check out our best-selling shirt and our best-selling gear, the unapologetically pro-democracy gear. And hey, while you're at it, make sure you check out my favorite shirt in one of our most famous designs. It wasn't rigged. You're just a loser.

At store.midastouch.com. That's store.midastouch.com.