The MeidasTouch Podcast - Inside the GOP Civil War with a TOPGUN fighter pilot running for Senate (Luke Mixon)

Episode Date: April 29, 2022

On today’s episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast, we chat with Democratic Senate Candidate for Louisiana, Luke Mixon. Mixon is a Veteran Fighter Pilot from the Top Gun Academy for 20 years, F-18 Attack Aviator of the Year recipient for flying missions in Iraq & Afghanistan and also led the Navy Fight Squadron in New Orleans. The brothers discuss the latest breaking news of the week, including the growing GOP Civil War, Elon Musk's dangerous Twitter gamble, President Biden considering forgiving student debt and much more! If you enjoyed today’s show, please be sure to rate, review & subscribe! As always, thank YOU for listening. DEALS FROM OUR SPONSORS: Upstart: https://upstart.com/meidas Titan: https://titan.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 The Weekend Show: https://pod.link/1612691018 The Tony Michaels Podcast: https://pod.link/1561049560 Zoomed In: https://pod.link/1580828633 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. The GOP is in civil war. Elon Musk is playing a dangerous game with Twitter. President Biden, meanwhile, is considering forgiving student loan debt. This is the Midas Touch podcast. Ben, Brett, and Jordy.

Brett, Jordy, how are you doing today? Brothers. Doing great, Ben. Ben's going to get a lot of compliments today because, Ben, you are looking sharp, my man. Ben, for the listeners, dressed in a full suit right now, looking extra spiffy. What are you up to? You're just trying to show off? Yeah, what are you doing? From time to time, despite Neil Katyal saying that I wasn't a practicing attorney. That's still getting you, huh? That's still I wasn't a practicing attorney. That's still getting you, huh?

That's still a good little jab. And I wear, in addition to doing pot, the podcast isn't my number one profession, despite what Professor Neil Katyal at Georgetown University Law Center believes my alma mater. But it is all good. We have a great show for you today. Louisiana Democratic Senate candidate Luke Mixon, who is a veteran fighter pilot. He's in the Top Gun Academy. He was a fighter pilot for over 20 years.

He won the F-18 attack aviator of the year for flying missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. We're going to talk to Luke about really the Democrats becoming the party of supporting the troops, supporting the military, supporting our allies abroad, supporting the domestic safety of the United States. That's really what the Democratic Party is. And frankly, the party of decency. And to me, that's what is, you know, the most one of the most important things here is that our policies, the policies of Democrats are about compassion, are about helping people. It's about how can government help people as opposed to how can government hurt people? And Republicans are now the party of big government hurting people. That's just what they try to do. Yeah. Big government authoritarianism,

big government socialism, whatever you want to call it. That is the Republican Party these days. Excited to have Luke on the show. He's going up, of course, against and it kills me. It kills me to say this name every time. I don't know about you guys. He's going up against Senator John Kennedy. If he wins the primary, those are that's who is in this Louisiana every time. I don't know about you guys. He's going up against Senator John Kennedy. If he wins the primary, those are that's who was in this Louisiana Senate race. John Kennedy, he shouldn't be allowed to use the name like there needs to be a law. That's that's one law that I would get behind. No one else on the Republican Party is allowed to use the name John Kennedy. Trademark, trademark infringement, trademark. There's only one John Kennedy. You

know, he also people may not know this about Louisiana Senator John Kennedy. He used to be a Democrat and then he changed to become a Republican when that kind of suited his need and then just went from being like a Democrat to like a radical extremist Republican. Changed his policies, changed his voice. Changed his, I was going to say that. Yeah, it changed his accent. Yeah. I mean, that's what we say time and time again. These are all performative bullshit artists. It's performative WWE style politics. They really don't care what they're doing for the people. They just want to create antics and create an environment where

they can end up on Fox News, get some retweets. It's kind of what it's all about right now in the Republican Party. It's all about their own vanity. And let's talk about this GOP civil war, this full fledged civil war within the party. And this is how I break it down. It is between those Republicans who publicly praise Trump, but they privately hate him. And how do we know this? We have literally the recordings of them saying that they hate him. And how do we know this? We have literally the recordings of them saying that they hate him. He should be arrested. Let's invoke the 25th amendment. He should be, he's incapacitated and can't even be the president. We're going to tell him to resign. This is what those people like Kevin McCarthy are saying about him. I never said that. What are you talking about?

Behind his back, literally on recordings. And then there are those who publicly praise him and then privately feed him grapes and fan him with palm leaves. That is the other group of people, right? Do you say that's the division that you basically have right now? And so if you look, for example, in Pennsylvania, have you seen this Pennsylvania Republican debate of the Republican senators? It was probably the strangest thing I have ever seen. And when you watch this debate between the different people who are running for office there, the debate is over who loves Trump more, who is more American first? And so when you listen to him, it literally sounds like this on every issue. It's like, well, what do you think about education

policy? Or what should we do about healthcare? And the response is, well, I love Donald Trump. There's a reason that Donald Trump endorsed me. Oh, well, Donald Trump actually likes me more. He likes me. I'm more American first than you. No, no, I'm more American first than you. I'm the only person to have worked with Donald Trump. Oh, but I'm more American first than you. No, no, I'm more American first than you. I'm the only person to have worked with Donald Trump. Oh, but I'm more American first than you. And I love Donald Trump. America first times three. Like you listen to these people. It's like literally listening to toddlers. It's insane. Let's, you know, let's play Republican voters again. Republican accountability project put together a great montage about this. They do some great work. Let's just play a brief moment of this just so you can get a sense of what happened at the Pennsylvania GOP.

Not exaggerating at all. He went groveling to President Trump. President Trump saw right through him, did not endorse him, and then he endorsed me. Everything President Trump put in place worked. The reason Mehmet keeps talking about President Trump's endorsement is because he can't run on his own positions. President Trump won Pennsylvania. President Trump endorsed me. President Trump endorsed being President Trump was very clear. I'm America first. I'm the only person in this race that was appointed by President Trump. It's so sad.

It's so sad. It's a cult. It's embarrassing. And like you said, Ben, like it's all, you know, who loves Trump the most? Who does Trump love the most? Oh, Trump endorsed you. Oh, that's because people were telling him the wrong things. And he actually likes me better. And if you actually look at my policies, Trump likes my, it just, it just shows you the state of the policy.

And they don't talk about the policies though, Brett. That's the thing. Like there's no discussion in the debate about what they're actually using their position to do. It is like, my policy is what? What do you stand for? What is your view on social security? What is your view on healthcare? What is your view on taxes? What is your view on infrastructure? What is your view on student loans, the military? That's not being discussed. It's not being discussed. It's going to be so strange. And, Jordy, you predict that these radical right extremists won't even debate when it comes to it, the Democrats.

But what do you do then? And this is why I'm very optimistic in Democrats' ability to win in 2020 if there is a debate, because what do you do when you put these wacky characters, these radical right extremists up there whose only talking point is how much they love Trump? And then you have a Democrat up there who's actually talking about, here's what we did about health care. Here's how we delivered health care. Here's where we voted on to reduce the price of insulin. Here's what we're doing with student loan debt if you have a family. And this is how we're protecting you and helping you buy homes and things like that. That's going to be on display. I am praying that Conor Lamb or John

Fetterman, that they get to debate one of these clowns from the Republican Party, be it Oz or McCormick. They're the two lead dogs. Oz and McCormick, first off, they've never had an original idea in their lives. They're not even from Pennsylvania. Sure, McCormick technically grew up here. He hasn't lived here in the past 15, 16 years. Oz doesn't even have a home address here. I mean, I guess technically now he probably has some mailing address here that allows him to get on the ballot. Pennsylvanians see right through their BS. And I just cannot wait for either Fetterman or Lamb to get the nomination and destroy these bozos. And here's what we're talking about. So that's in Pennsylvania. You know, then you move over and we're talking about the civil war between Republicans. So the Republican senator candidates in Pennsylvania seem to all be united that they're just kissing Trump's ass like that's the

way to go in Pennsylvania. You go and you look in what's going on in Georgia and you have Brian Kemp versus David Perdue, a.k.a. Chicken Perdue. And there you have Brian Kemp, who is not bashing Trump, but he's not saying anything positive about Trump in, you know, when he's out publicly. And you have David Perdue, who's literally out there spreading conspiracy theories every day and saying that the election is rigged. Like when they go out there, Brett and Jordy, and they keep talking, it just seems like they're such it's so childish. It's so immature. It's honestly just so

pathetic, Ben. It's spineless. 2020 election was rigged. It's all rigged against me. It's like, who are you people? Who are you people? Like, just face it. You lost. Here's what I think they don't totally get. I think. And by the way, I think Trump just to be straight up is a total bullshit artist. I think he's the phoniest motherfucker on the planet. But I think that a lot of people view Trump as the guy who's just telling it as it is. He's not the establishment. He's the guy who's just speaking his mind. He shoots from the hip. He speaks like we speak. Like, I think that's why a lot of Trump voters like him. That's not how they view David Perdue. Like, David Perdue is as establishment as it gets. And they're like this loser, this guy. I think it's an interesting sign to see just how much that Kemp is crushing Perdue in the polls right now.

And it shows, you know, that a Trump endorsement is in everything. And while all these people want to have this just bow down to Trump constantly over everything and beg for his endorsement. And at the end of the day, that's not really what is mattering even to these MAGA voters and these Republican voters. They want somebody who views themselves as an authentic candidate to them, which I guess means that they're as hateful and as crazy and whatever as possible. And that's why we've seen also the MAGA revolt when it comes to Trump's endorsement of J.D. Vance over a guy like what's the guy's name? Josh Mandel. Josh Mandel, the psycho.

So, I mean, I think that's why you're seeing sort of that part of the civil war happen, even in Magaland itself. But perhaps knives are out for no one more than Madison Cawthorn, who the GOP is really on an all-out assault against. You know, Madison Cawthorn released a video the other day saying, oh, it's just a drip, drip, drip. Everybody's out to get me. It's cancel culture, this cancel culture that like, buddy, this is coming from your own party. I would not be surprised if all this stuff coming out is from Kevin McCarthy kind of directly helping to

coordinate this stuff, because we also Madison Cawthorn space when he left that meeting with McCarthy a few weeks ago. It's just ironic to me that Mr. Stolen Valor here, Mr. Accused of Sexual Assault a Billion Times in College, Mr. Colin Zelensky, Evil and a Thug, everything- What's up with him going to the airport every day with loaded guns? Yeah. Honestly, Madison Cawthorn is a radicalized nut job. He's a disturbed kid who would otherwise- He should be on a watch list. He should. Honestly, Matt, Cawthorn's the kind of person who would shoot up a school. He is a radicalized, very disturbed individual who does not- He has those personality traits.

I think that's a good point there, Ben. And then one more thing that I would add to that, Brett, it's like, buddy, Cawthorn, it's not like coming from MSNBC, CNN. Sure, they're reporting on it. The Washington Examiner broke the story about Cawthorn's insider training Ponzi scheme that he's involved in. New York Post is talking about Cawthorn and why he's in trouble. That's a Murdoch-owned paper. Examiner's a far-right paper. They're turning on their own. And Jordy, you said this to me earlier. You're like, isn't it funny that all this really started after the cocaine orgy comments? That was the line that they drew for Cawthorn. That's what they got so angry about. Once Cawthorn started talking about the cocaine orgies, that's when the entire party is like, we need to get this guy out. He's saying too much about us. Now you even have Tom Tillis, a Republican senator. He just put up a $300,000 ad buy against Cawthorn, a PAC associated with

him rather, just put up a $300,000 ad buy against Cawthorn. They're sending mailers out, basically saying that Cawthorn is only in it for the vanity and for his own fame, highlighting his kind of criminality and all the attention seeking actions that he does. And it's just really kind of, you know, and a lot of these Cawthorn is not helping himself. Let's also be fair here. Like you said, like you don't have to take a gun to the airport, buddy, you know, but it's clear. Like multiple times every three days, it's like he brings a gun to the airport and he's i'm like was this when i see the cawthorne news about the guns or like the duis sometimes i have to look at this like old news story am i good i go i think i read that already go wait a minute this happened again i go didn't that happen last week i mean that's how i review the cawthorne stories and

then there's also the cawthororn story about whether it's illegal or not will be interesting because crypto hasn't necessarily been defined by the same standards as securities laws. So it's a little bit vague about the insider trading laws as it comes to pumping and dumping crypto. But as a sitting member of Congress that you are pumping a Bitcoin or like a crypto token. Let's go Brandon. Let's go Brandon. That like, as soon as you promote it, skyrockets and then all the founders dump it and then make huge profits and like screw everybody who buys the coin in the first place. So it's a very unseemly thing to do. It definitely comes close to being illegal just based on the definition of whether it's

securities or not, but I view it as very illegal. And what are you doing? You're a member of Congress. And then you hear these stories too, from just his hometown that like, he doesn't even show up to, he's like, he's closed down three or four of like his constituent offices, like within the district itself. He never shows up and meets with his constituents. It's like, what in the world, you know, is this individual doing? And he was the darling of Trumpism. He's the darling of the Trump wing of the party. And it's interesting too too, because you have you have people like Kevin McCarthy, though, now who is also in the crosshairs, you know, when these leaks, many people believe are coming from high up in the Republican Party. We've talked about the Kevin McCarthy audio

where he spoke to Republican leadership, saying that after January 6th, Donald Trump should resign. These were conference calls right after January 6th, him saying that he January 6th, Donald Trump should resign. These were conference calls right after January 6th. Him saying that he was going to tell Donald Trump that he was going to be impeached and that he should go. Audio of him saying that he spoke to Donald Trump and Trump admitted accountability and felt bad for January 6th. Kevin McCarthy denied these things after the recording was issued. But then the question became, well, who was on the recordings that recorded it and leaked it? And many people believe that it's Elise Stefanik who leaked it because she wants to basically take over his position.

And she came in and she ran as a fairly moderate Republican, but found a pathway to Republican leadership by praising Trump and going all in on Trumpism. And now she's trying to leak, apparently, the tapes of McCarthy. And so that's part of the full fledged civil war. It's fascinating to watch. Right. And, you know, we saw the reports. We heard the reports rather about McCarthy getting a standing ovation after explaining away the tapes and that the whole GOP conference go and when Stan gave getting a standing ovation after explaining away the tapes and that the whole GOP conference gave him a standing O. But I think it's important to note that a lot of those people giving him a standing O are ready to stab him right in the back. It's all for show. This is a party of backstabbers. This is a party of people right now. Here's what they think. They think that

they are going to take power this November and they are fighting for the power center of the Republican Party. Is it going to be the MAGA wing? Is it going to be the McCarthy wing? And you have McCarthy going out there to probably GOP donors trying to be like, listen, I'm the mediating force here. I'm the moderate. You want Matt Gaetz and Jim Jordan? You want those people to be speaker of the house? Or do you want me who could play nice with corporations or whatever? But here's the thing. You cannot play with fire and not get burnt. And that's exactly what McCarthy is doing here. That's what the Republican Party is doing here. So you got McCarthy trying to take out Cawthorn. You got Gates trying to take out McCarthy. You got Stefanik trying to take out McCarthy, but acting like she's not doing it. That's the state of the Republican Party right

now. Well, the question is, what do Democrats need to be doing? One, we need to be talking about policy and what our policies are. We need to be talking, though, about decency. We need to be talking about compassion. We need to be talking about helping people. You know, we have to be the party that is fighting for people. Let the Republicans, we can point out all the Republican disarray, but at the end of the day, people want a political party that is fighting for them. And the Republican Party pretended for

many years to fight for them while the Democrats were relatively silent. You know, the whole thing was a scam. It was a con on people. Now the Republicans are just fighting to say who loves Donald Trump more. And Democrats, there's such an opening here for people to just for Democrats to resonate with people and show how compassionate they are. I don't know if you saw this poll, Brett, from I believe it was from Politico Morning Consult, which talks about who Republican voters are. And it talks about whether certain allegations would be considered a major problem if your candidate was alleged to have engaged in these conducts. So the question to voters was, if the

candidate you supported was alleged to have engaged in homophobic remarks, racist remarks, anti-Semitic remarks, engaged in sexual misconduct or abuse, would you still vote for that individual one way or another? Or would that be a roadblock for you to stop supporting that individual? And if you look at the Democrats, all of those bad things that I just mentioned, by and large, the Democrats said those would all be roadblocks. Overwhelmingly, Democrats said, I would not support a candidate who engaged in that conduct. But then when you look at Republicans and whether Republicans would support these candidates or they believe them to be significant problems or a major problem, only 25% of Republicans believe that homophobic remarks would be a significant problem for their candidate. Only 38% of Republicans believe that racist remarks would be a significant problem for their candidate. Only 47% of Republicans thought that anti-Semitic remarks would be a major problem for their candidate.

There you have it. I mean, only 25% of Republicans think it's a problem for their candidate to say homophobic remarks. Only 38% of Republicans think that it's a problem. So over 60% of Republicans are okay with their candidate just blatantly saying racist remarks. 75% of Republicans are okay with their candidates being blatantly homophobic. More than 50% are okay with- Donald Trump is the leader of the party, so I don't know why you're so surprised. Donald Trump checks every one of these boxes. It's just ultimately, even if you don't follow politics that closely, like one side is clearly full of terrible people,

humans. You can't vote for those people. You don't want those people representing you. It's just so crazy to me that an entire political party in this country, and I know we talk about it a lot, but it's just enthralled in hate. Well, here's the thing that we've spoken about before on the show, but I keep seeing it time and time again. It's that the far right and the right in general seems to equate hate and being against hate as the same things. They're just two sides of the same coin. And another example that I've noticed was Marjorie Taylor Greene, for example, this week, she went on a tirade against Catholics. She said the Catholic Church is satanic. That's a horrible, horrible thing to say.

We posted a video and we said the phrase that Mallory McEnroe said, which is we will not let hate win. And one of the comments that we received was something to the effect of, well, then why are you hating on Marjorie? And I'm like, we're not hating on Marjorie Taylor Greene. She just called Catholics satanic. We are exposing the fact that she called Catholics satanic. Us saying that is not us expressing hate against Marjorie Taylor Greene. It's us speaking out against horrible statements that are disparaging a group of people. That is a difference there. And that ties into the whole free speech debate. I don't know if we want to talk about this whole Twitter Elon Musk thing. I know a lot of people

are probably excited to get our takes on that as well, or maybe we save it till after I'll let Ben decide on that. But I think this ties into this world now where the right equates hate with speaking out against hate. And I think that's a dangerous place to be in. Yeah. And another way of saying it is that they demand tolerance of their intolerance, that they view their intolerant behavior as being equivalent to like loving thy neighbor. So how dare you tell me that I can't express my hateful, anti-Semitic, intolerant views? You're harassing me. I'm not harassing you. I'm not canceling you. I'm telling you, stop saying racist things. Stop using hateful remarks. Stop hating on these children. Stop doing that. You're an adult. You're

a grown person. Why are you doing that? I'm not hating you. You're being hateful. And that's what they equate. And that, Brett, is the Twitter situation. That's why I say Elon Musk is playing a dangerous game with Twitter, because if you look at what he is doing, if you look at the types of conversations that he's been engaged in since it's announced that he wants to acquire Twitter, these are very hateful, targeted messages at Twitter employees. That's what's been very disturbing to me. I mean, my ultimate view about Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter, and again, for those wanting to know

the process, it's still not 100% that he's going to acquire Twitter. He's engaged in a definitive agreement to acquire Twitter. He's not the owner of Twitter yet. It requires regulatory approval. It requires him to come up with the right financing. And I know you might say, he came up with the financing, didn't he? Well, he came up with debt financing that's listed out. But part of the debt financing also includes a $21 million in equity financing in addition to the debt, which has not been quite spelled out where that $21 million in equity comes in, where it's believed that Elon has about 3 billion in liquid cash. So it's not a foregone conclusion and it has to be approved by shareholders. But my ultimate view of it is that if Twitter becomes a cesspool like 4chan,

people are just going to stop using it and Elon's going to lose $45 billion. And I'm not going to leave the platform. Hell no. You know, I'm going to stay on the platform, you know, but if the platform becomes this place of hate, conspiracy, racism, pornography, sex trafficking, all the things that exist on 4chan and sites like that, it's not going to be a place. So my view of it is, is that we as Midas Touch, we as communicators, we as people who want to speak to humanity through a lens of decency, we're going to communicate with people wherever

that forum is. And so a billionaire with a fragile ego who wants to buy a social media platform doesn't scare me or intimidate me. But the dangerous game that he's playing is when he is now using it to spread hate. And the best way, the best example of showing that, though, is he's targeting the general counsel or one of the chief lawyers for Twitter. Her name is Vijaya Gade. And he's posting these memes of her, again, someone who would be working for his company, an employee. He's posting it to his millions and millions of followers. He's got one of the most followed accounts out there. And he's basically saying that what we said before, that she was censoring speech is what all these memes are.

And he's basically posting a meme of when she went on the Joe Rogan show. And she talked about the type of speech that wasn't being allowed on Twitter. And there's a clip that many people don't play. Brett, I want you to play the clip where she's confronted by Joe Rogan and Tim Poole about, well, why did this user get removed from it? And just watch this or listen to this back and forth. Why did you know why he got banned from Twitter? I can see there was the use of a Jewish slur. How do you use it? To a person, you traitor, remainer, white genocide supporting Islamophile, Jewish slur lover.

That should keep you going. Hashtag Hitler was right. Hashtag Hitler was right. Hashtag Hitler was right. So that user, just I want to be clear about what Elon Musk is tweeting right now. And I don't think people have really analyzed it like this. He's using a meme of that exchange that took place to basically call out the Jayagati, the counsel for Twitter, who's responsible for making sure the standards of Twitter are appropriate, and saying that she supports censorship on the platform and I'm against that type of censorship and how dare her, how inappropriate her conduct

is. That's what Elon Musk is saying with the meme that he posted. But let's actually listen to what it is that she just said. We just played it for you. That one of the meme that he posted. But let's actually listen to what it is that she just said. We just played it for you. That one of the people that she said who's not on Twitter was using anti-Semitic slurs, used the hashtag Hitler is right. And that's why that person was removed. It's also where the very first thing like Rogan tried to do was like jump to the defense of the Hitler is right person. And basically, well, how was it used versus like, well, tell me about what was said. Like the way it was even said was like, well, why was that person taken off? Because the person said, hashtag Hitler is right. And do we want a platform, honestly, where people are out there saying Hitler is right?

That's what free speech is all about, to go on and harass people and bully people and call people anti-Semitic slurs. And that's why you, Elon Musk, are calling her out on a meme in front of your hundreds of millions of followers. And he knows that's going to result in a ton of harassment coming her way and a ton of death threats coming her way. To an employee now of his. To an employee now of his. And honestly, I don't generally think that Elon is inherently like a horrible human being. I don't even think he's necessarily like Republican or super far right on a lot of issues. I think he's this eccentric billionaire weirdo. I think he's actually done a lot of good for society with Tesla. I think he's pushed electric vehicles forward probably more than anybody. I think the Starlink internet, I think is in a really incredible game-changing

system, but he's been doing a lot of things in this space and in regards to Twitter that give me a lot of pause, whether it's the harassing of Twitter employees that he's doing right here, his comments about neutrality on Twitter. I think they totally missed the point when he says Twitter should be a neutral platform where the right should be just as pissed off at me as the left should be pissed off as me. But when you have the right winger saying things like that, like Hitler was right, it's not a both sides issue. It's not both sides. It's not there are some people on this side, some people on that side. There's a reason why right wingers think that they are being,

quote, censored more than people on the left. And it's because they are the ones that are saying this stuff. And when we saw Elon take over or when we saw Elon put in his bid and say that it was going to be accepted by Twitter, we saw these Twitter trolls come out of the woodworks and they said, oh, now that now that Elon's taking over, let me finally say what I've been wanting to get off my chest all this time. And then they said, this is a test tweet. Let's see if Twitter censors me now. And they tweeted things like Ivermectin works. Trump won the 2020 election. Transgender people are mentally ill. These are the thoughts that you are dying to use this platform to convey. This is the stuff that you have to say. This is the free speech that is being censored and is so horrible that you cannot use this platform for. And we've seen over the past one or two years, we've seen Twitter actually step up to the plate. Don't get me wrong. It's still horrible with harassment and a lot of issues. of people like that and at least attempt to provide context when somebody lies about elections or lies about life or death medical information that will literally kill people if they take some

of the advice that people are spreading on this platform. If Twitter becomes this place where all this harassment and disinformation is out there, you're right, Ben, it's going to become 4chan, it's going to become Gab, and people are not going to want to use the platform anymore. But I am urging everybody right now, like you, stay on the platform, don't back down from a battle, fight. Let's be in this because we need this platform right now. We cannot cede any ground, especially in a midterm year, to them to take over this platform and turn it into what we fear most. And if it becomes so horrible and just a place that we don't want to be in, guess what? We'll find somewhere else. We'll find somewhere else to go. But for now, you got to stay in the fight

and you got to stay engaged. And there's this Twitter user, his name is Maddox, M-A-D-D-O-X, and it's at Maddox Rules who posted that video that I just talked about of Vijaya Gatti. And the comments that he received when he posted that was, she leans so far left, she tips over, watched her on this show. And then his response is, so being opposed to anti-Semitism is left wing now. And that's an important point, too. The radical right extremists view the opposition to harassment as being a radical lefty. And I think I see that, too, with a lot of the stuff that Midas Touch does. I mean, for us to call out fascism, for us to support people lives and be compassionate to people and to be empathetic with people, that is associated by the right wing as being a radical lefty position that I just care about people. That is the new dynamic. And that is why labels do matter. And that's why I always tell

everybody who listens, do not call these radical right people conservative. There's nothing conservative about any of their actual policies or positions. They're not the conservative party anymore. They are out of control. They're radical right extremists who need to be held accountable. I want to bring on now Luke Mixon to the podcast. Luke is running for the Democratic nomination for a senator in Louisiana, a war veteran. I want to talk to him about his experience there. Before doing that, I want to talk about our partner, Upstart. This podcast is brought to you by Upstart.

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So that's $50 for you for free. That's free money, $50 when you go to titan.com slash Midas, that's M-E-I-D-A-S and invest with Titan. This is a sponsored podcast that I'm a client of Titan. And like I said, I am invested in the flagship portfolio and we're going to go to Luke Mixon. And then after Luke Mixon, you guys, I really want to talk to you about President Biden talking about student loans and his upcoming moves on student loans. I want to get your thoughts. But first, let's go to our incredible interview with Louisiana Senate candidate Luke Mixon, who is running as a Democrat for the Senate seat in Louisiana against Republican Senator. I hate saying the name just kind of infuriates me. His name is John Kennedy. Just infuriates me every time I have to say it. Luke is a veteran fighter pilot coming from the Top Gun Academy.

He's been a fighter pilot for 20 years. You were the F-18 attack aviator of the year. You've flied missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and you've led the Navy Fighter Squadron in New Orleans. That's a lot. Welcome to the pod, Luke. Hey, thanks for having me, guys. It's great being here. You know, Luke, one of the very first things that intrigued me about your story, other than the fact that you're literally Tom Cruise in the movie, other than that fact, though, the story about what got you into the Navy and what made you want to become a fighter pilot.

Your grandfather was an engineer on a B-24 and was shot down over Europe. Our grandfather was a tail gunner of a B-29 and his plane was shot down in Japan. And we'd grow up hearing stories from him. We never became fighter pilots, so we hope we didn't let him down by doing the pod. But if you could tell us a little bit about how that influenced your background and your experience. Yeah, I don't think you guys are letting anyone down. But you're right. My grandpa was a B-24 flight engineer during World War II. He was on his 19th mission.

He was shot down by a German Me 109 and captured by Nazi soldiers, spent over 14 months as a prisoner in the Stalag 17B prison camp. And he returned home like so much of that generation, just a quiet patriot, a man of character and integrity. And he actually learned when he returned home that only two of the 10 crew members that day survived. The other eight perished, never got out of the B-24.

He and the pilot, Lieutenant James Carmel, survived. And to put it quite simply, my grandpa was my hero. And his experience in the military, his aviation experiences, just I wanted to be a fighter pilot. And I'd be lying a little bit if I said the movie Top Gun didn't influence me. It had a small influence as well. So what made you decide to run, you know, against John Kennedy for the seat? Yeah, I mean, it's pretty simple. You know, I think it's the right thing to do. I've never been a politician before, but when my active duty military career was over, my wife and I was

also from here. We've been together for 26 years, been married for 20 years. We wanted to raise our children right here in Louisiana with our friends and family in the community we love, in this great culture we have down here in Louisiana. But in the six and a half years that I've been back, we're being represented poorly. Senator John Kennedy represents our state poorly, represents our nation poorly. And I believe I'm the right candidate at the right time against the right opponent. And I just feel like it's the right thing to do. Well, you know, one of the things that always struck me even before you announced your candidacy about John Kennedy is that he wasn't like, who's he representing? He's clearly not representing the American people.

He's not representing the people of Louisiana. And it just seems if you go back in his career that he was representing himself and wherever he thought that he could get power, that's where he went. And so, you know, many of our listeners may not know this, but, you know, at one point in time, he was running as a Democrat. And when he didn't win as a Democrat, he switched and said, well, now I'm a Republican and I'm going to, you know, change all of my positions, you know, overnight. And so here's a person who's literally flip-flopped on every issue. And I want to talk about some of the specifics,

but let's just first talk about just at the most general level, like he's really someone who doesn't have principles in my view, and just kind of represents the worst of Washington, you know, speaking out of both sides of his mouth and just trying to keep himself in power. Yeah, you're exactly right. You asked who he represents. He represents himself. He is a 30-something year career politician. He's held every position. Sometimes people ask me, do you agree with Senator Kennedy on any issues? Yeah. In his lifetime, I probably agree with him on about half of them because he's taking every side of every issue. And at some point, you're going to agree with someone if they take every position, right? He's been everything from a far liberal Democrat to a very conservative Republican. And frankly, now, I don't know what he is.

I'm not sure he knows what he is. I tend to hope for the best in people. I would hope that he got into this profession for the right reasons, but he's lost his way. He continues to just shamelessly seek political opportunities. And the only person who's benefiting from that is himself. And the people here in Louisiana are hurting as a consequence of his failed leadership. Look, he repeatedly represents big corporations, you know, big business. He gives tax cuts to billionaires.

Meanwhile, the people of Louisiana have blue tarps in their roof and mold on their house. And we're hurting down here. You know, and to me, this election is about, you know, health care. It's about jobs. And that's what people want to hear, you know, and he's against all of those issues. So, I mean, you talk about health care. I mean, he's literally voting against giving the people of his state health care. He's voting. If when I wake up in the morning, if I know that my politician, like, how is this guy? How is a race like this even competitive?

Like, like, like, like, how is this race? If I wake up and you tell me a politician's like voting for me to die. Why is it not more difficult just like to to tell voters, hey, look, that's what he's voting for. He's voting to kill you. As you mentioned, he's repeatedly voted against the Affordable Care Act. Now, we're very fortunate here in Louisiana. We have a governor, John Bel Edwards, who is a Democrat, and he and I have a lot of similarities. He's a West Point grad, Army Ranger, the only Democrat to hold statewide office here in Louisiana. He won in 2015 and 2019. And his first day in office, he expanded Medicaid coverage as part of the Affordable Care Act. And

it has benefited over 600,000 Louisiana residents, which was obviously very important during ordinary times. During COVID, it was a lifesaver. And Senator Kennedy voted against all of that. And your next question is, how does he succeed? And he succeeds by being an actor. He's an actor in a play of which the point is to get on TV, to get on Fox News and to raise money. And I'll give him credit. He's good at that. He is good at playing to these very divisive, inconsequential issues that I get him on Fox News and he attracts a lot of attention to himself. And he benefits from it at the sacrifice of everyone else to include, well, I mean, to include people like myself. I grew up here in rural Louisiana. I'm an airline pilot now. My wife works. We're certainly comfortable. We're not wealthy people. And we see the consequences of some of his decisions. And there's a lot of people hurting down here. And, you know, another one of his decisions, you know, and his votes are what basically helped raise the national debt by $7 trillion. I mean, you know, the whole premise of them is like, excuse my language, like we're assholes, but we're good at the economy. Like, let us get to work.

Like, it's the exact opposite. It's like, you're assholes and you're the worst with the economy. And now we see with Biden, actually, the deficit getting, you know, trimmed by, you know, trillions of dollars. And, you know, when you could actually come to a place where if you pursued these policies down the line, you eventually have a balanced budget. Wouldn't that be great to go back to the days of surpluses where we're talking about lock boxes? Remember those debates? We got a surplus and we got a lock box. That was all into Democratic policies. They come in, you know, and he does his little, you know, you know, shtick that he does on Fox News. But he's the reason that there's inflation today. He's the reason the gas prices are up. He's the reason

that we have this deficit. Yeah. And a lot of people, you know, I get a lot of times, hey, you know, we think he's funny. And you're right. He gave tax cuts to billionaires and to corporations. There weren't a lot of those people down here in Louisiana. We have a lot of working people that are suffering as a consequence of. And he does have his shtick, right? He has his thing where he does on Fox News. And people will tell me sometimes, oh, we think he's funny. You know who doesn't think he's funny? Are the folks in Lake Charles who were devastated by natural disasters. They, two years after a hurricane hit Lake Charles, they still have blue tarps on their roof. They still have mold in their house. Many of them left the state never to return. And of the, I think it was a $3 billion

of estimated losses they received, they received the sixth of that money. People are not fighting for them. And if I had the platform that he had, I wouldn't be talking about all these nonsensical issues. I'd be talking about the people hurt in our state. And there are far too many of them that are being left behind as a result of his irresponsible leadership. And not only does he have these sorts of weird folksy phrases, and not only does he speak about out of both sides of his mouth,. And not only does he have these sorts of weird folksy phrases, and not only does he speak about out of both sides of his mouth, I think he speaks out of both sides of his vocal cords, if there's any of them, because I think I've actually seen

that he changed his voice as well when he decided to become a Republican and started using like this fake Southern accent. Is the guy just a total fraud or what's that about? Well, you know, I don't know too, I've heard that, you know, I don't know too much about phony or not. I don't want to speculate on that. Play the tape, Brett. Play the tape. Brett, do you have the video? I don't have a video pulled up, but I will play it after the interview. You know, and that is, you know, that's great to laugh at a little bit and I get it. What's phony though is what he represents. And we can laugh at these things, but as a, and you mentioned my grandfather a little bit, as someone who loves this country

and as someone who has spent a lifetime serving our country, I have a lot of problems with people who abandon our American principles. And we saw that, you know, very clear on January 6th. He was one of these six senators who, after a violent mob stormed the Capitol, after we had over 60 court cases confirmed, we had a free, fair, and accurate election. He was one of the six who went back in there and voted to overturn a free, fair, and accurate election. I will say this about him, and maybe I'm overly honest sometimes, but he's a smart guy. He is. He went he has degrees from University of Vanderbilt. He has a degree from the University of Virginia and his law degree from Oxford. Like he knows better. And I think, you know, more so than people talk the way he talks. What's phony is what he is, how he portrays himself as he is a smart guy who knows better. He

knew we had a free, fair, and accurate election, and he deliberately chose to lie. And look, he spit in the face of the very democracy that my friends and I spent the last 20 years defending. And you asked me why I'm in this race. There are many reasons, but none so more than that. I'm just not going to stand by and let that happen. On that note, I encourage everybody listening

and watching to this podcast to check out Luke's latest ad that's called The Lie. The Lie focuses on January 6th and John Kennedy's incitement of January 6th by spreading these lies, the big lie about our election, about this phony election fraud. Why do you think that's an important issue that voters should care about this election cycle? Well, it's important because we're betraying our American institutions. You know, I really thought and what I saw over the last four or five years was certainly painful to watch. I saw people abandon their principles. You meant abandoning their core, putting their political party above their country.

And I really thought on January 6th that we're going to come together and say, look, guys, enough is enough. No more. Like, we're not putting up with this nonsense anymore. And shame on me, because there were dozens of times in the past four or five years where I like, oh, certainly they'll speak up now. Or when, you know, he mocked a handicapped man in front of a microphone. Oh, you know, I always thought they would step up and condemn that type of behavior. And I fell for it again on January 6th. Like, oh, this is the end. Like every elected representative will come together and say, no more, we're Americans first. And not only did he fail to do that, he threw fuel in the fire. He was out there spreading the lie. Again, he was one of the six who actually took action while everyone else, a lot of them, to my understanding, intended to vote that way. But after what they saw, did come to conclusion enough, he didn't. And that's shameful. And it's more than that. It's every issue. We can look at Russia and Ukraine right now. Another issue of which he's taking both sides. He in 2018, he spent July 4th in Moscow the following year, despite repeated warnings from our intelligence officials when they were saying, hey, stop getting on TV and saying that Ukraine meddled in our election. It's not true. He continued to do it. Now, I'm sure if you asked him right now, he would say, yeah, I'm team Ukraine. But that's just whatever is most politically opportunistic at the time. Give him five minutes. You know, he'll probably change his

mind. Yeah. I mean, how is that a forgivable thing to spend the 4th of July? It's almost comical. Like you couldn't write that in a script. People would be like, come on, that's a little on the nose. 4th of July in Moscow. How do you you go to Fourth of July in Moscow? How do you defend doing that? And how in any way is that patriotism or American first or anything else that they pretend to espouse? Well, you know, I don't know where I was on July 4th. I can assure you it was not in Moscow, but I think you bring up an interesting point with patriotism. And so much of what I see these days is what I call performative patriotism, you know, whether it be being hugging the American flag or USA, USA, you know, that's great. I really want, obviously, I agree with the promotion of our country. I love this nation. But I think we're struggling right

now between symbols of patriotism and acts of patriotism. And I'm more interested in acts of patriotism. I'm more interested in doing the right thing, not necessarily just doing what's advantageous at the time. And then January 6th is a perfect example. That's a perfect illustration of the opportunity to be a patriot. And we had one right here in Louisiana. Senator Bill Cassidy is our senior senator here in Louisiana. He's a Republican. We disagree on some issues, but I do believe on his vote in January 6th. I think on his decision to, he was one of the senators who voted to convict President Trump during the impeachment trials. Look, he was a patriot. He put his country above his party and I can applaud that and I can recognize the value in that. No, no doubt about that. And Ben, you hit on this a little bit earlier, but I just want to

double down on it because it's such an important issue, because obviously families across the country are being hit by high prices. One of the things I've noticed in your messaging is that you are focused on this issue very much and you are making sure that people know that Democrats are the party that will help lower prices while Republicans are bailing out millionaires and billionaires. Now, how do we get this message across to the voters who, like Ben said earlier, you know, in polls, if you ask people who's better on specific issues, they go, oh, you know, I think that, you know, I support this issue and I support that issue. But then they say, who's better on the economy, Democrats or Republicans? The knee-jerk reaction is to say Republicans, even though history totally refutes that, there's no evidence to that at all. In fact, the contrary, every time Democrats are in power, the economy is doing better. So how do we make sure that the voters know going into this midterm election that Democrats are the party that's going to help with the inflation issue, help actually lower middle class taxes, help take the burden off working families. You're exactly right. Our campaign,

we always say these are serious times that require serious issues. You're not going to find us talking about inconsequential topics. We focus on two things. One, I've already talked about a lot because our American democracy, the other is Louisiana families and people in our state. We have a lot of working people here in this state and they're hurting. You know, oftentimes we talk about inflation as if it's some diagram on TV or like a bar graph in an economics class, right? It's not. You're not going to the state. And we see single mothers who are struggling to pay for groceries. We see, you know, dads who are trying to figure out how to put gas in their tank. And it doesn't stop there. It extends to health care as well. Look, we're seeing the rising cost of health care. And thank goodness, like we mentioned earlier, that Governor John

Belar has expanded Medicaid. We're seeing the rising cost of prescription drugs. And we believe that, one, let's stop just blaming everyone and doing nothing about it, right? Let's take action. And I believe we can do something about it by, first of all, focusing on American jobs and focus on American infrastructure. Look, it's quite obvious that inflation is a result of covid. Right. We saw bottlenecks in our supply system. We saw labor shortages. Obviously, the war in Ukraine with Russia is not helping with that. And but I don't think the answer is going on cable news and simply blaming other people. The answer is doing something. And I believe that if we that if we invest in American jobs, invest in American infrastructure, so we avoid these bottlenecks in the future, that we can bring costs down and help families in Louisiana, too many of which

are really suffering right now. And Luke, what I'm super impressed with the campaign is how great you are with your messaging. I feel like so many times, right, that's such a buzzword these days, messaging. Democrats are bad at messaging. But you and your campaign, I mean, you just lay out the facts. And let me just read you a few tweets here. One of your latest ones is, here's Senator John Kennedy's democracy scorecard. And then you just, boom, list it out. Blocked voting rights, voted to overturn the election, voted no on independent Jan 6 commission, went to build rapport with Kremlin on July 4th. Then you have another one. Senator John Kennedy is a multimillionaire career

politician who fought to pass a $2 trillion in tax cuts for corporation and billionaires. Why is it so hard for other Democrats, you think, to just be so simple and straightforward with your messaging? And how have you seen this be so effective the way you've approached this with your campaign? You know, I'll give you, I think it's easy for me because I'm talking about myself. These aren't issues that are lost on me, right? Like I'll give you a couple examples. Obviously, my service in the military makes me very attached to January 6th. I shouldn't even say my service in the military, my love for this country and what we represent, but also like I am a working person. I am certainly not. Well, I am comfortable. My wife works a full-time job. I work as an airline pilot and I have a daughter in college. I have a

son in school. So I understand these issues. I understand the cost of sending a kid to college. My wife and I were going to visit her parents this weekend. And I said, hey, but we usually go in two vehicles, right? In case I want to sneak out of there early or something. And he's like, well, just look, we're going in one. Like the gas costs are too high. So these are real issues to me. I understand them.

I live them. I get it. Look, I would imagine if I had to guess, and I'm speculating a little bit, I would imagine Senator Kennedy has not filled up a car with gas in a long time. I'd imagine he has not been to a grocery store in decades. This is something my family and I do every day. We understand the cost, both through our own personal experiences and talking to people. These are real issues. And as soon as we stop just trying to create division and talking about these nonsense issues and just focusing on Louisiana families, I think we're going to see a lot of change. And I hope I can be that change. You are such the perfect, I don't even want to say politician because you're just a genuine person to win this seat, to beat and defeat John Kennedy here. I mean, we know the history, how your grandfather sort of impacted your life and how that influenced ultimately where we ended up today. But was there one specific turning point where you're like, I have to get in this race now? Kennedy's being way too absurd. This is the issue. This is enough. Yeah. I think it was a culmination of things. I'll briefly tell

you how this conversation went. So I found myself complaining a lot. And I've always been a believer like I can sit here on the couch and complain to my wife and she kind of looks at me like, okay, here he goes again. That doesn't do any good, right? And I finally got to the point where I'm either going to shut up or I'm going to do something about it. And I really felt again, that I was the right candidate at the right time against the right opponent. I believe my background and my experiences make me not only the right candidate, but we've proven what wins here in Louisiana. And I mentioned Governor John Bel Edwards. We have a lot of similarities and those similarities are not an effort to duplicate his candidacy. But the truth is we just have, we're both from small town, Louisiana. We're both

military veterans. I would both describe us as, you know, just serious people. And he wins. He stays on topic. He puts his state above his party and he puts the people above his own political ambitions. And it's a proven path to victory here in Louisiana. And the other thing I'll say is, you know, I told my wife, I said, a little personal story here, if you don't mind, but I said, hey, I said, hey, I think I'm going to, I think I'm gonna do a bit, I think I'm gonna run for the United States Senate. And she said, I'm sorry. I said, yeah, I said, I think I really think it's the right opportunity for me. It's the right thing to do. And you have to remember I, my life, my 20 years, I'd been going a lot.

Like I missed a lot of time just being gone overseas for deployments, you know, dozens and dozens of attachments. And we got to a point in our life where we're comfortable. We have great kids. Like our life got kind of easy. You know, my, obviously my biggest worries were my, my tomato plants and my, and then you're on saints, but I thought, I thought more needed to be done. And she told me something when I, when I, when I decided I was going to run, she's like, I will support you as I've always supported you, but I'll tell you two things.

The first always be, you know, the father you've been, the husband you've been continue to run with dignity and honor, do it the right way. Never be personal. I'm like, yep, I can do that. I will always stick to who I am. And the second thing she said, that's been quite a motivating force to me. She said, do not embarrass me, go out there and win. And that's our intention. And that's what I plan to do, not only for her, but for the people of Louisiana and the people of this great nation. I'd love to leave it there, but I have to ask you one more question. We have such a passionate fan base and listenership here with the Midas Mighty, and I know that they would love to support your campaign. Where can they do that? Where should

they be donating to? Where should they be following you? Yeah, I appreciate that. You can join us at LukeMixon.com on social media. We're at Luke Mixon LA. If you could, you know, I always say we need the right message. We need the right messenger and you need the resource to do it. And I believe I'm the right person. I believe we have the right message, but we need the resources in order to get our word out. If you wouldn't mind shipping in five or 10 bucks, we'd appreciate it. If you don't mind, follow us on social media. We would certainly appreciate that as well.

And thanks for throwing it out there for us. Thank you for joining us on the Midas Touch podcast. Hey, thanks, guys. I appreciate it. We'll be right back after these messages. For the most important news of the day, massive news dump, handwritten contemporaneous notes, Treasury needs to hand over Trump's taxes with the most compelling interviews. Please welcome Congressman Adam Schiff, Molly John Fast, Mike McFaul, Andrew Weissman, Barb McQuaid, Glenn Kirshner, Colonel Alexander Vindman.

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Welcome back to the Midas Touch podcast. Great interview with Luke Mixon. Now we want to talk about Biden's policies regarding canceling student loan debt, forgiving student loan debt, deferring payments on student loans. Brett, what's your initial view of this? Okay. So I would say I have a bit of a nuanced view that not all of our listeners may totally like, but here are my thoughts though overall. Here are my thoughts. I think that young people for a very long time have been exploited and lied to. I think they've racked up debt based on decisions

that they made at a young age, decisions that they were encouraged to make. And it wouldn't necessarily be my policy to cancel all student debt, but if that's the decision that's made, I support it because I know how much it means to people. And I think it's hypocritical that we're constantly as a country bailing out big banks, the coal industry, the gas industry, while we let regular people suffer over these decisions that they were kind of coerced into. And I need to see the plan because one of the main reasons I don't just support a clean wipe of all the debt is because I think it does nothing to solve the structural problems that are there with the system.

Like what happens next year? What happens to the people taking out loans in the future? The high cost of college that is increasing every single year. That is really the concern. So I need to see the policy because I need to see what is actually being done to nip this at the bud, to actually solve this and not put a Band-Aid on it. Now, I've seen the arguments where people are like, oh, well, I've worked, you know, six jobs to pay off my loans. Why should these people get it? I mean, that reasoning just does not. I can't stand that. I, the conversation that should be had bread is exactly what you just mentioned. We got to look at the policies, how this is going to affect people now in the future. Um, but to say, you know, I worked my butt off to pay off my student loans and congrats,

like that's amazing. And, and no one's saying you didn't do that, but just because you had to suffer and go through that, you know, everyone else needs to do the same thing. I got screwed. So you deserve to be screwed. Exactly. I think that's kind of fucked up and I don't think you should be, I mean, that's life, right? That's life. I mean, I'm sure there are people in our lives too, you know, who died of diseases that we now have cures to and things like that, like, like things happen and we shouldn't want other people to suffer because we had to suffer. We should want people to be able to thrive and succeed and not go through the things that we had to go through. And if that's your logic behind it,

it's just like, how do you expect to make progress in any sort of field in anything? You know, that's a great point. Well, ultimately, here's the thing. For the people who say that, Brett, who say that I went through this, I had to pay it off. So therefore you do as well. It's kind of based on a false logic.

The logic is, is that the person is going to be able to pay it. And the person may not actually be able to pay it. And the person may not actually be able to pay it. And you just put that person through the suffering. And not only can they not pay it, but what kind of compounding negative impact does that have on the overall economy? So if I'm viewing it through the very selfish lens, I'm not, I'm just playing the devil's advocate of the person viewing it through a selfish lens. I want to make sure that the overall economy thrives because I want to be able to live in a country that has a thriving housing market that, uh, you know, has a thriving automobile market

that has thriving, you know, any other market that requires, uh, positive credit scores, one of the issues is that the people who are saddled with the student loan debt, because of the lending practices at play and the predatory lending practices, their credit scores are being reduced so low such that even if they're earning income, they're not incentivized to pay back the loan at all because their credit scores are so suppressed that they can't even buy a home. Yeah, their debt to income ratio just destroys them. So the logic, not even the debt to income ratio, Brett, not even that. That would be one thing if they carried a lot of debt, but they could still buy a home. The issue is, is why do I even cure my debt if I can never get out of it anyway, because the credit reporting and my credit score is so low that I can't get a car.

I can't get a home. I can't rent an apartment because no one will want to do that because I chose to get an education. Then when I got out, I couldn't make the payments right away. And then it's on my credit record for seven years from the date of a negative credit reporting. So to me, the broader issue is it's actually harming the overall economy that we have these predatory lending practices against student borrowers. It also applies to individuals who get negative credit reporting for medical bills and inability to pay medical bills. But the way our credit reporting works in the United States too, is that these individuals aren't then able to like get homes and become real functioning members of the overall society. So my view,

Brett, is very similar to yours. You know, I think that a cancellation of student debt that factors in primarily from the outset, lower income borrowers, and that tiers it. So people who truly are in need are getting the advantage as opposed to giving the advantage to people who have millions of dollars who just haven't paid it. I think you have to tier it and structure it that way. But ultimately, I'm with you. If at the end of the day, canceling student debt holistically is what the administration supports, I 100% support it. And going back to your point, Brett, time and time again, every 10 years, it seems that bankers who make millions and millions of dollars and who take in trillions of dollars in debt, that they get bailed out and they get to just

go on with their lives and live in mansions and have their yachts. And they just view that they're playing with house money because the government bails them out. And no one blinks an eye really when the government does bail them out. So why are we so retaliatory against a class of individuals who really need it, where the compounding effect of canceling student debt will be a net plus for the economy when people are able to contribute to society. I think that's fair. And I agree with everything you said. And I would definitely agree with a cancellation. But if it were me making the policy, if they said, Brett, you have the authority right now to make the policy that we're going to present and try to pursue. I think what I would do is I would first knock down all the interest

rates to zero. I think all the money that everybody paid as interest, I think should then be applied to the principal. And then I would maybe set up some sort of other kind of volunteer system or initiative that allows people to do some volunteer work that then cuts down on the rest of the principle that the road, I think that's, I think that would be a fair system that accounts for the interest that people have paid and, you know, will actually help get people out of this without a full cancellation. But if they want to go in and fully canceled debt, I mean, you know, I, I completely understand that policy. And I think it's about time that people aren't, you know, stiffed, you know, and while we pick up the bill of interest. One of the things, Brett, that the Biden administration has already done, though, which is not really getting a lot of attention, though, is that if you have previously defaulted on a loan, that will be removed from your credit reporting score already.

Which is a game changer for so many people that he did that. But I want to say this, the fact that what we're talking about is how can we deal with a problem that is affecting society. Such a good point. And that there may be different approaches to it is what politics should be about. And Republicans have made it about, I love Donald Trump, American first. I'm with this America, my America. Here's the flag. Let me make out with the flag. I'm licking the flag better than you lick the flag. Oh, I love Donald Trump. You love Donald Trump. What the hell is that? There could be different approaches to how we think we should deal with a economic problem involving millions of students saddled with never-ending debt and predatory lending practices,

and Biden is proposing a solution. Democrats have varied solutions. You have an approach. I may have an approach, but we're trying to solve an actual problem that is affecting people with compassion, with intelligence. And that's the conversations that I want to see. That is what has been lost from politics from one political party only, and that's the Republicans, the only political party that is talking about issues like we're having discussions about infrastructure. Should it go to this bridge? Should it go to this road? Should it go to this town? Should it go to this city? I think you're spending too much here. Oh, you're not spending enough here. Those are the conversations that

should be taking place in politics, not John F. Kennedy Jr. is going to come back and become Donald Trump's running mate. What are you talking? Catholics are satanic. Catholics are satanic. That's what Republicans are talking about. And it has devolved our political discourse. And it's not a both party issue. Don't come at me with the Democrats are also extreme. No, they're not. They're really not. Like, honestly, the the the most, quote unquote, extreme wing of the Democrat Party would be conservative parties in the UK would be a conservative party in Canada would look like a conservative coalition in most European democracies. That's what the left wing of the Democrats would look like. Fairly conservative people.

Because helping student loans, helping build roads and bridges and helping people find homes is not a radical leftist agenda. That is a human rights agenda. That is what politics is about. And we should never leave focus as we talk about this debate, Brett and Jordy, on student loans. We're talking about actually solving a problem that people are confronting. And that's what politics should be. And once again, this is you're not going to see anybody ever get banned from Twitter for giving their varying opinions on the student loan debt debate or raising taxes or anything. And you're so right, because if they did, if Twitter ever banned Marjorie Taylor Greene for basically saying, I don't think you should cancel student loan debt. I think that that would be offensive to me. If they ever banned her for it, I would speak out against that. I'd speak out against it. I'd speak in favor of how dare you? You're taking away her right of free speech. But when you ban her for saying that vaccines don't work or worse, that vaccines kill you. Good. Get out of here. Good riddance. Get the hell out of here.

And that is the free speech debate in a rap. Is that even a word? Is that even a phrase? I don't know. That is the free speech debate. Why can't I speak today? I don't know. No, you're doing great. You're doing great. I know something funny that we do as brothers, we get all the most common phrases wrong. I don't have a great example off the top of my head, but that is an example. The fact that you can't even think of a phrase, that's an example right there. There you go. Anyway, but we go in very confidently and we make up. Oh, absolutely. No, no one would be able to tell just based on how confidence our delivery is, but then, you know, re-listening to the podcast the next day, I'm like, I don't think that was particularly

the right phrase there. I do have a lot more sympathy for people who are on TV all day. I'm like, don't get on there. They're speaking all day. You have no idea what it's like to just speak uninhibited for so long. Cut people some slack, people. Cut people some slack. I want to say this, Brett and Jordy, our YouTube channel has been crushing it lately. I mean, we picked up somewhere close to 50,000 new subscribers like over the past week, basically. And so thank you for everyone who's subscribed to the YouTube channel. And I got to say, we got to give a special shout out to Brian Tyler Cohen, has been crushing it on YouTube and Facebook and of course, Twitter, you know, but Brian's YouTube presence and how he's approached

it. And everything Brian does is super genius. I want to say that like Tyler Cohen and like, you wonder like, well, how's that person so successful? It's the work like Brian Tyler Cohen's work ethic is when you talk to him, he's working like 20 hours a day. That's not an exaggeration. Making these incredible videos. He's amazing. And he cares so much and he's such an authentic person. And so it's always great to like work with Brian and I've admired his, just the way he

works. And I got to say that a lot of the things that he does on YouTube, we've looked at and basically said, how can we make our YouTube better? So special shout out to Brian. of the top ranked political podcasts in the country and gets like the world's most incredible guests. And so I also encourage, you know, in the spirit of telling everybody to build this pro democracy media and support one another, I encourage everybody to check out No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen, the podcast where he breaks down the biggest stories of the week. He interviews the biggest names of politics. Are you ready for this? It's just a silly lineup. He's interviewed President Biden, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Katie Porter, Jamie Raskin, Pete Buttigieg, Nancy Pelosi, and on and on and on. So when we say big names, it really does not get bigger than that. The president of the United States was on his podcast. So check out No Lie with Brian Tyler

Cohen. See why he has more than 2 million subscribers across the social media platforms, why his videos have been viewed more than 1 billion times. It's a political podcast that cuts right to the point, focuses on the issues that you care about. And it's a destination for our leaders in the House, the Senate and the White House. That's No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen available anywhere you listen to podcasts. Support pro-democracy media, folks. That's what it's all about. Oh, absolutely, Brett.

I want to thank everybody for tuning in to the Midas Touch podcast today. Special thanks to our guest, Luke Mixon. Of course, special thanks to our sponsors as well, Upstart, Titan. Make sure you check out Brian Tyler Cohen's podcast as well. We will see you on the next Midas Touch podcast. Always here fighting for democracy for you. With you each and every pod, Ben, Brett, and Jordy signing off. Shout out to the Midas Mighty.