The MeidasTouch Podcast - Jack Smith gets KEY Grand Jury Testimony and Pete Buttigieg TELLS ALL in Exclusive Interview

Episode Date: January 27, 2023

On today’s episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast, we sit down with Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg! During this interview, we cover a variety of topics including the the tangible impacts of the Infrastructure Act, how the Department of Transportation is addressing the challenges of rural transportation and the needs of rural communities, what Secretary Buttigieg makes of Republicans who voted against the Infrastructure Act that try to go back to their constituents and take credit for the improvements in their home states & much more! The rest of the episode we break down the latest breaking news of the week to keep you up to date! We discuss the latest developments with Jack Smith’s criminal investigation into Donald Trump as he secures grand jury testimony from a top Trump official, new George Santos updates that put the MAGA fraud in massive legal jeopardy, Kevin McCarthy weaponizing congress and instituting a committee to “investigate the origins of COVID,” the mental gymnastics Republicans are doing in order to rationalize the classified documents found at Mike Pence’s Indiana home and much more. New full-length episodes of the MeidasTouch Podcast featuring the brothers are released every Tuesday & Friday morning. The rest of the week, enjoy our short-form content we call ‘The Mighty.’ If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to rate, review and subscribe! DEALS FROM OUR SPONSORS: AG1 by Athletic Greens: https://athleticgreens.com/meidas ZBiotics: https://zbiotics.com/meidas Shop Meidas Merch at: https://store.meidastouch.com Join us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/meidastouch Remember to subscribe to ALL the Meidas Media Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://pod.link/1510240831 Legal AF: https://pod.link/1580828595 The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://pod.link/1595408601 The Influence Continuum: https://pod.link/1603773245 Kremlin File: https://pod.link/1575837599 Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://pod.link/1530639447 The Weekend Show: https://pod.link/1612691018 The Tony Michaels Podcast: https://pod.link/1561049560 American Psyop: https://pod.link/1652143101 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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groceries your summer calls for, Instacart has you covered. Download the Instacart app and enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart. Grocer groceries that over-deliver. Special Counsel Jack Smith secures the criminal grand jury testimony from former Trump Homeland Security Department official and MAGA extremist Ken Cuccinelli, who Trump had asked to seize voting machines after the 2020 election. Is Jack Smith moving closer to indictments? Let's discuss. And speaking about moving closer to indictments,

Fulton County District Attorney Fawnie Willis informed a Georgia Superior Court judge earlier in the week that her charging decisions relating to her criminal investigation of the 2020 election interference by Trump was, quote, imminent. And to the surprise of many, she asked the judge, don't yet release the grand jury report because those criminal charges are coming our way soon wow we will keep you posted on what is going on there let me repeat that folks she's saying charging decisions are imminent and speaking of charging decisions the california state bar which regulates the licensing of lawyers in the state of California, has filed a case to disbar and revoke the license of Donald Trump's lawyer, John Eastman, for his role in the insurrection.

You know what MAGA stands for? Make attorneys, get attorneys. Get your attorney, John Eastman, because you're not going to be one very soon. Speaking of insurrection and insurrectionist, Donald Trump made a video of himself, a completely reprehensible and deranged and just weird video of himself. There he is, very, very sweaty. We'll talk about it. Very sweaty. Giving marching orders to the House of Representatives subcommittee that was created by Kevin McCarthy to attack the Department of Justice and FBI and cover up for insurrectionists. And in the video, Trump told them to focus on some of the most vile anti-American conspiracies.

And does it shock you at this point that most polls are showing that about 75% of Americans disapprove of these MAGA extremist nutjobs in Congress? And if you think my language is strong right there, well, the right-wing magazine, the National Review, just put out an article where they refer to Donald Trump, and I'm quoting them right now, as a deranged hobo in an asylum that he has created for himself and that he is auditioning for one of the three witches in Macbeth. Okay, and let's get to good news. Let's get to what adults in charge of our government are doing. Thankfully, we have adults in charge of the executive branch.

President Biden and his administration are actually delivering for the American people. Airports, bridges, roads, and other infrastructure projects are being built across the country thanks to the infrastructure bill and other pieces of legislation that President Biden has spearheaded, 7,000 projects are underway and more than 20,000 projects will soon be underway by the end of the year. And what does that mean? Jobs, jobs, jobs. So while MAGA extremists are talking about green M&Ms and whatever the heck they're talking about each day and stoves and whatever, we're talking about green M&Ms and whatever the heck they're talking about each day and stoves and whatever. We're talking about jobs, people. And speaking about infrastructure and speaking about jobs, we are going to be joined on this episode by none other than the United States Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg.

You heard that right, Secretary Pete Buttigieg. We'll be joining us shortly. I'm Ben Mycelis. And wow, is this a special episode of the Midas Touch podcast. Brett and Jordy, happy to have you both, but I'm not going to lie, slightly happier to have Secretary Pete Buttigieg on the show. You know what, Ben? I'll let it slide just this one time. I know you usually try to take a little dig at either Jordy or me, but I'll let it slide because I too am very excited to have the Secretary of Transportation on the show. We've long been big fans of the work that Pete Buttegege has been doing, been following for a long time, been playing all those great clips where he goes on those right-wing networks and claps back at the lies and the disinformation.

Really been a master with an incredible political future ahead of him, doing incredible, incredible work in the administration. And think about what the priority of the administration has been. It's been infrastructure and jobs. And Pete Buttigieg is the guy seeing that all through. So psyched, so psyched that Secretary Buttigieg is here with the Midas Mighty for an extra special episode. And it feels like the wheels of justice are turning and turning and turning. Ben, a lot of good news today. I bet it feels good for you that many of your predictions you're seeing come true now. Good stuff to hear. Jordy, it's great to see you, man. How are you doing, Jay? Thanks.

I'm doing well. I'm so pumped for today's episode. I just want to say this before we get started, too. I was doing my pre-show, just like regimen, to get ready. And over the last couple of years, fellas, I think I've been aging in dog years. I have a swap, like a swap of gray hair forming in the back of my head right now. I'm a little bit worried about it. I'm not going to lie.

I don't know if that's normal for a 29-year-old to have that much gray hair in the back of their head. But needless to say, I'm stoked for today's episode and I'm stoked to be here with you guys. I just needed to get that off my chest. I needed to tell somebody. It makes you look dignified. So I wouldn't worry about it.

But I think it's interesting that it's only in the back where the camera can't see it. I think that's a little sus, a little sus. I think it's interesting that you chose to share that. I mean, it does show your vulnerability. I mean, you know, we do talk before the episode, before we go live in front of millions of people, there is an opportunity for you to share those thoughts. Some people, you know, share those thoughts offline, but Jordy shares everything live. I like it. Let me try to steer the ship. Speaking of infrastructure, let's try to steer the train, steer the ship in the right direction. And let's talk about special counsel Jack Smith, who secured the grand jury testimony of former Trump Homeland Security official Ken

Cuccinelli. One of the funny things just to remember about Ken Cuccinelli, I mean, it's not funny. It's actually goes to the point of everything that Donald Trump touches not only goes to hell, but also that everything he does is illegal. So Ken Cuccinelli was unlawfully appointed as the acting deputy secretary of Homeland Security. And he was also concurrently unlawfully appointed as the principal acting deputy director of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services back in 2019. It didn't go through the appropriate Federal Vacancy Reform Act and federal judges, in addition to Ken Cuccinelli, also Chad Wolf, who was the Secretary of Homeland Security, just everything that they did was illegal because they weren't appropriately appointed. They wouldn't go through the normal

channels. He would just say, hey, these are people who are, you know, I'm not going through the Senate confirmation process. I'm just saying that they are running it. So that's just some background on Ken Cuccinelli. But Ken Cuccinelli was someone who Rudy Giuliani approached after Mike Flynn and Sidney Powell and Donald Trump talked about seizing the voting machines after the election. And so Ken Cuccinelli was approached by Giuliani and said, we need you to make an order. Here are the executive orders. It wasn't, we need you to make an order. Trump presented Cuccinelli with executive orders that were basically pre-written to seize voting machines, to try to spread the unfounded, absurd, and as Bill Barr called it, batshit crazy conspiracies that Donald Trump was perpetuating about the 2020 election. Ultimately, Cuccinelli didn't effectuate the plan, not because he didn't want to,

but Cuccinelli was just like, that's not what we do at the Department of Homeland Security, so we can't do that. Not that I didn't want to do that. But anyway, Cuccinelli was seen walking into and then out of the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C. So will undoubtedly have been questioned by these criminal grand juries that have been impaneled and that Jack Smith is using for his criminal investigations into election interference and a number of criminal charges there. But no doubt Cuccinelli is going to be asked about the seizing of the voting machines. Also, Cuccinelli's text messages and emails leading to the January 6th insurrection, as well as Chad Wolf's, conveniently deleted and

destroyed. And so is there an obstruction of justice investigation going on as well? And are there questions regarding the destruction of this information? When Cuccinelli walked in, he was asked by the press, he was asked, so what do you think they're going to ask you? He's like, I don't know. And Cuccinelli, by the way, gave some real vile and reprehensible press conferences during the Trump administration, like just horrific, you know, horrific policies that he supported.

No, it's easy. It's easy to forget just how horrible these people were and just how terrible the statements that they made and the things that they did to try to destroy our democracy. And for those who watched the January 6th hearings, I hope you watched it with the Midas Touch Network, but you probably heard Ken Cuccinelli's name come up quite a bit during those January 6th hearings. And it came out that Trump actually told a group of officials, quote, something to the effect of, I think Ken Cuccinelli would be a great special counsel. Trump actually wanted him to be a special counsel in order to probe this fake concept of election fraud that was going on. This is all part of Trump's disinformation campaign. And what you have to remember from the Trump administration is that the very thing that he is now accusing the Department of Justice of, and that he is getting Kevin McCarthy and his goons in the Republican Party to try to harass the

Department of Justice about, what they call the weaponization of the Justice Department. That's exactly what Donald Trump was doing with his Justice Department when he was president. And that's why everything they do, everything they decide, all the committees that they make, every time they're telling on themselves, 100% of the time. You need to look no further than look at the actions that they are trying to investigate. Look what they're trying to flip the tables on. Look what they're accusing the other side of. And it will always come back to, oh yeah, you did that. That's why you're investigating it. Because that's what you did when you were in charge of the Department of Justice. Every single time it always comes back and they tell on themselves nonstop and they do it to

deflect. They do it to muddy the waters and they do it so that when things, when people are reminded about this, and when he walks into the Department of Justice office to speak with Jack Smith, they try to muddy the waters of public perception. But Jack Smith here, dead focused on the truth and getting the high-level players in the Trump administration to speak. This is a big, big, big moment in this investigation and shows that Jack Smith is taking the January 6th coup attempt seriously. But not only that, like you said, Ben, obstruction, which I think is going to be a major

part of this entire case and the elements, the events around January 6th itself, the events that actually, the efforts, the lengths that people went to try to overturn the election results. And that began far before January 6th and lasted far after January 6th. You might even be able to say that lasts until this day, these efforts to overthrow our democracy from the Republican Party. So this is a really, really good sign from the special counsel office and from the Department of Justice. Jordy. Don't you just like how Jack Smith is just putting his head down and doing the work? There's no need for him to take the bait with Donald Trump's ridiculous statements and threats and just vile, whatever.

He's these weird accusation that Trump puts out on his deranged true social platform. He just puts his head down. Jack Smith does the work and it's driving these MAGA Republicans crazy. Love to see it. Yeah, I don't even know what Jack Smith sounds like. I have no idea. I have no idea what he sounds like. And you know what? I don't think I ever want to know what he sounds like because he's playing 3D chess right now and it's working. And it's in complete contrast to what Bill Barr and John Durham were doing. We learned about this bombshell report. So when John Durham was appointed to investigate all of these insane conspiracies and try to attack

the whistleblowers who were providing information linking Donald Trump to Russia, Bill Barr wanted Durham, who at that time had a decent reputation as a prosecutor in Connecticut, but he wanted Durham to basically attack the people providing information that linked Trump with Russia, truthfully linked Trump with Russia. But here's one of the things that the New York Times was reporting was that the review by John Durham at one point veered into a criminal investigation relating to Donald Trump himself, even as it failed to find wrongdoing on the origins of Russia inquiry. So some Italian officials reported to Durham, we're aware of Donald Trump engaging in financial crimes. And then Durham used that to say as part of his investigation into the origins

of the Russian inquiry, we have now found crimes. So we need to investigate criminal conduct relating to the origins of the Russia inquiry. It wasn't the crimes relating to the origins of the Russian inquiry. It was crimes that Donald Trump committed and Durham himself investigated that. Didn't farm it out like you should to the right FBI officials. He looked into it himself and the article talks about how he would be sipping scotch with Bill Barr and basically being ordered to shut down these investigations into Trump. The only criminal insight and intel that Durham got, think about this, was about crimes committed by Trump. And if you go back to this time period of when these crimes were announced, so go back to this 2019, 2020 period, the New

York Times are also to blame for the problem too. Yes, they're disclosing it right now in the report, but go back to August 14th, 2020. This is what the New York Times reported. For more than two years, President Trump has repeatedly attacked the Russia investigation, portraying it as a hoax and illegal months after special counsel Mueller closed it. Now, Mr. Trump's own justice department has opened a criminal investigation into how it all began. That's not what the criminal investigation was, Jordy and Brett. It was into Donald Trump's financial dealings that they used to say that it was a criminal investigation into the origins and how it all began. And then NBC, around that time period in October 19th, 2019, when this was all going down,

they similarly reported kind of what the New York Times reported there, that critics of what John Durham is doing should be careful because Durham is learning a lot about criminal information. But again, that criminal information was Trump's crimes that he covered. This is what it said. Justice Department officials have said that Durham has found something significant and that critics should be careful. To reiterate, the something significant were Donald Trump's financial crimes, which they kept hidden from the public. And this is how these dirty prosecutors that Donald Trump appointed, or how Bill Barr appointed in this case, and he obviously put Barr in the position, this is how they manipulate the media. And it seems like a lot of these organizations fall for

it over and over and over and over again. They continuously take the bait. And it seems like a lot of these organizations fall for it over and over and over and over again. They continuously take the bait. And what they end up doing is they end up misinforming the American public instead of informing them of what's actually going on. I mean, this is like the second time this week that we learned specifically about the New York Times. And yeah, kudos to the New York Times for reporting this story and coming clean. But they're the ones who made this tremendous mistake about this story and coming clean, but they're the ones who made this tremendous mistake about this story and put out straight up fake news into the ecosystem. This is the second time this week. And I say that because we saw that the New York Times took cues seemingly from an FBI

agent, a top FBI agent, Charles McGonigal, who turns out was being paid by a Russian oligarch, being paid by a Russian oligarch once he got out of the FBI's office. This is the guy who presumably, no one knows for sure, but presumably was the source of the New York Times story that was titled FBI sees no clear link to Russia. We find out this week that the lead FBI investigator on that case was in bed with Russia with the guy who worked with Paul Manafort, Donald Trump's ex-campaign manager. They were working together. How convenient is that? How convenient is that? And these reporters sometimes, and there are a lot of great reporters who do a lot of great work. I'm not just hating on the media in general, but there's some reporters out there in big publications who are so excited to get a scoop, who are so excited to get an

exclusive that they report whatever these sources say. They go, oh, well, someone in the Durham office told me this. Oh, somebody in the FBI office. So I better report that. This is a good one. This is a good one without corroborating it with a lot of other different people and actually drilling down in the information. It's how half-truths and withheld information can really, really manipulate the public. And in this case, you have Durham being reported, oh, Durham's got some criminal activity he's found. Oh, this is a big deal. And the implication is that Durham is the guy investigating Hillary Clinton and Russia and all this stuff that, oh, he found something, but no, he found evidence of Donald Trump's financial crimes. And by the way, they decided to know what we're not going to prosecute that.

Whoops. We're not going to prosecute that. Never came public about it like they're supposed to. They're supposed to do a declination and say, you know what? We're not going to prosecute. We've learned about these crimes. We're not going to prosecute. Never came public with that. And so I hope that this is something that's pursued as well. Add it

to the heap of investigations into Donald Trump. It's just, it's so ridiculous. And for now, years later to find out that this is what happened, it's absolutely outrageous. And that's what happens. So Jordy, go ahead. No, I just want to say, Brett, I just wanted to talk more about your point with the media, because I think it's really astute. And I think when you start to do something multiple times, a pattern, it can no longer be called a mistake. And not to go too hard here, because everyone makes mistakes in this world, absolutely, when it comes to reporting and whatnot. But I just feel, and I don't know how you actually fix this, but too often, these publications, these outlets,

they're rewarded for getting that exclusive. They're rewarded for getting the top source that nobody else has access to. So they're going to just report on this stuff and continue to do, unless they go check. And that's why I think what we do at the Midas Touch Network has just been so important, because ultimately at the end of the day, we don't answer to anybody except the Midas Mighty who wants the truth. And that's the most important thing to us. You know what it reminds me of, Jordy? It reminds me of a week or two ago when we saw Dinesh D'Souza do that post that said, top democratic state, bust top official for election fraud or whatever it was. And then you read the article and the article is about a Republican official. That's how you could withhold information in order to manipulate folks. And I saw Jenna Ellis today posted the same article because you know, those people are actually paid to post those articles and get

clicks on the links by the way. Um, but it's the same thing, but this is done by the New York times who people trust as fact, and they have a lot of good journalists. They do a lot of good reporting. Like ironically, this reporting on basically themselves here. But you can't take cues from people that you cannot trust, especially not Bill Barr, especially not John Durham. And that's why this whole revisionist history that Donald Trump is trying also of like, oh, Bill Barr, you mean the Democrat Bill Barr who the liberals love? No, no one likes Bill Barr. Period. End of story. We don't like him.

We don't claim him. He's not one of us. And we should all be outraged at Bill Barr as well as with Durham and with the Times for reporting on this piece. Yes. It's what happens though, when you both sides the issues and you don't exercise common sense and you try to over-complexify, it's not even a word, overcomplicate. I like it. Over-complexify. That's a good one. You try to over-complexify is my new word. You try to over-complicate the situation. It's like, okay, let's be very clear. The person who ran Donald Trump's campaign, the person who Donald Trump appointed to oversee the entire United States security apparatus, Donald Trump's other top aides, okay, they were all criminally prosecuted or pled guilty to their,

based on their connections to Russia, okay? Like, let's just say common sense, right? Like, you don't have to get more complicated than that. So you shouldn't go down a rabbit hole where you're misled if you're guarding the prism of just common sense from the outset. And someone who approaches things, I just think from a common sense prism of law and order. And I got to give her so much credit as Fawnie Willis, the Fulton County district attorney. So she's completed her probe before the special grand jury in Fulton County. The special grand jury voted to release their report of who they want criminally indicted. And going into this big hearing before Judge McBurney, I think we all thought that Phony Willis was going to say, yeah, release the report.

But she surprised us not saying that, but saying something else. She said charging decisions are imminent. Let's play this incredible moment in the courth justice and the rights of not the state but others we are asking that the report not be released because you haven't seen that report decisions are imminent decisions are imminent charging decisions are imminent. Decisions are imminent. Charging decisions are imminent. And the question is, who is she going to charge? I mean, we have some ideas. I mean, people in Trump's inner circle, clearly the fake electors have been notified that they are targets of the criminal investigation. But when I hear imminent, I'm thinking next week. I'm thinking in the next two weeks. You're thinking it could happen right now while we're doing the show?

While we're doing the show. No, but I wanted to home in on a couple other words as well. And those are multiple defendants, to protect multiple defendants. In that one, in those couple of sentences that Fawnie Willis said at the court, she revealed a ton of information. Because you know how you have multiple defendants? It's when you indict multiple people. And so she basically gave away, yes, with all surety, indictments are coming. That's an absolute now. A hundred percent.

There are indictments. Fonny Willis said in court that there are indictments coming, right? I mean, you have to read into that way. If she just said charging decisions are imminent, the charging decisions could be, yes, I'm going to charge or no, I'm not going to charge. But that paired with multiple defendants and protecting their rights as defendants, that right there, that connection, I think really shows exactly where she's heading. So the ball is in Judge McBurney's court whether or not to release the report. And one of the questions McBurney was asking is, why isn't this special grand jury like the January 6th committee in the sense of, isn't this

something that the public should see? And Phony Willis, the Fulton County District Attorney, is like, yes, but you're going to see it soon. Let me indict them. And then you'll basically be able to see the recommendations. It's just like, you know what I'm talking about. You read the report. You know exactly what I'm talking about. I love it. Wow. All right. Well, now I'm so excited to finally get to the point where we're going to introduce our special guest. We've got the Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, who is joining the show. I think we bring in Pete Buttigieg right now. Should we bring the secretary in?

I think it's what the people have all been waiting for. The big moment, our interview. Who wants to do the honors of introducing it? I think it's got to be Jordy. Jordy. And now, without further ado, our interview with Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg.

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pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. All right, and we are joined by the Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg. Secretary, welcome to the Midas Touch podcast. Thanks, excited to be with you. Well, first off, congratulations. We are coming up now on the two-year anniversary of you officially being confirmed to the role of Secretary of Transportation. So I don't know, maybe let's turn this into the State of the Union, if you will, and if you can take us through the past two years, how do you feel about the progress you have been able to make so far? Well, look, I can't think of a two-year period that's been more eventful for our transportation systems, both in the challenges that we faced, especially coming out of COVID and what that meant for everything from container shipping to airline travel,

but also the work that we've been able to do with the President's infrastructure plan. We're really, you know, we're rounding out year two that we've been here as an administration, but we're really just beginning year two of having that package, having that funding. And now is when we're putting it to work in communities around the country. out there with those resources that we fought so hard for to be able to improve an airport terminal and fix a bridge and reroute a road and enhance a railway and support a transit system. All the different things that we've been saying for decades needed to happen. And now we're out of the mode of just talking about what's going to happen, and we're actually doing it. And we often hear about legislation like the Landmark Infrastructure Act in terms of names of the bills and the price tags associated with the bills. But folks in communities often aren't aware of the tangible impact of legislation.

So how can Americans find out what upgrades are coming to their cities and their towns. Yeah, I try to get away from the alphabet soup of the different laws that have been passed, the IIJA or BIL and the IRA and even the dollar amounts and just get down to what it's actually doing for people. And we got a lot of information on our department's website, for example, about the projects that we've launched so far. I think we're up to about 1,800 projects that we've decided to fund. And again, we're just getting started. But how I really try to think of it is how lives are different because of the work that we're doing. You know, we're doing Fontana, California, just give you one example from the Inland Empire. In that community, students on their way to

Edawanda High School have to walk basically on a four-lane road or highway. It doesn't have a gutter, let alone a sidewalk. And they're competing with traffic in order to get to school. We're funding a set of road improvements that, among other things, is going to fix that for them. Southern Indiana, my native state, has a community called Tell City, very small, rural community. They've got a port which is about getting crude iron, they call it pig iron, off of barges that come down the Ohio River, get it up to a foundry that's responsible for about a thousand jobs there. That river runs too high or too low sometimes for the crane to work properly because it's on a barge. So our port funding is helping them move that crane on the land. It means the jobs there are going to be more secure. And that's the same funding going to that very small community. That's the same

program that we're using to fund 10,000 feet of on-dock rail at the Port of Long Beach, which is going to help with supply chains and help make sure that we get out of this mode where we're worried about things arriving on time. So wherever you live and whether you experience the transportation system as an airline passenger, as a bus user, as a driver, as all three in the same day, you're going to see things and are beginning to see things now because of this funding and because of these projects that we're doing. That's what really excites us at the department. That's why I'm proud to be part of this effort that the president launched, that they got bipartisan votes. Some, not all, but some Republicans

crossed over to work with us on this. And it's really affecting people's lives. And sure, there are some Republicans who crossed over and supported what should be a completely bipartisan piece of legislation. But, you know, look, one of the things we talk about a lot here on the Midas Touch Network is you have a lot of these Republicans who voted against the infrastructure bill with all the theatrics about why they were going to vote it down. But we often see them now at the ribbon cutting ceremonies, and they're there taking credit for it. So what do we do now? I mean, this was President Biden's plan. This is a plan that you are implementing. So how do we present this so the public is aware who is the group that actually brought them these benefits? Yeah, look, I think politicians should be accountable for their decisions. And if a

member of Congress voted no on funding something that's coming their way, then I don't expect them to be collecting credit for it. I just saw another example of this in Texas, Anzalduas facility that we're investing in. And I saw a news story that had one of the senators from Texas picture all over it when both of them were no votes on the funding that we're using to actually do the project. Now, having said that, I think at the political level, that conversation does need to be had. But at the resident level, at the community level, we're not going to punish a community because their legislators didn't help us get the funding in place. We're going to support the projects that need doing.

And if you've got a safety improvement that needs to be done, you've got a railway crossing that's blocked all the time, and you've got a vision to change that and create an underpass so that you can just get to where you're going without having to wait on a train, we're not going to stop and look up whether you're in a red district or a blue district. If it's a good project that meets the criteria and it makes the cut, we're going to do it because it's the right thing to do. And I just have one more question before turning it over to Brett. Republicans are refusing to raise the debt ceiling. They've talked about holding our nation hostage unless their conditions aren't met. And look, it seems like Republicans are threatening to push America to default on its debt. How serious is this? I mean, from your role as

Secretary of Transportation and just for the country in general. How serious are these threats by Republicans to not raise the debt ceiling and to, you know, threaten that America can default on its debt? Well, look, first of all, the U.S. cannot go into a default. If that happens, the results would be disastrous. America pays its debts, and that's something that we need to keep doing. Again, as has often been pointed out, this isn't about any new spending. This is about just making sure that America pays bills that Congress, and by the way, 90% of it was before this president arrived, that previous administrations and Congresses have run up. But the second thing I would say is,

you know, they seem to be adopting a position that they would hold that as kind of a hostage unless there are deep cuts in other kinds of spending. And what they've said is, you know, and basically any spending besides defense, they would want to go after. Well, a pretty good example of meaningful taxpayer dollars going to good things outside of what goes through the Pentagon is us, right? I mean, we are fixing bridges, fixing roads, fixing airports, and that's exactly the kind of thing that if I understand House Republicans correctly, they're saying needs to be put on the chopping block so soon after we got this bill through and we're actually making these improvements.

Now they've been very vague about what they would actually want to cut, I think because they probably can't agree among themselves. But I do think it's something to watch out for. If their demands are to deeply cut everything but the Pentagon, then I would want to know which highways do they think shouldn't be improved? Which railway systems do they think we should stop our improvements on? Which supply chains should we not facilitate? And which ports should we not add capacity to? Because that's what we're doing with the money. One of the biggest fears that our viewers and listeners have here are threats to American democracy and, in that respect, threats to democracy around the world. And what I never really

fully had the realization about until very recently is just how intricately tied that the work that you do at the Department of Transportation is to the preservation and the protection of American democracy. And I've heard you discuss this. I was wondering if you could explain how do roads and bridges and high-speed broadband, how does that connect to the protection of American democracy? Yeah, the way I view it and the way I think the president views it is that a big part of the measure of our democratic system compared to authoritarian approaches that you see elsewhere in the world is our ability to deliver, to deliver results and to deliver services. And a big part of that is transportation. We are out here working to demonstrate

that a democratic process is more likely to lead to transportation infrastructure that is functional, that is fair, that is serving everybody. And one example that haunts me is from the last period where democracy was really being called into question in the United States in the 30s, a lot of respectable or at least respected people in fashionable circles in Washington and other parts of the U.S. were openly praising the rise of fascism that they saw in places like Italy. And what they would say about Mussolini was always, well, you know, maybe a tough guy, but he makes the trains run on time. Which, by the way, wasn't true. But I think it's very important to see how the perceived delivery of the basics, like transportation, is tied into the perceived legitimacy of an entire system of government. And so part of what's at stake here is using the democratic process to equip our government to deliver solutions for people so that there's a higher level of trust in the democratic

process. I think we got into a vicious cycle of this when you saw funding cuts starting in the 80s that made it harder for government to deliver, which eroded trust, which actually threatens democracy. And I think we're trying to do the opposite of that, a virtuous cycle right now, where we put in the resources and hold ourselves to the standards that are going to build people's confidence in the things that we share and in good public policy solutions so that we can keep going out and doing more good things. And I'll ask you directly, do you think the current day

Republican Party is trying on purpose to erode that trust in our democracy, in the government's ability to actually work? You know, there's no getting away from the fact that a lot of what we hear from a lot of elected officials, Republican elected officials, does seem to be about diminishing Americans' confidence in our system, whether we're talking about false claims being made about elections or whether we're talking about just a tone that I think really threatens to be self-fulfilling in terms of saying nothing good can get done in government, therefore it's not really clear what their solution is. But there is that kind of quality to the approach they take. And not all of them. And you can see that they don't believe this to the core when some of them come rushing to be at the ribbon cutting of the projects that we funded, even if they voted against it. So I'm

not sure they actually are all doing this with the courage of their convictions. But you do see that pattern out there, and I'm worried about it. And when you see it kind of the most, you know, I think to the fiasco with Southwest, it seems like with our political system, when there's a problem that occurs, such as those recent issues with Southwest, the response from folks on the other side of the aisle is not to say, okay, Secretary Buttigieg, President Biden, how can we come together to fix this issue? It's more like, okay, who could we pin the blame on to score some political points here? And to me, when we elect leaders, we elect them for the purpose, not because we think everything is going to be perfect all the time. We elect them because we know that there will be problems and we want the right people to be in place for once those problems, when they

occur, that they could actually find a solution. What have you learned from those experiences? Have you been surprised at all by that sort of instant polarization, that instant blame game that occurs anytime there's an issue across the country? Yeah, I think in a perfect world, or even just a healthier public discourse, when a big problem comes up, the focus goes on to a debate over the best way to solve that problem. And what we've seen, unfortunately, with some people trying to take political advantages, when a problem comes up, whether it's shipping and supply chain challenges or airline challenges or things that have affected our rail system, none of which were created by this administration, but all of which our administration has faced, confronted, and I would say successfully worked on. You know, we need to make sure the conversation is about how

do you fix it, not how do we take, oh, something bad happened, therefore we're going to say it's your fault or the government's fault. And, you know, Southwest is a good example. When a corporation screws up, there will always be some people who try to blame the government. The way we view it is, you know, we're watchdogs, we're regulators. And when there is a problem with a business practice, for example, we're going to come in and hold that business accountable. But it's different from the responsibilities that the business itself has. It's a bit ironic, though, isn't it? This is the party who says the government should be completely hands off, no regulation. And then the second a problem occurs, they go, where's the government? What's going on here? I mean, do you see the irony in that?

Yeah, especially when it's not backed by any answers, right? So if Republican critics in Congress wanted to join Democrats and say, you know, we should reinforce some of the the powers of the Department of Transportation to, I don't know, for example, you know, make sure that air passengers have a good experience, we would welcome that conversation. And maybe there would be a tug of war about exactly how to do it. And there would be more conservative principles about how to have that consumer protection work grow versus the liberal approach to doing it. Like, you know, that's how a public policy debate is supposed to work. That's not exactly what you see, especially in the online

spaces right now. But I also get it. It's politics and people are going to throw stones where they can. Our job is just to face the problems, deal with them and use the tools that we have to try to get solutions. Speaking of the online spaces, I saw this utterly bizarre tweet from the account. This is the official research account of the RNC. And when I see this attack, it says Biden Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, quote, every transportation decision in the 21st century is a climate decision. First, I don't even know what the attack is. I'm looking at that. I don't know how that's an attack, but perhaps you know what the attack is. And I'd love to give you the floor to respond to whatever they're trying to attack you.

It seems like a pretty straightforward statement to me. Yeah, I'm not sure either. I mean, I think it's manifestly obvious that any time we make a decision about our transportation systems, that's a decision that is going to affect the climate. How could it not? Transportation is the single biggest contributor of greenhouse gases in the American economy. And we don't have the excuse that people might have had 100 years ago of not knowing any better. We need to think about these things when we're designing the transportation systems, the transit systems, the highway systems, the aviation systems of the future, that we do it in a way that minimizes the amount of

destruction of American lives and property due to climate change. And by the way, also plan for the climate change that's already happening by making sure roads are more resilient to mudslides and wildfires and that kind of thing. In fact, this is especially ironic attack that they clipped from a conversation of me in front of the Golden Gate Bridge, because what I was doing there was announcing $400 million that are going into making the Golden Gate Bridge more resilient. In that case, it's about a seismic retrofit that's going to make the bridge better able to withstand earthquakes that are obviously a big threat in that particular region. But the really remarkable thing about some of these attacks is they, I think what they're trying to say is that when we care about climate or we make

sure that an investment is fair when we saw unfair patterns in the past, that we're somehow doing that at the expense of just bread and butter improvements to our infrastructure. And yet those critics are the ones who will never be there to amplify or mention the dozens of airports that we improved or the three plus thousand bridges that we have started repairs or improvements on, or the roads or the highways that are getting better. Because of course, they're not in it for the transportation improvements, they're in it for the controversy. And again, you know, you get used to that at some

level. But, you know, it still, I think, shows sometimes a conversation happening on the internet or in this town, that's pretty uncoupled from what's on people's minds on the ground. Because when I'm traveling around the country, what people want to know is, how is my transportation infrastructure going to improve? And sometimes, how can I get a job being part of improving it? And those are the things that excite us around here too. Yeah. And I think you hit the nail on the head with what they're doing every time they invoke the climate in their tweets and their statements and stuff. Do you feel like we're going backwards in terms of this climate denialism from the right? It seems like especially in a post-COVID world, not that we're through COVID,

but once COVID hit, that the GOP has cultivated a distrust in all science and experts and even in truth itself. And climate denialism seems to be at the core of Republican ideology today. It's, you know, everything's woke, right? Energy saving Xbox, woke electric vehicles, woke woman empowerment, woke. Like what do you make of that? And how do Democrats, how do pro-democracy Americans, how should they combat those sorts of attacks? Yeah. When all you have is a certain kind of hammer, then everything looks like a culture war. And I think that's a conversation that has unfortunately been inflicted on some very practical things we're trying to do, like

saving Americans money and maintenance costs with easier, more affordable access to electric vehicles. And you could go on down the list. It doesn't have to be this way. As a matter of fact, there's not a lot of Western democracies left where you have a lot of elected leaders from one party denying climate change. Most of what you see in most countries is that if the two or more parties or their left and right are debating the best way to confront climate change, not whether it's real. And we need to make that turn here in the U.S. We don't have time to be stuck in dumb fights over whether these things are real. Americans are literally losing their property and their lives today to increasing frequency

and severity of weather events that are driven by climate. We're already investing. And by the way, there are some commonsensical Republican governors we've worked with who are just as eager as anybody else to take these federal dollars and use them to enhance a hurricane evacuation route that we know is going to be needed more or create an alternate supply chain in an area that's vulnerable to wildfires and mudslides. And we're doing that work right now. And I think part of my job is to try to protect that work from the political noise because it has to get done. And we're doing that work right now. And I think part of my job is to try to protect that work from the political noise, because it has to get done. And, you know,

physics doesn't care what party you belong to. Yeah, I feel like they constantly are trying to make the move towards clean energy as something that only rich people could afford. And look how the Democrats are trying to help the rich with their electric vehicles. How do we get it across that EVs, that clean energy is not just something of the wealthy, but it's actually going to help the rich with their electric vehicles. How do we get it across that EVs, that clean energy is not just something of the wealthy, but it's actually going to help the working person in America? Yeah, I mean, this is one of the things that excites me most is when you look at what's actually happening in the real world on the ground, including in so-called red states, purple and blue, a lot of jobs are being created, working class jobs with good pay being

created that are part of things like the supply chain for EV batteries, something that we want to move more and more onto American soil because we think too much of it is right now in a place like China. We're never going to beat China on EV supply chains if folks here are against this kind of modernity to begin with. We need to make sure that we have a made in America EV revolution. That's exactly what's happening. Again, largely in places that might be considered politically conservative, but turn out to be good places for the factories where American workers are getting new jobs. So I think we need to talk about how we can win when it comes to these climate opportunities for our economy. And we need to focus on how to make

these things more accessible. So, you know, one knock, for example, on electric vehicles is they're too expensive. That's true. That's why we had legislation to make them less expensive. A lot of Republican legislators voted no on that, but we got it through. And that means that it's becoming more affordable each passing year. It is precisely in order to help Americans save money that we think it's important to accelerate this process. And that's one of the things we're focused on, as well as things like charging, things like making sure transit authorities can get their own EVs in the form of these zero emission buses that we're funding them to do. Because it's also, you know, frankly, not the wealthiest who are going to be hurt the most if we fail to meet the climate challenge in the time that we have remaining. When you see this bill in Wyoming, it was a bill that they had introduced that would basically ban electric vehicles by 2035. It was a non-binding resolution that they wanted to put on the floor in Wyoming.

I mean, what do you think when you see something like that actually hit the floor in one of these Republican legislators? Yeah, I think it's just out of step with what's actually going to make sense for people. A state like Wyoming, where you have wide open spaces and long drives, those are the kinds of places actually where people spend way too much of their paycheck on gas and would benefit from EVs if they're affordable and easy to charge enough for people to adopt them, especially these pickup trucks that you see coming on the market. Now, look, it's actually not my job to sell electric pickup trucks.

That's, you know, Fords and GMs and Stellantis and their competitors' jobs. But I do think we need to create an environment where it's easier to do it. That's why we're investing in the charging. And I would be surprised if a place where people value freedom as much as Wyoming, where people are really going to be impressed by a legislature trying to ban them from purchasing a kind of vehicle just in order to,

I don't know, quote unquote, own the libs. I think people are a little more practical than a lot of politicians give them credit for. Now, I couldn't agree more. And we've been speaking a lot about the future of the United States. But I got to take you a little back to the past with this next question, Secretary. We found this clip of you. It's from May 2nd, 2001, from a forum at Harvard's Institute of Politics on George W. Bush's first 100 days. Let me play this for you. I'm not sure if you know what clip I'm about to play. And then I want to get your reaction on the other side of this. Oh, boy. Hi, my name is Peter Buttigieg. I'm a first year student at the college here. It's my understanding from generations older than mine that most of the people in them who

went into public service did so out of inspiration for a grand figure who was usually the American president as we've discussed it seems that the presidency has now evolved into what's called the MBA White House or the corporate model I mean among presidents comparative obscurity I guess my question is somebody who loves being here in the in the shadow of President Kennedy and who if I weren't here right now would be at home watching my favorite show, The West Wing. What's happened to the image of the American presidency? Just because we know more about the men who are president, is that magic really gone forever? First off, you've always been the same person I could see.

You've always been absolutely brilliant from a young age. And I'm so impressed just watching that. But I wanted to turn the tables on you now. You actually being in a presidential administration, how would you answer your own question to yourself? Do you think that the magic of the American presidency is still there? Or do you think that luster is gone? Brett, Brett, Brett, Brett, Brett. First, Secretary, you got to react to the video. And then I need you to- You're taking me deep, deep down memory lane. I'm just realizing those sideburns never quite came in the way I thought they were going to. Are you, you and me both, Pete? You and me both. I think, you know, part of what happens when you actually find yourself at some of these high tables in American government is certain things get demystified a little bit. But I'll actually – I mean one thing you feel certainly at the White House every time I'm there is that this is a working place where people really have their heads down and are getting stuff done or seeking to get stuff done. But there is a kind of awe that I think

still comes with public service. And I try to remember that anytime I find myself at the White House or anytime I find myself at the Capitol, that there is a reason why the American historical imagination is so richly filled with examples of leadership from one field, which is politics. Largely because the things that happen, whether things go well or whether they go poorly in the political space, winds up having a really big effect on whether things go well or whether they go poorly in our daily lives. And that's true for the grand questions of war and peace. But one thing I think a lot about in this job is it's true for the very everyday questions too, the literal everyday. I mean, what could be more everyday and what could be more

kind of impactful for your daily life than something like your commute. And the daily commute of, you know, hundreds of millions of Americans is shaped for better or for worse by how well we do our job here in this building. So yeah, there's still a magic to all of this, maybe a little less mystery. But if anything, a little more magic when you realize the impact you can have with even the most seemingly arcane, you know, seemingly bureaucratic process if it leads to real results on the ground for people. And Secretary Buttigieg, I just wanted to say it was great to meet you at the inflation reduction event over the summer at the White House. And I felt that awe that you described when I was there.

And one of these days we're going to get- Secretary, you remember that picture, right? Of course. Come on, Ben, relax. I think I've got it on my wall somewhere here too, actually. Notice how I didn't interrupt you, Ben, when we got to your questions. You're crushing me. Anyway, one of these days we're going to take a photo when the sun's not directly glaring in my eyes. But anyway, one of the things that I really admire has been your approach with the media. You're consistently going on a variety of networks and channels and even some that don't necessarily align with Democratic policies. So for me, why is it just as important for you to appear on, let's say, Fox News as it is to do a hit on a CNN or MSNBC or come on the Midas Touch Network? Well, look, I got started as a mayor in Indiana, where there were a lot of people with a lot of

different political views. And one thing that just happened all day, every day, is you're talking to people with wildly different political views, whether it was on local media or whether it's just going about my day, because people from across the political spectrum are going to corner me at the grocery to talk about a pothole or catch me walking down the street to ask about what's going on with the parks or whatever we were working on. And it's harder to cultivate that when you get to the national level. But I think part of how you do it is making sure that you seek out audiences from very different perspectives. I can't be mad at somebody for not aligning with our message if they've never even heard it. The first step to convincing somebody is making sure they hear what you have to say.

And so I never thought that a kind of subspecialty of mine would be going to places like Fox News. But what I really try to do is recognize that a lot of people tune in in good faith to wildly different sources of information. And part of what I do here in my job is to prioritize at the policy level, but a big part of what I do in this job is to communicate. And I wouldn't be doing it well if I only communicated with some of America, just like I wouldn't be doing the policy job if we were only sending funding to only some of America. And so that's pretty ingrained in the way I do things. And for better or for worse, I'm going to keep at it. You are doing an excellent job at it.

So please keep it up. And my last one for you here, I know we're short on time. What are you most proud of this administration? And what do you hope to accomplish or continue to accomplish as long as you're Secretary of Transportation? Well, the overall thing I'm proudest of is the willingness to think big. And I'm not sure everybody expected that of our president when he took office, to have big transformative visions. But that's certainly what's going on in the transportation space. And it's happened across the board. That's why I think it's someday that all the package of things that happened in the

Biden-Harris administration will come to be known as the big deal, just like we had the new deal under FDR. And we're talking about everything from the biggest climate legislation ever passed by any country ever, to the biggest infrastructure work that's happened, you know, certainly in our lifetimes, to the major changes in how people experience healthcare, getting insulin down to 35 bucks for people on Medicare. And if we can find a way around congressional Republicans blocking it, we could get that for every single American. I mean we can find a way around congressional Republicans blocking it, we could get that for every single American. I mean, the things we're trying to do are big, and they're going to make a difference, and they're going to be remembered for a long time.

So I try to balance the general and the particular. Big picture, I love those big aspirations that we're making good on. Tactically, I just love it every time I get out to a community that maybe didn't feel like Washington could see them. Whether it was that Southern Indiana community I was telling you about, or we were in Northern Nevada, a desert location where the town of Fernley is going to get a lot of support from us to build up their transportation basically for freight around their industrial park, all the way through to these iconic places like the Golden Gate Bridge, where I was standing a few days ago announcing that funding. Just being able to actually do that and kick the tires on

these projects, there's going to be hundreds, probably thousands more of those in the year and a couple of years to come. And I can't wait. And Secretary Buttigieg, any final words to the mightiest mighty out there? We've got hundreds and thousands of people who watch this, many who have cut the cord because they're just disenchanted with the media. They're disenchanted with the state of politics. And they really look to you for hope, for stability, and for your vision. So what would you say to all of them who are watching and listening right now? Well, look, I really appreciate your voice and your platform. And I know you reach a lot of people who have been disturbed or even disgusted by what they've seen in our politics and in our society. But I'm here to say the truth still matters and that concrete results are happening all around us. And that if we tell the truth about them, if we find places where

you don't get to pretend otherwise with alternative facts, because you can see that the bridge is either right there in front of you or it isn't. You can see that there's either a hole in the road or there isn't. You can see that your commute to work either got better or it didn't. I view my little section of the policy landscape as a place to make good on what I think all of us feel on our bones and what's made us outraged when it isn't upheld in Washington, which is that, you know, real life is at stake in political decisions. And there is such a difference as truth and falsehood. And we're going to keep being guided by the truth and going after the truth and telling the truth.

Secretary Pete Buttigieg, I can't thank you enough for joining us on the Midas Touch podcast. We hope you will come back again. I'd love to. Thanks a lot. There are very few things that you can be certain of in life, but you can always be sure the sun will rise each morning. You can bet your bottom dollar that you'll always need air to breathe and water to drink. And of course, you can rest assured that with Public Mobile's 5G subscription phone plans, you'll pay the same thing Public Mobile's 5G subscription phone plans, you'll pay the same thing every month. With all of the mysteries that life has to offer, a few certainties can really go a long way. Subscribe today for the peace of mind you've been searching for.

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And I loved that he described Biden's agenda as the big deal. I think that framing is so apt. And I like that he also said people can see the bridges being built. They can see the construction projects with their own eyes. I don't know if you've seen this TikTok video. Do you know what I'm about to talk about? Brett, I'm you. Big producer, Brett Energy, I'm you. I know, I know.

I'm back. I'm back, people. No, you know what's funny? I had to hold it in like so much when he called it the big deal and say, because I, what I wanted to say was with president Biden, you know, it's probably the big effing deal. Go back to what president Biden said to president Obama about the passage of the affordable care act. I think this could be called the big effing deal, the infrastructure, because it really does affect everybody's lives. You know, it's one of those things that like when

infrastructure is working and the roads are good and the highways are good and the airports are good, it's one of the things that when you're doing your job great, no one knows what the hell's going on. But now what's so awesome about infrastructure is we're seeing people actually go back to work. We're seeing after endless decades and decades and years of Donald Trump going, infrastructure week is coming, infrastructure week is coming. And remember, he had a majority to pass infrastructure legislation. And when he didn't, he had Democrats who were like, okay, let's do it. Give me legislation.

Let's do it. We want to do infrastructure. And he couldn't get it done. But this administration actually got it done. And now that we're in 2023, we're finally seeing the shovels in the ground. We're seeing the projects take off. And Ben, this TikToker who, you know, I knew you were going to call this up, so I got it prepared. This incredible TikToker union worker speaking about the work that's being done in the ground. I want to make this guy as viral as possible.

I want everybody to see this video. It came across my TikTok feed when it only had like a few hundred views. And I was like, I need to share this with the world. So I'm really excited to share with you. This guy is my hero. He's hilarious. Check this out, this video. Well, I got to tell you, with President Biden, the Dems, and a few Republicans and their infrastructure bill, really something.

It's almost the end of January. We're working 10 hours a day. I don't know who that bill's helping. Making the roads safer. The men are getting paid. People are going shopping. The economy's doing better. It just blows my mind.

I don't know. It's not as crazy as the orange shit the pants, one term wonder, whatever you want to call them, with all them infrastructure weeks. You didn't know whether you were coming or going. Every week it was some other line of bullshit. But then again, that's what he specialized in. But it never happened. Nothing ever got done under him, and I don't think anything will ever get done with this circus show that we got in Congress now with the Republicans, Jesus Christ, I don't,

George Santos, what the f*** is he, he's like an undercover secret agent, he changes his f***ing identity every other day, but that's something, that's a whole other f***ing subject. But this year I'm just saying, you know, 10 hours a day making good money in the middle of winter in construction doesn't happen too often. Very happy with it. And I'd like to thank the Democrats and Uncle Joe for thinking about the work of man and the people of America fixing these roads and bridges. If you see what these bridges look like that were taken down,

and believe me, she's a biggie, but there was holes in it. The concrete was falling apart. Yeah, this shit's got to get fixed. People are going to be dying. What the fuck happens if a bus is driving over here and it goes off? I guess Republicans really don't worry about that

because, well, they're in private planes or I don't know, whatever the fuck they do in their little rich world of fat, rich, spoiled white guys. We want to go for that. But I'm enjoying everything that's going on. It's just talking about reality, though. It's what Secretary Buttigieg said, though. It's like not alternative facts. Here's the reality. While Republicans are talking about the green M&M that's getting them angry and they're

talking about woke this and woke that and they're yelling about pronouns and trying to ban books and burn books. It's like, look, Democrats are just putting heads down and just starting to work, focusing on jobs, focusing on healthcare, focusing on an education. Brett, did you see there was, there was someone, I think it was a patron of the Midas Touch podcast, by the way, go to patreon.com slash Midas Touch and you could check it out. We do exclusive chats now. But someone did a video of me where I do my impression of what the Republicans care about. This is one of the greatest things. I love when the community makes some ugc some user user

generated content of ben love it this was this was really first let me before i forget i want to give a shout out to the creator of that video you can go follow him on tiktok it's at dave scranton at dave scranton so jordy right there in your backyard pennsylvania guy let's go very very cool to see but this video some user user generated content. So a Patreon user, Emily S shared this in our Patreon discord chat. And she said, while watching a video of Ben, I couldn't help but thinking of Harold, a character in the movie Flushed Away, decided to make a side by side of two clips. It's short, but I'm going to play it. It's hilarious. If you're listening on audio go on youtube and

check this out it's too funny oh stop the wolf we need to stop the wolf pronouns that's my that's my impression of it the mannerisms the mannerisms really line up i just love that it sparked that exact exact moment in time. That is amazing. It's really uncanny. We have a lot to talk about, including Donald Trump giving some deranged orders to this subcommittee that was created by Kevin McCarthy to attack the Department of Justice and the FBI. I mean, they created a subcommittee of people who asked Donald Trump for pardons, for blanket pardons of all of the crime that they've engaged in so that they could investigate the FBI and the DOJ. They could conduct oversight of them. And then we're gonna talk about how Kevin McCarthy also created another subcommittee to investigate COVID and Marjorie Taylor Greene who spreads all the COVID disinformation

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Ben, I love our sponsors. And I love when you say the word gut. I'm going to work in gut into every script. There's just so much emphasis in the word. It's really, it's artistic. No, no, no. I don't want to get in your head. I just, you're very- I say it differently? You're just very good at, you always emphasize the gut health and the importance of the gut health. Gut health. It's kind of like this. That's what they sound like. That's what MAGA Republicans sound like.

And you compare that to the TikTok video that we watched. And it's like, all right, can y'all just be quiet? Like, let's focus on jobs, please. Like, don't you want better paying jobs, people? Don't you? You want a minimum wage? No, you want a living wage. Like, let's get you more money. You know what I mean?

It gets animated now. You can't do it anymore. All I envision is... We need more money, people. We need better paying jobs. Here, play it again. Stop the is how it ends dr seuss mr potato head we need the stoves they're coming for your stoves. It's so freaking stupid. It's so dumb.

It's like, can we just better paying jobs? Healthcare. You know why? Because guess what? When you get sick, don't you want it to be cheaper? Don't you want to be able to afford it? Don't you want cheaper? Yes.

Don't you want cheaper prescription drugs? Don't you want access to education? Don't you want to give our veterans the health care they deserve? Don't you want to make sure, hey, if they're exposed to toxic burn pits? I mean, you've got Republicans like fist bumping. Like, that's why I like this show, because we can just call out these MAGA idiots and just be like, what are you even doing? Like, in the most basic of terms. And look, you want to go to the most basic of terms and call out these idiots for what they're doing? I mean, they created a select subcommittee on the weaponization of the federal government. You have Kevin McCarthy, who's literally repeating

McCarthyism. He's doing the un-American subcommittee basically from 1938. And he's doing it again, the same part with the same last name. And they put on all of these like MAGA extremist, like crazy people. You got like Harriet Hageman who spread all of the conspiracy theories. She was the one who ran against Liz Cheney in Wyoming. You got Dan Bishop, you got Chip Roy. You got Thomas Massey. You got Jim Jordan. You got all these MAGA Republicans. Then you got the coronavirus one with Marjorie Taylor Greene leading the coronavirus task force. She spreads all of these conspiracy theories, the chairman Brad Wenstrop, but you know she's the one who's really going to be leading it. I mean, this is who the MAGA Republicans are, and at the same time, they're kicking off Congressman Schiff and

Swalwell from their committees, the ranking member, Adam Schiff of the Intelligence Committee, and the former chair of the Intelligence Committee, kicking them off. Why? Because Donald Trump says so. As Congressman Schiff says, you're just trying to do a solid for your master, Donald Trump. Are you kidding me? This is what Schiff said. Kevin McCarthy just kicked me and Representative Swalwell off the Intelligence Committee. This is petty political payback for investigating Donald Trump. If he thinks this will stop me, he will soon find out just how wrong he is. I will always defend our democracy. And of course, congressmanship announced on Thursday. Also, he would be running for the Senate seat in California. That's going to be a tough race, both with him and Katie Porter,

a lot of good candidates, tough in a good way. It's a good problem. It's a good problem to have very qualified candidates. But this is where the media tries to both sides the issue, right? Oh, well, you kicked off people from our committees. Well, Marjorie Taylor Greene was kicked off because she was literally stalking and harassing survivors of school shootings and yelling at them and calling them crisis actors among a number of other things. So yeah, she should have served- Including spreading COVID disinformation. Including spreading COVID disinformation. So you put her on the COVID committee.

They only tried to put her on the education committee while she was- They tried to put her on the- While she was harassing students. And that's why they removed her from the committee because they're like, well, she's literally stalking. Think about that conduct as a human being, as a human being. You are stalking survivors of school shootings and you are spreading covid disinformation. You support insurrectionists and call them political prisoners. And that just makes you a Republican in twenty three.

Yeah, that's who you are. Gosar, who was removed by the Democrats, put out a video of himself killing, portraying himself killing a member of Congress. That's why he lost his committee seat. And so you take away Adam Schiff's because he investigated Donald Trump. It's why the Republicans are cultish, ridiculous morons, right? Like, let's just call them out. They are traitors. They are criminals. Call them out. And yeah, this is who they put on these select subcommittees. Brad, it's absurd. Jordy. It's absolutely insane. And Marjorie Taylor Greene, Ben, to your point, she is the face of the Republican Party. Heck, I think there was a story that broke the other day, earlier this week, saying that she is going to likely be Donald Trump's vice presidential candidate in the 2024 election. So I don't know what's going to happen between her and Carrie Lake, because obviously Carrie Lake, you know, the failed governor, gubernatorial candidate in Arizona, she's also up for that.

I think she was actually living at Mar-a-Lago at one point. She's still living at Mar-a-Lago at one point. Unbelievable, man. Unbelievable. So she's got to be freaking out now that Marjorie Taylor Greene has thrown her name in the hat so strongly and has these stories leaked. Because ultimately, they're built, the Republican Party is a circular firing squad. They love to turn on each other once they perceive that the other person is of no use to them anymore. And so who is it going to be? Is Carrie Lake going to be the of no use? Is it Marjorie Taylor Greene?

Likely it will be Carrie Lake and she'll just be tossed aside. Well, here's the thing. The decisions that they make, sorry, I just, I want to say the decisions that they make and in following Donald Trump, they find themselves between a rock and a hard place because the more they follow Donald Trump, the less likely they will ever be to gain the support of the American people. Yet they are trapped. They are trapped. They feel like they have to do it. And they are really, Kevin McCarthy, Donald Trump is kind of the de facto speaker of the house because Kevin McCarthy will do anything that Donald Trump wants. And all these moves right

now are to appease Donald Trump and to try to stay in his good graces. But you know what? The American people are looking at it and the American people are vehemently rejecting this behavior. And we're already seeing it in big numbers, nearly three quarters of U.S. adults, nearly three quarters. I think it's like 73 percent are disapproving right now of these house Republicans of the way these Republicans are governing, saying that they are not sticking to the issues that matter to the American people who would have thought Jordy and Ben that the average voter doesn't care about Hunter Biden's nude photos,

doesn't care about them trying to them trying to weaponize the government. Doesn't want investigations into the people who protected us on January 6th. How about that for a concept? The American people would rather see the people who actually perpetrated the acts on January 6th see justice and not the people who protected us on January 6th. They don't want to see radical extremists like Marjorie Taylor Greene promoted to the top positions in our government. So they could go down this path all they want. We're already seeing the incredible drop off, even from Republican voters. And I would say, especially from Republican voters, because one of the reasons, if you look into the numbers in this poll, one of the reasons, and it's a poll by CNN, one of the reasons for the House Republicans horrific, horrific rating right now is because Republicans are even going like, what the hell is this? What are these people doing?

And they're not going to be able to appease both sides of their own party. They're not going to be able to appease the extremists and they're not going to be able to appease the people who are ironically appeasing the extremists. They're just in a bad place. And unfortunately, our country is going to suffer for it, but that's why it's so important that we have a Democratic Senate right now. That's why it's so important that we have a President Biden to act as a check on these maniacs who want to add 30% sales taxes on everything you buy, who want to abolish the IRS entirely, who want to criminalize just every behavior of America. It just, that whole thing is just so nonsensical. It's absurd. Especially when you put Marjorie Taylor Greene and the George Santos's

as the face of the Republican party, the Matt Gaetz's, the Kevin McCarthy's, because frankly, if you are a common sense Republican, I know that might seem like an oxymoron statement right there. You can't admit publicly that you're a Republican anymore because then you have to start defending these people's actions. Then you have to start defending Marjorie Taylor Greene, stalking children, following David Hogg around and accusing him of being a crisis actor. Those are the beliefs, if you are a Republican, that you actually align yourselves with. So I'm glad that we've seen those polls, about three quarters of Americans distancing themselves from the Republican Party and disapproving of how these congressional Republicans are doing. I think we saw some of that start to take place during these midterm elections because by no means was

this the massive red wave. That never came to fruition. This Republican Party is good at being loud. They are lousy at producing results. If you can't look at George Santos and say bad, if you can't look at a pandemic, say bad, dangerous. If you can't look at an insurrection and say bad, insurrections are bad. If you can't look at election denialism and say bad, if you can't do those things, you have no right to be anywhere near any seat of power making decisions over the lives of Americans. Yet the Republican leadership, you mentioned Santos, you mentioned Marjorie Taylor Greene,

Geordie, you could look at those committee lists that Brett showed. Every one of them is like that. Every single one of them. There's no such thing as anyone normal. You got Ronnie Jackson who tweets the most outrageous things every day. You got Harriet Hageman. Remember those debates where we saw the types of things that she was saying to Liz Cheney? I mean, it was like some of the most absurd stuff.

I mean, you got Elise Stefanik who came in claiming that she was like a normal person, but basically says the most outrageous thing. All of these people object to the results of a free and fair election. Like there is no such thing as a normal Republican anymore. They're all radical extremist fascists and they take their orders from Donald Trump. We have this. Trump makes weird videos of himself, films himself, you know, and it's cut really bad. And he always looks incredibly sweaty. Like, do they have him just like run around in circles and then you're like, all right,

go. Here's my take, Ben. It's not, it's not his first take. I think it takes him multiple, multiple times to do these things because to your point, he looks like he is struggling when he's, when he's speaking, he looks sweaty. He he looks tired it's very confusing to watch i mean just without even the volume of without even putting the volume on like you just look at that you know and and like who who talks like this like what is this thing you know like what is this freaking fascist creature right sure no you're right you're absolutely what the hell is this like it's cartoonishly ridiculous that that creature that that fascist creature gives orders to a political party and people listen to that crap it's it's it would be laughable if he hasn't caused such grave devastation and that there's a bunch of people who don't want

talk like it's like what the freak is like what in the world is this let's play the video i guess someone will do a meme about stop the Stop the woke. We need to stop the woke. Pronouns. Dr. Seuss. It's really good. Ben, I once heard. Sorry, not that video. You were talking about a different video.

I had a basketball coach growing up, Ben. He said that leaders talk with their hands. So I'm just saying you're a leader. Let's play the video of Trump. Let's play the video of Trump giving the marching orders to Kevin McCarthy. Play the clip. The new House Committee on the weaponization of the federal government is a rare chance to expose the breathtaking corruption of the security state, the media, and the Washington swamp. Here are just a few of the questions the committee hopefully will be asking. Who in the Mueller team was in charge of leaking secret information and fake news stories to dishonest journalists, of which there are many, to perpetrate the Russia hoax?

And that's what it was. Turned out it was a total hoax. It was all a horrible thing that was given to the people of our country illegally by a fake press and a corrupt press and by corrupt politicians. The day the fake Steele dossier was first published, because they knew it was fake. Did you see that cut right there? Sometime there'd be a guy like Trump that wants to go after them. All right. Honestly, if need to watch the film. Honestly, if you watch it, though, there's a cut about every three and a half seconds.

And that's, you know, he could probably only get out about six words at a time. Yeah, that's why he looks so tired. It takes him probably two hours to record these things. It's ridiculous. And, you know, it's just like everything he says is just a complete lie. It's complete gaslighting. And he's trying to rewrite history. And if he is willing to say that and put it out in public, imagine now what he was saying to all these people who worked in his administration, who we spoke about earlier in the show, the Cuccinelli's of the world. important witnesses for Jack Smith to be speaking to, to bring it full circle, because they were

people who heard this deranged man and not only heard him try to spread this propaganda to the public, but tried to actually put it into action. I mean, if you speak to the average Trump supporter right now, and I'm sorry for even putting that thought in your head, but if you speak to them, they will go, oh yeah, the Russia hoax, hoax, hoax. It was a hoax. No connection. It's like people were indicted for it. People pleaded guilty to their connection. His campaign manager. It happened. It happened. You could say it all you want, but they do it to malign their enemies. They do it to disguise the actual truth of what happened. And then lo and behold, the story comes out that said, oh, the guy who said that there was no connections, oh, he was on the Kremlin's payroll. Oh, that's interesting,

isn't it? That's fascinating, huh? You see all these stories that come out nonstop. They just lie about everything and they will never admit when they're wrong, whether it's about COVID, whether it's about Russia, whether it's about anything. They will never admit they're wrong. They'll just move on to the next lie and they'll keep wrong, whether it's about COVID, whether it's about Russia, whether it's about anything. They will never admit they're wrong. They'll just move on to the next lie and they'll keep stacking up the lies and it's lie after lie after lie. And it's a whole movement based on believing these lies. It's how you show you're part of the movement. Are you willing to just spout nonsense? Are you willing to just spout total falsehoods, lies, blatant

lie? It could be about anything. The most obvious thing you could say, oh yeah, that color is blue. And they will say, nope, it's red. It's red. And you're like, nah, it's clearly it's blue. Like, no, it's red. And that's how they align it. They just have to say, they have to come to a decision. We're going to say this, even though it's the complete opposite. And we're going to go full steam ahead in that direction because that's kind of like part of their cult initiation is agreeing to all these little and big lies. I want to talk about John Eastman getting filed on by the state bar of California, seeking to revoke his legal license. What do we say that MAGA stands for? Make attorneys, get attorneys. The state bar of California basically charged, but their charges

are for the revocation of his license with like 11 separate counts of engaging in unethical behavior and conduct, fraudulent conduct, submitting frivolous lawsuits with courts, spreading disinformation, trying to overthrow our democracy. And the state bar said one of the most sacrosanct things is a peaceful transition of power when you take an oath as a lawyer to uphold your legal ethics overturning a constitutionally valid election is not one of them. Showing up at an insurrection and yelling at the crowd and riling the crowd up on January 6th, but just even before January 6th, I mean, Eastman was involved in every step of the plot to overthrow our democracy. One of the things to think about Eastman was involved in every step of the plot to overthrow our democracy. One of the things to think about Eastman, where kind of everything Trump touches dies or make

attorneys get attorneys, became a lawyer in 1997. And he was actually a well-known professor at a law school in Southern California, Chapman Law School, which... And I heard of him. I remember he would give lectures 10, 12 years ago. And so I knew of him, but never that he would take this fascist turn, which he did. And the work by the State Bar of California in revoking his license, I think, is going to be a fairly easy task because you already had a federal judge in California. Judge David Carter made a ruling, already two rulings, that Trump and Eastman engaged in a criminal conspiracy together. Remember when Eastman tried to block the January 6th committee from getting their hands on his emails and his text messages? He filed a lawsuit in California. Why did he file a lawsuit in California? Because he was a professor in California, in Southern California. That's why it went to a California federal judge. He asked the federal judge, stop the January 6th committee from getting

my emails and communications because of attorney-client privilege. If there was a valid attorney-client relationship with Eastman and Trump, those documents would remain confidential, unless, of course, there is an exception to the rule where the court found there was an attorney-client relationship between Eastman and Trump, but if there's an exception to attorney-client privilege, that would vitiate the privilege, allowing in the discovery process for documents to be turned over or made public. And federal judge David Carter ruled that the crime fraud exception applied, that Trump and Eastman were engaged in a coup, his words, in search of a legal theory. That's what the federal judge said, and that these emails and text messages were in furtherance of the efforts to overthrow our democracy.

The judge made two separate rulings stating that and making very specific rulings as to certain emails that demonstrated the criminal conspiracy, like having Donald Trump submit false declarations in Georgia cases saying that there was election fraud when Eastman knew that the declaration was false, that they were submitting false declarations. And there are countless other examples of emails where Eastman knew that they were pursuing a strategy that was not legal, but nonetheless simply wanted to do it to obstruct and delay to try to then have other Trump allies stop the counting of the votes on January 6th. So to me, where there's a judicial finding that Eastman is a criminal,

the state bar is just going to say, judge made the finding already. And what's so interesting is all of that came out of a lawsuit. The January 6th committee didn't file the lawsuit. They asked for the documents. Eastman filed the lawsuit and federal court blocked them. You want to see Eastman thinks he's a good lawyer? He just filed a lawsuit where the federal judge said that you are a criminal, but that's kind of in keeping with Donald Trump. Trump filed a lawsuit against Hillary Clinton. Trump loses the lawsuit and owes a million dollars to Hillary Clinton and the defendants. Trump filed the lawsuit and then lost a million dollars he's been filed the lawsuit and lost his bar license they're losers that's trump world that's why they hold their

hearings at the four seasons shit farm or wherever they go landscaping landscaping farm you know you know they they hold they hold it at the manure farms and they hold it in hotel lobby oh they did how you do all the manure farms that's that's what they do they they they hold them across the street from us like a like a sex toy shop because if they did it in any legitimate place where you have to be under oath, they can't withstand that. And that's an important thing. Accountability, transparency is so critical. And also to all of the, going back to the common sense things that I said, where I shake my hands like this and I'm like, don't you want better healthcare? Don't you want a better paying job? Don't you want all of these things? To me, isn't it so obvious to you that these people just do shady shit? Isn't it obvious that they're hiding this

from you? Why wouldn't they want to do it? Why is the only person who has the solution, the person who consistently has gone bankrupt and destroyed everything he touched, whereas all of the institutions that have been successful are now being condemned as being wrong? Shouldn't that just equate very simple like, oh, I wonder what's going on here? Well, I think a lot of people view it as a bit of a get-rich-quick scheme, and they view, oh, they look at Trump as a model for, oh, look, this person calmed his way to the very top, and I could do the same. In fact, if you look at old interviews of George Santos, he says exactly that. He goes, I looked at Donald Trump and looked to where he got today, and I thought I could do that. Now, in the context of if you were back in 2019 or whenever, when he was running the last time, or when you're watching him run this

election and you watch that clip back then before we knew everything we knew, you would have thought, oh, he wants to be a full MAGA, whatever guy. Now you look at it with fresh eyes, knowing that he's just a total fraud. And you're like, oh, he sees that Donald Trump totally faked his way to the top. He was a con man. He got away with it. He's getting away, right? I could do the same, right? But that's just not the case. I mean, consequences are coming. This is the first of many consequences for John Eastman. I mean, to be frank, this is probably the least of his worries to lose his bar license. The guy's about to lose his freedom. I mean, John Eastman has a real likelihood, probably more than almost anybody else, of ending up in prison. I mean, they have memos named after

him, the Eastman memos, which are also known as the coup memos, which were the plot to throw the coup to overthrow the United States government. That is John Eastman's legacy here. So yes, there will be consequences. My only question with this is why did it take so long for the state bar to file these charges when the judge made these statements back in, what, March of last year? Or maybe even further back than that to say that it was more likely than not that he engaged in criminal conduct? Like, what are they waiting on that they have to try to disbar him now back then? I mean, I'm happy it's been that. Ben, can I answer that? I don't know if that's a rhetorical one, Brett but ben can i answer that for you yeah yeah brett the wheels of justice move slowly but

they damn sure move can you please play that eastman clip one more time that you had before because in this clip especially without the sound he looks like a total lunatic because he is i'll play it while we're talking yeah they all dress up like the bad guys in movies too like like like they all resemble like either the joker or the penguin i was gonna say it looks looks like the penguin just just totally like out of his mind this is on january 5th or is this on this is is on January 6th. I mean, this, this is absolutely, this is someone who just honestly does not look like healthy or in his right mind. And I'm not saying that as an excuse to, to excuse his behavior, because this is what MAGA, this is what Trump, this is what that whole MAGA verse has done to people. They've really made them their most evil

selves. There's half a second. If you play the clip clip you see how unconfident he is watch him look over to giuliani after he's doing the theatrics because they're all trying to imitate trump because it's the first time in their life they have a crowd like this chanting for them they're living out their fascist things just take a look though what he's about to do like as he's giving this speech as he's screaming watch you see You see, boom, it was right. And I have weird things where I notice. I pay a lot of people's – And so the whole thing was actually a very not confident individual

who's getting cheered on by the crowd. He's actually working himself up into kind of this – and he's looking to Giuliani and looking on as though like, you know, like, am I cool? Because that's, you need to reassure you that you're cool, Kamala. That's Rudy Giuliani. It's absurd. And Brett, you talk about the Eastman memo. You know, you have the Kevin McCarthy platform. As Pete Buttigieg talks about the big deal, like Kevin McCarthy's platform is like when it comes to George Santos, we should never care what anybody ever did in the past ever. All we're going to care about is you could lie, you could do whatever. You could lie, cheat,

steal, commit any crimes that you want. What we're going to just care about is what you do in the future. And that's like what McCarthy's been saying about Santos, which is just so utterly absurd. Here's the thing. Santos is going to get criminally indicted soon, right? Like, I don't know if it's going to come tomorrow. I don't know if it's going to be next week. I don't know if it's going to be in two weeks. I don't know if it's going to be in two months. I would be shocked if it is longer than two months. Every single day, the guy's filing amended FEC disclosures. He's listing people as his treasurer who aren't his treasurer. He's checking boxes, personal funds of the candidate, and then unchecking the box that it's not his personal funds of the candidate. My theory, which is a pretty obvious one, is because he lies about

everything, is that he's never actually made the money that he claims that he's made. I don't believe it at all. So when he lists on his disclosure $1 to $5 million in dividends, that's totally false. Unless I see his bank account, he's never made $1 to $5 million. He's not making $750,000 a year. He did loan his campaign money, but it wasn't his money. He's acting as a straw person, clearly from outside money committing campaign finance violations. It's so obvious to see. And then there'll be amended things that are filed by

the FEC and he'll go, I didn't file it. Well, then who filed it? I don't know. I don't handle those things. Fiduciary, he uses words and thinks people don't know the words. Fiduciaries handle it. I don't know. I don't handle those things. Fiduciary, he uses words and thinks people don't know the words. Fiduciaries handle it. It's like, what are you talking about? Fiduciaries? What do you mean? You're the filer. A fiduciary, did a lawyer file it for you? A treasurer is a fiduciary. Did they file it for you? You are listed as the filer. So the fact that amended FEC documents are being filed that are now changing things that say you personally lent the campaign money to unchecking the box, that's traced to you. And don't you think you're pulling a fast one on the federal government? They're looking into this. It's obvious to everybody. And Kevin McCarthy is just like, whatever, who cares?

Because it's not even something like in the past at this point. He's lying every single day to people. And then he doubles down on his lies. And then something like with the, he was exposed as being a drag queen in Brazil. Ultimately, he says, that's outrageous. The fake press, the fake press, what a ridiculous accusation. And the photos come out. He goes, it's not me. Then the videos come out. I think he like says his name in the video. It's like, it's like, so it's so on the nose. He's like, DeVolder here. It's me. Yes, it's me. This is me. This is DeVolder, also known as Kiera DeVache. Here I am. And then it's like, is that you?

No. How dare you make that accusation? That's not. Where would you get that idea? And again, this, you know, he's, he's obfuscating, but he, he doesn't want people to know, you know, who's filing these documents or whatever, but he's, he's lying about that also because he apparently needs a new campaign treasurer or something. He tried to hire this guy, Thomas Dottweiler.

The guy Dottweiler rejected him. He goes, I don't want to be anywhere near this guy's books. Are you kidding me? I don't want to be near George Santos or whatever the hell his name is books. So Santos goes ahead anyway. He files his campaign finance report and he puts it under the name. He says, Thomas Dottweiler filed it. And this guy had to come out to the press and go, I'm not working with him. It's not me.

I'm not associated with this candidate at all. So he's still lying to this day. He's still committing more campaign finance crimes while he tries to cover up his past campaign finance crimes. And that's why this is all going to catch up to him. And you can't escape justice when it's numbers, when it's finance. This is how the government gets you on this stuff. And this in particular is how politicians have gone down throughout history. It's a follow the money games. This is how they get themselves. I mean, you can get committing crime. This would be so much quicker if McCarthy had the slightest amount of guts, but he does not have any.

I mean, it's just the weakest coward in the world. You know, why do things take longer? Well, you have an entire political traitor party at this point that engages in these cover-ups and that continues to break the law and protect people who break the law. So you've got to like go through all of these steps versus if they just held their own people accountable. It's utterly absurd. That's why I should probably plug my Hulu show because I'm talking about Kevin McCarthy that we just announced yesterday. It's called Killing County. It is going to be on Hulu. It starts February 3rd and it focuses on

the coverup, the corruption, the crime, all in Kevin McCarthy's district. It focuses on Bakersfield. And we highlight, it's a little slice of America that to me is completely at odds with the prevailing narrative that a lot of the media and politicians, particularly from a specific political party, tried to talk about law and order. And when you really break it down, Bakersfield is not law and order. It is break the law and complete disorder and chaos. It's a true crime thriller. It's produced by Colin Kaepernick and the great team at Hulu and ABC News as well. It has so many twists and turns, and it's incredible to be a part of that myself as

an executive producer there. And I litigated lots of cases in Bakersfield back in the 2013, 2014, 2015 period. So to be a part of that now, to see this show, and I know I've been all of the families in Bakersfield are so happy that there's going to be transparency and accountability brought. So I'm so proud to be a part of that. Just wanted to plug that. Really, super, really, Ben, I just want to say really super amazing, man. Like, seriously, that is, I can't wait to watch it.

As if you weren't busy enough, you went in, executive produced a show going out on Hulu. You're a professor. We do the Midas touch work. You're executive producing Hulu documentaries. What are you doing, man? You got to take a little chill pill. No, you're absolutely crushing it, man. He's a busy guy.

Well, I'm really proud of you because I saw all the work he did on the ground during these cases and working alongside those families and fighting for justice and fighting for accountability. And now to see all those stories now be told to the public at large, I think it's really important. And it just so happens to be, like you said, Kevin McCarthy's district where he's going out there and he's saying, oh, Democrats are soft on crime and all this stuff. Meanwhile, his district in California has the highest murder rate per capita, the most violent crime per capita. It has the most police executions in the state of California. And so this exposing it.

And you also got, if you watch the trailer, you can watch it on our, you can check it out on our YouTube channel. It's also the pinned tweet on our Twitter account. If you look up, you know, Midas Tachulu, I'm sure it will come up, but, and Killing County, but you actually got one of the officers to just fully admit to the crimes in the documentary and come clean. Admitted to dealing drugs. Admitted to dealing drugs. They would take drugs from people, arrest them for it, and then the cops would go out and they would become the drug dealers themselves. And they would use the informants as their drug mules. I remember when you were working these cases and you would tell me about it, I was like, this sounds like a movie. This sounds like a show. And well, now it is a show and everybody

is finally going to get to see the true rot, the true corruption that happens every day in Kevin McCarthy's district here in Kern County and Bakersfield, California, a killing County Hulu. I'm excited to watch it. And then everybody, if you can, one of the most special things that I think we've done recently on our Patreon, um, and we did this last weekend and we're going to try to do it at least once a month. So sign up now to be able to do the next one. We did this last weekend and we're going to try to do it at least once a month. So sign up now to be able to do the next one. We spent three hours and we answered everybody's question who became a member of patreon.com slash Midas Touch. We have a lot of exclusive content we keep on patreon.com slash Midas Touch, P-A-T-R-E-O-N dot com slash MidasTouch. We have exclusive podcasts there,

exclusive content, first looks with new content that we are putting out there. There's even one membership tier where you could become an honorary producer of the MidasTouch podcast, and your name appears at the end of the show. You get exclusive access to merch drops. We don't have any outside investors, so that helps fund the work that we do at the Midas Touch Network. So that's how we're 100% accountable to you, 100% independent. But this new feature that we've added, where we spend the three hours. So if anybody has questions, we answer every question. You can meet us. We talk and talk it out. So make sure you join. You can ask us anything. We're going to be trying to do it at least once a month or at least once every other month, but check it out, patreon.com

slash MidasTouch. Also check out store.midastouch.com for the best pro-democracy Midas Touch gear. That's store.mitustouch.com. Check it out. We've got a lot of merch that I know you will love. And also want to give a special thanks to our sponsors, AG1 Athletic Greens. And I also want to thank Z Biotics. Our sponsors help fund the show, which helps fund the research and the editing and all the work that goes into it.

So I always want to thank them for sponsoring. Go to athleticgreens.com slash Midas to get the exclusive offerings that we have there. And also go to Z Biotics, Z-B-I-O-T-I-C-S dot com slash Midas and get the discounts there. Thank you to our sponsors, Athletic Greens and Z Biotics. And a special thanks to Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. We're so grateful that Secretary Buttigieg joined us on this episode. Hopefully we can have him back. And I do look forward to having more incredible guests on the

show like Secretary Buttigieg. So I want to thank everybody for joining and thank everybody so much. We really appreciate you. Can I just say this actually before I shout us out tonight? Did you guys notice in the Secretary Buttigieg interview when we brought up the picture, Ben, and you started to make fun of me a bit? Buttigieg jumped in on that. He said, yeah, I got the photo up right here on the second watch. I was cracking up. I didn't hear him say that the first time. Yeah, I think he was kind of joking around, but yeah, he liked it. It was great meeting him. It was a really funny moment and a great conversation. If you like conversations like that also, it always helps if you go and you at them on Twitter and tell them that you love seeing them on the show.

So you could at Secretary Pete, tell him love seeing you on the Midas Touch podcast. We'll be able to get more great guests like that. Hope to get more people from the administration on the show. I think it's just great to be able to have just good conversations that's actually policy-based that is about the stuff that's actually affecting our lives. And it also provides such a good contrast to just the chaos and the craziness on the other side of things. And it's always good to see that people are there, that there are good people there that are putting in the reps, that are doing the work for the American people. So thank you so much

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