The MeidasTouch Podcast - Jack Smith LOOMS OVER MAGA Traitors this NEW YEAR

Episode Date: January 3, 2023

On today’s episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast we start the new year off with a bang bringing you the latest news of the week to keep you up to date. On today’s show we discuss why Kevin McCarthy might not be the next speaker of the house despite giving massive concessions that essentially take away all his power, new evidence released by the January 6th committee and what this means, what Millennials are doing that is shocking traditional political trends, President Biden’s year end accomplishments and more! New episodes of the MeidasTouch Podcast featuring the brothers are released every Tuesday & Friday mornings. 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: GROVE COLLABORATIVE: Get a FREE Starter Set PLUS Free Shipping with your first order at https://grove.com/meidastouch  GREEN CHEF: Get 60% off PLUS Free Shipping athttps://GreenChef.com/MeidasTouch60 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

When does fast grocery delivery through Instacart matter most? When your famous grainy mustard potato salad isn't so famous without the grainy mustard. When the barbecue's lit, but there's nothing to grill. When the in-laws decide that, actually, they will stay for dinner. Instacart has all your groceries covered this summer. So download the app and get delivery in as fast as 60 minutes. Plus enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and

terms apply. Instacart. Groceries that over-deliver. Discover the magic of Bad MGM Casino, where the excitement is always on deck. Pull up a seat and check out a wide variety of table games with a live dealer. From roulette to blackjack, watch as a dealer hosts

your table game and live chat with them throughout your experience to feel like you're actually at the casino. The excitement doesn't stop there. With over 3,000 games to choose from, including fan favorites like Cash Eruption, UFC Gold Blitz, and more. Make deposits instantly

to jump in on the fun and make same day withdrawals if you win. Download the BetMGM Ontario app today. You don't want to miss out. Visit BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. 19 plus to wager Ontario only. Please gamble responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you,

please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Hello, 2023. This is the first podcast of the new year for the Midas Touch podcast. And we hope you had a great new year. Because you know who didn't have a good new year? Donald Trump. know who didn't have a good new year donald trump donald trump held a low energy new year's event at mar-a-lago that kind of looked like a funeral where he ranted and raved like a desperate loser mad person that he is and let's compare jordy trump's New Year's message to President Biden.

MAGA Republicans, meanwhile, are in complete disarray in the new year because that's just who they are. Kevin McCarthy is facing a reckoning with the MAGA extremist base that he not only enabled, but he aided and abetted. As of this live recording, McCarthy still does not have the votes to become the Speaker of the House. He has already agreed to a concession that he can be recalled by Republicans and a no confidence vote by five members. So basically, he has no power. I mean, he could be removed at literally any time. Yet he still hasn't secured the speakership yet. Insults are flying back and forth as of this recording. This is MAGA weirdo fascist land at its prime. And speaking of MAGA fascist land, the House Republicans introduced their

House Rules Package, which essentially guts and removes the staffing from the bipartisan Office of Congressional Ethics. It also removes the right for staffer unionization. And get this, Jordy, it establishes its own select committee to investigate and attack the Department of Justice and the FBI. That's basically the first act of the MAGA Republicans to go and attack law enforcement because they are investigating their cult leader, Donald Trump. And think about it. Not only have the House Republicans remained silent in the face of the MAGA fraud, George Santos, who has lied about basically everything and is under multiple criminal investigations, but the Republican Party's first thing it did in the House of Representatives was to basically remove the ability of the Office of

Congressional Ethics to function and do its work. It's staring us right in the face, people. These people are fascists. And I want to also talk about the newest George Santos revelations. And this one, Jordy, I'm not sure if you heard it, while he claimed to have been married, this is when he was 30 years old, he was also now, we learned, in a relationship with an 18-year-old man. He claimed he was married to a woman at the age of 30. He was in a relationship with an 18-year-old who was living with him at the time, who left him because the 18-year-old realized that Santos was lying to him. And then Santos also claimed he went to NYU business school. It lies about everything,

everything, everything. And the January 6th committee has completed its publication of deposition transcripts and other evidence that they made public. And it's a good thing they made all of this public, Jordy, because the other thing that the Republicans are doing, one of their first acts, they will be seizing all of the January 6th committee files and materials. But no fear, we have them all available publicly. We've dissected them here at the Midas Touch Network. And there are some new bombshells in the material released by the January 6th committee that we want to discuss. We can also discuss the fact that Donald Trump's weird grifting NFT has totally crashed. The demand has almost fallen to nothing. Donald Trump's SPAC has completely crashed.

It's basically trading at now what SPACs start out at. It's trading at about $15 a share. It started at $10 and it was trading close, like over $100. People lost their entire life savings on this. And finally, Katie Hobbs has been sworn in as the governor of Arizona right this means that uh Katie Hobbs is now officially Carrie Lake's governor a good day this is the Midas Touch podcast Brett Micellus is still on his new year's vacation Jordy you were previously on a vacation this is why I am making the case to be the

favorite brother to the audience out there. Continuity, stability. Does this mean you're next though, Ben? I took a vacation. Brett took a vacation. You still haven't taken a vacation. Does this mean you're next? People want to know. Jordy, how are you doing otherwise? I'm doing well, B. I'm doing well. You just totally ignored my question. We'll ultimately see if you do take a vacation. That's what the people desperately want to know. But you were breaking things down, Ben.

And I'm always just so amazed that we go through this list every Monday and Thursday. And it just feels like we're reading Mad Libs. It feels like you're reading, we did a round of Mad Libs and just insert. I cannot believe that there's more. I can believe it. It's just amazing to me that there's more coming out, more lies being revealed from Santos. I mean, this guy, just an utter fraud. Happy New Year, everybody. Things are going to get crazy. So buckle up. Ben, where do we want to start off with today? Just think about Jord, when you can frame George Santos in a lot of different kind of positions in the MAGA zeitgeist.

I mean, he's a complete liar. He's a complete and total fraud. He's under criminal investigation. But then again, it also highlights what the Republican Party has become, who they are, right? Not just want to be fascists, but also just complete cowards. and say bad, if you can't look at George Santos and say no, if you can't look at a global pandemic and say, we need to take this serious, then really your entire reason for being is rooted in something else, right? It's rooted in something different. And it's rooted in the disinformation. It's rooted in the fascism. It's rooted outside of reality because, Jordy, it is rooted in this weird, bizarre, and dangerous cult of an individual, of Donald Trump, who still goes out there, who still makes these

horrific and horrible statements, who is still the person that all of the Kevin McCarthy's out there, they all fear, or the people like Matt Gaetz all want to suck up to. And it is just deeply, deeply bizarre as a historical paradigm that this has taken place. And let's just look at what's taken place over the weekend during the New Year's weekend. Let me just show you. This is what Donald Trump posted to kind of start off New Year's. He goes, happy New Year to all the radical left Democrats, Marxist lunatics, China-loving Coco Chow and her obedient husband, Mitch McConnell, and clueless rhinos who are working so hard to destroy our

once great country. Most importantly, Happy new year to the incredible, brave, and strong American patriots who built love and cherish America. The real leaders of our country will always remain faithful and loyal to you. The USA will be back bigger and better and stronger than ever before. And he goes, God bless you all. Think about the divisiveness and the hate in that statement on New Year's. The same thing he does all holidays. Think about just the xenophobia. And again, if you are not worshiping his cult, you are now considered a rhino, the same way he goes after not just Mitch McConnell, but also goes after Mitch McConnell's wife, who, by the way, was she worked in the Trump administration. She was the she was the secretary of transportation.

She worked for Trump. And for him to refer to people, though, to talk about people in those terms, too. You take a step back again, you remove the labels, Democrats and Republicans. And I've talked about this before. And I think it's something that people need to just talk about. Like the way he speaks about other human beings, the way he degrades and demeans should just be in and of itself disqualifying. You know, when I think about, you remember how he talked about very recently, I mean, he always speaks horrifically and horribly about women generally. But Olivia Newsy, who wrote that article about him, you know, and he ridiculed

her looks, he ridiculed, you know, her physical features of her, you know, attacked her viciously. And you just think about it again to all of the, you know, dads out there who still associate with MAGA. You think about just, you know, families out there who still associate with it. The level of hate that he projects on all people, to me, in and of itself, is disqualifying. And you look at this. Especially, Ben. Especially, Ben. Especially women, Ben.

Which is what you're getting at there. I mean, it started with who? Rosie O'Donnell, I think, when he started his campaign trail. That was the first person he went after. He's a big, tough guy when he's bullying women. Rosie O'Donnell. Then he went after Kathy Griffin. Then, obviously, Hillary Clinton.

And now we just continue to see. It's a consistent pattern and theme that he just continues to hit on. And to your point, exactly for all just the fathers out there who have daughters, like, could you imagine someone speaking this way to your daughter, to your wife, to you, to your sister? What would that, how would that make you feel as a person? Forget Democrat, Republican, how would that make you feel as a person? Forget Democrat, Republican. How would that make you feel as a person if someone would degrade your family members and your loved ones like that? Unbelievable. One of the things we'll talk about is how cowardly this MAGA movement is. But Jordy, to your point, he says these heinous and horrific things and gives a racist nickname

to New York Attorney General Letitia James. He says all these things on his social media platform. But ultimately, when he is confronted by the New York Attorney General through a formal process, she showed up. He ran away from the deposition that took place several months ago. She was there to depose him. And when he showed up after trying to avoid it, after finally being ordered there, he was asked the most simple questions by New York Attorney General Letitia James, like, what is the value of Mar-a-Lago? What is the value of Trump Tower? What is the value of Bedminster? What is the value of that collection of apartments that you say that you own? What was the appraisal? Can you explain the disparity between the appraisal

and the valuation? And you would think, right, Jordy, the tough guy is like, all right, I run the biggest, most successful business in the world. But no, what would you get? I plead the fifth. I plead the fifth. I plead the fifth. I plead the fifth. And so, you know, he goes on a social media platform. He spreads this hate, but at his core to not just a traitor, but a complete and utter coward. So that's one of the things that he writes on New Year's. The other thing that he writes on New Year's is he blames the Republican party and says, it wasn't my fault. He goes, it wasn't my fault that the Republicans didn't live up to expectations in the midterms. I was 233 to 20. It was the, quote, abortion issue poorly

handled by many Republicans, especially those that firmly insisted on no exceptions, even in the case of rape, incest or life of the mother that lost a large number of voters. Also, the people that pushed so hard for decades against abortion got their wish from the U.S. Supreme Court and just plain disappeared, not to be seen again. Plus, Mitch, stupid dollar signs, stupid money or whatever, stupid dollars. I think he's calling him something that we can't say on the podcast there. I'm not going to try and make sense of it, but I think he was calling him an ass. Oh, got it. It kind of went over my head.

I want you, though, to also reflect on this. He appointed these justices. These were the people. He went out on the campaign trail saying that he was going to criminalize abortion. Yet he's so cowardly to even stand behind what he does because he's always just going to blame, blame, blame everybody other than himself and call out people and say that everyone else is a coward. And you know what? There was someone named Dade Phelan, who is the speaker of that GOP, speaker of the House in Texas, who responded and said and responded back to Donald Trump and said, no, the GOP has lost control of the Senate three cycles in a row.

And it was not the fault of the pro-life movement. It was your hand-picked candidates who underperformed and lost bigly. May 2023, 2024 bring the GOP new leadership proud to protect the unborn. Again, I got to call out this statement here because, again, people like Dade Felon are perpetrating this view of controlling women's body and criminalizing a woman's right to make health decisions over her body, which is utterly disgusting and despicable. But you still have here, one of the points I want to make is you now have Republicans calling out Donald Trump, like weaker than he was before, where you have someone like a state speaker of the house saying, no,

it was because of your selections. And I think we're going to be seeing a lot more division like that. And then finally, Trump speaks at this funeral event or this New Year's Eve event. And, you know, and like everything they say is a lie, like their new one, too, with with Don Jr. They all are screaming and yelling and spreading these hateful statements about Biden for taking a vacation in a tropical area. And they go, we're suffering from the bomb cyclone right now. And it's like, no, we're not. We are not. Weather is variable. The conditions were bad a week and a half to two weeks ago, but they're not bad now. They have improved to the point where Biden can leave, unlike Ted Cruz, who left literally as people were dying in his state as a direct result of the failed policies by the GOP in the state. And they go, oh, well, it's a bomb cycle. It's not a bomb cyclone.

The weather had changed. That's one of the things. Hold on. Are they referring to the bomb cyclone where Greg Abbott literally shipped human beings to DC that happened two weeks ago? Is that the bomb cyclone they're referring to? Exactly. It's a great point, Jay, because that's what Republicans did during that.

Biden didn't leave then. In fact, it was during the freezing weather where Americans were dying because of the freezing weather, where Republicans kidnapped asylum seekers and human trafficked them to Washington, D.C., dumped them off, like treating them like worse than animals in front of Vice President Harris so they could fist bump each other on Fox News and say, ha, ha, ha, look what we did. Look what we did to own the libs. And now you have, I'll play this clip. This is Trump at the New Year's event that he had. And this is the message that he's talking to the people about. And he now claims because Southwest didn't, you know, screwed up big time, by the way, but also it's a large part because under Trump's Department of Transportation, under the purported regulators who were supposed to deal with the airline industry, they were former airline executives for stock buybacks. Now you have Donald

Trump basically saying, no one can fly. No one can fly anymore because of Biden. It's Biden's fault that no one's even flying anymore. The entire airline industry is done. Again, just a complete and utter lie blaming Biden for Southwest here. Let's play this clip. We're watching a war raging. We're watching nuclear weapons talked about all the time. We're watching inflation going through the roof. All of these things that we're watching and so unnecessary and so sad to see. Now we have airports where people can't fly. The only good thing is frankly, from this standpoint, we needed some seats. So we lost about 50.

We sold about 200 extra. So but it's sad when people can't come from New York to Florida. The airports are like we're like a third world country. And so what he's upset about is that nobody showed up for the event. I don't know. That's that's the undertone of what's really going on there. Definitely what he's upset about. And so he's blaming Biden because he didn't get the crowd that he wanted to show up at his event. And so now the entire airline industry, he lies about that the airline industry is completely

down. You can't even fly anymore. I mean, it's the ultimate projection. And so for our audio listeners, that was at the Mar-a-Lago New Year's Eve event, right, Ben, where he was giving that speech. And so this is why we implore you to watch these too if you're an audio listener, because if you're watching that video, Trump is doing this crazy lean forward. Like, I find it funny when people imitate him and they do this lean,

but if you watch this video, I mean, there's something going on there. He looks like a boxer that's just been in the ring one too many times. This is why I think you get the people, there he he looks like a boxer that's just been just been in the ring one too many times like this is why i think you get the people like like like the texas person who we were talking about earlier who who aren't afraid to go after trump anymore because they know he just doesn't have it anymore couldn't agree more with you can we compare what trump did over the new year's weekend

to what president biden did like here's the post that President Biden did. Here's the post that President Biden made where he goes, happy New Year, folks. I think it's going to be a great year. Why? Because we get to start implementing a lot of things we passed last year. Here are some things that are kicking in at this very moment. And hey, you can bookmark it if you're out celebrating. As of this moment, a month's supply of insulin will be capped at $35 for anyone on Medicare. $35. That's it. We're putting the brakes on how high and how fast big pharma can raise drug prices. Starting right now, if they raise prices faster than inflation, they'll face big penalties. Starting right now, you can get tax credits to install more energy efficient appliances for your house. Electric ovens,

solar panels, heat pumps, you name it. Save money while fighting climate change. Want to learn more? Head over to cleanenergy.gov. And if you're in the market for a car, you can now get a tax credit to buy a new or used electric vehicle. And if you get an electric vehicle, you can mute my social media posts about gas prices. Here are the electric vehicle models currently eligible for new vehicle tax credits. There's more. Across the country, you'll see us building new bridges, cleaning lead pipes, and getting folks online. You'll see tons of good paying manufacturing and construction jobs open up. We're just getting started. So here's to 2023 and the work we're going to do together. Jordy, I mean, could the contrast be any starker? And the fact that statements like that

infuriate MAGA extremists, that that bothers them to no end. Sometimes it's the simplest explanation. Why would all of those things that are just objectively great for the country, that we have a president who is working to solve problems? You know how easy it would be just to whine about all the problems if you're President Biden and blame it on Trump. Right. You can do your whole thing. Hey, Donald Trump did the airline industry dirty. You know, he appointed someone who was an executive who bailed them out, who wouldn't do anything. I had to hire a new person to oversee the airline industry. We got Pete Buttigieg trying to fix it now, but it's all Donald Trump's fault. We all know that. Inflation. Inflation is all Donald Trump's

fault with his tax policies that he couldn't pay for, with his trade wars that were utter failures. It's all his fault. It's all MAGA's fault. But that's not what Biden is imploring. He's imploring Americans to be their best selves and to do their part to make our country stronger and better. And he's just rolling up his sleeves to solve problems. That's what I like about it. Do I agree with President Biden and Democrats on every issue? No. And if I did, it would be really weird if I agreed with him on his privilege. I don't. But here's the thing. I know that there are adults in the room that are confronting issues that matter.

And those are the things he listed. Better paying jobs. I got Republicans voting against raising the minimum wage. They want to keep it as low as possible. And Democrats are not just fighting for a living wage, but for a really, really good, secure wage so people can be stable and be comfortable and not have to work multiple jobs. Democrats are fighting for better working conditions, right? Democrats are fighting to lower prescription drug prices, to make education more accessible, protecting a woman's right over her bodily autonomy, fighting for infrastructure, bringing jobs here in this country. Now, we can maybe have

disagreements on like, okay, how do we implement the infrastructure bill? Do we think that the infrastructure bill should be this amount of money? Is it too much? Is it too little? Is it focused on the right industries? Those are the types of debates that I want to have. Those are the normal discussions that used to exist in politics. But now I've got MAGA Republicans who are out there, you know, saying the first thing that they want to do in, you know, with their new rules is establish a select committee to go after the FBI and go after the Department of Justice because they issued a lawful search warrant and found out that Donald Trump stole thousands of government records, which could have and likely did directly contribute to our troops being put in harm's way and potentially killed.

Before we switch topics here, Ben, I just want to go back to an excellent point that you made, which is like this is why we elected President Biden to be to lead this country. We just wanted adults in the room. We were sick of waking up every day at night, going to the bathroom, checking our phones and seeing a ridiculous rant from the former guy that would almost put us in World War III. And you're right. The Republican Party just simply doesn't care about the American people. That's why they get so mad at Biden when he's able to list out all of these great accomplishments that are objectively good for everybody, because they can't.

They can't allow America to succeed if it's not Donald Trump or one of their crazy fanatics leading the country. They refuse. Republicans would rather this country fall apart overnight than allow President Biden to pass one more thing in his agenda. Well, look what they're doing now in the House of Representatives. I mean, they're in complete disarray. This is what Andy Biggs from Arizona, the MAGA extremist from Arizona, put out on his social media. He said, the left has taken control of our institutions. Leadership of both parties have facilitated the takeover of them. And now when America first Republicans have a chance to effectuate change, even our own are fighting that. And they are referring to the fact there that there are still, it seems, or he's referring to the fact that there are still nine MAGA Republicans who have written McCarthy a letter. And they said they are not supporting him. And here, we'll pull up this letter that was sent yesterday by these nine MAGA Republicans.

So you got the who's who of like insurrectionists and extremists on this. You know, people who are this, you know, people who are under, you know, investigation. You got people like Scott Perry, who was the one who introduced Jeff Clark to overthrow the Department of Justice. You've got Gosar with all of his text messages about overthrowing the government. You've got you got the whole you got the whole crew there. And the letter basically says, it goes, at this stage, it cannot be a surprise that the expressions of vague hopes reflected in far too

many of the crucial points still under debate are insufficient. This is especially true with respect to Mr. McCarthy's candidacy for speaker because the times call for radical departure from the status quo, not a continuation of past and ongoing Republican failures. For someone with a 14-year presence in senior House Republican leadership, Mr. McCarthy bears squarely the burden to correct the dysfunction he now explicitly admits across that long tenure. Thus far, there continue to be missing specific commitments with respect to virtually every component of our entreaties, and thus no means to measure whether promises are kept or broken. And then it just goes on to say more. I won't bore you with the full one, but you got Kevin McCarthy,

who's basically saying that he's willing to like shut down the government. You got McCarthy saying he's willing to allow all of the MAGA Republicans, if they can just have five of them, which they do, to basically have a no confidence vote to oust him. He's conceded to a lot and they're still like, we don't want you, we don't care. We're picking someone else. It's going to be revolutionary is the word. Why is everything a revolution with them? Because they want to overthrow our democracy. Exactly.

They want to shut down the government. And then you have this weird dynamic too at play because you've got Marjorie Taylor Gre, who wants her leadership role through Kevin McCarthy. So she's all in in supporting Kevin McCarthy, even though she was previously supportive of all these other MAGA extremists who were opposing Kevin McCarthy. And so before we started today's live podcast, this is what she posted at 6.39 p.m. She wrote, unreal that people claiming to be America first are negotiating for me first positions. When it comes to the speaker's gavel, the base deserves the truth. She keeps on using that term, the base, the base, the base. When you translate Al-Qaeda, Al-Qaeda means the base.

But the base the base when you translate al-qaeda al-qaeda means the base but the base deserves the truth they would be as sickened as i am you know and and again you have marjorie taylor green now fighting with biggs and gates it's pretty fascinating man it is absolutely fascinating sorry to cut you off but you're right she's fighting with her own team, like that being the Gates of the world and the bigs of the world. And I mean, it's going to be interesting, to say the least, to see ultimately when tomorrow's over and that vote happens. Do they let her back in the club, you know, or is she now a rhino because she went against them, like get a taste of her own medicine. It's going to be really fascinating. And I'm just so curious where they're going to take this tomorrow, Ben, when they do the vote. So just to make it explicitly clear, McCarthy needs every vote essentially, because all of these people have now come out and said, we're not going to vote for you for speaker of the house. He can't afford to lose more than four votes because of how narrowly the Republicans retain the House with 222 seats. So there's nine people who we spoke about already on this podcast that said they're

not going to vote for him for Speaker of the House. He doesn't have the numbers right now and the votes tomorrow. Personally, I'm not in the predicting game. But the writing's on the wall. It doesn't look like it's going to be him just based on the facts as we see it. It also shows though, how weak he is that. I mean, he's totally spineless. I'm not sticking out for him. I just want to make that clear. Because he said, I will never, ever concede on the point that there could be a no confidence

vote with five Republicans, because if you allow that type of non-confidence vote, that did not exist with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. You couldn't oust Nancy Pelosi unless you had all of leadership agreeing, plus a number of other things that had to happen. Her speakership was secure. Just think about it. Every time there's something to vote on where Kevin McCarthy has a disagreement with these other MAGA extremists, they are going to just invoke the no confidence and then he's going to be removed right away. That's why he said, I'm never going to concede to it because even if he's selected, he has zero power. He is just a proxy at this point. Literally, he has no power at all. And so even if he gets it, he'll be removed right away. The moment there's

something where you have the Gates's of the world and the bigs of the world who want to like declare Trump an emperor or just something ridiculous. And he's like, I don't know. Boom, you're removed. But let's talk about just some of the rules that in one of them was the rule I just mentioned with allowing this no confidence vote. But let's talk about just some of these other the rule package that was introduced late Sunday by these Republicans. So one of them was giving five Republicans the power to call for a vote on deposing the sitting speaker. One of the other things is restoring the ability to zero out a government official's salary. So what they want

to do, if it's like a Dr. Fauci or someone at the CDC or ostensibly someone at the Department of Justice, although I believe Special Counsel Jack Smith's budget has been secured based on what was previously passed in the omnibus bill. But the idea is, is that they could zero out and just stop paying people for their work to try to attack them. One of the other things is giving lawmakers 72 hours to read a bill before it comes to the floor and creating a new select committee to investigate, this is their words, the weaponization of the Justice Department and the FBI. I mean, how clownish can you be that your first act is? We are doing a special committee, a select committee after the January 6th committee to investigate the weaponization of the justice department and the FBI for the reason. I mean, look, there's the, I want to be clear. It's not like I think the FBI and the justice department get it right on everything. And I think that there are areas

where the justice department and the FBI should be investigated. So I want to be clear about my position there. However, when they talk about the weaponization and politicization, it's because a lawful search warrant was executed at Donald Trump's weird, wherever he lives in Mar-a-Lago, the country club residence that he lives on. And they found that he stole thousands of government records, including top secret sensitive compartmented information. It's because the Justice Department and the FBI have arrested and the Justice Department has prosecuted insurrectionists who MAGA Republicans call political prisoners because there's a focus on the real threat that exists now, which is domestic terrorists like Proud Boys and Oath Keepers and Three Percenters and other MAGA-related terrorist groups. That's why they're saying the Department of Justice is weaponized. That's why they're saying the FBI is weaponized.

It would be like going after the Justice Department and the FBI after the Oklahoma City bomb, right? It almost seems like when they talk about, oh, we need free thinkers, someone write that. It's almost like the prototypical MAGA. You know who would have thrived as a MAGA? Ted Kaczynski, the unibody. You're right. You're right. He would have been a MAGA cult figure for all of that. They're going after the Justice Department and FBI for those reasons. And then one of the other notable items as well is that the rules package completely guts the bipartisan Office of Congressional Ethics. And it's buried on page 50 on subparagraph six, which says,

any member of the board currently serving a term in excess of the limitations of section 1b6 of such resolution shall be considered as removed from the board. So basically just removing all the Democrats from it. The provision regarding appointment and compensation of staff shall then require an affirmative vote of at least four members of the board, not later than 30 calendar days after the date of the adoption of this resolution. So it's done very sneaky. Jay, it's not like they say, we're abolishing the office of congressional ethics. They are removing the bipartisan nature of it. And then it requires their own votes to fund the staffers. So then they're not going to fund the staffers.

And that's why they buried it in that. They're so corrupt. They're so beyond corrupt, Ben. And sorry to cut you off as you're just crushing through this but i mean ultimately the way i see this going down is just like they're gonna do all of this weird shit anyway let's just let them and watch let's watch it implode in their freaking faces because ultimately i think we saw in this last midterm election cycle the american people are wise to this stuff. Now they're hip to it. They understand what these Republicans want to do, which is just destroy this country. Ultimately, this modern day Republican party doesn't want to help the average citizen. No, they want to help the billionaire CEOs. And that's very just the

antithesis, I think, of what makes this country so great, which is just that average American citizen rolling up their sleeves, doing the work, going to work and just just being an American. And so they've so bastardized just what it means to be an American, Ben, that let them just have their weird committees because overwhelmingly it's rejected, rejected loud by the American people. And we'll see in 2024, you know, just how much it's rejected. But I have full confidence in, in America that, that they'll once again, step up to the plate. They're going to do the select committee on the green M and M select committee on Dr. Seuss, right? They're going to do the select committee on pronouns because nothing makes them angrier and more upset than they don't even know what a

pronoun is and nothing makes them more upset than pronouns and they and they hate librarians and teachers do they hate teachers they're gonna do select committees on that meanwhile as they're gutting the ethics committee you got george santos like being applauded and high-fived by these House of Representatives because, let's face it, George Santos is the modern-day MAGA Republican. This is what you do. Trump lies about everything. Trump, like fate, being his own press secretary, would call up people and go, hello, I'm the press secretary for Donald Trump. I mean, the guy lied about every... He lies. I mean, he continues to lie. What's the lies we learned? Oh, he said that he donated his salary to charity. Well, in 2020, now that we see his tax returns,

$0 in charitable contributions in 2020. He claims he paid millions of dollars in taxes during the pandemic. You'll see, I'll show it to you. I'm going to show it to you claims he paid millions of dollars in taxes during the pandemic. You'll see. I'll show it to you. I'm going to show it to you. I paid millions of dollars in taxes. Well, it turns out that he paid like $750 in taxes. In fact, when you add up all of his refunds to the taxes he actually paid in those five years, he basically stole $3 million and got a $5 million refund when you add all the other taxes. He netted $3 million in government refunds during those five years, did not pay millions of dollars in taxes. In fact, he paid China more taxes by huge amounts than he paid in the United States of America in a year where he paid $750, $750, Jay, in taxes. He paid $200,000 to the Chinese government. Okay. And so you wonder where Santos, you know, what,

how do you have a Santos? Cause he's just like, he's just like Trump. And the new revelation is that when Santos was around 30 years old, he was in this, he claims he was married to, well, he, we learned that he was married to a woman during that period. Although he claimed that he was openly gay and never had to hide anything, but it turns out he was married during the period. Now there's a lot of issues about the woman who he purportedly claims to have been married to and whether there was some immigration scheme going on there to get her here from Brazil. But at the same time, he was purportedly married to her. He was in a relationship

at the age of 30 with an 18-year-old man. And the 18-year- old spoke to New York Times. And the 18 year old said that he had to leave Santos after Santos said they would go to Hawaii together. And it was clear that Santos was lying about all of these things. Even the 18 year old was able to find out then though, just goes to show you how easy it actually was to find out that Santos had left Brazil in 2008 because he was essentially a fugitive. He wrote bad checks and stole in Brazil. And there's all these records in Brazil of him confessing to the crime. But then he ditched Brazil, came over here. I don't even know if his name is George Santos. I don't even know if he's an American. I really don't know. But you know what? The MAGA Republicans don't care. Kevin McCarthy doesn't

care. And if you don't care about that, we're putting on for our audio listeners a photograph of Kevin McCarthy and George Santos. Of course, there's a photo of them buddy-buddy right next to each other. But it's just the perfect photo of who kevin mccarthy is like yes the other photo that we don't have available yet but everyone remembers it so we don't need it is the photo right after january 6th where he flew back to mar-a-lago and he took that picture right next to donald trump and gave donald trump all of the cover that he needed, that they were going to protect him. And it's just coward, coward, coward. The Santos stuff is especially frustrating for us, Ben. I think we haven't said this yet, but I think we were the first ones on this story.

And this, I know we have said, it's because Santos is from our district. He's representing our hometown. and that's terrifying to us like I know the people in my town and I know they're great fucking people and sorry I curse but this guy this guy really like has me up to here Ben it's scary what he's been able to get away with and so I'm just curious if we're ever going to get to hear from his wife and understand sort of that dynamic there and if she could sort of put some facts behind all these other things that are that are coming out you know him. It doesn't even have to be his relationship now, who he's married to, but just all these other lies that he's told. I bet she knows all these answers.

Well, we weren't the first on the story. So I'll give New York Times credit. You know who I'll give real credit for? There was a local paper. I think it's like the Long Beach Courier. And I apologize if I get it wrong, but there was a local paper that had always endorsed Republican candidates. And the local paper, not Newsday, the local, local, local paper had called him out and said that they could not endorse Santos because he was a total liar. And nobody really listened to them at that point. So I want to give them a shout out. And if it's not the Long Beach Courier, I apologize and I will get it right. But they were the ones who got it right. The New York Times got it afterwards. And I'm happy to bring more attention to it,

but there's some good local journalism that needs to be supported more. And that's one of the other lessons of this. We got a lot to discuss, including the January 6th bombshells that have been released by the January 6th committee, more deposition testimony, some shocking, shocking stuff in there, more text messages being released. And we got to talk more about Trump's failed SPAC, Trump's failed NFT collection. I love when you talk SPAC, Ben. I love when you talk SPAC. Oh, we got a lot to discuss. But I want to first mention that this podcast is brought to you by our partner, Grove Collaborative. Did you know that only 9% of plastic actually gets recycled no matter how much we put in our recycling bin? At Grove Collaborative, they believe it's time to ditch single-use plastics for good.

Grove creates and curates everything you need for a sustainable home, like Grove Collaborative's concentrated cleanser and refillable glass bottles. They're friendlier to the planet and twice as effective as the leading natural brands. Join over 2 million households shopping sustainably at Grove. Just go to grove.com slash MidasTouch today to get a free starter set plus free shipping with your first order. That's a good deal. That's grove.com, G-R-O-V-E dot com slash MidasTouch. Go to grove.com slash MidasTouch today to get a free starter set plus free shipping with your first order. And I just want to say that my favorite things at Grove, I love the walnut scrubber sponge.

I like their dish soap. I like their 100% recycled plastic trash bag with the drawstring top. And of course, their multi-surface cleaner. And what I love about going to grove.com slash Midas Touch, you know you're getting natural products that are good for the environment. They do that hard work for you and you get great, great products. So check it out. Also want to tell you about our other partner, Green Chef. Green Chef has expanded their menu. Now you can choose from 30 recipes weekly with the option to mix and match meals from different dietary preferences in the same box without changing your plan. This means you can do keto one day and vegan the next day. So what is Green Chef?

Well, Green Chef is the number one meal kit for eating well with dinners that work for you, not the other way around. In 2023, help yourself to delicious, convenient recipes that support your healthy lifestyle and taste good too. Eat well in the new year without sacrificing taste. Green Chef is the only meal kit that is both carbon and plastic offset. Green Chef offsets 100% of their carbon footprint, as well as 100% of the plastic in every box. Don't know your favorite, Jay? I love the tacos. That is by far my favorite. And Green Chef makes it easy with the super clear instructions and minimum work. So here's what you got to do. Go to greenchef.com, G-R-E-E-N-C-H-E-F.com slash MidasTouch60, 6-0.

You use the code MidasTouch60, 6-0, M-E-I-D-A-S-T-O-U-C-H 60 to get 60% off plus free shipping. Again, go to greenchef.com slash MidasTouch60 and use code MidasTouch60 and get 60% off plus free shipping. Green Chef, the number one meal kit for eating well. Want to talk, first off, great sponsors. Great sponsors. Good for you meal kit for eating well. First up, great sponsors. I mean, healthy, good for you, good for the environment. I love it. I love it. All right. Let's talk about some of these bombshells that were released by the January 6th committee. I mean, a lot, a lot to discuss there. I mean, first, can we talk about the weird one? I mean, the really weird one. They're all weird, but I don't even, I want to be very clear. I don't even know which one you're

talking about because they're all very strange, but okay. They're one with Kimberly Guilfoyle, like while the insurrection was being fomented and they're asking her all of these questions and she goes and she's like, well, look, some time passes because that's how it always does. The president likes there always to be music. He's got a soundtrack that he plays, his pre-approved songs that he plays at every rally. Every once in a while, he makes some changes to it and he likes to do that, build the momentum. And then he gets up and does his things. That's just how it is.

And the questioner's like, okay, I'm just trying to figure out a timeline here, Kimberly. At this point, when you finish your speech, you're hanging out in the tent, right? Answer, freezing and dying and hoping he comes soon. Question. And I think this is when I believe the video happens that Don is filming, right? Answer, yes, because they're playing the music, right, which is the president's approved soundtrack of songs. And one of them that plays at all his rallies besides YMCA is Gloria. I don't know the name of the song question. I think it's YMCA by the Village People. Have you watched the Trump rallies? No, I think it's called Gloria. I think

that's the name of the song. Oh, yes, yes, that's the song, but he also, it's an eighties pop song. Yes. But he also plays YMCA as well. Oh my gosh. So they played that and I'm a child of the eighties. So I like that. And then Don goes to me, he's like princess. I think he said, princess, you know, show us your dance moves and I'm a really good dancer okay that's that's what kimberly gilfoyle okay that's that's not the bombshell it's not the bombshell but i had to i had to read it but that's not the it just goes back ben like when you're reading that and you're just listening to kimberly gilfoyle talk you're're just like, no, I don't

want to be in the same room as you. I don't want to grab a beer with you. Like you have to be able to call these people weird and dangerous and just, just not be ashamed that you're doing that because they are, they're both weird and dangerous. And Kimberly Guilfoyle isn't someone that I want to go grab a beer with after we do this show tonight. I'm just not going to do it. I want someone that's just going to talk to me normally. I mean, it's the president's soundtrack. She is really, really good. I'm a really good answer.

Well, you know, the reason also that she's doing it is because she's the reason she's doing that and saying that it's because she's lying. Like when they asked her questions like, do you know what the fake electors were or the contingent electors are? Did you understand that plan at all? I don't recall any of that. And just sometimes what people do when they lie, it's just a habit. As someone who's cross-examined liars, they try to fill up the air with just kind of nonsense and try to run out the clock on you because she's basically lying about everything there. There are messages from her talking about linking Steve Bannon to Mark Meadows. And when she's confronted with that in her depositions, I don't recall that. I don't know why I would do that. I don't recall. Well,

it says it right there. And then you go back to Cassidy Hutchinson's original depositions. Before she spoke publicly, she said, what the Trump lawyers were telling me to say is just say you don't recall. The January 6th committee won't know. But by the way, saying you don't recall, if it's clear that you do recall is also a form of perjury, which could indeed be criminal. So in addition to looking embarrassing and humiliating, you can't just lie and say, I don't recall if indeed there is a record of you actually recalling. And then there's the Stephanie Grisham, her deposition, and she was the press secretary for a short period of time. And in her deposition, she talks about how what she heard during the insurrection, not directly, but secondhand from people who were in the know, was that Donald

Trump thought that the outfits by the insurrectionists were, quote, very tacky, very tacky, too tacky for his taste. But he liked how the insurrectionists were fighting for him. He really liked that aspect of it that they were fighting for, but a little bit too tacky of the outfits, which they would have changed. I think he also called them trashy too, i think that was that was awesome in there as well but it is just incredible he hates his own follow like he hates his supporters he really does if you're a maga person in this chat right now trolling us he hates you he wouldn't piss on you if you're on fire he just wouldn't he despises everything about you other than the fact that you fight his fights for him and that you go to jail for him.

It's sad, but it's true. And it's happening to you. You're getting taken right now. Maga troll in the chat. You are getting taken. How about the deposition of Ronna McDaniel, which shows that Donald Trump had introduced John Eastman to her and was aware of the fake elector scheme that goes to Donald Trump's mens rea or mental state in a potential criminal indictment of him. I thought this one was devastating. And for those following at home, you go to page seven and eight of the deposition where she's asked first, I'll give you the setup first. So do you understand what I mean by alternate electors?

It was, yeah, my understanding of them were as contingent electors in case any legal challenges change the result of any state. So then they would have met as necessary step in case to meet the requirement by the Supreme Court, but they were contingent in case legal challenges change something in any particular state. Question. So when was the first time that you can recall learning about the concept that these alternate electors were going to meet and cast electoral votes? Answer. So to the best of my recollection, the first, I don't have the exact date. Now we're on page eight. My memory is that it was after kind of the White House Christmas party season and prior to December 14th. So somewhere maybe within a few days before December 14th that I received a call for the RNC to help bring the electors together for this contingent purpose based on potential legal challenges that hadn't been finished yet.

Question. I know it's hard to recall specific dates from something that happened a long time ago, but the Supreme Court rejected the petition in Texas versus Pennsylvania on December 11th of 2020. Do you recall whether that call you received was before or after the Supreme Court's action? Answer. I don't recall. I really don't recall when it would be. It would have come through the White House switchboard. So my gut would be that it was before that. Okay. But do you recall there being any express conversation about whether or not there was still a case pending with the Supreme Court answer? My understanding is that there was that case, but there were other cases. So I don't really remember. So there was many cases going on.

Okay. And who was the call from? Now there was many cases going on. Question. Okay. And who was the call from? Now, this is where I want everyone to pay attention. When I received the call again, I don't remember the exact date. It was from the White House switchboard and it was President Trump who had contacted me. Question. And did President Trump have anyone else on with him? Answer, he introduced me to a gentleman named John Eastman. Question, and was it just the three of you on the call, meaning Trump, Eastman, and you? Answer, I don't know. Okay. As far as you know, though, you were only the three of you? Answer, as far as I know, those were the only people who spoke on the call. Okay. And then it goes on, you know,

it goes on to have more of the kind of conversation here, but recall, Jordy, that a federal judge has already found that Donald Trump and Eastman were in a criminal conspiracy together in connection with Eastman trying not to turn over his records into the January 6th committee. The federal judge, David Carter, said that they were not involved in a normal attorney-client relationship, but they were involved in a coup in search of a legal theory and stated that not only were they engaged in criminal conduct, but that the messages that they were sending were in furtherance of the criminal conspiracy and obstruction to try to overthrow our democracy. And so here, when you take what is being said by Ronna McDaniel, where she goes, I just thought that it was contingent. So only if we won in court would these electors be activated. Yet where

the questioning eventually goes, and the questioner does a very skilled job as you go down further in the deposition to basically say, well, did Eastman ever say anything about the electors being useful at the joint session on January 6th? Or what about the possibility of state legislatures adopting those electors? And did Professor Eastman give any other reasons why those alternative electors or those contingent electors may be necessary? Because even though, and this is where it gets criminal, once they lost the cases and still pushed the contingent electors, the fraudulent electors, now you're involved in a criminal conspiracy to overthrow the democracy. Those are precisely what the emails that Judge David Carter was looking at showed.

So you have Ronna McDaniel now who's going to be a pivotal witness because she said Trump and Eastman, both of them called me. So when Eastman gets thrown under the bus, Trump was on the call. That's why that to me was some blockbuster testimony there, Jay. What do you think? You know, Jack Smith, Ben, is just sitting there just collecting everything, just collecting it all. I got so much faith in Jack Smith, man. And by the way, that wasn't everything that's been released. Over the weekend, Ben, the January 6th committee, they released a trove of materials from their final report. I mean, released even more than what's already been out there. So it's just a lot of

time for people to really go through it. And I genuinely feel like the American people were robbed of an opportunity to just see everything laid out there, which is how fast the January 6th committee had to move. Think about it. They conducted their whole investigation. They got people to come in. They really did an excellent job. And they were super efficient with the time that they had. But just, you know, they're able to run out the clock on them, which is quite frustrating.

But as we see, I mean, this isn't over yet. Jack Smith now has all of these materials just at the ready. And one of the other things that we saw, Ben, was the Hope Hicks, Trump's advisor. When the insurrection was going down, the January 6th committee released these text message exchanges, which basically has Hope Hicks. Who's she talking with here, Ben? She's talking with the chief of staff from Ivanka Trump. Who's the person there, Ben? Can you help me out? I think her name is like Julianne something. Yeah, exactly. And so anyway- She was sitting with that. But at any event, so she's Ivanka's chief of staff speaking to Hope Hicks. And what Hope Hicks and Ivanka's chief of staff, what they're focused on right now is like losing their job.

Jay, you want to read those messages? Yeah, I mean, these messages are disturbing. So Ivanka's chief of staff, her name is Julie Radford. And so as the January 6th insurrection, while we're in the thick of it, as Ben mentioned, Hope Hicks is just so mad, not at the insurrection, but that she deems herself unemployable and that all of these people now are going to call her domestic terrorists. So let's start here. So if you're watching this, Hope Hicks, she's in the blue text box and Julie's in the grayish white. So it starts off, it says, this is from Hope. It says, in one day, he ended every future opportunity that doesn't include speaking engagement at the local Proud Boys chapter. Julie, yep, hope. And all of us that didn't

have jobs lined up will be perpetually unemployed. I'm so mad and upset. We all look like domestic terrorists now. Julie, oh yes, I've been crying for an hour. And again, I just want to be clear, they're not upset at the insurrection. They're upset at their future. Their future employment opportunities have now dwindled because of the psychotic person that they continue to work for and outwardly show support for. So I think the text messages even go on to say something to the effect of, and this is from Hope. She says she has no idea. I think she in this instance, not confirmed, but I'm pretty sure she's talking about Ivanka since they're texting Julie here. So Hope says, she has no idea. This made us all unemployable, like untouchable. God, I'm so effing mad. And Julie says, I know there isn't a chance of finding a job. Visa also

sent me a blow off email today already. And then Hope goes back and says, nope, not being dramatic, but we are all F. Alyssa looks like a genius. And Alyssa in this case is Alyssa Griffin Farrow, who was working with the Trump administration, who stepped down and said, hey, this is too crazy for me. I'm leaving. So in that instance, Hope Hicks is like, why am I even working for this madman? But this is what they do, Ben, behind closed doors. They're able to speak so openly and freely to each other about how much they hate the situation that they're in. Not that about the insurrection. Let's be clear. They're mad that their future job opportunities have vanished. And they're trashing Trump, trashing the administration, saying, I can't believe I didn't leave. But it's all me, me, me with these people. It's just like, there's something bigger happening here. I'm sorry that Visa sent you a nasty email, Julie, but ultimately you're working for the worst people in the world. And look, people should have jobs. You should be able to get jobs. But when you refuse to step down all the way into January 6th while the insurrection is going on and you're continuing to work for these lunatics,

I stop feeling bad for you. I don't care about your future work opportunities. When the whole government is under attack, Ben, when you look at what's going on and the peaceful transition of power is just being completely laughed at and mocked in live time for people just to watch, it is terrifying. That's the emotion that you should have when the insurrection is happening. Like, oh my God, this is terrible for the country. This is just an awful scene. This is embarrassing on a national stage, on a global stage. This is just awful for everybody involved. Like people are getting hurt. This is dangerous. Oh, my goodness. There are senators and folks in that building right now. Like this is scary. But no, no, these MAGA Republicans cannot put themselves in anybody

else's shoes. They're worried about me, me, me. And those texts that came out from the January 6th committee just further solidifies that. I'm worried about my job opportunities. Come on. You would think that they should say, hey, we need to quit right now. We need to come out with a statement condemning this. What can we do to stop this? Where can we put our resources to try to help and make this situation come to an end? Those would be the messages that you would expect in this situation. Not like, oh my God, I didn't get this job. Oh my God, we're so unemployable now. And it kind of has this tie in also with Kevin McCarthy, where at some point you're trying to win. You're trying to get a job. And it goes to Santos also, but you're willing to destroy America, cheat, steal, do whatever you can

do without any sense of the repercussions. And then when the repercussions like stare you in the face, you're then so cowardly to address it and you only compound the damage that's being done. One of the other ones, though, in addition to that was a good one to point out was the message between Tony Ornato, used to be in the Secret Service, then became a top Trump advisor, And Cassidy Hutchinson, these are text messages that confirm that Donald Trump wanted to show up and basically storm the Capitol himself. And so we have contemporaneous messages that back up all this stuff. And I'll say this, to your point, Jay, about how important the release of these deposition transcripts and evidence was, I think in many ways, the way the January 6th has choreographed the release of this information has almost been equally as powerful as the report itself, and perhaps even more powerful than the report itself, because the report really shed light on everything we saw

if you were following the January 6th committee's public hearings. But to see the data, to see it for yourself, to truly actually do the research by examining the raw data, not what Fox wants to inject the disinformation in your veins. To read what were the people saying and doing at this time. That is how I like to judge these situations too, not just even framed by, okay, the January 6th committee did this great presentation. Here's a great report. All right. Now I want to dig into the data myself. And it's even more shocking, I think, than the way the January 6th committee presented it. I'll just give you this other example. You go into General Mark Milley's deposition, and there's parts of Mark Milley's deposition

where he's talking to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and she's saying things like, you know that Trump is crazy, right? With respect to the nuclear codes, are we safe and secure? And he's saying, look, even though the president could make the order, there are so many redundancies in place to avoid an immoral or crazy launch from happening. That's what he's talking about in real time. Our top general, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff is saying that to the speaker of the house. Also, everyone was talking about, and Milley reflects this, how Donald Trump was in this very dark period and how even other countries, allies and enemies had no clue what was happening with

our country. And so they had to reach out to all of their counterparts to let them know that he wasn't going to do something crazy because everybody internationally was like, what the heck is going on in this country? And so he had to make all these phone calls saying, we know that he's deranged, but we've got this under control. And then there was just this other one piece of it that is getting less attention, but I think we should talk about it here for a second. And it's a situation where he mentions about where Kash Patel hands him this piece of paper

and they're all in this room together. And one of the things that General Milley says is that the thing with Trump is sometimes there would be something that would happen that could totally destroy our country. And then I'd have to address it with him. And then when I would address it with him, I'd get no real answers. And then I'd be told, oh, no, no, don't ignore that. That's not really what I meant. And so the way General Milley said it is he goes, he was talking about how Kash Patel's name was floated to replace the head of the CIA. And he was saying, yeah, that was being discussed. But also the idea that someone goes and reverses an order relatively quickly. I've seen that several different times. And for those wanting to follow, just go to page 105 of Mark Milley, General Milley's deposition. I'm going to read

this for you. This is quite harrowing. And he goes, one example is, I received a written document on the 11th. No, no, it's the 12th. I think it is the 12th of November, three days after Secretary of ESPR is relieved. I get called up into acting Secretary of Defense Miller's office. And it's Miller, me, and Kash Patel. Kash Patel hands me a piece of paper. I testified to this in front of Congress like three weeks ago, but he hands me a piece of paper to me signed by then President Trump. I open it up and it basically has two sentences in it. And it says, you are hereby ordered to withdraw all U.S. military forces from Somalia no later than the 31st of December. The second sentence says, you are directed to withdraw all U.S. forces

from Iraq by January 15th. That's it. And there was another line that said something like inform all allies or something like that. And I looked at Kash Patel and I said, who gave the president the military advice for this? Did you do this, Kash? And he said, oh, no, no, no. I had nothing to do with it. So then I look at the acting secretary of defense, Miller, and I said, did you give the president military advice on this? And he goes, oh, no, no, no, I didn't. Not me. I said, OK, well, we got to go over and see the president and then make sure that he's fully informed, going back to the constitutional responsibilities to make sure he's fully informed. It's a legal order, but I want to make sure I've got duties to do here, constitutional duties that I've got to

make sure he's properly advised. So we go over to the White House. We walk into the National Security Advisor's office. Robert O'Brien hand him the order, this piece of paper, and said, Robert, where's this coming from? And is this true? And O'Brien says to me, I've never seen this before. And I say, okay. Then Kellogg, Keith Kellogg, the national security advisor to the vice president is there. Kellogg says, let me see this piece of paper. Kellogg takes the piece of paper, looks at it and says, something is really wrong here. This doesn't look right. And I looked at Kellogg and I said, you're telling me that this thing is forged, that there's a forged piece of paper directing a military operation by the

president of the United States that's forged, Keith? And he said, I don't know. I don't know. So O'Brien and Kellogg then say, give us a few minutes and they go away. I assume, I don't know factually, but I assume it was to see the president. They come back 10 or 15 minutes later and they say, it's rescinded, it's over, it never existed. I said, okay, fine, so it doesn't exist. So I've seen reversals like this before. I want you to reflect on that, Jordy, that Kash Patel handed him a piece of paper that would have placed our military in peril. And thankfully, we had a general like Mark Milley who said, where's this coming from? But then when he confronted the people with it, this goes back to what we said at the beginning, just so cowardly, it's rescinded.

We didn't mean that. You didn't mean that? You were going to single-handedly change the direction of military policy? Could have placed all of our troops in peril, changed the way we're dealing with Somalia, changed our policy to Iraq? By the way, we may agree or disagree with where troops should be or shouldn't be, but it's got to be done in an organized way. Just a piece of paper, like a note that gets passed by like third graders, like here's a note, here's a note. Could you, but like, and that's just one of the things that's buried in these depositions.

That's why when you take a look at it and why I spend the time to really go through it, because let's do the research in those words. Let's do the research for ourselves and see what's being said. They're crazy. Right, Jay? Wow. I didn't even know you were coming to the table with that tonight. I didn't see it.

That is wild, Benny. That is wild, wild. I mean, it is. It was the wild, wild west. That was the Trump administration. I'm not saying that it's right, but that's what it was. And that's why, again, to go back to something I said earlier, that's why he's not the president anymore. That's what the American people are sick of.

That type of just chaotic leadership is just so disgusting and un-American at the heart of it. That's why people overwhelmingly support Biden's agenda, because what's he doing, Ben? Just like we talked about before, lowering insulin prices, helping you with Medicare and Medicaid, just like the most common sense stuff to actually help the American people, Ben. And all Donald Trump wanted to do was just throw this country into chaos and just madness. Oh, I didn't know you were coming to the table with that. Can I I got I got I got some breaking news here, Ben, not to get us off topic, but can I go to the breaking news or do you want to break news? The breaking news live as we're doing this show, this is new per the New York times. Brazilian authorities are now informing the U S department of justice that they are seeking criminal fraud charges

against no other than George Santos. Those charges were previously suspended because they could not find them up. I think everybody knows where he is now. New York's third. Wow, Ben. That is real bombshell breaking news as well. On the eve of a day where Kevin McCarthy or a speaker, it's supposed to be a coronation. It's supposed to be a celebration, but this is why you need to be a leader. Frankly, this is why we had, we explained why would Tulsi Gabbard from Fox go after him like that? Because Rupert Murdoch at least is smart enough to know that the story isn't going away. You can't cover your eyes and close your ears to this one. It's only going to grow and grow and grow as more is discovered about this complete and utter fraud. The further this goes on, Ben, the longer this goes on, the more I just genuinely believe that

McCarthy didn't want to do anything with Santos because he knows that he has a Santos vote, that he doesn't want to lose and be in jeopardy of losing one more vote that he desperately needs. I mean, I truly believe that that's a main source of his inaction in this situation, which is pathetic and should really just anger everybody here if that's ultimately the reason why he hasn't moved on this, other than the fact that he's a coward, other than the fact that he's not a leader, other than the fact that he's refused to take positions on various other things along the way where he could have put his foot down. I mean, that is bombshell stuff. Absolutely. And according to New York Times, it's the older criminal case that we discussed earlier here. Brazilian law enforcement authorities intend to revive the

fraud charges against Mr. Santos and will seek his formal response, prosecutors said on Monday. The matter, which stemmed from an incident in 2008 regarding a stolen checkbook, had been suspended for the better part of a decade because the Brazilian police were unable to locate him. A spokeswoman for the Rio de Janeiro prosecutor's office said that with Mr. Santos' whereabouts identified, a formal request will be made to the United States Justice Department to notify him of the charges, a necessary step after which the case will proceed with or without him. criminal case in Brazil was first disclosed by the New York Times. Also, yet another lie of Santos denying that there was a criminal case going on in Brazil, a bombshell. Ben, if you were hiding, right? Let's just put you in some shoes here. If you were hiding- Don't put me in Santos' shoes. Okay, fine. But generally, audience, I ask you this. If you were hiding- Don't put me in Santos' shoes. Okay, fine. But generally, audience, I ask you this. If you're hiding-

Don't put the audience to do it as if a hypothetical- A hypothetical situation here is if you are a person who is trying to hide because you have committed criminal acts in another place, might not be the place where you live now, but you're hiding because you don't want to be found by that government. Do you think do you think that the smartest thing to do would be to run for the to be a congress member and serve the United States government? But not only that, then to go on Fox News and make yourself almost the face of the party when when these folks over here are trying to find you. Are you serious? I mean, oh, just the audacity, man. It's the audacity for me, man. It's just the sheer stupidity and audacity. They all

move. They think they move like Trump. They think they could get away with these things. Bro, you are going to get so, you're going to just go you're gone brazilian jail boom by the way by the way you know donald trump was able to get away with it though and you know for the last four years or before that during the presidency because unfortunately uh our constitutional uh four fathers and four persons they didn't necessarily um realize or recognize that you could have this kind of criminal president and you have all of these immunities and all of these things. And then you have Department of Justice storms. Donald Trump's going down on a lot of different things. We've talked about the obvious ones. We talked about the special counsel investigations.

And if we want to listen to more of that, listen to Legal AF. We'll talk about them more on the Brother podcast as well on future editions as that continues to heat up. But the one thing I did want to mention though, is that Trump's NFT and his SPAC have crashed and both look like pump and dumps. You had that weird Trump digital NFT that purportedly like sold out in 24 hours. Yet if you actually break down the detail, there's only like 33% unique owners of the actual trading cards. And based on the demand, which could be artificial demand that was created and Trump pumping it up, the value of this thing skyrocketed within the first day. By the 17th, it was due in December 17th, there was three to $4 million in secondary market transactions. And now no one's buying these things. It's down to less than $50,000 or $55,000 in secondary market

transactions. The demand has plummeted by 98%. The value of these things have utterly plummeted. Just another kind of utter failure there. And so when I saw that the NFTs crashed, I was like, all right, I haven't looked up the SPAC in a while. What's going on with Digital World Acquisition Company? And I looked it up the other day, and then it was down to $15 a share. These things start to $15 a share. These things start at $10 a share. By reference, Marjorie Taylor Greene bought the stock when it was trading at $97 a share. And the Digital World Acquisition Company is under criminal investigation by the Southern District of New York for engaging in potentially unlawful conduct related to the formation of the SPAC,

as well as potential insider trading. The trading volume is also kind of crashed. You can literally see the trades, like one trade at like 1148. And this stock is completely crashing. I don't, you know, lots of people have lost their kind of life savings on this. I looked at, um, well, lots of people, MAGA people have lost their life savings on it. I looked up, um, there's a whole Reddit thread, uh, there of, of people who have like lost their life savings. They can't come to the conclusion that it's Donald Trump though yet. Like you're like, it's his bad advisors. Well, it's like, OK, well, if he can be persuaded by those bad advisors, this is still someone you want to put there. You want to give your money to. I mean, being seriously.

So and by the way, everything he touches goes bankrupt. I mean, his charities, his organization's a felon, his 17 convictions, 17 different charges the organization was convicted of. His charity was shut down in New York for engaging in fraud. There's a $250 million lawsuit by the New York Attorney General. All of his other companies have gone bankrupt where he's destroyed the lives of employees and vendors and took everybody's money. It's right there in plain and open sight as well, Jordy. And that's why I think people like George Santos think that if we just do it in the open, there is no accountability. And frankly, it's going to be not the Republican party. It's going to be the Brazilian authorities and federal prosecutors that are going to be the

ones to actually hold them. Think about that. It's going to take Brazil, not the United States of American Republican Party to give a shit. Wow. When you put it in that perspective, that's pretty illuminating, but it shouldn't shock us in 2023 that that's what needs to be done. We need other countries to hold our elected representatives accountable. I mean, absolutely insane. Ben, am I wrong for this? I mean, like when we talk about the SPAC and the MAGA folks who've lost their life savings, like because they bought into Donald Trump's shtick. Like, I actually I don't know why, because these people are likely hate my guts and hate

just democracy at its core. But I actually I I don't know why, because these people are likely hate my guts and hate just democracy at its core. But I actually, I feel bad. I genuinely feel bad because it's not the banks that Trump's screwing over anymore, right? It's not these like weird business people that he's screwing over anymore. Just screwing over Americans, like just your average American. I mean, they're MAGA, crazy MAGA supporters.

So maybe they're not your average American. But I'm just saying like at the end of the day, there's still people and citizens of this country that, to your point, have lost their life savings. By the way, that may not be hundreds of thousands of dollars or tens of thousands of dollars, but still to those folks, that's their livelihood. That's their Christmas. That's their birthdays. That's their families. That's everything to them. And because they bought into the lie, Ben, that's why. And to me, maybe I'm not sad for that. I'm just sad at the situation. You know, I always like to have, and we do lots of videos on this, a way to have a soft landing for people who want to leave MAGA even to this day. And I always like to talk about the larger pro-democracy movement here at the Midas Touch Network and the pro-democracy movement just made up generally of

Democrats, progressives, former Republicans, or people who still, I guess, call themselves Republicans, but just not the MAGA Republican Party. Independents, people who are not affiliated with political parties who are like, look, I just want normalcy. I'm exhausted. I'm exhausted. I don't want this weird stuff, please. I don't want all this fraud and criminality. Do I love everything the Democrats do? No. But do I know that they're trying to confront difficult issues? Yes. And can we try to solve these problems together? Yes. Because I want to spend my weekend with my family, with friends, colleagues. I want to go to a great restaurant. I want to provide for my family. I want to go see a movie. I want to watch TV. I want to read a book. I want to do whatever hobby I have. And I don't want this MAGA extremist lies and hate just being spewed like, let's just

be normal here. And we love our country. So I always want there to be a soft landing, but it's so hard to get through. And there's been some breakthroughs, but you go back and you read the deposition testimony, for example, of Ginny Thomas. And she's told, well, you know now that all of the courts have ruled against Donald Trump. True, true. Well, you know now from the January 6th committee, all the testimony, that all of the people in Donald Trump's inner circle, other than Mike Lindell and Sidney Powell and Giuliani, all of the people who really did the right investigation, including Bill Barr, including Christopher Wray, head of the FBI, they all say that there was no fraud to overturn the results of the election.

You're aware that that's what they've all said, right? And she goes, yeah. And then they say to her, well, so knowing that everybody who's really investigated this has said that there was no fraud to overturn the results of the election. Can you accept that? Can you accept the results? But she goes, no, I can't. I still feel in my heart that there was something else going on there. And that's the problem to your point, Jordi, is I can talk through the depositions. And like with general mark milley's deposition you know what's the maga position about like general mark milley it's like okay this is our top military leader so distinguished four-star general what does maga say in response to all of that woke

woke he's too woke woke military okay i mean then't, like, then I can't have a real time. I can't have a human interaction with you. You're right. You're right. You're right. I can't, I can't engage in the human interaction when your issue is you just yell way too woke. They're reading books with diverse viewpoints to woke. And it's like, all right, well, come on.

And then general Milley explains that he goes, we want diverse viewpoints. It's important that we get the best information. And he goes, hey, I read things I disagree with. I could read Marxist manifestos. It doesn't mean I'm a Marxist. I want to read this to learn about these things. The issue why Putin and Russia is such a failure is because, and this is why Trump's Putin and Russia is such a failure is because, and this is why Trump's response to COVID is such a failure, is because all you get is yes men, because usually always men, all you get is yes men who just say, and then like a Putin or a Trump thinks they're smarter than the actual experts. So you don't actually have the right smart people as your

leaders. And that inevitably always leads to problems and backfires when you get bad information. And yet leave it to the MAGA Republicans to bash the military and praise Russia and China's military and say America's military is too woke. You can't then have the rational conversation with them. And finally, Jordy, the moment of zen, though, of the day. What do we got? In addition to the fact that Brazil is now criminally investigating Santos. I love that we started with that and we got the close of it, too. Is that Katie Hobbs has been sworn in as the governor of Arizona.

This means that Katie Hobbs is now officially Carrie Lake's governor. Carrie Lake will likely continue to contest the 2020 election for the rest of her life in addition to the 2022 election, because that's all they do. Their position is, and this is one of the comments, though, that I think did resonate with people who were formerly MAGA that made the switch over is they said that the moment that they saw people like Kerry Lake and these MAGA Republicans say that they would only accept the results if they win before the results was a tip off to them. I mean, duh, but that message I've gotten a lot is something that's resonated. They go, well, you know, you, you, all you're doing is claiming that you're only gonna,

you know, you're only going to accept, uh, you're only going to accept the results if you win. So, you know, that's, that's a loser mentality. But anyway, I thought that was good news. Jay, good news, huh? That was some excellent news there, Ben. I always like ending these shows on a high note. And for those watching right now on YouTube, I'm going to ask you for a personal favor, please. We're at 808 or 9,000 subscribers. I mean, this Pro Democracy channel, Ben, it's really resonating with a lot of folks.

If you are watching right now or ever you're watching, hit that follow button, hit that subscribe button. It is amazing. It is an amazing way to continue to just prop up this pro-democracy channel. If you're an audio listener, I need you to do me a solid. You need to go, you just hit, you don't even have to hit pause. You can go to the YouTube app right now on your phone as you're listening to this podcast and subscribe to our YouTube channel. And if you're only a YouTube listener or a Facebook listener, download the Midas Touch podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.

It really helps with that algorithm. The channel is continuing to grow. Ben, I think we were in the top 15 of podcasts last week or something like that, top 30 now pretty consistently. So please, it takes two seconds. You can do it. I got faith in you. We put a lot of hard work into this channel,

and it's just thanks to you that we're able to grow this. So thank you so much for fighting alongside us and doing what we got to do. So thank you. Hit that subscribe button. Hit that follow button. We appreciate it. Ben. I agree with you, Trey.

Make sure you subscribe on audio in addition to subscribing on YouTube and check us out at patreon.com slash Midas touch P A T R E O N.com slash Midas touch. We've got great exclusive content that you could only get at our Patreon site, like behind the scenes footage, exclusive Patreon podcast drops. There's even a membership tier where you could become an honorary producer of the Midas touch podcast. And at the end of these podcasts, your name will appear in perpetuity as long as YouTube is around. And these videos remain posted. You're also getting a poster commemorating your honorary producer status.

There's other membership tiers where you get postcards for me and my brothers. There's Q and a sessions with us. The Q&As get intense, big bro. They get intense. But I think most importantly, it helps grow this independent media platform. We are not funded by any outside investors at all, zero. And so while we compete with the both sides, large media networks that both sides, all of the issues, they're funded by billions of dollars and billionaires. And I'm not even going to talk about the pro-fascist media and their funding. We are funded by you. We're 100% accountable to you. We're 100% independent. And we do that through our Patreon site. And so if you want to support us in your name or in a friend's name or a colleague's name

or a family member's name, even if you're already a member of Patreon, whatever you want to do, check it out. Help support the growth of this independent media platform and community. Patreon.com slash MidasTouch, P-A-T-R-E-O-N.com slash MidasTouch. And make sure you also check out store.midastouch.com for the best unapologetically pro-democracy gear out there. We've got convict or convict 45 shirts. We've got person, woman, my cup mug. And we've got make attorneys get attorneys hat. We've got so much great merch. Check it out at store. Might as touch to come.

And we just got some nice solid, just like might as touch gear that says might as touch on the shirt and might as touch hats and things like that. So store. Might as touch.com. Finally, I want to thank everybody who's watching this and listening to this. Please share this video, share the community with friends and family members and colleagues and coworkers. Let's continue to expand together in 2023.

My new year's resolution, I'm allowed to tell it. It's not, I don't have to keep it secret is to make sure that we continue to put in all the hours and the hard work for you and to make all of you proud here at the Midas Touch community. That is our pledge to you. We're so grateful for you. We're so thankful for you. None of this at all is possible without your support. And every single morning, every single night, every single time I'm doing a video or these podcasts, not a second goes by where I don't think how humbled I am and honored I am to be a part of this community with you and how grateful I am to each and every one of you.

Thank you so much for watching this episode of the Midas Touch podcast. We will see you next time. Jordy, take it away. Shout episode of the Midas Touch podcast. We will see you next time. Jordy, take it away. Shout out to the Midas Mighty! At Midas Touch, we are unapologetically pro-democracy, and we demand justice and accountability. That's why we're spreading our message to Convict45. That's right. Gear up right now with your Convict45 tees and pins at store.midastouch.com.

That's store.midastouch.com.