The MeidasTouch Podcast - Jack Smith NOT WASTING TIME as Trump is CORNERED

Episode Date: August 22, 2023

On this episode of the MeidasTouch Podcast, Ben, Brett and Jordy discuss the fast-moving developments that have already kicked off the week. We set our sights on Fulton County, where Donald Trump and other codefendants have agreed to certain bail terms and they finalize their surrender plans. Meanwhile, Special Counsel Jack Smith is not skipping a beat. Smith filed his concise reply brief arguing that the trial should remain in January 2024. The Republican Party is set for their first primary debate this week. We’ll discuss the latest and what to expect. In normal world, President Biden just kicked off a massive $25 million ad blitz to tout his accomplishments. Don’t miss a beat on all that and more! DEALS FROM OUR SPONSORS: Alex And Ani: Head to Alexandani.com and get 20% at checkout with code MEIDAS. Discover the confidence that comes from a perfectly accessorized piece of jewelry. Shopify: Sign up for a one-dollar per month trial at shopify.com/meidas AG1: Go to DrinkAG1.com/MEIDAS for a FREE 1 year supply of Vitamin D AND 5 free travel packs. 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 Burn the Boats: https://pod.link/1485464343 Majority 54: https://pod.link/1309354521 Political Beatdown: https://pod.link/1669634407 Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://pod.link/1676844320 MAGA Uncovered: https://pod.link/1690214260 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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free of charge bet mgm operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming ontario in the fulton county georgia criminal rico case fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee issued Trump's bond order today, setting bond for $200,000. shall not intimidate either directly or indirectly and on social media and or other means, including through his own posts and or reposts of others, any witness, co-defendant, victim, or the Fulton County judicial system or Atlanta community as a whole. Of all of the bond orders and conditions we've seen so far in the various criminal cases, this is the strongest end. Fulton County District Attorney Fawnie Willis is not afraid to call out Trump for violations of these bond conditions. Meanwhile, as of this recording, the Fulton County District Attorney's Office, the Fulton County Sheriff's Department, and Trump's lawyers are finalizing the details of Trump's surrender this week. The filings were fast and furious on the docket in

the federal criminal case against Donald Trump in federal court Washington, D.C. Special counsel Jack Smith requested leave to file a reply brief in order to respond to Donald Trump's outlandish request of a trial date in April of 2026. The court granted Jack Smith's request shortly thereafter, and almost immediately, Jack Smith filed the government's reply brief arguing that it is in the public's interest for a January 2nd, 2024 trial date, and that Trump's brief requesting April 2026 was both misleading and false in all material respects. It was a busy weekend for Trump's criminal co-defendant and former chief of staff Mark Meadows.

After filing a notice of removal to try to get the Fulton County, Georgia state criminal case transferred to federal court, where it is currently assigned to federal judge Steve Jones pending a determination over federal jurisdiction, Mark Meadows over the weekend filed a motion to dismiss the indictment before Judge Jones. This was done even before Judge Jones held an evidentiary hearing on the removal to federal court, which is scheduled for August 28th. Meadows cites the supremacy clause and the first and 14th amendments of the United States Constitution as grounds for dismissal. Meanwhile, ABC News picked up a scoop, which almost certainly seemed like it was leaked by Mark Meadows' camp, that Meadows has been providing Jack Smith with extensive cooperation in the

criminal case against Donald Trump for the willful retention of national defense information and obstruction of justice at Mar-a-Lago, that case pending before Judge Eileen Cannon in Florida federal court. And we all knew the Republican Party is not that grand anymore, but has become the MAGA cult. And new polling data confirms this. A new CBS YouGov poll of Republicans found that 71% of Republicans trust Donald Trump far more than any other source of information, more than friends, more than family, more than any news source, and more than religious leaders. Also this Wednesday, it's the first Republican debate of the primary season. It will take place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and it will be broadcast on Fox. Trump is refusing to appear for the debate.

Democratic Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said the following about the first Republican primary debate, quote, that's a pretty weird group of folks that's going to be on the debate stage. Also, and finally, President Biden launched a $25 million advertising blitz in several battleground states on Sunday with a focus on amplifying Bidenomics and his economic success stories. I'm Ben Micellis. This is the Midas Touch podcast joined by Brett and Jordy. How are you guys doing? How are you doing? Doing great. It's great to see you here, Ben. Great to see you here, Jordy. Wow, what a Monday, huh? Just right out the gate, hot,

hot with news. I saw people in the comments, Ben, saying that when Ben's rocking the white shirt, you know that it's going to be a good show. You know that we're going to be bringing the heat. And I got to say, I don't think that is an inaccurate analysis of the situation, but I am excited to get into it. And oh boy, do we have a ton to cover today. Jordy, what's new with you? I'm super excited. Honestly, I'm wildly anxious. I have a flight in like seven hours just to talk like brothers talk right now. I have a flight in like seven hours just to talk like brothers talk right now. I have a flight. I haven't packed at all, like at all. So I'm thinking about that, but I'm also thinking about how great this show is about to be, Ben. What do

you, what say you? We got to make a good one. It's a good show. But Jordy, you realize that you've had multiple weeks, if not days to prepare for this trip. It's not like it's a new trip that's all of a sudden happening. Months, months, and months planned. Months planned. Listen, I'm no one to talk. I'm leaving the country in a couple days. And I've had this trip planned for months and months and months. And I've not packed a single thing.

So I'm not going to be one to judge Jordy for a much shorter trip that he's taken. But I am going to miss the Midas Mighty. I'm not going to be here probably for a couple of shows. I'm going to miss everybody a lot, but you'll be in good hands with Ben, with Jordy, perhaps some special guests. I don't know. We'll see what happens. Anything can happen on the Midas Touch podcast. I'll tell you who I am going to judge. It is the MAGA Republicans who will mostly all be on the debate stage in the coming days on Wednesday when the first debate will be taking place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I want to show you, though, what Governor Tim Walz said about the first Republican primary debate, because I think it is the appropriate

chord that he struck here by calling this not just fascism, but also just very, very weird. Let's play this clip. But look, Doug wouldn't answer the questions that need to be answered. And you were asking what's gonna come out of this debate. The minute they all step on the stage, the American people have lost. Are they gonna debate who can ban the most books?

Who, you know, Doug, he didn't tell you this, but he signed a six-week abortion ban, which is hugely unpopular and simply wrong in America. So, yeah, we're friends, but I hate to see it go down this road. Those are very simple questions about you were asking about the president, about the indictments. And so I was a little bit tongue in cheek. And the sad part is, I do believe that Doug is probably the most normal of these. That's a pretty weird group of folks going to be on the debate stage.

Doug's a pretty good guy, but he's trapped in a republican party with no ideas and i think that framing though is we look that's the framing that we use that's what we've been doing for months i'm still happy to hear it on tv it is a very like in addition to fascism we always say that MAGA equals fascism plus idiocracy. Like the conduct is not conservative, right? It is this weird MAGA Trumpism embodied by Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz and Donald Trump's behavior, which look, is very, very dangerous behavior, but it is also very, very weird behavior as well. I always go, look, if we remove for a moment the fascism, the malignant narcissism, the misogyny,

the fact that he's a criminal traitor, just move that aside for a moment, and just the whining and the being a baby and the wah, wah, wah, wah. Like all of that is like, okay, you Republicans want to give this crazy person nuclear weapons? Like what in the world are you doing? And then we get to the data from CBS, CBS, YouGov, that 71% of people in the Republican party view this individual as the most trusted source of news, somebody who's literally lied about everything. The Republicans say that they trust him more than they trust family members, friends, colleagues, any news source at all, religious leaders, whatever your dynamic. You trust the guy who's literally lied

about everything his entire life, more than anybody in your life. And look, we stress the weirdness and the dangerousness because it's so out of touch. They want to pretend that they are the silent majority. No, you are the most loud and obnoxious minority. People look at you and go, what the heck is this? And what's so critical is that we don't normalize the behavior, that we show it and we appropriately criticize it. Going off what Governor Tim Walz said, like, look, this is what Marjorie Taylor Greene was doing over the weekend. She goes on Fox, speaking of weirdness.

And for her, everything that's not like obedient to MAGA is communism, is Marxism, is Rhino, whatever the hell they even are trying to even say there. So if we have this clip of Marjorie Taylor Green saying, you know what? These indictments are communism. The indictments against Trump, they're communism. Here, play this clip. Yeah, let me tell you something. Americans are not going to have it. This election is not going to be swayed by indictments against President Trump that are really pure communism in America today. This election is going to be swayed with gas prices, food prices, inflation, and security. I love when they pretend to care about the

issues all of a sudden. You've literally spent your entire time, all you talk about is Hunter Biden this, Hunter Biden that. I think you're still talking about Hillary Clinton. All you talk about is wanting to lock up your political opponents. You've been doing this for years. And the second that somebody on your side who you bow down to as your leader gets indicted, suddenly it's indictments are communism, actually. Indictments are so communist. Haven't you seen? Just love your Marge. Just love your Marge. It always comes out. And Marge, by the way, I just want everyone to be aware of this. And I

think we have at least one other clip from this interview. But Marjorie Taylor Greene is on Maria Bartiromo's show here. It's a Fox business show called Sunday Futures. And I was just incredibly curious as to, okay, Sunday Futures, Maria Bartiromo, that doesn't sound like a political show. That doesn't sound like the name of a politics show. Why is Marjorie Taylor Greene on there? And then I was trying to figure out, how does this show present itself to its viewers? What do they call this? What are they going for with the show? Well, they describe themselves as a business show that focuses on the economy, interviews with business leaders and newsmakers on topics that include job creation, investment opportunities, and discussions of the stock market. So I just – I don't know where the Marjorie Taylor Greene's and the conspiracy theories come into play here.

But Ben, you actually did an incredible piece on MidasTouch.com, which I encourage folks to listen to, where what we kind of have noticed over the past few months as Fox has come under more fire for their conspiracy theories, they've decided, okay, we got this normal channel Fox. And I say that very, very with a huge grain of salt. We've got this main channel called Fox. Main channel. Main channel. Let's call it the main channel. But we'll put our more palatable stuff on there now because we don't want to get sued again. We already have all these lawsuits still coming our way. We had to pay out $787.5 million already with the Dominion suit, and there's more to come. So what we'll do is we'll try to kind of hedge our bets on the main network. But on Fox Business, the network that is supposed

to deliver people financial news, news about the stock market. Let's just throw Marjorie Taylor Greene on there. Let's do all these Trump interviews that we're now too afraid to have on the main channel. Let's put him and Mark Levin on and him and Larry Kudlow on. He was Trump's economic advisor. So I guess it makes sense that he would be on the business channel. And it has nothing to do with the subject matter at all that they purport to present. And they counter-program themselves, right? You have, so when Bill Barr was on Fox, they counter-programmed with Trump and Larry Kudlow at the same time. And all they talked about on that bizarre interview of Larry Kudlow,

Trump was talking about like water pressure the whole time and toilet bowls. And he said that he is the apple of Vladimir Putin's eye. I mean, just think about that, that Trump is on Fox Business saying that he is the apple of Vladimir Putin's eye. Speaking of Vladimir Putin as though he is in a subservient romantic relationship with Vladimir Putin, and Republicans are like, yeah, yeah, that's our guy. That's our guy. Here, Brett, show this one in the ultimate form of projection. It's Marjorie Tellegrin. This has been a line that's been spread by all of the MAGA Republicans that actually, you know who should be charged with RICO? The Fulton County District Attorney, Fannie Willis and Jack Smith.

There should be RICO charges against the prosecutors. Play Marjorie Taylor Greene. Well, I mean, these are serious charges like in Georgia. Do you think he will be able to be heard in a fair trial before the election? Or is there a chance he could go to jail? Well, I don't think he's going to get a fair trial at all. As a matter of fact, I don't think these charges are fair. What Fannie Willis is trying to do is exactly what she's guilty of.

She's charging him with RICO, racketeering and conspiracy in Fulton County, which is a largely Democrat county. He's not going to get a fair trial. And none of this is fair. He's in front of a Republican judge, right? Scott McAfee, not a Democrat judge appointed by the Republican governor, Brian Kemp. The Republican governor, Brian Kemp, states that he will be a witness against Trump. The Republican Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, says he will be a witness against Donald Trump. The Republican Lieutenant Governor says that he will be a witness against Donald Trump. So it sounds like the star witnesses here are actually all Republicans. But you know what? Republicans aren't Republicans anymore. They are MAGA,

pure and simple. When Judge Michael Luttig, who's considered the godfather of conservatism, this is a court of appeals judge who is responsible for training all of the Federalist Society judges. Luttig is as Republican and as conservative as you get. I don't think that gets enough attention when people see Michael Luddig, whether it's on MSNBC with Lauren Strive talking about the 14th Amendment Section 3 and the disqualification clause and saying that Trump should be disqualified, or when we talk about how Michael Luddig testified before the January 6th Committee, I want to emphasize, you don't get more traditional Republican and conservative than Luddig. But now in the new Republican party, the MAGA Republicans,

Luddig is viewed as a rhino. And the MAGAs, they go rhino hunting and they go after people like Ludwig. I'm not making that up. That's actually what Lauren Boebert says in her speech. We go rhino hunting in this party. And then you have Laura Ingraham on her show and the segment before this, I'm not even going to play because it's so humiliating. They had an MMA fighter talking about how big Donald Trump's hands are. He's known for having the tiniest hands and saying that his hands are as big as lunchboxes. That was a seg... I'm not making it up. Go to MidasTouch.com. It was a segment that they did. So the first segment is that Donald Trump's hands are as big as lunchboxes and that Donald Trump has stamina for days. That was what the

segment was called. It's some hard hitting news, Ben. Some hard hitting news. And then in the next segment, she attacks Michael Luddig, the right wing conservative court of appeals judge, and basically says he's out. He's exiled. Play this clip of Laura Ingraham. I have a responsibility to put on the ballot candidates for the presidency of the United States. For instance, they himself or herself are obligated under the Constitution to determine whether Donald Trump qualifies to be put on the ballot. What? Try to follow that. Now, again, they accused Trump of pulling apart the Constitution after the election. And you can argue about what Trump did, but what are they doing? And to think, by the way, he was once considered Supreme Court material during the Bush administration. What a total disgrace.

And it pains me to say. So they're calling him a disgrace. The bottom chyron says Democrats, if you can't beat him, disqualify him. Acting like Judge Luddig is a Democrat. Judge Luddig is as Republican as you can be. And then when she goes, it's goes, you could argue what Trump did. We know what he did. We saw it.

And she goes, but what are the Democrats doing? Well, again, that's not a Democrat right there. That's a Republican. And holding somebody accountable for the crimes is not the crime. But in MAGA Republicans' Orwellian world, prosecuting the crime is the crime. And that is disgusting to say. That's what's disgraceful. The worst nightmare of any cult, any cult that's kind of protecting their cult leaders, that's protecting their operation, protecting those in power, the worst nightmare is for somebody in that quote unquote in group to come

and speak out and to say, I disagree with them. So when you have somebody who is as respected in this universe, in this right wing universe in the past, such as Judge Ludwig coming out and saying, yes, in fact, there is a constitutional argument that is self-executing. Donald Trump should not be on the ballot based on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. And here is why. And then list what Donald Trump did that was unconstitutional, what makes it so he should be ineligible from the ballot, and say point blank that Donald Trump committed crimes and did all the horrible things that he did. That right there is kryptonite to the movement. So what do you have to do when you are there as a propagandist to protect your cult leader? You have to smear that person. You have to attack that person becomes just like anyone who's kind of studied cults or seen things about things like Scientology. You probably heard the phrase suppressive person. And once somebody speaks out against the power structure, they become a suppressive person and that person

must be destroyed. So in this case, Judge Ludwig speaks out immediately. They have to jump on it because that's a person. That's not some woke lib saying it, right? That's somebody who a lot of these people have respected. So what are you going to say about that? Oh, that person's a fraud. That person's a fake. That person's a Democrat. He's doing the bidding of Democrats. Don't fall for it. The strategy is just very obvious. And it just shows you, and I think one of the themes of the show today is going to be how MAGA is a cult and how they are protecting their cult leader. That right there is so emblematic of that. It's not like Judge Luddig is teaching AP African-American history, which not only is the Republican regime in Arkansas not allowing people to take, but they are confiscating the books

and burning all of the African-American AP books. It's not like Luddig's that woke. And by the way, that's actually something that's going on while you have people like the Pennsylvania governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, saying, we're going to give all kids free lunches in the Commonwealth. You've got MAGA Republicans confiscating and burning books. And Brett, you mentioned the 14th Amendment Section 3, and it's being talked about a lot by Ludwig and Lawrence Tribe. I did a whole hot take on it where I went through a law review article of Professor William Boud and Michael Stokes in the UPenn Law Review. And again,

Professor Boud and Professor Stokes are as traditionally right-wing, quote-unquote, conservative as you get. They are, quote-unquote, originalists. And they did this 126-page law review article where their originalist interpretation was that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment is self-executing. And as of right now, this moment, Donald Trump is disqualified. Yes, the state secretaries of state have to take him off the polls, but he's done, according to them. Sure, Donald Trump can challenge the move to remove him from the ballots in courts. It could be justiciable, but it's automatic right now if any state secretaries of state say he's done. He violated section three of the 14th amendment. So where you have Larry Tribe, Professor Lawrence Tribe, who's been a tenured professor of Harvard,

who's considered, and I hate these terms like liberal, but he's considered to be more of a traditional liberal constitutional scholar. When you have he, Judge Luddig, Professor Boud, and Professor Stokes all agreeing that Donald Trump should be disqualified under an originalist interpretation of the Constitution, that just doesn't exist, that amount of total agreement. And so that's kind of normalcy world. And then the rest of it, you have MAGA. And what was MAGA talking about as well? MAGA, whenever there is a crisis and it's time to take serious action, whether it's the wildfires in Maui, whether it was the hurricane slash earthquake all taking place at the same time here in California. What do they do?

They are the most unserious people spreading conspiracies, spreading lies, attacking, preventing resources from being deployed. When I saw this, I had to check if it was real because I wanted to do a story on it for MidasTouch.com and seeing that Fox was blaming the hurricane, then tropical storm Hillary on Joe Biden. I saw this come across my feed on TikTok right away. I said, is Fox really blaming Joe Biden for the hurricane? And I had to, I asked their editors, I said, please just make sure that this is, like, how could this be real? But this is what Fox was talking about. Play the clip. The big story tonight. The wrath of Tropical Storm Hillary. 42 million desperate souls in the path of the storm,

which made landfall in Mexico several hours ago. But they let it right into the country because it's Biden's America. Its impact far from over. This is the first tropical storm to hit California since 1939, when Joe Biden started his Senate career. I mean, it is beyond offensive. It is not funny, but you know, they gaslight you. So they'll go back and they'll say, well, obviously we were joking. That's such a Trump MAGA move where they go,

oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't really mean that. That was just me being funny. No, that's part of the stochastic terrorism that exists. And that's frankly what it is. I mean, that is pure insanity. That is pure weird. That is pure fascism. And that is pure cult behavior. But the cult is being held accountable. I want to talk about what Jack Smith has been doing with his reply brief saying, no, we're going to trial January 2nd, 2024 in the case relating to Donald Trump's 2020 election crimes. You have the Fulton County Superior Court judge

issuing a bond order today, setting bond for Donald Trump at $200,000 with other conditions. You have Mark Meadows apparently cooperating with special counsel Jack Smith, and you have Donald Trump acting like a petulant fascist child on social media. We'll talk about this and more when we come back from our first quick break. Jewelry is having a big moment right now. And with hundreds of products popping up in your feed every day, it can be hard to find a brand you trust. Alex and Ani has been creating meaningful jewelry for over 20 years, designing pieces that connect you with all of life's important moments. With an emphasis on value, there's truly something for everyone. You might be most familiar with their signature charm bangle. This bracelet literally created the category of meaningful jewelry and had you stacking charms

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Link in description right there. Go ahead and go click it. Hey, I wanted to say this just real quick. So it's like the biggest problem that these Republicans have made is they thought that this MAGA base is their base, right? They thought that this whole MAGA creation, this MAGAverse, you know, that all these people like them. They thought they loved them like that, but they don't, right? They only care about and love their dear leader, Donald Trump.

So as soon as you become that suppressive person and start to distance yourself and try and go back into reality, right? And speak in actuals and truths, the base turns on you. And this MAGA fraction, Ben, to your point, what you were talking about before, whether or not Trump constitutionally is going to be allowed to even run. Think about the amount of write-ins that people are going to have no matter who the Republican nominee ends up being, if not Trump, right? Because people are so devoted to this man that they'll literally do anything. I mean, that one woman who threatened Judge Shuckin went to jail, right? These people are so ingrained, this MAGA culture is so ingrained within them that they'll just write the guy in regardless or not if he's on the ballot to run

in 24. Well, here's the strategic consideration. If you are a purple state, say like Michigan or Wisconsin, do you move to disqualify him and just remove him from the ballot where you believe that you're going to win those states based on your ideas? Because then you'll have all of the Republicans kind of whining and saying, he would have won. No, he wouldn't have. So there is a strategic consideration that needs to be made because let's just face it, the new Democratic Party, which is the pro-democracy community of liberals, progressives, independents, people who are not affiliated with political parties, real conservatives, they are going to crush this mega-fascist movement in 2024. And by removing

Trump, do you give them a whiny talking point? He would have won, but this is what you did. That to me is the bigger, broader consideration that needs to be thought through. I'm not giving you my view or answer of that now. I want to reflect on that point as the jurisprudence of the 14th Amendment Section 3 is developing, but I want to flag that to me as one of my central considerations. What's been interesting to see though, Jordi, to your point, in real time, are the people who thought they could ride this MAGA wave and then come out the other side unscathed. And there are just so many examples of people, not just the ordinary people who in

some cases gave their lives that are now spending time in jail or prison because they followed the orders of Donald Trump. But there are also all these other politicians and other figures who were around Trump for a long time and doing his bidding who are now seeing the repercussions of it. We reported on MidasTouch.com just a few days ago that the Trump PAC that was funding all these legal fees for a lot of people around Donald Trump, who we wanted to keep quiet in this whole kind of criminal scheme that he's cooking up. Guess what? That PAC is not paying the bills for Jenna Ellis. And she was forced to set up a give, send, go, or go fund me or whatever she's doing to try to raise the money. And now she's coming

out and she was like, I don't understand. I didn't think that this was a movement about one man. I thought MAGA was a movement for everybody. And it's like, really? You didn't realize that this wasn't a movement about one man? That is exactly what it is. How many people have you seen come and go, Jenna Ellis? I'd say there'd be a metaphor about this, right? But these people were literally waving Trump flags. This was in the Republicans' faces the whole time. But you know what they got blinded by? The money and the proximity to power. I don't know what you thought, but we'll just leave it there. They thought if they were close enough to Trump that they'd keep lining their

pockets and get reelected and ride the wave, Brett, to your point. But once again, it's the most obvious metaphor and they're waving Trump flags, not American flags. Republicans, this isn't your base. You're missing the point here. And I think you may be missing the most obvious point here, Jordy, which is that Jenna Ellis was farted on by Rudy Giuliani and contracted COVID via fart. She was blinded by the fart. Ultimately, if you want to come up with the best metaphor, it's like Donald Trump continues to fart on them each and every day. It was hanging right there for you, Jordy, but you'd – It was kind of wafting around your nostrils.

Yeah. Jenna Ellis didn't realize the moment that she was at a fake elector hearing that wasn't really a real hearing and Giuliani was farting on her. I mean, come on, Jenna Ellis. Really? You know, that wasn't a total landscaping. It wasn't eye opening. Yeah. It was something opening. You know how the song Blinded by the Light, I think we might need to do a cover Blinded by the Fart andenna jenna ellis because jenna ellis blocks me too on social media she blocks me too for some reason she has not blocked uh midas touch although a couple years ago she attacked midas touch and called us a d-rate leftist group uh you know coming from uh f f-rate z-rate attorney that was uh quite quite entertaining but she wrote I was reliably informed Trump isn't funding any of us who are indicted with this change. If he becomes the

nominee, why then not now? I totally agree. This has become a bigger principle than just one man. So why isn't MAGA Inc funding everyone's defense? Like how diluted, how diluted can you be? Somebody else who's tried to ride the MAGA wave and has now gotten burnt, Ron DeSantis. DeSantis has tried so hard to be the guy who he was Mr. Pro-Trump. He was amongst the MAGA base. He was like their favorite governor. If you asked all these MAGA people one year ago about Ron DeSantis, they'd be like, he's like God himself. War on woke. War on woke. This is the best.

If you ask them now, they'll go, DeSantis, DeSantimonious. They'll make fun of him. He's woke. He's woke. He's gone woke. Yeah. He declared a war on woke and somehow he became that which he sought to destroy. But he's now learning that-

Sometimes you live long enough to see yourself become the villain. Shout out Dark Knight. Yeah. The Jenna Ellis fart cloud must have wiped off on him because now he's in the same stanky situation as Jenna Ellis, where he's now realizing that guess what? This Trump cult does not give a damn about you no matter how much you have sucked up to Donald Trump for the past few years. They don't give a damn that you made your gubernatorial ad campaign reading how Trump built the wall to your young child, all that weird stuff that you did. They don't care. And you see DeSantis becoming increasingly, increasingly frustrated out there on the campaign trail. And he let an accidental bit of truth leak the other day,

which has MAGA right now in a complete rage. MAGA is absolutely livid at Ron DeSantis because in an interview with, I think, a local Florida publication. He referred to Trump supporters as, quote unquote, listless vessels. A lot of Trump supporters are now calling the listless vessels comment. They are saying that that echoes Hillary Clinton's deplorables comment. And they are saying, in fact, Ron DeSantis treats Trump supporters worse than Hillary Clinton. This is the new MAGA Trumper talking point. I'll play you the clip that sparked a massive outrage. And I frankly don't think DeSantis can recover from this one. A movement can't be about the personality of one individual. The movement has got to be about what are you trying to achieve on behalf of the American people? And that's got to be based

in principle, because if you're not rooted in principle, if all we are is listless vessels that just supposed to follow, you know, whatever happens to come down the pike on truth social every morning, that's not going to be a durable movement. Dude, you're literally a listless vessel. If you wanted me to define like, what is Ron DeSantis stand for? I would say he is a listless vessel, MAGA, whatever the issue is. What a listless vessel does is go, okay, what are we mad about? What are we angry about? The Barbie movie? We don't know. It's communist? Okay, okay. Listless vessel, Barbie movie. Can we also just talk about the weirdness of the phrase listless vessel? He

had that one chambered. I think it plays into the weirdness of Ron DeSantis to call some, I've never heard the phrase. I've never heard it too. It's an excellent point, but I will say it's the one time DeSantis was actually kind of right about something. And he took a lot of flack for that immediately issued a press release. And by the way,

the people who were angry about this, it was not for at least the first, you know, 24 hours that it was out there, it was not for at least the first 24 hours that it was out there. It was not, quote unquote, liberal groups or leftist groups or whoever they want to blame. The people who were angry about this were the right wing groups, were the Trump groups.

This was catching fire on Trump forums, on Breitbart, on all these right wing websites saying that DeSantis sold out MAGA in that interview. Look, he doesn't care about you was the message that they were putting out there. And so DeSantis, in all of his pathetic glory, DeSantis decides that he's going to go out and he's not going, he's just going to lie about it. DeSantis in his press statement that he put out was like, oh, look at the leftist media again, taking what I said out of context. They're taking what I said out of context. And the MAGA people were even like,

it wasn't the leftist media. That was us. And we heard you. We heard exactly what you said. And then today I saw he tried to revise his phrasing again. He said, oh, I was talking about the politicians, not the voters. I was talking about the politician. I don't even know how that makes it better, but he is just flailing right now to get out of this hole. I think that's for somebody who has tried to suck up to MAGA, making that comment, I think is a fatal flaw for Ron DeSantis. And that's the MAGA hokey pokey. That's Ben's favorite phrase in the show is the MAGA hokey pokey, right? Of course. So DeSantis calls them listless vessels, immediately backs up. One foot in, one foot

out. The guy just can't commit. Christie, to his credit, and look, we're not Christie fans on this show, easily stuck to his guns when he's run. What DeSantis is trying to do is do a complete 180 somehow for his campaign, but yet not do a 180 at all and play both sides. It's like that always sunny episode when Mac's like, what are you doing? He's like, I'm playing both sides. I win. No, DeSantis, you are a loser, buddy. Loser. And again, let's not forget the theme of this episode too, is that it's not just a cult, but also this behavior is not normal. This behavior is, it's very weird behavior. We shouldn't be like, oh yeah, look at these conservatives. No, what? This is conservative.

This is like Kim Jong-un stuff. This is weird. This is some weirdo cult stuff. And so call it out what it is. And we here in the Midas Mighty community, in this pro-democracy community, we will not be gaslit. And so when people say, oh, conservative, what do we do? We push back against it. Let's talk about this consent bond order for defendant Donald J. Trump. That's what I like, the way this is phrased. It's not former president. It's who he is. He is a criminal defendant, and he is being treated like the criminal defendant that he is. Here it is, entered by Judge McAfee, also with the consent of the Fulton County District

Attorney, as well as Trump's lawyers, grants and orders the bond set in this matter as follows. The bond amount, $200,000. Other conditions include that Trump shall not violate the laws of this state or any other state in the United States of America. But here's where it has, I think, some teeth. In addition to the fact that Trump shall appear as directed by the court for defendant Donald Trump shall perform no act to intimidate any person known to him or her to be a co-defendant or witness in this case or to otherwise obstruct the administration of justice. This shall include, but is not limited to the following. A, defendant Donald Trump shall make no direct or indirect threat of any nature against any

co-defendant, shall not make any threat direct or indirect against any witness, including the unindicted co-conspirators. The defendant shall make no direct or indirect threat of any nature against any victim. The defendant shall make no direct or indirect threat of any nature against the community or any property in the community. I think that's referring to when he attacks Atlanta and Fulton County as being a democratic community. That's exactly what that's referring to when he attacks Atlanta and Fulton County as being a democratic community. That's exactly what that's referring to. E, the above shall include, but are not limited to posts on social media or reposts, a post made by another individual on social media. Yeah, the repost where he posts, oh, it's a hellhole democratic city. This is

a democratic hellhole and spreads all of the lies about the community. Also, defendant Trump shall not communicate in any way directly or indirectly about the facts of this case with any person known to him to be a co-defendant in this case, except through his or her counsel. So look what's going on here, right? Special counsel Jack Smith is really not seeking Trump's pretrial detention. Why? Because special counsel Jack Smith knows that that will cause delay. In fact, the cases that Trump cited to try to get an April 2026 trial date, you guessed it, were cases that involve significant litigation over pretrial detention issues. That's why people are like,

why isn't Jack Smith going to Judge Chutkin and saying, put him behind bars? Jack Smith wants a trial date to put Donald Trump behind bars for the rest of his life in January of 2024. Fulton County District Attorney Fawnie Willis, on the other hand, if these terms are violated, she's going to go in front of Judge McAfee and ask that Donald Trump be detained. So frankly, Brett and Jordy, I'll get your thoughts. This is the best of both worlds, I think, that Jack Smith pushes on and he's saying, look, Judge, we're ready to go. There's no pretrial detention issues here. There's no multiple co-defendants here. Judge, this is a four count, one defendant case. That's what Jack Smith said in the reply brief that he filed today. Easy, easy case. And if Jack Smith brought in more co-defendants,

if Jack Smith brought in more charges, Jack Smith could have charged Trump with thousands of charges relating to the 2020 election. But Jack Smith's like, for direct, just let's have a clear path. Then you have in Fulton County, Fawnie Willis is like, don't get me wrong, she's asking for a March of 2024 trial date. But the case that she's filing with that sprawling RICO or racketeering. I don't want anybody to think that that's really a March 2024 date that's going to be granted. I would be very surprised, but you kind of get the best of both worlds now with Jack moving quickly. She wants to move quickly. I just think that he's going to violate this very soon. Very soon. Frankly, I'm not convinced that he hasn't violated it already. I mean, literally just before we went on the air tonight, Donald Trump posted the

following. Can you believe it? I'll be going to Atlanta, Georgia on Thursday to be arrested by a radical left district attorney, Fawnie Willis, who is overseeing one of the greatest murder and violent crime disasters in American history. In my case, the trip to Atlanta is not for murder, but for making a perfect phone call, all caps. She campaigned and is continuing to campaign and raise money on this witch hunt, all caps. This is in strict coordination with Crooked Joe Biden's DOJ. It is all about election interference. So, I mean, seeing that he goes right from getting this bond order to then attacking the Fulton County District Attorney

and seemingly attacking the city of Atlanta, Georgia, which to me, I kind of view as violating the terms of that bond order kind of instantaneously. And it's those, you know, I saw a lot of people going $200,000. That's not a lot for Joe. I don't, I honestly don't even think there's like a number you could put on that, that would make anybody satisfied for the crimes. And I completely understand that, but it's the terms underneath to me that we just read that are the biggest problem for Trump. And to see how Fawny Willis and the judge reacts when Donald Trump continues to make posts to this and continue to challenge the terms of his bond, because then he could be in serious trouble. To me, reading this also, I feel like Donald

Trump's attorneys did a really terrible job because a lot of these things seem incredibly open-ended to me. I mean, when you have them say, no direct or indirect threat of any nature against the community or to any property in the community, that's not localized in the context of this case. There's no specifics here, which you would figure an attorney might try to work through with the prosecutors here. This is quite broad. Your analysis, Brett, is spot on. I mean, you're right. I mean, and I love your legal analysis. That was horrible lawyering. And Trump's lawyers agreed to those terms on Trump's behalf. And that is a clear violation of the terms, the post that he just made directly, indirectly, also through repost. That was a direct post by him. Sorry,

Johnny, what were you going to say? No, I mean, I guess to play devil's advocate there, why not get more specific? Why not put it in, these are your very specific parameters of what you can and cannot do. So I get the vagalities in which they're speaking to in that memo and what we just read. But yeah, vagalities, it's a word. Just say it with enough confidence and anything's a word. Y'all know that yet? So why not just get hyper-specific and hyper-localized? So when he actually does it, which you know he's going to do, you go after him for it. Well, I think that those were both different legal analysis,

their legal analyses. One by Brett, one for Jordy. I'm going to side with Brett. I'm going to side with Brett. Y'all just gang up on me. Like, vagalities could be a word. I've looked past vagalities. I've looked past vagalities. I think that if you are the prosecutor, you would want the broader one because that includes more conduct than a more narrow one. And Trump's lawyers would want the more narrow one. But look, Jordy, I think that that was an interesting analysis. And I think that maybe there are some people who agree with that. But I'll talk briefly about Special Counsel Jack Smith's reply brief, but I think we've touched a lot upon it. Special counsel Jack Smith's basically saying, look, we're ready to go. Donald Trump's request of April 2026 and Donald Trump's brief cites

all of these other cases that are not applicable here. Cases involving pre-trial detention, cases involving multiple co-defendants, multiple counts, just in addition to this case is clean. It's four counts, one defendant, and Donald Trump wants to claim, oh, because there's so much documents that if you stacked them all on top of each other, it would be taller than the Statue of Liberty. Jack Smith mocks that in the brief, like, okay, that's not a standard, the height. The issue is, are these documents things that Donald Trump can review before trial? And Jack Smith says, absolutely. There was also another thing in there as well that Jack Smith saying, look, all these documents are available to Donald Trump, for example. And he put this one in there on

purpose, the January 6th committee documents, because Donald Trump has been spreading the conspiracy that they're all destroyed. And Jack Smith's like, we turned over 1 million of those documents are January 6th committee documents. So Donald Trump has the January 6th committee documents. 3 million are documents from the Secret Service. A lot of other documents include Trump's tweets and posts and documents in Trump's possession and control. I think they say about 65% or more of all of the documents that were turned over, Trump already has access to. And the other amount of documents are things that Donald Trump can easily digest in the amount of time before January 2nd, 2024. So a powerful reply and like, you got to stay on some of these developments in that Washington DC case because you blink,

there's a new order. You blink, there's a new reply brief waiting. And again, Jack Smith had that reply brief waiting to go, not just for weeks, but I think for months. Jack Smith knew he was going to ask for a January 2024 trial date. And in filing the case with four counts, only Donald Trump as a defendant with unindicted co-conspirators, Jack Smith knew the arguments Trump was going to make. He knew Trump was going to cite to the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers cases, which took the median was close to 30 months from the time the case went, the case was filed to the time there was sentencing. And Jack Smith did not want to put himself in a position where those cases would be on point to say, look, this case should be on

that same track because that is the track of the Proud Boys case and the Oath Keepers case. So Jack Smith was ready. It was a brilliant motion. And Jack Smith is playing four-dimensional chess while Donald Trump is playing. Very weird. Checkers, we still have a lot to discuss on the show. I want to thank all of the members as well. There was a moment there where we just had the chat on for members. Now, the chat's open to all subscribers. That was a mistake. I admit that was an accident. I'm sorry. No, no, no, no. Now it's open, but it's good because it highlights the memberships though, and there are membership benefits like access to the emojis, and you never know when it'll just be a membership-only chat, but it's open to all subscribers now. We don't have outside

investors here at the Midas Touch Network, so the way we help grow this platform is through the memberships on the YouTube as well as on patreon.com slash Midas Touch, P-A-T-R-E-O-N.com slash MidasTouch. We now do something called the After Show on Patreon, where if we missed anything here, we have an exclusive podcast for Patreon members. Again, that's one of the ways we build this network. And it was through those contributions that allowed us to build out MidasTouch.com. And I think we have the best editorial staff and writer staff in the game right now, led by Ron Filipkowski. We still have a lot to discuss here on the Midas Touch podcast. Don't go anywhere. This is our last quick break of the day. A little while ago, we had the idea that we wanted to sell the best pro-democracy merchandise

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e-commerce platform, you're covered. And once you've reached your audience, Shopify has the internet's best converting checkout to help you turn them from browsers to buyers. Now we use Shopify in the Midas Touch merch store, and it's completely revolutionized how we do our business. It allows us to easily manage our shop, view analytics, provide the best customer service, and streamline our entire online shopping experience from A to Z. We wouldn't be able to bring you all of the products that you know and love without Shopify. And we can't speak highly enough about them.

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Go to shopify.com slash Midas to take your business to the next level today. Shopify.com slash Midas to take your business to the next level today. Shopify dot com slash Midas. Our next partner is Athletic Greens. I take AG1 by Athletic Greens literally every day. I gave AG1 a try because I wanted better gut health, boosted energy, immune system support, and wanted a supplement that actually tastes great. I take AG1 in the morning before starting my day and it makes me feel unstoppable and ready to take on my day. I'm doing something good for my body, like I'm giving my body the nutrition it craves, like I'm covering all my nutritional bases. I've tried a ton of different supplements out there, but this is different and the ingredients are super high quality. Very quickly, I noticed that it improved

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I can't think of another daily routine that pays off as well as AG1, which is why I trust this product so much. So if you're looking for a simpler and cost-effective supplement routine, Athletic Greens is giving you a free one-year supply of vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first purchase. Go to drink a G one, the number one drink a G one.com slash Midas. That's drink a G one.com slash Midas drink a G one.com slash Midas. Check it out. Some great sponsors today, right? We got Alex and Ani. We got Shopify. We got AG1. And supporting our great sponsors is another way to support the Midas Touch Network. That's how they do renewals. And we negotiate some really good deals for the Midas Mighty out there with those discount codes. And just go to the

description if you want to check it out after the show, and you can visit our sponsors and you can support their great products and their great services. I saw some people asking, when does the Patreon after show start? After the show. After the show, the after show starts. We record. It's not live. It's recorded and then we post. We're not branding it yet. I don't want to brand it the after show. I feel like you just named it. It's called the after show. It's not what it's called. I don't know what the name of it is, but I feel like you're taking older brother steps here to now name what we do post show, the after show. I'm putting my foot down live. What's your name? That's a suggestion. Let's

hear it right now. Midas Moore is my initial. I like the Midas. If I'm going off the top. I think we should call it Ben, Brett, and Jordy speaking vagalities after the show. Yeah, vagality. I'm like so close to X-ing out of the chat. I'm out. I like the word.

If it wasn't for the Midas Mighty, if it wasn't for the Midas Mighty, I'd be so out. Jordy, what are words then just things that people have made up throughout history? So if you say vagalities is a word, then it should be a word. And just so people know, we're not really picking on. Sometimes I see in the comments, hey, you guys are being really mean to Jordy and you're picking on him and you need to stop. We're really, this is not picking on him. Jordy actually enjoys this and this is us having fun.

Love it. I love it. Live for it. Okay. It was a busy weekend for Mark Meadows. Mark Meadows filed first. Last week, he filed trying to remove the case to federal court. When you file a notice of removal and you give federal grounds, a judge can automatically reject it if there's no federal grounds or the judge can request briefing. So it went to the Northern District of Georgia. That's the federal court that supervises Fulton County. Got assigned to Judge Steve Jones, an Obama appointee. And

Judge Jones says he wants to hold an evidentiary hearing about whether there will be or will not be federal jurisdiction. But before a determination of Judge Jones even has jurisdiction, Mark Meadows filed a motion to dismiss over the weekend, saying that the Supremacy Clause, the First Amendment, and the 14th Amendment, all respectively of the United States Constitution, are grounds to dismiss this case that the Constitution, federal law precludes state criminal law in this case because Meadows argues that his conduct is, I was just being a chief of staff. What are you talking about? I was like setting up meetings and I was just coordinating things. If you hold me liable, every chief of staff who supports an insurrection to overthrow the

United States government, they may be hauled in as well. So you can tell already the types of arguments in response that Fawny Willis and the Fulton County District Attorney's Office is going to make. But the first threshold question that has to be addressed is whether there's federal jurisdiction. After federal jurisdiction, then there's a determination if the motion to dismiss will be granted. But Mark Meadows playing both the legal game and the PR game because he clearly wanted the public to know that he's been helping special counsel Jack Smith to try to curry favor and to be like, well, look, I'm cooperating with Jack Smith. Look, I was just being, even look what I'm telling Jack Smith, everybody, you should like what I'm doing here. Stop going after me. Because who else would these leaks be coming from?

And this was a new report published on Sunday from ABC that Meadows provided Jack Smith with the following evidence against Donald Trump. And you know how when you read a story, whether it's on ABC, the way they write the story sometimes is so confusing. And some of the paragraphs are all just jumbled. And it's like, okay, what are you trying to tell me? Can you just tell me the main points? One of the things that I like about MidasTouch.com is we give you, here are the five points of what Mark Meadows is saying that or his proxies are saying that he provided Jack Smith. And we break it down one through five, right? One, Meadows has no knowledge of Trump declassifying any of the records Trump stole.

Two, Meadows has no knowledge of Trump having a quote, standing order to declassify the records Trump stole. Three, Meadows did not help Trump pack boxes from the White House when Trump stole classified records. Four, Meadows advised Trump in 2021 he could help go through the boxes to return classified information to the government, and Trump rejected the help. Five, Meadows previously removed from his autobiography portions of the prologue, which referenced Trump showing his ghostwriters classified information in July of 2021, classified war maps of Iran in July of 2021. By the way, number five seems to kind of be obstruction of justice, where Meadows saw that Trump admitted to a crime and asked that it be removed from the prologue that was put in the

prologue. So that number five looks like it could be a criminal act, but where that information would likely be transmitted from Meadows to Jack Smith would be what's called a proffer session, where you basically agree that your statements that are made admitting to things like that would be immunized in exchange for your cooperation and testimony against Donald Trump. So that's where I think five came from. But what I really like again about Midas Touch.com, and I'm a little biased because I wrote that article, is that we do break it down like, here are the five things that you need to know about this article. So you're not just wasting your time and saying like, okay, why am I reading 2,000 words? Please just tell me the key points. And that's one of the great things we do at MidasTouch.com.

So a very, very, very busy, busy weekend for Mark Meadows. But back in the land of normalcy, very busy times for the President Biden re-election campaign. And Biden's ad blitz, I think, is very noteworthy, focusing on his accomplishments and targeting swing states. So whereas Donald Trump is ranting and raving about deranged prosecutor, why everyone's out to get me, crooked Joe Biden, blah, blah, blah. Americans aren't waking up except the cult and saying, oh, yeah, crooked. Yeah, you are crooked, man. No, people are wondering jobs, economy, lowering prescription

drug prices, equality, women having the right to control their bodies, veterans, am I going to have social security? Are students going to be protected and taken care? People are focused on issues. And what I like about politicians I support is when they're focusing on issues that matter instead of whiny, petulant, fascist children. So Brett, talk to us about the Biden re-election ad blitz. I also want to say, though, too, it's not only about the fact that Trump is just whining every day and talking about himself. Donald Trump is spending all of his money basically

on legal fees. Donald Trump is spending all of his money trying to wage his defense. And so this actually does provide an opening for someone like President Biden to actually use his money not on lawyers because President Biden is not being indicted, but President Biden actually gets to spend his campaign money the way you're supposed to spend your campaign money on the not on lawyers because President Biden is not being indicted, but President Biden actually gets to spend his campaign money the way you're supposed to spend your campaign money, on the campaign. And so this is a massive $25 million advertising blitz. It's in a bunch of battleground states. It officially kicked off on Sunday, and they're trying to focus on amplifying the president's economic success. I mean, we've all heard the

term Bidenomics here. We've all talked about this. We've talked about the successes of the administration here. But as we've seen with some of these polls, and I really don't trust the polls, not all of that appears to be resonating with everybody. But so the Biden campaign is trying to confront that head on and they are going right to these states. They're going to Pennsylvania. They're going to Arizona. They're going to Michigan. They're going to Nevada. They're going to North Carolina. They're going to Wisconsin. And what the campaign calls the largest overall buy for a re-election campaign at this point in time ever. So they are not taking anything for granted as part of the buy. They have this new, it's a minute long ad. We'll play it for you in a sec. It was released by the

campaign. This ad is called fought back. And it basically tells the story of Biden inheriting this economy that was decimated by the pandemic. I think a lot of people forget how bad things were still when president Biden was taking over how bad things were still when President Biden was taking over, how bad things were when Donald Trump was president. So it's always important to remind folks of how far we've come in such a short period of time. And the ad tells the story about President Biden, frankly, defying the odds and making the American economy the envy of the world right now, the fastest growing economy of all the G7 nations, the quickest economic recovery. It touts the American Rescue Plan, the fastest growing economy of all the G7 nations, the quickest economic recovery. It touts the American Rescue Plan, the bipartisan infrastructure law, the Inflation Reduction Act,

the Chips and Science Act. So rather than me talking about it the entire time, let's play it quickly and then we will talk about it a little after. Pandemic in a hundred years, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. But America fought back. Today, unemployment is at record lows, our economy leading the world. Joe Biden passed historic laws to rebuild the country, but he knows it's the American people who are the heroes of this story. America is back. We've shown each other in the world that there's no quit in America. There's simply no quit in America. There's simply no quit in America. In small towns and big cities, we're coming back stronger than ever. Manufacturing

jobs are coming home. High speed computer chips are getting made right here. America is leading the world in clean energy. There are some who say America is failing, not Joe Biden. He believes our best days are ahead because he believes in the American people. Those who bet against America are learning how wrong they are. It's never, ever been a good bet to bet against America. Never. I'm Joe Biden, and I approve this message. Powerful. I think a real kind of morning in America vibe from President Biden's campaign there. You know, A message of hope, a message of optimism, all about the comeback and that the American people are better than this.

And one of the interesting things I think he did in the ad that people listening aren't able to pick up on was there was one line in the ad where he subtly references Donald Trump and they show a photo of Trump. It's the only reference to Trump in the ad, but they basically say, instead of knocking America and talking badly about America, we need to talk about the good things about America. And if you remember from our show, all the time, all Donald Trump does is say how America's a hell hole, how the country has gone to hell. It's all about me, me, me, me, me. So you have Biden there actually calling that out and saying, we don't want someone leading

the country who actively attacks this country on a daily basis. And so I think that reference was quite important. They're also rolling out a Spanish language ad, not the same ad, but a different ad in Florida markets, which I think is interesting to note. And this is the first of a lot of money that they're going to be spending on this campaign. And I think it's important that they are kicking it off in these states. They're also going to go to these large, big events. They're going to put these ads on an NFL kickoff. They're going to put these ads during the World Series. They're really trying to meet voters as they are. And I think this is really big, big news and a big way to kick off. They're going to put these ads during the World Series. They're really trying to meet voters as they are. And I think this is really big, big news and a big way to kick off this campaign. Here's the thing too. The same way Trump has bankrupted everything he's touched his entire

life, he's both literally and figuratively bankrupted the Republican Party, which is now the weird Trump Party. If you look at the various states, the Republican Party doesn't have money. They're out of money. They've spent it all on the cult and no one wants to give it money because if you give it money, then Trump's going to steal it. So if you're a donor, you're like, why am I going to give the money so that Donald Trump can buy Melania's, so Melania will spend money on her hair or her makeup, or you're going to spend money, you know, $80,000 to Kimberly Guilfoyle or to your kids or to Rudy Giuliani's electronic discovery vendor or $1.5 million to Alina Haba. You know, I can go on and on and on,

or you're going to spend it on Joe Takapina defending you in sexual abuse civil lawsuits that you lose over and over again. My money is going to go to pay sexual abuse judgments against you? Why would people give money to that? One of the things that really isn't being talked about is that if he gets the nomination, setting aside the cases, he's demonstrated over and over and over again what a con artist he is. And people just, the infrastructure is all destroyed.

And I know when they do those astroturf events like Charlie Kirk with the fireworks or when they go out and they do their weird dancing and Lauren Boebert does her prancing and Marjorie Taylor Greene does whatever the hell she's doing or swinging on CrossFit and the cursing, whatever the hell that is, that's not how you run a campaign. And I know their obsession with Twitter or X or whatever you call it now, and that's not how you win campaigns.. They've just destroyed all of their infrastructure. Meanwhile, Democrats have developed a very sophisticated pro-democracy infrastructure. We're going to see that play out as well. Brett, I wanted you to talk about President Biden in Maui. One thing I want to flag everybody, we'll probably cover it in more detail on Thursday's

episode, and we'll talk about it on the after show as well though, is when Congress comes back into session in the next few weeks, MAGA Republicans are already basically saying that they don't want to fund the government. And the same way they've tried to do this with the debt ceiling, the same way they've tried to cripple our economy over and over again, today the MAGA Republicans started putting out statements. The right-wing extremist group that calls himself the Freedom Caucus, but are anything but freedom, talked about how they want to shut down the government. Any effort to try to destroy the progress that's being made, they're going to try and do that. So I want to put it right now in August on everybody's radars because it is something we're going to be talking about. Let's talk about it more on the after show, and then we'll talk about it a lot on Thursday's episode because I think we'll get more granular there.

But, Brett, talk to us about President Biden in Maui. Yeah, I think it's important for us to cover President Biden speaking in Maui today. He went there with the First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden, and they're currently there. They're meeting with the victims of the fires, emergency workers, other state officials in Maui. The whole situation there on the ground, it's just so incredibly, incredibly sad. And I was actually in Lahaina not too long ago, and I fell in love with it. And just seeing the places that I was at just be completely decimated, it's just absolutely

heart-wrenching. And I'm hearing at this moment, the death toll has reached 114, and that's expected to rise. There are still more than 850 people missing. It's just really, really, really horrible. But today, President Biden took an aerial tour of the wildfire damage in Maui. It's just really, really, really horrible. But today, President Biden took an aerial tour of the wildfire damage in Maui. It was about 20 minutes, and he was joined by some of the other government officials there in Hawaii, and a bunch of Democrats representing the state, of course. And they were talking about today, President Biden's response. A lot of people have been speaking about the response. So I want to remind our listeners also of the way the response actually happened and not the way kind of these right wing propaganda machines are discussing it. You know, from the time that President Biden received an emergency declaration

request from Hawaiian officials, from the time he actually received the request to the time it was processed and he actually signed the document. It was only 63 minutes, like a shockingly fast response for the way government to work. The White House received the declaration at 10.32 a.m. It was signed by 11.35 a.m. And within six hours, the entire federal government was mobilized and going out there to help. President Biden there looking at the devastation, calling the devastation overwhelming. He said, from stories of grief, and we've seen so many stories of hope and heroism in the Aloha spirit, he described the FEMA efforts to support the island amid some criticism over

the administration's response. And he was there to empathize with the victims. I mean, one of the things that I really respect about Biden is his ability to empathize. And I think that comes from his own personal journey, his own personal struggles. And so when he was speaking to the victims here and their families, he said, quote, I know that hollow feeling you have in your chest. Imagine being a parent wondering where your child is. I'll play just one clip from Biden's speech where he said, as long as it takes, we're going to be with you. The whole country will be with you. And for this, for as long as it takes, we're going to be with you. The whole country will be with you. You know, we will be respectful of the sacred grounds and the traditions that rebuild the way the people of Maui want it built, not the way others want it built.

We're going to rebuild the way the people of Maui want it built. But, you know, it's going to be hard. America's deadliest wildfire in over a century. And Jill and I have what's left of Walk Front Street, what's left of it. We've surveyed the damage from the air as well. The devastation is overwhelming. And after Biden spoke, he quickly turned the microphone over to the local officials to get the local perspective on everything that was happening on the ground.

And really, official after official who came to the microphone was praising the federal government's response and were saying how thankful they were. And this is the governor, Green, who said that within six hours, as we were saying before, the federal government met their needs with that movement within six hours. And he was saying he's never seen anything like it. Before my formal remarks, which are brief, I wanted to say that I was deeply moved by the president as he shared with us by phone about his experiences of loss and how Senator Inouye helped bring him back and how as time has passed, he's back here with us in Hawaii. You could feel a deep, deep commitment to playing that forward and caring for our people.

So, thank you, Mr. President. The fire in Lahaina, which over these past 13 days has come down on us like a mountain. The amount of loss we've experienced in such a short time will be difficult for us to even fathom, but we'll hold each other up. Our hearts are broken and we'll heal. But with the assistance of President Biden, the federal government, and the love and compassion of resources throughout our state, we know we have the support to lift us up as we find those who are lost we'll deal with the tragedy the president within six hours six hours met our needs with the federal movement six hours i don't think that's ever happened before. So it's our deepest appreciation to you and Dr. Biden.

And that's what we want, frankly, in leaders, right? Like we always know that things are going to go wrong. There are going to be disasters. There are going to be catastrophes. The real test of a leader is what you do when disaster strikes. That is the test. And I've just seen, and we've talked about it on the show so many times, but the reaction in crisis from the right is always immediately to blame, blame, blame. It's how can I exploit this crisis for my political gain? And then they celebrate

performative antics from their people, right? They support the Donald Trump throwing paper towels at victims. When the actual substance of the response, the actual substance of what people are doing on the ground to help those resources that are being provided, that are actually saving lives, that is really what matters. It's that level of competence that we need and that we should demand from all of our leaders, frankly, whether they're Democrat, Republican, independent, whoever. We should all demand that base level competence and not be clamoring for these BS antics and trying to exploit every single crisis. And so it was great seeing President Biden there. And frankly, I wish more of the media networks

covered his appearance there today. I didn't see a lot of coverage on TV, but happy that we have our show here and we could show you the clips directly. I thought it was a very, very, very powerful moment, but it is consistent with the President Biden that we know and we respect. It's the President Biden who, look, I don't always agree with every issue of Democrats or President Biden,

but I know these are people who take their jobs seriously, who are acting like adults. I mean, that shouldn't be a bare minimum threshold of our body politic, but it is. I mean, this Republican, MAGA Republican behavior is not adult behavior, and it's also an insult to children. That's why I always say kind of petulant fascist third graders, in case you know any of those, but that is the behavior right here by MAGA Republicans. That's the behavior by these MAGA Republicans. On a daily basis, we call it fascist Furby talk because I'm not even sure, what are they even talking about? Other than the cult of Donald Trump and Trump's so great and Trump this and Trump that, and then whatever the issue to get angry about is, whether it's Bud Light or Target or Disneyland or Mr. Potato Head or gas stoves or

barbecues, whatever it is. I'm like, what world are y'all living in? And they're living in their dystopian, MAGA, weird fantasy world. And that's why it's important that we call it out for what it is. And we'll do that each and every time here on the Midas Touch podcast. I want everybody to head over in a little bit. We got to record it first. So it's not live on Patreon. It takes us about usually a half hour to record it and get it up maybe a little longer. But the after show, people go, or Jordy, Midas More is what Jordy's calling it. We'll see how we're going to call it. But I see people in the chat. How do I access the after show? The way to both access the after

show and also help grow this platform is by going to patreon.com slash MidasTouch. P-A-T-R-E-O-N dot com slash MidasTouch. You become a member there. I want to be clear. It's different than the YouTube memberships. YouTube memberships unlock the emojis and other YouTube-related benefits. On Patreon, you get the after show. And then once a month, me, Brett, and Jordy hold a live Zoom, however many hours it takes, where we answer everyone's questions. You can meet us. And now we've added the after show addition to it. Also, if you want, there are some people who say, hey, I want to become an honorary producer. It's one of the membership tiers, but don't list my name. I still want to remain anonymous. That's fine. Some people want their names listed as an honorary producer,

which we do at the end of the show. And then in perpetuity, as long as our videos remain on YouTube, your name will be listed as an honorary producer, and you'll get a poster as well commemorating your role as an honorary producer. But if you just want access to the after show. And then you could also get access to the Zoom and meet us. You will see the after show posted in a little bit after we're done with the show. And after we record it, one of the things that we will talk about as well is the threat by Republicans to not fund the government.

And we'll also talk about why we were three minutes late today. And I'll give you a hint, the Wi-Fi decided it was going to shut down right before. And we're still building the platform, even though we get more viewers than a lot of the mainstream. We tie with MSNBC sometimes, but we get more digital views than Fox and CNN. Sometimes you have some network connectivity issues. Sometimes you'll hear my dogs barking in the background. Sometimes we have a little bit internet connectivity issues. Sometimes we'll say words like vagalities and that's just how we roll on this network. Brick by brick. Stays in the pod. Stays in the pod.

And everybody wants you to check out MidasTouch.com. Check it multiple times a day. It's kind of the one-stop shop for all things Midas Touch. So you've got the YouTube channel. You've got the audio podcasts. You now have MidasTouch.com, led by Ron Filipkowski, our editor-in-chief, and a bunch of great writers there. Check it, make it your homepage. You can share those stories. Some of those stories are very quick reads if you don't have all of the time for the hot takes, but I encourage you to really use it as a compliment to the hot takes because we'll post the full documents on MidasTouch.com. Then you could follow along with

the hot takes. So it creates this synergy right there. Also, if you want to get Midas Touch gear, go to store.midastouch.com, 100% union made, 100% made in the USA. That's store.midastouch.com. And the best way you can help no matter what is just continue to spread the word about the Midas Touch Network. Tell a friend, family member, coworker, colleague, neighbor, whoever, just share the videos, share the news stories. Tell people about this unapologetically pro-democracy community, the community that you all created, that me, Brett, and Jordy, and all of our contributors, and everyone who works for the Midas Touch Network, we are so honored to be a part of the Midas Mighty community that you all created, a community that values compassion, intelligence, and our democracy. So thank you all for spreading those very important values. It's something that we need a lot more of today and something that you all champion. Thank you. Thank you. We'll see you next time on the Midas Touch podcast. Time for us

to get to work on the after show. Jordy, take it away. Shout out to the 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.