The MeidasTouch Podcast - Jan 6 Committee MOMENTUM, GOP DISGUSTINGLY defames 10 year old victim and MORE (Guest John Lira)

Episode Date: July 15, 2022

On today’s episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast, we sit down with John Lira, the Democratic nominee for Texas CD-23, which covers the Uvalde district. During the interview, we get John’s thoughts on the recently leaked Uvalde footage, sensible gun reform measures, what can be done to solve Texas’s power grid failure & much more. During the rest of the episode, we bring you the latest news to keep you up to date. We discuss the latest January 6 hearing bombshells, Republicans continuing to vote against your life and lives of our service members, the crucial steps President Biden has taken to protect a woman’s right to choose with his latest executive order + more. If you enjoyed today’s episode please be sure to rate, review and subscribe! New episodes of The MeidasTouch Podcast feature the brothers are released every Tuesday and Friday. Thank YOU for listening. DEALS FROM OUR SPONSORS: Grove Collaborative: https://grove.com/meidastouch Shop Meidas Merch at: https://store.meidastouch.com Remember to subscribe to ALL the Meidas Media Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://pod.link/1510240831 Legal AF: https://pod.link/1580828595 The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://pod.link/1595408601 The Influence Continuum: https://pod.link/1603773245 Kremlin File: https://pod.link/1575837599 Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://pod.link/1530639447 The Weekend Show: https://pod.link/1612691018 The Tony Michaels Podcast: https://pod.link/1561049560 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating forward with another blockbuster hearing. Republicans vote against every bill imaginable. From a VA benefits bill to give veterans health care who are exposed to toxins. The Republicans voted against a bill to stop neo-Nazis from infiltrating the military, and they vote against an active shooter Amber Alert system. They didn't want any of those things. Republicans in the fascist news also spread disinfo about the 10 year old girl who was raped and who couldn't get abortion in Ohio after being

pregnant for just six weeks and a few days based on Ohio's abortion ban. We got to play this clip in a little bit from Eric Swalwell, though, in the hearings today on reproductive health, who tells you how it's done. And we also now see the Republicans doxing and attacking the Indiana doctor who performed the abortion. They say they will be investigating this doctor. How horrific can you be? And at the same time, we need to talk about the important steps that Biden has taken since his executive order on reproductive health, both in terms of emergency care, both in terms of what pharmacies can do. These are important steps that Biden has taken that the mainstream media is not talking about. And our guest today is John Lira, a Marine

Corps vet who is running as the Democratic candidate for Texas's 23rd congressional district, which includes Uvalde. Excited to have John talk about the situation there and things are going from bad to worse in Texas under Republican leadership there with rolling blackouts and just a true dystopian world that's going on there with that horrible leadership. Brett and Jordy, how are you both doing today? Brett, we'll start with you. I've been better, you guys. I've been better. What's going on?

What's going on? The COVID got me, you guys. Yes, no, yes, it happened. I went to London, I guess came back with COVID and been struggling ever since. And it's just a lingering thing now that will not go away. I feel, I would say mostly asymptomatic. However, I do have a headache and cough and my

body aches and I'm getting really, really tired. So I guess I do have like all the symptoms, but I feel good. I feel good enough to do the show. It's, it's, it's good to be here. It sucks guys. You don't want to get it, you know, wear your mask. Don't go out. If you don't have to go out. This is why we don't let any of the Midas brothers take vacations. This is why I don't, this is exactly the reason why we've locked Brett in his room to edit videos 24 seven. This is why I don't leave the house. However, yeah, it's honestly not all that bad right now

for me, but you know, I gotta be safe, gotta protect others. I'll be staying in and quarantining till it's done, but it's just every single day I keep, you know, I'm testing, testing positive on the antigen test, positive, positive, positive. It just will not go away. COVID do not recommend to stay away. Stay away. Brett does not recommend COVID. That's a very, very controversial, controversial position. I would say it probably is a controversial position to take in today's

political landscape where not recommending covid you're a lefty you are a radical lefty who does not recommend people getting covid i will say i'm pretty impressed though by the fact that i made it this far like i beat fauci you know like i'm going on my leaderboard of like people who i think i got like fauci got it before me that's pretty good that's pretty good you know okay jord. You know, Okay. Jordy, how are, how are you doing? Jordy? It's a little Sean for artistic right there, Brett, but okay. I'm doing well. I'm glad the brothers are back together. I'm excited to do the show. Ben cowboy hat or sombrero. This one looks new.

No, this is the exact same. Is this a permanent look? Is this you now? Is this just you? This is my look. Okay. All right. I had affirmation on the chat. I wore it again during the jan 6th hearings that were broadcast on the midas media network the feedback i got was positive i felt good about it if the feedback was overwhelmingly negative yeah like then i would have reconsidered but i was wearing the cowboy hat when i was in cuckoo in mexico that's where i got it my girlfriend's

family is from cuckoo which about two hours from guadalajara. I loved it. I love people wearing sombreros and generally, it's great for the sun. I mean, a traditional hat, the way the sun hits you, only one direction. The sombrero, 360 degrees of sun protection. It really does a great, great job. And I'm like, whoa, this is better than a hat. This is better than a hat. But speaking about the January 6th committee hearings, a rough transition into the January 6th committee hearings, because I was wearing a sombrero during the hearings. We have not had our podcast since those hearings. And so we didn't really get to comment on it. I want to talk about a bunch of the other issues on this podcast, but we should reflect a little bit about another blockbuster hearing. In my count, it's the seventh hearing, although counting sometimes the hearing

dates we know is somewhat controversial. So we'll just refer to it as the Tuesday, July 12th hearing. So everybody doesn't have any mistaken about what hearing we're talking about. But here we really saw the kind of the we always know Trump's unhinged. I mean, the last hearing before this, where he threw where he threw ketchup and acted like a madman. But here, after everything failed, after all of the steps that they tried to take to overthrow the election, it was about radicalizing the mob, radicalizing, in Trump's words, the crazies to attack, to kill and to overthrow our democracy. I want to talk about this, particularly this December 18th meeting and then Trump's tweet on the 19th, which got a great deal of attention in the hearing. But

Brett, what were some of the moments that stood out to you? I mean, what stood out to me was that unhinged meeting that played a large part of it in the Oval Office that day. People screaming, people fighting, people yelling profanities at one another, just pure chaos. And also all the chaos agents being there from Sidney Powell to Rudy Giuliani to the founder of Overstock.com, like all these characters just come into play, the founder of Overstock.com. I'm like, what the fuck? Right, but the strange thing though too is that a low level White House staffer allows these individuals to come into the White House basically unannounced on the 18th. And their plan was, you know, to basically have this violent coup. And they had various ways about

Trump seizing voting machines and engaging in all this other authoritarian conduct. Sidney Powell was going to be appointed as a special counsel within the Department of Justice to basically oversee the fascist overtaking of- That's crazy. The seizing of voting machines and then like arresting people on, you know, who would challenge Trump's claims. And then there was even thought

that Trump actually appointed sydney powell during this unhinged and crazy meeting um it sounded like he did appoint her everybody just ignored him was the issue and no one actually acknowledged that she was really appointed after trump says well i appoint you um but that actually happened the same way Trump appointed or try to appoint, um, as the head of the department of justice, um, you know, that unhinged low level department of justice guy, Jeff Clark to run the DOJ. And then the people had to come in and say, you know, well, we're all going to resign and we're not going to do that.

And Trump eventually backed down, but Trump's plan make no doubt. It's shocking, honestly, that he backed down to me. Like, I still don. And Trump eventually backed down. But Trump's plan, make no doubt. It's shocking, honestly, that he backed down to me like I still don't understand why he backed down because he's because because he's a chicken shit. Trump backed down because behind the yelling and the screaming, if Republicans dealt with this idiot the way Democrats do, he would be shut down for whatever reason. The Republicans like like like flies or bugs that are attracted to the fluorescent light, like like just flock to that zap. They get zapped. And then, you know, as they're literally like convulsing and dying as the fly, they go America first, America first. And that's my analogy of the dead fly. But it's unbelievable because he's mean to them because he's rude, because he acts like a moron, because he screams. They should just be like, shut the up. I'm not

listening to you, you idiot. That's all you have to say to the guy. And then he backs down. Yeah, no, totally. And there's a lot of focus during these hearings on the infamous will be wild tweet. Be there. January 6th will be wild sent from Donald Trump. But what I found maybe even more interesting was just the amount of encrypted text messages that the committee had from people having conversations. Because you think, you know, the reason why people do these encrypted text messages is so that they can't be seen. So let that show you nothing that you do on the internet is actually private. They could get it. And so they had all these encrypted text messages. And in many of these messages, they were speaking about Trump's plan to send people to the Capitol and they would in quote, sarcastically say, and then Donald Trump is going to quote,

unexpectedly tell his people to go to the Capitol. And that was a recurring theme that came up and up. I mean, this was a preplanned plot. And they also showed the role that Donald Trump had in convincing these terrorist groups on the ground there to go ahead with his plans. There were a lot of people on the ground who did not, who were not even thinking about going to the Capitol and doing that that day. But they testified that day, these people who had ties to these groups like the Oath Keepers, like the Proud Boys, they testified to the fact that once they saw Donald Trump tweet about this, once they heard Donald Trump's words telling them to march to the Capitol, that was their call to arms to go and to actually make it happen, that they probably would not

have done that if not for Donald Trump. It also highlighted the same suspects that we have in Congress who were involved in this whole scheme, basically all the people who asked for pardons and their role in the insurrection, their names keep coming up and up and up. And it was just very interesting. Ben, what was your take on the witnesses that day? I thought there were a couple like very unique witnesses for something like this and different from witnesses that we've seen in past hearings. Let me just say this before Ben gets into that is I just want to give it up to the Jan 6th committee again. I mean, as we know, this is a fact finding committee and who are they finding out some really important facts that I don't think were known to the wider audience of everybody watching these hearings and the country

at large. I mean, I say it every episode. I'm going to say it again. The J6 committee in their execution has been flawless. You had two witnesses. You had the ex-Oathkeeper propagandist, and then you had the someone who was supposed to be like kind of the average Trump supporter who was just radicalized to show up on Jan 6th based on the rhetoric of Trump. And, you know, you have to look to Jordy's point. Jordy said, boy, look, they're fact finding. They're also storytelling. And they're also laying this out from different angles and different dimensions, because I think the key takeaways were from the video clips of Pat Cipollone and the other deposition testimony under oath that the January 6th committee got.

Like when the January 6th committee took us through what took place on that December 18th, 2020 meeting, they had it from literally every you know, from the side of Giuliani and Sidney Powell and what they thought from the side of, you know, Cipollone and, you know, and the team that believed that they were team normal, but they're just teams slightly less radically extreme and crazy than the team complicit, you know, exactly team complicit and love that almost the, you know, the crazy. Exactly. But you know, these witnesses, as I kind of predicted before, really kind of anchored the story. You have the ex Oathkeeper propagandist. Let's just play this clip of what he testified to. Remember, just want to be clear for people. He wasn't their chief propagandist or PR agent

on the date of Jan 6th, but he was their propagandist, you know, before and knew a lot about the way they think and operate. And so let's just play the clip of what he had to say. I think we need to quit mincing words and just talk about truths. And what it was going to be was an armed revolution. I i mean people died that day law enforcement officers died this day there was a gallows set up and so why i think this clip is so important why he was so important as a witness was because it showed that the oath keepers the proud boys these groups, these groups were terrorist groups, are terrorist groups. They are designed to overthrow the United States government. It would be the equivalent of before

the Oklahoma City bombing, Bill Clinton inviting Timothy McVeigh into the White House or even the FBI building and having a party with him. And Trump did that with people like Enrique Tarrio, he proud boy. I mean, he invited him to the White House before the insurrection. He was toward the White House, took photos and said, big things are going to happen, you know, before January 6th inside our nation's White House. I mean, how insane is that with groups that are designed to overthrow our government? That's who they were trying to do to overthrow our government. And then you had the average, you know, the guy who was the Trump supporter who was radicalized. And what really the purpose of having him as a witness was,

remember, we've, you know, Jamie Raskin has been speaking with Dr. Hassan, who has the podcast on the Midas Media Network. And so they've been actually talking about cult deprogramming. And so one of the, I think, purposes of him as well was to show other potential Trump supporters and people who were watching this, how he got sucked into it and to try to move them out of the cult, because we know that's one of the most important cult deprogramming tactics. And then, of course, the hearing left and ended with Liz Cheney giving a bombshell that Donald Trump was actively witness tampering. Play the clip of Liz Cheney saying. And one more item. After our last hearing, President Trump tried to call a witness in our

investigation, a witness you have not yet seen in these hearings. That person declined to answer or respond to President Trump's call and instead alerted their lawyer to the call. Their lawyer alerted us. And this committee has supplied that information to the Department of Justice. Let me say one more time, we will take any effort to influence witness testimony very seriously. You know what that reminded me of when Liz Cheney did that there? First off, I got the chills at that moment. And you could see the look in Liz Cheney's eyes that she was about to drop a bomb on everybody. Liz Cheney has now been known for at the end of these hearings, dropping like these bombshells that I look

forward to. What a tease. It reminded me of, you know, I used to obsessively watch the Steve Jobs Apple keynotes. And at the end of the Steve Jobs Apple keynotes, he would always go, and one more thing. And that would be like the big announcement. We have a new iPhone. That would be the thing. And this was like Liz Cheney's Steve Jobs, Apple keynote moment. We got one more thing for you. And then she drops it and people's jaws drop. And now there's more reporting coming out about this phone call. And Ryan Nobles from CNN is reporting that sources say Donald Trump called a member of the White House support staff who could actually corroborate parts of Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony. So he was probably there watching that, watching the testimony,

seeing the reaction to it, and then trying to get ahead of the story or trying to deflect from the story by contacting a witness who actually knew that the story was in fact true. Blatant witness tampering. Now, what we don't know is, did he leave a voicemail? I don't believe she picked up. It looks like she just got the call. We need to know more information. But what we do know is that Liz Cheney has referred this to the Department of Justice. She thought that this was serious enough to warrant a referral. And it shows that Donald Trump is still committing crimes to this day. He is still committing crimes. And they say sometimes the coverup is worse than the crime. In this case, I will say the coverup is just as bad as the crime. The crime is horrible and they are all still trying to cover it up. Donald Trump is

still trying to cover it up. The entire Republican party is gaslighting America and is trying to cover it up. And that is horrifying to me. I mean, the guy just, to your point, keeps criming. It's like this has always been his strategy, like distract and divert. Let me do something else just as batshit crazy so people start talking about this issue. Not that it's not an important issue, Brett, but I'm just saying like it's so Trump. Here's one of the things we know, too. There was a New York Times poll that came out that basically said that 50 percent of Republicans voters in the primaries would not

support Donald Trump in the primary. And this is kind of going back to the beginning of what we said with my horrible analogy of Republicans being the flies that hit the fluorescent light. And then they're kind of shaking and convulsing and basically saying America first. It's probably the stupid analogy. But the point is, is that- I didn't know flies made those noises. Flies make those noises. But, you know, they're all in on someone who literally wants to destroy America. And these candidates that they've, you know, put forward on the Senate, these Herschel Walkers and these Dr. Oz, and then the, what's the guy's name? Yeah. J.D. Vance. I mean, these are the worst candidates and like the worst

people ever who are genuinely, you know, why they're, you know, why they're trapping themselves though here, Ben, I'm not sure if you saw, you know, there've been a lot of polls that have come out recently, but if you look at the granular data of a lot of these polls, it ranks what issues are most important to Americans. And it's usually like inflation, gas prices, you know, democracy, those things kind of usually rank at the top at the very bottom, even for asking Republicans, this question, election integrity pulled at around zero to two percent of an issue that they really care about. Zero to two percent. Think about that. And now think about how many of these ultra MAGA crazy Republicans are making that the crux of their campaigns.

The Carrie Lakes, the J.D. Vance's, the Herschel Walkers, all these people around the country are making this election integrity bullshit issue the issue, the 2020 election, the issue. And it shows you that really not even Republican voters care about it. So if this is the road that they want to go down, I think we have a hell of a good shot in these midterms because we have candidates that are going to be talking about the issues that people care about. And we have really freaking good candidates. We have really good candidates. Everybody right now is concerned about 2024 and they're concerned about Biden's approval. Stop it. Stop. It really is irrelevant. Honestly, it's really is irrelevant right now. Let's worry about that after the midterms. It really doesn't matter right now. And even by the way, even the generic ballot polls, which most of them do look pretty good for Democrats in terms of, you know, Democrats leading by a few points, not all of them, but there are some key ones that show Democrats leading. I don't even care about the generic ballot polls. Look at the individual polls with the candidates. Look at how those candidates stack up on an individual basis. Look at how John Fetterman is kicking Dr. Oz's ass. Okay. Look about that. Look at Carrie Lake's

recent poll numbers against the Democratic nominee. I mean, those are the numbers that you care about. And when you get to it on a granular level, like looking at the actual congressional candidates, the actual matchups, the actual Senate matchups, the actual gubernatorial races, look at, you know, look at Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania. They are all doing amazing in the polls. They are all amazing candidates, really, really, really good. And that's why I think Democrats do have a good shot of at least doing very well in the Senate and getting these key governorships, including in Michigan, Pennsylvania. I mean, you name it. We are doing a great job with these candidates. That's what we need to be focusing on. Put 2024 aside right now. Let's focus on the game that matters because

2022, by the way, we let these Republicans come in. We let them control both houses. You know what happens? They don't let you win elections anymore. So let's focus eyes on the prize. Stop the infighting eyes on the prize. Let's win these elections. Come on. Jennifer Rubin is quoted as saying, quote, Democrats should stress the clash and outlook between the large majority of rational, respectful voters and the delusional MAGA camp. Now is no time to mince words. The current GOP is nuts and unfit to govern. I think that's so accurate. And I want to talk about some important issues.

This happens on an almost daily basis, and the media does a horrible job at telling people like what's going on, what's being voted on, what Republicans are voting against. And so I like to highlight that here on the Midas Touch podcast and across our media. Jordi released a great video on it as well of, you know, three bills, four bills. But let's focus on three bills that in the past 24, 48 hours, depending on when you're listening to this, went to the House floor, House of Representatives for votes and that either the Republicans all voted against or most Republicans voted against. And mind you, if the Republicans were in charge of the House, right, none of these bills would even get a vote to begin with. I want you to know that they wouldn't even be voted on. So the first bill I want to talk about is a bill to provide VA benefits to soldiers who served in our military, to veterans,

I just want to be clear who we're talking about here, who were exposed to toxic substances, who were exposed to toxins, and who got sick as a result of it. And a lot of this relates particularly to burn pits and a lot of the data that's coming out of burn pits and a lot of the information about soldiers developing serious illnesses and dying and cancers because of exposure to burn pits. Ben, it's a recurring theme, Ben. They do this all the time. They do this with our veterans every single time that they're in need of help. The Democrats are there to give them the benefits that they need, to give them the care that they need. These people, many of them gave their lives for our country. Many of them gave their health for their country. They

are suffering every single day. And the least that we could do for them is to help them with their healthcare and to help them not have to suffer every single day. And this is something that Jon Stewart has championed so much with 9-11, with the first responders. Which Republicans were against too. Which Republicans were against also. I mean, this goes back, this goes like the 9-11 first responders still cannot get benefits because of the Republicans. Think about that. And you would think if there was one issue that Republicans wouldn't play politics with, it would be issues revolving and surrounding our veterans, like this VA benefits that they all voted against. I mean, it's really just sad to see because ultimately they think it's better

for them to vote against it. And they don't want to go across party lines to vote for it and be called a rhino because they don't want Donnie Trump, their dad, to call them bad names. I mean, it's so fucking sad. I mean, and you know why they vote against the military, too. They have this QAnon view of the world where the military is woke and the military is, you know, giving rights to all of these people and that the military should look more like Russia's military. I mean, I'm not making this. Yeah. They are against them. They believe the military is part of a deep state cabal that's trying to help communism. This is what the unhinged radical right extremists do. And Democrats need to be loud and point out that Republicans vote

against the troops consistently. They vote against providing the troops with basic, most basic health care. You know what it is? If you actually dig deeper in the bill, Brett, it's not even necessarily like it provides the health care, but it just creates a presumption that more likely than not, the vet is telling the truth about the burn pit exposure. So it says we trust the military. You have to disprove the presumption. Yeah, that's that's where it goes. And that's what they vote against. So that was the first bill they vote against. Part of the problem, frankly, is we need to get Fox News off the military bases. I mean, it's it's absolutely insane that people are being fed this propaganda every

single day. That's really polluting their minds. And it's not getting them the information about who's actually trying to help them. Totally polluting the minds, polluting the minds. But then your CNNs, your MSNBCs, in my view, some reporters may do a decent job within them, but they're not doing the job countering that. There is no other thing to counter the pollution, the lies injected into people every day with fascist news network. There's just nothing out there that exists. They lie to people every single day and they radicalize people. It's one of the most dangerous forces to ever exist in humankind, this fascist news and this Rupert Murdoch, you know, whatever.

And then these wannabes, these OAN. I mean, these are sick stuff. Did you see that lady who was on OAN? She's an OAN reporter. And when Dr. Fauci got COVID, she started the – this is a reporter at a news – something that's trying to be a news network that starts the broadcast and goes, Ha ha ha ha ha, today's the greatest day. Dr. Fauci's got it. He got COVID.

It's insane. Ah, what a glorious day it is. Have you heard the news? Double vaxxed, double boosted,-flop Fauci reportedly has COVID. It's the most nuts thing in the world. Anyway, I digress. The neo-Nazi, there's a bill on reporting white supremacists and neo-Nazis within the military and law enforcement.

Like literally it is what the bill says is for the secretary of Homeland security to provide a report about soldiers who have been discharged because they were neo-Nazis. Just a report, like let's be clear what it is, to do a report on it so that we can try to prevent neo-Nazi intervention in the future within our military ranks and law enforcement. It's a report. You know, the same thing, too, like when we talk about gun reform and one of the bills that the Democrats tried to pass is to allow there to even be a study on the dangers associated with certain military weapons, and the Republicans don't let you study

the issue. So here, they're saying, we don't even want to look into the issue. There is no issue, and they voted against it. How many of them voted against it? All of them. Every single Republican voted against a bill that would allow the secretary of defense to do a report on neo-Nazis who were kicked out of the military because they were neo-Nazis. Well, it's because it's their base. Let me give you the final bill. You know, and I could list you a ton of other bills like them voting against price gouging by gas companies.

They vote against that. Reducing the cost, the baby formula. They vote against that. Reducing the cost of baby formula. They vote against that. But this one was a bill to create an amber alert style system for active shooters. So if there was an active shooter, law enforcement can activate this system, which would alert community members of an active shooter so that the community can be safe and stay inside their homes and learn about it immediately. 80% of them, Republicans voted against that. 80% of Republicans voted against that. So it has to bring you to only one logical conclusion. They're voting for you to die. They are voting to kill you, not just gaslight you, to gas you. They are voting to kill you. And it's a combination of their hatred of you,

their hatred of facts, their perpetuation of this idiocracyocracy and their lack of common sense thinking combine for this banality of evil. It's the best way to describe what is taking place. It is horrific. So I wanted to make sure I touched on those three bills. talk about this story, horrific story with the 10 year old girl who was raped in Ohio, who could not get abortion care after Roe v. Wade was overturned and Ohio trigger law was initiated. So total, basically a total abortion ban there. Six weeks ban. Six weeks ban. Six weeks is essentially a total abortion ban.

Yeah, because it's not enough time for you to find out. Yeah, exactly. So it was like six weeks in a day. She just found out that she was pregnant. She had to cross the borders to go to Indiana. And Fox News, the disinfo fascist network, what was the first thing they came up with? And the whole kind of talking point that they all them, Jim Jordan, Jim Jordan, they're covering up sexual abuse as a gym teacher. The guy, all he does is cover up sexual abuse.

Just put out, just flood the field with this info that the story was fake, that the 10 year old girl wasn't raped. And by the story was fake, that the 10-year-old girl wasn't raped. And by the way, Ben, I want to say this. I heard reports from so many people who have DM me and one of my comments and said that their local radio stations bought into that propaganda, not conservative right-wing radio stations, but mainstream radio stations that play music when they're talking about that they do their head of the news. Oh, and the story was a total hoax, total lie, total fake, total fraud, because people buy into the Republican gaslighting. And they have the system where they filter it through all these different areas.

And you see it with the Murdoch empire, especially you got the wall street journal post about it. You got the New York post article about it. You got the Fox news hit, and then it floods the zone. They go to the local TV stations that they own. It's just a full court press. So ultimately, people start going, oh, I guess it was bullshit. I guess it must have been a lie. And then you have even the Washington Post writing an article about it, like an editorial piece, saying that it was very flimsy on the facts and that it probably wasn't true. The Washington Post wrote that. And so then you get it flooded to all these quote, mainstream networks that amplify the disinformation. And so then of course it comes out that what, that it actually happened and that the perpetrator, the rapist was arrested.

And what is Fox News's reaction? Fox News reaction is that he is an illegal immigrant. And it was because of a loose border policy that it was an illegal immigrant. And they go a step further and say, we should be thanked for sticking with the story. We did it like they want the pressure on them to find this guy. Yeah. That they acted like they put the pressure on him by lying that it didn't happen to then find the guy to find out in Fox's words, they use the term illegal immigrant. And then they turn it on as a border issue and then just leave the other issue behind and say, this is a border issue. And, you know, and this is Biden's failed border policies.

But you're right. That really is their logic. They're like, prove me wrong. You need to prove me wrong. And oh, OK, because you proved me wrong, I made you do your job. And now the story is true. Thanks to us. It's so disingenuous. And you're spot on with how they operate, man. They flood the zone with misinformation and disinformation. It trickles down. And then all of a sudden just plays to everyone's sort of worst beliefs in them. all of a sudden local news and local radio hosts are reporting on things that you know they've heard or or they overheard watching TV thinking that it's true. But meanwhile, they're just it's just so evil. you have Indiana's attorney general who goes on TV and says that he will be launching an investigation into the doctor who performed the abortion for not appropriately reporting

the rapist publicly when the rapist was reported on the right time, like just totally false information. Like they just flood it with fake info. And, and, And here's what they do. And I want to make sure all of our viewers know this, all of our listeners know this, because it's a real thing. And they know that this is a real thing. When Fox News puts a photo of that doctor on the screen with her name and where she practices, it is a call to arms for their viewers. It is. And we've been on the receiving end of that when we've been mentioned on Fox. And I know plenty of other people who we are friends with, who when they put their tweets up and when they make them a focus of a segment, all of a sudden these people become public

enemy number one of Fox viewers. I'm sure you've all heard the Eric Swalwell voicemails that he receives, the Adam Kinzinger voicemails that he receives. They're all like that. Those are the ones that we get. They're all like that. Those are the ones that we get. They're all, they're very, they're all like that. And I get, you know, I post like the tamer ones sometimes on our things and they're pretty psychotic, but we get phone calls like that. We get emails like that. And it's, and it's always tied to something like that. Like a Fox

news must've talked about us, or we must've been written about on some crazy far right blog or 4chan must've posted something about us. And it is the most violent death threats, most very often sexual in nature, very vicious, very disgusting, just like scum of the earth. And this is what happened. And this is why they do it. Because they know that by, even though it's BS, that they're not going to prosecute this doctor. I mean, that's just, they have no basis to do that. They know that by having the attorney general on to talk about it and by turning her into a figure like a criminal and putting her photo up there, they know that their viewers are going to do the work for them and they are going to scare this woman. And hopefully next time that

she gets the opportunity to do a life-saving procedure like this next time, she might think twice because she doesn't want to get the wrath of all these people once again. And the message is sent to other doctors who watch that right now. And they go, I'd like to help, but- I mean, it's terrorism. It's straight up.

It's a form of stochastic terrorism, which is something that we've talked here. They're stoking other people to do their bidding for them and to cause chaos. It's what's going on on Fox. And so as that's going on there, let me just remind everybody what Biden is doing every single day. Number one, Biden is appointing federal judges to the bench and federal judges who are from diverse backgrounds and who are experienced and who are not radical extremist

right-wingers. So that's number one. And you do need Manchin and Sinema to allow that to happen. There would be no Katonji Brown Jackson, who was recently sworn in as a Supreme Court justice, if Mitch McConnell was the majority leader in the Senate. Just not the case. So I do want to make sure people are aware of that. We should criticize the heck out of these people when they're doing things that are completely antithetical to an important pro-democracy agenda sometimes. But I do want to put that into context there. But what's Biden doing?

Biden passed an executive order. He signed an executive order, rather, last week to protect women's reproductive health. And let's talk about the important guidance that's been provided this week. The important guidance Biden provided is that under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, that if you're a hospital and you receive Medicare, Biden's saying you absolutely have an obligation as a hospital and a doctor to provide emergency care, emergency abortion care to women who come in and are seeking abortion care. What emergency care means is up to the doctor's discretion. But if a state has its own definitions or if a state tries to have, you know, no exceptions or exemptions, federal law under the supremacy clause of our constitution

supersedes state law, federal law over state law. And he's saying doctors who work in state hospitals, not only should you perform that procedure, you are obligated to perform that procedure. And if you don't, we are not going to, the federal government's not going to fund your facility, number one. Number two, another important thing that Biden announced recently is issuing guidance to roughly 60,000 retail pharmacies to reinforce their obligation under federal law to prescribe medication for abortion care free of discrimination and that they, if they want to operate as a pharmacy that receives any federal benefits whatsoever, they have an obligation to provide that level

of care. And those are very, very, very important steps, important guidance. It has to then be enforced by the DOJ and by the other agencies and investigative agencies. But that is major, major, major steps that Biden's taken. And we think we should reflect on that because, by the way, if Biden wasn't there, it is quite possible that the executive orders would be the exact opposite. A thousand percent they would be. And one of the things that we're witnessing right now across the country that I don't think is being discussed enough is the fact that there are also other drugs, other prescription medications that are being denied to patients because they could

also induce abortion. And so there are people who are suffering from other debilitating illnesses that have been unable to get their prescriptions filled because the pharmacies are afraid to sell them. They're afraid to give them to patients because they don't understand the laws in their states because they're so ambiguous that they are worried about being prosecuted by people like the attorney general of Indiana. And that's the disturbing situation that we have ourselves in right now. And that's what the executive order is. If a Republican president, he would do the following. He would issue an executive order or she, but it's the Republican. So it'd be a, he would issue an executive order that would require the DOJ to investigate doctors like the one in Indiana

for death. They would have those types of investigations for murder. That's what you would have. So going back to what we've been talking about, this podcast has done, I think, a great job summarizing these different issues so far, right? Like we've talked about what the January 6th committee is doing, competent bipartisan people questioning Republicans, former MAGA supporters, Trump's inner circle about facts, about facts. We talked on this podcast about bills that Democrats want to pass that should not be Democratic bills. They should be people bills, giving health care to soldiers, saying that white supremacists shouldn't join the military, saying there should be an amber alert system to warn communities of active shooters, that people have assault weapons

and are killing their kids and say, just giving them notification. These are common sense issues. And then talking about reproductive care, reproductive health, and letting a woman have the right to choose that a 10-year-old girl who is raped, that she should have access to abortion care, that she should have the right to choose over her body when she didn't have the right to choose to have it when she was raped. And Republicans are fighting that. These are what you know, this is what's at stake, people. This is what's at stake. And before we get into our interview, I want to highlight Eric Swalwell today. I don't think we played the clip yet.

Right. I want to highlight. Oh,well today. I don't think we played the clip yet, right? I want to highlight. Oh, you got to play this clip. We got to play this clip of Eric Swalwell discussing this 10-year-old abortion situation. And I don't even know, where do the Republicans get these people to put them up here? But just listen to this. Thank you.

Ms. Foster, you think a 10-year-old would choose to carry? In the 10-year-old case, first of all, the Ohio- My question is, would a 10-year-old choose to carry a baby? In the Ohio case, the Ohio Attorney General said that abortion would have been justified. Focus on the question, please. Would a 10-year-old choose to carry a baby? I cannot. Do you think a 10-year-old should choose to carry a baby? I believe it would probably impact her life, and so therefore it would fall under any exception and would not be an abortion. Wait.

It would not be an abortion if a 10-year-old with her parents made the decision not to have a baby that was a result of a rape? If a 10-year-old became pregnant as a result of rape and it was threatening her life, then that's not an abortion. So it would not fall under any abortion restriction in our nation. Ms. Warbelow, are you familiar with disinformation? Yes, I am. Did you just hear some disinformation?

Yes, I heard some very significant disinformation. Why don't you tell me about that? Yes, an abortion is a procedure. It's a medical procedure that individuals undergo for a wide range of circumstances, including because they have been sexually assaulted, raped in the case of the 10-year-old. It doesn't matter whether or not there is a statutory exemption. It is still a medical procedure that is understood to be an abortion. Beyond that, I think it's also important to note that there is no exception for the life or the health of the mother in the Ohio law. That's why that 10-year-old had to cross state lines in order to receive an abortion. Yeah, that is how it's done. And we need more people in Congress like Eric Swalwell who have that fight, who have that tenacity. John Lira is

one of those people who I know can do that. Would love to see John Lira as Congress member John Lira. Let's bring in our interview with John Lira right now. But first, a message from our sponsor, 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 plastic. Grove carries hundreds of products aimed at replacing single-use plastics across your home and personal care routine. And by 2025, Grove will be 100% plastic free. Switch to

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It's a real 5-0. Yeah, 5-0. 50. I thought it was five. It's 50. So go to grove, G-R-O-V-E dot com slash Midas Touch. Plus shipping is fast and free. Get started right now at grove.com slash Midas Touch. That's grove.com slash Midas Touch podcast. We are joined by John Lira, the Democratic nominee for Texas's 23rd congressional district. Point of note about Texas's 23rd within the district is Uvalde. So I want to speak with John about that. But John, just want to get your background generally, you know, in brief form, of course, about what led you to run and just tell the people a little bit about yourself. Absolutely. Thank you so much, Ben. And again, I'm a huge fan of the podcast. So it's great to be here with you all today. You know, my story starts in San Antonio, Texas, was born and raised in Bexar County, which is a part of the district, you know, working, born and raised in a working

house family. My parents to this day still work every hour of overtime. Their employer allows them to, you know, just to make ends meet. But I think my story really begins early in my senior year of high school. I raised my hand and I joined the United States Marine Corps and it turned into, sprouted into a career that's stretched over 11 and a half years, including two combat tours to Iraq. You know, the Marines gave me a job in intelligence and I felt that that had value, continued value after my service to country. So I wanted to use my GI Bill to build on that so that I continue serving my country. Ultimately, through grad school and other routes, found my way to Washington, D.C. And in six years, I served at three agencies, including

AmeriCorps, helping veterans transition, the U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Veterans Business Development, a national commission, made it to Capitol Hill. So that kind of explains kind of my trajectory and my path of how I got here. Not quite why I would want to run in this big, huge congressional district. Let's get to the why, but can we reflect on the resume for a second, which is why I wanted you to just explain your background, because it is, I think, a very important part of the Democratic Party and the types of candidates who are running for office, have the experience, have the true patriotism in form of actually serving for this country and not draping themselves in the flag to then lead insurrections

against our Capitol building and have the experience before they run, which probably gives you a softball there a little bit, John, for the why, which is why did you decide to, after all the experience that you had, why'd you decide to run for Texas's 23rd? When I raised my right hand, unbeknownst to me, it was the quickest decision I've ever made in my life. A Marine recruiter pointed out very pointedly that I did not have a plan for after high school and my parents couldn't afford four years of college for me. So after I made that decision, though, that seed was planted in a lot of ways. I was part of the initial kind of, I was right on the front lines in Kuwait when Operation Iraqi

Freedom kicked off in 2003. So I did the 27-day march under General Mattis to Baghdad, came back home, still wanted to serve, went back for a second tour with the Marine Reserve Unit, actually served with Congressman Ruben Gallegos in that unit. We were in the same unit together. But just the continuation of service, I wanted to be at that forefront of the policy issues that mattered most to me. You know, the Marines taught me to serve at the forefront, and I knew that there was many, much work to do as far as serving veterans. You know, at that point early in my career, I wanted to serve veterans. But I think, yeah, that's what exactly what it is through my, you know, becoming a student of political science.

You know, I wanted to help my veterans transition. I wanted to continue serving. So I think the why is that I've had some very unique experiences through services opened up a lot of doors for me. I was trusted to run national programs. I was trusted to write national legislation. And when I saw that all that was going on in this country, especially after the election of Donald Trump, I was tired of kind of being in the agencies where I can do, you know, I was a bit restricted of what I can do politically. And I wanted to jump more into the arena. We talked about this earlier in the pod. The Republicans are consistently voting to defund the military. They're consistently voting. I mean, just recently, there was a bill that was passed, thankfully,

because of Democratic House members that would provide VA benefits for veterans exposed to toxins. And Republicans voted against that bill. They berate the generals. Can you speak to that a little bit? I mean, how do they drape themselves in the flag and do that? You're absolutely right. It kind of harms me in a lot of ways that a lot of veterans are getting caught up in, especially veteran, you know, combat veterans are getting caught up in a lot of this rhetoric, especially Republicans, you know, for somehow they've hijacked the term patriots. And when Democrats have proved to be the real patriots who have stood up for the Constitution and have pushed forward, especially on veterans legislation, burn pits are the agent orange of our generation.

And we've got to get directly to the bottom. I had a good personal friend that recently passed away from the brain tumor from, from brain cancer. That was, you know, that has proven to be linked to burn pits. So, yeah, I mean, my opponent voted against the Toxins Act. Voted against the Toxins Act? I mean, how do you vote against the Toxins Act to help the best? Stuff like that, man.

It's unbelievable. Even voting against National Guard to receive benefits when they're called up to do active duty missions. He voted against to treat them with parity as far as benefits accumulation as well, especially down here with Operation Lone Star in Texas. And they're cutting education benefits. They're cutting National Guard pay, but they're still deploying them with an endless mission down here to our border where they have no real jurisdiction, but just to be down here at the border standing guard. Tell us a little bit about that. Some of our listeners know. Tell us a little bit about what Texas Operation Lone Star is, as it's been called, and how that's affected the Guard. In the middle of the night one day, I guess Governor Greg Abbott got visited by the Good Idea Ferry, and he says, we're going to send 10,000 of our National Guard troops in the middle of the night, call them back here for an endless mission to send them down to the border to show that we're doing something,

you know, and what it's done is, again, these missions are usually planned. These deployments are planned, organized, no planning whatsoever. They took them from their families. They took them from their employers in the middle of the night and gave them a mission that was no end in sight. They didn't pay them. Their pay was backed up for months. I think over five National Guardsmen have committed suicide. We've lost one of them to a drowning for, you know, trying to save a migrant that is crossing. So it's really been, you know, this is the Republicans' response down here at the border, and it's been a big failure. But what it does is that it brings a ton of resources to these local sheriff's departments. So they, they cannot refuse these resources. So they have to play along with this photo op essentially.

I mean, sheriff's departments, which are already small, under, under trained, under equipped, of course they're going to want this vital resources and they'd kind of dangle those resources right in front of them. And it's just a, has not been effective in achieving the mission of stopping any migrant caravans. All it's doing is clogging up our jails, clogging up our court systems, creating delays and wasting more money, more of our taxpayer money.

Let's talk about Uvalde. Some disturbing updates. Every update is more disturbing than the next on this horrific mass shooting that that took place. You know, your district and if you if you get elected, you'd be serving in the district that has Uvalde. You know, the people there were seeing more and more information about the police not acting and not just local law enforcement at every level, you know, not taking steps and then preventing trying to prevent the cameras from the body cams from being released. But ultimately, it started again, though, with this horrific, horrific beyond words can't describe how horrific it is. And I'm doing it in justice just by saying that. But then Abbott with the press conference lying to the people.

That's kind of a consistent theme. We'll talk a little bit later. Brett and Jordy may ask you about the energy crisis there with the rolling blackouts that you have. But the whole thing is press release performative lies over and over and over again. So give us an update on what's going on with Uvalde. And as a member of Congress, granted your federal level, what can you do? And what are you seeing there right now? Yeah, no, my heart goes out to the victims

of Uvalde because even the entire community, because they have been felled on, it seems, multiple fronts at multiple levels by their elected leaders, by people who have sworn to serve the community. I mean, you think back to, you know, even before the shooting occurs, there were the red flags that were there. You know, some some counselors saw it. Family members saw it. Facebook groups saw it. People knew that this young man was capable of harming himself or harming others. And actually he was intent on doing it. But no, there was no no red flag laws, nothing we can do to no community tools that can, that would have prevented that or prevented him from getting a gun. But let's talk about the purchase of the gun. This young man was able to walk in there. As soon as he turned 18 on his 18th birthday, he wanted that weapon.

He ultimately purchased two high velocity, semi-automatic, high capacity weapons, military style weapons that me and my buddies used in Iraq, and over 1600 rounds of ammunition, 32 magazines. This young man had enough ammo to put two bullets in every student and every teacher in that entire school. So where's the failure of that? Where's any regulation where a gun owner can say to an 18 year old young man why he needs this much ammunition and this much firepower um but get getting back to the police failure right what is the argument right the only person that can stop the only people that can stop a bad guy with the gun is a good guy with the gun in this case we had um 14 plus good guys with guns good guys with shields good guys with the most up-to-date body armor. And that one bad guy kept them at bay for over an hour.

So, listen, I never want to openly criticize police officers. A lot of my friends, military buddies, have transitioned into the law enforcement. And I commend them for the tough job that they do. But on this case, it seems like they just did not rise to the occasion, call it a breakdown of communications. Nobody's videos are working. Nobody took the initiative to give the command. You know, everybody kind of wanted to wait. Again, multiple layers of leadership failure. And even afterwards, right, the finger pointing, we can't get to the, we're hearing the multiple stories. We can't get to the point. We were hearing that Yuval De Pidi is not cooperating

with investigators. So it's just been completely a complete failure. I was marching with the families this past Sunday. You know, we heard victim family after victim's families talking about their experiences and their heartache. You know, they've had benefits coming to them that have been appropriated, and they're having trouble getting those dispersed. A lot of them have severe PTSD. They're home with their kids because they don't want to leave their kids alone for summer. So I know I've said a lot, but it's a really passionate issue.

I mean, we've been back there over 10 times since this horrible tragedy, and we've heard the cries. We've heard the calls to action also, which makes me more resolute now more than ever that we have to win this seat. And John, the thing that I think is one of the more disturbing things, I guess, is just the lack of information that we're getting from Governor Abbott and from the Republican leadership. And with that lack of information, there's a void that's always filled by theories as to what actually happened that day. And I'm not sure. First, I just wanted to ask,

did you see the video of the surveillance video that was released yesterday? I did. It was a hard video to watch and I wish it wouldn't have been leaked. I wish the families would have had an opportunity to see that before it was leaked to the public. But I did have an opportunity to see it several times. And now going back to Greg Abbott's statement the first day at the press conference that Ben was speaking about, I think his words now will live in infamy, really, when he said it could have been much worse. Just sounds so heartless in the aftermath of all this, especially as we are seeing, as we are getting all the information that's coming in. What was your thoughts when you heard Greg Abbott say that? Yeah, I'll tell you, I was at that press conference.

I was there when Beto walked up. You know, I stayed for the whole the whole thing. Notice the absent was my opponent, Tony Gonzalez, at that press conference. But, you know, I think it just plays upon their deflect. Right. Their their fear tactic. Right. Well, it could have been much worse where he's banking on that fear. but um you know i think it just plays upon their deflect right their their fear tactic right well it could have been much worse where where he's banking on that fear i think that the automatic default and i was there when when the dps commander said cops did everything right they did everything

in their power that they could have you know um it kind of turns out that you know that was just their default assumption that wasn't actually the fact and even reporters then were trying to get a good grasp of the timeline because something didn't make sense as to first reports of shots fired versus that huge time lapse of when they actually eliminated the threat. So, I mean, it's infuriating. It's infuriating to me that he can pivot like this and just say, oh, you know, it's nothing much here. It could have been much worse. But all the while, he still phoned in a video for the NRA conference that happened two days later, saying nobody will ever take our guns. We'll defend our guns. So it's infuriating. And one of the things that I like in following you is that, like you were telling our viewers before, our listeners, is that you are out there marching with the people and you are on the ground meeting with activists. And I actually noticed that you recently met with Moms Demand Action. They're

one of the top gun reform organizations in San Antonio. We recently had their founder, Shannon Watts, here on the show. How did that meeting go with Moms Demand? What are you hearing from activists? What are you hearing from folks on the ground as to what they want to be done to curb the gun violence epidemic that's going on right now? Yeah, no, I went to their meeting, letting them know that I will be a partner for them. You know, their message is my message. I saw a frightening statistic that said that in America, there is an average of 11 mass shootings a week here in America coming to a community near you. So I think that's exactly what they're trying to solve.

They're wondering how they can get young adults involved, even at the high school level. You know, they're wanting to train parents on not to anti-guns, but how to safely care for guns, how to safely store guns. And I think these messages permeate, you know, we're not against guns. It's a constitutional right for a person to keep and bear arms. And those it's not absolute. It has its limits. But we are for keeping weapons, firearms out of the hands of our kids and of the criminally insane. I want to read you some stats about Texas and they're not going to be great, but I want to get your thoughts on this and just what it means. But Texas ranks 40th in child hunger. It ranks 44th in school funding per child. It ranks 50th in health insurance. And we're just getting started with those. I could go down the whole list of them. At what point do Texans say Republican leadership here? It's not working.

Something's not working here. Yeah, no, it's up to us to say that, let them know that. But you're absolutely right. It's a shame. I've been to schools where, yeah, they're fighting to keep their students. If another town has a couple of oil wells that they're drilling, they will lose families. And that means they will lose funding for their already struggling school. And I'll tell you, Uvalde is actually one of the bigger communities out here in West Texas. There's even smaller schools, smaller police officer presence with less training and less equipment. So there's more vulnerable schools that can happen exactly like what happened in Uvalde. But you're absolutely right. I represent almost 27 rural counties where there's one clinic that represents that serves the entire county.

I have three counties sharing one hospital. People have to buy extra air life insurance so they can be flown into these hospitals. They have to drive two hours in some cases for groceries. So, I mean, you know, it pains me that Texans value weapons of war and tools that can cause death over health care and, you know, something that can save their lives. You know, they rather have a weapon just in case something happens versus a health insurance card just in case something happens. But we have to switch that narrative because, you know, we're seeing what this gun culture and this gun ideology is really doing to our schools, to our communities. This district neighbors El Paso, where the Walmart shooting occurred in 2019. It also neighbors Sutherland Springs. And now we have our own story. So this is a horrible and disturbing trend. And I'll tell you, I've been talking to even some of the most conservative folks out here in Texas, 23, and they're starting to agree. An 18 year old does not

need a semi-automatic high velocity, high capacity weapon. So I think the ground is starting to shift a bit. It's the most basic things. It's the most basic services. Here's my pitch for how Texas could fix all of its problems. And we might be able to appease both sides here. What if we tied guns? We made a rule that said guns have to run on the electric grid. And in order for guns to work, it needs to be tied to the electric, but you need to charge the gun up somehow. I think the electric grid would be running 24 seven if we made that rule. And that brings me to the grid issues that are going on in Texas right now. I mean, Greg Abbott has repeatedly promised that there would be no issues with the grid. Now we're back to the same old games. It's rolling blackouts are expected people throughout

Texas are suffering and devastating heat. And what does Greg Abbott do? Nothing. I got to tell you how embarrassing it is being one of the number one energy producing state in America and having rolling blackouts and grid failures for our people that is causing lives. You know, my district specifically has one of the largest productions of oil, one of the largest production of renewable energies, right? Windmills and solar farms. And we have a lot of space, a lot of sun and a lot of wind to do a lot more of it. Consequently, we have a lot of oil in the ground to do a lot more of that. But how is it helping us in any single way, especially down here in Texas, besides taking our resources and using them and distributing them?

How are, how was, I mean, even with gas prices, how was that, how was having this huge energy production right here in our state, in my district, helping any of our citizens? It's not, it's really embarrassing. And anytime that anybody calls Greg Abbott out on this, all he does is point to the border and say, I'm not the problem. It's those folks at the border. They're the problem. Don't blame me for your energy. And we're realizing it because, you know, they, a lot of ways it's connected to climate change. I mean, every year we're having to crank that AC up higher and higher, driving up our energy costs higher and higher, causing more strain on our grid. And this

is real world stuff. Everybody in San Antonio, especially my family, we've experienced energy prices, you know, damn near double, you know, over the past month or so with our extreme heat. And John, people get mad at me when I use the term kitchen table issue. So I'm going to modernize it for this interview. What are like the Zoom intro issues that folks in your district, you like that? That's yeah, that's new. What are the Zoom intro issues that folks in your district are spending the first five minutes of their Zoom sort of talking about that we might not have covered or we did cover in this interview? Like I said, this district is so huge. If it was a state, it would be the 25th biggest state in our country. So we have regions, right? I think if you look

along the 820 miles of Texas-Mexico border, especially in the southern part, they would say the migrants are the key issue. You know, I have yellow dog, you know, kind-hearted, the kindest people you'll ever meet along the border. You mentioned migrants to them, and they kind of tense up, and they say, this is getting scary for us. This is getting to be a crisis. They're empathetic to the cause, but it's something that they absolutely are concerned about. The census proved that our communities are shrinking. You know, kids are taking off, and they're not for college, and they're not coming back.

Stores are shutting down. Hospitals are shutting down. Now they only have rotational doctors, rotational dentists, rotational optometrists to see them. So, you know, rural health care is a huge concern for them. They're seeing these places start to close down and their city starting to shrink. And then also some of their lacking infrastructure, you know, they know that there's a huge infrastructure bill that the Democrats just passed. It was it was actually bipartisan, but the Democrats led in that bold initiative. And they're trying to figure out how do they get, you know, these resources down to their neck of the woods so they can repair their bridges, their roads, because it's costing the county way too much and they just cannot afford it. And John, just by and large, how's the campaign going so far? If I'm following it correctly, I just noticed a very radical, even more ultra MAGA candidate has just joined the race. So

what's going on there? Oh man, this campaign has been fantastic since we launched. We've been in this race for over a year since May 2021. And, you know, it's been a fantastic experience. We've been traveling all across the 29 counties of this district. We've picked up some significant endorsements all the way from members of Congress and congressional caucuses to grassroots groups like the Stonewall Democrats and Young Democrats. We've picked up some labor. We're starting to get a ton of support

from labor as well. So we're bringing a lot of firepower to this race because this is the closest race in Texas for a Democratic flip. We're within the margin of error. And you're absolutely right. There was most recently a shakeup when a third party independent entered our race. And this is a far right candidate. He's actually a former Republican chair, a former Republican committeeman, a former retired border patrol agent. And he sees himself as the alternative, the MAGA far right alternative to who he calls the rhino, Tony Gonzalez. So they're going to beat each other up. He's going to force Tony Gonzalez to make a decision. Is he going to pander to his far right base or is he going to try to be the Will Hurd moderate? And he's failing at both,

quite frankly. So we have a better opportunity now more than ever to flip this seat finally, once and for all. John, it could have been more clear throughout this entire interview that you are the guy for Texas's 23rd. How can people get involved? Where can people find more information about your campaign and help out? Oh, thanks for that question. You know, we are on all platforms. So Facebook, Twitter, Instagram at liverforcongress.com. My website is liverforcongress.com. We keep it very consistent. And yeah, help us out. Again, this is the race in Texas, the Democratic pickup. I treat it like the Democratic House majority. It depends on it.

You know, I've launched a boots on the ground tour, which has taken us all to every corner of all the twenty nine counties in this massive district, because that's how you win in West Texas. You can't phone it in. You can't zoom it in. You got to go out there. And these folks really appreciate it. You know, they really they. You can't zoom it in. You got to go out there. And these folks really appreciate it. You know, they really they already feel forgotten by their elected leaders. So when a candidate makes it out there and has an honest conversation, whether they're left or they're right, they really appreciate that. And they remember that come election day. So, John, one thing I have to definitely ask you, though, is so tell me about did a little smack talking to Ted Cruz.

Walk us through that. It was an honor to do so. This was the same day of that infamous press conference there, you know, where our buddy Beto stood up and confronted the governor Abbott and all of them to their face. But afterwards was a vigil there in Uvalde. And, you know, Ted Cruz was shedding crocodile tears, as he usually does. And I just couldn't take it no more. I had to ask him, you know, if there was a shortage of flights out to Cancun that day that he wasn't able to make it out. But then I wished him a very lucrative NRA conference that he was going to just two days later. So it was a good

opportunity. And I told him that I will be in D.C. and when I'm up there, I'll be sure to go knock on his door. So I'm very, you know, very embarrassed by this Texas representative, the state senator here that we have and the skirting of responsibility. So it was a real honor for me to ask, you know, to say, just talk to him like that. Well, John, your story is the American dream coming from a working class family rising in the Marine Corps, now a Marine Corps vet running in the congressional district, the 23rd in Texas, a true inspiration for all Americans. This is what a true patriot is, everybody, a true patriot. John Lira, fighting for our freedoms, fighting for competence, fighting for the American people. Thank you so much for joining us and we wish you well. It's been a real pleasure. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Great interview with John Lira. John, thank you for joining the podcast. That's

a Democratic candidate right now, you know, across the board at the Senate level, at the Congress level and at the statehouse level. We're talking about vets. We're talking about leaders. We're talking about people who are true patriots, people who have put in the work to fight for our country. We're talking about teachers. We're fight for our country. We're talking about teachers. We're talking about just workers. We're talking about Americans who fight for America. And we need to talk about these issues. You know, we need to talk about the issues because we are doing we are taking the actions that are fighting for American people and Republicans are taking the actions that are fighting against American people yet repeatedly over and over again. They just using

the lingo like some WWE crap over and over and over again, repeating mantras and doing the exact opposite. And Democrats need to be loud about what we're doing because we're really doing the things. Yeah, we're really doing the things we need to. Like you go back to that Eric Swalwell clip. We need to be when we say and Jordy, you can show the shirts unapologetically pro-democracy. We sell these shirts. Oh, we got pins now, too, which are really, really fast. It's stored on MidasTouch.com.

Yeah, go to store. MidasTouch.com. Yeah, go to store.midastouch.com. But what unapologetically pro-democracy means is that the issues that we support, the issues that we fight for, we don't need to talk so professorily about. Let's just talk about the issues. This is helping you. We're fighting for your health care. We're fighting for your social security. We're fighting for your health. We are trying to pass bills that Republicans are voting against to fund the military while they're trying to defund the military. We're trying to keep us here safer and abroad. And we just need to say these things over and over again because that is

what we're doing, people. It's real. When the Republicans say they're lying, how do I know they're lying? I see their votes. I know they're voting against the things they're voting against the things and they're voting for their radical extremist QAnon conspiracies and their freaking view that QR codes are killing people. These people are out of their mind. And we need to build a coalition of the intelligent, the coalition of the America, the coalition of workers, the coalition of people who care and just want to go about life with normalcy, coalition of normalcy. That's what we're going to call it. A coalition of normalcy here on the Midas Touch podcast.

Thank you all for listening. Thank you, everybody who watches the January 6th hearings. I got to ask you this favor, asking you a favor. Please subscribe to the Midas Touch YouTube and the Midas Touch audio channel. If you get these, if you watch this on YouTube, go right now, search for Midas Touch on podcast and hit subscribe. Please hit subscribe on the Midas Touch audio. If you just listen to audio, go to YouTube and hit subscribe on YouTube and leave five

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Jordy, you know what to say. Shout out to the Midas Mighty.